"No way! Time out! I'm not fightin' some girl!" Ichiro screamed flailing his fist in the air. Sakura and Gaara sweatdropped and sighed. The announcer looked a bit shocked but recovered.

"Sorry, but it was a random drawing. You can forfeit though."

Ichiro's ears perked up having heard the word 'forfeit'. He began to get rather ticked off from the whole situation.

"You'd like that wouldn't you? I'm not quitting, but I'm not gonna feel too good about beating some girl." he snapped at the man.

"If you wish to be a Chunin, you're going to have to take out some opponents. Some of those opponents will be women. Are you saying you would defy your mission because the enemy has breasts?!" the girl inquired with amusement of how Ichiro's face turned red when the word 'breasts' was mentioned.

"N-No! I was just….I wasn't even TALKING to you!" he barked.

The girl's smirk turned into a serious expression that sent a chill down Ichiro's spine.

"Either fight me or quit. You couldn't beat me even if you tried." She spat out like venom.

Ichiro glared at the girl, and she glared back with extra heat.

Who is this girl?

Rei had long brown hair down to her back. She was wearing a long gray jacket and a purple skirt with a kunai pouch on her left shoulder. She had goggles on her head, but Ichiro couldn't find a forehead protector. She had on a beautiful red ear ring. But only one.

"I'll fight her." He hissed at the announcer, not ripping his glare away from the girl.

The announcer nodded and signaled the fight to begin. There was applause as the announcer jumped back a safe distance and yelled "Begin!"

Rei began to rush over, not even hesitating, as did Ichiro. When she was about 10 feet away from Ichiro, she dug both of her hands into the opposite jacket sleeve and retrieved a kunai for each.

She's fast. Ichiro thought.

The two rushed each other until they were both about to bash heads. Ichiro readied his fist and was about to punch her square in the face when…she vanished. Ichiro gasped and doubled over.

"What the…hell?" he coughed out, getting up. Ichiro looked all around him. To the left, right, above, under, she was gone. Just when he was about to scratch his head to think even harder, there was a piercing pain in his side. He looked down to see that he had just been slashed with a kunai on his right side. He grabbed his side and then immediately saw the shine of a kunai. Before he could react, he was slashed on his right shoulder and was bleeding heavily.

"Ah!...friggin bitch." He mumbled to himself.

How is she doing this?!

He heard giggles as his left leg was slashed which caused him to yelp.

Don't panic Ichiro…think. Think. Ah, I'm not good at thinking in battle, Koji is. This is bad.

Just then his right leg was slashed and the only thing keeping Ichiro from screaming in pain was his pride. The announcer looked concern. He decided to give the battle another minute before calling it quits for Ichiro. The girl was too good.

"You can quit ya know. I won't blame you." He heard the girl's voice tease.

"Screw you!" you yelled, leading the girl to giggle.

Wait a minute. If I can get her to keep talking. I can pin point where she is…Bingo.

Ichiro cuddled his injuries with his arms as blood seeped through and he talked through clenched teeth.

"So, why do you wanna be a ninja so bad anyways? I mean it's not what you'd call a glamorous lifestyle." He chuckled even though the pain almost made it impossible.

"Is he…talking to her?" Gaara asked an also puzzled Naruto.

"Beats me, Gaara." Naruto admitted, still staring at Ichiro.

There was no response from Rei, only another side splitting cut to his right leg.

"What can I say? I like to make little pink-haired boys cry." Ichiro could practically see her smirking face and it made him sick to his core. He was then slashed on the right side of his stomach yet again, causing an even bigger wound to his gash.

Wait. She's being repetitive…she already slashed me there…that means…there's a pattern.

It was as if a light bulb went off in Ichiro's head. As he predicted, his left side was slashed one more. He gained a cocky grin, even with the blood staining all of his clothes.

Now it's time for the leg.

As if on que, he saw the glimmer of the kunai near his leg and before the weapon could cause anymore injuries, he grabbed a few inches behind the kunai, grabbing Rei's arm.

"WHA?!-" she began, before Ichiro swung her around and let her go, bashing her into the cement wall. He hobbled over as best he could and saw she was at least 3 feet into it, fully visible, and unconscious.

"Maybe she's…just not cut out to be…a ninja." He smirked and let out a chuckle as the announcer raised his arm and announced him the victor. There were cheers from Sakura, Gaara, Naruto and everyone. Then Ichiro was rushed off towards the infirmary. Since he was the last of the fighters, Gaara and Sakura were excused to see him and Koji.

Sakura made her way down the hall where the badly beaten fighters were being taken care of, and there she found her sons. By then, Koji was already awake and had had a nurse treat his wounds. He was drinking water out of a canteen and waved with a smile when he saw his mother.

"Oh, Koji you we're EXCELLENT!" Sakura beamed, tears in her eyes.

"Thanks." He said with a smile, but on the inside was a different story.

EXCELLENT?! I KICKED ASS!! (A/N: remember inner Sakura? Well, he has an inner Koji lol )

Sakura then saw her other son, getting checked at by 2 nurses and trying to shoo them away.

"Ichiro-sama, you need to let us take a look at these cuts!" one of the nurses pleaded.

"For the hundredth time I'm FINE! Geez, go check up on Koji again, he got worse of a beating then I did." At that instant Koji turned around and stuck his tongue out at his brother.

"At least I didn't get my butt handed to me by some female." He said cockily.

"Hey! Some female can be great ninjas too, young man!" Sakura scolded.

"R-Right, sorry." Koji stuttered, looking down.

"Uh, it's ok. How can I stay mad at my two lil' Chunins?!" Sakura chimed.

"Ugh, mom…" the boys mumbled with embarrassment. Suddenly, the doors swung open and Naruto and Gaara were walking in with angry expressions on their faces.

"Sakura. I need to speak with you now." Gaara said, his tone saying 'it's an emergency'.

Then, Gaara formed a small smile and looked at his sons, "I'm very proud of you two. You were great, you really made me proud." Then his frown formed once more and he took Sakura to the side with Naruto and the three of them spoke privately.

"Baki and Kankuro found Kazuki, the man that attacked the boys. He was with 5 other ninja. It was a tough fight, but the ninja got away. Baki and Kankuro are in the hospital resting. 2 of the three guards didn't make it out of the battle." Gaara explained, seeing the fear in Sakura's eyes.

"Well…what can we do? Send more fighters for them?"

"That's not the main priority here. The main priority is just finding out who these assassins are. The only thing found at the battle spot was this." Naruto explained, opening his palm revealing a red earring.

"What do you see?" Ichiro asked Koji, who's hand was in a seal with his eyes closed. He was using his father's infamous Third Eye jutsu, but only to eavesdrop on their parents' conversation.

"Hm…Naruto-sama has a red earring." Koji explained as best he could.

"Whoa. Didn't think Naruto-sama swung that way." Ichiro joked, nudging his brother, who dismissed his elbow.

"Knock it off. Dad looks serious, this could be trouble." Suddenly, Gaara looked up from facing Naruto. He saw a brown eye floating 5 feet above him. His face looked shock, then angry as he looked back at his son, who opened his eyes and smiled weakly.

"Big trouble…" Koji repeated.