"You're the little kid! Your whole family's made up of little kids!"
At the gatekeeper's words, Toneri immediately jumped up. If he admitted he was a little kid, how would they get into the gambling house?
As for using the Transformation Technique...
He clumsily tied a red necktie and combed his hair into a grown-up style.
That was out of the question, too. How could a gambling house on one of Konoha's busiest streets possibly be an ordinary one? Surely it had connections.
The sign hanging by the entrance stated that all ninjutsu was forbidden inside the gambling house, and anyone caught using it would be responsible for the consequences.
A place like this was bound to have at least a few Chunin-level ninja guarding it. Tsunade could ignore that kind of thing, but these Genin—or kids who weren't even Genin—had better not try.
Hearing Toneri's words, the gatekeeper's eyes widened. He rolled up his sleeves, ready to teach the kid in front of him a lesson.
Running a gambling house meant having at least some ability to fight. The gatekeepers might not have been much compared to ninja, but they certainly weren't afraid of ordinary children.
But were Toneri and the others ordinary children?
He immediately yanked Minato, who was still standing behind him in a daze, to the front, then pointed at the Headband on Minato's forehead and shouted, "Come on, do it! Try touching him!"
Seeing the Headband that marked Minato as a ninja, the burly gatekeeper was suddenly at a loss.
Picking on civilians was one thing, but a ninja... Even if they looked like kids, he couldn't afford to mess with them.
When the burly man stopped, Toneri snorted and pulled Minato back behind him. "We all know ninjutsu, so you'd better think about the consequences before you go around saying whatever you want.
"Don't let our height fool you. We're all bona fide adults. I'm already eighteen! This guy with the Headband is a little younger, but he's seventeen! We're both adults.
"Even if we go to a restaurant, the drinking ban doesn't apply to us. So why can't we go into a gambling house? Hm?"
The gatekeeper's eyes widened even further as he looked at the shortest of the three, Toneri. He was listening to him solemnly claim he was eighteen, even though he only came up to the man's waist...
I may not have read many books, but don't try to fool me!
Toneri pressed his advantage, glaring back at him. "What? I think you're questioning a ninja's word. You haven't read many books and you've never heard of 'dwarves,' so don't go making wild guesses about our ages. Think I won't complain to the Third Hokage tomorrow?!
"Tell him you let that big fat sheep... Mmph!"
Before he could finish speaking, the gatekeeper clapped a hand over Toneri's mouth. He warily looked around, and only after confirming no one had noticed them did he let out a long breath.
Still, he believed a little of what Toneri had said. Not everyone knew the nickname "big fat sheep"—it was only used among gamblers.
This guy was clearly a seasoned hand!
Since their age wasn't an issue, stopping customers was obviously none of his business.
"Please!" The burly gatekeeper gestured for the three kids to go inside.
But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was a little off. What exactly was a "dwarf"?
Maybe he really hadn't read enough books. Perhaps they were a special group, different from people of the Land of Fire or the Land of Lightning, only shorter.
That was why people needed to read more, keep up with the news, eat fewer snacks, and get more sleep...
Inside the gambling house,
both Minato and Kushina were visiting such a smoky, chaotic place for the first time, and their eyes were full of curiosity.
It was Toneri's first time, too, but he quickly found his target: the busiest, noisiest spot in the entire gambling house.
Tsunade sat boldly at one end of the table. Several men who looked like the people in charge sat opposite her, smiling broadly, while everyone else crowded around them in layer upon layer.
The three of them were small, so it was easy to squeeze through the crowd and stand right at the front.
Several conspicuous stacks of money lay in front of Tsunade. Each stack was worth a million Ryo.
Toneri's eyes immediately locked onto the money. He wondered if Tsunade had taken out all her earnings from the Second Shinobi World War to make one huge bet.
There had to be tens of millions of Ryo there—almost enough to buy an Asuma.
Slurp—
That's our food money for the rest of the year!
But Tsunade had arrived so suddenly that even though every gambler in the place had gathered around, only Tsunade and the house were actually playing. Everyone else counted as a small-time bettor.
They were just picking up scraps. Toneri and the others were lucky to be among the best of the scrap pickers.
After all, not everyone could casually pull out tens of millions of Ryo like Tsunade.
They placed their bets right after Tsunade. No matter what she chose, they just bet on the other side.
Every gambler in the house knew the drill. They all bet against Tsunade.
Compared to the few thousand or ten or twenty thousand Ryo the others tossed in, the two hundred thousand Ryo Toneri pulled out stood out like a crane among chickens.
The dealer even paid special attention to the three excited-looking kids, especially pausing for a second on Minato's Headband.
As far as they were concerned, the kids had come to steal their food. But since they weren't breaking any rules, there wasn't much they could do.
To be fair, Toneri thought Tsunade's gambling skills were awful, but her attitude toward gambling was impeccable.
She had enough strength to ignore everyone present, yet she sat down and rolled up her sleeves to gamble like an ordinary person, getting flushed with excitement as she waited for the dealer to open the game.
"Hey, Toneri, did you really bet all your money?" Kushina couldn't help tugging at his sleeve.
The scene in the gambling house struck her as bizarre. It felt like a busty woman was taking on an entire crowd.
Toneri waved a hand. "Don't worry. Trust me!"
Tsunade knew she wasn't good at gambling, so she stuck to the simplest game: betting on whether the result would be high or low.
And the odds were simple, too: even money.
As for the result... Did anyone need to ask?
Tsunade losing was only natural. If she won, that was when the real trouble would begin.
Before long, the money in Toneri's hands had become four hundred thousand Ryo.
Looking at the money he'd won, Minato and Kushina felt their understanding of the value of money crumble—Minato especially.
He stared blankly at the extra cash. The expression on his face was probably a mix of...
Little question marks—do you have a lot of friends?
You can make money like this?
Then what have I been working so hard for, doing missions to earn my living expenses?
I put in two hundred thousand Ryo, and came back with four hundred thousand?
At that moment, Toneri wanted to tell Minato that not everyone could do this. You had to come across an exceptionally rare big fat sheep in the gambling world.
And right now, Tsunade was alone. Shizune wasn't there to stay by her side and talk her out of it.
So tonight, Tsunade was going on one huge gambling spree.
As the saying went, "Softly I came, just as softly I left. With a wave of my hand, I took not a single banknote."
Tonight would be a night that turned Minato and Kushina's understanding of money upside down—a night that taught them you didn't have to do missions to make money.
There's a lot going on at Jin Mu's home lately, so things have been a bit hectic.
A friend's book, I Have a City of Myriad Heavens, is written by a big-name author whose work has sold over ten thousand copies. It's a great read and really addictive. If you're interested, go check it out.
Thanks to Hekai, reader 20190903062931351, reader 20190903062931351, The Yorozuya Never Closes, The Wandering Mahakala, The Panda That Couldn't Fly, and all the other readers for your generous rewards!
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