Admittingly, I am guilty of already having multiple to be completed fanfictions but this idea JUST wouldn't go away, so I had to type it up... and here it is.
Tobito's Game
Summary: After a 'fatal' accident in his preteens that resulted in his supposed 'death', Obito Uchiha had spent the rest of his years living in the shadows, running illegal high-stake poker games for the Elite and Crime Lords under the infamous pseudonym: Tobi. But the clock's ticking as, Kakashi Hatake, Konoha Crime Department's rising lead detective, and Obito's former friend, begins to pick up the pieces with full intentions of destroying his illegal gambling ring, unaware of the true status of his 'hero'.
Crime/Thriller AU.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything other than my extensive collection of Naruto merchandise.
Enjoy!
Prologue
All eyes focused on the masked man that stood before them. Their intensive gaze fixated on the deck of cards that skilfully moved and shuffled around between his black leather gloved palms before he calmly distributed cards, laying two cards down in front of each player at the table and himself. His customers for tonight, all esteemed men... Men of power, shrewd men who couldn't resist the temptation of a good gamble, or the opportunity to rid the other of an asset in order to re-establish a better position for themselves in the outside world. Their greed drove them and often forced them to sacrifice others for the gain of their own self-fulfilment and satisfaction. But what was new? These were the type of customers that often associated themselves around his little fun games.
Outside this room, each of them ran their own little empire of illegalities, but inside this designated compact space used for tonight's little festive, they didn't have any sort of control. He was the King of this game, his world, his rules, and there was no way in hell that he would let them get off without sweating. After all, that was the thrill of high stakes poker. Someone's got to lose it all. "This will be our final round, gentlemen!" The masked man cheerily said, placing down the three centre cards. "Place your bets! But remember, this is not the final bet just yet." He told them as each of the men sitting in front of him assessed their situation, glancing between the cards in their hand and the one at the centre of the table. Each wore controlled expressions on their face as one by one, they came to their own final conclusions.
"Fold." Ikuto, a member of the National Diet*, stated, pushing his two cards forward before leaning back in his chair.
"Are you really really sure?" Asked the masked man, childishly. "Maybe it could turn around when the other two cards come out! You can still win! Don't give up!"
Ikuto nodded, pushing up his glasses as he sat up and rested his chin on the palms of his hand. "I'm sure." The man reaffirmed, his eyes staring at the pile of poker chips that remained by his side. 'I came in here with exactly 1,113,606.03 Yen (10,000 USD) **, and I'm leaving with 397,557.35 Yen (3,570 USD) ***. A major loss, but it won't be a setback... at least I came out of it better than those two idiots. Fools that just don't know when to give up, but that might be exactly what Tomoya wants...' His eyes narrowed at the Governor amongst the pair, the man's gaze was fully focused on the calm expression of the elder Police commissioner before him. 'Tomoya's trying to gain some leverage to help out his campaign...' Ikuto clicked his tongue in annoyance, before his eyes narrowed back at the man who had the most chips and held the most money right now...Their masked dealer. Ikuto frowned, now there was puzzle the House of Councillors of Japan**** member could not figure out. He's been to at least three games run by this man, but he still could not understand the enigma who was their dealer, Tobi. As if he could hear Ikuto's every thought, Tobi's head snapped to look at him, tilting his orange swirled masked head as his one lone eye seemed to curl up into an eye smile. It unnerved him, Ikuto felt a bead of sweat drop down the back of his head.
"Yes, Ikuto-Chan? Do you want anything from Tobi?"
Ikuto shook his head, pulling loosely at his suit collar. He needed to breath. "Yeah..." His eye flickered to another man in the room, a man who often hung around Tobi during his games, watching the doors. "Hey you, give me a light." Ikuto pulled out a cigarette from the box in his pocket and put it in his mouth, holding it out for the man to light for him.
The man seemed to hesitate, "Tobi..." Said the green haired man in the all-white suit nervously, looking at man who stood in the single spotlight.
