𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄 | 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞



THREE YEARS AGO

"F-Father?"

There's no mistaking the man. His long brown hair, his bright green eyes, and the structure of his body—it is my father. The same one I'd been told had disappeared the year my chakra and memories had been sealed away, the same one existing in the photos in the office back home.

I shake my head, and rush over to the other side of the kotatsu he sits at. Sen had tried to stop me, but I'd escaped his hand.

"You're... actually my... father, aren't you?" I say, leaning over the table. My heart pounds in my throat; I swallow, nervous for his response. "There's just... no way."

"You're right, Kari," Taon says, and my breath catches in my throat. "I'm not your father."

"But I... I don't understand!" I exclaim. "You have to be! Your eyes, your hair! I look just like you!"

Taon sighs, and I begin to grow restless for his response.

"I hadn't been lying when I had told you that I'm not your father. However, at the same time, I am your father." I swallow. "I am not sure whether it had been explained to you, how we in the Yamada Clan continue on, but I am happy to refresh your memory.

"We do not conceive. That is, we are unable to conceive. Our Clan's history tells us that the First Yamada forbade incestual birth, but to keep our line of chakra pure and whole, devised a way to split apart and combine the chakra of two Yamada, therefore creating a new life, in the same amount of time it would take to conceive." I nod in understanding, and then it occurs to me:

"Wait, so was I born like that?" I ask.

"No," Taon says. "Your mother, Mara, was not a Yamada. The law is not just against incestual birth, but conception in general... If this weren't the case and she was a Yamada, she wouldn't have been able to give birth to you naturally."

"But why can't the Yamada have children?" 

"Basically, the First Yamada," Sen interjects, "wasn't fertile. She became spiteful—while those around her continued to expand their bloodlines, she remained childless. At this point, she had developed her chakra splicing technique and created new life—when they'd grown, they went against her wishes and conceived."

"I guess I'd be frustrated, too, then" I admit quietly.

"She felt betrayed, and punished her bloodline by forbidding future childbirth. The practice of "chakra splicing" became a thousand-year-old law in the Yamada Clan. Or, as others view it-- a curse."

"But I've gotta ask— what does this have to do with my father? Er, you?"

"It is also how Taon was created," Taon says. "When you were only just a child, Kari, you became gravely ill. To prevent your death, your father sealed away your chakra, and your memories, and your mother—" he gestures to the flat of my stomach, where once before, I could recall that a strange marking had appeared "—within the seal placed on your body to keep it in place, therein sacrificing his own life to save you. It is believed that your Yamada father and your Uchiha mother deciding to conceive naturally and against our laws, it created a paradox in your life cycle. It wounded your soul. I believe that this effect is the true curse."

"But I can't understand why; it's not like I was anything more than a baby," I reason. "Why would they bother?" Taon shakes his head.

"You are wrong, Kari," he says. "Chiharu Yamada received a foretelling from a great Shinobi many, many years ago, that spoke of an "ill child". Of course, the foretelling hadn't been especially detailed, as you can imagine, but this prophecy is over one thousand years old, and between then and thirteen years ago, there has been no such child dared to have been born. Until you."