The table rustled with unease after Mana's words that revealed just how much she knew about this group and their reasons for being here. The masked leader of the group flicked his baggy hat and leaned back in his chair, lifting his right hand over the seat and turning sideways to the guest he brought to the table. With this revelation, Mana just standing up and walking away became impossible.
"Are you here to get in our way?" the man leaned forward and slammed his fist on the table, making the chips and scattered cards jump up a bit and move around the table while the glasses of milk wobbled. The rowdy evening vibes in the Skipping Stone bar muzzled the uncomfortable rumble on the table and prevented the atmosphere from turning awkward.
"By no means. I have absolutely no care in the world about someone stealing something from someone. Especially if said someone has bountiful things for others to steal already." Mana dismissed the group's worries with a careless hand gesture, resting back in her chair as the tall and bulky members of the group leaned over the table and turned to her as if preparing to vault on the young woman and trample her to death for the insolence of treating them like some lowly group of bandits under her thumb.
"So, what are you here for? To blackmail us?" the fat man with the exotic mustache growled at Mana.
"That depends on the matter of perspective," Mana shrugged. "I suppose you could call it that, but I'd personally call it an employment."
"Employment?" the leader of the group of burglars leaned back easier in his chair after Mana shut down the two most immediate worries that everyone around the table had about this mysterious street magician they've brought in.
"Yeah, there's something that I need and I have an itching feeling that something rests in the same location you're looking to loot. Since you're going there anyway, and I suspect you lot to be capable at your job, I'd like to hire you for an additional job. You wouldn't even have to go out of your way, just do what you've set out to do but nick one additional thing for me if you find it." Mana explained.
"Just so we're clear, Sotatsu's paintings are ours!" the busty, blue-haired woman in the group ground her knuckle into the table, trying to intimidate Mana with this rather aggressive notion though Mana had seen far more nightmarish things than a scorned burglar lady to shake yet.
"Of course, from what it seems, they sort of switch hands all the time anyway. I've got no use for them. Money's of no interest to me." Mana waggled her finger with indifference, winking with her left eye as if the very proposition that she may have wanted one of Sotatsu's paintings to sell on the black market physically hurt her.
"That may be so, but you'll need some of that dough to hire us. We're burglars, you see. We're also somewhat renowned for our excellent work ethic and results." The leader of the group tilted the ring of his hat up to better showcase his crescent-shaped mask and get a better look at Mana, figuring that she'd squirm the moment money came into question.
"That's where I was wondering if we could strike a deal," Mana shrugged, visibly admitting that the cowboy hat donning burglar wasn't entirely wrong for suspecting Mana to be penniless.
"Oh? How old are you?" the masked gent looked rather hesitant and taken aback by that proposition. Mana pinched her chin and glanced away. Endo choked on his drink behind her and smashed his face into the bar before hammering his own chest a few times. The burglars all scanned the bar, but then returned to the matter at hand when Mana regained her composure.
"That wasn't the kind of deal I was proposing," Mana admitted. "You look like a gambling man. I was wondering if you were willing to gamble for it. I just happen to know a perfect game to play over it."
"That so? What would the terms be? If you've got no ryo on you, you have little to gamble for," a bald man with a leather coat from amongst the burglars spoke up.
"The terms couldn't be any clearer–the winner of the game gets the locket. The Golden Locket of Sotatsu." Mana proposed. "That is the artifact I am after and I believe that artifact to be in the place you're hitting tonight."
"It's true that it would get stuffy for the two of us to hit the place at the same time. Meanwhile, after we nick the paintings we're looking for, the bastard will buff up the security like nobody's business, making hitting him the second time impractical. It may be better that we settle things here," the gambling burglar with a cowboy hat nodded. "What game are you proposing?"
"Weiner. It's a card game played in Kirigakure…" Mana was about to go into a whole thing before the man raised his worn leather glove to silence her.
"I'm well aware of the game and its reputation in Kirigakure. I know the rules. You're on." The leader of the burglars said before dragging his finger around the table and pointing at himself with his thumb. "Weiner is more engaging when played in larger groups. We're all playing but if we're doing this, we're doing this on one condition."
"Shoot," Mana nodded in agreement, preparing to accept the deal of playing alone against the entire group as she's faced those sorts of odds before.
