Maki Zenin, Toji's Daughter

"I have to get half. Otherwise, I'll never come with you again."

Maki refused to give an inch. Her soft, childish voice contrasted with her young yet serious expression as she issued her solemn warning.

"Honestly..."

Tsunade muttered, "What does a little kid need so much money for?"

After years of practice, Tsunade knew full well about her unusual luck at the gambling table.

She possessed a kind of reverse good fortune. In peaceful everyday life, she lost whenever she gambled, and if something good was about to happen, she lost even more badly. Yet whenever she happened to win a bet, it foretold that disaster would soon follow.

She did not actually like gambling at all. She merely treated it as her own unique method of divination.

Little Maki, however, was the exact opposite. Ever since Tsunade had brought her to a gambling table on her third birthday, Tsunade had discovered that the girl possessed an exceptionally pure kind of positive luck.

Even offset by Tsunade's misfortune, she could still win steadily.

From then on, Tsunade had latched onto Maki.

What a wonderful excuse to get close to her. Every few days, she would bring her out from home to play.

Because of Maki's background, coupled with the way they fought side by side in casinos, Tsunade and Maki were not mother and daughter, yet they were closer than sisters.

On Maki's fifth birthday, Tsunade gave her the Wood Release necklace Hashirama had left behind for her.

It appeared to be a spur-of-the-moment birthday gift, but Tsunade had considered it for a long time. The proof was that when her own younger brother Nawaki had gone to take up a post in the capital, she had not been willing to give him this necklace.

Close indeed, very close indeed~