A single golden bling telegraphed the profound joy that overcame Tokui once he glared at his cards. Mana had not noticed the few golden teeth that the young man had before despite his affinity for growling. The source for the joy of the Kumogakure shinobi was revealed when he dropped a pair of nines onto the table – a nine of hearts that started each game and a nine of spades. Mana closed her eyes, breathed in and out. Tokui, in his mad combination of gleeful glares that he gifted each player around the table, looked baffled by the magician's bitterness.

"What's wrong, isn't me ridding my hand of two whole cards right out of the gate a good thing?" the Voice of the Cloud shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, I'll call a niner…" one of Jagaimo's clones responded, dropping a nine of diamonds atop of the pair of nines and bittering Tokui's face once more as he realized why Mana was so displeased by the relatively lucky start for the Kumogakure ninja.

It was not the fact that Tokui got a bunch of strong cards he could drop right from the start that frustrated the magician, it was the position of the Kumogakure power-man in relation to her – with Tokui starting, she was the last one to get a move.

"Ooh, that must sting…" the middle and the real version of Jagaimo grinned his teeth in a mocking, upside crescent-shaped smile while he gently and as derisively as possible placed his ten of hearts atop the pile, shutting off all the options for Mana to get rid of her nine of clubs.

"It's fine, I can give you one more to scoop up…" the second clone mocked Mana again by placing a ten of diamonds atop of the pile.

"Remember, the longer you ignore the pile, the more of it you'll have to scoop when push comes to shove…" the original Jagaimo winked at Mana while the rest of the duo chuckled in a staged fit of laughter.

It was fine… Mana just needed to breathe and think clearly, don't let her frustration or desperation to rid her decent hand of the nine cause her to make matters worse. There were still only two tens placed on the table, that meant that two of the worst card to get were still in the players' hands. Mana looked at Tokui wondering if he fostered any tens. If she asked him outright, he'd tell her… Along with everyone around the table.

"You laugh at me and yet…" Mana closed her eyes and placed her hand onto the table face-down. "You've made a bunch of water clones, no doubt to plan the game ahead, see what your clones have in their hands but you forgot that the knowledge of your clones will not return to you until after the clones are dispelled."

Jagaimo brushed it off. He may have gotten flustered by Mana's taunt before but now he was in too strong of a position to lose too much of his cool. Psyching the Voice of Kirigakure out was completely out of the question at this point, Mana needed to strengthen her stance on the board before all of that. With a somber face, Mana slipped out a queen of spades onto the board. Tokui's glare widened and both of Jagaimo's clones whistled out.

"Still using the same strategy? A shock raise to make someone scoop? I only let you win with that last time to get your hopes up!" Jagaimo's left clone taunted the magician. He saw the negativity and respectful fear that the beginning of the game invited in the previously peaceful face of Mana. With just a pair of moves, the magician went from an experienced gambling shark to a desperate lowlife that has bet their liver on a single roll of a die inside. The heat from her breath, the flicker of her eyes and the occasional tremble of Mana's hands betrayed her…

"Sadly… There are no useless cards in my hand!" Tokui almost hummed out while slamming down a queen onboard.

"W-What? Don't tell me!" Jagaimo's left clone looked properly shaken by the sudden switch in Tokui's reaction. There was no mistaking it – Tokui was happy like a waffle with a streak of snow-white ice cream on top. The type of easygoing happiness that only came from the assurance of victory, but was it proper? Was Tokui not overlooking something? As much as Mana wanted to trust her ally's good luck… What if the matter was still not settled?

"Damn it…" the left clone sighed, dropping a king of spades and frustrating the original Jagaimo in the middle of his two mirror images.

"The hell!" the original growled, dropping a king of clubs onto the pile. "Feed her the ace!"

"How the hell am I supposed to play after losing my only ace on a noob move like that!?" the second clone objected.

"It doesn't matter how YOU play. What matters is that one of us wins!" the original tapped the clone's forehead.

"Careful, if you kill the bastard, you inherit their hand…" Tokui laughed out. It was easy to laugh when one had either the type of hand that made one so happy or the kind of bluffing ability that was as foolproof as that of the Voice of Kumogakure.

While the original Jagaimo grumbled with the noises reminding of something akin to a popcorn getting stuck deep in his throat, the clone to the right submissively placed the ace onto the table.

"It's fine, Mana… Just let me drop my last king." Tokui smiled, extending his hand toward the magician as a friendly gesture.

Should she do that? It was true that if Mana scooped right now, she'd leave the board open for a king, which would leave only an ace in Tokui's hand, that meant that come next turn, Tokui was empty-handed and golden, the fate of the ninja world was secured and the shinobi system would have lasted hundreds of years more…

Mana's hair slipped over her face while her boysenberry lips smiled. The trio of clones in front of Mana kept putting on quite a show there…

"This is how you tricked the rest, isn't it? I must say, even as a stage magician, I'm impressed." Mana placed her hand face-down on her lap while she finally looked back up and turned at Tokui. "Had I been a year or two earlier in my sensory training, I'd have never noticed the slight dip in chakra every couple of seconds. I'd have never thought the generally unremarkable chakra signature initially as anything of note…"

"Shit… Leave it to Konoha's Sorceress…" the central Jagaimo, the original one, grit his teeth.