"You don't play. Your lackeys play for you." The gambler tilted his jaw as he looked up and pinpointed each of the concealed ninja from amongst Mana's crew one by one. "There is no way in hell that I'm playing cards with a magician. I may stuff a card or two under my sleeve once in a while, but I'm not an idiot. I'm sure you'll be playing with all-aces the whole time. Let's have some real fun and make it an actual gamble."
"You've just admitted to being just as much of a cheater as I am." Mana sighed, still hoping to salvage the certainty of victory, as her unparalleled sleight of hand would have guaranteed her victory against any number of opponents. If she as much as touched the deck or cast a single illusion–the game would have been as good as hers.
"True, but I won't be able to cheat that well at Weiner. The game involves the entire deck, so I won't be able to hide or switch any cards. Plus, unlike you, I'm a cheater, not a miracle maker. I think this handicap is just about enough to make it fairer for you guys, so if you're in–call your crew over." The chief burglar laid out his terms and Mana had no other choice but to accept them. She turned aside and waved toward the bar, gathering everyone over around the table as the burglar group so graciously pulled in a few chairs from the surrounding tables so that the Konoha and the Allied Ninja could settle down.
"We play five-on-five. One of you is going to have to sit this one out too," the cowboy hat gambler pointed his chin at the gathered group of transformed ninja who maintained their disguises throughout the entire operation.
"Fine, I'll sit this one out." Endo declared, standing up and pushing the chair under the table with his foot. "Gambling is a vice I would much rather not partake in."
"You have no qualms about killing," Mana noted.
"Of course. Regardless, I won't gamble or abuse alcohol. I'm not sinful like you." Endo crossed his arms, scolding Mana with a look.
"Okay, so now that we settled this extremely entertaining part, how about we play some Weiner, folks? Since the player that rids their hand of cards wins, the team with all their players ridding their hands of cards wins. The odds are simple: if you win, we steal the Golden Locket of Sotatsu for you and we look out for it during our job tonight. If we win–you give us all information about the locket that you have and scram. The locket's ours after we find it." The gambler explained after separating the deck of cards to only contain cards from the nines and higher.
"Does everyone know the rules?" Kakashi wondered, looking around the table. He had a certain clarity and calmness to his look that suggested he did indeed know them, but it may have been smart to make sure that everyone did so as well.
"I don't play cards," Temari grumbled. "But I'm sure that if some Kirigakure lowlifes and criminals can figure them out–I can too. I already know I'm supposed to rid my hand of cards."
"Pretty much it," Kakashi smiled under his face mask. "The player with the nine of hearts starts by placing it down on the table, then it goes clockwise and each player can play one card that's the same or higher than the card currently on the table. If you have the full set–you can play all four of them instead. If you cannot–you scoop everything but the nine of hearts."
"That's an elementary game," Shige-H nodded, listening for the rules carefully before her face washed with a sense of ease after realizing how basic it was.
"Of course, they invented it to provide a less lethal alternative for the people in the slums of Kirigakure to settle their quarrels." Kakashi pointed out while the masked dealer dealt the cards out. While dealing, it became clear that four cards remained in the deck while there were eight more players to deal. Kakashi nodded in approval while the masked dealer split the remaining cards, two for each team, one for every other player of the team.
"This doesn't look very fair…" Temari objected, realizing she now held three cards in her hand while most players had two.
"It doesn't matter much. This is just going to be a quick elimination round before a handful of players remain. That's when the real game starts." Mana calmed the woman down by placing a hand on her shoulder, entrusting to her to recover the locket.
"You should stay clear of the table if you value this deal we've made, magician." The fat man with a Fu Manchu mustache pointed a greasy and thick finger at Mana. The young woman raised her hands over her head and backed off.
"Alright, who's got the nine of hearts?" the masked gambler scanned the table.
"Heh, I do! Heck, yeah!" the blue-haired bombshell tossed a nine of hearts down in the middle of the table with a hearty fling. "One card left to get rid of."
"Well then," Kakashi smiled, gently extending his hand with a queen of diamonds and placing it on the nine of hearts. "Sorry, guys, this is the smallest card I've got."
"Are you kidding me!?" Temari ground her teeth. "Isn't the goal of the game to rid your hand of cards the fastest? How are we supposed to get rid of the nines and tens and jacks when you go gung-ho like that!?"
"I see, while simple, this game boils down to the strategy each player chooses." Shige-H nodded in acknowledgment. "Whether to raise methodically until the pile of cards reaches a crisis point, hoping they won't have to be the one to scoop, or to scoop early and build up a stronger hand to get rid of their cards faster later."
