The Higher the Bid, the Lower the Fall | By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1254 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor make profit of it. Kishimoto owns it. |
Author's note: Public transport fucked me over badly twice this week, studying is not going like I want it to and my piece of shit laptop decided it needed to install updates again for the nth fucking time! I did not have the best of weeks, which means someone is going to suffer and that someone is Sakura again. Once more, no, I don't take criticism for that. Honestly, all things considered I feel like I'm still being nice to her in this fic.
Warnings: Karin's pov and Naruto's pov; Alternate universe; slash; drama; Not for Sakura fans; Naruto's parents are alive; references to bullying and some innuendos; for the sake of this story are Karin and Naruto not related
I hope you'll like it!
The Higher the Bid, the Lower the Fall
She studied her lips in her small mirror, popping them a bit to admire the glossy sheen. It wasn't too overdone, so she shouldn't get into too much trouble, she thought. Besides, she sat in the back of the class; she doubted the sensei would really look at her lips.
The door to the bathroom creaked open, but she didn't pay much attention to it, checking the small braid in her hair.
"Not really surprising that both Hinata and Neji were chosen for the auction," Yamanaka said.
Karin tilted her head and rolled her eyes. Figured the girl would be talking about the auction part of the school festival. She didn't share a class with the blonde girl, but considering she was part of the 'popular' group, everyone knew Yamanaka was part of the festival committee. One of the major attractions that would take place was an auction where students could "buy" other students for a day. All the money would go to a pool of charities and the students winning the bid would spend the whole day together with whoever they had "bought".
When she had remarked that that sounded an awful lot like either prostitution or human trafficking, her own class had got mad at her, but really, buying other students and having them spend a whole day with you? That was just weird. At least her comments had ensured that nobody would sign her up to be one of the students who could be bought. Small mercies.
"I'm glad they were both chosen," Yamanaka's best friend, Haruno, said. Their footsteps halted near the stall Karin was occupying. "He can't threaten anyone trying to buy Hinata then."
"There's that," Yamanaka agreed amused.
Everyone knew how close the Hyuuga cousins were – and with close, it meant that Neji would more than happily wipe the floor with anyone who even looked at Hinata wrong. Hinata being offered at the auction? The poor girl would be swamped with bids, no doubt, because she had quite the cute face and Mother Nature had more than generously gifted her in the chest area.
Karin couldn't wait to find out what Neji would do to the poor sod winning the bid for Hinata.
"I'm stumped, though – who chose Naruto?" Yamanaka continued, somewhat perplexed. "I didn't think anyone would choose him for the auction, considering Hinata is basically a shoe-in for getting the highest bid. Well, and Neji I suppose."
"I did," Haruno replied and smugness practically dripped from her voice.
Karin had been more than happy to pack her bag and leave the bathroom, but now she froze, breathing shallowly. She and Naruto didn't really belong to the same friend circle, but she'd encountered the blond boy a couple of times in the local library and he'd always been friendly then. He had even helped her out once when a guy had started harassing her on her way home.
With his golden blond hair and his bright blue eyes, he would be considered quite the looker, but most students didn't see past the faint scars on his cheeks. He didn't belong to the popular crowd either and from what she'd heard, people considered him too much of a class clown to take him serious, making fun of him frequently.
Personally Karin thought it was utter bullshit that people were so fixated on some scars. So what if he had some light scars on his face? That didn't make him ugly. Honestly, it made him resemble a fox in some way, especially when he grinned, which was far from ugly in her opinion. There were worse ways to look like. If people would see past the scars, they would all agree that he would belong on the auction as well, but even though she didn't share a class with her, Karin knew better than to think Haruno had chosen Naruto out of the goodness of her heart.
She had been there in the hallway two years ago when Naruto had asked Haruno out to their school's Valentine Ball. He had offered her a small bouquet and everything, but she had ruthlessly rejected him. A rejection on its own wouldn't have been that awful, because such was part of life, but she had deemed it necessary to utterly humiliate the poor guy in doing so and two months later, people still had been taunting Naruto about his rejection.
