Stranded (Chapter 1)
Disclaimers: Not mine.
It was freezing cold with the strong wind rustling past them yet again mercilessly. He was in a very, very bad mood indeed. Wrapping his long, warm coat around himself a little tighter, Kakashi sniffled and coughed a little before he muttered in annoyance, voice muffled due to the thick scarf covering the lower half of his face, "I don't know why I agreed on this."
"You were drunk. Shut up and keep moving. We're reaching," Asuma retorted, firm but with not much venom. He was not going to give Kakashi the chance to back out from their original plan. They were going to the flower town – a place crowded with geisha of the highest class, male or female alike – and they were going to stick to that plan.
"Fine," the single word reply was spoken with plain irritation. Hatake Kakashi was pissed. And the lesson that he learnt was to never agree on anything when you were happily drunk because you would regret it sooner or later. Just like how he was regretting his promise to Asuma right now.
Unlike Asuma, Kakashi was never fond of the infamous flower town. No, he was not. A lot of others actually bid their asses off just to gain the entry passes and they went there again and again, saying that spending time with the geisha over there was the best thing ever happened to them in their whole life. It was that exaggerated, or perhaps that was the truth, no one knew - at least not those who never went in there before. For Kakashi however, he chose to believe the former.
Money was never a problem for both of them. After all, when they co-owned the largest corporation in Japan and the ninth largest one in the world with their businesses stretched to cover almost all fields of jobs, it positively meant that they were rich. Plus, Asuma had absolutely no problem with spending a mountain of money for the passes. Combined this with the drunken promise, the fucking drunken promise, this was how Hatake Kakashi ended up going to the flower town looking a little miserable and very much annoyed.
"Stop looking like an asshole. We're here already," putting out his ever present cigarette, Asuma said and cuffed Kakashi on the head as he pressed his huge palm on the wild shock of silver hair. It was always fun, annoying Kakashi that was. In front of them, the huge red door with detailed traditional carvings and designs was their only hindrance to enter the flower town. They could easily pick up the footsteps and soft laughs on the other side of the door and that made Asuma smiled a little. He had a particular geisha to meet.
"Don't do that, you know I hate…"
"Is it just the two of you?" a gruff voice which rang out all of a sudden effectively cut Kakashi's sentence off. Apparently, the voice belonged to the bulky guard who was currently standing in front of the door and extending his palm to them, requesting for the passes silently.
"Yes. Here, the passes," not being the first timer here, Asuma fished around his pants pockets and handed the passes to the guard, all the while smiling cheerfully. Kakashi on the other hand glowered even darker when he heard the high pitched female laughter behind the door. He had always disliked high pitch voices. They never failed to abuse his poor, poor ears.
"Thank you and enjoy your time in there."
Seeing a smile and a nod from the guard, Asuma wordlessly dragged the complaining and glowering silver haired man into the infamous town through the now open door.
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Kakashi was in awe. He really was. The flower town was nothing like he thought it would be. The magnificent geisha houses built along the street were glimmering in different shades of colours with all of them being the bright, flashy ones. Flashes of red, yellow and white occupied his eyes as he drank in the sight of the bustling night town with geisha walking around gracefully in their beautiful silk kimono that shone softly under the lights. The flower town was so lively right now and the night looked like as if it had just started despite that it was already long past midnight. Kakashi did not expect this at all.
"I told you it'll be good," Asuma allowed Kakashi to ogle at the sight for a couple of minutes before he decided to talk. He felt exactly the same as Kakashi when he first set foot in here, as if he was sucked into another world – the world which the geisha tradition was revived once again - and the tides of feelings, mostly wonderful ones, simply overwhelmed him. This was exactly the reason why he would spend a mountain to get in here, because the very sight in front of him right now was worth every single cent of his money.
"This is so unexpected. I mean…the geisha tradition is so uncommon these days and I'd have thought that I'm in Meiji era if I don't see so many people in suit," looking around himself, Kakashi said quietly as he continued to observe the flower town in earnest. He was taken by surprise, he had to admit that. He had thought that the flower town would be another prostitution site reeking with the smell of cigarette and cheap alcoholic drinks but this was a completely different thing. The buildings, the lights, the carvings on the buildings, the fish ponds, everything was simply amazing. Even the smell in the air - the mixture of sake and perfume - was such a delight for his senses. It was a very light and unique smell, lingering around his nose not wanting to leave and teasing him slowly with the promise of high quality sake later.
"Yeah, I felt the same too when I first came here. Come, we have a place to go," Asuma patted Kakashi on the shoulder and gave him a little push as he said that. He had booked the time with one of the geisha and he was getting really late all thanks to the silver haired idiot who decided to stroll in the cold weather just for the sake of being an uncooperative prick.
