I told you I'd have a new chapter soon! Unfortunately it took me a very long time to do it. I apologize and hope it's up to everyone's standards. Enjoy!
Sakura awoke early the next morning, sun filtering through the tiny window and across her face. Sitting up she saw Ginji still asleep which meant they were not yet late for class. Sakura pulled the soft blanket from her body, slid out of bed and opened the lacquered box set out for her.
It contained the school robes that a maiko wore, gold and peach with a much simpler obi that she could tie herself. "Ginji," Sakura inquired pushing at her friends shoulder slightly. "Ginji wake up." Her friend's large brown eyes fluttered open and after a brief moment the girl shot up in bed. "Oh! Sakura, are we late?"
"No, I don't think so, but we will be if you don't hurry up!" Sakura laughed and left her friend to dress, hoping to get some breakfast.
On her way to the kitchen Auntie stopped her "Amaya-san will be coming to the school to get you after your dance lesson." Sakura bowed slightly. "I understand, thank you Auntie."
After a hurried breakfast of rice and pickles the two friends hurried down the street to the school, relieved to see they were not the only ones running behind. "Quickly Sakura!" Ginji called as they entered the school gardens and rushed the last few paces into the school house. Removing their shoes and placing them into cubbies Sakura wondered why Ginji was not speaking much. Usually being late never stopped her chatter.
There was no time to question her friend's behavior as students began filling the rooms and the two girls separated, Sakura to her advance dance lesson and Ginji to her normal ones.
The lesson passed quickly and with minimal incident, the girls in the class were learning a new dance so it was natural that there were a few small mistakes. The teacher praised them all, before the paper door was pulled open to reveal Amaya, a gentle smile on her face as she bowed to the teacher and beckoned Sakura forwards.
"Onei-san, you have not told me exactly where we are going today." Sakura said as the two girls climbed into the carriage that Amaya had arrived in. "That is because it is not something many people know about. It is a tribute to us as Geisha to be invited." Sakura rolled Amaya's response over in her head a few times, trying to decide if she was being evasive, in the end her curiosity won out. "What is it?"
"It is difficult to explain as I am not learned in the ways of the organization." Amaya began lowering her voice unnecessarily. "They are ninja, Sakura."
"Really?" Sakura exclaimed stuck between surprise and shock. Amaya hushed her gently. "Yes, and there is to be a tournament for the ones still learning. We have been invited."
Sakura sat quietly trying to ingest this information. Ninja? She had heard stories as a child about them, but that was all she ever believed them to be, stories. She wanted so badly to ask her mentor who it was that had invited them, who was participating in the tournament and why it was so secretive. But Sakura, knowledgeable in the ways of social tact did not speak up. She also didn't miss the smile on Amaya's face.
"I was as shocked as you when I discovered it." Amaya said as the girls stepped out of the carriage and into the okiya. Again Sakura bit down the questions rising in her throat. "Come, let us get you ready."
As Sakura finshed putting her koshimaki and under shirt on, Amaya brought Sakura her kimono, one she had not seen before. The inner robe was a vibrant jade green with patterns of leaves embroidered in silver and gold. The kimono itself was a deep plum color, a tree motif, in black, ran up the side and beautiful white birds dotted the fabric. The obi was gold and jade and as Mr. Hosono tied the material Sakura could help but admire it in the mirror.
Once fully dressed Sakura set to work on her make up, taking considerably less time as it was something she was now more familiar with. After painting her lips Amaya picked out a few hair ornaments for her, a clip of black flowers and a pin of cascading silver leaves. "Go on downstairs now; I'll be with you shortly." Amaya instructed and Sakura wasted no time in pulling the paper door open, she was quite excited to be apart of something so secret.
Sakura waited at the entrance with Mother and Auntie, careful not to speak. She felt if she did she might spill out what Amaya so wanted her to keep secret, so she stood agonizingly still, waiting. Soon Amaya appeared in the entrance of the okiya, and it seemed she had put more effort into looking stunning rather than subdued.
Mother clapped the flint on their backs and the two geisha steeped into the sunlight. "You're excited Sakura." Amaya observed smiling. "Of course I am! I didn't even know this kind of thing existed outside of fairytales."
"When I found out I did not believe it was real until I saw it." Amaya chuckled slightly s the carriage rounded a corner. "I bet it will be exciting!" Sakura exclaimed trying to sit still. "It will be Sakura, but remember, you are there to work. Not play. You will watch when necessary and entertain at other times."
