Chapter 36 – An Auction

Standing at the entrance of the old building, clad in a pitch-black cloak and a demonic mask, Raito chuckled.

Looking down, Raito saw twenty or thirty girls from the now, last and second last batch, and some of them were from the earlier academy years.

Chuckling evilly, Raito walked forward, making his presence known. He strolled towards the balcony with his arms spread wide open.

Using chakra to modulate his voice, he called out. "Welcome, dear guest, to the auction house of this old building." 

"We, have photos and information, just like always. But! As this will be our last, we will be giving a complete set pictures and information book." 

"We advise the guests to think carefully because it is going to be PRICY!" 

The group of girls made noise. Although they knew that it was going to be the last time, they didn't knew it was a complete set. 

Observing their animated chatter, Raito couldn't help but smile. 

A girl with ordinary features stepped forward, bravely raising her hand, "Can we have someone verify what you are saying?" 

"Hehe, bold enough. Come, come, dare step up and come." Raito beckoned, infusing his voice with chakra.

A girl wearing a black half-mask, concealing her mouth, stepped forward, swiftly reaching the balcony. The sight of the demonic mask and the pitch-black cloak sent a shiver down her spine, momentarily blurring her vision. Shaking off the unsettling feeling, she composed herself. 

"I apologize for resorting to a Genjutsu, but you should know." Raito offered a simple explanation, his words feeling like claws on her psyche.

Raito took out two books from his inventory and gave them to her. 

The girl turned towards the assembled crowd, flipping through the pages. The initial ones displayed old images, but as she progressed, a series of recent pictures unfolded. Her heart raced, breath quickened. Just as she was about to turn further, a cold metal pressed against her neck.

"W-What are you doing?" she stammered, fear evident in her voice. 

Maybe she could have gotten out of it, but she didn't.

"You have already seen enough." Raito's voice was icy, sending shivers down the girl's spine. He silently thanked Anko for teaching him this simple trick as he reclaimed the album and pointed to a notebook.

The girl skimmed through a couple of paragraphs, her shoulders rising in excitement. She quickly went through a couple of pages without reading, only looking at the dates. The paragraph detailed Sasuke's daily life and more importantly, it matched with their own information but compared to their own information, it was much more detailed and there were even highlights and description. 

Her eyes sparkled with a brilliant light. Closing the book, she shifted her gaze from Raito to the bustling crowd below, nodding emphatically, "This is gold." 

"Now, stop right there, little missy." Raito grabbed the notes and then placed them on a stand. 

"Go."

The girl hurried down the stairs and to the group. She informed her group of all the things she had seen and encouraged the leader to get the notebook at all cost.

"Shall we begin?" Raito raised his hand, prompting joyous shouts from all the girls.

"Hey, can you like, wait? Someone was supposed to join us, but she isn't here." The girl asked. 

The groups around her looked at her and glared.

Another girl grabbed the girl and asked in a low voice. 

"Satsuki, what are you doing?" 

"Sakura isn't here." 

"So what? We still have orientation tomorrow. If Sakura isn't coming then it's her fault." 

The girl, who seemed like a leader, walked forward and patted the girl's shoulder. "It has already started."

The girl nodded and glanced around, her concern evident, "Ino isn't here either. What are they doing?"

"Don't you know? Ino was forced to kneel in the main clan building by her dad." 

"What? That's bad."

"Yeah, the guards said that it was about her graduation."

"I didn't know her clan was that strict."

Raito rolled his eyes. If what he was going to had affected Ino then Inoichi would never let him go. "Let's start." 

"First, we have this album." He gestured around and held up the album.

"A grand total of 200 pictures are here, compiling from the first year of his academy until now. We have sorted through all the pictures and selected the best of the best, for all of you. Everything you've ever imagined of seeing is here in this album. 

"Whether he was training deep in the woods or showering in the lake, we have it all."

"I'm sure that our guest would like this." He gave a bow and placed the album on the stand before continuing. "The price starts with a thousand Ryo and every increment is a minimum of 500 Ryo.

"Please." 

After a short silence, the girls exploded.

"Double, 2000 Ryo"

"3000."

"3500" 

"Just that? I am willing 4000." 

"Damn 5,000… no 5,500. We 'The Love World' will be taking the album." One girl announced with her loud but lovely voice. 

"7000 from our Pure Love."

