Chapter Eight (Joy-chan POV)
"Umm, are you ok Joy-chan?" my cousin asked me. We had just stopped in the Uchiha district and spotting my old house I suddenly went quiet and dropped to my knees, silent tears pouring down my face. "It's been so long…" I muttered to myself, wiping the tears away after a few minutes and looking at my cousin in the eye. I stood up and we ventured towards the house, the entire way there I kept visualising what the place looked like last time I was here. The blood. The bodies. My entire family dead. There were still some blood stains on the walls of my house. I turned towards Kairi and asked if I could go in by myself. She nodded while I entered through the creaking door, and I turned on the light into the front room of our house.
-Flashback from five years ago-
I entered through the front room door after my first mission as a Jounin. The wind blowing my waist-length hair through my face.'
-Flashback over-
Tonight I entered through the front door during one of my missions as an Akatsuki, the wind blowing my extremely short hair through my face.
I gain up the courage to take the first step into the house, the house that has been haunting me for the past five years. I continue walking until I found and turn the doorknob leading into the lounge room.
-Flashback-
Absolutely exhausted I walk through the door into the living room, while my family sat eating there dinner I mutter a soft 'hi'. Refusing the food they were offering me I instead walked towards the kitchen, walking up the stairs to my bedroom.
-Flashback over-
The part I am most scared of, just five years ago that evening after my first mission as a Jounin, in this lounge room was the place my nightmare started. I close my eyes and step in, turning on the light.
I choke out a small scream as I see the lounge room, the bodies had been removed but the blood remained. Dried but just as evil looking. Not just ordinary blood, but blood that had caused my family to die. Blood that runs through my veins now.
-Flashback-
I heard a noise in the night and curious to find out who made it I ran down the stairs, running into the kitchen. I scream loudly, my voice was piercing through my brain like a knife. I had to bite into my hand so hard I started bleeding so I could stop myself from screaming. My family, my whole family… Mum, dad, lying on the floor next to each other… My younger brother by the door… I hurried over to them. "Please be alive, please, please be alive…" I muttered to myself, crying over their silent unmoving bodies. It was hopeless though, they were gone.
-Flashback over-
I start to cry silently again as I remember so vividly that night's events. I walk towards the spot my little brother Kutsuu was the night he died. The carpet was stained with blood, I had missed him so much. Despite who I was he always idolised me. He wanted to be more like me, he even changed his hair colour to match mine. He followed me around everywhere and worried about me when I was sad. I don't know how I've been managing these past five years without him comforting me and complimenting me when I was depressed.
I looked around on the floor, and saw a book inside another book he was reading. The smaller book, as soon as I saw the cover, I recognised as one of the Toad Sage's 'Make Out' Series of books which Kutsuu must've been hiding inside the one he was supposedly 'studying'. Unfortunately my little brother had a knack for liking these kinds of perverted things despite his really loyal attitude towards me.
Thinking about Kutsuu this much brought even more tears to my eyes, and tearing myself away from the spot he was murdered I ran up the stairs, not bothering to wipe away the tears now streaming down my face or quietening down my huge sobs from remembering anything about my tortured past. I reached the top and saw three different rooms. My parent's bedroom in front of me, Kutsuu's bedroom to the left and mine to the right
-Flashback-
"Joy-chan, Joy-chan!" my brother started saying to me as I climbed up the stairs to get some rest. "Can you please help me practise some ninjutsu??" He asked. I looked back at the small six year old boy and apologised to him, saying that I was far too exhausted from the mission I had just been on. "It's ok Joy-chan! I'll just go and study from the book about Chakra we need to read for the academy!" He said happily, and ran down the stairs again.
-Flashback over-
"Little did I know that'd be the last time I ever saw him…" I thought to myself, wiping the tears from my eyes so I could decide which room to go into next.
Moving to the right, I opened the door into my room, exactly the same as it was last time…
-Flashback-
I opened the door to my room, and stepped inside. I thought about finally testing the new ninjutsu I had been working on for the last year, but decided against it. I could do it tomorrow anyway… All I needed to do was test it out to see if it would work, but I could do that tomorrow… For now I just really needed to sleep, and moving towards the bed my tiredness really pressed down on me, allowing me to fall into a deep sleep the moment my head hit the pillow
-Flashback end-
I had a look around in my room. You could barely see the walls as it had been filled up with so many pictures that I had drawn. The floor was wooden but had a black mat on it, and my bed had black covers. In one corner lay my desk, which I spent most the time in my room on. It was where I always drew my sketches, and studied for my new ninjutsu art on. And sure enough, lying in the middle of the black bench was a small, ragged doll.
It was about three inches tall and made of black yarn. It had stitched scars on it, and a small foam heart with fake blood seeping out of it. It's head took up about a third of its size, and it's eyes were a simple large purple stitched cross, and a black button. One of its arms where clutching the heart, and had two small golden bells on top.
It was no ordinary doll though; this was my prized possession, my number one technique for ninjutsu. It was a special voodoo doll that would sure enough, be able to kill the person I was attacking. I designed it and made it myself. It was quite simple. When I want to hurt someone with this, all I need to do was slice my skin and put my own blood on there, and blood of the person whom I was attacking. Unfortunately I also needed blood from someone close to me to put onto there. My voodoo doll also served another purpose, and without it my Mangekyou was useless.
