"Damn it, what are they after? It just keeps getting worse," said Himuta.
Seventeen years ago, the village of Kuwa was very peaceful and possessed a growing economy, with people coming in to buy food supplies.
They also sold horses to the nobles of other countries, and the Sovereign of the Land of Stone was their greatest source of income.
Parents worked diligently to secure a future for themselves and their families.
Everyone had hope and purpose in their eyes.
Children would run and play together with smiles, girls could walk around without much worry, and their mothers prepared things for their returning fathers and siblings gone to work.
They were not super wealthy, but they had the necessities and did not lack anything else.
They were happy to be able to meet their most basic needs. It was their pride.
It was at that time that someone arrived—a wandering samurai from the Land of Iron, banished from his home by his lord for habits judged to be non-samurai-like, as well as due to conflicts with rivals in other lands.
When he joined the village, everyone was worried and anxious.
There was an air of tension, but with time they started to get along.
The people realized their fear was unfounded, and the samurai even helped lower the number of bandits by cutting them down, making the village even more peaceful.
Later on, the samurai took in disciples from the village orphans and taught them swordsmanship. The leader of the resistance was one of them.
As for himself, Himuta could be said to have been close to the samurai; he even used to call him brother.
Prior to the samurai's integration into the village, Himuta had been a troublemaker who went around unchecked.
When he learned that someone was cutting down bandits, he challenged the samurai but was defeated. Instead of being killed, he was taken in by the samurai, who saw in Himuta his own younger self.
Himuta, embarrassed, had refused his offer, but since then he never bothered anyone in the village.
With time, he started to get along with the samurai, and their bond grew to become like that of siblings, until he was defeated through schemes and the cowardice of the village.
Truth be told, the village wouldn't have turned against their hero if not for their naïve belief in peace. Having enjoyed peace for so long, they didn't want to endanger themselves and became complacent.
Even with the attacks of bandits, they didn't want to pay the price of blood necessary to end the mercenaries who attacked the village.
But now that same cowardice only allowed the mercenaries to grow stronger.
When the latter was about to fall, he even asked Himuta to guard his secret and to take care of Eimu, his only daughter, who was conceived in an affair with a maid from Kuwa.
Her existence was kept a secret from everyone so that she wouldn't get entangled with her father's enemies.
Luckily, no one was aware that the samurai had an affair with someone, and the general consensus was that he died without children.
When Eimu was born, she and her mother moved to live with Himuta, who had from then chosen to keep a low profile to avoid attracting attention to them.
Until three years ago, when Eimu was kidnapped. When it happened, her mother was totally lost, and he too was frustrated.
Thankfully, he managed to find a lead thanks to the special scent of a plant she used to intercept the bandits who had taken her and eliminated them.
He then sabotaged the trail so it looked like it was someone from outside the village who had done it.
Because of this, despite the search and investigation by the bandits who took over the village, they didn't find the culprit.
After the samurai was betrayed, the least he could do was to make sure his descendants were safe. If not for the samurai's request, Himuta would have faced the bandits who took over his home and fallen alongside its hero.
But knowing no one would look after Eimu—or that she would face a fate probably worse than death if no one was left to protect her—he was forced to conceal his own internal struggle.
He also needed to pass on the samurai's legacy.
He remembered the samurai's words, that he wanted his knowledge to be passed on to someone. So he had no other choice but to endure for now.
When the time for the town came to be saved, he would be certain to help as much as he could.
Finally snapping out of his reflections, he released a sigh.
"The bandits already took away all our money. The once-growing economy is nothing but a distant memory.
Years of stealing have worn down the village's finances, turning it into one of the poorest places in the world.
Do they now want to finish the job?" he lamented.
"Old man, calm down," stated the teenage girl known as Eimu. "I am certain we will be fine. They are just searching for some shinobi and are in unrest."
While Himuta had taken her in, he also taught her swordsmanship—everything he himself had learned from the samurai, especially after the attempted assault, when he saw the need for her to be able to defend herself.
"Things can't keep going like this," said Himuta.
"We have gathered information. The mercenaries are planning something.
They are gathering their strength, likely for a large-scale operation," said Eimu.
Himuta had been keeping a close eye on everything happening since the arrival of the Konoha shinobi.
He was certain that if they could take advantage of the disruption they caused, they might finally be able to free the village from the mercenary mafia that had taken control of it.
See my other worth on patreon/Kenialy