A/N: I have decided to separate Garnet into two chapters. Otherwise it is too long. Enjoy.


Chapter 8 – Garnet: Bloody Fire


"How much further, Kazuki-san?" Jiraiya asked tiredly.

The man pointed to the thicket of trees up ahead.

"The village is on the other side," he assured him.

The four ninja sighed. They had been travelling civilian speed for a week and longed for a comfortable place to sleep without being woken almost every two hours to change shifts.

The trip had been uneventful. No bandits or robbers were seen, perhaps discouraged by the mere presence of ninja, despite three of them being very young.

Hoshibiki had found himself the most talkative of the three for once, and it actually worried him. Whenever they were together, he noticed that Mikazuki and Minato had kept him between them.

He glanced at his teacher. The only "fun" they had had on the trip came from finding out what was written in Jiraiya's notebook…


Flashback…

They had been in a hurry that morning, for Jiraiya had sensed the presence of other ninja. Despite the assurance from their clients that Grass ninja have no business with them, they were unwilling to take any chances.

Hoshibiki spotted a small notebook on the ground. He picked it up.

"Mikazuki-san," he called after making sure that the family was out of earshot. "Is this yours?"

She took the notebook out of his hands.

"No, maybe it is Minato's." Her voice broke on the name.

From this, Hoshibiki guessed that the two had an argument.

Mikazuki flipped open the notebook and scanned over the first few pages.

Her eyes grew wide as she flung the book back to the ground, open side down in the mud.

Minato, noticing that something was amiss, came over. Looking at his team-mates curiously, he bent over to pick up the book, yet Mikazuki yanked him back up by the shoulders.

"Don't. Touch. It," she had hissed and shook him with every word she said.

Minato just stared.

This was the first time she had spoken directly to him after their conversation.

Abruptly, she released him.

"Argh! I am mentally scarred for life!" she clutched the sides of her head, trying to delete from her memory what she had read.

She turned on her two team-mates, who automatically took a few steps back.

"You two!" she yelled at them, eyes uneasy. "No matter what our teacher says, NEVER read his books, understand?"

"Why?" they had asked in union.

"Our teacher…" she chocked. "Our teacher is a pervert!!"

The silence was deafening.

End of Flashback…


Hoshibiki chuckled to himself at the memory.

The sight of an Uchiha loosing her composure…priceless.

They should have taken a picture.

A scream broke through his thoughts.

He ran to catch up to the other people ahead of him. They had stopped at the edge of the forest, disbelief and horror coloured their faces.

A group of ten men were ransacking the village. They slashed at anyone in their path as blood trickled into small streams at their feet.

"They are after the minerals from the mines!" Kazuki yelled, appalled.

Jiraiya held him back with an arm. "Take your family back into the forest to hide. We will take care of it."

"Are you sure?" the man looked uneasy. He glanced at the shinobi. "Your students are so young. Isn't it a little early to expose them to-?"

"You hired us to protect you," Jiraiya interrupted. "It is a little too late to regret it now."

The man glared at him.

Then he flicked his whip, and the horse charged back where they had come.

Jiraiya glanced at his three students. "You three," he ordered. "Come with me."

Hoshibiki followed immediately, though not without gulping uneasily.

Hmph. Guess the kid already received emotional training in Hidden Mist. Jiraiya observed. Figures, they are called the Bloody Mist, after all. I would not be surprised if he had his hands already tainted with blood. I am just glad that he moved to Konoha to graduate Academy.

He turned his attention to his other two students, who stood frozen. He could see a trickle of cold sweat run down Minato's face despite of his calm appearance.

"When you asked for a C-rank," he told them none-too-gently. "This is what you get. Experience in battle is something that I could not teach you. Stay back if you wish." He turned to Hoshibiki. "Let us go."

The boy nodded, and they rushed to the village.


Getting rid of them is easy, Jiraiya thought as he slashed through one bandit with a kunai. The problem is how many villagers we can save.

Near him, Hoshibiki sliced through a bandit with a gust of water...

Grimacing, Jiraiya pushed two children out of the way of a falling knife.

That boy, he pondered as he blocked another oncoming knife. He is already merciless in battle. I shudder to think what he would become if he had grown up in Hidden Mist.


Mikazuki forced her hand to move toward the kunai pouch.

It obeyed, unwillingly.

