[A/N: I was watching videos of the kabuki female impersonator who inspired this fic so I decided I'd better get to work on it again. Also, for anyone interested, I got a Tumblr! I'm not really doing a whole lot with it but I did just put up an illustration for another Turning Points special, Icy Heat. The link is in my profile.]

II.

After almost two hours—taken up with doing Itachi's hair, slathering on makeup and then tying him into a heavy silk furisode—Shiori was finally finished.

"There!" she announced. "You look like you just stepped out of a woodprint. Has somebody got a mirror?"

A few moments later, Chouko came around the screen Shiori had set up while she worked, carrying a small hand mirror. Itachi took the delicate article carefully, then stared in surprise as he saw his own face reflected in the glass. He could scarcely recognize himself in the elegant geisha looking back at him.

"Well, it certainly looks good," Itachi said, using chakra to modulate his voice so it sounded more feminine. "But will your Natsume-san be convinced?"

"Even if she's not I think she'll take you," Wakana said, following Chouko behind the screen. "It's not like there have been any other applicants and she doesn't have much time left. Here, let's go see if your brother recognizes you."

Wakana offered her hand to help Itachi up, which he was thankful for; the constrictive furisode was difficult to move in and he nearly ended up stepping on one of the sleeves as he attempted to rise. Once he was standing, Chouko slipped a pair of narrow, wedge-shaped zori onto his feet. These, predictably, only made it harder to walk, but by the time he made it several steps Itachi thought he was getting the hang of things. He had seen his mother and cousins wear kimono for festivals back in Konoha and imitated the delicate steps he remembered, which made it much easier to deal with the unfamiliar confines of the furisode.

"Where is my brother?" Itachi asked, looking around the room—even though Sasuke had given away his name Itachi wanted to use it as little as possible to reduce chances of the geisha recognizing it.

"Hotaruko took him into one of the other rooms to play. Here, this way," Wakana led Itachi out onto the portico (she had to slow her steps considerably, as Itachi could not move as fast in geisha's garb as she) and in through another door. The rain had stopped by this point, and the sky was very clear—if there were any ANBU trackers following, now would be a bad time for Itachi and Sasuke to show themselves.

"Sasuke-chan!" Shiori chirped as she opened the door and beckoned for the others to come inside. "Can you guess who this is?"

Sasuke and Hotaruko had been playing catch with temari balls—when the door opened, Sasuke dropped his and was kneeling on the floor to pick it up when Itachi entered. For a few moments, Sasuke stared blankly up at his brother, and Itachi almost thought he wouldn't be recognized at all when Sasuke frowned quizzically.

"...Aniki?" Sasuke finally said, tipping his head to one side with confusion plain on his face. "Nii-san, it's you, right? Why are you dressed up like that?"

"It's for a job," Itachi explained, using his normal voice to reassure his brother. "If I get it, we might even be able to stay here for a while."

"Really?" Sasuke gasped, his face lighting up. "You mean we won't have to sleep in that cave again?"

"That's right," Itachi said, ignoring the surprised faces from the girls as he gently ruffled Sasuke's hair. "Wakana-san," he continued, turning to her. "do you think I should speak to Natsume-san tonight or wait until morning?"

"It's not that late," Chouko pointed out. "And if he doesn't we'll just have to take all that off again. He looks so nice in it, it would really be a shame..."

"That's right," Wakana said. "Here, come with me, I'll show you where it is."

"I want to come too!" Shiori insisted, putting her arms around Itachi's neck and making him jump. The sudden contact from behind roused his ninja instincts and he had to force himself not to violently dislodge her.

"Watch the makeup, you'll smudge it!" Hotaruko warned.

"I put it on, it's fine," Shiori retorted. "Hurry up, Wakana, let's go! I want to see Natsume's face when we show him to her!"

"All right, all right," Wakana said, pulling Shiori away from Itachi so that she could make a few adjustments to the furisode, tugging the collar a little further away from the back of his neck and shifting the obi-jime slightly. "There, I think that's good to go. This way..."

Although he was beginning to be a little bothered by the girls' treating him like a dressup doll, Itachi told himself it was nothing to get upset about, not if it got him and Sasuke a roof over their heads.

The path to the building where Natsume and the geiko lived was made of round granite stepping stones, excepting the section where a wooden bridge crossed a small stream. In the daytime, Itachi was sure it would have made a pretty sight, but in the nighttime after rain it was quite hazardous to walk on, especially now that he was wearing unfamiliar, restrictive clothes and sandals with minimal traction. If it hadn't been for Shiori catching him a few times he might have slipped off of the rain-slicked stepping stones and ruined all her work by muddying the furisode.

"Okay, here we are," Wakana whispered as they mounted the steps to the larger building. "You set?"

At Itachi's nod, Wakana knocked on the door then slipped inside. Itachi began to follow, but Shiori held him back. "Let her explain first," she said.

Itachi could hear Wakana speaking to two people inside, although the words were too indistinct to understand. One of the voices he recognized as that of the woman who had turned him away earlier: Natsume, the owner of the okiya. The other, while he did not recognize it, he guessed as belonging to the geiko Masuyo.

After about a minute, Wakana peeked out. "Okay, she says she'll talk to you. Shiori and I have to wait out here though."

Shiori pouted as she made a few final adjustments to Itachi's hair, then gave him a pat on the back. "Okay, good luck!"

Thanks, I'll need it, Itachi thought as he slipped the zori off and entered Natsume's chambers. Were this merely a matter of proving his ninja skills he would have nothing to worry about, but impersonating a geisha was an entirely new field.

He managed to make it into the room and kneel in front of the two women without incident, which he thought bode well for his chances of pulling this off.

"Wakana said she had found someone for the job, and I must admit you do look the part," Natsume began. "It is very late, so we'll have to make this brief. I am Amegawa Natsume, and this is Masyuo, the senior geiko here. What is your name?"

"Takeuchi Kaede, at your service," Itachi replied smoothly, bowing to each of them in turn. "I believe you will find my skills satisfactory to your needs."

Natsume observed him intently for several seconds, and Itachi could tell she was examining every aspect of his costume. "You're the boy from before, aren't you?" she said finally.

[A/N: Hopefully I will have the next section up soon. I think this will probably be 4-5 sections or thereabouts.]