"It's okay, Shiro-Zetsu! Give the man a light, but make sure you don't set his really expensive suit on fire okay? We don't want that to happen again, now do we?" Tobi said happily before tapping at his chin, as he tilted his head to look at the other man standing by the blinded window, opposite from where Shiro-Zetsu was stationed. "Or was that Kuro-Zetsu who set the suit on fire last time? Oh well, I don't remember!" He exclaimed, looking at the grinning man in an all-black suit. Suddenly, Tobi's focused turned back to the three cards on the table. "So? The bets? What will your bets be!? Tobi almost forgot, but don't worry because Tobi is a good boy who always remembers... Eventually!"
Ikuto pulled away after Shiro-Zetsu lit his smoke, he dismissed the man with a hand wave as he carefully watched the other two players left in the game.
Tomoya smirked, pushing all his remaining chips forward, his eyes narrowing on the last player in the game, Tadase. "I'm feeling pretty good about my hand," bragged Tomoya, bringing a small crystal cup up to his lips, "you might want to fold now, Tadase."
'Ruffling the feathers of his competitive streak so that he would make a rash decision and pull all in... Playing dirty as usual, Tomoya,' Ikuto clicked his tongue once more, emitting a 'tsk' sound from behind his lips. 'But Tadase's smarter than that, Tomoya.' He drew his cigarette from his mouth to let out a puff of smoke.
Tadase smirked, his aged eyes crinkling in amusement as the plumper man let out a soft chuckle before he replied. "Really? Well, I happen to think that you're lying." The man pushed all his remaining chips as well into the middle as well. "I'll call your bluff, Tomoya... After all, all of you politicians just love to lie."
Tomoya shrugged back in response, "So maybe I do, a little here and there... But I say, lets up the stakes a bit here. Let's make things a bit more interesting." He leaned forward and gestured with his free fingers for Tadase to lean in closer to him, so that he could whisper something to his ear. Tomoya grinned as the man obligated, leaning to his side as Tomoya whispered softly into Tadase's ear before pulling away, but his words were far from sweet to Tadase's ears. "My price."
Tadase's face had paled momentarily before the man leaned back in his chair and stared hard at Tomoya with tired eyes, "That's quite a demand you want, Tomoya. But, even I'll admit that I'm impressed that you even know that I have that, it's restricted and incredibly sensitive information after all. Selfish and fearless as always, not afraid to dirty your hands or do anything to win." He told him, bringing his own crystal cup of scotch whisky to his lips. "But what do I get if I win?"
Tomoya shrugged once more dismissively, "You've been trying to marry of your eldest son, aren't you, Tadase? How about one of my girls?" 'The eldest one is already at marriageable age; this union could prove to be a beneficial one.'
Now it was Tadase's turn to even the odds. "Alright then, but it has to be the youngest one." Tadase smirked as he watched Tomoya silently begin to fume. It was no secret to the world that his youngest daughter was his most cherished one. "It's only fair, Tomoya. You're asking for quite a lot..." To emphasise his point, the man took out a silver flash drive from his pocket and placed it down next to his stack of chips. 'To think that I'd have to wager this…'
Tomoya's tightened his grasp on his own cup of scotch whisky before tossing his head back, gulping down the remaining contents of the cup in one shot. "Fine. We've got a deal." He snapped back, before looking at Tobi. "Flip the damn cards already." 'I have to win this.'
Tobi said nothing as he flipped one more card onto the table. "Gentlemen, this your last chance to pull out." He sweetly reminded them.
"Forget it, just flip the last card already, Tobi. We've both pulled all in on this." Tadase told him.
"Alright then!" Tobi flipped it.
The cards of the table: 2, 3, 7, 2, and Q.
Tadase grinned, tossing his cards down first, a 7 and 6. The seven formed a pair with the one on the table. "One pair. Don't even try to tell me you have anything better than a one pair, Tomoya. We knew from the numbers that the possibilities for a 'Full House' or 'Four of a kind' wouldn't be happening for either of us."
