Retcons
"Why are you doing this sensei?" Sobbed an 8-year-old Uzumaki Naruto, pinned to the old wooden floor of the Konoha Shinobi Academy. Positioned on top of him sat his instructor, a white-haired Chunin named Mizuki, holding a kunai over the boy's cringing form. His face red with fury, he looked down at the blonde boy seeing only a demon.
Umino Iruka looked on in horror. Conflicting thoughts ran through his mind as to what action to take. After speaking to the Hokage a few weeks prior he started to think differently about the boy, but resentment was difficult to abandon. He sometimes couldn't help seeing the monster that killed his parents, no matter what he tried.
"You want to know WHY I'm doing this? Why did you kill my family!? Why did you destroy everything!?" Mizuki screamed at the boy.
"I didn't! I didn't…" Naruto said between sobs. The blonde looked up shakily at the soon to be murder weapon and manic teacher, wondering what he did. He couldn't understand. It wasn't fair. "Why? Why do you hate me? I didn't do what you said. I promise."
Mizuki stared at the cowering demon in disgust. This was obviously a trick, and only he was able to see it somehow. He would play its game if it wanted to pretend. A sinister grin spread across his face as Mizuki prepared to call the fox's bluff. "You want to know why I hate you, Naruto? Why this whole village hates you?"
"No Mizuki! It's forbidden!" Iruka cried out to his fellow Chunin, but it fell on deaf ears.
Naruto's tears started to slow their descent as he looked at the man hopefully finally about to get some answers.
"You are the Nine-tailed Fox! A demon! The same demon who destroyed this village 8 years ago!" Mizuki's blaring voice cutting into the young boy's ears. The white-haired Chunin was in shock as it started to cry more. Disgust was evident on his face as he readied his weapon. He would be the hero that finally rid the village of the demon child.
As Mizuki's arm swung down to end the blonde, a shuriken embedded itself in his shoulder courtesy of a fuming Iruka.
The scar-faced man looked at his former comrade with contempt before speaking. " Naruto is no demon, Mizuki! He's a citizen of this village and will be a fine Shinobi one day! I won't allow you to discourage my student any further." Iruka's voice turned icy near the end of his declaration.
Naruto looked up in shock at his other teacher. Never had he heard something so nice from anyone other than the Hokage. Suddenly, he was near the door where Iruka stood moments ago. The two Chunin clashed with each other, kunai in hand, Iruka turned toward Naruto with a smile before the door closed in his face.
Warm blue eyes snapped open as a 12-year-old Naruto sat up in his bed; hands feeling the sweat that soaked his sheets. Every year around this time he would be haunted by the memory of his first exam at the Konoha Shinobi Academy. Thankfully today was his last, and he was more than ready for it. Since that day with Mizuki, Naruto spent every waking moment training till exhaustion. Body breaking exercise coupled with trips to the Academy Library with Iruka made the blonde stronger. Naruto Uzumaki would never be weak.
Dragging his tired body into the shower Naruto began to get ready for the day. The blonde traced his fingers along the whisker marks adorning his cheeks in the mirror before he left his apartment.
"Demon."
Profanities from the villagers pierced his ears as he walked to school. Naruto put on a smile, practicing the hand signs for the jutsu he needed to perform. He bumped his forehead into the academy door, still focused on the task at hand, his feet must have carried him there by memory. This elicited a laugh from a couple other students entering the building as well.
The final test was simple by Naruto's standards. A written exam, then a taijutsu fight with Iruka-Sensei followed by an accuracy test with kunai and shuriken and performing the three academy jutsu needed to pass: the transformation jutsu, the substitution jutsu, and the clone jutsu.
Naruto landed his three hits on Iruka-Sensei quickly, his skill with the academy style of taijutsu being evident to his peers. He missed one shuriken target but received a perfect score with his kunai throws. It all came down to jutsu now.
Transforming into the Hokage was fun for the blonde considering he spent so much time with the old geezer, making his look and impression spot on. Naruto usually had trouble with genjutsu due to the insane amount of fine chakra control, but the transformation was dependent on how much chakra the caster could pour into it and Naruto wasn't short in supply by any means.
The substitution jutsu was his favorite jutsu of all time so far. It was just using the body flicker to move at crazy speeds while switching yourself with some item nearby to make your enemy believe their hit landed.
Then it came time for the clone jutsu. Sweat ran down the blonde's face as he went through the hand signs needed for the jutsu. The air next to them shimmered as an illusion of Naruto appeared looking very pale and faded before it disappeared almost as quickly as it had come into existence. It was a noticeable improvement, Iruka was sure to note that down, but Naruto had too much chakra to separate enough for this low cost jutsu.
Naruto sadly got no marks for the last jutsu, further reinforcing his hate for genjutsu, but he did well overall. The shinobi in training were dismissed for lunch while the teachers compared the skills of their classes.
Sunlight and warmth blanketed the clearing Naruto ate his lunch in. Sitting in the patches of the wildflowers calmed his nerves as he ate his homemade lunchbox of sprouts and mushrooms, he found in the forest and the meat of a wild boar he killed during his training. Thoughts of how he could have done better danced through his mind as he ate waiting for class to start up again.
As Naruto walked back into the academy some kids were surrounding the bulletin board which had the names and rankings of the students that passed, and some walked dejectedly back to their classes. Naruto ran his finger up the list stopping one spot before the top. The spot under Sasuke Uchiha. The same Sasuke Uchiha that smirked at the blonde as he walked back in their classroom. However, nobody else dared to. No matter what they all thought denying Naruto Uzumaki's strength was impossible. And at that realization, he smiled.