Tsunade's eyes were already red.
Not the red of tears, but the bloodshot red that came after losing more than a dozen rounds in a row. Paired with her slightly flushed cheeks and scattered strands of golden hair, she looked like an irritable mother cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Again!"
She shoved all her remaining chips into the center of the table. The movement was so forceful that it knocked over a wine cup, and sake spread across the tabletop.
Chiba sat across from her, his folding fan concealing half his face. The eyes visible above it were brimming with barely restrained amusement.
"Lady Tsunade, are you going all in this round? These remaining chips only amount to a little over thirty thousand ryo. Are you sure?"
"Cut the crap. If I'm betting, I'm betting. I, Tsunade, have gambled my whole life. You think I'm afraid of some young merchant brat?"
Tsunade braced both hands against the edge of the table and leaned forward. The collar of her clothes slipped more open in that position, exposing a broad expanse of fair skin below her collarbones beneath the dim yellow light. She exhaled the scent of alcohol from between her lips, carrying sake's distinctive sweet fragrance.
Chiba's gaze lingered on that view for 0.3 seconds before he withdrew it and tapped the table with his folding fan.
"Fine, all in. Then let's begin the first round."
The dealer set down the dice cup, and bone dice clattered crisply against its bottom.
The instant the dice cup fell, Chiba's spiritual power had already locked onto the positions and orientations of the six dice within. Yin Release chakra seeped through the gaps between airborne molecules, applying a minute directional adjustment in the final 0.1 seconds before the dice stopped rolling.
"Open!"