Just a reminder: Naruto is also called Anzu.
It was hard to breathe. The silk cloth being tightened around Naruto's stomach up to her breast bone was forcing all the air from her lungs. Her face showed her discomfort, but she knew better than to complain about it. This was part of her job.
"Okay Anzu-san," Iruka said curtly, "the obi is tied."
"Thank you Iruka-jii-san," Anzu replied with a small smile. "How do I look?"
Iruka's brown eyes looked over the delicate girl, whom he had grown attached to over the last seven years. Her blonde hair was pulled back revealing her round, heart shaped face with three whisker marks on each cheek, which would soon be covered by white makeup. Her blue eyes looked like two marbles, shining with unreadable beauty. The light teal kimono with a wave pattern at the bottom, tied with a pale pink obi, that he had helped dress her in, covered her healthy frame and matched well with her eyes.
"You look beautiful, Anzu-san."
Naruto blushed lightly from the compliment. "Thank you Iruka-jii-san. I'll see you tomorrow night."
She gave a formal bow, dismissing him from her small room.
Iruka smiled when he left the room. The pretty little girl he had brought here to the Godaime Okiya long ago had grown into a beautiful young lady. He had no doubt she would do well as a geisha.
When she was alone, Anzu turned to the small, wooden vanity that held her makeup and sat down in front of it. Using the small mirror there, she delicately painted her face with a white substance before drawing in thin eye brows and painting her pink lips a bright red.
Before she could add a little color to her eyelids, the wooden sliding door to her room was opened and a woman with light purple hair, wearing a lavender kimono with a cream obi walked in. her face was made up and her hair was pulled back and decorated with dangling, golden hair ornaments.
"Let me do your eyes for you," Anko said sitting next to her little sister.
"Thank you Anko-nee-san," Anzu replied, handing her a small jar and a brush. She closed her eyelids and waited to feel the gentle strokes from the brush.
While applying shear blue powder to her little sister's eyes, Anko sighed. "Kid, you're being too polite. We're not even out yet and you're already being annoyingly formal."
"I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was acting in such a way."
"You're doing it again. Open your eyes, let me see how it looks." Naruto complied and blinked innocently at her big sister. "Just relax when were alone. Curtsy is meant for other people, not family. Now get up Brat and let's go."
Naruto smiled and followed Anko out the room to the main entrance of the Godaime Okiya. The two slipped on their geta(1) and entered the rickshaw awaiting them in the front, that would take them to Ichiraku Teahouse, where they would be entertaining tonight.
Sasuke looked angrily at the black and white hakama(2). He would have been more happy about spending time with his father and his father's friends, if they didn't act so shameful after a few cups of sake and some female company in the room. Of course Kakashi would be coming too, but the man always seemed more interested in his little orange book to converse with Sasuke. So that left whatever random geisha, that was nearest to him to talk with.
He didn't mind talking with those women, but he knew the only reason he was even there talking with them was because his father had an ulterior motive. When they would go home after a night at some teahouse, his father, Fugaku, would ask if any of those women had caught his attention. Sasuke would always reply "no."
This "bonding", as his father called it, was just an attempt to change Sasuke into a clone of his father; a man who enjoyed a variety of women. Even Mikoto, Sasuke's mother, was just another women to be enjoyed in his father's eyes.
Every night, before they arrived, he would say, "A man should try all the fruit the world has to offer, not just one apricot. But only buy the best kind and eat it more than once."
This slightly sickened Sasuke. Almost every night for the last six months, he'd watch that man flirt shamelessly with different women, then come home and busy himself with his wife. They weren't even quiet. Sasuke could hear them go at it from across the hall.
The small knock on the door interrupted Sasuke's angry, internal rant about his father and produced Kakashi, who was leaning against the wood frame. The older man stared at the scowling Sasuke, standing in the middle of the room and sighed. He felt nostalgic for the days when his young master didn't scowl so angrily. And if he did, it was cute because he had fat cheeks and large eyes.
