Present Day: Six years later
Uzumaki Naruto woke, sat up and stretched. Yawning, he swung his legs from his bed and rose unsteadily. His ruffled t-shirt and pant-legs succumbed to gravity, falling to their correct places on his body, as he ran his hand through his hair and wandered to his kitchen.
He ignored the sight of himself taking a slurp on a carton of milk and vomiting violently at the now-soured liquid, and the other self that dared to buy a fresh carton from the vendor along the street that was even now being charged almost three times as much for much the same spoiled produce.
He sighed to himself, and pulled a glass from a cupboard and filled it with water. He slipped a slice of bread in the toaster, and set it to work. Breakfast times had changed in recent years, consisting of something other than Ramen. He had quickly found that, while he was not liked by the denizens of Konoha, that he could get things from them with little persuasion or effort, as long as he was careful. He now managed to place a rock in exactly the right place for a vendor's cart to bump over and drop bread to the exactly placed newspaper (that was now about three months old) instead of the roadside, for Naruto to collect before anyone spotted it. He could get various fruits, vegetables and meats by much the same tactic, and never had anyone spotted it.
He turned a moment before the toaster popped, nabbing the slightly-crisped slice of bread absent-mindedly and taking a sip on his water before popping the corner of the toast into his mouth and biting down. He crunched away until the bread was gone, showered, changed, and left for the Ninja Academy.
He had long ago figured out that he couldn't avoid everything. He also knew he couldn't see anything or anyone but his own fates. He had learned quickly that as much as the villagers hated him, they hated it when he avoided EVERYTHING they threw at him, so he had to take a few of the less-dangerous hits to his body while walking around. He knew also that as much as he wanted to be accepted, excelling at the academy tests because he knew how to cheat was wrong, and so had ignored every single one of his 'futures' and roughed it out, unless it was potentially life-threatening.
Naruto wandered into the classroom ran by Iruka and Mizuki with plenty of time left before the start. Barely anyone else was there, just Hinata, Shino and Shikamaru. Hinata was reading some of her notes, her cheeks tinged pink, Shino could well have been asleep whilst sitting up, and Shikamaru just -was- asleep, his head in his arms. Naruto waved a greeting, mumbling a 'good morning' that was echoed by Hinata, and earned a nod from Shino. Naruto sat in his usual seat, in the second row, and waited. Sure enough, two minutes ahead of his future-self punching Sasuke in the face the moment the dark-haired boy entered the room, he did. Naruto sighed to himself, his head held in a cupped hand. He lowered his eyes and shrugged. No matter what he tried, it was always two minutes. For those few minutes before class, he entertained himself no-end with image after image of abusing the stuck-up 'genius' of Konoha, although the closer and more impending Sasuke's entrance, the more and more he saw of various repercussions and rather violent revenges.
He didn't mind though. It was worth it, after all, if only to see the priceless look on Sasuke's face when 'Hinata' grabbed his testicles, yelled at him for destroying her faith in mankind, and crushed his testicles. Of course, once Hinata came around from the shock of seeing Naruto turn into her via a Henge, she would without fail attack him for using her in such a way.
Naruto shook off the mental image, a wry grin on his face as he 'hn'ed a greeting to Sasuke, who replied in kind before settling in to brood.
The rest of the class filtered in, the general silence only being broken by quiet talking and the arrival of Ino and Sakura, who fought to get through the door.
Naruto froze a minute into Sakura's rant about why he should move seats, before he rose from his chair and went to the back of the room. Sakura was so shocked he had actually listened to him, she stood watching him until Iruka and Mizuki entered the room with cheery "Ohayo"s.
"Today is the day of your Genin exam, everyone. Mizuki and I will head into the test-room, and call you in one-by-one in alphabetical order. Once that is done, you will either be given your hitai-ite, or you will be told you have failed. Each test is different, so warnings are going to be ineffective." Iruka warned, looking pointedly at each of his students in turn. He nodded to Mizuki, and they left the room. A moment later, Mizuki yelled "Aburame Shino!". The silent boy stood and left without a word.