"Tsk!" Temari grumbled in frustration, placing a king of diamonds on the table. Mana took a gander at Temari's cards, realizing that she had made a massive mistake by ridding herself of her highest card and staying with a nine of spades and a jack of diamonds. Meanwhile, Kakashi held an ace of spades, meaning that the moment the lap goes around–Temari would inevitably scoop. She still wasn't looking ahead, just greedily hoping to rid herself of cards.
"Very well then," Shige-H sighed, placing an ace of hearts on the pile. It may have seemed like a mistake, but Shige-H looked well aware that Temari might end up scooping before her, meaning that she might still wipe herself out by ridding her hand of the queen of spades she still held.
"Aww man, the order's all messed up, we're playing against each other here…" Damisan deflated and submitted by scooping up all the cards except for the nine of hearts. He had a pair of nines and a queen of clubs.
"Don't be foolish, so are we." The gambler shrugged with a sly smirk that lightly peeked through his curved mask.
Damisan was right, and the gambler knew it. Mana didn't like their odds at the moment. While every team was playing against each other, it was her group that had to ruin their hands and odds first, meaning that they've set up the table for an easier time for the other team. It wasn't a thing she could point fingers to and start accusing people, either. It was just chance that the blue-haired lady got the nine of hearts and moved right on to Kakashi, right? Right?
Skaven placed a jack of clubs without saying anything. He had a queen of hearts in his hand, meaning that if he and Damisan played their cards right, Skaven could have walked away from the table on the next lap. The obese baldy with a sleeveless leather coat played a king of clubs and passed it to a woman in twin red ponytails.
"What am I supposed to do with that, jeez?" the woman grumbled and scooped the cards up. This may have been a ploy though, as following next was the leader of the group of burglars. His crewmate may have been just looking out for her boss by leaving him some soil to dump undesirable cards.
With a cocky smirk, the gambler played a ten, one of the roughest cards to dump, and passed. A balding man of a bruiser's build and vivid, red facial hair played a jack of spades.
"Heh, I'm out!" the blue-haired burglar who started the game proclaimed, flopping a king of hearts down and turning to Kakashi to see if the opposing team had someone who could wipe themselves out as well.
"Congratulations, so am I…" Kakashi muttered, placing his ace of spades and passing evening the score.
"Jeez!" Temari groaned. "It's like you want us to lose or something!"
"You should have been more mindful the last turn," Kakashi observed.
"Yeah, if I'd have scooped the last turn, I'd have scooped the second time now…" Temari wasn't enjoying her first foray into the realm of gambling.
"I am out as well. Thank you for opening the pile up for me, Temari," Shige-H patted her comrade on the back while playing a queen of spades and losing all cards in her hand.
"I should probably scoop but…" Damisan's mechanical jaw opened up, making a rubbery, plastic sound as his prosthetic finger rubbed against the opening in his mask. "From what I've gathered of this game, having three cards of the same kind is the worst-case scenario since it'll take three turns to rid yourself of them."
"No worries, I'm out too." Skaven nodded to Damisan after playing his queen of hearts and leaving just two members of their group still playing. While the game started out particularly rough for them, it evened out some in the end.
"Aww man, three queens, are you serious?" the mountain of flesh burglar rubbed his bald head with his hand and scooped up the three queens. The card in his hand must not have been high.
"Don't mind if I rid myself of one of my nasty tens," the woman with red ponytails smirked and turned to the head burglar. "Can you top it, boss?"
"Please…" the masked gambler flung his ace of clubs sliding across the table and crossed his arms, leaving him the second player to leave the game. "Now that the lucky ones left the game, things will finally get interesting."
"Sure will." the burglar placed an ace of diamonds and passed it to Temari, who was just one degree away from boiling.
"I ain't takin' a goddamn ten, no chance in hell, sorry, cyber-guy…" Temari placed her ace of spades that she got from Kakashi on top of the pile. Mana didn't like how Temari got rid of her highest card when she was the player to take it over from the other team. This may have left Temari as a punching bag for scooping up cards that the enemy wanted dumped, which could easily have cost them the game.
"Under no circumstances can you play a card," Mana warned Damisan, interjecting with help where she could. "If you play that ace in your hand–we may as well surrender the game."
"Yeah, I know, we can take control over all the aces here…" Damisan nodded, calming Mana down by scooping everything up.
