A Hatred That Will Never Bloom Into Friendship

We were running. After I had cried my heart and soul out, we heard an explosion go off far to the west. Thinking it could be Naria sensei, Rakuyo and I set off in the direction.

“What if it isn’t Naria sensei though?” I question, glancing at Rakuyo beside me.

He keeps his face forward when he answers me. “I don’t know. But who else can it be?”
“Okay, so let’s say it is and we get there but Naria sensei is…?” I didn’t mean to be pessimistic, but I couldn’t help it.

Rakuyo, this time, doesn’t reply. I glance over at him again, and I saw that familiar distant look on his face, his lips pulled down in a sad frown.

I immediately decide not to say anything further until we got there, and we rush the rest of the way in silence.

~~*~~

The smoke still hadn’t cleared by the time we at the clearing. It was like a dense fog had cascaded over the area, so thick that a person could barely see ten feet out in front of them. The only thing I could guess was that we were at the edge of a field, because the mile stretch of trees had ended behind us.

“Do you know any wind jutsus?” Rakuyo asks me, his eyes squinted, trying to see through the smog.

I shake my head. “No, I don’t.” But I really wished I did. I desperately wanted to drive this fog away. The enemy could be on the other side of the acreage, staring at us, waiting. At that notion, I suddenly had this disconcerting feeling that we were being watched. I take out a kunai knife from my holster reflexively and hold it out in front of me.

“Kimina, do you…?” Rakuyo stops as the wind starts to pick up, chasing away the smoke little by little, until it cleared up altogether.

I gasp aloud, taking in the scene in front of us. About a half-mile away were three bodies lying all in a row horizontally. From this distance, I could see that the three lifeless forms were the Brothers of Treachery. Their figures were mangled and bloody, and their limps lay ineptly in different directions.

My arm falls back to my side.

“How…?” I barely hear Rakuyo mutter, his tone hesitant.

“Look.” I gesture my head across the field to our right. A figure lay on the ground; hands help up in a hand sign. Naria sensei.

Without another moments thought, I dash over to her.

“Naria sensei!” I drop to my knees beside her, and my body tenses up gazing at her. There was a long red, jagged, gash running from the top of her forehead down to her upper lip, the blood pooling all down her face and into her green eyes, which were unfocused and faraway. There were cuts and deep purple bruises all over her body; here orange kimono shredded in so many places and her green belt sat a few feet away ripped in pieces. As my eyes travel back up her form up to her face, her eyes were closed. “No, no, no!”

All of a sudden, the same overwhelming feeling takes a hold of me. I couldn’t breathe, and the tingling sensation travels up my spine. I grip onto Naria sensei’s arm with both hands, and seconds later the green chakra emits from them and travels through and over Naria sensei, healing her wounds as it did so.

I smile in earnest as her eyes flutter back open.

“Kimina… what?” She pushes herself up and looks down at herself, getting only a glimpse of the green chakra before it dissipated into thin air.

My heart raced inside my chest, so loudly that I could hear it thumping behind my ears. I had saved Naria sensei’s life. This gift was too easy to wield; I could heal any injury and ultimately save people’s lives I cared for. But like they say, every good thing comes with a price. And that’s why my heart was racing; I just didn’t want to fathom what the price might be.

“Did you do this, Kimina? What was it?” Naria sensei asks incredulously.

“Yeah, I did. But… I don’t know what it is. It’s some sort of healing power I just figured out I could do,” I say meekly, averting her gaze.

“Have you always been able to do this? This is an incredible power.” She stands to her feet gracefully, almost like a ballerina. “I have my chakra back.”

“Yeah, it renews energy too.” I stand on my feet also. “And no, I haven’t been able to do this before.”

“Do you know anything about it?”

“No, that’s all I know. I don’t even know how I came across it.”

Naria sensei sighs. “Well, were not going to stay around here and discuss anything else. We will head on to the Sand village and deliver this letter first, then we can rest and have all the time in the world. Where is the other two?”

“Naria sensei…” I glance on the sides of me, hoping that Rakuyo could tell what happened to Lloyd, but he wasn’t nowhere around us.

“Rakuyo,” Naria sensei calls out to him. I look over to the three brothers’ dead bodies and notice Rakuyo standing over the middle one. I couldn’t read his expression but I could see that his mouth hung open.

Naria sensei and I walk over to him, and the horrific spectacle of the bodies was ghastly. I definitely didn’t want to now what Naria sensei had to go through to do this, especially given the abhorrent condition she was in.

“Rakuyo, what’s wrong?” Naria sensei asks, her eyebrows raised in bewilderment.

Rakuyo was standing at the head of the gray haired brother, Botan.

“This…” Rakuyo stammers at first. He then takes a breathe of air. “This is my father…”