The fish meat and bones in Sasuke's mouth got stuck in his throat, neither going up nor down. He suddenly choked, his face flushing red as he coughed violently. Only after great difficulty did he swallow the mouthful of food.
Pretending to reach for another dish, he silently moved farther away.
Kana did not notice his odd behavior—or rather, she simply did not care about anyone's reaction.
"And even earlier than that... it was a time long before Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha fought on the battlefield. A daughter of our Chinoike Clan married into the Land of Lightning Daimyo's household as a concubine. That girl had a gentle temperament and stunning beauty, but that was precisely why she drew the jealousy of the principal wife."
"Not long after the Daimyo married her, he died of illness. So the principal wife blamed everything on her, accusing her of causing the Daimyo's death. The Chinoike Clan was consequently convicted and exiled as a whole to the Valley of Hell. And at the time... the ones ordered to guard us were Konoha's Uchiha clan."
The story of the clan was over.
Kana lowered her head, picked up the little wooden stick from the ground again, and scratched at the dirt with her younger brother Nowaki as though no one else were there, as if she had merely been recounting a tale from a storybook.
Naruto pondered aloud, "People from the Land of Lightning were exiled to the Land of Hot Water? The liberation of the Chinoike Clan really is feasible. How should we begin...?"
Nowaki continued, "My sister and I were imprisoned in the Valley of Hell from childhood. My two uncles risked their lives to help us escape, but the outside world was not much better. If anything... it was even