Chapter 88: 85 I realise
Leading Tsunade inside, a server comes to greet us right away, as I had called ahead, well, not called obviously, I just came in and told them about my plans for the day.
So I follow them, Tsunade excitedly walking by my side, no doubt looking forward to gambling away my money.
Tsunade is momentarily confused as we walk passed the main hall, before she looks questioningly at me as we are lead to the high class rooms, where only the rich and powerful go.
The floor only has a few dozen people in it and most of them are nobles, the rest are gold diggers, which, fair enough, nothing wrong with playing to your strengths for an easy life.
The server leaves us alone to go get some drinks, Sake for Tsunade and what is basically brandy for me, I don't really like it, but I think I look cool holding it and I'm not ashamed to admit that.
"How did you manage to get access to up here? No offence but you are just a civilian born Shinobi, this place is exclusive for Nobles, Patriarchs and Matriarchs such as myself."
At Tsunade's curious look I just give a purposefully mysterious smile.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" I give a wink to her wry smile and lead her to a blackjack table that has a couple on Noble's with their arm candy being arm candy.
I take a seat and Tsunade takes the seat next to me and I tap the table so the dealer knows to deal us in before I greet our table mates.
"Hello there! My name is Hanabira, let's have a good, honest game, yeah?"
Despite my enthusiastic greeting both of them ignore me in favour of staring at Tsunade, or at least at a significant part of Tsunade.
I cough, loudly and deliberately, startling them out of their horny trance, and it's then that the server from before returns holding a tray with two drinks and two stacks of chips, about 100k Ryo worth.
It's like I said, we're both rich.
Also, as a side note, both of the arm candies are glaring at Tsunade, probably for being seen as competition or something, clearly not knowing who she is, somehow, and doing a terrible job of hiding it at that.
The two noblemen also clearly don't know who she is, if the way they are leering at her is any indication.
I'm not as surprised about that, since the Nobles tend to not keep up with 'worldly affairs', thinking themselves to be above such things.
I'm half convinced that Tsunade is going to kill them both before she seems to decide that taking a long swig of Sake is a better idea. It's a good thing I made sure she got a bottle, while I only got a glass.
We make our opening bets and the dealer deals, as he is wont to do, then we all look at our cards.
I have two 7's, Tsunade has an Ace and a king, the Nobles have a 4 and a king and a 5 and queen respectively.
We bet again and double the pot.
The Nobles go first and they both hit once and stay on twenty, Tsunade then gets a Jack for a perfect 21 and I get a 9, making me bust, causing Tsunade to be the winner.
"Woohoo! That's what I call easy money suckers!" Comes her enthusiastic celebration.
It's only the first game and she isn't even drunk, isn't that celebration a bit much?
I just shake my head with a smile as the dealer goes again.
Once again, Tsunade wins, mush to the agitation of the Nobles and my own ears as she earnestly celebrates.
The afternoon continues in that fashion for the next few matches, until Tsunade's confidence gets too high and she starts taking needless risks as her luck runs out and starts losing more and more money.
Eventually, after a few hours, many games and even more Sake, Tsunade finally runs out of money.
"Nooooo, so closeee. Hana, give me your chips, I can make them back I promise."
I raise an eyebrow in response to her words and she at least has the decency to act ashamed.
"Tsunade, I ran out of money ages ago, let's just go, there are other things I planned to do today after all." I find it amusing how I sound like I'm scolding an unruly child, the way she pouts certainly exacerbates that feeling.
"Fiiine, but whatever we're doing next better be good." She whines but complies nonetheless.
I roll my eyes and go to stand, but it's as Tsunade is going to stand that one of the Nobles speak up.
"Wait now, there's no reason for you to leave so soon, how about I lend you some of my chips and you can pay me back later?" He leers with a poorly concealed lecherous look.
I almost burst out laughing at the situation and how cliché it is, then I am left feeling annoyed that the situation is happening in the first place.
Tsunade looks to me, so I assume she's expecting me to deal with this then.
But first.
"Check the note." I say with a wink as I walk up to the noble and swing an arm around his neck to talk in semi privacy.
"Hey my guy, do you know about Ninja? Shinobi? See, I'm a Shinobi, a professional assassin to be precise, now, we can either pretend we've never met, or, some night in the future, you will wake up with a blade piercing your heart, capiche?"
As I whisper dangerously into the man's ear, I look him in the eye and release a portion of the killing intent I am capable of emitting. My bloodlust freezes him, making him incapable of responding, and I smell as he pisses himself.
Considering our conversation done, I return to Tsunade's side to see her staring down at the note in her hand with a bemused expression.
Peeking over her shoulder, I read the note I wrote out earlier today.
𝑰 𝒃𝒆𝒕, 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒑𝒊𝒅 𝑵𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖.
Tsunade faces me as we walk out of the building.
