A Hatred That Will Never Bloom Into Friendship

“A…a curse? What…are you talking about, mom?” I ask shakily, looking at her with wide eyes.

“I…I need to sit down.” My mom walks uneasily back to the kitchen, tripping twice over herself, before finally managing to sit at the kitchen table without falling flat on her face.

Naria sensei and I walk in and sit on either side of her, both of us with bewildered and unpleasant expressions on our faces.

My mother sniffs a couple times and cries her eyes out some more before finally composing herself. “Sometime ago…on my side of the family…your great…” She breaks down again.

I place my hands on top of hers. “Mom, please.” She needed to pull herself together and tell me what she knew; otherwise I was going to burst into tears.

“Okay, I’m sorry.” She takes a deep breath and begins again. “Your great grandmother…was assigned to track down and kill a Class-A ninja named Yuuna Zakuro.”

“So, let me guess. My great grandmother succeeded in killing the woman, and for the price of her death…she put a curse on my great grandma and all her descendants who would become a ninja,” I conclude for myself.

“That’s exactly right. But…it isn’t an ordinary curse,” my mother says with an obvious tone. And of course it wasn’t. I mean, who would put a curse on someone if it gave that person unyielding healing powers? If that’s the case, it’s not a curse at all!

Naria sensei was clearly thinking that same thing I was. “It really isn’t like an ordinary curse. I mean, who would put a curse on someone if it gave him or her unlimitless powers of healing? That’s not really a curse at all then.”

“Your right. The healing part isn’t a curse, anyway.” Tears well up in my mom’s eyes again. So, if the healing wasn’t a curse, then what was? And how come the healing is a part of it? “The chakra almost has a mind of its own.”

“What do you mean?” I ask impetuously.

“The power will take a hold of you physically and mentally. You can feel it coursing through you now, can’t you?” I nod twice. “That feeling will grow much stronger overtime, and you can get lost in the power and lose yourself. In other words…you can go mad and ultimately lose your humanity in the process. And if that doesn’t happen…the chakra will betray you when you most need it, and the person you were trying to save or yourself will…die. This was what Yuuna told my grandma before her life was taken.”

“So…so, it won’t matter if Kimina learns to control this power, she is going to die from it?” Naria sensei presumes, her voice unnerved. My mom nods her head, looking at me and bursting into tears. “But why healing? Why give an awesome gift such as that?”

“It was said that Yuuna in the beginning of her life was a kind woman, gentle and always sought to help others. She was also an exceptional healing kunoichi. But one day she lost everything. He family was massacred. It was a scene of betrayal, and after that she went mad and went on rampages murdering anyone she could get her hands on. This curse was to teach a lesson of what she went through in her life. In the end…death…”

I didn’t know what to do or say. What could a person say in this situation? We were talking about my death and how I will ultimately die for crying out loud!

Right then I could feel the new chakra within me stirring uncontrollably, almost in protest of what was being said. I clench my hands together; I knew then what to say. “I don’t believe it.” Both heads turn in my direction. I stand up. “I don’t believe it! Any of it! This chakra within me is not going to betray me. I can’t believe that!” I felt the chakra swirling around in me, conceding with me that it wasn’t going to.

“That is the same thing my grandmother thought. She laughed at the woman who cursed her, and thought she had gained something so unbelievably compelling that she lost herself to the madness because of it,” says my mom, averting my gaze, staring up past me at the ceiling. “That was the woman’s curse, the madness and the betrayal. ”

“I know that this power won’t betray me. Whatever this curse thing is…maybe it isn’t anymore. Maybe this time it isn’t for the worse, maybe that was just for my great grandma, and for me it will be something good. It helped me save my sensei and my teammates life!”

“Yes, I know, sweetheart. But you have to understand, overtime it will…”

“No! That’s enough!” And that was enough. I walk out of there after that, not looking back.

“She is already changing. That power is already taking her over…”

Naria sensei interjects. “No, Kimina is the same sweet girl she is. It was just that all this overwhelmed her.”

“I know she is, and maybe that was just it. This is the reason why my mother and I didn’t become shinobi, for fear of just this happening to us. But Kimina wanted to become one…and I…” She sighs. “Naria, I want to ask something of you.”

“What is it?”

“You are already her sensei, but I also want you to help her with this power. I have to believe that if she can maybe have control over it, that she will be okay in the end. Maybe Yuuna will have blessing over her. So, will you? Will you please help her to control it, and not let her fall into the darkness? Beside from the curse, you and Kimina have been through the same heartaches, so that should make it somewhat easier in a way.”

Naria sensei falters, them smiles. “Okay. I will do my best.”

“Thank you.”