Hey guys! Yay, I'm already uploading my first story! Thanks so much for taking the time to read it, I really appreciate it :)

Sorry if you find poker a boring topic, but if you bear with me it really can be quite interesting! And besides, wherever there's poker there's always STRIP poker! -drools- But seriously, I know it seems like overkill on the poker, but I promise there'll be a lot more to the story than juuuust poker. And btw, though I am familiar with a few variations of poker and the poker tournament on ESPN, I'm not THAT knowledgable with it so I'm not going to go into great detail at any point in the fic with the fear that I'll mess something up. And if one of my details are off... hey, it's fiction, right? :D

Sasuke get's introduced in the next chapter... So look forward to that!

And just so you know, Naruto is a Junior. At Konoha High. It's pretty much the only detail I forgot to throw in there, but I couldn't figure out a better way of introducing it. So there! Now you know :D

Oh and also, this is un-Betad. I really tried to pick out all the mistakes but there probably still are a few so... sorry! When I get more settled in to the new account I'll start looking for a Beta.

And this is just a PROLOGUE! The actual chapters are going to be much, much longer. Promise! 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Poker is a game of strategy, determination, intelligence, and secrecy. It requires not only meticulous observation of one's opponents, but also careful concealment of one's own thoughts and strategies. The professionals on TV usually appear to be ultimate masters of all of these skills, but only a person on the inside could truly decipher each person's weaknesses.

Well, at least that's what Neji's been trying to explain to me for the past hour or so. One might ask, why in the world would a genius like Neji try and explain such a complex game to someone like me? I still am not quite sure. All I know is that this all started from a mistake I made two weeks ago.

Ever since the beginning of middle school I've shared an apartment with my best friend, Kiba. (Prior to middle school I was living in an adoption facility, but somehow a guy named Jiraiya was able to bend the rules to allow me to live on my own even at the early age of 12. He would've taken care of me himself, but his travelling pretty much prevented that.) So anyway, with two loud-mouthed, energetic teenage boys, you would think that parties and more parties would be the only things on our minds. But surprisingly both of us refrained – or maybe were just too lazy – to ever hold a party at our place. Well, at least until that dreadful Saturday two weeks ago.

I never planned on getting wasted. Hell, I'm only seventeen! But one thing led to another, and by the end of the party my brain was completely fried, my body sore from dancing all night, and my chin wet from the decent amount of drool dripping out of the corner of my mouth. So inevitably, most of my Sunday was spent puking out all of the alcohol. What I failed to remember was that my midterm project was due the next day.

When Kiba announced that he had the "best solution ever!" to finishing my midterm, red warning flags should have immediately popped up in my head. Not only was he slightly hung over from the party, but he also had a certain lack of common sense, even on his best day. But with the pounding headache and the need to clean up the wreck that had become of our apartment, I didn't even consider ignoring his advice.

Which then led to me downloading a 30 page essay off of the internet to turn in to my Biology teacher for the midterm. Yep, definitely on the top 10 list of the stupidest things I've ever done in my life. In fact, make that the top 2. Because not only was it forgery, but also what I had thought was the topic of the paper – increasing temperatures of weather patterns - ended up being a 30 page paper of the mating rituals of canines in heat. Who knew that "in heat" related to animals' reproduction cycles, and had nothing to do with the weather? It's not like they teach boys that sort of thing!

Well, as I'm sure you can guess, I was caught. So not only did I have to explain why I committed the forgery (I didn't intend on spilling the under-age drinking part of the story, but Tsunade tricked me into it!) but I also had to argue that I most definitely did not have a certain bestiality fetish, much to my embarrassment and outrage.

Hence, my punishment. I was lucky to have not gotten expelled, but any form of punishment seemed highly unfair and a definite pain in the ass. Not only did I get two weeks of suspension, but starting today I had to serve lunch detentions until the end of the year, I was banned from all social events including football games, dances, and performances, and I was forced to join an academic enriching club. I didn't really care about the suspension because it gave me extra time to finish the actual midterm essay, and the ban didn't matter to me cause I never really went to those events anyway. But joining an academic club? My only two choices were the Math Supreme! club (hell no) and then the Poker club. Though I never really had an interest in poker, it seemed like a good opportunity to win a few bucks off of my geeky classmates. It couldn't be that hard, right?