"Oh! High Price, high price. The Pure Love has decided to own this album with hundreds of pictures of Sasuke's life. If no one is willing, then…." Raito announced. 

"Once…twice…-" 

"We! The Dark Love, are willing to pay 8,000 Ryo for this album." A girl from another group shouted with the top of her voice after discussing. 

"Oh~" 

The other groups kept mumbling, discussing whether it was worth it or not. There is still another item to buy which may even be more pricey. 

"SOLD! Thank you, Dark Love, for a grand total of 8,000 Ryo." Raito clapped. 

The leader tossed a cloth bag brimming with money in Raito's direction. He easily grabbed the bag and used '[Observe]' to confirm then placed it on his jacket, inside the cloak

Coating the album with chakra, Raito threw it to the leader. As she flipped through the pages, a dreamy expression adorned her face, capturing the attention of the surrounding members.

Observing the unfolding scene, Raito concealed a mocking smile. 'Just savor the moment.'

Amidst the escalating noise, a palpable sense of aggression began to permeate the air.

Adding his chakra to his clap, the sound buzzed and grabbed everyone's attention. 

Raito started. "Now, for the grand finale of this antique auction house, everything—whether known or unknown—about your Sasuke-kun is contained in this, one, book. We've stalked him for hours, endured sandstorms, raging current and braved nights, all to present you with this information. We've undertaken these endeavors so that your desires may be fulfilled. For the prospective Uchiha bride, bidding starts at 10,000 Ryo!!" 

The girls screamed in fervor and soon they were thinking of money as paper. Raito observed with fascination as the group of girls competed against each other for items that held no value for him. 

A group of Chūnins and Genins watched the spectacle unfold, some facepalming while others found amusement in the chaotic bidding war. 

"I love this guy. He knows crowd control, and it seems that he is a high Genjutsu user this time." 

"I don't know who this guy is but we have to catch him, just for our promotion test this time." 

"It's already been one years. Hokage-sama did say it has to stop but we were not allowed to use force." 

"This little bastard just disappears-"

"It was the old tunnels, and before that, he was hiding in the ventilation, and before that it was sewer-" 

"Hokage-sama sure is hard on us, giving us this impossible mission." 

The Genins from the Genin corps discussed as they started preparing. 

The ninja, wearing a full body suit, dark blue bandana and a senbon in his mouth, sighed heavily. 

He cleared his throat to grab attention then said, "This is his final auction, as he said. You guys don't have to act, just make sure that there is no…umm nothing dangerous happening." 

The group of Genin looked at the senbon chewing ninja then looked at each other before relaxing. 

"Yeah, it's not like he kills them or anything." 

"He is just selling stuff." 

"And Hokage-sama did tell us he is from the village, and the buyers are also from the village." 

"Can't you just all shut up and just watch?" A Chūnin who looked like a Nara Clan member said in a rather lazy voice, leaning on the tree. "This guy is going to do something big this time." 

'That's a Nara for you.' The man chewing senbon thought inwardly. 

Raito, who could already 'see' what the Chūnin and Genin were doing, let out an evil smile. Looking back at the girls, who had started to quiet down, Raito shouted, "Dark Love has the highest bid at 25,000 Ryo followed by the Bits Beauty by 22,000 Ryo. If there are none who want to bid any more then… the winner of the final auction is… Dark Love!" 

The exchanged happened as Raito again threw the notebook with hundreds of pages toward the group after receiving the money. Looking at the bag in his hand, Raito smiled inside the mask. "Hard work taste… sweet."

"We got nothing." The members from the Bits Beauty were bitter. 

"We don't have that much money, after all." 

"Maybe that guy still has things that he could sell to us." 

With the skill 'Lip reading', Raito could already guess their plan of actions. 

Not waiting for them to act, Raito shouted, "Ladies, fair ladies, as this is our last visit. I would like to gift you all a parting gift. Not just one but to all of you." 

Smiling wickedly, Raito clapped his hands, which looked normal to others, but he had already activated his chakra and formed connections to the seal work on the fire sticks on the corners of the square.

"[Fūinjutsu – Earth Control: Earth Break]" Raito activated the seals and watched the magic happen. 

The earth beneath the group of girls disappeared like a trap door, dropping them in a big, deep square. The girls who had a bit of talent tried to jump off, but felt that their feet were glued to the ground. Looking above and around, the walls were smooth and filled with all kinds of seal works.

