I woke up to Mizuki licking my face.

I lightly pushed her away and looked at the calendar to see what day it was. A week had passed and now it was time for the Chunin Exams to start and if I was being honest, that made me really nervous.

Minato told me to meet him and the others on the training ground because he wanted us to do some last minute training, so I went there.

Kushina came out, looking a little sleepy.

"Good luck Hana and wish your team good luck for me too!" She said.

When I got to the training ground, Kakashi was able to tell that something was bothering me, but he didn't ask about it. I didn't want to talk about how terribly Rentaro and Yukio had affected my pride and strength.

"Minato-Sensei?" Rin asks as we finished our training.

"Yes?"

"I hear ninjas from all over the country will be here, is that true?"

"It is," Minato answers. "Only a few people are picked though, because you have to be recommended by your sensei and approved by the Kage."

"I'm so excited for this! I can't wait to become a chunin!" Obito beamed.

"Me too, I can't wait to be one," I agreed. If I can, that is.

Minato told us to just register on our own and that we'd be free afterward, so the four of us went to the academy. It was weird being back here again.

I was surprised to see how many different people were here and what villages they were from.

I scanned the room and then decided to sort my weapons in my pouch while we waited in line. My eyes landed on one person and I growled, dropping my weapon pouch. The noise caused a few people to look over here.

My team looked at me in confusion as I continued to glare.

"Nozomi," I hissed.

She turned around smirking at me.

"Oh, hey, Hana," She spoke, with a fake cheery voice.

My teammates were tense seeing her here.

"Looks like you need help there," She sneered in that fake and cheery voice.

She knelt down to pick them up and she handed them over to me. I glared at her the whole time and took them back passive-aggressively, shoving them back in my pouch. I didn't care if they weren't sorted out anymore.

"I don't need your help, thanks," I scoffed.

"I'm just trying to help," She smirked. "Oh and when we fight, I'll crush you like a bug. I'll make sure that you're my opponent too, Hana,"

She turned around to leave with two other people I didn't know.

I stood there, boiling with rage. God I wanted to wipe that smirk off her face so bad.

"Hana, calm down. She's just trying to get under your skin," Kakashi said to me.

"Yeah well she's doing a good job at getting under my skin," I retorted. "And she thinks she can beat me? I'll lay her flat on the ground before she could land a scratch on me,"

Kakashi sighed.

"Keep your voice down, people can hear you," Kakashi said.

"I don't care if they can hear me!" I retorted again, making Kakashi sigh.

He didn't acknowledge what I said and the line moved up. I could hear Anko's voice yelling at some guy who was named Hayate or something like that. Finally, it was our turn to drop our papers off and we started to leave.

Nozomi stepped in front of me and I started to get angry again.

"Oh and just so you know, I'm going to kill you so my boss can finally acknowledge me and not you," She hissed, almost snake-like.

"Oh please, I'll beat your stupid boss too," I rolled my eyes.

My statement pissed her off.

"What did you say?!" She demanded and lunged at me with her sword.

I pulled a kunai out and pushed the kunai against the sword she was trying to hit me with.

"You heard me, I'll beat your stupid boss once I find out who he is," I said again.

She snapped and shoved me to the ground using the force of her sword that was against my kunai. Once I was on the ground, she grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and pulled me up. Obito, Rin, and Kakashi tried to step in, but she yelled at them to stay back or else she'd harm me even worse.

"Nozomi, knock it off off," Someone said.

A look of annoyance flashed through her eyes and she let go of me, causing me to drop to the ground. I caught myself and steadied back on my feet, seeing a boy who looked about my age. He had pale skin, golden-hazel eyes, and had long black hair that was tied into a ponytail, leaving a few bangs in his face.

He glanced at me, then looked at her again.

"You need to stop getting so angry every time someone says something you don't like. You need to focus on training, not picking petty little fights. You can fight all you want when the final rounds come anyway."

You could tell by the tone of his voice that he was annoyed with her.

She gave me one last glare and then walked away with the boy.

"I wonder who that was," Rin said as they walked away.

"I don't know, but I don't trust either of them," I replied.

Obito looked worried and rushed over to my side with Kakashi.

"Are you okay, Hana?" Obito asks.

"I'll be fine," I pushed them away slightly. I was already feeling weak enough and having them rush over to me like I was injured just made it worse.

I had to ignore that stirring feeling inside of me. It felt angry this time and it wanted out.

We left the academy and went home. I decided not to tell Minato and Kushina what happened today.

I went to bed, just wanting the exams to be here already just wanting to fight her already.

Time Skip

The next morning, my team and I arrived at the academy to get ready for the Chunin Exams. There were tons of genin here from all over the country. I greeted a few Leaf genin since I could tell they were feeling just as nervous as I was.

Guy walked over to where Kakashi and I were standing and started bothering Kakashi, going on about how he's going to beat Kakashi and all of that. Kakashi just ignored him and decided to taunt him.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Kakashi asks.

Guy fell over comically and then stood back up to start doing the same thing.

A smirk fell across my face and I decided to do what Kakashi did.

"Wait, what did you say?" I asked with fake confusion.

Rin and Obito sweat dropped as Guy walked away, sulking. I was giggling quietly and I could tell that Kakashi was even amused.

"My rivals are very clever!" Guy shouted as a girl named Shizune dragged him away with Genma.

Kakashi chuckled.

"I see you're copying my words," He said.

"Yes, Guy's reactions are the best," I laughed.

Some genin from a different village kept trying to be tough and attempted to intimidate a few of my comrades. I stood on the podium because I had enough of them and decided to put them in their place.

"Listen up amateurs!" I shouted, getting their attention. "My name is Hana Uzumaki and I will beat ALL of you, so you can stop trying to be tough because you don't scare me!"

