10 Still Lucky

-Bellagio Hotel Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada-

-March 29, 2005, 1930h local-

Naruto is now walking through the doors of the Bellagio. He just came from Jeremy Michaels's place, and now phase 3 of the plan is a go. He just got his ID, passports, and credit cards. Jeremy sure did go above and beyond since he got social security cards, driver's license from three different states for each identity; New York, California, and Florida; Birth certificates and finally, Permit to carry license for the guns this world loves so much.

Jeremy also delivered on those credit cards. He repurposed some black market credit card accounts with a $100000 limit to make them legit. All of which are billed to a PO box. Now he can have a paper trail, which is apparently a fundamental concept in this world. He learned that someone without a paper trail is really suspicious. The hidden villages would love to adapt this so they can keep track of everyone.

The only downside to being a good guy doing bad stuff is that he had paid Jeremy 750k for everything. If he really is an asshole, he would just do what Kurama is saying.

"If you just used a genjutsu on him, you can vet away without him even remembering." Kurama said

"Well, I'm don't want to be an asshole, alright!?" Naruto defended himself.

"You bought illegally made papers and identification." Son Goku said in a deadpan voice.

"That's just a necessity because of my situation, and you know it." Naruto countered.

Currently, he only had $483374 left, which is a lot more than what he started with, but he needs some serious capital to get the next part of his plan started. That's the reason he was walking through the doors of the Bellagio. The receptionist of the motel he stayed at said this was the best place to play poker.

Ever since he met Tsunade Baa-chan, he found out his talent for gambling. It doesn't matter what game it is, as long as it is base on chance. Even if it's rigged, he would somehow still win.

As Kurama so eloquently described it one time as "You have a stupid amount of luck for things that barely matter. It's like you made Lady Luck your bitch, and she just can't say no to you."

Now Fate, that's where he is a little angry with. It's like it piled on all the enormous problems of the world on his shoulder. But he's not going to open that can of worms any time soon, right now he has some games to win.

Naruto went ahead and looked around. This place sure had a typical high-class casino down. Bright lights, expensive paintings, suit up dealers, and security. Security everywhere, at least you can see they're effort trying to blend in.

He looked around and saw a sharply dressed attendant approaching him.

"Good evening to the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. The best place to relax and enjoy. How can I help you, sir?" The attendant said, with a friendly smile.

Naruto just smiled back and said the following in a conversational tone,

"It's my first time in Vegas, and I had heard great things about this place, especially about the poker tables. Can you point me to where those are?"

Thinking that Naruto is a customer easy to make money out of, the attendant immediately led him to across the casino floor.

"You are right on that, sir. We are known for exquisite poker rooms, equipment, and atmosphere. We have over 50 poker tables in the central area alone. We have several private rooms that can be rented for more private games..." Both of them finally reached the Poker room; the attendant opened the door for Naruto. "Welcome, to the Bellagio Grand Poker Room. We have increasing buy-in from left to right. You can join or leave a table after every round."

The attendant pulled out a card and handed it over to Naruto. "If you have any problems, just call the number on this card and find Ricardo Falcone. He can help you out. Good luck, sir..." The attendant walked away and called someone on his phone. "Mr. Falcone. It's Morris Grant. I just got a new possible mark. I'm from the Bellagio."

Ricardo Falcone is an intimidating 45-year-old man. He is a loan shark working for the Bianchi Crime Family. He uses inside men in casinos to look for unsuspecting and gullible tourists to loan money to when they lose in the casino. He then cons or intimidates the target to pay back the money with significant interest. He pays the inside man a percentage of each successful loan. Morris is one of the more successful inside men due to the addictive and unpredictable nature of poker. He just has no idea that Naruto would be the worst mark he would ever have.

Naruto walked around the tables, looking for an empty chair. He finally spots a man leaving his chair, and Naruto immediately ran to it and sat down.

The dealer just stared at the possible new player for a moment. He's terribly underdressed. He looks like he lacks the decorum for this side of the room, judging from the way he ran to sit at the recently vacated spot. Nevertheless, the dealer is nothing if not professional.

"Sir, I would like to inform you that this table has $250000 buy-in." The dealer said.

"Oh, perfect! I got the perfect table to start..." Naruto swung his backpack forward, put his hand in, unsealed 250k in cash, placed it on the table, and turned the back again on his back. All of it was done with a broad, goofy smile. "This should be enough."

Naruto's action garnered a lot of attention from the table. Some were amused; others were offended, but the dealer remained professional. He just took the money and replaced it with chips. Fifty pieces of $1000 chips and 20 pieces of the $10000 chips.

Naruto looked around the table discreetly while arranging his chips. There are seven other players on the table, five males, two females. All of them are wearing fancy clothes.

"Stupid! How could I forget that!? The clothes! Why didn't I buy any clothes!? I'm standing out like a sore thumb. Wait, I don't need to buy clothes. I have a transformation jutsu. It's a simple enough hand sign. Ugh. Wait, I need to focus..." Naruto shook his head and got back to observing his opponents. The table is set up as a half circle with all the players sitting on the curved side while the dealer is on the flat side. Naruto is sitting on the right end side of the table. "Ok, let's work our way around the table, starting with the dude opposite me. Quite young, possibly rich parents. Based on his chips and the amount of nervous sweat he is forming, his parents know nothing about this. The next is a middle-aged guy. He's been cleaning house, almost a million in chips. Have to be wary of him. The following two are chicks. Friends. They also have quite a haul. Either they are good players or good at distracting others. I got to have a closer look at them..." Naruto thought of the last part while blood is running down his nose. Immediately wiping the blood, he looked around the table around more. "That guy must be in a losing streak. He only has enough for another two rounds. Ok, next one is an old dude with a hot chick sitting on his lap. Must be incredibly rich to have that hot of a gold digger. Finally, the guy next to me also has a good haul." Naruto finally ended his train of thought.

