The next morning, I was already up and getting ready before my alarm clock. I was too nervous today.

I was in the bathroom, trying to tie my hair up and it wasn't cooperating. I groaned in frustration when the hair tie got tangled in with my curls.

"Is everything alright?" Minato asked as he walked by.

"Peachy," I sighed.

He poked his head in the bathroom and saw what I was struggling with. He chuckled and walked over to help me untangle it.

"It's not even fair that I'm the only one in the family with curly hair. I don't even understand where it came from," I huffed.

Uncle Minato didn't reply to that and he was able to get the hair tie out painlessly. He handed it back to me and I thanked him as he went to his bedroom.

I brushed through my curls once again and finally was able to tie up my hair into its signature ponytail. I stared at myself in the mirror, trying to make sure I looked presentable. I quickly started feeling insecure the more and more I stared at my red hair.

I always hated my red hair.

Naomi knew that especially and that's why she calls me "Red". I used to get bullied over my red hair when I was new in the academy.

"Hana, you're gonna be late!" Kushina called from the living room.

I walked out of the bathroom and quickly wolfed down a piece of toast so I wouldn't be late. I looked around, seeing she wasn't in the room, and quickly swigged a drink of milk from the carton in the fridge.

"I thought I told you not to do that," I suddenly heard Kushina's voice behind me.

I sweated nervously and shut the fridge immediately.

"Uh...sorry?"

She gave me the typical mom look, then walked back to whatever she was doing. I walked over to the front door, slipping my boots on.

"Good luck today," She said, changing her tone once again.

I walked out the front door and saw Kurenai and Anko waiting for me outside. I didn't see Obito though.

"Ready?" Kurenai asked.

I nodded and the three of us started walking to the academy. Obito never caught up with us, so I kept looking around for him. Did he ditch me again to walk with Rin?

"Looking for Obito?" Anko asked.

"Yeah, where is he? I swear if he ditched me for Rin again..." I trailed off. 

"What's the big deal about it?" Anko asked. "We all know he likes her. It's nothing new,"

"Yeah, but I'm tired of him leaving me behind or just ignoring everything I'm talking about every time she's around," I replied. "I swear, it's like I've become invisible to him,"

"Fair enough," Anko replied.

We continued walking to the academy and I looked around in the classroom, not seeing a single sign of Obito.

I looked over to our usual spot, and it was empty.

Where was he?

Anko and Kurenai went to their seats. I looked around one last time before sitting down and then went to my spot.

"Poor Hana," Naomi said as she walked by. "Looks like she's all alone again."

I turned my head to glare at her and then turned back around. I tapped my foot as I watched the entrance like a hawk to see if he'd show up.

"Where's Obito?"

I turned my head and saw Rin. She sat down in his spot, causing me to mentally groan.

"I don't know," I replied curtly. "I thought he was with you,"

"I thought he was with you too," Rin replied. "I guess he's running late,"

Rin stayed in the spot next to me and continued talking to me as if she knew me for a while. I just gave her short answers each time. 

There was something thrown at the back of my head. I picked it out of my ponytail and then looked at what it was, it was a paper ball. I turned my head around and saw Naomi giving me a taunting smirk.

I ignored it, but then there was another one thrown at me. Then another one.

A tickmark formed on my head and I stood up from my seat, grabbing all three of them. I launched them all back at her.

"Keep throwing them!" I shouted. "See what happens!"

I sat back down, but there was another one thrown at me again. I shut my eyes in annoyance and then stood up.

"Alright, you asked for it," I hissed.

Rin looked at me worriedly. "Hana, don't-"

"Oh, it's gonna happen," I cut her off.

I started walking over to her and she was already smirking.

"What exactly were you gonna do about it, Red?" She asked.

"I'm about to show you!" I shouted, aiming a punch at her.

But suddenly, two people held me back and I turned to see who it was. It was some kid with bushy eyebrows, wearing a red scarf and a black muscle tank top. I turned to my left and saw Rin was holding me back on one side.

"Okay, first of all, who are you," I struggled, trying to land a punch on Naomi's face. "And why are you guys holding me back? Let me at her!"

Naomi looked a bit surprised but continued giving me that stupid smirk of hers when I gave up on struggling.

"Come on," Rin tried to calm me down. "You'll let her win if you fight her,"

I shrugged them off and Rin walked me back to our seats. We sat back down and the boy who held me back took my hand into his.

He was surprisingly muscular for our age. "Such energy and hot-bloodedness. You should totally train with me,"

He acted like he was trying to be smooth there.

"Uh, again," I sweat dropped. "Who are you?"