Rin quickly rushed to where I was standing and smacked her hand over my mouth. She dragged me back down from the podium as some genin from other villages started to glare at me. Even some of the Leaf's genin were embarrassed by my actions.

"Idiot, shut up!" Kakashi hissed quietly at me as Rin brought me back down to where we were originally standing.

"Everyone shut up and listen!" A sharp and deep voice yelled. A man walked in, and I'm assuming he's the proctor for this part of the Chunin Exams.

He introduced himself as Satoru. He was freakishly muscular like he could pick me up and snap me in half like a twig.

"For this first exam, you're going to do a paper test first-" He said.

I accidentally cut him off. "WHAT? WHY A PAPER TEST?!"

He glared at me, sharply. "Silence!"

I clutched onto Obito's arm and Satoru looked at me, not bothered by this. "And why a paper test? Because I make the rules, and you're going to follow them,"

"Listen carefully. Only one question is allowed," He started and we took our seats. I sat down next to Obito, and Rin was next to Kakashi.

He explained how we couldn't turn the papers over yet, and he sorted us out by picking an animal name. It reminded me of the ANBU Black Ops.

I wasn't scared, but I hated paper tests with a passion. They were a huge pain in my butt.

"Are you maggots ready?" Satoru asks.

One guy raised his hand, "Um..may I use the restroom?" He asks. He was from the Blood Mist. Half of the room groaned in annoyance because we were only allowed one question and this guy blew it.

"Thanks a lot, Mist ninja" I muttered.

"Well, it looks like your one question has been used up," Satoru said. "Now I'm going to explain the rules,"

After explaining everything, he didn't even bother to tell us how we're getting graded.

The Blood Mist ninja came back and sat down.

"Okay, you may begin. This test will last for an hour," Satoru said.

Even though I had no problems with paper tests, this guy was putting too much pressure on me and it was starting to make me panic.

I only understood the first six questions. I was starting to get anxious because I heard the sound of papers being flipped over, meaning almost everyone was done. I looked over at the clock, seeing there was only twenty minutes left.

I glanced over, seeing Obito didn't know the answers to any of the questions. He just drew pictures for the answers.

"Times up!" Satoru shouted, his voice echoing through the room.

We all flipped over our papers and Obito looked nervous.

"Now, are you ready for the tenth question?" Satoru asks. "You're free to wimp out if you'd like,"

Satoru mainly looked at me when he said that. I just glared back at him.

"And yes, I'm looking at you, Red,"

A boy whose name is Ibiki, came to my rescue. I looked over at him, seeing that he was ripped and had short, silver hair.

"And what makes you think we're going to 'wimp out', huh?" Ibiki glared. "You keep calling us maggots and you even singled that girl out because you could clearly see that she was struggling, but you don't understand that we're not weak, we'll show you how strong we are!"

"I wasn't struggling..." I muttered, cheeks dusting pink.

Satoru rose an eyebrow and Anko joined in to defend me.

"Exactly!" She exclaimed. "We wanted this for so long, so what makes you think we're going to back down now?"

I was thankful for Ibiki and Anko.

Suddenly, Satoru smiled.

"What the hell is so funny?" Ibiki demanded.

"Nothing," Satoru said. "It's just I think this generation is impressive, that's all. The tenth question didn't even exist, you pass,"

All of us were shocked. He gave us a lecture and then explained the purpose of this and how he acted. He just wanted to see how well we could handle being under pressure. He told us a story about how much pressure he was placed under when he tried to pursue two famous criminals who were named Ginkaku and Kinkaku.

"I hereby declare this part of the exam complete. You may go home and rest because tomorrow is where it gets serious." Satoru dismissed.

I let out a breath of relief.

I started to understand what Satoru was doing. He didn't care about the test or anything, he just wanted to see if we would crack under pressure. Only a few genin did and they were eliminated, but a majority of us made it.

"That was...interesting," Obito said as we exited the academy.

"Yeah, it was," I said.

"See you tomorrow Hana!" Obito waved and walked home.

Rin also left, after explaining where we were supposed to meet up tomorrow. Now it was just me and Kakashi.

"Want me to walk you home?" Kakashi offered.

"Oh, no it's okay. I didn't plan on going home yet," I replied.

"Let's hang out for a bit then," Kakashi said and avoided looking at my face.

I nod, confused with Kakashi's behavior.

We were sitting at a park bench and he cleared his throat.

"Hana..." Kakashi trailed off. I looked at him, but he averted his eyes. "I normally don't ask these kinds of things, so I'm not exactly sure how to, but do you want to go to that upcoming festival?"

My face exploded into a blush. Now I was glad Kakashi couldn't see my face.

"Uh...I'll think about it," I replied, feeling hesitant for no reason.

"Oh, alright. It's no big deal anyway, I just thought we could go there to just check it out and all that," Kakashi said and stood up from the bench.

"Okay, uh, I should probably go home now," I nodded.

He walked me home since it was dark and he didn't look at me after we got to my house.

"See you tomorrow."

"W-Wait Kakashi!" I said and grabbed his arm. Did I seriously just stutter at him?

"I'll...get back to you soon." I let go and hugged him hesitantly.

He returned the hug and lightly kissed my forehead. After that, he left without saying a word and I just stood there, my body temperature going out of control. I didn't know how to react or process any of my thoughts at this point.

The door opens and I saw Minato was just calling me inside, breaking me out of my trance.

I smiled like an idiot and once I thought I was fine and Kurenai's voice echoed in my head.

"You're falling for him!"

Suddenly, Obito crossed my mind and I couldn't get him out of my head.

What is going on with me?