"And the act you put on, it was spectacular! Acting like the Kumogakure ninja was into Mana the ninja while you were into Mana the Konoha's Sorceress… Great stuff." Mana smiled even though she only had a reason to smile because she would not lose this turn but, perhaps, the next.

"Shut up!" Tokui poofed, sinking in a cloud of smoke, revealing another image of Jagaimo sitting right beside Mana. "You may have noticed the Transformation Jutsu, but you still have to deal with the fact that what I have in my hand are a king and an ace! You still have a nine stuck in your hand! Even if you struggled and kicked around more than the rest, it doesn't mean you stand a chance!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Even if her opponent was correct to assume that she was in a very jittery situation in terms of options, she had the advantage of having known Jagaimo's play for quite some time now. "A good entertainer deserves their applause, you've planned this out quite nicely. If it was you who planned this and not the puppeteer you're so protective of."

"I'm not sure what you're trying to do: stall, make me slip some details out… Whatever it is you're trying to do – it won't work, now play your hand and let's settle this!" Jagaimo grumped.

He had made a few mistakes in his game – the Voice of Kirigakure had been so obsessed with this move of defeating Mana using fake Tokui that he had left the rest of his copies with intentionally bad hands, just to set the stage for the move he wanted. He was being too sentimental, he should have played this cold and calculated, just play the game normally and expect the overwhelming odds of four against one newbie grant him his prize.

Without hesitating, Mana dropped her ace of spades onto the table, sneering at the clone of Jagaimo sitting next to her and holding what was previously Tokui's cards.

"Fine, I'll grab my three cards then…" the clone that had dispelled his transformation and dropped the well-played act of Tokui Kyuri from Kumogakure reached out for the stack of cards at the center of the table.

"You'll take them all – you're not Tokui, you don't have the luxury of using the one bending of the rules afforded to each player." Mana disagreed. "Given how you've already stepped over the line with your rule-bending, you're lucky I am not withdrawing from the game altogether. A transgression like this one would surely justify a breach of our deal."

"Heh, it was worth a shot…" the clone shrugged with the entirety of subtle innocence of a cheater present in his face. Despite being caught red-handed, the clone did the smart but also dangerous to Mana's already slim chances of victory play of placing down his ace.

In his excellent act, the clone, while still taking Tokui's shape, revealed to Mana that what he had were a king and an ace, that meant that Mana needed to play something bigger than a king next turn, or else the game was over. All of the clones skewered the magician with sharp and teasing glares. They knew what she was thinking. They felt about as confident in their chances for victory as fake Tokui before did.

"You don't have any more cards higher than an ace, do you?" the clone playing after scooped the entire table, leaving only the nine of hearts down. "What's the highest card you have? You'd be lucky if it was a king, that's too bad! Nothing short of an ace will do!"

"Now you're the one babbling instead of playing. If your victory is as certain as you're making it out to be, why not play your cards and seize it?" Mana taunted the central Jagaimo. Unlike his clones, the young man did display some amount of wary towards the magician. Be it because of her reputation or the fact that someone who was the first to catch his play now looked so calm again, despite being all but cornered to lose.

"Tsk… Before we corner you, tell me, what your chosen rule-bending was? I need to know. If I am to win, I must know it was a clean win and that none of the plays were tampered with," The original asked Mana directly. The magician's lips turned upwards on the right side. "It did not just affect one card, did it? It had to affect at least two, so what was it?"

"If you stop stalling, you will see it," Mana replied keeping her tone and face as ominous as a magician guarding the secret behind their finest tricks. "It came at too despicable of a cost to my own code to reveal it this early."

"Tsk…" Jagaimo grumbled like a capricious child before dropping down a jack. The original then smiled at the magician before revealing his hand to the entire table. A hand of two cards, containing just a king and an ace – Tokui's hand from before. "Even if you hustle and protect yourself from losing this turn, you're gonna get done in soon enough."

"Feeling this confident that you're showing your hand, huh? That shows a remarkable amount of confidence in what you're seeing." Mana elegantly pressed the corners of the cards in her hand to her lips before turning her attention to the last clone that was yet to make a play. The clone also dropped a jack, one of clubs, relaying the turn order back to Mana. It was time for the magician to show her hand, to do something about that neighbor of hers to the left that was about to hand themselves out.

"W-What I'm seeing? W-Wait! You wouldn't have!" Jagaimo's face paled as he weaved a hand seal and muttered: "Release".

The vision in the eyes of the young man blurred and waved like the heated air showing mirages of miraculous, foamy oceans of water ahead of the weary traveler. The original Voice of Kirigakure never regained the color of his cheeks, his hand trembled as he stared into his hand.