This continued until only Naruto, Ino and a couple of other students remained. Naruto was sweating, and although Ino and the others put this down to nervousness, in reality it was because Naruto was terrified. Sasuke had gone before Naruto, and Naruto could now, only halfway through the Uchiha's test, see what was going to happen.
He practically waded through over three hundred failed attempts at his test, almost crying as he became more and more desperate. Each attempt had failed at a crucial moment. The Bunshin.
Naruto could see two minutes into the future where it concerned himself. He knew that occasionally, he had to "take a hit" to avoid much more unpleasant surprises. He knew sometimes he was too slow, and had to deal with the consequences of an attack without being able to avoid it.
He still had terrible control over his chakra, and still couldn't perform a Bunshin.
Thusly, Naruto found himself on the run from almost every ninja in Konoha, jumping through the forest with the Forbidden Scroll upon his back. He had avoided most of the larger groups, and knew he had two minutes head-start on each would-be discoverer. He sat in the clearing Mizuki had selected for their meeting, opened the scroll, and began reading.
"Naruto! What are you doing?" Yelled Iruka as he came into the clearing, his eyes greeted with the sight of a beaten and worn-looking Naruto. The young boy had rips in his clothing, scratches that even now were healing before Iruka's eyes, and was rubbing the back of his head nervously.
"Heh, Iruka-sensei, I learned a technique from the scroll, so now you… you have to let me be a Genin!" Naruto gased breathlessly, a huge grin breaking across his face.
Naruto's face suddenly dropped, and his eyes took on a faraway look. Iruka's mouth worked noiselessly for a moment before he realised what was happening. Naruto had charged him, slid across the floor, and kicked his legs out from under him just as a large amount of shuriken and kunai slashed through the air where he had just been standing, and struck the tree behind him. Iruka stared at Naruto, who had jumped to his feet and drew a kunai of his own. He looked where Naruto was glaring, and saw Mizuki twirling a huge Shuriken, a manic grin on his face.
"So you figured it out, huh? Too bad… Do you know-" Began Mizuki.
"I'm the Kyuubi container. Iruka doesn't hate me. You're a moron for giving me a technique to learn from the Scroll. KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!" Naruto broke in and finished with a yell, literally hundreds of clones erupting from nothing throughout the clearing. Each charged at Mizuki, and even with the dozens he scythed through, each remaining clone got at least one punch or kick to land.
A minute later, Mizuki was lying broken and bleeding on the ground. Iruka was still sat up against a tree, unharmed, and Naruto fell to his knees, a look of dejection upon his features.
Iruka honestly didn't know what to do. He didn't know when Naruto had found out about the Kyuubi, or how he had known to help Iruka evade an attack the man hadn't even detected until it was far too late. Naruto had single-handedly (not counting clones) defeated a ninja who even Iruka would have been hard-pressed by, had practically read Iruka's mind, and was now acting as though he had been told the most devastating thing in his life. Had he known Naruto's unique ability, he would have understood exactly what happened.
Naruto was in shock. He had discovered without actually being told why the villagers treat him as they did, why he was beaten and nearly killed six years beforehand, and that Iruka could have died simply by protecting him. That had never happened. He never wanted to see what he had again; a dead body that wasn't his own. His own he could deal with, as he had seen them enough over six years to know that they weren't real. Others? It was horrifying. He gave a start as, for the first time in years, he was distracted enough by his own thoughts to miss the constant echoes of his future, and was hugged tightly by Iruka.
"Thank you, Naruto…" Iruka said gently, holding Naruto to him. "You did a very brave thing, there, and I'm proud of you. I'm glad too. What do you say we let everyone know we're here, and they'll come and take care of everything?"
Naruto blinked, and every possible answer he could have given rushed through his head. Every single future had one thing in common. He opened his mouth, and agreed with the path set before him. "Yes."