"Where am I being dragged against my will tonight?" the dark haired teen asked, turning to Kakashi.
"Oh cheer up, Sasuke. It's not that bad," Kakashi averted the question, trying to loosen some of the tension from Sasuke. It failed.
Sasuke just scowled harder."Where?"
"I think it's some place called Ichiraku."
"Whatever. Let's just go," Sasuke said, walking out the room, while trying to calm himself before he put his fist through a wall.
Kakashi sighed again as he watched his young master walk down the hall; obviously still mad about going out tonight.
'Yeah, I miss the old days when that kid used to smile.'
"And that's when I said...!"
Sasuke tried his hardest to tune out what his father was saying to two women, who were at least fifteen years younger than him. They had been at this teahouse for about half an hour and already Sasuke was about to take a chopstick and ram it into his temple to escape from this torture.
Each of the men in the room had a pretty girl pouring them sake and laughing at their jokes, except for Fugaku, who had two and Sasuke and Kakashi, who had none. The conversation in the room was mostly about drinking, dirty jokes, and comparing how pretty each girl was. Everything about this atmosphere just drove Sasuke insane.
Then to add more fuel to the fire, the hostess of the teahouse entered the room and announced the arrival of two more geisha for the party. Sasuke groaned, if there were two more of them that would mean that he'd have to talk to at least one of them. Which meant on the rickshaw ride home, he'd be interrogated about his evening conversation with her.
If the hostess said anything else about these geisha, Sasuke didn't hear it. Upon hearing of more women, he dropped his gaze to the cup full of sake on the table in front of him. If these women saw that wasn't active in the party, then maybe they'd leave him alone.
But the exact opposite of the happened. Instead, some woman wearing a teal kimono took the seat next to him. Sasuke didn't want to look at her. Maybe if she saw that he was ignoring her, she'd go away. But even that didn't work, she just fidgeted slightly in her seat.
Highly annoyed, Sasuke excused himself and got up to go to the bathroom, hoping this would make that woman focus on someone else in his absence. To his surprise, she also got up an followed him out the door. He walked down the hall trying his best to ignore her, but was failing horribly. This woman was really starting to piss him off.
Becoming fed, Sasuke stopped walking and without turning around asked, "Why are you following me?"
"Umm...I'm a new geisha," came an intimidated reply. "I'm supposed to escort a man if he has to use the bathroom." Sasuke sighed pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "I'm sorry if this upsets you...If you do not want my company, I can head back to the room and wait for you to return so we can walk in together; I need to keep up appearances. Then, I'll leave you alone."
Sasuke sighed again. He didn't mean to hurt this neophyte geisha's feelings. He turned around and bowed formally to her.
"I'm sorry for my rude behavior. I'm just a little stressed. I didn't mean to offend you."
When he lifted his head, he took in the sight of the girl from the bottom up. She wore white tabi(3), a teal kimono, and a pink obi. He looked at her white painted face and noticed a look of surprise in her eyes, which he misinterpreted was from his sudden apology. Her hair was blonde and her eyes where blue, which he thought was slightly strange for a girl in Japan. But then again, Sakura had pink hair.
"Sasuke..." she breathed out.
"Excuse me?" Sasuke started, looking confused and insulted, "I don't think I ever gave you permission to call me by my first name. In fact, I never even gave you my name."
The girl looked down sadly. "Sasuke, are really that slow? Or have you forgotten me?"
"Do I know you?"
She looked up, tears forming in her eyes, but she was holding them back. Coldly, she said, "No, you don't know me."
She turned around started walking back the other way, but was suddenly stopped when Sasuke grabbed her elbow.
"Who are you?"
"What do you care?"
"Well, you're obviously upset that I don't know who you are."
"It doesn't matter who I am!"
Patience wearing thin, Sasuke pulled her arm towards himself and grabbed her by the shoulders. He stared in her angry blue eyes with determination to find out who she was. But instead his heart beat increased. He felt the need to hold this girl and never let go.