Considering Haruno's overall vindictive nature when it seemed to concern Naruto, Karin didn't believe for one second that Haruno had chosen him for good reasons.
Yamanaka didn't seem to believe it either. "You chose him? Why?" There was definitely suspicion in her voice, but if her friend heard it, she didn't pay attention to it.
"Because it's going to be hilarious, seeing him standing up there with the rest," Haruno snickered, followed by the sound of rushing water. "You did see his face, right, when the names were announced? He really believes he's on the same level as Neji! Honestly, I know he's not one of the smartest, but you'd think he would know better. Well, I guess he will know once nobody wants to bid on him. He can consider himself lucky if someone will bid a hundred yen!"
"Sakura, don't you think you're - " Yamanaka's reproach was cut off by the door slinging shut behind them.
Pursing her lips, Karin stored her mirror in the side pocket of her bag and stood open, opening the door to her stall. She spent a moment washing her hands and then marched outside, checking her phone. She still had twenty minutes left of her break; that should be enough time to find her group.
Her friends were seated on the bench closest to the library. Tayuya wasn't there; she was pretty sure she'd mentioned having to talk to one of her sensei about her class project, but Suigetsu, Gaara and Jugo were there. Suigetsu was animatedly detailing the latest new game he was playing to Jugo, who listened attentively but didn't really comment, which was his usual disposition and Gaara was engrossed in a book; one foot resting on the bench.
Nearly all the nearby benches were occupied, students taking advantage of the nice weather, but Karin didn't pay attention to any of them and promptly slid down on Suigetsu's lap, who stopped his game rant long enough to kiss her in greeting.
He licked his lips when he pulled back. "Cherry flavour?" he guessed and slipped his arms around her waist. "I like it. You should wear it more often."
She smiled distractedly, dropping her bag next to his feet. "I'll keep that in mind. You know about that auction part at the festival?"
"The one where people can place bids on the prettiest students?" Suigetsu asked and shrugged. "Yeah, of course, who hasn't heard about that? Especially after your outburst about it." He smirked, not even flinching when she slapped his arm with a huff.
"I was right and you know it."
"Why are you bringing that up now?" Jugo asked curiously. "Changed your mind about being on the list?"
"God, no." She shuddered, grimacing. "I'm not stupid! It's not that about that. I overheard something really interesting in the bathroom just now."
"Gossip?" Suigetsu looked unimpressed. "Not really interested in that, babe, sorry."
"Not even if I say that Haruno is planning on humiliating Naruto all over again?"
That had even Gaara looking up from his book finally, which didn't surprise her. He and Naruto were friends of some kind; she didn't dare to say they were close friends – at least not during school hours – but Gaara spent more time with Naruto than anyone of their group did.
"What is she planning now?" Gaara asked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"She put him on the auction list in order to humiliate him."
Jugo tilted his head to the left. "Naruto-san isn't that bad looking, though," he pointed out calmly.
"He's going to be put up next to the Hyuuga cousins and you know how rabid a lot of students here get about them," Karin answered flatly.
The orange haired man wrinkled his nose. Aloof and rather withdrawn as he was, he was also very much aware of how popular the Hyuuga cousins were. Very few people would stand a chance next to them on the auction podium. Well, maybe Uchiha, because he was in a league of his own definitely. Naruto would also have been able to hold his own, if people weren't so hellbent on acting like dipshits.
No doubt Haruno's little stunt would succeed and Naruto would be left humiliated on the podium, because most people were sheep and just went along with everything.
"I'm going to tell him," Gaara said decisively. He glared at her when her hand shot out to grab him, halting him.
Ignoring his foul look, she said, "I don't think that's a good idea. Apparently he's looking forward to this auction event." He probably thought people had finally given up on taunting him.
