Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters… etc, etc. If I did, then the Akatsuki would be more of a big player in the story!
Azu's Akatsuki Tale, Chapter 21: The Kanningu Auction
The auction was scheduled to start tomorrow morning first thing. I booked myself in to a hotel near the center of Kanningu for the next few nights.
That evening, sitting in the small room, I unrolled the scroll Sasori had given me and started reading his meticulous, neat handwriting.
The bank account can be accessed through Soukou Bank. Ask for account number 517113 under my name. The items to be obtained are as following:
I kept reading down the list. A used pair of shoes from 1945 made with frog skin? A dagger that was used to murder a celebrity? And the list didn't get any more ordinary.
I had no clue what use any of this would be, but the requirements for the items were very specific. This would be pretty hard…
"So, you're a newcomer to the auction this year?" The big-eyed receptionist smiled at me in a friendly way. "There are 150 official auction houses running all day and night, but the most famous in terms of the rareness of the items are these 10." She slid a piece of paper towards me. "However, it's very hard to gain entrance to these. Other than that, there are free markets and auctions anyone can hold that you can use. That's all I know."
I didn't think she'd told me everything, but I didn't question her. "Thanks for the information." Grabbing my pack, I headed out in to night.
The first thing that hit me was the amount of people. Kanningu was solidly packed with human beings. I saw some with the green vests of Konoha, and some with the white-collared robes of Suna… but the number of ninja was dwarfed by the number of ordinary people there. Fire and light flickered everywhere. I guess Kanningu didn't stop for anything, even daily occurrences such as night.
Suddenly, there was a load roar. I hurried towards a crowd of people bunching around some kind of fight going on.
"You CHEATED, that's what!" A big, bulky, red-faced ninja yelled loudly. "THERE'S NO WAY I DIDN'T HIT THAT!!!"
"I don't doubt your marksmanship. But look here," a slight, blonde man gestured, "at this target. It's clear you didn't hit the middle…"
"I AM ONE OF THE BEST NINJA! I would NEVER HAVE MISSED-"
The blonde man smirked slightly. "Why don't you just back off for a bit…?"
In a second, powerful electricity charges surged through the air. When the dust clouds cleared, I saw the big ninja lying unconscious on the ground. This man had a fair amount of power.
"Well, that's that…. Anyone else want to give it a go? Only 5000 yen to enter, only 5000 yen and you could win this jackpot of a MILLION yen!" Gesturing wildly, the blonde man looked around at the roused crowd. "Come on; tell me at least one of you can hit this target!"
Mr. Bad-temper was kicked aside somewhere as the crowd surged around, all eager to win. Curious, I thought: I can hit a target at 100 accuracy… this should be easy. And I'll need as much money as I can get to get these items. Why not give it a try?
It came to be my turn. The blonde man smiled widely and gestured at me. "This young lady dares to give it a try! What a shame, what a shame, if she was to beat all you fine young men today! Well, let's see her try." He handed me three slightly scratched kunai. "Try your best!" he whispered conspiratorially, winking.
I liked him immediately. He didn't pretend not to look at my scarred face. "Here goes…!" I said loudly enough for the crowd to hear. Aiming carefully, I threw hard and straight. It headed straight for the target and thudded in to the wood.
"Oops, just a bit off there…!"
How could I have missed…?
"What a pity, what a pity!" Tsking loudly and shaking his head, the blonde man tugged the three kunai out of the target. "And bare misses, too! But she has a good arm, look at how deep of a mark on the target that is! Now now, next up!"
I was sure I could have hit it. Scratch that, I was sure it should have hit. What had he done…? The kunai themselves weren't being controlled, I knew… I would have felt it. In fact, I'd been sure to control the metal, giving me a 150 possibility of hitting the target.
I was sure the blonde man was doing something. I stared at him discreetly. Nothing unusual, just a thin layer of chakra hovering around him. It surged around him like a busy nest of bees, but that was a usual thing when one was excited. Settling in to the yelling crowd, I watched carefully.
Two hours later Not from Azu's POV
The blonde man watched as the girl with the scarred face approached him through the crowd. He had seen her watching all too carefully through the night, but he was confident of his little trick… And besides, she barely had the chakra of a genin and only one eye. Admittedly she seemed to have good aim and a decent throw, but what could she do?
"This little miss again, huh?" He handed her the three kunai, smiled his charismatic smile. "Let's see if you can do it this time!" The crowd cheered, completely riled up.
She nodded, concentrated, and threw the kunai. He smiled, and activated his jutsu as he talked and gestured to the crowd.
There was a loud "thock" as the first kunai hit the target solidly. Looking carefully, he felt a wave of shock. The kunai had split the target dead center.
