The next day, before dawn, as daylight broke, Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane sat in the guard booth at Konoha's southern gate, their faces already covered in strips of paper.
With a slap, Izumo Kamizuki threw the sixteen cards in his hand onto the table under Kotetsu Hagane's baffled gaze, then leaped to his feet in excitement.
"Airplane!"
"You lost!"
"Quick, quick, quick! Put on another strip!"
As he spoke, Izumo Kamizuki tore a two-finger-wide strip from a sheet of A4 paper beside him and moved it toward Kotetsu Hagane's face.
Kotetsu Hagane, who had started getting sleepy, suddenly widened his eyes and shot to his feet, slamming the table. He was no longer sleepy at all.
"What?! You can insta-kill me with sixteen cards?!"
"You insta-killed me?!"
"I don't believe it!"
"Let me see!!!"
Still shouting, Kotetsu Hagane looked down at the hand Izumo Kamizuki had just thrown onto the table and read through it one card at a time.
"999, JJJ, QQQ, 47KK..."
As he read, Kotetsu Hagane's voice gradually faded. In the end, he was left speechless. Despair filled his face as he accepted reality, tilted his neck to one side, kicked out his legs, and collapsed into his chair, his eyes utterly hopeless.
"I lost..."
Just as Izumo Kamizuki grinned and prepared to stick the paper strip onto Kotetsu Hagane's face, his gaze suddenly focused on the glass behind Kotetsu Hagane.
This was absolutely the person he least wanted to see right now—the person he least dared to see. No contest.
His hand froze awkwardly in midair, his face stiffened, and he forced out a smile.
"Ha, haha... Advisor, you're back from your late-night walk..."
Kotetsu Hagane immediately ripped every paper strip off his own face, then wiped off the strips from Izumo Kamizuki's face as