I skipped the fights 'cause, you know, everyone has seen it.

Ippan's family was late to the tournament. It's the day of the chunin exams.

"Ugh, we could have gotten better seats if someone woke up earlier." Ippan's mother said with a huff, flipping her lavender hair in irritation. The woman looked to her husband and he responded with a shrug.

"We're here now." He answered with yawn and scratch of his head.

"That's not the point and you know it."

"We can't all get what we want." This was their daily routine and it usually carried on for a bit longer. Her mother worried fuss about things that weren't all that serious and her father would quip simple responses.

Ippan took this time to look around the arena. They had arrived late, so yes their seats weren't the best, but it wasn't any less exciting. It was her first time attend an event such as this. Ippan had never seen real ninjas in combat before, so this was a new experience. Well, if you count Naruto showing off some of the techniques he learned. Besides that she hadn't seen much shinobi action.

Then there's Gaara.

The girl grimaced. He was scary.

"What's wrong Ippan?" She blinked out of her thought to look up at her father. The girl saw both of her parents staring at her in question.

"Nothing really." She said waving off their concern.

"Are you worried about Naruto?" He asked.

Ippan raised her brow. "No, why?"

"Well, he's not here and you told me he was in this tournament, right?"

She nodded as she looked around. He was right, Naruto wasn't here. The boy was late. "It's just like him to be late to the most anticipated event of the season."

"Maybe he forfeited." Her mother suggested. "He's fighting a Hyuuga clan member and I heard he's a prodigy." Most likely from her gossip group.

"No, knowing him he probably over slept or something stupid." Ippan stated bluntly. Though, it would be a lie if she said she wasn't a bit worried.

Her father nodded. "Yeah, he does tend to show up at unexpected times and places." Ippan froze her fathers eyes glanced to her.

He was referring to the times he spent in her room in the middle of the the night.

"What do you mean by that?" Her mother raised her left eyebrow.

Please don't tell, She repeated mentally.

"Nothing really, just speculation." He said with a slight smile.

"Mmhm." The older woman narrowed her eyes.

Luckily at that moment, Naruto suddenly slid into the arena screaming. He was yelling something about rampaging bulls, but he was quickly silenced. The Hokage stood up to speak and said a few words. One of the perks of sitting higher up is that she could get a better look at her village's leader. Ippan had never seen him personally, so this was most likely the closest she'd ever get to meeting the man. She noticed Suna's leader was their as well.

Ippan looked down at the contestants and noticed Sasuke wasn't there either. It seemed impractical for Naruto to get there before the uptight boy. No offense to her friend, just a judge on their behavior. Maybe something happened. Curiosity plagued her mind as the girl looked around only to notice a familiar figure sitting in front of her.

It was stalker girl

"Hey!" She tapped on the girl's shoulder. The girl turned and looked at her in surprise. "It's nice to see you on more appropriate terms."

"O-oh um, hello." The girl said with a flustered face. The boy next to her looked at Ippan with a questioning brow. He had small dog in his jacket. Well, that's not weird at all.

"Hinata, who is that?" He asked, looking her over with a curious expression.

"Your name is Hinata? That's nice. Much better than what I've been calling you." Ippan smiled, and Hinata only seemed to get more embarrassed. "Oh, sorry for being rude. My name is Ippan Shinpuru."

The girl seemed hesitant. "Hinata Hyuuga,...b-but you knew that."

"Well now I do for sure." She said with a grin.

"Oh, Ippan." Dog boy said. "Now I recognize you, you're the girl I see with Naruto all the time."

The purple haired girl turned to Hinata. "Whose your cute friend?"

The boy grinned. "I'm-"

"I meant the dog." She interrupted and laughed a little at his lost face. "Ha, your face. I'm kidding, really, what's your name?"

"Kiba and this is Akamaru" He replied as the dog barked in response. "You don't seem like the type to hang out with Naruto."

She shrugged. "It's boring to be with someone identical to yourself. That's why I like Naruto. He's different." Kiba seemed to take this in and Ippan looked to the pale eyed girl. "So is that Hyuuga your brother or something?"

She shook her head. "No, he's my cousin."

"Mm, since you know him. Do you think Naruto has a chance?"

"I-I think-"

Suddenly a ninja interrupted. "There's no way, he's been lucky so far, but he'll never survive this one"

"Yeah, I can't believe he even made it this far." Another said.

Ippan raised her brow at the two. She didn't ask them to speak. "Excuse me, what's are your names?"

The man with his hair covering his left eye blinked. "Izumo, why?"

Ippan ignored him and turned to the other man. "Kotetsu."

"Well Izumo, Kotetsu, my name is Ippan. How about we make a little bet?"

"Ippan." Her mother scolded. "Stop bothering them." The girl raised her brow. They spoke to her first.

"No, it's fine." Izumo said with an amused smile. "What do you have in mind kid?"

"I think Naruto is going to win and you two don't. If he wins you give me 100 yen, if he doesn't I give you both 100 yen. Simple right?"

Kotetsu shrugged. "Mm, I don't feel right suckering money out of a kid."

"Who says you'll win?" Ippan asked with a smirk.

"Fine." It wasn't much of a bet when he knew who would win.

"Anybody else want in?" The girl asked.

"Ippan, stop." Her mother warned.

"I'm in." Her father said, placing a coin into Ippan's hand. She looked at her with a raised brow.

"Himitsu!" Her mother scolded.

"Deal me in too little girl!" Another man said.

