A/N: Ok, Here's Rei's battle; will she make it, or will she be the next one in the infirmary?

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

Chapter 9

Rei stood in the center of the arena floor; in front of her, her opponent, Masaya Saotome, stood opposite of her as Hayate stood to the side. Unlike his teammate, Taro, Masaya showed that he had plenty of arrogance and wouldn't hesitate to show off; just like Asuka, Rei mentally noted. Masaya stood a good few centimeters taller than her but it was mostly because of how spiked his dark hair looked. Just by looking at him, Rei could tell that his specialty was close-combat; and he was also able to use some ninjutsu to deal it. She knew she had to end this and fast.

Up in the rafters, the spectators all readied to take notes as they watched Rei in the fight. Many of them still remember what happened in Taro and Asuka's fight; Taro had nearly been burned to a crisp thanks to Asuka's fire jutsus. Now they were curious as to what Rei was capable of and what her specialty was.

"Heh, me against a little girl…?" Masaya jeered while cracking his knuckles and flexing his muscles. "This oughtta be quick!"

Rei didn't seem to be intimidated at all. She calmly closed her eyes and said, "I would suggest you forfeit the match."

Masaya's smirk fell as she continued. "If you do not, I will not be responsible for what will happen."

Masaya scowled at her and growled like a bear. "Humph! Like I'm gonna give up to you? Well think again, doll!"

Rei's eyes snapped open but she kept her calm composure. While she didn't show it, she was insulted by the jab Masaya had called her. After all, it was one of Asuka's common insults to her.

Up in the rafters, the said person grinned and leaned on the guardrails. "I'd listen to her if I were him." She said causing a few of the other Genins present to look at her.

"What do you mean, Asuka-chan?" Naruto asked almost earning a glare from the said girl for calling her that.

"What I mean," Asuka said looking down at Rei. "Is that this guy is in way over his head." Her grin widened ever so slightly. "And he shouldn't have called her that."

"If you're both ready…" Hayate said looking at the two of them before bringing his hand down in between them. "Begin!"

After Hayate moved out of the way, Masaya began the match by throwing a downward punch towards Rei, who jumped away in the nick of time. When Masaya's fist made contact with the floor, the tiles underneath it exploded and when the dust cleared, there was nothing left but a small crater; the action stunned those watching. Masaya glared at Rei as she flipped backwards and landed on her feet and looked at her opponent calmly.

'From the way they look, Masaya could easily overpower Rei in terms of strength.' Kakashi thought as he watched before turning his lone eye towards Misato, who was grinning as much as her red-headed student. 'But then again, we don't know what Rei is capable of. Just what is it that you are hiding, Misato?'

"Hey Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked getting his sensei's attention. "Do you think Rei-chan has a chance of winning this?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at how Naruto referred to Rei but answered his question regardless. "Well Naruto, if this were a test of brute force then I would say that Masaya would come out on top." The answer seemed to disappoint Naruto, but Kakashi continued. "However, we have yet to see what kind of specialty Rei has in terms of ninjutsu." He turned towards the person in question. "I would be lying if I said that she wouldn't have any surprises for us. She might just pull something off to win."

The answer seemed to satisfy Naruto as he turned to look again. As he watched, he saw that Masaya was now charging at Rei with a battle cry with his fist raised, ready to strike. Rei, being against the wall, leapt forward just as the fist connected with the wall. The impact shook the rafters and startled those on them. Masaya pulled his fist back and turned to see Rei standing in the middle of the arena with her hands in a ram hand seal.

"Koori Bunshin no jutsu (1)."

The moment Rei said that, small crystals of ice began to form on the floor and expanded slowly. Masaya paused to watch, as did everyone else as the ice crystals continued to grow and form into Rei's form. There were a total of two of these forms with her in between them. After a few seconds, the ice solidified into her body before the ice itself then took on her body pigments. Then she and the clones opened their eyes at the same time and separated.

"What the heck!?" Masaya said startled as he saw this.

The spectators were also stunned that she was able to form such clones made up of ice. Some were confused as to how she was able to do it; ice was not easy to come by in their current environment. So how was it that she was able to make such clones without water or ice nearby?

"Ice clones?" Sakura blinked, she and Ino had woken up shortly after the next match was decided. "How can she be able to make clones like that? It's way too warm for something like that."

"It's one of Rei's specialties." Misato said, catching the spectators around hers' attention, minus her two students. "She's able to pour her chakra into the moisture in the air and freeze it. How she's able to do this, I don't know. But it's one of the two things Rei specializes in when it comes to elemental jutsus."

"But if she's able to create these clones, won't they shatter once they come into contact with an opponent?" Shikamaru asked; a little interested for once.

"Just watch, you'll see." Misato said with a grin.

"Tch, what good will these do ya!?" Masaya said as he punched the floor causing it to crack towards Rei's direction.