"He's probably going to be humiliated." For once Suigetsu wasn't smirking or grinning, but regarding her with a frown. For all the carelessness he was known for, her boyfriend wasn't a fan of bullying at all.
"He might be," Karin allowed and clapped her hands together. "Unless we interfere."
"That's what I want to do," Gaara said monotonously, tugging at his wrist. "But you're stopping me."
"I'm stopping you from throwing that bitch out of a window," she corrected him. "You know you can't afford another mark on your record, Gaara."
His scowl deepened and he remained standing, his back ramrod straight. "Who's going to tell if nobody is around to witness it?"
"I like the way you think," Suigetsu grinned, pointing at him. "No witnesses, no crime, yeah, dude!"
"Don't call me dude."
"I was thinking that we could drive up his bids," Karin continued, cutting off what would most likely be another long argument between the two. "I know we can't bid ridiculously high, but as long as it's still a decent amount, that'll show her. She wants to humiliate him, imagine how humiliated she'll be once she realises her little plan failed. What do you think?" She looked at them expectantly.
It was something she'd come up with on the fly, but it was the best way to take Haruno down a peg. The pink haired bint was counting on the fact that people would want to humiliate Naruto more than they would want to bid on him, so why not completely destroy that assumption?
"It is a good idea," Jugo agreed tentatively.
"My father's having a guilty conscience again, so he shouldn't have any problem giving me money," Gaara remarked, sitting back down; a lot calmer now that they had a concrete plan.
"Why is he feeling guilty now?" Suigetsu asked curiously.
"Late guilt kicking in about leaving me, Temari and Kankuro mostly on our own when we were kids," the red haired boy replied easily.
Even after years of being friends with him, Karin still hadn't figured out whether his father's behaviour actually bothered Gaara or not. He tended to act rather blasé about it usually.
"So we're doing this?" she asked to be sure.
"Hell yeah," Suigetsu grinned, tightening his grip around her just the slightest. "Can't wait to see her ugly mug drop at the auction."
"That's the spirit," she smirked and pecked his lips.
Personally she couldn't wait either to see Haruno's face.
Karin didn't pay attention to the first rounds of the auction. Every class had selected at least two to four people to be put up for auction and some turned out to be more popular than others, which led to some auction rounds extending past the allotted five minutes.
At exactly three o'clock, however, it was Naruto's and the Hyuuga cousins' turns to walk up the stage. Hinata looked lovely as always, dressed in a light purple dress with a thin black jacket thrown on top. She was fiddling with her fingers nervously and her cheeks were already a fire red, but she was smiling as well. Neji on the other hand looked ready to roast people to death with his glare, keeping his arms crossed as he surveyed the crowd. He was dressed in a simple white shirt and brown trousers with his long hair tied back, but with his looks he could have easily walked up dressed in garbage bags and girls would still be sighing over him.
Karin could see his appeal – she wasn't blind – but she was more than happy with her own boyfriend, even if he could annoy the hell out of her sometimes.
"Naruto dressed up nicely," Suigetsu remarked, sucking his drink through a straw. "Man, he really doesn't suspect at all that they're setting him up, huh?"
Naruto had indeed cleaned up quite a bit. Not that he looked horrible on other days, but it was obvious that he had put some care into his appearance today. Perhaps with his mum's help? Instead of the usual orange he preferred, he wore a deep blue shirt which brought out the blue colour of his own eyes and his jeans were tighter and slimmer than usual, making him look taller than he actually was. The green stone of his necklace rested just below the hollow of his collarbone and he was grinning; his hands clasped behind his head.
"And here we have the selection of class 7A," Nara announced tonelessly. "First bid will be made for Hyuuga Hinata, who bids?"
Whoever had thought Nara would make an engaging announcer had clearly thought wrong. The spikey haired man looked like he would rather be anywhere else but here and the infliction of his voice didn't change at all, not even when he called out the bids. Not that the other students seemed to care, intent as they were on trying to outbid each other.
