Cheating!

The twenty-second round.

Tsunade lost again, without the slightest surprise.

She picked up the dice one by one and turned them over, then lifted the dice cup to inspect its inner walls. She set it down, picked up the dice again, and held them up to the lamplight.

"These dice are fine, right?" Tsunade's voice was low. She wasn't asking anyone in particular; it sounded more like she was talking to herself.

"Lady Tsunade, these are the inn's dice. You've already checked them three times."

Shizune sat beside her. Tonton, nestled on her lap, sniffed twice and buried her head in Shizune's arm.

Shizune reached out, grabbed Tsunade's sleeve, and tugged hard.

"Lady Tsunade, shouldn't we call it a night and get some rest?"

"Now you understand what I mean, right?" Shizune turned to Sasuke, her voice filled with the despair of someone who'd been through it all before.

"I've seen this happen more times than I can count. It doesn't matter who Lady Tsunade bets against, what they're betting on, which casino they're in, or whose dice they're using. It always goes like this."

Tsunade slapped Shizune's hand away from her sleeve. "Shizune, shut up!"

Then she glared at Sasuke, something burning in her golden eyes. "Again."

Sasuke said nothing. He just pushed the dice cup back to Tsunade.

He'd been watching her closely. Tsunade's technique was average, but there was nothing wrong with the way she shook the dice. The cup was fine, too.

He'd felt the dice with his fingertips earlier. They were ordinary ox-bone dice.

The problem wasn't any of those things.

The problem was the fact that "Tsunade shook them."

Sasuke caught that same anxious look deep in Tsunade's eyes again. Now that was a normal reaction.

But Tsunade's luck was beyond mere bad luck. Even if an ordinary person had a run of bad fortune, losing twenty rounds in a row would just mean they were unlucky. But losing no matter how they shook the dice was about as unlikely as choking to death on a drink of water.

He didn't believe in fate or lucky sayings, but now he believed in one thing.

Tsunade's luck wasn't probability. It was something he couldn't begin to understand.

Did he really have to beat someone like her before she'd agree to help?

Sasuke set the dice cup down on the table and tapped its side twice with his fingers.

The shadow at his feet shifted.

The inn room was lit only by the oil lamp on the table. The floor beneath the low table, hidden by its top, was already dark. No one would notice anything there.

A thread-thin strand of shadow crept out from beneath the table, silently spreading along the underside of the tabletop before slipping through the gap at the bottom of the dice cup.

The moment the shadow thread touched the three dice he'd rolled, Sasuke could sense which faces were turned upward.

Two, four, three. Nine points.

He wrapped the shadow thread around the die showing four and gently flipped it over once.

Now they showed two, one, and three. Six points.

"Six."

Tsunade snatched up the dice cup, tossed in three dice, and began shaking it with a flick of her wrist.

This time, she barely put any effort into it. She just gave the cup a couple of casual shakes before setting it down on the table.

She lifted it.

The three dice showed four, one, and three.

Eight points.

For a second, Tsunade's expression froze. It was as if she hadn't even thrown a punch, but the wall had gone and hit her instead.

Eight was exactly two points higher than six.

"See that?" Tsunade slapped the table. The oil lamp jumped, and Shizune hurriedly reached out to steady it.

"I see," Sasuke said, pushing the dice cup back. His tone was perfectly calm.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes and stared at Sasuke's face for a while.

She reached out and separated the three dice on the table, glanced at Sasuke's fingers, then looked at the patch of shadow beneath the low table.

She didn't find anything.

There was no trace of chakra, nor any lingering energy from a jutsu.

But she had a vague feeling that something was off.

Tsunade's expression relaxed, and the corners of her mouth softened.

Cheating.

But she hadn't figured out how he'd done it. That made things interesting.

Tsunade leaned back, settling her weight against the chair.

Suddenly, the kid didn't seem so annoying anymore.

If Sasuke had just been stubbornly relying on luck and earnestly begging her for help, like Dan and Nawaki...

She wouldn't have wanted to help him.

She'd seen too many people like that. The mission mattered more than their lives, their comrades mattered more than their lives, and the village mattered more than their lives. In the end, they died on the battlefield, leaving the living to bury them.

Sigh. The dead.

Tsunade picked up the die she'd flipped over, rolled it between her fingers twice, then set it back on the table.

"Fine." Tsunade casually pushed the dice cup aside, planted her elbows on the table, and leaned forward. "I'll help you with what you asked."

Sakura sat beside Sasuke. She let out a breath of relief, and her clenched fist slowly relaxed.

Shizune's eyebrows shot up. Tonton poked her head out from Shizune's arm and sniffed in Tsunade's direction.

"Lady Tsunade, you're willing to—"

"Bang."

The door was shoved open from outside and slammed into the wall with a dull thud.

"Tsunade?!"

Jiraiya stood in the doorway. He hadn't even taken the huge scroll off his back yet. His eyes were wide, fixed on Tsunade, who sat cross-legged across the low table.

Tsunade turned her head, looked Jiraiya up and down, then snatched a die off the table and flicked it at his forehead.

The die struck the center of Jiraiya's Forehead Protector with a sharp click, then bounced back onto the table and knocked over the oil-lamp chimney Shizune had just righted.

"Jiraiya, did someone cut off your knocking hand on the way here?"

"I was in a hurry to find you!"

Jiraiya rubbed his forehead, leaned the scroll against the doorframe, then strode over and plopped down beside Sasuke. His bulk shoved Sasuke half an inch to the side.

Jiraiya glanced at the dice on the table and the overturned dice cup, then at the smug look Tsunade hadn't quite managed to hide. A familiar smile appeared on his face.

"You were gambling with Sasuke?"

"Yeah. But I won one round."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.

As one of the people who knew Tsunade best in the world, he'd long since gotten used to her losing every bet she made.

She'd won the last round?

"Don't tell me the kid let you win on purpose."

Tsunade didn't respond. She picked up the wine flask on the table, poured herself a drink, and took a sip.

"You old lecher. Why aren't you out traveling the world and writing your novels? What are you doing in a place like this?"

"Of course I came to find you. The old man's mission is mainly to get you to help this boy here."

Jiraiya reached for the wine flask on the table, but Tsunade smacked the back of his hand, and he pulled it back.

"Teacher Sarutobi again... You all found me so easily. Was that just good luck?"

"Of course I'm not that lucky. Sasuke is the lucky one."

"When did you sink so low that you have to rely on a kid?"

"This kid's no ordinary child. He's too clever, and he's a handful."

"I can see the part about him being no ordinary child." Tsunade set her glass down on the table.

"You can take the 'handful' part with you."

"That won't do. We haven't handled the real business yet," Sasuke cut in.

"You want me to help you research Medical Ninjutsu, right?" Tsunade nodded, then got to her feet and yawned.

"Tell me the details."