Empty-Handed Wolf Snatching

In the original work, Tsunade, who always maintained a youthful appearance, was actually a woman in her fifties. But in this world, in the thirty-second year of Konoha, Tsunade is only twenty-two—truly young!

"You bastards, just wait to lose to me today! Do you really think I'm a Big Fat Sheep..." With an extremely annoyed expression, Tsunade kicked off her shoes, stepped onto the tatami, and sat cross-legged in the spot closest to the door.

Ito and the others quickly offered flattering smiles. Although they all viewed Tsunade as a "Big Fat Sheep," they wouldn't dare ignore her status in Konoha. It was only because Tsunade was a good sport—she didn't take her anger out on others when she lost, and she always repaid her debts—that they dared to gamble with her at all.

"Lady Tsunade, what are you saying?" Ito grinned obsequiously. "But then again, winning or losing is all down to luck. You shouldn't think we're cheating you."

"That's right, Lady Tsunade. We're all acquaintances here. Please don't take what we said earlier to heart."

"Lady Tsunade has lost several rounds in a row this month; surely you're due for a win..."

"Enough, enough." Tsunade impatiently interrupted them, waving her hand with a rather domineering air. "Let's begin. Don't waste time; I have things to do tonight."

"You got it! Lady Tsunade, what shall we play? Bridge?" Ito asked with a smile.

"Fine!" Tsunade nodded decisively. She reached into her bosom and pulled out a thick stack of banknotes, counted them roughly, and placed them on the white cloth in front of her.

Ito picked up the deck and began to shuffle.

The others were also pulling out their money. Li Tong's eyes nearly popped out of his head. These guys... just how high were the stakes? Even the person with the least amount pulled out several thousand ryo in notes. Tsunade had brought the most—at least tens of thousands of ryo, including three notes with a denomination of ten thousand each.

"Huh? Kid, how come I haven't seen you before?" Tsunade finally noticed Li Tong. At eleven or twelve years old, he was thin and small, just a half-grown child, though he could barely be called a young ninja. In the ninja world, sixteen was considered adulthood.

"Uh... my name is Li Tong... I just became a genin..." Li Tong said, biting the bullet, his heart thumping with anxiety.

"Lady Tsunade, this brother just arrived. He hasn't been here before. Is it alright if he joins us?" Ito explained with a smile.

"Hmm." Tsunade nodded, then looked away and said casually, "As long as he has money, it's fine."

She didn't recognize Li Tong!

A wave of relief washed over Li Tong. This morning, news of the Rain Village defectors joining Konoha had spread throughout the village. Less than an hour ago, Li Tong had even killed someone in the busy downtown district, but it was no surprise that Tsunade didn't know.

"Lady Tsunade, did you just get back from a mission?" Li Tong asked cautiously.

"Just got back at noon," Tsunade replied nonchalantly.

No wonder, Li Tong thought. Tsunade had only returned at noon, and it was barely afternoon; she probably hadn't seen anyone yet.

"Lady Tsunade, you must have earned quite a commission on this mission, right?" Ito asked with a smile as he finished shuffling.

"One mission, fifteen thousand ryo." Tsunade looked miserable as she spoke. "But I had to pay off some debts, so now I have less than five thousand left!"

Ito's smile grew even brighter. He exchanged a subtle, knowing look with the others.

She really was a legendary Big Fat Sheep!

"Alright! Lady Tsunade, let's have a good time today!" Ito slapped the deck down, reached into his own clothes, and pulled out a thick stack of banknotes. There were several ten-thousand-ryo notes among them—at least tens of thousands in total.

Li Tong's cheek twitched. He felt like he had come to the wrong place. Everyone here was betting thousands or tens of thousands, while his own coin purse contained less than nine ryo in total.

Would he get beaten up?

"This brother, what about yours?" Ito noticed Li Tong hadn't taken his money out and reminded him.

"Uh... can I watch first? I'm not sure what the rules are..." Li Tong said, feigning composure.

"No problem." Ito waved a hand dismissively. He had only asked out of habit; the goal of this game was to fleece the Big Fat Sheep. Since this ninja wanted to play, he was just there to make up the numbers.

Besides, Ito loved new gamblers who didn't know anything—it made it much easier to win their money!

"I'll be the dealer!" Tsunade picked up the stack of cards. The others had no objections and immediately placed their bets.

Shuffling, dealing, matching, comparing!

The process was very simple. After watching a few rounds, Li Tong understood the rules: four cards per person, match them up... and compare the points.

The others only compared their hands against the dealer's. If the points were tied, the dealer won by a half-point.

In the first six rounds, Tsunade lost two thousand ryo.

In the seventh round, Li Tong carefully pulled a banknote from his purse. It was the highest denomination he had—five ryo!

"Can I... try a round?" Li Tong asked, feeling a bit embarrassed. No one knew how much money he had, but five ryo was indeed too little; the others were betting at least one hundred ryo per round.

