Chapter 23:

"So how do I look?"

Raxiel stepped outside her hotel room where Naruto was waiting for her. It had taken her all together two hours to get everything perfect. Her hair, which had to be colored black, took her a full hour. Fortunately, the color washed out after showering once. Her makeup being plastered all over her face, had taken the second longest, and Raxiel thought it was the most tedious thing she had ever had to do. She was not used to having so much paint on her face that she wanted to take it all off. Her kimono, which took her a while to figure out how to get on due to the fact that she had never worn one, was black with a gold material bordering the edges of it. On the black part of the kimono, there were rose pedals on it, making the kimono look almost seductive all by itself. Raxiel knew this and was very self-conscious about it.

But she knew that was why she had the kunai tied around her waist, in case something like that was to be forced upon her.

Naruto was closely examining her. An uneasy smirk escaped from his mouth. "It looks great."

"IT looks great!" Raxiel said, almost yelling at the boy.

Naruto jumped a little having been startled by her sudden burst of noise. "Well, Raxiel, if I was to tell you what you look like, then… let's not go there. Come on! You've got an appointment with Matsu-san at nine!" Naruto gave her a pretend-to-be stern face. Raxiel tried to laugh; she tried to make things more relaxed…

But somehow, laughing just made her even more nervous.

Gladly, Raxiel took Naruto's offering arm, and they both made their way outside the hotel and towards the restaurant. She was so grateful that the "escort" had to lock onto the "dates" arm. She was so sure that she was going to pass out, but with Naruto's arm firmly clenching her own arm, it made her always come back to her senses.

"Tsunade said that this was my type of mission. Some mission I've got. Being an escort is no mission," Raxiel overheard as Naruto mumbled to himself. She tried to cheer him up. "Don't feel bad, Naruto-kun. There's more to the mission than just being an escort. You also take away the nerves. That there is something only a few people can do," Raxiel said smoothly, trying to warm-up her voice so she'd be ready for the real thing.

Knowing she was practicing, Naruto smiled. "Really? You think? I never thought about it that way."

"Oh, yes! Very much, I think so," she said quietly, but Naruto knew she was telling the truth. His smile grew wider.

With both of their confidences raised and their nerves a bit more relaxed, they finally made it to "Exhibit-B."

Naruto gently released his grip on her and quietly spoke to her so no one else could hear, "Right on time. I'll be waiting at the entrance in about two hours. Wait for me, until then." Naruto again glanced at her kimono that he had given her from Tsunade the night they had left Konoha. He had given her all the other items she had needed, as well, but this one stood out the most.

Raxiel gently nodded, knowing what would happen next. She soon said her goodbye and went inside the restaurant. There, she stood in her assigned room and waited.

It was going to be a long two hours…

But she knew what she had to do.

She knew her mission.

"Just stay focused," she kept saying inside her head to herself.

After waiting a few minutes (which seemed like hours to her), she finally spotted him, the man that looked like the picture they had seen of him. Quickly, she put on her most graceful smile and waited for him to enter the room…

But just as he was a few feet away, another geisha stopped to talk to him.

"Curse it!" Raxiel thought, not liking at all having to wait. She was longing to get the mission over with.

Then she caught something else in the corner of her eye…

Red…

Raxiel turned her head to take a better look at what she had caught with her eye.

Something about that face…

Something familiar…

Soon she saw the man that had caught her attention give the head table-waiter a big bag of… who knows what.

"Who is that?" Raxiel thought, trying to remember where she had seen the familiar face… or what she could see of the face, for a huge straw hat shadowed most of his face.

Raxiel soon heard a noise coming from the opposite direction to where she was glancing. It was Matsu, making his way into the room.

But suddenly, a waiter caught him…

The head table-waiter…

"I'm sorry, sir, but this room is already taken by another person."

The villain looked at the waiter lividly. "Excuse me? I paid good wages to get this exact room at this exact time."

"Well, you'll have to wait until the other reserved guess is done; he paid extra to get this room. Please, come this way, and I will get you another room."

Raxiel's eyes widened in panic…

"No…" she thought as the waiter took him away. "Who the heck is it? Why would they pay extra?" she thought as the door shut.

Soon another game of waiting occurred…