Later, Azu's POV
"It wasn't a bad idea. You're a lightning type, right?" I smirked at him over a cup of late night tea. "In the confusion, analyze the person's chakra. Then, form a highly concentrated speck of chakra that barely overpowers the other person's chakra. Hide it and the chakra string carrying it, and release it just a millisecond before the kunai hits the target. Straightforward and simple… however, your skill lets you carry this out effectively. You have some skill."
He sighed and smiled at me. "Same to you, young lady. Where did you learn to watch so carefully?"
Cautiously, I said, "From my master. He's very talented in concealing his chakra as well, so I've learned to watch carefully."
Sipping the last of his tea, he winked at me. "Well, the million's yours. I only do this for fun anyways… the money doesn't particularly matter to me, though it looks like you need it." He leaned towards me. "If you need more… challenges, or more money, try auction house 63. I respect young people with skill…" Taking his jacket, he swept it on and turned away. "Have fun."
The next morning, I headed out in to day one of the Kanningu Auction. For lack of any decent plan, I merely walked around Kanningu, looking at auction items.
The air echoed with shouts and cries from auctioneers eager to sell for the highest price, and from customers looking to buy for the lowest price. Fights, usually verbal and sometimes physical, erupted left and right as tempers boiled. I quickly realized that it would be virtually impossible to find items like the ones Sasori had listed just by wandering around the auction grounds. There were just too many shops and free auctions.
My best bet would be one of the auction houses, then… I had seen a building with a sign reading "General Auction information" on it.
Inside, I found that long lists of the items on sale for a particular day in a certain auction house were displayed. I read them carefully, looking for the items I needed. Using the back of the scroll Sasori had given me and a few of my hairs turned in to lead, I wrote down the times and houses.
However, I realized quickly that I would never be able to pay for all of the items with the 1.5 million I had right now. The most expensive of the items I needed was already one million, and that was the minimum, starting price…
Remembering the blonde man's words regarding more money, I decided to try house 63.
The 150 main auction houses clustered around one large, open circle of area. Numbers 11-150 stood in a circling pattern like a swirl. At the center, in one closed circle, stood houses 1-10.
Number 63 appeared to just be a small, albeit crowded, bar. Slightly confused, I asked the barkeep where the auction was.
He told me there wasn't an auction. I eyed him suspiciously… this was obviously supposed to be one of the auction houses. "Are you sure there's no auction here…?"
"Not for weaklings like you, there isn't."
I raised an eyebrow. "I'm probably stronger than you."
"Little miss, go somewhere else. This place isn't for little girls…"
Sighing, I turned to go… and whirled around. Using my speed and the advantage of surprise, I gave him a solid front kick to the ribs and trapped his head underneath my arm in a move I'd had used on me about a million times by the Akatsuki. Giving a little squeeze to his neck, I pleasantly asked, "Strong enough for you?"
Considering the guy was built like a wall and about a foot and a half above my five foot six inches, he was surprisingly easy to take down. "Let… let me go, let go." Rubbing his neck, he gestured at me to follow, muttering something about the general feistiness of girls these days. He led me in to…. the bathroom. He motioned at a trapdoor on the filthy floor. "Go ahead."
I squeezed in to the slimy space and felt my way hand-by-hand down the rusting ladder.
Sasori slid in to the bar and shoved his way impatiently through the crowd. The barkeep came sidling up, wiping the counter. "She already went through… gave me a bit of a neck ache, too." Smiling, the big man healed his neck in a second. "I'm surprised she could even leave a mark."
Smiling slightly, Sasori slid towards the back of the bar, following Azumi's footsteps.
The ladder went on forever. I was starting to wonder what would happen if I fell. Suddenly, I emerged from the dripping quietness of the tunnel in to a huge area filled with sound that practically blasted my ears off my head.
It looked like I'd just entered a giant stadium. The floor was wet with beer and vomit and other equally pleasant things, and the air smelt sour and sweaty. In the middle of the roaring stadium, twenty or so giant fighting rings stood. I was filled with a sense of anticipation and excitement, picking up on the general mood of the place. In the middle of the place, highlighted by a blinding spotlight, stood the announcer. He was shouting prices that I soon realized were bets on the various competitors.
Grabbing a random man by his jacket, I yelled (that was the only way you could be heard in this place), "Hey, how can you get in to those competitions?"
He yelled back, "Go talk to the announcer. He'll assign you a match. But why would you… HEY!"
