I surprisingly arrived at the academy before Ino and Sakura. They must've gone a longer way or something.

As I walked into the hallway, I heard rapid footsteps behind me. I turned and quickly moved out of the way when I saw Ino and Sakura running closely together while glaring at each other.

I walked in after that. 

"I win again Sakura," Ino panted.

"Give it up. I had to look back to see you!" Sakura retorted, panting as well. "My toe was at least a tenth of an inch ahead,"

"Have you always been this delusional?" Ino retorted.

Naruto turned when he heard them and started blushing. He looked awestruck and I started to feel some heat rising to my cheeks at the way he was staring. Sakura turned in his direction and kicked the ground awkwardly. 

She started running off towards him.

"Hey, woah! Where are you going?!" Ino exclaimed.

"What's up?" Naruto grinned at her.

All the heat went away after that. Of course.

Sakura pushed him out of the way and walked towards him. I rolled my eyes at how Naruto didn't even notice me at all. 

What did she have that I didn't?

Ino shook her head and then turned. "Hey, I'm sorry about-"

She stopped and started grinning. "Oh, I've got it now!"

I look at her with confusion and widened my eyes when I realized she figured it out. She knows I didn't like Sasuke, so she definitely didn't get it wrong.

"You like-!"

I quickly slapped my hand over her mouth. 

"No! You've got it all wrong!" I whisper shouted at her. 

She tried to say his name, but it came out as "mmph!"

I let go of her face and she was smirking at me. "I feel stupid for not figuring it out sooner. It's totally obvious, now that I think about it. No wonder why you get so heated about him when you argue with your mom,"

I started to blush and she was giggling. "No wonder why you don't like Sakura,"

"What? I don't hate Sakura. I wouldn't hate her over that," I replied. "And I don't like him like that. He's just...a friend,"

"But you're jealous,"

"You know what? Sakura's trying to go sit next to Sasuke right now," I pointed.

Ino quickly lost focus of our conversation. "What?!"

She immediately ran over to their desk, yelling at Sakura to back off. 

"I got here first!" Sakura shouted.

"I walked into the classroom before you did, everyone saw it. Kaori, I walked in first, right?!" Ino shouted back.

"Yeah...sure..." I shrugged. 

I honestly didn't even see it. It just looked like a blur to me.

Sasuke looked visibly annoyed and didn't even bother to look at them. Naruto was lying on the ground still and I just sighed, taking the seat next to Kiba. All the other girls joined in on Sakura and Ino's argument. 

Kiba and I started talking, but we immediately stopped when we saw Naruto and Sasuke kissing. They both looked horrified and I had to cover my laugh with a cough, so Naruto wouldn't think I was laughing at him.

Ino, Sakura, and all the other Sasuke fangirls angrily shouted his name and chased him out of the room. 

"Well," Kiba coughed. "That was interesting. I'd hate to be in Naruto's position,"

"Yeah," I smirked. "Now I won't let him live that down,"

"I would hope not, that's just too hilarious," Kiba snickered. 

I started telling Kiba about what was bothering me this morning and told him about the argument I had with my mom. He knew that I had a strained relationship with her since the beginning and honestly, both Ino's mom and his mom treat me way better than her.

Kiba's mom and sister both loved me. I looked up to Hana as a sister, since I don't have the best relationship with my own sister either.

I hated this. My brother Yushiro and my dad are the only two who don't piss me off. 

Yushiro does piss me off but in the normal annoying little brother way. Anzu just irritates me since she can do whatever she wants to and never gets in trouble for it. Meanwhile, if I even clean the kitchen the wrong way, I get nagged about it.

Naruto and the fangirls walked back inside. He had marks on him and sat down annoyed with Sasuke and Sakura.

Iruka walked inside shortly after. 

"As of today, you're now ninjas. You've faced many hardships and hard trials, but that's nothing. It gets harder and far more difficult from here on out. You are now genin, first-level ninjas. All genin will be grouped into three-man squads and each squad will be led by a jonin, an elite ninja."

Iruka continued to explain how the team works and all that. Now it was time for him to call out the members.

"For Team Seven," Iruka said. "Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno..."

Naruto got up and cheered loudly, making me roll my eyes. Sakura just sulked. I secretly crossed my fingers.

"And Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka finished, causing the opposite to happen.

I mentally sulked. So I won't be on a team with him after all. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll be paired with Ino or Kiba. Hopefully both.

"Now for Team Eight," Iruka said. "Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame,"

Kiba and I exchanged looks. Apparently, the world was against me today. I really wanted to be on a team with Kiba or Ino if I wasn't on Naruto's. 

"Team Nine," Iruka continued. "Kaori Matsumoto, Kazuki Inoue..."

I didn't know who Haruto was, but I crossed my fingers for Ino. Please be Ino. Ino and I turned to look at each other with hope and then looked back at Iruka.

"And Ginji Kusajishi," He finally said.

I huffed quietly at how I wasn't going to be on Ino's team either. Why did the world hate me today? I didn't know who Ginji was either, so hopefully, my team is nice to me. 

"And for Team Ten: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi." 

I saw Ino sulk at that.

"Iruka-Sensei," Naruto complained loudly. "Why is a great ninja like me paired with that slug, Sasuke?"

"Sasuke had the best scores of all graduating students," Iruka explained. "Naruto, you had the worst scores. To create balance, we put the best students with the worst student,"

The class snickered at Naruto for having the worst score. Iruka cleared his throat when Team Seven started arguing. "After lunch, you'll meet your teacher. Until then, class dismissed."

I stood up and Kiba turned to me. "Too bad we weren't on the same team, but I'm sure we'll go on missions together sometime,"

"Yeah," I said. "I don't even know who my team is,"

Ino walked over to me as Kiba was about to speak.

"So, Sakura ended up on the same team as Sasuke. Can you believe that?" She put a hand on her hip, exhaling with annoyance. "And to make it worse, we couldn't be on the same team. I had to end up with food boy and that annoying guy, Shikamaru,"

"Shikamaru's not that bad," I said. "I'm not very close to him, but we used to play together with Naruto and Kiba,"

"He was so full of himself," She shook her head. "Anyway, I'll see you guys later."

Ino left, leaving Kiba and I alone.

I sweat drop. "Uh, do you know who my teammates are? I wanna get to know them, but I don't know either of them,"

"Kazuki wears a white shirt and Ginji wears red. I'm pretty sure they know who you are," Kiba said.

"How do you know them and I don't?" 

"They've always been in our class. They just didn't really hang out with the same circle of friends," Kiba replied. "I'm gonna go meet up with mine, I'll see you around Kaori."

I exited the classroom, seeing Naruto walking away with Sakura. I rolled my eyes and turned in the other direction. 

"Kaori, right?" An unfamiliar voice spoke. 

I turned to my side, seeing a darker-skinned boy with black braids that went to his mid-back. He had deep brown eyes and wore a white jacket with a black t-shirt underneath. He had his headband tied around his thigh.

"Yes," I replied. "Are you Kazuki?"

He nodded, with a polite smile on his face. 

"I'll lead you to Ginji," He said, turning around. 

Kazuki seemed nice. I hoped this Ginji would be as nice as he is.