It actually doesn't take that long to walk to the training grounds, but with all of the cardio exercise that Bear has made her go through, Sakura is ready to hit the ground. She drags her feet to the pair of bored-looking guards sitting in front of the wooden gate leading to the open plain. One's reading a paperback book; the other is shuffling through a stack of playing cards with the finesse of a seasoned gambler.

"Name?" The one reading his book queries, his eyes still glued to the page. The sticky name tag on his flak jacket reads "Izumo" in neat block letters. The other man ("HI! MY NAME IS: Kotetsu") squints dubiously at a earmarked card and sets it aside on the table.

"Ha...Haruno, Sa-kura-mo," Sakura wheezes, still trying to catch her breath. She licks her cracked lips. Izumo reluctantly sets his book aside and jots down her name on the long scroll spread out in front of him. Beside him, Kotetsu makes a waterfall with his deck of cards.

"Did they tell you who to report to?" Izumo asks. He smacks Kotetsu's hand, which elicits a startled yelp from the other man, who drops the cards that he's holding. A cascade of cards fall to the ground.

"HEY! That was totally uncalled for," Kotetsu whines, gingerly touching the back of his hand. He grimaces in exaggerated pain.

"You were being annoying," Izumo says dismissively, and then turns to Sakura. "Sorry, didn't catch that."

"Hatake-taichou," Sakura tells him.

While Kotetsu, grumbling, gets up to retrieve his cards, Izumo consults another scroll and scribbles something down in the first of the five boxes underneath the character for field: 畑. Hatake. There are a few other kanji that seem to be the names of the other captains. Sakura recognizes a few famous names here and there.

Kotetsu emerges from the bushes that are a couple of feet away from the guard station, triumphantly holding a dirty Queen of Hearts and a three of clovers.

"LOOK, IZUMO, LOOK!" he hollers, and Izumo nearly overturns the inkwell. "LOOK WHAT I FOUND-"

Izumo shoots him a dirty look and Kotetsu deflates. "Sorry," he says sheepishly.

"You have one job to do, Kotetsu," Izumo mutters under his breath. "One. Job-"

"Which is boring as fuck," Kotetsu says, rolling his eyes. "I already said I was sorry. Lighten up, man." He smacks Izumo's back good-naturedly. "Oh, it's Hatake-taichou, huh?" he says, peering over Izumo's shoulder. "What's the betting pool like this time around?"

Izumo nudges him hard in the ribs but the damage has already been done. Sakura stiffens.

"What do you mean by that, exactly?" She asks warily. Kotetsu glances a little desperately at Izumo, but Izumo's already buried himself in his book again.

"Weeeell, Hatake-taichou is a little, uh, peculiar, but we all have our idiosyncrasies, heh heh," Kotetsu says, scratching the back of his head. Sakura doesn't buy it.

"I think you mentioned something about a betting pool," she says, emphasizing the last two words. She glares at Kotetsu. He gives up.

"The betting pool's been around since we were recruits," Kotetsu says, jabbing his thumb at Izumo, who doesn't seem to be paying any attention to the conversation at hand. "Hatake Kakashi is infamous for not passing anyone, Clan brat or not. The kids who enter his squad either quit or flunk out pretty quickly, so people place bets on how long the newest batch of recruits last. There's only one kid who's managed to stick around until now, but that's only because he got transferred over to Might Gai's squad. I heard he's clinically bat-shit insane."

"The captain or the recruit?" Sakura asks, confused.

"Probably both," Izumo replies distantly. He must have been listening to their conversation after all. "But Kotetsu probably meant the recruit. If you're talking about Gai-taichou's little clone, I completely agree." He flips a page.

"I mean, how hard do you have to hit your head to wear that green jumpsuit voluntarily?" Kotetsu mutters, shaking his head. "I don't even want to know what Hatake did to make him turn out like that. Geez." He shudders.

"...So how long do people last on his squad?" Sakura asks Kotetsu.

"Two weeks, give or take," the man replies. "The longest anyone's lasted is two weeks and four hours. Come to think of it, even Rock Lee was only there for a week or so before Gai swooped in like an avenging angel. That probably explains the jumpsuit, now that I think about it."

This Hatake person was beginning to sound more and more like a nightmare.

"And, uh, what happens if you flunk out?"

Kotetsu barks out a laugh and then quickly sobers. "Kid, you would wish you didn't," he warns.

"Grave digging, latrine duty and other unpleasant things," Izumo summarizes without looking up, "plus someone else from your family will have to fill your spot."

...which is exactly what she's trying to prevent.

"Well," Sakura says, throwing her hands up into the air, " is there ANYTHING that I can do to make sure that I actually manage to stay on his squad?"

This actually makes Izumo look up from his book. He looks first at Kotetsu, and then both men turn to look at Sakura.

There's a pause before both men dissolve into peals of laughter.

"What?" Sakura scowls.

"YOU?" Kotetsu guffaws. Izumo, red-faced from laughing so hard, wipes away a tear. "I take it back, Izumo. I won't trade this job for anything else."

"Well, I'm glad that the two of you are enjoying yourselves," Sakura says icily. This just makes them laugh harder.

Sakura grits her teeth and waits until the two men calm down.

"Kotetsu-san," she says when Kotetsu's laughter winds down. "You seem like a betting man. Let's have a bet, just between you and me."

Izumo immediately catches the shift in her tone and stiffens. Kotetsu, on the other hand, is still chortling.

He stops when he hears her next words.

"I wager 50,000 ryo* that I'll stay on Hatake-taichou's squad," Sakura tells him. "Not for two weeks, but for the rest of this war."

Kotetsu scoffs.

"That'd be like taking candy from a baby," he says. "What's the fun in that? You probably don't have the money for it anywa-"

The thunk of a small pouch, heavy with coin, interrupts him mid-sentence.

"I have it here," Sakura says flatly. "Deal or no deal?"

"Deal." Kotetsu says immediately.

"Just so you know, this idiot doesn't have the funds to honor your agreement if you do end up winning," Izumo warns.

"Then I want a favor later on. You can do that, right?" Sakura turns to Kotetsu. He smirks.

"Sure," he drawls. "IF you win."

Asshole.

"It's a pleasure to do business with you, Kotetsu-san." Sakura pockets her coin pouch. "But remember, no take backs."

Kotetsu quirks an eyebrow.

"I should be saying that to you," he says. "But well, if you insist."

They exchange shark-toothed grins before Izumo finally intervenes to give Sakura directions to wherever she's heading.

Kotetsu beams at Izumo after the pink-haired slip of a boy trudges off towards his impending doom.

"My luck seems to be turning, eh, Izumo?"

"I don't know," Izumo says, looking thoughtfully at Sakura's disappearing figure. "You might have bitten off more than you can chew this time around."

"...Wait, what? What's that supposed to mean?"

AN [05/06/18]: Editing for sentence flow and grammatical errors that I didn't catch the first time around.

*Here, I'm assuming that 100 ryo is equivalent to 100 yen, so Sakura is betting approximately $500 in U.S. Dollars.