A Hatred That Will Never Bloom Into Friendship

“Mom! I’m home!” I close the door behind me, throw my backpack to the wooden floor, and run into the kitchen.

“Hi, sweetheart!” My mother embraces me the moment I walk in, tears streaming down her face. “I missed you so much! I thought…something…” Now she was sobbing.

“I’m fine, mom. We just ran into some bad weather, and we had to keep stopping for shelter.” What? Okay, so I was lying. I was going to tell her what really happened, just not right now.

“Really? It’s been beautiful here,” she tells me, her tears finally stopping.

She releases me and sits down at the kitchen table. She pats the seat next to her with her left hand and wipes her tears away with her right. “Come on and sit down. Tell me about your journey.”

Oh boy. I guess there as not waiting for me to tell her what happened. I sigh, contemplating what I should say first. But my mind was elsewhere at that moment. My eyes flicker to the living room and my body moves on its own accord towards my father’s picture over the fireplace. I could hear my mother calling my name behind me, but my feet kept progressing me forward, until I stop a few feet from the framed photograph.

Flashback

“Slow down a bit, Naria,” Kazuki sensei utters with a roll of his eyes.

The little girl stops and turns around to the boys in her squad. She fitted right in with them, with her tomboyish looks and her short cut brown hair.

“Well, would you look at this, the little dog can obey,” Reo states sarcastically, his lips pulled up in a melodious smirk.

Naria rolls her eyes at him, one side of her mouth pulled up in disgust. “Why don’t you just shut-up before I slit your throat.”

“Ooh…I’m scared,” Reo croons in a singsong voice, pretending to tremble for full effect.

“Alright, you two, quit it…” Kazuki sensei mutters peevishly. He glances down at his other student, Haru, who was laughing bemusedly at his other two teammates. “Wait a minute.”

“Hmm? What is it, Kazuki sensei?” Naria asks, glancing around her.

Seconds later, five men appear out of the shadows, all with malicious expressions.

One of the men walks out more towards the group; he was apparently the leader. He was much taller than the others and had short red hair. “My, my. What are you Leaf genin doing all the way out here?” He smirks at Kazuki sensei’s hateful expression. “Humph. What’s with the look? Death is knocking on your door today, my friend, surely you should be wearing a look of fear, perhaps?”

~~*~~

“Run, you three! Go!” Kazuki sensei orders, trying desperately to keep his jutsu intact.

“You think this can hold us?” Botan, the gray-haired brother, yells with a sneer.

“Go!” Kazuki sensei commands again. The beaten genin behind him take a couple steps backwards hesitantly, before running away from the battle scene at full speed.

Kazuki sensei turns his attention back to the blue chakra dome he had produced around the five brothers to hold them off. But now he strength was fading quickly, and he didn’t know how much longer he could hold this up. But the reason he had entrapped the enemy was so that his students could escape, which they had.

The dome flashes in and out of focus, until ultimately it dissipates all together. Kazuki sensei falls to the ground, panting and exhausted.

This is it, he thought woefully, here is where I die.

Five figures loom over him, all laughing maniacally. Kazuki sensei last thoughts were of his wife and daughter, before darkness consumed him.

End Flashback

My mother tapping me on my shoulder didn’t take me out of my reverie, not even her worried tone of voice repeating my name. All I could think of was what Naria sensei had told Rakuyo and I about my father that night at the ramen in the Sand village. But, finally, I snapped back to my senses when my mom left me when a knock sounded at the front door. Who could that be? At this time of night, anyway? My question was answered almost immediately when my mom walks in with Naria sensei at her heels.

“Naria sensei? What are you doing here?” I ask reticently.

“I wanted to ask your mother something…” She smiles sweetly. I knew exactly what she wanted to know too. She wanted to know if my mom could tell us anything about my new found healing powers. I mean, why else would she be here?

“What is it?” my mother asks tentatively.

“Mom, on this mission, I acquired this new ability, so to speak,” I say, my tone also tentative. My mother’s eyebrows raise in confusion.

“I think…it’ll be better if Kimina showed you,” Naria sensei asserts, taking out a kunai knife. I glance at the weapon uneasily, but let her slice a horizontal line down my left arm.

“What is this…?” My mom’s tone was unrecognizable, her expression unreadable. She clamps both hands over her mouth, trying to hold back a scream unsuccessfully as the green chakra streams over my wound, healing the cut completely.

“No, no, no, no!” my mom shoots over and over again.

“No, mom. I’m…I’m fine.” I didn’t know what else to say. My mother’s outbursts were scaring me. I only had seen her shaken up like this once before; when she learned of my father’s death.

“No, you’re not fine!” Tears brim in her eyes and fall down her cheeks. “It’s the curse! You’ve been cursed!”