Hinata's winning bid ended up being fifteen thousand yen which had her widening her eyes and cupping her cheeks in shock. Karin would suspect her of faking the surprise, but the girl was definitely shy enough to be genuine about it.
Neji's winning bid ended up not being that much lower at fourteen thousand eight hundred yen, which had a girl two rows in front of Karin jumping up and down in elation when she realised she'd won. Even Neji's patent glare didn't do anything to stifle her excitement.
Karin straightened up when Nara's attention finally shifted towards Naruto. Yamanaka and Haruno were standing to the side of the stage; Yamanaka wearing a slight frown and Haruno looking absolutely smug as she stood there in her cotton pink dress, holding some papers against her chest. As Haruno cast a quick glance around the room, she was obviously anticipating the moment when nobody would place a bid at all for Naruto.
How someone could take such pleasure in being such an absolute bitch, Karin would never understand. Yeah, she could be bitchy herself, but she never stooped so low as to bully someone and humiliate them. Well, she did humiliate people sometimes, but only when they deserved it.
Like Haruno would very soon.
"And now our final bid for the people of class 7A," Nara announced. If he was sitting down on a chair, he'd probably be slumped backwards in it by now. "For the last bid we have Uzumaki Naruto. Who bids a hundred yen?"
They had agreed to wait to see what the others would do, but just as Karin had expected to her annoyance, nobody was willing to place a bid. Even fucking Sakon had got bid on and that idiot spent his time more high than sober.
Already snickering was starting to resound through the room, cutting like a rumble through the chattering, and the smile on Naruto's face slowly started to die out as realisation dawned on him. Haruno on the other hand was positively brimming with smugness now; her eyes glittering as she grinned.
"A hundred yen!" Karin promptly offered, her hand shooting in the air. A grin of her own unfurled across her face when she spotted Haruno faltering slightly, narrowing her eyes a tad.
Nara didn't even blink. "We have a hundred yen, who bids more?"
"Five hundred yen!" Suigetsu called out.
The snickering was starting to die out, people turning to stare at them in surprise.
"Five hundred yen, anyone bidding more?"
"One thousand five hundred," Jugo offered in his calm deep voice.
"One thousand five hundred, anyone higher?"
"Three thousand," Gaara upped the ante immediately; his upper lip curled back.
On stage, Naruto was starting to grin again, looking both pleased and shy at the same time. They wouldn't be able to offer as much as people had offered for Hinata and Neji, but they could damn sure stop the humiliation from happening.
"Four thousand," Karin called out easily.
They had decided to bid ten thousand at most, figuring that would be a good enough amount that nobody would dare to bully Naruto about being a bid-less loser. It was clearly working, people no longer looking ready to cackle. Haruno meanwhile started to gain an ugly flush on her face, which made it Karin's turn to feel smug. That was what she got for being such a bitch to someone who'd never wronged her in the first place.
"We have ten thousand, anyone bidding higher?" Nara repeated Gaara's last offer. "Going once. Going twice. Going - "
"Thirty thousand yen."
The words, spoken in a smooth but deep voice, had everyone in the room shutting up immediately, a hush descending over the crowd. Karin whipped her head around, staring in shock at the dark haired boy resting his shoulder against the doorjamb, looking bored out of his mind but his eyes were sharp, trained on Naruto.
"Thirty thousand yen," Uchiha Sasuke repeated.
At once the spell of silence was broken and people started hissing and urgently whispering to each other. In every direction of the room, students wondered what the hell was going on, why the fuck was someone like Uchiha bidding so much on a loser like Uzumaki? Nothing made sense!
Naruto himself stood there gaping, obviously not having expected the ridiculous high bid either.
"Did you tell him?" Suigetsu asked stunned.
"When the hell would I have?" Karin hissed back. "I've never even spoken a word to him!"
Mainly because Sasuke tended to keep to himself and Karin had realised early on that he wasn't the type you could mess with too much. For him to bid so high on Naruto, though … Had they all missed something huge?