He sulked a bit and then quickly regained posture. He let go of my hand and he gave me a thumbs up. His teeth shined as he grinned at me. "My name's Might Guy! The Handsome Devil of the Leaf!"

Rin sweat dropped at the entire exchange.

"And may I get your name?" He asked.

"Hana Uzumaki," I replied.

"Guy, don't you have anything better to do?" A voice interjected.

We turned our heads, seeing Kakashi Hatake.

I was surprised to see him here. I heard he was already a chunin and was already being sent on missions and all that.

"What?" Guy smirked at him. "Are you jealous that I'm getting a new rival, Kakashi?"

"Hm? Did you say something?" Kakashi asked as if he didn't hear what he just said.

Guy's mouth fell open and he sulked as Kakashi walked away. I had to hide my smirk at the way he reacted.

"Now that we're rivals Hana, don't be surprised if I suddenly challenge you out of nowhere," Guy said, and then walked back to his seat.

"Uh, was that his way of flirting?" Rin asked with a sweat drop.

"I guess so," I replied.

There was still no sign of Obito and our academy instructor walked inside, greeting us for the morning. He started his speech about how he's proud of how far we've all come and how this is just the beginning of becoming a ninja.

"And it gets harder from here on," He finished. "Now, I'm going to call you guys up and you guys will perform the transformation jutsu,"

He looked down at his clipboard. "Hana Uzumaki,"

I sighed at how I was the first one to be called up. Just my luck.

"You can do it," Rin whispered to me.

I walked to the front of the classroom, nervously forming the hand signs for the transformation technique. I turned myself into the teacher and he gave me a smile.

"You passed,"

He handed me the headband and I grabbed it, smiling down at it. It was almost like a dream come true.

I walked back to my seat, giving Naomi a smug smirk. She rolled her eyes and looked away from my gaze.

He then called up the other students for the exam and then when that was done, he flipped up the paper he was looking down at on the clipboard.

"Now we'll be starting the graduation ceremony," He said.

He started explaining how it was gonna work. Obito still wasn't here. I can't believe he's missing all of this.

The graduation ceremony probably took about an hour and a half, then he flipped another page in the clipboard he was holding.

"I will now be grouping you up into teams. Normally, we would do a three-man squad, but we have some extra students," He explained. "So, one of you may end up with four teams,"

He started calling out the teams and I prayed to the Gods that I would not be on the same team as Naomi. I'd just cry at that point.

"And now for Team Seven," He started. "Hana Uzumaki, Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, and Rin Nohara."

Why did I have to be placed on the same team as Rin? Now Obito's definitely gonna third-wheel me in this team. I also heard Kakashi's pretty rude too, so that's gonna be fun.

Once he was done calling out the teams, he told us that we would have to meet up with our Senseis at a specific training ground. Rin stood up at the same time as me and walked down the steps with me.

"So, looks like us girls are going to have to stick together," She said. "And I can't believe Obito was late to graduation,"

"I know," I agreed with her.

I don't have to like her, but I'll be civil towards her.

Our instructor stopped us to give Obito's headband to us before we left and then we walked outside.

"Should we wait here for him?" Rin asked.

"Sure," I shrug.

I sat down against the wall, trying to decide on where to put my headband and Rin stood against the wall.

Soon enough, Obito came running towards us frantically and he collapsed to the ground in front of Rin when he caught up with us.

"You're late," I remarked.

"I know," he panted.

"I can't believe you Obito," Rin scolded. "You were late to both the entrance and graduation ceremony. Graduation's over, you missed everything,"

Obito looked up at her sheepishly. "But there was this old lady on the way,"

She rose an eyebrow. "You sure have a lot of encounters with old people. You know that?"

"Lately, it seems like I've been getting ambushed by a lot of them," Obito replied.

I shook my head at him. "So you're saying it's premeditated?"

He didn't respond to that and Rin grabbed his wrists, pulling him up off the ground. "Let's go,"

We went back inside the classroom and she grabbed the paper that read the paper that our teacher would've read for him if he was there for the ceremony. He looked emotional and I couldn't stay mad at him when I saw the way he was looking.

A smile broke out on my face as Rin handed the paper to him.

"Congratulations, Obito," Rin smiled.

I handed his headband to him and he started to sniffle and wiped his tears. "No one else may be here to see it, but this makes me happier than receiving it from Grandpa Hokage,"

"Remember, we're genin now," Rin said. "So that means we're really gonna have to shape up,"

"Yeah, I know," Obito replied.

Rin told him how we were all going to be on the same team and he was pretty happy to hear that. He wasn't happy about being on the same team as Kakashi though. We left after that to go meet up with our sensei.