"Follow Me"

Chapter 4

Tenten pulled a fresh pack of cards and handed it to a neutral party to shuffle and deal out. The dealer held up a coin. Since Naruto won the first round favor was given for him to choose.

"Tails."

The coin went up and as if to show Temari the luck that covered him, the judgment was Tails.

Tenten however didn't seem worried as she watched Naruto move towards the first card. Before he pulled it however he looked up at Tenten and dropped his hand.

"What's wrong?"

"You're using the same brand of cards, any reason?" The question seemed fair enough.

"Oh, my mother started a small company that deals in making gambling games. These are our sleek new cards, fresh on the market. We're trying to expand in this area soon."

Naruto nodded before he started flipping cards at a rapid pace. "So if it got out that the daughter of the Master of Dojos was using trick decks that his wife made in her new company....." He trailed off as the reality dawned on Tenten that her trick was found out.

She became self-conscious as Naruto picked up his flipping speed, matching all the cards as he tuned out the people watching him do it. Shikamaru's smirk grew as his best friends watched the blonde decimate Tenten. When he was done he smiled because he now had 200 million in his corner.

"Good game. Should we go again?"

She took a step back as Naruto came around to wrap his arm around her shoulders. "What? How?"

"Your backpack," He pointed to the bag that seemed just plain and ordinary. Naruto grabbed it and dumped it out across the table, several active packs of hand warmers and unopened cards fell out. Naruto grabbed the nearest pack and tore it up to show off Tenten's tricks.

Many hovered over Naruto and immediately saw what he saw. Marks. And they were red that contrasted with the purple background. Every pair had the same mark and since it was heated and triggered you only had a limited time to catch all the pairs before they disappeared. Naruto laid it out and got the pairs out for everyone to see.

"But it took me ages to match them all up, how did you know?"

Naruto gave her a knowing smile before walking away to another gambling hall. Shikamaru turned to his friends. "That's why I'm Interested in Naruto. He loves a clean game and is probably a bit upset that it turned into a dishonest game."

Shikamaru quickly followed the blonde to an empty classroom where the blonde flipped the teacher's desk. Shikamaru closed the door as the blonde wrecked the classroom. When nothing could be thrown he sat in the middle of his mess. Shikamaru came and sat down beside him.

"You love playing honestly don't you?" Shikamaru teased softly.

Naruto looked over at him before scoffing. "It's all that I've ever wanted."

Shikamaru pulled out his pack of cards and shuffled them. Naruto watched as he tossed them out around them. "Wanna play Double Memory?"

Naruto sat up and looked around at the cards before smiling. "Sure."

A week after their clean game with a stake of 300 million Shikamaru received the yearly invite from their sister school dubbed Kumo Academy. They had their gambling underground like them and they liked to meet at the neutral school grounds for a week-long session of gambling and networking.

Only the top 100 students from each school would be invited to play in the games and were originally the reason everyone was scrambling after Naruto had been moved up. Those who were Rooks and Pawns rushed to be named Princesses and Knights before all 100 names were posted. Many decided this was the time to boldly challenge Naruto for his position.

"I'll take you all on!" Naruto had announced and Shikamaru had a gambling hall cleared out and set up with the games Naruto frequently took part in and each challenger had the option to pick the game they would play.

The jealousy at watching the reckless blonde swiping the black card to up the stakes and outbid them was immense but Naruto wasn't killing the game outright with his new gobs of money. He was genuinely happy to be playing games that were above board.

Shikamaru watched from the cameras placed in the room that we were close to the game boards to keep an eye out for underhanded tactics. "He looks like a kid in the ice cream shop being given an extra large cone to pile on," Shikamaru was amused by the scene.

"What if he loses?" Choji asked.

"Then the victor becomes Queen."

"And they would get your card?" Ino chimed in. Tamari looked over at that question and Shikamaru's smirk turned cruel.

"Only those I fuck get my black card."

The news settled and Temari slammed her hands on the table. "What!"

"You two are?" Ino looked baffled and Shikamaru laughed at them.

"Sure I've fucked Temari but I haven't touched Naruto. Yet."

"You're cheating on me," Temari was quiet.

"You were never my girlfriend," Shikamaru mocked. "You took what you thought happened between us and ran with it."

"But why didn't you stop her?" Ino sneered.

"Kept my parents at bay for a while. Her background is so bleak it was probably enough to quell them before I brought them Naruto on a silver plate."

"You used me," Temari hugged herself.

"No," Shikamaru shook his head slowly. "You allowed yourself to be used."

An uproar suddenly broke out and Naruto could be seen breaking a student's nose into the poker table. Shikamaru's eyes lit up for the first in a long time and Choji and Ino were now left in the dark as to what was going on in Shikamaru's mind.

"He's cute isn't he?" Shikamaru reached out and touched the cool screen that showed Naruto beating the student into the dirt. He was intrigued.