"Thirty thousand yen. Anyone higher?" Nara recovered quite quickly, looking around the room.
Yamanaka was mouthing something soundlessly, but Haruno looked utterly shocked; the deep flush spreading from her cheeks down to her neck now. Shock quickly made way for anger, the papers getting crushed in her grip, and she looked only a few seconds away from stamping her foot on the stage.
"Thirty thousand yen. Going once." Nara looked around carefully. "Going twice. Going thrice. And done! Thirty thousand yen in exchange for Uzumaki Naruto, thank you for your generous donation."
Karin couldn't even tell whether he was being sarcastic or not.
"Wait, where are you going?" Suigetsu asked when she stepped away from him.
Class 7B was getting ready on the stage, but she was no longer interested even if Haruno's sour face was an absolute sight to behold. She was, however, more interested in Uchiha, who was waiting for Naruto to walk to him.
"Be right back," she promised and wormed her way through several students, who were still busily gossiping about the outrageous high offer Sasuke had just made.
She couldn't blame them. She was in shock too.
"So, didn't expect you to get into the bidding war too," she chirped, clasping her hands behind her back once she'd reached Sasuke.
He glanced at her. "Bids are open for everyone."
"Sure, that's true," she agreed. "But we also know that thirty thousand yen isn't an amount you just throw at a random guy, even if he's another student. You two know each other really well or something?"
"Or something," was all that he was willing to say.
She didn't even need to look behind her to know Naruto was getting closer, because his eyes sharpened once more, staring past her shoulder.
"Enjoy the rest of the auction," Sasuke said clipped and as soon as Naruto was in his reach, he grabbed the blond by his wrist and literally dragged him outside the room.
She could hear Naruto squeaking, "Bastard, are you fucking insane? Thirty thousand yen, you don't think you went a little - " before they got too far out of reach for her to keep listening.
She tapped her lips, staring at the empty doorframe. Naruto had sounded rather familiar for two guys who seemingly had never spoken to each other …
Grinning again, she turned around and went back to Suigetsu. If she was right, then Haruno was going to get another dose of humiliation quite soon.
And she couldn't wait to witness that!
"Thirty thousand yen," Naruto spluttered, even as he followed the bastard through the school corridors. "Seriously, you don't think you went a bit overboard? Even Neji and Hinata-chan didn't get that much!"
"That's because they're not you," Sasuke intoned and it was seriously so fucking unfair how easily he could make Naruto blush with his comments.
"Be serious now! Thirty thousand is a whole fucking – hmph!" Back pressed against the wall, he eagerly kissed Sasuke back when the other boy claimed his mouth; hands resting on his hips.
"I can make it forty thousand if you're not happy with it," Sasuke remarked, raising an eyebrow when he pulled back.
Naruto pouted. "That's so not the point," he grumbled, burying his fingers in Sasuke's sweater.
"They've got money for their charity and I got you," Sasuke said easily and pecked his lips again. "Sounds like a fair deal to me. Now come on, I promised to take you out on a date today."
"Do you even still have money left to treat me?" Naruto teased; his cheeks flaring hot when Sasuke smirked.
"Oh, don't worry, I've got enough left to treat you," he murmured; his voice dark and silky. His hands tightened around Naruto's hips, tugging his lower body against him. "Don't want you to have dressed up nicely for nothing, after all." He was definitely appreciating Naruto's outfit, all right; that much the blond could feel even between the layers of their jeans.
Naruto was pretty sure that one of the rules for the auction had been that the money couldn't be offered in exchange for 'indecent' propositions, but hell if he cared!
He definitely wouldn't mind spending the full day with his new boyfriend!
The End
AN2: Don't worry, I'm working on the other projects. I just needed to get this out of my system. I hope it wasn't too awful! Now I'm off to bed, lamenting my poor life choices.
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.
I hope to see you all back in my future stories! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
Cuddles
Melissa
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