Soon more began placing there bets and of course they all put there money on the Hyuuga prodigy. A good portion of people where Ippan sat actually participated in the bet. Surprisingly her father bet on Naruto winning. Hinata didn't place any money in the mix, but she voted on Naruto as well. Kiba said nothing, but she was just going to assume that he wanted him to win too.

The crowd cheered loud as Naruto had beat Neji into the ground. It was surprising seeing the boy had such a strategy for battle.

"I can't believe he actually won." Izumo said.

"Who knew Naruto could fight so well." Kotetsu added.

"Well, I can't believe how much money I made from this." Ippan said collecting the coins from the crowd around her. "I should make bets more often."

"No, you shouldn't and I can't believe your father condoned this." Her mother said. The man shrugged and sat back.

Ippan was thoroughly impressed with Naruto's fighting performance. She'd never really seen him in full on combat mode and it was interesting to witness. Not to mention the weird stuff around him. What did he call it? Chakra? To her understanding everyone had blue chakra. His was red. Maybe that's just another reason the boy was special.

"Whose the next match?"

"It's suppose to be Sasuke versus Gaara." Kiba answered. "But he's not here, so he'll probably get disqualified."

Disqualified? The girl looked around and people didn't seem very happy about that. She had to admit that she wanted to see Sasuke and Gaara fight. If only to see how the angsty boy handled the creep. She'd never met someone that scared her so much in her entire life. Of course, her life was simple, but that wasn't the point.

Ippan looked down to see the proctor talking to a man and when they had finished she expected the him to say that Sasuke had with-drawled. "We're postponing the match and jumping to the one that would have followed."

"People must really want to see those two go at it." Ippan deduced, listening as the crowd roared in a union of distaste. "Sasuke is getting special treatment."

"It's the most anticipated battle of the whole tournament" Kiba said.

"That doesn't change much, but I'm only here to watch so I guess it doesn't matter." She said. "Who'd be after them then?"

"Shino." Hinata answered timidly. "He's our teammate."

"Well, I wish him luck." Ippan smiled that Hinata returned with a more nervous attitude. She didn't understand why the girl was so shy, but she wasn't one to judge.

Not 10 seconds later his opponent Kankaro with-drawls as well causing yet another uproar. "At least Shino is the winner."

It was starting to get ridiculous. The crowd was getting antsy and no one was going when they were suppose to. The only entertaining fight had been Naruto's and she'd even gotten money out of it. Were chunin tournaments always this unruly? Ippan wouldn't know considering this was her first one. The girl sighed and looked around. Then something caught her eye.

Who was that in the back?

He had on a hood cape and a strange looking mask. His entire body was covered and he was a bit creepy. Did he feel too ugly to be seen by the world? It confused her, but she wasn't one to judge peoples sense of fashion when all she wore was black. She raised a brow when the masked man turned to her. Ippan whipped around quickly. Maybe he didn't want to be seen.

Her attention was averted back to the arena when a girl dropped down to the the stadium with a large fan. "She looks pretty cool. Nice weapon too. "

"She's from Suna." Ippan looked at her father. "She's from the land of wind and the Kazakages daughter."

"How do you know all that?" She asked.

He yawned and folded his arms over his head. "I lived there for a short time before I met your mother here."

She didn't know that. "Well she has to fight Shikamaru. He's kind of lazy, but really smart. He beat me in shogi over a dozen times."

"Ippan, your horrible at that game." He said with a slight grin. She gave a half-hearted glare before turning to the arena as she noticed Shikamaru was in the ring now.

"Yeah, well let's just hope this fight proves to be entertaining."

Shikamaru forfeited and he had the upper hand. However, his chakra had depleted and he couldn't fight any longer.

"What is going on today with these kids?" Ippans mother asked.

"Mm, it was probably the right thing to do if his energy was dying out." Her father said.

"I'm glad I didn't bet any money this time." Ippan added. "I should have known Shikamaru would forfeit. He seems like the type to do that."

"You'd better not." The older woman warned. "I don't want to hear about my daughter becoming a gambler." Ippan decided to keep quiet. It was better not to say anything else regrading the matter.

After a while it was becoming clear that Sasuke wasn't going to show up. The crowd was getting loud and angry.

"What's taking so long!" Someone yelled.

"Where's the Uchiha!"

"This chunin tournament is really turning into a disappointment."

The girl heard all of these statements and sighed. "People are getting extremely irritated."

Her father didn't seem to mind as he scratched his head. "Let them, there's no point in getting frustrated over things you can't control."

"You're right." She admitted. Ippan looked down at Naruto as he impatiently waited in the center of the ring for his rival. It seemed like the boy was about to be disqualified until Sasuke and his sensei suddenly popped out of wave of leaves.

Soon the two were ready to fight and Ippan would be lying if she said she wasn't excited.

She didn't know when it started, but the girl was starting to feel nervous. Ippan had felt this way when she met Gaara. At the moment she couldn't place her finger on it, but something wasn't right.

The redheaded boy had been a psycho the entire match and Sasuke was actually impressive. However, Gaara had created some kind of shield and the Uchiha had gotten through it with something called chidori. She had to admit it was cool, but now she was anxious. Gaara had screamed and a strange looking object had forged it's way out of the hole Sasuke had formed in the sphere shaped shield.

"Dad, we should...maybe..go..." Ippans eyes were starting to feel heavy and she couldn't understand why. She wasn't tired so why was it so hard to keep her eyes open. Soon the questions stopped as she blacked out completely.

I thought about highschool musical "bet on it" the entire time I wrote this. Himitsu means: secret.