She grasped the handle of the knife tightly. Her arm was shaking, and she felt numb.

Glancing at Minato, she saw that his eyes were clouded.

He is traumatized, she realized. He is probably not thinking clearly.

She shook her head and laughed at herself. As if I am thinking clearly myself.

The stench of blood was sickening. She wished that her teacher would hurry up.

However, the invaders were clever.

They took advantage of their excellent swordsmanship and attacked relentlessly without giving them chances to mould chakra. Jiraiya and Hoshibiki were forced to rely on taijutsu alone.

A commotion drew her attention to the right.

A man, with gleaming raven black hair, had just taken a blow from one of the more heavyset bandits. The knife was sunk into his shoulder and slashed across his chest.

Blood sprayed across the ground he was standing on as he fell.

Something twisted in Mikazuki.

The similarities were uncanny: the high cheekbones, the straight nose, and the trademark pale skin.

Nii-san.

At that instant, the image of her brother replaced the dying man as she gave herself over to the pain and anger in her heart.

The next thing she knew, she had lodged the kunai in his killer's neck. He howled and clawed at the blade. While he was distracted, she whipped out another kunai and sunk it into the chest of the already dying man.

Blood misted her vision and covered her hands, which were sill grasped tightly around the kunai.

She did not falter.

Watching the black-haired man die was like having her brother's death played out in front of her. For a moment, all she thought about was revenge.

The urge, the desire to take all her anger out on this one person, was overwhelming.

The bandit toppled over.

What she had done finally dawned on her when she turned around and took a closer look at her brother's look-alike.

The shape of the mouth was wrong, and the eyes were a light brown, definitely not black.

Shaking, she looked at her hands, stained crimson.

A shinobi must always remain clam and think rationally, Kishiro-sensei had said. "Those who do not are the causes of death for themselves and their team-mates."

She had lost control.

Stifling a scream, she wiped her hands on her clothes, trying to get rid of the blood.

It won't come off.

Backing away from the two bodies, she stared at her hands.

She did not notice the shadow behind her, or the glint on the blade as the knife flashed downward...


Minato saw the blade slashing downward on Mikazuki's head.

Memories of their times together in Academy flooded back to him as adrenaline rushed through his body, removing the numbness.

He rushed towards her, their argument a few days ago forgotten. His blond hair glowed in the sunlight.

Don't you dare die before me, Uchiha Mikazuki, he thought furiously.

You promised.


The sound of metal clashing together made her turn around.

Minato was behind her, using both hands to push his kunai up against the oncoming blade. The sides of the kunai cut into his flesh, yet he ignored the pain.

The attacker was momentarily baffled. The boy appeared out of nowhere, accompanied by a yellow light.

He stared into the boy's eyes, which were a hard and icy blue.

What is this look? He wondered.

He gulped uneasily.

They may be ninja, but they are only kids, he tried to assure himself.

Still, the look in the boy's eyes scared him.

When the boy spoke, the sound was as sharp as the edge of a knife, cutting through his defense.

"No one," the boy growled.

The bandit flinched at the tone of voice. He found his knife being pushed back.

"No one hurts my friends."

The next instant, he found a knife lodged in his chest.

A trickle of blood ran down the corner of his mouth as he looked at the boy in awe.

How? A ten-year-old...

Watching the life drain out of his victim's body, the boy's face remained emotionless.

"Die."

The knife was pulled out roughly, leaving the body limp as it fell to the ground.


The village was a wreck. Most of the men had been at the mines when the bandits attacked. When they had come back, they found many of their family members killed.

The shinobi helped wherever they could, burying bodies and taking care of the wounded.

Jiraiya, however, ordered his students to stay with their clients at their house, saying that they have had enough blood for one day.


It was too late.

Once death has been experienced, children are no longer just children.

Something in them has died as well.


Dinner was a quiet affair. No one had much appetite. Kauzki's family had begged them to stay a while longer, for they fear that there might be another attack.

They complied.

Hoshibiki had a sprained wrist, whereas the other two were still recovering from shock.

They needed time to heal.

Thought the family trusted them, Jiraiya already noticed the change in their attitude towards them. They were expecially wary of his young students. The grils no longer crowded around Mikazuki, and look at her in a mixture of fear and disgust.

Jiraiya sighed.

To civilians, the idea of a ten-year-old already being able to kill does not settle lightly on their hearts.