"Whatever," Tsunade replied. She was the dealer; she made the rules.

The cards were dealt again.

After four rounds, four cards sat in front of Li Tong. He picked them up and saw that he couldn't form a very high point total, but he wasn't worried at all. He didn't even need to cheat... because Tsunade was a Big Fat Sheep! "Always lose when gambling" was her defining trait in the original work!

Five ryo became ten, ten became twenty, twenty became forty, forty became eighty, then one hundred sixty, three hundred twenty, six hundred forty...

In just half an hour, Li Tong had turned his five ryo into over two thousand!

His gambling luck was heaven-defying!

Ito had already told Li Tong "Brother, you have such good luck" more than once!

Was it really just luck?

Of course not!

In reality, after picking up his cards for the first time, Li Tong had already begun to cheat. He would take four cards but only return three; as for the fourth... no one saw where Li Tong had hidden it.

The others won and lost against Tsunade, but they won more than they lost, so they were up overall.

Only Li Tong had not lost a single time!

Tsunade had already begun to take notice of Li Tong. His constant winning was one aspect, but more importantly, Li Tong had only put up five ryo initially and hadn't touched his capital since, essentially playing with house money. To any gambler, this kind of behavior was incredibly irritating!

However, Li Tong felt no psychological pressure about cheating because he wasn't the only one doing it. Aside from Tsunade, two of the other five people had also cheated; or rather, whenever they placed large bets, they would inevitably cheat. Besides the owner, Ito, the other cheater was a man named Jiangchuan, an old man nearing sixty.

Gambling techniques, after all!

In truth, there was no such thing as a truly upright gambling technique; gambling techniques were simply sleight of hand! The peak duels between masters of gambling were, in reality, duels of deception. From this perspective, since both sides were cheating, it was relatively fair.

After losing ten thousand ryo, Tsunade stepped down as the dealer!

Following the rotation system, after Tsunade stepped down, the person sitting to her left, Jiangchuan, took over as the dealer, and the game continued!

Li Tong began to grow cautious because Jiangchuan knew sleight of hand. Although Li Tong could see through it, it was still a highly sophisticated technique. Jiangchuan was the one shuffling the cards, which gave him an advantage. Even if Li Tong's sleight of hand far surpassed Jiangchuan's, he couldn't entirely erase the impact of that advantage.

Time slipped away.

Before they knew it, two hours had passed!

Li Tong had already won over five thousand ryo. Ito, who had just finished his turn as dealer, had won the most—nearly twelve thousand ryo—while Tsunade had lost the most, roughly fifteen thousand ryo. The others had experienced varying degrees of wins and losses.

Finally, it was Li Tong's turn to deal!

"Little brother, your money isn't enough, is it? Five thousand ryo isn't even enough for a single bet from us. It's time to take out your capital, right?" Ito said, patting Li Tong on the shoulder with a rather strange tone.

Now, everyone was looking at Li Tong with a different expression; he had been winning the entire time!

"Not enough?" Li Tong, who was currently shuffling the cards, shook his head. "Jiangchuan-kun was also dealing with just a few thousand ryo earlier, wasn't he? Feel free to place your bets. If I don't have enough to pay you, I will naturally take out more money."

"As you say!" Ito grinned, tilting his head to give Jiangchuan a subtle wink.

In the first round of Li Tong dealing, Tsunade only bet five hundred ryo, while Jiangchuan and Ito both bet two thousand. Including the bets from the other three, the total pot was five thousand five hundred ryo. If Li Tong's hand turned out to be particularly poor, he would lose everything in one go!

After shuffling, the cards were dealt!

The room fell into a brief silence as everyone picked up their cards to check and arrange them.

"Ah!" A sudden exclamation came from Tsunade.

Everyone looked toward her. Tsunade had become extremely excited, her cheeks flushed red. This was the first time she had shown a smile since entering the casino, and it was incredibly sweet!

After arranging her cards, Tsunade swept her gaze over everyone present, hummed, and slapped her cards onto the white cloth with a loud laugh: "Hahahaha! Nine points! The highest hand! Hahaha, little ghost, what was your name again? You're my lucky charm... hahahaha!"

Tsunade was very agitated. For a gambler, especially one like Tsunade who lost every time she played, being dealt the highest hand was absolutely something worth getting excited about.

"Congratulations, Lady Tsunade. It seems your luck is turning around," Ito said to her with a smile, then gave Jiangchuan another subtle glance.

They didn't care at all about how high Tsunade's hand was because she wasn't the dealer! Everyone had to compare their hands against the dealer's; if Tsunade won, she was winning from the dealer.

"Little ghost! Hahaha, pay up, pay up! I have nine points!" Tsunade was overly excited.

"Ahem! Well..." Li Tong gave a light cough, slowly fanning out the cards he was holding and revealing them on the white cloth. "Sorry, I also have nine points. The dealer wins on a tie, so... I take the pot!"