Repayment (p)

Sand……….at what point did sand feel the need to take over the world.  The substance had felt the need to invade every crevice and orifice everywhere……..and it was most unpleasant.  Akashingo had been asked to travel to Sunagakure by the council with one mission.  A simple mission really.  A local merchant had been cheating the family for years and the injustice had just been discovered thanks to the secretary of finance in the clan.  The merchant had been over charging and embezzling the money of the Akari for too long.  It was time for him to pay what was owed, however simple material money could no longer cover such a debt.  No, now the only way to regain face, to get what was owed, was to take it from his flesh.  A warning to all others who thought the Akari’s golden eyes did not see as bright as the other clans.  Each step sunk slightly into the moving sand as his cloak covered his face keeping the sand at bay if not completely stopped.  Soon the village became just barely visible in the distance…….god it better not be another mirage he thought to himself.  This was one land he would be glad to leave in due time.  

Akashingo was 23 years old at this time.  His was son, a mere 4 years old.  The boy had promise; he had been born big and strong.  Though; this was no reason for him to put the needs of the greater family on hold.  Due to this, he had not waited at all before returning to the field.  His wife had not yet fallen to the illness that would ultimately take her life.  It was a different time in the clan.  Before the purge that would claim so many, a time when his brother merely sat at the table instead of making the decisions that governed the clan.  Their father still alive, though frail.  The brothers had done everything to make the family proud.  Akarui the politician learning the ins and outs of how the game was to be played.  Akashingo here, on the front lines enforcing the values of the clan that needed enforced.  He preferred it this way, it was simpler.  Dealing with the bureaucracy was not something he pretended to care for.  It had never been in the cards for him even if he had wanted it.  As the younger brother, he would do as asked, and he reveled in this duty.

At 6’1’’ Akashingo was a tall individual, but the factor that made him intimidating was his proud shoulders and strength.  Hard training as an assassin and fighter had caused him to grow beyond the size of a regular shinobi.  While some may think this added size would be detrimental to an assassin, it had yet to get in his way of completing the mission.  His clothes were outside the norm and instead where that of a traveling merchant.  Behind him Aioro pulled the cart laden with the goods the merchant had been ripping them off with.  The two, the red and the blue light of the Akari composed the only enforcer squad the Akari family had use of.  Since the age of 16 the two had made that branch of business their own.  And business was booming.  Aioro who was the same age as Akashingo was slighter of build and several inches shorter.  His job was to do the talking however, and for that he was a gifted individual.  As they approached the gates it was he who convinced the guards with their fake passport, and he who got them a discounted inn room.  The window of the room conveniently looked down on their targets shop, and it was their they began to plot their plan.  

“So….any ideas?”  Aioro asked as he sat on the bed.  A collection of knives laid out infront of him.  Each one black as night after being specially coated to stay hidden.  The brown bag that held them looking like an ordinary knapsack, that is unless one looked closer at the many hidden pockets and muffled lining to prevent any clinking.  Akashingo stood at the window looking outwards and down.  The little fat man pawning his wares on the street.   “I think this is a clear and cut place.  We were sent to make sure the family isn’t ripped off anymore.  SO it’s simple…..we make a statement.” His voice was strong, solid as he continued to watch.  “Hand me the 5inch.”  He said while sticking his hand out, eyes never leaving the man.  Soon a hilt of a blade found his palm and his fingers wrapped around it.  “I’m going to do it tonight.  Have the cart ready and your disguise perfect.  I’ll meet you at the back wall around midnight and we will make our way out from there.”  With no other words, Akashingo made his way out of the room and into the streets.  

The village was nothing like back home, he thought to himself as he made his way into the streets.  The evening was just beginning to wind down, and soon he would have the opportunity he was waiting for.  This was a different village than home, one his clan did not have as much political sway in.  It made the mission deadly as this merchant was a naturalized citizen of Suna, which meant they probably would see this as an act of war.  None of that mattered though, he would not fail and no trace of Konoha would be left.  After all, he wasn’t even technically a shinobi there.  In the streets he moved the cart directly across from the merchants shop.  Sitting on it he simply waited.  Several people stopped to see if he had wares to sell, but to each a wave was given so that they would leave.  No doubt given his looks they thought him just a guard for a wandering merchant.  The perfect disguise was the ones your enemies gave you.  Something he had learned over the years.  

