Chapter 3 - Death, Kidnapping, and Massacre

I was ready to go and so was Resha. Did you honestly think that any sane person would let an eight year old live by himself? Resha was happy to accompany me on my way to the village of haunts. She was getting tired of the looks that people were giving her.
On the night we were supposed to leave there was tension all around. Resha and I were sitting outside talking. Neither of us knew what to expect from the village of haunts.
"Resha, how will they treat us?" I asked innocently.
"Well, Dad said there will be other people like me there but I don't know how they act," she said with a sigh.
"Do you think Rene will come live with us?"
"She probably would if you asked her. She acts like she missed her village."
We both heard a noise coming from the other side of the house. Resha made me stay while she went to investigate. Things went very slowly after that. It was silent for so long that I lost track of time. Then I heard a muffled scream. I ran around to the other side of the house but there was nothing there. Resha was gone. I didn't know why or how, but she was definitely gone.
That was the first time the village of naught was a topic of conversation in our home. My father actually started explaining things to us. He thought that Resha was kidnapped so that she could bring people back to life in the village of naught. I didn't know weather that was a good thing or a bad thing but I did believe it.
Dad said that only corpses could bring people back to life. We can only die from loss of blood. You can't drown, strangle, or poison us. We can't die from diseases and our wounds don't get infected. Our bones don't break and we don't get sick.

The next day I woke up feeling sick and heavy. The muscles in my bad arm felt loose and weak. I could barely get out of bed. One of my other sisters, Alex, watched me stumble around all morining. She knew something was wrong and she was worried about me. She sent me back to bed when she couldn't take it anymore.
Back then Alex was the 'better safe than sorry' type of person. By the time I got back in bed I was running a feaver. According to Alex, it was a high feaver. She stayed by my side the whole time. When she settled down I tried to talk to her.
"Alex, I think I'm going to die," I said weakly.
"That's impossible! You haven't even been sick before today!" she said frantically.
"This was forseen long before today, Alex."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean my arm. It started on the day I was born. My death is imminent now."
Alex looked down at my arm. There was a small cut on the black line that extended around the width of my arm. Blood was slowly seeping out of the cut but I knew it would start coming out faster soon. I had no idea where the cut came from and it hurt. Even though I knew I was going to come back, I was still afraid to die.
I knew what i had to do. Eskerna Sensei had taught me how to use my bad arm. If Eskerna Sensei hadn't taught me how to save my arm, all of my suffering would have happened before I died and I wouldn't have come back. I was ready, but I had to explain to Alex.
"Alex...I have to stop the pain...or I won't come back," I stuttered.
"Stop talking like you're going to die, Gonan!" she cried in disbelief.
"It would be a lie if I said that I won't be fine."
"that doesn't make any sense!"
"It will make sense after it happens. If you don't want to see me die, you should leave now."
"Alright, I understand. I'll come back in about an hour to reattach your arm."
"It won't take that long."
Alex looked at me with the same worried eyes that I saw in Resha the day she died. She looked down at my bad arm and kissed the cut that was bleeding faster every second. The she kissed me on the cheek and wiped the blood from her lips. She stroked my sweary, blonde hair a couple of times and dried my tears. Then she got up and slowly left the room closing the door behind her.
Then I was ready. I didn't want to scream because I thought it would mean more suffering. I slowly sat up to put more strength into my good arm. Then I firmly grasped my right arm and pulled the bottom half clean off. i immediately fell back onto my pillow and lost my breath. That was exactly what Eskerna Sensei told me to do. I died before I felt the pain. Everything would be saved for when I woke up.

When I woke up everything was taken with a delayed reaction. There was a bandge holding my right arm, which now felt stronger than it ever had, together. My skin was gray, my hair and eyes were black, and the mark that Alex's bloody lipstick from my arm made was permanently tattooed on my cheek. It took me a minute before I felt the searing pain that sent a loud scream through the house.
Lucky for me everyone was asleep and they were all in such a wonderful mood after I woke them up. (you are so out of it if you didn't catch the sarcasm in that last sentance.) Alex was so happy to see me alive that she nearly broke my back in a crushing hug. My dad thought that I was a hallucination. I was surprised to see my older brother, Leo, had come to see me. He had left a long time ago to join a sand village version of ANBU. I would definitely have to talk to hime later.
They all tried not to linger on the fact that it was the middle of the night but Alex and dad eventually went back to bed. Leo stayed in my room, silent until he knew that the others were sound asleep. Then he looked at me. His hair looked like a solid concentration of sand atop his head and his eyes were like tiny emeralds.
"I'm not sure if I see courage or cowardice behind this transformation," he said frankly.
"Do you think that it was a good idea for me to pull off my arm?" I asked expecting surprise but not finding any on his face.
"I couldn't say unless you told me why you did it."
"I had to make it so my arm wouldn't hurt until I came back."
"You were told to do this?"
"I was told everything. Eskerna Sensei said that I would be stronger if I did that. I...don't want to talk about this anymore, I'm tired."
"Gonan, we need to talk about this! Do you have any idea what your friend, Rene, was seeing while you were transforming? Do you have any idea what you've missed? Do you have any idea what happened only a few hours ago?"
"No. Don't drag Rene into this, though."
"This is NOT about you! It's three am now. It's too early to take you to the leaf village, but it's still morning. Last night there was a massacre."
"Did the whole village get destroyed?"
"No, Gonan, it was only the Uchiha clan. Don't overreact, though. Nia, Sasuke, and Itachi survived. Itachi disappeared immediately after it happened. You and your teammates will be leaving for the village of haunts as soon as you grace them with your presence. Sasuke thinks that Nia is dead and you are not going to tell him any different."
"Who did this?"
"Itachi did it. I was kind of surprised to hear that he told your sensei face-to-face."
Suddenly, I was terrified for so many different reasons that I almost lost track. Number one was the fact that there was someone out there who could single handedly destroy the mighty Uchiha clan in one night. Number two was the fact that he was Itachi. Number three, would anyone recognize me? If they did, would they be afraid of me? Not Rene, but Nia and Eskerna Sensei! I tried not to let any of those things bother me as I made my way to the leaf village with Leo.

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