Fated

Temari was chilling on her balcony feeling the fresh breeze of Konoha. Her fingers run through her lips reminiscing about their kiss last Saturday night. Her mind starts wondering why his lips felt like she kissed him before. A burst of emotions began to escape in her heart, foreign emotions that she didn’t know where they came from. She was thinking about why some weird things kept happening to her.

It’s so freaking weird! When did this happen again?

Was it the song in my ear thing? It started with the freaking weird songs, right? Then my scars started to disappear.

What happened before that? What did I do? Why are these happening to me?

Temari suddenly remembered about the boulder and the curse.

FUCK! Was that the cursed boulder? Damn! I thought that was fake. Was it real?

She palmed her cold head and the realization that she was cursed started invading her. Temari immediately drove to the boulder and the person who assists the travelers informed her that the library has the data about the curses. She left the mythical forest and went to the Konoha library. When she arrived, there are not many people inside so it was hard for her to ask someone where could she find the files about the curse. The library was huge, it has five floors with almost endless bookshelves, she was in awe after seeing the interior of it. A few minutes later, an old woman in her late fifties approached her.

“What can I help you miss?”

“Oh. Hi, uhmm I’m looking for something and I hope you could help me” Temari gently said

“Of course, that’s my expertise. What are you looking for, dear?”

“I-I want to know if you have some files, book, or anything about the curse? I mean, I saw the boulder in the forest that was labeled as a curse. So, I want to know more about it” she said while twisting her fingers

“Ah, the curses. During the Heian period? Finally, someone who’s interested in it” The lady smiled at Temari and grabbed her hands leading to the one area of the library.

They both walked to the west of the library and reached one of the rooms which looked secretive. The old lady grabbed a set of keys in her pocket and unlock the room which has two padlocks. They went inside and a huge collection of antiques and glass cabinets greeted them.

“Here, we have old clothes collected from the curse victims, files about the curses, and old newspapers from the Heian period, you could check them if you want”

“Wow! This is a lot. Uhmm thanks, I’ll just stay in here for a while and check the documents” Temari said

“Thank you too, it’s fresh to see people who have the same passion as me. I love the history of it. Enjoy your stay here dear. I’ll be outside if you need me, okay?”

“Alright. Thank you so much” Temari nodded

She starts checking the paper in the drawers, some were just released last year, some were a decade ago, and some were way back to the Heian period. Some of the old documents were almost weary so she was afraid to touch them.

Disease curse? I did not have a disease

Death curse? I didn’t even die

Good curse? Uhm well, I wasn’t even lucky that day

Love curse? Hmm, Eww. Why is it so cringy?

In one of the glass panels, she saw an old newspaper way back from the Heian period. Temari starts reading it and suddenly one of the articles caught her attention.

A curse of instant death was bestowed on two lovers.

Temari starts reading the article through the glass panel and her heart starts beating faster. She touched the glass panel and an electric spark starts tickling her fingers. Temari was surprised because of those sparks a new different emotion ignited inside her, a feeling of dread and longing for an unknown lover was transferred to her, it was by the sparks that she felt through the glass panel. She stared at her hand and starts breathing profusely. Temari looked at the newspaper again and saw the address written in the article, it was the location of where the two lovers were laid. Temari starts typing the information in her cellphone note. She walked out of the room, waved goodbye to the lady who assisted her, and starts driving to where the mausoleum was located. It was a four-hour drive.

Temari reached her destination and parked her car in one of the open spaces inside the forest. She’s thankful for the advanced map system on her phone where she could locate the mausoleum quickly without getting lost. A beep sound was heard from her phone notifying her that she already reached her destination. A white-marbled mausoleum with a huge gate and large padlocks was standing in front of her. She realized that she couldn’t get more information from there, from the outside of the mausoleum without any people around to ask.

Oh! For fuck’s sake. What am I going to do now?

She starts squatting on the grass and buried her head in her knees, she could feel her tired feet and back pain at that moment. Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed from her side.

“Temari? What are you doing here?”

She raised her head and looked at where the voice was coming from “Shikamaru? What are you doing here? “

“I live here, I mean. You’re in the Nara district woman”

“Wait, your old house is here? The one we stayed in last Saturday?”

Shikamaru laughed “You forgot? “

“I guess, it’s dark and raining that night so I wouldn’t know. Wait, I thought you were in your apartment?”

“I plan on staying here for this weekend I realized I need to renovate some parts of our old home. I was jogging and saw you. You’re literally in the middle of the deer forest. Why are you here?”

“I am?” She stands up and starts patting her skirt “Uhm, I was looking for that mausoleum. Are you familiar with them?”

Shikamaru glanced at the mausoleum where she was pointing and looked at her curiously “Oh, uhm the lovers of Nara. Yeah, their story was really famous in our clan and in the whole Konoha, I think”

“Can you tell me about it?”

Shikamaru walked closer and invited her to sit on one of the wooden benches “My ancestor who was the right hand of the Hokage and his lover, the princess, died because of the death curse”

“The death curse?” Temari curiously asked him

“Yeah, it’s one of a kind. The death curse was the most powerful one and they both had it. It’s on their wedding day when it happened, after their kiss”

“Wait, how many curses are there?”

“Uhm, let's see. We have the good curse, bad curse, death curse, disease curse, and love curse”

“Huh” she expressed, her mind starts thinking about what happened during the Heian period in Suna “If it’s real, I remembered my uncle told us about a disease that caused a massive death in Suna during the Heian period. Was that a curse too?”

“Probably, it could be a disease curse but could also be just an epidemic” Shikamaru said while leaning his head on her

“Oh, uhmm. How about the love curse? I haven’t heard or read that one”

“Right, actually. It’s still a mystery. You see, when examining the mineral boulders, it has dark energy or aura that was captured from the devices. A specific color can determine what type of curse they were, mostly dark or almost black. But that one mineral boulder at the top of the mythical forest has the purest white aura, so they declared it was a love curse”

“Pshh! Love curse, it could also be like a good curse” She sarcastically said

“Oh no, the good curse has some dark yellow aura. It is still dark in color and it was believed that Orochimaru, the witch cast those spells. Mostly his curse was the dark ones”

“Oh. And the boulder at the top was not his?”

“Yeah, I guess”

Their eyes met and Temari can’t help but feel curious about the story, she wanted more information about it “About the lovers, were they your ancestors?”

“You could say that. He..Lord Nara was the cousin of my great great great great great grandfather”

Temari crossed her arms and pursed her lips “Uhm, where can I see their data? I mean files, I’m really interested in their story”

“You’re lucky because your boyfriend was the one who renovated their mansion. Do you want to check out their place?”

Temari smiled at him “Wow, what a joker. Uhm, yeah where was it?”

Shikamaru smiled and grabbed her hand “Come here”

They both walked to a marvelous huge mansion close to the mausoleum.