Rustic Servitude

Rustic Servitude - Chapter One

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A soft muttering could be heard a few rows back, “I’m deeply sorry Lady Hinata, but your weekly spending limit is ten thousand.”

The woman referred to as Hinata looked forlornly into the pit at the blonde who stood with his head bowed, his messy hair obscuring any sight of his face as the slave usher’s pole rested on the tan skin of the slave’s left shoulder to keep him in place as a price was haggled between several patrons including Itachi. The only other who vied for the blonde was a middle-aged man who paled as the price reached thirteen thousand, he did not contest the price, and ‘Lady Hinata’ left shortly after.

“Thirteen thousand going once for number twenty. Thirteen thousand going twice for number twenty.”

There was a pause.

“Sold to number forty-nine!”

The blonde was led away to an open gate on the lower left side of the auctioneer’s observation window as Sasuke watched the man disappear. The last thing to be seen was the man’s red welts that crisscrossed the skin of his bare back as the gate slammed shut behind him.

“I’m sure you’ll have no trouble breaking such a spirited young man,” someone commented from behind, but Sasuke was not listening.

“I’ve no doubt that my younger brother will have him broken by the end of this week,” replied Itachi as he glanced to the person over his shoulder then to Sasuke who was still sitting up straight oblivious to the world’s happenings around him.

The right hand gate slammed open, and another slave walked to the center of the pit. He looked at each individual accordingly with a challenging grin plastered on his face showing off sharp teeth. A hush fell over the on lookers who were spread randomly throughout the stadium seating of the slave auction, and Itachi’s attention was shifted from the commenter behind the seated Uchiha brothers to what stood in the center of the disheveled pit.

The pale slave’s beady eyes shifted quickly from Sasuke to the man behind, then settled on Itachi before he was tapped once on his shoulder by the pole bearer. The slave’s grin remained even as he bowed his head and knelt before his audience.

Proceeding with the usual procedure so that every part of the slave could be viewed, the slave moved as the man holding the pole and whip directed him; no one lifted their card with their number printed on the stiff paper.

Just as the slave was about to be led away, Itachi erected his card. Sasuke glanced questioningly at Itachi, the daze he had been in earlier finally wore off as he regarded his elder brother, but Itachi never glanced his way as the auctioneer announced that slave number twenty-one was now sold to number forty-nine for the bare-minimum price of one thousand dollars.

The slave whom was not wanted by anyone other than the stoic older Uchiha, glanced up at his new Master, that toothy grin spreading wider as if to say ‘just wait until we’re alone and I will show you what I’m made of’. Itachi smiled softly in return as if to promise he would take all the slave could throw and turn it into something that would benefit both Master and slave.

The beady eyed slave was shoved through the left gate that had slammed open some moments before he idled in front of it to gaze up at his new Master. Number twenty-one disappeared just as number twenty had, and another slave was presented minutes later.

The slave, everyone took notice of, was female with short bright unnaturally colored hair of a soft pink hue. She had small breasts, and was clean shaven as she knelt automatically without prompting from a tap of the pole to her shoulder. Her eyes stayed downcast even when her head was lifted, but for a brief moment her eyelids flickered revealing a light green before fluttering back to their previous state as it was announced that she was no virgin. At this point many who had been eyeing the pink headed slave were put off, and resigned themselves to just looking instead of bidding as they originally planned.

Itachi noticed Sasuke’s interest and raised his card by its wooden handle once again. Haggling commenced, but in the end the slave dubbed number twenty-two was sold for a cool three thousand seven-hundred-fifty to number forty-nine.

After number twenty-two had been led away as numbers twenty and twenty-one had been, Itachi stood and walked around Sasuke who still remained seated until his elder brother passed, then he too stood and followed Itachi through the large heavily lacquered wood doors with curved iron handles. Their feet brought them to the doorway that served as a counter to the woman seated behind. Itachi set his card with its number face up on the counter when the woman took notice of the two men.

“Did you find everything that you wanted?”

“Yes,” was Itachi’s curt reply as the woman busied herself by taking the card on the counter, sitting down at her computer to click, then click more as she stared at the computer screen.

“Numbers twenty, twenty-one, and twenty-two?”

Itachi nodded, even if the woman wasn’t looking up to catch the motion in her spectacled gaze, “When will they be ready?”

“Numbers twenty-one and twenty-two are ready as is, but number twenty will have to be subdued by tranquilizers if he has not already been treated.”

The woman turned around in her swivel chair and pushed herself to a corded phone where punched numbers with a stiff index, muttered something, then wrote information on a yellow pad of paper. She muttered more, wrote more then hung the phone up and pushed herself back to the computer to type, open a file folder next to the mouse, write, and type more.

“Your purchases should be ready in a moment Itachi Uchiha,” she said in a monotone voice without looking up, “and your total comes to…seventeen thousand seven-hundred-fifty. How would you like to pay?”

“In even monthly increments.”

“Would you like to make the first payment no-?”

“Yes,” Itachi said already readying his checkbook.

The woman scowled and pushed her glasses further up on the bridge of her nose as she fiddled around with the computer once more.

“Your total comes to three-thousand five-hundred-fifty.”

Itachi scrawled out the amount stated on a blank check, signed his name, and ripped out the check to be handed to the woman.

“You sure are quiet,” the woman drawled rather seductively making Itachi look up at her as she changed her tone from being clipped and annoyed to pining.

Sasuke had been busy staring at the wall as the transaction of the purchasing of the three slaves was taking place, but his attention was focused on the now standing woman who leaned over the counter that separated them without her glasses framing her face. He blinked wondering if she had been referring to him, but she just smiled and winked at the younger Uchiha making him want to gag with her blatant flirting.