"You don't really need to tell anyone anything, do you?" Mana leaned her head to the side, letting her slick, dark hair slip over her shoulder and onto the table, like shadowy tendrils. "The stapled together card in my hand reveals the truth well enough, doesn't it? I'd be disappointed if you were not aware of every defect of every card in your washed-up deck."

"You…" the Jagaimo clone to the left stuttered.

"Cheated? Please have the nerve to accuse me of cheating." Mana smiled, knowing that the inner torment of the self-devouring consciousness deep inside the young man was far greater right now than the security of canceling the game outright when the transformation play was unveiled.

Seeing that none of the clones bothered to object any further, Mana dropped the ace of hearts onto the board, the very same one the illusion of which Jagaimo had revealed before resting in his hand. What the young man truly had in his hand this entire time was a jack of hearts, concealed to look like the ace of hearts.

"Is cheating this despicable to you?" Jagaimo wondered. After Mana looked at him with a baffled pair of eyes, the street rat elaborated a tad bit. "Before, you said that this play forced you to tear up some inner code you have… What's that all about?"

"The jutsu I used is one that I saw my friend use once. It is a fairly simplistic genjutsu technique, especially so when all you're changing in one's environment is the appearance of one card. That being said, I have once made it a rule of mine to do my best and only use original tricks, I highly dislike using jutsu invented by other people and this illusion is basic enough to have been a leftover in the first pages of every textbook on the matter in existence." Mana explained.

The Tokui clone then scooped up the small stack of cards. Worry sprouted its seeds from inside Mana's chest. Before she had made her play she was so intrigued by the possible faces of her combined opponents when she revealed her hand, now that she laid bare and without any tricks, she truly felt afraid of the odds in front of her.

She could likely weave another illusion, displace some other cards or make her remaining nine that was still resting safe and warm in her hand look like an ace. But to what end? Jagaimo was good enough to follow the flow of the game just fine and a trick like that would have only worked in the very beginning. Back when nobody was entirely aware of the cards in everyone else's hands. The clone with the largest stack of cards dropped a pair of nines and passed silently. That one had little of value, three cards of pretty much anything – Mana may have had lousy odds but nothing like this guy. This guy's chances may very well have truly been dead.

"Hmph… Fine, here I go, getting rid of my jack… I'm gonna win next turn, you know." Jagaimo grumbled. He looked immensely displeased by something. Despite his incoming victory that Mana had pretty much no way of stopping, it was not like she could hand out before this coming next turn, something made the Voice of Kirigakure just grit his teeth and grind them against each other in rage.

"Dude, are you okay?" the clone to the right wondered before scooping the pile of cards back into his hand. It was a taunt, even if Mana did her best to get rid of her nine right now, she'd still have the queen of hearts back in her hand and that meant that… Unless the clone of Jagaimo sitting right next to him sets the pile up with an ace – the original Jagaimo was pretty much set for a free early exit from the game.

Jagaimo looked at Mana with a pissed glance that showed none of the previously shown or acted, as it was tough to say it for certain at this point, easygoing and goofy nature.

"This game's all messed up now, isn't it? Because you switched up the appearance of the cards, someone, at some point, made a bad move, didn't they? Like place a jack on top of a king or something?" he asked the magician who, as the only person to have seen every card and every play for what they truly were closed her eyes and shrugged.

"Who knows." She sighed before placing the nine of clubs onto the pile which left her with only the last card remaining – the queen of hearts. For such a high and pretty useful card to be the only chain that dragged her down to the bottom. "I only changed the appearance of one card, just like the deal was."

"No!" Jagaimo shook his head. "This game's all messed up now. This fucking sucks, how do I know that someone didn't make a bad play somewhere and didn't mess the game up somehow? I should have felt the absence of staples, the absence of tape or any tears on the cards I thought I knew but I didn't. Who knows how many faulty plays have been made and I won't dishonor the game of Weiner by finishing this charade! Weiner is life and death, not some worthless thing to be made fun of!"

"Dude… What are you doing?" the Tokui-impersonating clone placed a jack onto the pile of cards, proceeding with the winning sequence that would hand the Kirigakure street rat the fate of the ninja system and give him the right to tell Mana what to tell the Council tomorrow.

"No… He's right. This game's all messed up now." The clone by Jagaimo's side sighed. "We all should not have bent the rules, it ain't no fun now, knowing that we may have played a king on top of an ace at some point and messed the stacks up."

"This game is void." Jagaimo hammered his fist down onto the table, scattering the cards resting on it and making all of his water clones dispel at once, leaving their cards floating in droopy puddles. "One day, when you happen to be in the slums of Kirigakure, we'll settle this game, I'm not letting you have one game over me…" the Kirigakure ninja forced out a grin before giving Mana a thumb up and stuffing his hands into the pockets before turning to leave.

"Wait." Mana stopped the leaving ninja half-way. When the irritated young man turned back at the magician, expecting some piss-poor expression of gratitude from her or some plead to properly settle their beef, maybe even a beg to tell her what she wanted to know before, all the street rat saw was a little, black and white colored, rectangular box in her hand. "You'll need a new deck, honestly, that last one was a pathetic mess."