"Keep them away from my daughters," the woman had whispered furiously to him.

"They are murderers."


Mikazuki sat up in her bed, gasping.

Another nightmare.

She looked out the window and saw a small pond at the back of the house.

Perfect

Dressing quickly, she slipped through the back door.

Outside, there was no moon, yet thousands of stars scattered themselves throughout the sky.

Taking a deep breath, she turned to face the pond.

Hesitantly, she began forming seals.

Concentrating on the fear mounting inside her, she distracted herself from the horrors she had seen today.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"

If she could choose between fire and blood, she would prefer the former.


"Sensei?" Minato inquired from the door.

Given up on sleeping, he had meant to get a glass of water to clear his thoughts.

Instead, he found his teacher in the kitchen, staring out the window.

Jiraiya put a finger to his lips. "Look," was all he said.

Minato looked out the window. There was Mikazuki, forming seals at such a speed that her hands had become a blur.

However, as soon as a flicker of flame appeared near her mouth, she jumped back, as if startled.

Jiraiya shook his head. "She had been practicing for an hour. Even though she moulds the right amount of chakra every time…" he sighed.

He looked at Minato, whose face remained neutral.

"Still thinking about what happened?" he asked as gently as he could.

"I was," Minato admitted.

"You know that this would happen sooner or later," Jiraiya told him, keeping his eyes on Mikazuki.

Minato shook his head. "It was not the fact that I killed made me unable to sleep. It was the disgusting feeling of pleasure I had when I sunk my kunai into that man. I am afraid…that I might one day become a psychopathic killer. What if there comes a day when I could no longer feel anything, my heart as hard as stone? The very idea torments me."

"Don't be ashamed. You killed in order to protect what you cared for," Jiraiya informed him. "You overcame your own fear of being killed, because you wanted to defend what is important to you."

Minato turned his piercing gaze onto his teacher. His eyes seemed to glow in the dark.

"Next time you fight," Jiraiya continued. "Think of what you are fighting for. Yourself? Fame? Money? Or your friends? When the answer becomes clear, you strike, and make every blow count."

Minato smiled. "The answer is already clear to me, sensei."

"Oh?"

The smile lighted up his eyes.

"For my friends. Always."

Jiraiya smiled and ruffled Minato's hair. "Kinda getting fond of you brats," he grinned.

Turning his attention back to the figure by the pond, Minato's smile dimmed.

"Zuki doesn't share that view," he said sadly. "She believes that we can only survive if we cut off all our emotions and--"

Jiraiya stopped him by holding up a hand.

"Despite common belief, shinobi cannot eliminate all their feelings. They can only lock them away during battle, and release them when they are alone. Otherwise, they will break, both mentally and physically."

He paused.

"The will to live might be able to unlock limitations and discover new power," he continued. "Yet it cannot last. What is the meaning of living when everything you cared for is gone?"

He looked seriously at Minato. "It is late. You can think about what I have said later."

Minato nodded, eyes clouded once more.


Mikazuki sank to her knees, panting.

It is no use, she thought dejectedly. Everytime I see the flames, I think of my nightmare and lose my concentration. As a result, the chakra in my lungs escapes, and the fire disappears.

"You do not have a strong enough will to complete this jutsu," a voice stated behind her.

"Why aren't you asleep, sensei?" she asked warily as she started the seals again.

A hand reached out and grasped her arm.

"You need to rest," Jiraiya told her seriously. "You do not have a lot of chakra to begin with. Continue and you will die."

She yanked her arm out of his grasp.

"My goal for practicing this is not to complete this jutsu. It is merely a distraction," she said gruffly.

Jiraiya sat down on the edge of the pond. "Different people have different ways of dealing with their first kill," he said as he trailed his hand through the water.

"You have chosen the worst possible way: avoidance."

She turned away from him.

"Take Minato," he continued. "He faced his problem, found the cause, and devised a solution."

"Well, I am not him," she interrupted as she started to walk back into the house.

"Cutting off bonds may make an excellent shinobi," he said quietly, making her stop short.

"But, it does not make a complete person. Remember that, Uchiha Mikazuki."


In a lone cave, a man and a demon stirred.

"It is time."


Next chapter – Emerald: Healing Scars

A/N: so tired…I am still working on the details for the fight next chapter and the chunin exams…