I pushed my way roughly through the crowd. Waiting for a chance to talk (yell?) to the announcer, I noticed the way the bets worked: All bets for any fighter were pooled to a total amount, displayed on an electronic board above the fighting ring. Roughly 80 of the losing bets were given back and split accordingly with the audience. The other 20 went as prize money to the fighter. As a fighter, you could also request that this house bring you an item equivalent in value to the money you had earned.
This kind of situation sounded perfect for me. An easy way to get items, and cash, too…
"HEY, YOU! The announcer!" I yelled at him. "I wanna fight a match here!"
He looked down at me. "This place is only for serious competitors. Go away."
I tsked. "I AM serious."
It looked like he was going to argue back, but someone standing next to him said, "Let her, if she wants to get beat up it's not our fault…"
"Yeah, give the miss a chance. It's her own choice."
I hated their condescending tones, their blatant sexism against females. I will show you how strong a woman –well, girl actually- can be… I hated to pretend, but for now it would work for me.
"Up here, then," said the announcer impatiently. I clambered on to the slightly yielding surface of the ring, shuffling my feet and looking too boldly at the crowd. Confident of my acting skills, I knew I looked like someone who was nervous and trying not to show it. Not that I'd ever fought in such a public situation before… but I liked attention. I damped my chakra well. It looked like I was weak, but strong enough to actually not seem completely out of place. This would be fun.
Clearing his throat, the announcer yelled, "NEW BETS, NEW BETS! RING 13 is going to start the fight in three minutes! THREE MINUTES! All bets are pooled for ring 13 in THREE MINUTES!"
I watched the board with concealed excitement as the number on my opponent's side shot up in to the millions, then hit the billions. As long as no one bet on me, I could get it all… the higher his number went the better.
Then, suddenly, I had a bet for…. I practically kneeled over.
Someone had bet 300 billion yen on me.
The numbers on my opponent's side jumped higher than ever, fueled by people obviously hoping to get the 300 billion. This was still to my advantage… 20 of what was now hundreds of billion was still quite a bit.
There was a loud "GONG" as the starting bell hit. Shifting in to a ready position, I faced my opponent... another "strong" AKA codeword for "bulky, slow, and stupid" man. He sneered at me, thinking that the fight was already won.
I smiled and thought: Now it's showtime.
Sasori smirked slightly, watching his 300 billion yen being countered quickly by even more money. Brushing back his hair, he thought of how he'd trained Azumi so hard over the years. It would pay off now…
He watched her show her real amount of chakra. It flared brightly in his eyes, a brilliant, steely blue-grey shooting up and surrounding her in a huge, shifting flame. The edges of her chakra were honed sharper than any physical blade. She looked proud and confident. The crowd muttered in amazement, everyone moving to turn and look at her.
He watched as she moved first, her image blurring in his eyes with speed. Not a bit of mercy was shown as she punished her challenger with flashing arcs of blue-grey, brilliant steel. Her chakra control was precise and she could shift her chakra from place to place and use it efficiently and quicker than flickering lightning. He'd always been proud of her harshly perfect chakra control, reminiscent of a certain puppeteer's. Red curves of blood splattered the floor in perfect, rose-like patterns.
He watched as that other big idiot fell to the floor, a millimeter away from being dead. The match was over before ten seconds had passed.
He watched as she bowed dramatically to the crowd, sweeping her hair out of her one good eye.
A small poof of smoke from a scroll he was carrying announced that the money had been transferred to his bank account.
He had to leave, as tempting as it was to watch Azumi, to just stay in a corner in the crowd and watch the clean lines of her chakra and her fast movement, her confident stance… her happy eyes, no longer naive but still retaining a little childishness…
Sweeping his cloak around him, Sasori turned away and melted in to the darkness of the crowd.
Finally, I knew what it was to love to fight. There was, and still is, nothing that can match the pure excitement and anticipation of a fight. Nothing is like that shot of adrenaline in your veins as you face a new opponent. Hours passed like thick, swirling smoke in a dream, marked barely by the gong of the bell and the roars of the sweating, agitated crowd as they cheered for a new champion.
But at some time, I found that far more people were betting for me than my opponent, and few people were daring to go against me. Maybe the blood-stained floor left a warning, though I was careful never to kill the contender.
I walked off the ring to the deafening cheers of the horde of betters. People clapped me on the back, shouted compliments as me. A glass of wine was shoved in to my hand, and everyone cheered when I downed it one gulp. I heard questions and rumors fly all around me…
"…trained by a Hokage, I hear…"
"She looks like an Uchiha, doesn't she? But no sign of the Sharingan…"
"I think that she's actually one of the wandering nin from…"
I shoved my way over to the announcer again. "My earnings, please…?"
He grinned at me. "Nice job, little girl. Your prize money amounts to…"