A person's change is usually gradual, and that was the case for Uzumaki Amaya too, within the mostly welcoming environment around her. People's behavior towards her hadn't changed much, but the individual differences between the redhead and those close to her were noticeable.
Besides her growing liking for sweets thanks to her brother, the redhead's first real "vice" was for books. It started with reading theories and subjects related to ninja matters, which would later serve as guides for her over the years and also became a personal pleasure to enjoy in her free time.
Her relationships with some of her Academy classmates grew closer because she let herself be swayed, especially by Kurenai. It also ended up helping to bring Hatake himself closer to the others, making him join the group as payment for losing one of his bets against the Uzumaki.
Not backing down because of some adults' suspicions and worries about her results on the Academy's first theoretical evaluation, Amaya chose to take the Genin Graduation Exam, which Sakumo had previously suggested. She was doing it both to challenge those who doubted her achievements and out of a personal desire to start repaying her saviors with her practical skills as soon as possible.
With her brother's help, the redhead reviewed all the possible subjects they might test for becoming genin, while also focusing on practical training since the Exam was split into two parts. The time she spent studying was far greater than what she spent daily at the Academy, and the redhead hardly did anything else.
Amaya experienced the support of her newly made friends, her brother, and the platinum-haired boy on the morning she went to take the genin exams. She was tested with different and more numerous questions than the other applicants, overcoming them without any major problems, aside from some slight mental fatigue.
When she didn't hold back during the practical test under everyone's watchful eyes, showing skill and mastery beyond her years by being proficient in all five nature transformations against the jounin, she almost experienced human malice once again through an attack that shouldn't have been made against her although the person involved was stopped by an unexpected spectator.
And that was her first meeting with Shikaku Nara, the man whom Uzumaki would later discover was her brother's sensei.
Until the ranking and assignment of those who passed the Genin Graduation Exam, Amaya continued attending Academy classes. There was one in particular where she put in more effort, both because it was a team assignment and because she decided to use it as another one of her competitions with Kakashi.
Unlike the first practical test she had taken some time before, where she caught her classmates' attention with her composure when no one believed she could do anything surprising, there was now an invisible cloud of collective expectation about what the redhead would show against Hatake and vice versa.
And especially, Uzumaki did not disappoint, showing the full extent of her intelligence and ability on the battlefield during the team training session, deceiving the opposing team long enough while coordinating with her teammates.
Her victory was even praised by the platinum-haired boy in the end.
Along with the news of her approval as a genin and her assignment to a team, Amaya also received another surprise that would impact her life: she was going to live with Minato and Kushina, having them as her legal guardians or, as it would soon become for all involved, her parents.
Amaya experienced a new level of acceptance as part of the village, now having a real place of her own to live. Her home.
This happened while being welcomed by the motivations of the older Namikaze and Uzumaki, who wanted to give her a normal life, since they understood it wasn't possible to erase the redhead's painful memories from what she lived through in the lab. So, it was enough to create new memories that would cover those previous bad ones.
The time for the meeting with her new team wasn't long in coming. Her first encounter with one of her team members wasn't the most positive, both because the boy named Takafumi didn't hide his aversion to her, and because he was a member of the Uchiha clan who knew about her origin.
However, what really moved Uzumaki was when her future sensei appeared; although she had only seen him once, he was familiar and she had a positive impression of him: Shikaku Nara. Her brother's sensei and, now, hers as well.
The siblings' surprise was mutual when they saw each other and realized they could really end up as teammates although they didn't even get a chance to appreciate it before Shikaku announced he was giving them a Survival Test.
With few explanations beyond the objective of getting the pair of bells from the Nara and the chance of returning to the Academy in case of failure before the time limit, the trio was put to the test.
Within their individual particularities, they initially kept acting separately as they preferred: Amaya first assessing everything since she didn't know anything important about Shikaku in combat, Shisui not taking the lead and waiting for an opportunity with what he knew, and Takafumi impulsively attacking head-on.
But as expected, as soon as she realized that even her brother and the other Uchiha couldn't get close to the Nara when they engaged in direct combat, the redhead joined the two to help them escape and regroup.
The one-sided friction coming from Takafumi against the Uzumaki initially made him not even want to listen to her without talking back. However, with the plans and assessments based on the information she gathered with Shisui, at least for that test, the Uchiha listened to her.
Teamwork wasn't something any of the three youngsters were used to. After all, Amaya had always been alone against everything, while Shisui compensated for his friend's gaps in combat when they were together. Still, by following the plans the Uzumaki made on the fly, everything flowed more easily.
Shikaku was repeatedly surprised by the change in posture and actions of his students, especially towards the end of the test, when those brats in his own words had even managed to get the bells.
And along with this new moment in her life as a kunoichi, Amaya also accepted Shisui's encouragement to no longer hide her black streak of hair. After all, she was an Uzumaki and an Uchiha; a proud kunoichi of Konoha.