Meanwhile, Chino and Nowaki looked at each other.
“Iou! He says it’s a mistake!” Chino shouted.
But the old man Iou moaned, “Shut up! This isn’t the time for that! My heart, ah! My heart huuuurts!” Released from the terror of death, Iou’s body responded with intense heart palpitations. He pressed a hand to his chest, and desperately sucked in air.
“Sorry. That was a terrible mistake for us to have made.” Unlike Iou, Nowaki seemed sincerely apologetic.
“Although I feel like we would have been the ones to be killed if the fighting continued, I am sorry,” Chino added, clapping both hands together in a gesture of contrition. “C’mon, Iou! You say sorry, too!”
Still on the ground, Iou turned his face away. “Hmph! It’s his fault for coming through Takeno at a time like this!” he cursed.
“Oooh, damned old man!”
“What did you say?!” Spurred on by Chino’s words, Iou tried to stand up, but he quickly sat down hard again. Apparently, he had thrown his back out as well. He pounded the ground in vexation. “Ngh! And I thought for sure we’d settle things with the Dark Thunder gang today!”
“Exactly what is this Dark Thunder gang?” Iou had said he was going to get revenge for his daughter. There was no doubt something was happening here.
“Um, that story’s a long one. … Iou, let’s go home for now. We have to explain things to the man here.”
Like a stubborn child, Iou turned his face away. Chino grumbled an exasperated “Come onnnnnn,” and then signaled Nowaki with her eyes.
“We’re going back now, Iou.” Nowaki hauled Iou up off the ground.
“Hngh!” the old man cried.
Nowaki started to walk toward the village, and Chino followed, hands clasped behind her head. Sasuke stared at their backs; Chino looked back to urge him on. “Hurry up!”
“This looks like it’s going to be a hassle,” Sasuke murmured as he moved to follow the three. But then he sensed eyes on him and whirled around.
Sasuke surveyed the scene, but there was only the bamboo forest spreading out before his eyes. It was quiet, no sign of any beast.
“Brother, what’s the matter?” Chino called out, concerned.
Sasuke looked the bamboo thicket over once more before following after her.
They brought him to Iou’s house. Apparently, Iou was the mayor of this Takeno, and his home was remarkably large. Inside were all kinds of items made of bamboo, from everyday accessories to children’s toys.
“So, like, Takeno apparently sells these bamboo crafts to make a living.” Chino showed Sasuke the bamboo wicker baskets, skewers, and fishing rods, among other items off to one side.
“Don’t go touching things!” Iou snatched a skewer from her with a snarl, but Chino wasn’t put off in the least; she picked up a bamboo dragonfly and set it flying through the room. Unfortunately, it looked like it was going to land on top of Sasuke’s head, but he caught it before it did, and held it up in front of him.
“I guess they sell all these in Yugakure. There’s a lot of tourists there,” Chino noted. “But the prices are too low, so they barely make anything off them.”
“Quiet, you!” Iou roared instantly.
Yugakure was the rare ninja village that was also a tourist destination. And judging from the piled-up baskets and the large number of skewers in the work area, there seemed to indeed be a demand for the items, but life was apparently still hard in this village.
“Actually, me and Nowaki performed in Yugakure a little earlier.”
“Performed?” Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
“We’re shinobi has-beens, traveling performers. We made some real coin in that onsen town. You can really clean up in entertainment there.” Chino breathed out, and soap bubbles appeared, one after another. For a shinobi, it wasn’t much of a trick, but it was probably well received by the average person. “So. We were heading off to a different area when we came through Takeno, okay? We stopped at the store for food, and this old man grabbed onto us. He begged us to help him get revenge, and then cried all over us.”
They were finally getting to the subject at hand. As if compelled by Chino’s story, Iou shouted, “It’s all because of Dark Thunder! They’re a heartless, soulless, evil organization! They come after tiny villages and pillage them! They kill people for sport! A few months ago, they came after the village my daughter married into … and they killed everyone!”
So that’s why he was talking about revenge.
Perhaps remembering his daughter, tears sprang up in Iou’s eyes. “We weren’t blessed with children, and then after we got old, finally, my sweet baby girl! She got married last spring. She was going to have a baby soon!”
Seemingly unable to put his feelings into words any further, Iou gritted his teeth like he was trying to hold back his tears.
“He said his daughter was killed and his wife took sick from the shock of it and died,” Chino finished.
Tragedy begets tragedy, and now all only Iou was left. It was a terrible situation—no wonder he had been driven to vengeance.
Having silently listened thus far, Nowaki looked pityingly at Iou. “Apparently, the people of this area fear this Dark Thunder and live their lives in dread. Look at the windows.”
When Sasuke did as instructed, he saw that blackout curtains hung over the windows so that no light leaked out. The people in the other houses likely had the same setup.
So that’s why they had lain in wait, and tried to take down the Dark Thunder group.