This all led to the present situation. Neji, who was the president of the club, was trying to explain the rules of the game. We were all sitting in the back of Kakashi's english classroom with the desks pulled together to form a table. Every now and then I looked up to Neji and nodded, as if I was interested, and fiddled with the red and black chips in front of me. I wasn't actually paying any attention but by the vein pulsing on his brow, I could tell he was getting increasingly irritated. It's not like it was my fault that I was stuck here! By now I should've been at home with Kiba, playing video games or eating ramen.

"Hey! Shorty! Are you even listening?" The blonde across the table, whose name was apparently Ino, leaned over and slapped me in the head with the deck of cards.

"I was trying to!" Sending a glare her way, I then turned to Neji and sighed. "Continue."

Of course, I still didn't pay attention to anything he said. Instead I opted to observe the people sitting around me. It truly was a small club, maybe due to the fact that the teacher/sponsor was Kakashi, the laziest teacher on the planet. Anyway, next to Neji sat Lee, a sophomore with a repulsive fascination with the color green and a loud voice. Next to Lee was Ino (who seemed to be pretty nice, actually), and next to Ino was a guy named Shino. He honestly gave me the creeps. What was with those shady glasses and the high collar?

Whatever. I was bored and Neji's explanation wasn't getting anywhere. I turned back to Neji, who was muttering something about pairs and full houses, and let out a loud groan. "C'mon, lets just play! This can't be that hard!"

Hm, interesting, the vein in Neji's forehead was becoming more visible by the second.

Shaking his head, Neji rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever." He then shuffled the cards and passed out two to everyone, placing the rest in the middle of the deck. Well, what he actually did was a lot more complicated and fancy than that, but it kind of went right over my head.

"We'll start with a simple game of Texas Holdem. Naruto, this'll be pretty pointless for you since you probably still don't understand any of the card combinations or their values, but at least you'll get the general format of the game. Just… follow along, and try not to zone out. The first two people, Lee and Ino, are the blinds since I'm the dealer, so… let's make the minimum bet four chips. We'll start out easy."

Well if that wasn't confusing, I didn't know what was. And I was actually paying attention! Lee then proceeded to put in two chips, while Ino put in four. At my look of confusion, Neji rolled his eyes. "You'll figure it out eventually. It's now Shino's turn, and he can make the first bet."

Shino, who hadn't spoken a word yet, tossed in four chips. When everyone silently stared at me, I grinned. "Oh! Is it my turn?"

Neji nodded. "You can choose to fold, match the minimum requirement – four chips, or throw in an extra bet."

I slammed my hands down on the table and flashed my award-winning Naruto smile. "I never back down from a challenge!" and with that I threw in ten chips. I still didn't really have a clue about what I was doing, but at least the game was getting a little more interesting.

I looked up at Lee, whose eyes were sparkling. "You're display of courage is so… so… so YOUTHFUL!" Holy crap, he was annoying!

Ino growled in frustration. I was quickly learning she had somewhat of a temper. "You idiot! You didn't even look at your cards!"

…. Oh yeah!

Trying to copy the sneaky, quick-glance-at-the-folded-corner-of-my-cards method that everyone else had been doing, I noticed I had a queen and a ten. Hm, whatever. Sounded good to me!

Neji, Lee, and Ino finished up the round and then Neji pulled out three cards from the deck and laid them face up on the middle of the table. The rest of the game pretty much continued in the same fashion – me not really having a clue what I was doing but betting anyway, and the rest of the group giving me disbelieving stares the whole time.

By the last round I only had two chips left due to all of my generous bets. Apparently it was time to reveal our cards, because Neji flipped his over. (By now it was only Neji and I left in the game) I excitedly tossed out my cards and grinned.

"I won, right guys?"

Neji's eye was twitching, while Lee was jumping up and down shouting "Youthful!" Shino just kinda sat there, while Ino was staring at me with her jaw dropped open.

From their faces, I could tell that I did win. Throwing my hands in the air, I shouted, "YAY!"

"Naruto." The deadly tone of Neji's voice scared me a little bit, so I looked back at him with concern.

"What?"

"Do you know what cards you have?"

From my blank stare Neji seemed to get even more pissed off. He turned away from me and folded his arms, clearly not interested in telling me what my cards were.

So instead, it was Ino that answered. I still wasn't quite sure what I had done from her answer, but from her serious tone, I knew it must've been impressive.

"Naruto, that's a royal flush."

Yay, Prologue : Complete! Make sure to check for updates, and reviews are appreciated! Thanks so much for reading.

3 Guitaur-Strings