Itachi ‘ahemed’ with the check held out to the woman who slipped her glasses on once again to inspect the check handed to her. She looked from the check to Itachi, eyeballing him before taking the check and placing it in a drawer to the right side of the computer.

“Is this your first time purchasing?”

“Yes.”

The woman busied herself sorting through a file cabinet on the left side of the computer, and returned with a sheet of paper.

“This contract binds the merchandise to you as owner. If you have any problems at all you may return the merchandise, though if said merchandise is damaged you will not receive the full amount you paid upon return. Any questions?”

Itachi sped-read the contract and found nothing wrong, no loop-holes, or extra fees attached. It was simple and to the point, so he signed the bottom line and handed the sheet of paper back to the woman behind the desk.

It was obvious that this secret trade was illegal, Sasuke knew, but he was still in the dark as to what such people could be used for, though something told him anything his imagination could come up with.

“How do the…merchandise…come about this place?” Sasuke asked uncertain as to what the answer would include.

“All of our merchandise is top notch, and for the most part imported and have no background or ties associated with each individual piece,” the brunette woman stated matter-o-factly with intermittent smiles to the younger Uchiha when she gazed over the upper rim of her glasses every now and then. Sasuke immediately regretted asking such a question, and instead went back to staring at the wooden walls with the swirls of the different colors of grain.

There was a silence for some moments before a door opened within the inner office of the woman wearing hot pants in the middle of winter, admitting the beady eyed ‘number twenty-one’ who carried ‘number twenty’ over his right shoulder with ‘number twenty-two’ walking politely behind the taller male slaves with her head bowed. Number twenty-one’s gaze spotted Itachi and grinned. It was only then that Sasuke noticed the tags in each of their ears, expect number twenty’s because his head was not visible, that had their numbers printed on them.

Looking beyond the door revealed that the ‘merchandise’ was now adorned with suitable clothing for transport.

Number twenty-one wore a faded plaid flannel shirt open so that one could see the white tee underneath. His lower half wore jeans while his feet bore simple boots.

Number twenty was fitted with the same drab fabrics as number twenty-one, only different colors with tennis shoes instead of boots.

Number twenty-two was the only one with an actual coat to protect her body from the dreary cold outside the confines of such a shack that was surprisingly well insulated. The coat was zipped, but the shirt tails of her blue and pink flannel could be seen peeking out below the elastic of the coat’s trim. Her legs were garbed in denim as all the others were, and was shoed with similar tennis shoes to number twenty. Sasuke figured the auction must have provided such ‘functional’ clothing, probably bought from the cheap and only dollar store in the town, that could hardly be called a town for how small it was, forty-five minutes away.

The door of the ‘front desk’ was opened by the brunette woman to admit the three purchased slaves into the lobby of the slave auction.

“Is that everything?” Questioned Itachi.

“Yes, you may take your purchases home now,” the woman said without any emotion what-so-ever in her voice, but when she looked to Sasuke in the crowded lobby she smiled shyly. He cringed while Itachi pushed open the heavy glass door that would lead outside, number twenty-one followed his new Master while number twenty-two followed number twenty-one, leaving Sasuke to take up the rear.

“Word of advice, bind number twenty up as soon as you arrive home,” the woman at the desk called out just as Sasuke walked out the door.

Once outside Itachi opened the passenger side door along with the side door, he then instructed number twenty-two to slide in the back seat first, then Sasuke to slide in next to her to hold the unconscious number twenty, both of which he learned would be his while number twenty-one was strictly for Itachi. Not that Sasuke minded, he didn’t care what happened to the freaky beady eyed man his elder brother bought for whatever reason.

“Hold him so he won’t flop around in the back seat,” Itachi instructed his younger brother as number twenty-one pushed number twenty onto Sasuke who was then pushed by the slave’s weight into number twenty-two causing her to jump at the contact.

Sasuke’s right eye twitched as he erected the sedated slave in the seat and the door was closed, he then strapped the unconscious slave in with the appropriate seatbelt then clicked his own into place. Number twenty-one hopped into the passenger seat, closed the passenger side door, and clipped his own seatbelt around his large frame just as Itachi walked around the hood of his ‘baby’, unlocked his door, got in, strapped his seatbelt on, and slid his key into the ignition.

The truck roared to life as Itachi turned the key and shifted into reverse. As soon as there was movement, number twenty’s body shifted and his head fell on Sasuke’s shoulder.

Sasuke shifted placing his hand on the unconscious man’s chest to push him back into a sitting position, that was when he saw something that caught his eye on the slave’s cheek. Gently, Sasuke gripped the blonde’s jaw and tilted his head up to inspect one of the the presents Itachi had bought him. On each cheek were three identical marks that mirrored the ones on the opposite cheek.

Sasuke let his thumb trace one of the closest marks on the tanned skin closest to the slave’s jaw line. The skin was slightly raised as if the man had been cut and now all that remained was the scar tissue beneath the marks left by whatever implement was used to mar the otherwise smooth skin.

Once again Sasuke was transfixed, but was jolted as one of Itachi’s ‘baby’s’ tires sunk into a pot hole in the sandy earth of the dirt road that would lead the way from the slave auction and eventually to the Uchiha residence.

The jolt caused number twenty to slide back against Sasuke once again which in turn caused Sasuke to sigh mentally as he wrapped an arm around the blonde, and held his newly acquired slave that shivered to his touch. It would be a long ride home, he thought as he stared out the windshield at the sky which was obscured by a never ending blanket of gray clouds that may or may not hold moisture that would turn to snow later that night as it was already seven fifty PM.