Tomoya smirked, "But that's where you're wrong." He flipped his cards, 2 and 3. "I have a pair as well, but if you combined my two with the pair of twos on the table, it would count as three, right Tobi?"
Tobi nodded energetically as he clapped his hands together. "Oh yes, and what a wonderful hand, Mr. Tomoya! It's so brilliant, such good luck you have! You're for sure going to win your campaign now!" He exclaimed excitedly. "But I'm afraid that you've also lost." The tone of his voice darkened immediately, a drastic change from the cheery one he had adopted during most of the night as he tossed his own two cards down, an A and 4 of hearts. "Flush." Tobi stated, "I believe that I have won everything." The masked man beamed as he began to gather all of the rest of the chips pushed into the centre, including the silver flash drive that Tomoya desperately desired. "Oh, but don't worry Tomoya-Chan! You won't need to give me your youngest daughter, I don't deal with that. But since it was up for taking, it'll be handed over to my associate Kakazu to handle! He'll contact you later on in the week on the details!"
"Now, wait just a damn minute! What the hell do you mean you win? Don't fuck with me!" Raged Tomoya, slamming his fist down on the table, his face red. "You weren't involved in this deal!"
"Ah, but Tobi was part of the game too, and both this," Tobi held up the silver flash drive in one hand, "And your beloved daughter was wagered as bets for the game, which Tobi was a player off." His childish tone mocked him as the man wiggled a gloved finger in front of Tomoya's face.
Tadase leaned forward and took a look at all the cards on the table, "No, he's won, Tomoya." 'He's got a 'Flush' of all hearts.' Commented Tadase, noting the suite of all the other cards on the centre, most of which belonged to hearts. 'Tobi is good, but then again, he's meant to be to keep his games going on for so long.' He leaned back, giving the man a look over. 'He's always one step ahead after all.'
"No, I refuse to accept this!" Tomoya screamed, "I demand-" his sentence was cut off by a cool surface of a blade against his throat. He felt a lump in his throat.
"I believe that the game is over good sir, now please, sit down and gather your things before you have to leave." Kuro-Zetsu hissed, threatening to press his blade deeper into the man's neck at a spot that was sure to be fatal.
Tomoya did as the man said, but he didn't like it. His darkened eyes glared at Tobi. 'I need that flash drive.'
"Well, gentleman, I believe this is goodbye for tonight then." With that, each of them took their leave one by one, some more reluctant than others to go.
Once the room was empty of customers, with the outside perimeter secured and safe, Tobi turned to Kuro-Zetsu. He tossed the man the silver flash drive, "Pass this to Itachi to analyse." He pushed all the remaining poker chips to Shiro-Zetsu, "Bring this to Kakazu to cash into the accounts."
Shino-Zetsu began to pack the chips up into a silver suitcase before looking up at the masked man who had turned to leave the room, "What are you going to do now, Tobi?"
Reaching out, he pulled off his orange swirl mask from his face to reveal a young man in his early twenties with dark black hair, and a matching set of eyes. He was rather handsome, however the most distinctive feature about this man would have to be the scar that spread across half his face and down to the rest of his body beneath his black and white dealer uniform. Glancing back at Shiro-Zetsu, the man known as 'Tobi' said, "I'm going to do what I do every year, Shiro-Zetsu," his lips curled up into a small smile. "I'm going to pay myself a little visit."
*The National Diet is the Japanese version of Parliament, and ****the House of Councillors of Japan is a representation of the upper house, which Ikuto is a member of.
** & ***This is an accurate conversion between the two currencies at the time I was writing this chapter, but it may not be so accurate depending on when you read this story.
Game played: Texas Hold'em. Everything that occurred in the game above is based on my understanding of the game, and the version of how I normally play Texas Hold'em with my friends so I am sorry if you think I did something wrong, but please understand that rules may vary depending on the group of people who play the game.