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"The number of chips held by the person with the fewest chips on the table is our base amount."
"The person with the fewest chips right now has two, so everyone puts in two chips for the first round."
The dealer sat opposite Hatake Kuroshi, briefly explaining the rules to the people at the table.
All eyes focused on Hatake Kuroshi, looking at him with half-smiles.
These people each held dozens of chips.
In reality, this rule originally started with ten chips, but because Hatake Kuroshi only had two, they had to lower the stakes.
Hatake Kuroshi paid no attention to these gazes, casually pulling Kimimaro, who sat beside him, in front.
"You understood the rules just now, right?"
"Just pick odd or even, whichever you like~"
Hatake Kuroshi rested his cheek on his hand, showing a nonchalant smile....
"Eh? But if we lose, won't we have none left?"
Kimimaro, suddenly entrusted with great responsibility, looked somewhat lost and uncertainly at Hatake Kuroshi.
"Impossible to lose~ Just pick randomly, it'll be fine."
This statement caused an uproar among the surrounding people.
Anyone who could say this was either rich and unafraid of losing, or planning to cheat.
Everyone nearby watched the two's hands intently, afraid they would cooperate in some cheating scheme in the blink of an eye.
"Even?"
Kimimaro somewhat timidly pushed the two chips forward, looking blankly at the faces of the others around him.
This kid looks like a complete novice, absolutely no experience. The people nearby became even more confused about what Hatake Kuroshi was trying to do.
After everyone pushed their chips forward, the dealer picked up the cup and spun it wildly on the table.
After lifting the cup, the single die inside continued spinning rapidly on the table.
Several heads nearby leaned in closer. Only the dealer watched everyone's hands with an expressionless face.
The spinning gradually slowed down, revealing a single red dot on the die.
Hatake Kuroshi slightly lowered his eyes, his fingertip tapping lightly on the table.
Thump.
Just before stopping, the die suddenly flipped over, revealing four red dots.
Several sighs of disappointment instantly sounded around.
Hatake Kuroshi slightly raised his eyes, looking at the stunned dealer opposite him with a provocative smile.
"Won~"
This man definitely has a trick!
The dealer confirmed it almost instantly.
As the one handling the dice, he could guarantee that the number shown should have been odd, but for some reason, just before stopping, it suddenly became four.
But the actions of both Hatake Kuroshi and Kimimaro were clear; neither had cheated.
While Hatake Kuroshi's gesture was somewhat strange, the only way to manipulate the die would be through chakra influence.
But he hadn't seen even the slightest hint of anything resembling chakra.
This person just seemed like he casually tapped the table while impatiently waiting.
Cheating isn't impossible; as long as no one catches you, it counts as success.
"Lost everything."
Tsunade and Shizune looked at the empty basket; not a single chip remained.
Initially, she played at the ten-chip-per-round table. When she lost down to single digits, she switched to playing one by one.
In short, now there were none left.
And from the beginning until now, less than two hours had passed.
Shizune took a deep breath. Although she knew Tsunade had a talent for throwing money away – turning gambling into something resembling charity –
"This is too fast..."
"Can't be helped. Let's go ask that young fellow to lend us some!"
Tsunade cheerfully pulled herself together, looking left and right for Hatake Kuroshi's figure.
He seemed quite interesting while chatting. Wonder how his gambling luck is.
"After talking for so long, you still don't know that person's name..."
Shizune complained helplessly, following Tsunade over.
Subsequently, the two squeezed through the crowd gathered around and managed to look inside.
Hatake Kuroshi rested his cheek on his hand, surrounded by stacks of chips of varying heights, almost completely enclosing him.
Kimimaro had long since fallen asleep leaning against his leg.
"Always winning feels boring."
Kimimaro had nodded off while calling out odds and evens, eventually being carried aside by Hatake Kuroshi to sleep.
What was probably a tense, exciting, blood-boiling gambling experience for many, was just constantly increasing stacks of chips in Kimimaro's mind.
Super boring.
Since Kimimaro had no real sense of money, he couldn't feel the value of the chips.
Plus, with Hatake Kuroshi's assistance, he never lost, nor felt the sensation of loss.
Gambling instantly became boring.
"So many!? Didn't you only exchange two chips at the beginning!?"
Tsunade rushed over incredulously, eyes wide with shock as she looked at Hatake Kuroshi.