Seeing Naruto is already settled in, the dealer started the game. Naruto was confused when everyone only received two cards.

"Uh, excuse me. Are there three more cards." Naruto asked is in a low voice.

Before the dealer could answer, the old guy with the gold digger laughed hard.

"What have you've been playing squirt is five-card draw. Those are for kids and pussies. What we have here is a man's game. Texas hold-em." The older man said with a loud laugh.

Naruto immediately felt a feeling of dread washed over him. He has no idea how to play this.

"You can fold out of the game after the blinds; the five-card poker tables are at the other side of the room if you're interested." The dealer helpfully suggested.

Naruto thought about it for a moment until he made a decision. Naruto stood up and shouted,

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I don't back down against any challenge. Believe it!"

The people in the room just stared dumbfounded at the young man shouting. The security around the room don't know what to do and just stood there frozen. They finally relaxed when the guy sat down.

Naruto phased out the world around him and took his guards. He had a ten and a king. Both of them spades.

He had been assigned the small blind, which apparently means you have to put $500 on the table while the guy before him had to give $1000 cause his the big blind or something.

The middle-aged man raised the bet to $5000. Everyone else called. The dealer finally showed the first three cards: twin aces, Clover and a spade, and a queen spade. Naruto just checked since he had no idea what's happening, but the older guy had other plans. He raised the bet to $25000.

Naruto had no choice but to see the bet along with the other players. The next card is placed on the table—a queen of hearts. This promoted another round of betting. The rich kid and the unlucky guy both folded. The old dude and the middle-aged guy are continuously raising the bet until Naruto had enough. He placed all his chips on the pot and said,

"All in."

The two girls looked at each other and folded. The guy next to him folded too. Only the old dude and the middle-aged guy met his bet.

With no other possible moves for the players, the dealer finally showed the river. It's a jack of spades. Confident with his card, the old guy flipped it over, revealing a nine of hearts and a Queen of clover.

"Full house, Queen over aces." The dealer announced.

The old guy immediately turned his cards over before the middle-aged dude can collect the pot. It revealed as an ace of diamonds and 4 of clover. The middle-aged guy immediately slumped.

"Full house, Aces over queens."

Naruto's smile was slowly expanding as he watched how texas hold-em poker works. Lady Luck still has it bad for him.

The old guy was already collecting the pot completely forgetting about Naruto when the dealer spoke,

"Sir, we still have another player."

"Him? Really? The kid didn't even know what he's playing..." The old guy said. All be got in return was a blank stare. "Alright, alright. Just hurry up."

The dealer turned his head to Naruto and said,

"Your cards, please."

Naruto smiled and placed his card on the table. He looked at his opponent and turned over his card. The old guy looked like he just had a heart attack when he saw the cards.

"Ace high straight flush. Royal flush of spades."

Naruto laughed hard and collected the pot. Several rounds of poker happened similarly. Naruto would win the pot as a whole or with someone else. One by one, his opponents checked out of the game, seeing they had no chance of winning with him on the table.

The management of the Bellagio is already monitoring his games, watching for any signs of cheating. Unfortunately for his opponents, the administration had not seen any signs of fraud. Even replacing the dealer or the card dispenser machine yielded no results.

They have no reason to remove Naruto from the game since the house would profit better with a significant encashment transaction compared to multiple small ones.

-Bellagio Hotel Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada-

-March 29, 2005, 2230h local-

Naruto has been jumping from a table with lower buy-in to a table with a higher buy-in as he wins more money. Naruto was currently collecting his winnings from the last round in the $10 million buy-in table when a largish man in a suit approached him.

"Are you the guy who's ripping off all the tables?"

"Hey! I'm not ripping anyone off! I'm just lucky." Naruto defended, ending the statement with a pout.

The man just shook his head tiredly and continued the conversation.

"Anyway, my boss is hosting a private poker game upstairs. He asked me to pick up, and i quote, the kid who's been ripping everyone off the floor below. That's why I'm here inviting you. You can just stay here, but it looks like everyone just wanted to get rid of you."

Naruto looked around the table and saw the pleading looks on his opponent's eyes that he says yes. Naruto looked back at the man and asked,

"How much is the buy-in?"

"$100 mil, but don't worry. My boss says he's ready to prop you up. He just wants to see something interesting."

"Your boss is ready to lose at least $100 million?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded.

"He's stupidly rich and bored..." Happy said with a shrug. "So, what do you say?"

"I don't need for your boss to prop me up. I may have just enough from this table and in my backpack..." Naruto collected his chips and placed them all in his backpack. He stood up and faced his opponents and said, "Nice game, everyone. I hope we see each other again." Muttered grumblings are all the answer he got in return. Naruto followed the man outside of the Poker room towards the elevator.

When they finally are alone in the elevator, Naruto finally said,

"Excuse me, but can I ask your name? Sorry that I hadn't asked your name when we first met. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, by the way! Oh, by the way, who's your boss if you don't mind me asking?"

The elevator door opened on the penthouse suite.

"It's alright, kid. I don't want to broadcast downstairs who's my boss. It might get wild. He just wants a quiet night today before he turns in it up tomorrow..." The man extended his hand toward Naruto. "It's nice to meet you, Naruto. I'm Harold Hogan, but everyone just calls me Happy." Naruto immediately shook Happy's hand with a grin. "For my boss, well, you might know him..." Happy hesitated.

"Don't leave me hanging here! Who is it!?" Naruto urged happy to continue?

"My boss's name is Tony Stark." Happy said, waiting for the kid's reaction.

"Who?"