Rei and her clones jumped away from the cracks that formed and charged at Masaya. Masaya merely grinned and waited for her. When one of her clones got close, he swung a fist at it and shattered its left arm completely off causing it to hit the floor and look like a frozen ice statue of a person's arm. When the clones and Rei landed, the clone grew back its arm! Masaya and everyone eyes gawked at the sight and Masaya himself backed up a little.

"H-how…how did you do that!?" Masaya stuttered, almost afraid.

In the rafters, Asuka heard the others ask the same question and decided to answer for them. "Unlike water clones and rock clones, ice clones don't disperse after you hit them. If a good portion of the clone is still intact, then the piece that was destroyed merely grows back."

Those listening in were too stunned but it was Sakura who was able to raise a question. "But what about the piece that came off?"

Asuka merely shrugged and looked at Sakura with a grin. "It grows the rest of the body back."

As if to emphasize her point, the arm that had come off began to reform into a clone of Rei that was lying down on the floor. It stood up after it was completed; after it did, Masaya could only gawk but he then scowled and charged like a rampaging bull at the real Rei. One of her clones blocked his way, but he shattered it as he rammed his shoulder into the mid-section.

He turned to see if the clone was re-growing itself, but to his relief the clone's shards melted into the floor. With a grin, he turned to the real Rei, but she and her two other clones were gone. He turned frantically around for her and spotted her near the statue in the arena. He began to charge again, but Rei nodded towards her two remaining clones, who charged at him. Masaya grinned and repeated what he did to the first one and continued his charge at Rei. Rei once again moved out of the way as the larger genin rammed himself into a wall.

Frustrated, Masaya turned around and saw Rei crouching down to one of the puddles where some of the shards of her ice clones had melted. Closing her eyes, she went through a small group of hand seals and ended them in a snake seal. Opening her eyes she said three words.

"Hyo sho senbon. (2)"

After she said that, she opened her right palm and small ice crystals formed from the puddles and formed into her hand as four tiny needles. She gripped them and waited as she saw her opponent charge at her. She then took the senbon in her hand and threw them at him. Masaya grinned as he stopped and let the senbon hit his left leg. Up in the rafters, Asuka's grin widened even more.

"Ha! You think little senbon like those will stop…AGH!!!" He then doubled over and gripped where the senbon had hit his leg only to have his eyes widen as he saw that his leg had started to become blue and go pale.

He wasn't the only one to notice. "W-what's going on!?" Ino exclaimed as she too saw the change in Masaya's leg.

"Those were not ordinary senbon." Rei said as she stared at her now disabled opponent. "Unlike ordinary senbon, which are made from metal, these senbon are made from ice. However, since they have my chakra poured into them I am able to control the actions of the ice crystals within these senbon."

"W-what a-are y-you t-t-t-t-talking about!?" Masaya demanded with his teeth chattering.

"When these senbon come into contact with an enemy, I can use my chakra within them to spread ice crystals throughout my opponent's bloodstream and freezing it and the limb the blood stream leads to." Rei explained. "In other words, your leg is becoming frostbitten as we speak."

Shikamaru was beginning to understand. "I get it;" He said catching everyone's attention. "If she was able to throw those things at him from all directions, she could literally freeze him to death."

"That's the idea." Asuka said with a triumphant tone.

"However, I only poured enough of my chakra to freeze a portion of the tissue in your leg." Rei said calmly. "If untreated, the rest of the leg will become frostbitten within at least an hour."

Neji Hyuuga, after activating his byakugan, spoke up. "I can see it now, the ice crystals inside his leg are forming at a slow but rapid pace."

Masaya just continued to stare helplessly at his leg as it became lesser than its original skin tone as Rei continued. "So unless you do not wish to lose this leg to frostbite, then I would suggest that you forfeit now and have it treated. If you do not, then I cannot guarantee that you will merely lose a single limb to frostbite."

Masaya gulped. "O-okay, I quit!" He said with a shiver. "It's just so cold!"

Rei closed her eyes. "A wise decision."

Hayate coughed slightly before raising his right hand. "Winner by forfeit, Rei Ayanami."

After that announcement, Misato once again cheered as Rei calmly walked towards the catwalk, while medic ninjas took Masaya out on a stretcher. As she walked back to her teammates, the Sound Ninjas were silently watching her with scrutinizing eyes. Kin looked over to her bandaged teammate.

"That jutsu might become a nuisance." She said, referring to the jutsu that Rei used to win.

"I agree," Dosu said calmly as he too watched Rei. "But we have only seen a portion of what she is capable of. If she's capable of more, then Orochimaru-sama might find a use for her."

They weren't the only ones watching her; Gaara was also watching her with the bloodlust growing in his eyes. He could just feel her wanting to taste Rei's blood; if she was capable of such unique techniques, then she would be enough to prove his existence. Perhaps her blood may be cold enough to be a sweet punch.