"Where?" walking alongside with Asuma, Kakashi asked and looked briefly at the geisha who walked past them occasionally. He was absorbed by the white face and the fiery red lips which were the standard makeup for female geisha. Their kimono were exaggeratingly beautiful and complex with the multi-layered clothing style, a pair of dangling long sleeves and a bright obi. The back of their necks was showing and it was applied with a layer of white makeup as well. It totally amazed him.
"Geisha house of course," the cheerful answer came and Kakashi was dragged by a very happy Asuma towards the direction of the biggest building at the area. Walking among the crowd, Kakashi faintly noticed that there were actually some male geisha, although not many of them. The standard makeup was missing from their good-looking faces but the exaggerative kimono with the even brighter obi was still hanging on their bodies. Asuma did not lie when he said that the geisha over here were of the highest class.
"Sarutobi-san, we've been waiting for your arrival," a young woman wearing a white kimono bowed deeply to them as they arrived in front of the building. Her black hair was pinned behind her head with a golden hair ornament holding the dark strands in place and her kimono was much simpler in design and colours compared to the other geisha. She had not applied the standard makeup but her simple beauty was being emphasized even more in this way. She was definitely one of the outstanding beauties around.
"Asuma, you're late!" the booming of a loud voice followed by the impatient footsteps announced the arrival of the proprietress, a beautiful middle age woman who looked nothing like her age. The said woman was walking towards Asuma and Kakashi with her hips swaying seductively, her slim fingers flipping through the papers on her hand in a swift manner and her golden locks moving ever slightly with her movements. The revealing black kimono did nothing to conceal her womanly curves and her gleaming milky pale flesh. Even though she was not exactly young anymore, she was actually deadly attractive. "Asuma, she has been waiting for you. Go now."
"Uh… Please take care of my friend here," Asuma took no time to push Kakashi to the direction of the busty blonde after he heard what the blonde had said. Giving Kakashi an apologetic smile, Asuma walked into the building without hesitation as he said cheerfully, "I have to go now. She'll take care of you. Enjoy!"
Kakashi looked at the retreating back of his friend disbelievingly, being completely speechless aside from the mental cursing. He had not expected to be left alone by Asuma. What should he do now? Taking a tour around the town did not sound too bad at the moment, or perhaps he could…
"You're Hatake Kakashi?" the blonde proprietress asked monotonously without sparing a look at the silver haired man. Instead, she fixed her light brown orbs on the stack of papers in front of her as she went through the guest lists. It seemed that the man in front of her was a friend and at the same time, the co-partner of Sarutobi Asuma.
"Yes, uh you see…"
"Okay, any preferences?" not giving Kakashi any chance to finish his sentence, the blonde woman cut in and asked in a very straightforward manner. She did not have much time to deal with the new customer. She was a busy woman after all.
"Uh, no. You see I ..."
"Stop him!" a loud yell followed by a series of crashing sounds reached Kakashi's ears and he stopped talking instantly, partly from shock but more from curious. The busty blonde had stepped back into the building and he was left alone at the entrance once again. Peeking into the building, it seemed that a geisha was causing all the hassles and chaos. He could not decide whether the geisha was a male or a female since the geisha was back-facing him. However, he managed to notice the brown hair which was loosely pinned behind the skull and the shy of tanned skin that showed itself under the wide collar of the kimono.
"What the hell are you doing?! Iruka!" the proprietress bellowed, making everyone in the building went dead still and silent instantly, except for one - the one with brown hair and tanned skin who was currently making his way out of the building. Yes, his. Kakashi could identify the geisha as a he now that he had seen the face of the geisha. Sharp but strong chin, high cheekbones, not very full lips, long straight nose and the pair of deep, warm chocolate orbs, all of these definitely were in the possession of a male geisha, a very good-looking one at that.
"I'll be back," the male geisha promised - his voice soft and calm just like a whisper - despite all the chaos he had caused. Rushing past the people who were trying to stop him, the male geisha skilfully dodged all of them with bends and twists of his flexible body. The second he leaped out of the building and hit his shoulder painfully with Kakashi's right arm, the silver haired man noticed that there was a thin scar crossing the straight nose and it was very well hidden beneath the light layer of makeup. Not realising anything, Kakashi released the breath that he had been holding unconsciously and sighed in relief when he saw the male geisha got away successfully.
"That brat… I'm so going to kill him when he's back," the blonde woman muttered under her breath as she fanned herself with the stack of guest lists, a look of pure annoyance and irritation plastered on her face. "Always running off with no reason, refusing to serve customers that he dislikes... Argh! Hatake-san, tell me your preferences of geisha now. Tell me what you want," finally noticing the silver haired man who was still standing at the entrance of the geisha house, the blonde woman took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down before she asked the same question to the same person yet again.
However, of all the answers she was expecting to hear, this was definitely not one of them.
"I want him, the one called Iruka."
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A/N: I understand that geisha is different from prostitute but I modified it for this story so please bear with me. Tell me what you think about this, please? And I really should stop starting on new stories before I finish with my older ones.