"You set this up." She accuses.
I can't let that stand, I am an upright, model citizen, I would never do such an underhanded tactic.
"Guess again Tsu."
"First of all, who said you could call me Tsu? Secondly, there is no way you could have predicted this without setting it up."
"It wouldn't be much of a bet if there weren't any odds, I knew where we were going, I knew there would be nobles there and I know nobles are stupid, I also know you are beautiful, with all of that information, it was just an educated guess."
After I explain the situation, Tsunade still doesn't seem entirely convinced, but is willing to let it go.
"You know, you can't just add compliments to your excuses in order to make me let them go."
"Then it's a good thing that I only stated facts then, isn't it?"
She does blush this time at my blatant flirting, even if it's only a small blush, but I'll take it as a win.
Also, it's an impressively casual display of her medical abilities that she drank that much Sake and isn't even drunk.
"But anyway, this is a perfect segue to the rest of the evenings activities."
I stop there and wait for her to take the bait, which she does with a roll of the eyes and an amused voice.
"And what are those activities?"
"Why, gambling of course!" I exclaim with a smile, and this time I actually to expand upon her raised eyebrow.
"We are going to walk around and bet on things, the stakes being whatever we want, I'll go first, so you know what we're doing."
With that said, under Tsunade's curious gaze, we walk over to the market street, and I decide to get the game going with something simple.
"I bet that I can get that vendor to give ma a free hat."
Tsunade eyes me critically as I point to a stall selling accessories, gloves, shoes, hats and such.
"How do I know you didn't set this up before had, or that you don't know her?" She accuses me.
I would never do such an underhanded thing, I would have you know I am an upstanding, moral citizen.
I turn to her, my face a rictus of sincerity.
"I swear on my life, I have never once spoken to that woman, besides, gambling isn't fun if you know you're going to win ahead of time."
She seems placated by the solemnity of my words, which is nice. It would be annoying if she spent the whole time thinking I was cheating.
Especially since I actually was being honest, I haven't spoken to her before, but I do know a girl who knows her and by know a girl I do mean I fucked a girl who knows her, so even if we've never met, we do know each other via mutual friends.
What? Just because I won't blatantly cheat, doesn't mean I can't stack the deck in my favour a little, and I just lost 200k Ryo so I think I deserve some leniency here.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Tsunade asks, impatient.
I give a sly smile and respond with a voice of silk.
"My dear Tsu, it wouldn't be gambling without any stakes now, would it?"
Her eyebrow twitches slightly at the pet name, and she continues to regard me mistrustfully for a moment.
"And what would the stakes be, exactly? You know you can't trick me into sleeping with you by making it a bet, right?"
Once again with that accusing tone of yours Tsu-chan, I'm hurt that you would think so lowly of me.
Putting a bitter smile on my face, I make sure a barely noticeable bit of pain makes it into my light hearted tone.
"You wound me, did I not say I wanted to do things properly here? This isn't just some elaborate ruse to get into your pants."
She looks apologetic immediately, because she's secretly really kind under her cynicism.
"I'm sorry, look, I didn't mean that, but you do have a reputation and-"
I interrupt her frantic apology and keep talking as if she never started.
"That being said, the stakes are that if I win I get a kiss."
What? I'm still me and being lustful is fully expected of me.
Wait am I a nympho? I guess I am. Huh, you learn something new every day.
Tsunade's apologetic look is rapidly replaced by an angry one but I don't stop smiling.
"I told you, I am not sleeping with you." She seethes.
I merely shrug, unrepentant as I reply.
"I know, I know, I only mean a kiss on the cheek. Look, I may be willing to hold back for the sake of furthering our relationship and earning your trust, but I am still me and those rumours exist for a reason. I am fully willing to devote myself entirely to you, but I will not change who I am, just as I don't expect you to change yourself for my sake."
That mollifies her, and my solemn words afterwards leave her with many emotions going through her face before she settles on giving me a look that clearly states how thin ice I am on.
I just give a smile and head over to the stall, talking to Tsunade behind me as I walk away.
"You wait here, I'll be back in a minute."
Five minutes, a lot of flirting and a blushing young woman later and I am walking back to Tsunade wearing my brand new beanie, free of charge.
Presenting myself and my beanie to Tsunade I give her a smile.
"Well?" I say leadingly, indicating to my cheek.
But Tsunade just gives me a smug smirk.
"I never actually agreed to the bet y'know?"
Damn.
"Next time then."
She clearly didn't expect me to accept that so easily, but it was only a kiss on the cheek, I don't care about that, the whole point of it is to make her more comfortable with me.
Thus, the date continues.
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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Ugh, writing this is a slug, I want to get to the fun parts, since we're approaching the final arc of this fic. Also, I decided to skip a little of the date, cuz I couldn't think of anything good to write and don't want to ruin my schedule.
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