It was almost as though Amaya had stuck a pin in Sakura's balloon, even though Sakura knew the older girl was right. "Of course, Onei-san. I forget myself sometimes." Her mentor gave her a look of sympathy as the carriage rolled to a halt.
Sakura had been so wrapped up in her imagination she hadn't bothered to look where they were headed, and quite honestly she had no idea where they were. It was obviously not apart of the city, the ground had been cleared away but a thick forest surrounded them. A massive building reared up in front of her and Amaya nodded. "Come now, we don't want to be late."
Sakura trailed behind the older geisha like a puppet her eyes wide as the darted around. The inside of the building was just as impressive as the outside. It was a giant stadium and Amaya was leading her up to the best seats Sakura could have hoped to acquire. Two men sat there, staring into the grounds below. One with silvery hair and the other onyx black.
"Kakashi-san! How wonderful to see you! This is my younger sister, Sakura." Taking this as her cue, Sakura bowed low, unable to hide the smile on her face. "I humbly thank you for your invitation to such an event." Despite half of the man's face being hidden behind a grey mask she could see his smile through the fabric. "What a charming maiko."
"Itachi-san," Amaya said bowing to him also. "I should not be so surprised to see you here." Amaya carefully sat down beside the onyx haired man and Sakura followed suit beside Kakashi. "Indeed you shouldn't, Sasuke is competing today." At this piece of information Sakura couldn't contain herself. "He is?" She burst out before clapping a hand over her mouth. Both Itachi and Kakashi laughed, "She has spirit, this one." Kakashi said patting her on the shoulder. "Yes, young Sakura, he is competing. He is the most promising ninja in his age group. A real prodigy." Amaya said nothing but she regarded Sakura for a long time, before smiling. She had mistaken Sakura's childish outburst as a ploy to please the older men.
"I don't know very much about the ninja ways…" She began before Itachi could cut her off. "You will know Sasuke is beyond his peers when you see." This seemed to rouse Kakashi. "You know Naruto is quite good as well."
"But he has never been able to beat Sasuke!" Itachi said proudly, Amaya smiled and poured some sake into Itachi's glass. Despite not knowing who 'Naruto' was Sakura was pleased she gotten a conversation started between the men and as she took the bottle of sake from Amaya Sakura didn't miss the look of pride on her face.
As Sakura poured sake for Kakashi two young men stepped into the arena below. "Ah," Itachi scoffed. "Pay no attention Sakura, these students will provide no show for you to see." Both men went back into conversation about which of their ninja was better, but it left Sakura to watch the match.
She mesmerized by the way they fought, how quickly they moved and how clever they were, although the first match ended quickly two more followed that Itachi and Kakashi were not interested in. At one point Sakura let out a gasp worried that one of the competitors might be dead; this earned another gale of laughter. "How charming she is!" Itachi choked out between laughs. "Now, Itachi-san, do not tease her. She knows little about this sport." Amaya was obviously very pleased with Sakura's behavior but the young maiko had done nothing.
A short moment later a blond boy clad in orange stepped into the arena, but his opponent was not Sasuke. "Here is Naruto!" Kakashi announced to Sakura proudly. Although Sakura didn't say it she wondered why the boy would wear orange in something that required some stealth. He was not difficult to miss.
This match too, passed quicker than Sakura would have liked but it was indeed obvious that Naruto was much better than who he was facing. "Did you see that Sakura? The way he used his kunai?" Sakura had seen it, she'd hung on to every detail. "I did." She responded rapturously. "A skill I taught him myself."
"You did?"
"She is quite wonderful Amaya," Kakashi informed the other girl, breaking her conversation with Itachi. "If nothing else she will always have patrons who are ninja, she seems so enthralled by all of it that her charm is quite hard to resist." Amaya smiled broadly. "Yes, she will make a fine geisha." Kakashi was about to respond when Itachi cut the conversation short. "Quiet! Sasuke has entered the arena."
They fell silent and Sakura watched him turn his cold dark eyes to the stands and scan them. She could swear he recognized her but tried to push that thought from her mind. She leaned forwards into the railing to watch him fight.
Itachi had been right, even Sakura, who knew nothing of ninja, could tell Sasuke was very talented. He was far faster than his adversary and his attacks were incredibly precise. Vaguely Sakura heard Itachi chuckle. "He's putting on a show today." The older man said with a nod. "Naruto doesn't play with his food." Kakashi interjected, leaning back in his seat as if bored. "Really now? Tell me, Kakashi, can your Naruto do that?" Itachi asked pointing a finger into the arena. Sakura whipped around to see what he'd meant but missed it and cursed herself for it.