'Well, I guess today I can finally test it…' I thought to myself, picking it up off the table and bringing it downstairs.
I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a knife off the table and sliced through my wrist with it. It hurt but I was used to it, so I put some of my blood onto the voodoo doll and started to walk towards were the blood from my family was. I didn't think it would work since it was dried, but I managed to separate the dried blood from the carpet using a jutsu I had learnt using my Sharingan. I now and the blood I needed from someone close to me (family), mine, and the person I'm using it against's blood (me). I went upstairs again and found a box of pins, and grabbing one of them I jabbed at the Voodoo doll's leg, and sure enough blood came pouring out of mine, even though no visible physical harm had been done to my leg. And looking at the voodoo doll I saw a miniature version of my blood coming out of its leg too.
I got the blood off the doll and used a cloth to stop my own leg bleeding, and knowing that it worked made me smile for the first time since we reached Konoha. Because if this part of the Voodoo doll works, then that surely meant that the other use it serves could work as well. I moved into my little brother's room and finding his brush, I grabbed I few bits of his hair and clutching the doll with me I climbed down the stairs again to find Kairi and go to the graveyard.
As I was looking around the Uchiha district, I came across the house that everyone thought no one lived in, but no one went near it for some reason.
My Uchiha friend
That sudden thought came to my head, my old friend. If he was really part of the Uchiha clan, he probably would've lived somewhere in this area. This might've been his house.
I entered through the door, and even though it had obviously not been lived in for years, it looked as if there might've been someone there. I walked up the stairs and saw a bedroom, labelled with his name, and I entered through. This must've been his house then…
I gasped and dropped my voodoo doll and the hairs when I looked into his mirror and thought I saw him looking back, but when I turned around all I saw was a picture of him. Feeling foolish, I picked up the hairs and the doll again and walked back down the stairs, knowing I had spent too long in here. One minute is one too many when it comes to the boy whom I had trusted but almost killed me.
As soon as I had closed the door behind me I turned around and jumped when I saw Kairi about 2 inches away from me.
"Hi! What were you doing in there?" she said, stepping backwards.
Instead I remained silent but simply asked , "Can we go to the Uchiha graveyard?"
She nodded her head confused and we walked out the door, and heading towards the graveyard. She asked me once again why I was holding some hair and a voodoo doll in my hands, and I explained to her what the voodoo doll was and how the scream of pain she heard earlier was from when I was testing it on myself.
"Oh my god, oh my god, that's so cool!" she said to me. "That's such a cool way to kill someone! Can I try it, can I try it?" she asked me excitedly, but I didn't answer as we were now just outside the gates into the graveyard. Kairi even became quiet herself, and I remembered that this was the place her own parents were buried as well. We looked up and down the aisles of tombstones, stopping every now and then when we saw the grave of someone we knew. Eventually we found a row of Toramizus. First was the names of Kairi's parents, were she stopped and looked down at them, and then were the names of my mother and father, and next to them I saw another tombstone labelled 'Toramizu Kutsuu', the one I had been looking for. I kneeled down at his grave, more hot tears pouring down my face as Kairi came towards me, looking at the grave and snapping me back to reality when she asked me "So is this all you wanted to come down here for?"
I closed my eyes and shook my head, and when I opened them again Kairi was the first person ever to see my eyes in their Mangekyou form- a blood red back ground, with a black pupil and three black coloured shapes in the forms of blood droplets, with a thick line connecting each of them together into a triangle.
I tied the hairs from my brother around a small hook in the voodoo doll, and concentrating my chakra around it, when me and Kairi looked up again his grave had been replaced by an 11 year old boy with very messy black hair with purple streaks in it, wearing a daggy red singlet and gold-coloured shorts. As soon as I saw him I leapt up and hugged him, whispering to him "I missed you so much, Kutsuu…"
I let go of him he asked, "Joy-chan?"
I nodded and he hugged me this time, but when he let go he looked confused. "Umm, Joy-chan, why is- what is- where is- what's happening?" he asked, completely bewildered.
"WHAT THE FUCK?! THAT'S FREAKING NECROMANCY!!!! HOW THE HELL?!' Kairi yelped in shock, gaining Kutsuu's attention easily. "W-whoa…Sis…"
I explained to both him and Kairi what had just happened. "My Mangekyou ability, I can bring people back to life… Bring them back to the age they would be if they never died… But it only works once per person, and I can only do it if I have some of their hair tied around my voodoo doll for it to work."
"I- I've been dead?" Kutsuu asked. "Oh, of course… All I can remember is turning around to see mama and papa screaming and falling down to the ground, and then a sudden flash of red and my life swam before my eyes… What happened to mama and papa, could you revive them to? Who had killed me?"
I answered that Itachi had, and that he had killed the entire clan including our parents. Just then however there was some noise a fair distance away in the graveyard so we decided we better leave to find Deidara and Tobi again, bringing Kutsuu with us.