If those two chips were in her hands, she would never have rashly joined a ten-chip minimum game like this.
Although they initially said they'd start based on the lowest holder, afterward, the lowest holder with fewer than ten had to make up the difference of eight chips.
The surrounding crowd instantly erupted.
"Only two at the start!?"
"There must be several million ryo now!"
"Did this person really not cheat? How is that possible? It hasn't even been that long!"
Hatake Kuroshi scratched his head, stretching lazily.
"Ah, lost—I'm done playing."
Hatake Kuroshi pushed ten chips forward.
These ten were insignificant to him. Only with wins and losses could people be repeatedly lured back to this table until they lost everything, even their shorts.
Hatake Kuroshi knew this principle well. After Kimimaro fell asleep, he had even deliberately lost all the chips in his hand at one point... to prove he wasn't cheating and attract others back to the table.
And amidst his repeated wins and losses, most people unknowingly lost the majority of their chips to him.
By the time they snapped back to reality, terrifying stacks of chips surrounded Hatake Kuroshi.
"Oh! Want to keep playing?"
Hatake Kuroshi filled a basket with chips from beside him and handed it to Tsunade.
Tsunade and Shizune swallowed incredulously. The way Hatake Kuroshi swept the chips in with a smile made him look just like a god of wealth.
"Next time I gamble, I'll put up this guy's photo!"
Tsunade held the refilled basket, speaking with determination.
Hatake Kuroshi cashed out the remaining money, then took Kimimaro to find a room to rest.
And the miracle of him winning three million ryo in two hours spread throughout the entire Land of Hot Water overnight.
It even spread through newspapers across the Five Great Nations.
However, to prevent assassination attempts for his wealth, the newspaper used an alias for Hatake Kuroshi's name... and conveniently published a photo of the lower half of Hatake Kuroshi's face as the feature image.
After all, no matter how you looked at it, Hatake Kuroshi's eye patch was a bit too conspicuous.
Kimimaro, on the other hand, became the super lucky child whose luck far surpassed ordinary people. After all, Hatake Kuroshi had his wins and losses, but Kimimaro won every single time he played... even uttering the famous line: "Always winning feels boring."
Currently, the Land of Hot Water was considering selling lucky mascot dolls modeled after him.
And Hatake Kuroshi himself was honorably blacklisted by major casinos.
While outsiders couldn't understand, the casino insiders saw it clearly.
Many times when they tried to rig the game themselves, Hatake Kuroshi would see through it and counter-rig it.
That night, the entire gambling session went completely against the casino's expectations, ending in a state of complete loss of control.
Because the incident caused such a stir, it became difficult to directly stop Hatake Kuroshi's actions.
Although everyone realized Hatake Kuroshi was cheating, there was no way to prove it.
After all, things that couldn't be caught or seen didn't exist.
They could only internally blacklist Hatake Kuroshi, absolutely forbidding him from entering again.
This feeling of knowing he was cheating but being unable to point it out was simply too unbearable.
Noon the next day.
Hatake Kuroshi and Kimimaro, the center of the incident, completely unaware of any issue, arrived in the Land of Lightning according to their original plan.
Hatake Kuroshi exchanged all the banknotes for a single check; after all, carrying one piece of paper was more convenient than a case full of paper.
Kimimaro still looked listless. Although he had eaten breakfast, it seemed the sea had already digested it.
"Kumogakure..."
Hatake Kuroshi stood on a mountaintop, looking at the map in his hand which showed little besides mountains, raising an eyebrow involuntarily.
The geographical environment here is a bit too strange. Do people really live here?
However, fortunately, the inhabited areas of Kumogakure mostly showed signs of artificial construction, often with something resembling stairs nearby.
Amidst the cloud-shrouded mountains, such artificial traces were quite obvious.
Hatake Kuroshi's figure flashed through the air, landing steadily on a flat surface.
"So lucky, that guy, winning millions in one night."
"Yeah, getting money in one night that others couldn't earn in years. Must be overjoyed."
"Can't really say that. People who go to that kind of casino probably aren't short on a few million, right?"
Several Kirigakure guards huddled together, heads poking out, reading the newspaper news while whispering quietly.
Hatake Kuroshi leaned over from behind them, curiously looking upside down at the newspaper content.
"Eh—this kind of thing actually made the front page?"
"Oh, I'm a civilian traveling. This is my teacher's certificate from my previous employment."
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