Some of the smarter ones urged the stronger ones to jump out and call for help. The stronger ones agreed and again tried jumping out. 

"[Fūinjutsu - Paralyzing Seal]"

Raito with his notepad out jolted down a few numbers and walked near the edge. Seeing the man above, the girls gave out the worst of curses, vile and disgusting. 

Even the Chūnins and Genins who heard them were slightly shocked. 

They had already started moving, covering all the exit ways.

Raito smiled at their display and made a half rat hand seal. "Unseal." 

Half of the seal glowed for a tenth of a second, letting out a black liquid that quickly covered the group of girls. 

"Ew, what's this?" One girl rubbed the black sticky liquid then looked at the others. 

"Disgusting." 

"This…" A girl who seemed to be familiar with the black liquid looked in horror at the figure above. 

"Please…" She cried out. "Don't."

The Genins swiftly pounced onto Raito.

Raito watched at the girls then said, "Unseal" 

The remaining portion of the seal on the wall glowed, this time releasing a rainbow-colored liquid that splashed the girls once again.

"No~." The girl who had cried out earlier shouted, tears streaming down her face, resigned to her fate.

Raito's figure disappeared as a Genin passed through his figure. "A clone? A basic one?"

The girls, who were previously confused about these liquids were enlightened by a knowledgeable someone, which made them scream in horror. They tried extra hard to remove the black and rainbow-colored liquid. 

Raito appeared on the top of the old building then looked at the pit. "Everything is settled today. I hope that when I see you in the future… I begin with a zero, as a shinobi comrade." 

The Genins surrounded the building, some rushing to the top.

Raito smiled as he opened a trap door and disappeared inside.

"Go inside." They jumped in, inadvertently destroying some of the windows.

After a few minutes, the girls started coughing as the foulest smell enveloped their surroundings.

They began to cry and tried to rub away the horrible smell emanating from their bodies.

"Whoa, it seems like the kid held some kind of grudge against those girls." 

"Yeah, if only we got to know the full story." 

"Even though he was a businessman in the beginning." 

The Nara looked at them then said, "You guys are missing the point here." 

He scratched his head, observing the perplexed Genin, and continued, "He just used Fūinjutsu, and from earlier, we know that he also has high-level in Genjutsu. Not just that, he is probably a sensor and an Earth User." 

"That's a big list of ifs'." Senbon chewing ninja looked at the old building. 

Ordering the few to help the girls, senbon chewing ninja and the Nara, walked inside the building and stopped after taking a few steps. 

"Strange?" 

"Not really." 

"Genma, I feel like this one is a goner." The Nara sighed. 

"Seems so." Walking forward Genma pressed on a wooden board revealing a false passage. 

Using a torch to look around and after walking forward, Genma concluded, "It hasn't been used in few days or weeks." 

"Shoko, what do you think?" Genma asked. 

"If you just give me all the info, maybe I can." Nara Shoko replied to the question. "But right now…"

"Look at everything, for now, only Hokage-sama can tell us about it." Genma walked out to see the distressed Genins and even more distressed academy student girls. 

The girls had patches of their hair and skin turned into rainbow color. 

"No, it won't go off." 

"What? Just what the hell is this?" 

Some girls ran while others asked for help from the Chūnin. 

"A stink bomb kind and a modified dye." Shoko asked for confirmation. 

"Take samples and then report back." Genma ordered. 

Raito, who had long reached home, was sitting on the chair furiously brushing the last of the seal down on the big scroll. 

"It will take a bit more time." Looking at the scroll, Raito waited for the ink to dry before closing the scroll and stowing it away in the inventory. 

As he turned off the lights, the room plunged into darkness, with only the moonlight from the window offering illumination. 

Nighttime, dominated by darkness, once prompted us to seek protection under the brilliance of the moon. Who knows how long it will last? Will there be a time when the moon's brilliance is forever lost, or a time when we no longer need the moon's protection?

Hiruzen closed the book he was reading and, setting it down, glanced at the shadows cast by the night. He did not look at the few corners where his ANBU had already fainted due to some bizarre occurrence. 

"Still so secretive, the 'Madam of the Poison Hall'." Hiruzen looked at the figure, shrouded by the purple mist. 

"Hiruzen." The voice, as sweet as honey, also carried a tone of heaviness. 

After calling out, there was a long pause. After which, she continued with hints of sorrow mixed, "It may very well be the very last time we meet."

"I want you to know something. Do you have time?"