The following burglar player played a ten of hearts, the red-haired comrade of his added a ten of spades of her own. The sleeveless baldy quit the game by playing a king of spades. Temari chuckled.
"Kick their ass now," she asked of Damisan by playing her other highest card–the king of hearts.
"I see, giving them a bunch of tens is sure to hurt them, and with all the aces in my hand…" Damisan cackled underneath his mask, letting out a wet snort that didn't translate right from under the head accessory but the disgust in everyone's faces soon changed when Damisan played an ace of clubs and left the thick baldy no other options but to scoop it up.
"Things are looking up for me…" the red-haired belle played the jack of clubs.
"That so?" Temari muttered, answering with a jack of diamonds of her own. Mana gulped as Temari's disgusting hand of a jack of spades, a ten of diamonds and a nine of spades made razor blades dance up and down her airways. Temari wasn't a skilled player, and she didn't luck out with her hand or the player going before her. A few poor decisions led her to an incredibly weak hand, and she was just a single bad decision away from being utterly unable to salvage her game.
"The tension's rising, isn't it? How about we make it rise a bit more?" Damisan played his queen of diamonds with excitement.
"I'll take it." The thick of flesh burglar took the cards to the hand again. If the calculations in Mana's head worked right, he must have had four queens in his hand and some other nasty combos and he resolved himself to stay as the last player on his team. He also wiped the pile for his friend to make an easier exit by playing her jack of hearts.
"Ain't that desperate yet!" Temari growled, placing her last top card in jack of spades. Her remaining hand was just flat-out puny, almost ensuring that she'll end up scooping next. Still, what she scooped up would end up deciding over the fate of the game.
"Playing some top cards, are we?" Damisan snickered, confident in the three aces that ensured a certain scoop for the next player in his hand.
"Humph…" the following burglar player placed his king of hearts. This made the red-haired burglar lady cackle with malice as she slapped her king of clubs down and wiped her hands clean of the game.
Temari sighed and submitted, taking in all the cards in the pile. Just as Damisan was about to rid himself of one of his nines, Kakashi stopped him.
"Wait a sec. You can play as many nines as you want. No matter if you only have a couple of them." Kakashi pointed out.
"Whoa! If that's the case!" Damisan laughed out as if he had just found some spare change in his pocket, slapping a pair of nines onto the pile. The last playing burglar played a ten quietly.
"We can't let him leave the game, Damisan." Temari turned to her ally while placing her ten of diamonds.
"Got it," Damisan played the second of his aces. An ace of diamonds.
"Then how about you take those tens and stuff them." The burglar snickered before playing his ace of clubs. Temari whited out and smacked her forehead, realizing she had to scoop up an almost full set of nines and a pair of tens–the nastiest cards to have in your hand.
"That's fine, we still control all the aces now," Damisan tried to calm her down before ridding his hand of a ten.
"Wait," Mana stopped him. "Look at Temari-san's hand. She's got a few tens while you've got one too. Do you know what that means?"
"Wait… My opponent has another ten too…" Damisan realized.
"Don't let him get rid of it!" Temari hammered her fist on the table.
"Right… Thanks… It didn't immediately come to me that I could check the cards my opponent had like this. I can know every card in his hand right now by just checking Temari's cards and my own." Damisan said while playing ten of clubs.
"What are you doing!?" Temari grabbed her hair and nearly flopped out from her chair. With a grateful nod, the opponent played his ten of hearts.
"Just trust me, Temari. Play your ten." Damisan smiled. It was only then that Temari realized Damisan's plan.
"Sure thing…" she snickered with an evil tone while playing her ten of diamonds only for Damisan to add an ace of hearts on top of that.
"I see… That was a clever play." Mana admitted. Now the burglar had to scoop up three tens–the worst card in the game which would take him three whole turns to get rid of. This play salvaged their game.
"Shit…" the burglar cursed and scooped up, opening the field up for Temari to play the remaining trio of nines atop of the nine of hearts to complete the set of nines. Then Damisan left the game with the seal of an ace of spades.
With that, it was just up to Temari and the bald, chubby burglar to settle their duel in the game of Weiner for the right to claim the Golden Locket of Sotatsu. While the game looked hopeless in the beginning, the final few plays once Temari and Damisan figured out the core strategies of entrapping their opponents and coordinating their moves, the game looked far closer than initially believed.
Mana just hoped that Temari had learned the ropes enough to take this game from here.