Kakashi also watched as Rei walked back to her team. 'To be able to manipulate moisture in the air like that is impressive. It's almost as if she were from Kirigakure. But then again, we don't know what else she's capable of.'

"That was awesome Rei-chan!" Naruto exclaimed as she walked past him.

She merely closed her eyes and said, "Arigatou, Naruto-san." And continued her stride back to her team.

Asuka looked at her and instead of a nice greeting she frowned at her. "You could've ended the match a lot sooner you know."

Rei returned to her spot next to Shinji and did not look at Asuka. "I would have…" She then turned to Asuka. "If I wanted to kill him."

"Humph, whatever." Asuka said waving the comment off.

Sarutobi looked at Team Katsuragi and puffed a small bit of smoke from his pipe. 'So far, the team from the Heaven village has won their matches by forcing their opponents to forfeit. But what about this, Shinji Ikari? What is he capable of doing?'

A few minutes later, after the clean-up crews cleared the arena for the next match, everyone was once again fixated on the giant screen on the wall and watched as the names of the competitors flashed by again. Once again it stopped on two names.

Tenten

Vs.

Temari

This made Misato's eyes narrow. 'Now we move on to the second member of that Suna team.' She watched as the two kunoichi went down to the arena. She noted that the girl, Tenten, was the girl from Neji Hyuuga's team. 'Let's just hope that girl can hold her own down there.'

Misato, Asuka, and Shinji then immediately covered their ears just as they heard Tenten's sensei, Maito Gai, and her teammate Rock Lee started cheering for her.

'Sheesh! These two are even bigger idiots than Naruto and probably even louder too!' Asuka thought as she came very close to hitting both of them upside the head to shut them both up.

When Hayate signaled the fight to begin, everyone was immediately aware that Tenten was a weapons specialist. She took out a pair of scrolls and summoned weapons from them and threw them at Temari. Temari acted as though she was standing still but she surprised Tenten when she deflected her weapons with the wind from her fan at an incredible speed. Tenten tried again with a different approach; instead she threw her weapons from scrolls in the air and the weapons were attached to wires on her fingers. Like before, Temari used her fans to deflect them despite Tenten's best to attack her with them.

But then Temari used her fan almost like a glider to fly over Tenten before landing where she was. She then took her fan and swung it hard causing a miniature tornado to form around her. After she was caught in it, Tenten felt as though the winds were tearing her body apart considering that she was getting cuts all over her body. While they were small and non-lethal, it still did the job. As the wind dispersed, Tenten fell, only to land back-first into the tip of Temari's, now folded-up, fan! After she landed, a lot of the competitors just watched with stunned expressions as Tenten coughed up blood.

Shinji visibly winced at the sight. "Ouch…" He muttered almost as if he felt Tenten's pain.

"No kidding." Asuka said nodding in agreement.

Misato, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes at the sight. 'That was a little uncalled for. Tenten had clearly lost the fight, but Temari didn't have to be so rough on her afterwards! Still, at least we know a little bit of what she's capable of. Had she been born from our village, she probably would've mastered that jutsu at a very young age.'

Temari scoffed as she looked at Tenten. "That was really, really boring."

"Winner by knockout, Temari." Hayate announced as he stepped to the middle of where Tenten's weapons were scattered about.

Then, everyone watched as Temari swung her fan and threw Tenten across the arena right over her weapons; even Team Katsuragi were stunned by this! Had Lee not been there to catch her, Tenten could've easily landed on one of her own weapons and her injuries would have been worse or fatal. Lee looked at Temari as he set Tenten down.

"Nice catch." Temari said with a sinister grin.

"Why did you do that!?" Lee yelled. "That is something you should not do to someone who fought her best!"

Temari slammed the end of her fan down on the floor. "Shut up! Take that piece of trash and leave."

Asuka growled as she heard Temari. "That girl has a serious attitude problem!"

Misato looked at Asuka with a glare. 'That, Asuka, is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.'

Lee growled and began to charge at Temari, despite the protests of his teammate Neji. He then leaped in the air and spun his leg around to kick her. But Temari blocked his foot with her fan.

"You're just like how you dress, so stupid." Temari said with a sneer.

Gai then came down and stopped Lee from continuing. Gaara also told Temari to get back up to where they were. Not wanting to feel Gaara's wrath she complied. Gai then looked up at the Sunagakure team after Gaara had said something that offended Lee.

"I might want to warn you Sand ninjas of something." He said with a confident grin. He then patted Lee's shoulder. "He's strong, so don't get so cocky."

Misato then heard something coming from one of the Leaf Genin nearby and she looked to see the team with Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuuga look a little worried. She cocked an eyebrow at this. 'They know something about Gaara, but what?'