Realization hit him hard and he felt like a complete moron for not seeing it earlier. He pulled her into a tight hug and rested his chin on her shoulder.
"Naruto...I'm sorry."
Her arms wrapped around him, trying to bring Sasuke closer. "You better me sorry you bastard."
He released her and stared at her face in sorrow.
"I can't believe you're a geisha. This is what he sold you into? How long has it been since you started working."
"About a month...Sasuke, I've missed you so much."
"Ive missed you too, Naruto."
Naruto shook her head sadly. "I'm called Anzu now."
Sasuke embraced her once again, wishing that she'd never leave again. "I don't care what you're called, you're still Naruto to me."
They stayed in each others arms for a few minutes before Anzu started pulling away. Sasuke didn't like this, which he made obvious when he wouldn't let Naruto go. Instead he tightened his grip around her back.
"Sasuke, we have to go back. We've been here for too long."
"No,"Sasuke growled, "I'm not letting you go again."
"But--"
Sasuke interrupted her by leaning down and giving Naruto a passionate kiss, that took away her breath and made her knees so weak, she had to hold onto his shoulders to keep from falling. But for some reason, Anzu gathered her strength and pushed the Uchiha away from her, breaking their contact.
Sasuke glared more hurt than angry, "Why did you--"
"We can't, not so openly."
"Why not?"
"It's scandalous. For any geisha, it's bad for her reputation if she is seen in an intimate position with anyone. Only cheap, low-class geisha agrees to pleasure a man who isn't her Danna."
"So we can't...ever?" Sasuke asked, his heart feeling as if it were breaking again.
"No, that's not it...We just have to be really careful."
"Fine, we'll be secret lovers," Sasuke smirked. "Let's head back."
He started walking towards the party, feeling a little better about being there.
Naruto blushed heavily at Sasuke's words, but it couldn't be seem through her makeup.
"Wait," Naruto shuffled quickly after him, "you still have my lip color on your face."
Sasuke sat contently in the rickshaw next to his unconscious father. Apparently he had engaged in a drinking contest with some of the geisha and his friends. Kakashi sat across from them, looking rather pleased with himself. But Sasuke couldn't really tell since his face was covered by a mask.
"You seemed to have fun with that purple haired woman tonight, Kakashi," Sasuke stated trying to seem casual. "What's her name?"
"Anko-san," he replied, his mouth pulling into a smile. "She's so funny and pretty and..." he cleared his throat, regaining his composure. "What about you Sasuke?"
"Hmm, what about me?"
"You were gone for a long time with that blonde girl. And you spent all night talking to her," Kakashi teased. "Are you falling love?"
"No."
"Really? You seemed so comfortable with her."
Sasuke shook his head and smiled. "No. I fell in love with that girl years ago."
AN: Yay, another chapter complete. Sorry you had to wait so long. Practically all my free time has been spent doing homework. In fact, I should studying for three tests that are coming up this week, but oh well. Sorry I couldn't post this sooner. My cable/internet died last night, probably because there have been storms where I live. Anyways hope you liked. R&R.
And if you're confused about the whole AnzuNaruto name switching thing I tend to do, treat as two different personas of Naruto. Anzu is Naruto's proper, grown up self, that acts too polite and knows when she's doing something wrong. And Naruto is her innocent self, that blushes at little things and gives into self-indulgence -cough-Sasuke. They're all her, just different ways of how she acts.
(1)Geta- sandals with elevated wooden base, that is held onto the foot by a fabric thong. Pretty much just think wooden flip-flops.
(2)Hakama- traditional Japanese clothing, that resembling a wide pleated skirt. Worn mostly by men, with any type of kimono except for yukata.
(3)Tabi- the ankle high, button up socks with a separation between the big toe and the other toes, that both men and women wear with geta or zori, another type of Japanese shoes. Usually they're white, but also come in black and blue.