Sasuke's opponent fell shortly after and he disappeared into the wings, Itachi stood up as he did so. "Come now, let us congratulate him on an excellent match." Kakashi rolled his eyes but stood also. The four made there way to the bottom of the arena and entered a large side room. With a jolt of excitement Sakura realized she was surrounded by ninja and Sasuke was near by.
Looking around Sakura spotted Naruto, but he was deep in conversation with another maiko. He did not look so young up close, and the maiko he was speaking with was very pretty but Sakura could tell she was shy. Her hair was the color of ebony and her eyes like two opals. If Sakura hadn't known better she would have thought the girl blind. But blind girls did not become geisha.
Kakashi excused himself politely and went to join Naruto. Sakura spotted Sasuke toweling his hair and blushed ferociously, glad that a layer of wax and make up kept her mentor form noticing the folly. "Onei-san, is it alright to be back here?" She asked tearing her eyes away to look up at Amaya. "Perfectly alright," Itachi answered for her. "Sasuke! Come over here." The dark eyed ninja looked up, not at all surprised by their presence. He glared at Itachi for a moment before coming to join them
"Excellent match!" Itachi beamed, "Do you have the scores?" Sasuke nodded and Amaya looked to Sakura, pressing her to say something also. It was a command Sakura was glad to follow. She bowed to Sasuke, lower than was probably necessary. "Sasuke-san was incredible," She began. "I humbly thank you for your performance." When she rose she saw something flicker through Sasuke's eyes before it disappeared. As he looked at her inquisitively she missed the approving look of Amaya and the smile on Itachi's face.
Sasuke seemed to be deciding if he should reply to her admiration and after a while settled on a "Hn." A verbal shrug but it was enough to please Sakura and the adults with her. "Let us check the scoreboard then." Itachi said ushering the group out of the room and into a hallway.
A board hung on the wall with the names of the competing ninja on it.
Uchiha Sasuke
Uzumaki Naruto
Hyuga Neji
"First of course." Itachi said proudly, regarding the top three. "Sakura, you should accompany him when he is awarded. Both geisha's eyes grew wide but both for different reasons. Sakura knew Amaya believed it would bring the young maiko recognition and Sakura was overjoyed to participate with Sasuke in something she found personal. Sasuke shrugged, "Well off you go then, they'll call you out."
With his words Amaya and Itachi retreated to the stands and Sasuke took Sakura by the arm and led her back through the room to a huge set of doors. Naruto and the maiko with the pearly white yes stood there already, along with the boy who must have been Neji, he too, had a maiko with him.
"Who's that with you dobe?" Naruto asked, Sakura almost jumped at the vulgarity. "Sakura." Sasuke replied simply, Sakura smiled, unable to hide her pleasure at the sound of his voice saying her name. She bowed to Naruto. "It is good to meet you, Naruto-san. You preformed excellently." When Sakura straightened herself Naruto looked as if he would laugh.
There was no time for any more conversation because the huge doors in front of them opened and Sakura heard "Hyuga Neji." Being called out to the pedestal. As he turned she caught sight of his eyes, they too were the pearly white Sakura had seen in the maiko with Naruto. The young geisha with him slipped her arm round his and the two walked into the stadium with much applause.
Sakura was almost surprised that the tournament was so huge, but she figured it was probably a celebration of sorts. As the noise died down another name was called, "Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto linked arms with his shy maiko rather roughly before uttering a final, "See you dobe." And heading out into the applause.
Sakura wouldn't lie, she was quite nervous and Sasuke was doing nothing to ease her feeling of tension. "Uchiha Sasuke." The voice called and Sakura just managed to wrap her arm around his before he went striding into the arena. The applause, which had been loud even in the other room were almost deafening now, but she walked unflinchingly to the podium where Neji and Naruto already stood.
The two settled in the spot meant for Sasuke while someone went on about each of the ninja, Sakura could have cared less, she was too wrapped up in Sasuke and the warmth emanating from his arm to pay attention. The man approached Neji and placed a medal on his neck before they bowed to each other. The he did the same to Naruto who gave a thumbs up to Kakashi in the stands. Finally Sasuke bowed and retrieved his own medal.
The next few moments were a blur as Sasuke led her out of the arena to Amaya and Itachi. Sakura could see Amaya's mind working behind her smile but her desire to question the older geisha was stomped on when Itachi spoke. "An occasion such as this calls for a celebration!"
So what do you think? Was it as good as you expected? Worse? Review please or remember... Sasuke gets it. maniacle laughter