She then witnessed as Naruto talked with his teammate. Her thoughts then turned towards the young blonde, bundle of energy. 'But I wonder…what is Naruto capable of? Is he as strong as he boasts? If so, is that part of the reason this village seems to hate him?'

Their attention then turned to the screen once again as it flashed through the names of the Chuunin-hopefuls. Misato looked down at the only remaining genin of her squad. So far her team has won their matches, and through forced forfeit at that. Rei and Asuka were capable of intimidating their opponents; Shinji, on the other hand, was barely able to do that. However, they would think twice when they messed with Shinji when he was really mad; and that would not be a pretty sight afterward. She then looked as the screen stopped at two more names.

Shikamaru Nara

Vs.

Kin Tsuchi

Much to the disappointment of Rock Lee and Naruto, the two Genin stepped down to the arena, which had been clear of all of Tenten's weapons. While the two of them stood in the middle of the arena, the place was now full of cheering from, the now awake, Ino Yamanaka; much to the annoyance of Asuka.

After the match started, Shikamaru had tried his clan's signature jutsu the Kagemane or shadow possession technique. But Kin, having been familiar with this technique, was ready for it. She had moved away from it, but she also threw a pair of senbon past him with bells attached to them. Shikamaru dodged them, but then shortly after Kin used her bells (while they were attached to strings no less) to distract him while she hit him with another pair of senbon. But she then did something no one expected.

The second time she rung the bells Shikamaru was down on his knees! Misato watched this carefully as Kin explained that when someone hears her bells they are exposed to a genjutsu that disables them temporarily. Shikamaru tried covering his ears, but Kin told him it was useless and that he couldn't. She then threw another set of senbon at him and hit him.

She was going to repeat the process, but stopped. Just then Shikamaru stood and almost immediately, Kin was following his movements! She had been so occupied in explaining how her little bell trick works, that she never noticed that he used the strings attached to the belled senbon as a path to her for his Kagemane. He then forced her to pull out some shuriken as he pulled some out of his pouch. She tried warning him that if he did that, he'd only get hit himself; but just after they threw their shuriken, Shikamaru bent backwards at the last minute. But when Kin did, her head came into contact with the wall behind her and she was knocked out.

'Well what do you know…?' Asuka thought as she watched Kin hit her head. 'She didn't pay attention to her surroundings, but he did. He knew that if he ducked with her in his shadow possession, she'd hit her head on the wall. She was too concentrated on winning.'

"Winner by knockout, Shikamaru Nara." Hayate announced.

After that was announced, Shikamaru returned to his team and everyone was once again fixated on the screen. The previous fights got most of their blood pumping and some more than others were very eager to start. Once again, Misato was going over who was left out of all of the Genins that have yet to fight.

'Ok, so far quite a few of the Genins here have been eliminated.' She looked at the rafters across from her. 'The only ones who haven't fought yet are that Gaara kid, that remaining Sound Genin, that third Leaf genin,' Her eyes then drifted to the group she was with. 'That girl from the Hyuuga clan, her teammate with the dog, that boy from the Hyuuga clan, his spandex-wearing teammate, Naruto, that pungent kid,' Her eyes then turned to Shinji. 'And last, but not least, Shinji. Out of all the Genins here, I'm more worried about him and who he'll face.' She then turned her eyes to look at Gaara. 'If I'm right about Gaara, then I hope to Kami-sama that he doesn't face him.'

Just as she finished her train of thought, she heard the screen stop and she looked up to look at it. She then grinned as she saw that it stopped on a very familiar name.

Naruto Uzumaki

Vs.

Kiba Inuzuka

'Well how about that,' She thought. 'It's Naruto's turn.' She then turned to look at the said genin, only to try and hold back an amused smile at the boy's enthusiasm. 'Time to show us your stuff Naruto.'

Misato wasn't the only one looking at him.

'Well, let's hope this kid is as good as he boasts; otherwise, I will be very disappointed.' Asuka thought as she looked at Naruto with her two teammates.

'Time to see what Naruto-san is capable of.' Rei thought as she watched Naruto with careful eyes.

'Do your best, Naruto.' Shinji cheered in his head as he stared at Naruto as he almost broke into a run to get to his spot in the arena.

TBC…

A/N: Well, I'm gonna stop here. I know many of you were hoping for a longer fight with Rei, but it's the best I can do for her right now. Shinji's fight, on the other hand, will be a LOT longer. Now to name the two new jutsus I introduced in this chapter.

1.) Ice Clone technique: This is more of a combination of a solidified water clone jutsu and a rock clone jutsu but with my own quirks.

2.) Crystal Ice needles: This I came up with out of an after-thought. If people use poison in senbon needles, why not make ice out of them and make them even more deadly when in use by a ninja like Rei? So, I did.

But hang on to your hitai-ate folks! It's gonna get rough as we now get into two out of four of the most vicious fights in the preliminaries! See ya soon!