Reaching into one of the bags he found a simple cigarette.  Lighting it, he took a deep breath.  This was not a habit he often took to.  However, the product had given him an idea for the mission.  Needing to always prepare and know every detail possible, he felt the need to have one before the true test began.  His bright eyes moved across the merchant’s shop and spotted no less than 3 bodyguards.  He briefly wondered if someone had tipped the fat man off.  He sure hoped so, it meant more enemies of the clan for him to eliminate without having to go find them.  Soon the night came out in earnest, the shop across from him closed, and he kicked himself out of his sitting position and moved towards the building.  Knocking, he entered the shop despite the closed sign.  The merchant had not yet locked the door, a shame really it means this would be even easier.  As the door closed behind him, almost as if on que shouts could be heard.  If one listened closely it turned out a fire had been set in the district 4 blocks over.  The noise meant anything that happened in the shop would do unheard…….

“We are closed…please feel free to come back tomorrow.”  The merchant said without even bothering to look up.  Behind him stood the 3 bodyguards Aka had seen from outside.  Big, dumb, and probably under paid.  “I am afraid, our business won’t keep.  Instead, it is to be concluded right now.”  Before the man had even looked up the man directly behind him had fallen forward pinning him to the table.  Red spurting over the money he had been counting as the blade was buried to the hilt in his throat.  A perfect throw.  The other two attempted to charge him, however he had been paying attention.  His eyes saw and predicted their movements with ease, and in the cluttered shop they lacked the ability to accurately close the distance.  As the tried to clear the center aisle, Aka dropped into a side aisle.  Moving quickly he cleared the distance and moved around it.  Putting the great shelf of goods between him and the two mercenaries.  Bringing his knee up and then extending his foot it found the shelf with ease.  A hard shove later brought the entire thing tumbling down.  There was some poetic justice in that.  Greedy mercenaries being smashed beneath the goods of their employer.  

Finding his way over the rubble the merchant still had not been able to extricate himself from the body on top of him.  Akashingo’s eyes watched the merchant struggle as he walked closer and closer.  The man began to beg, he began to cry, he began to show why all other beings were inferior to the Akari. No words parted his lips as he watched the man struggle.  Out of the corner of his eye however he saw a pot of tea on the counter.  Moving over he poured himself a glass and waited.  Simply watching the man his eyes shifted from blue to gold.  His bloodline was one of the things that made them superior, but it was not the main thing.  He needn’t have used it.  Instead he wished the man to know who was here, and why.  The merchants face went pale as Akashingo finished his tea.  “so you understand.”  Was all he said before walking forward.  Removing the knife, and shoving the brute off the little fat man, he put brought it down on the man’s forearm.  The sharpened steel cleared the skin and sank deep into the oak table.  

The screams mingled with the noise outside, and continued to go unnoticed.  Pouring himself a new glass of tea while the merchant struggled even more, Aka made his way around the shop.  Each time he found an oil lamp he blew it out and let the oil run across the floor.  He did the same with all the oil the shop keep had in stock.  The last bottle claimed to be holy oil from the tree of Takigakure.  With this bottle he walked to the man and let it wash over the merchants face.  Reaching into his pocket he removed the counterfeit ryo the man had tried to pawn onto the Akari family.  “Your final payment.”  Was all he said before dropping the bills in front of the man’s face and making his way to the front of the shop.  Looking back, he saw the table dripping with blood and oil.  The floor of the shop slick and gleaming in the over head light.  Pulling out one of the cigarettes from the cart out front he lit it and took one last drag.  Holding it between his thumb and index finger his golden eyes locked with the merchants.  This was the moment he had been waiting for.  He was told to make a statement, and this was all part of it.  With an easy flick, the cigarette seemed to float through the air.  TO the merchant it was an eternity, but as the fall ended…….he could only pray for the eternity to end as the flames danced and raced across the shop to meet him.

Outside Akashingo gave the brake of the cart a kick.  It soon began to wheel forward only to hit the front door of the shop.  As it made contact, the dozen or so exploding tags were ignited and the shop was removed from existence.   His golden eyes allowed him to stare directly into the fire without the mildest of discomfort.  Above him a blue light, almost like a firework went off.  Running he found Aioro, and they made their way over the gate.  “So how’d it go?”  His friend asked.  A simple answer was all that was required from the Red Light of the Akari.  “I made a statement.”  Laughing they both made their way across the long desert towards home.  The darkness hiding them, but their eyes lighting the way.

(TWC = 2007, unlocking golden eye and 10 stats)