He didn't like the academy too much. Most of the kids would always edge away from him when he coughed, and even when he didn't they still kept their distance. It didn't matter how often he repeated that it wasn't contagious, the other children just didn't get it. The ones that didn't edge away where even worse. "Are you ok Hayate-kun?" "Are you ok Hayate?" they would repeat so often it made him feel sick.
But worse than all of these was their sensei. "Hayate-kun, are you ok?" he would keep asking, and it was even more humiliating. "Maybe you should rest Hayate-kun?" "Now don't over do it Hayate!" "How about you sit this one out Hayate-kun?" It drove the boy mad, to be reminded of his sickness all the time, and treated like an invalid.
It was like that during the ninjutsu and taijutsu classes especially, if he as much as coughed, sensei said: "Ah, Hayate, how about you go practice shuriken throwing now, ne? Don't make such a face, you'll have plenty of time later to practice taijutsu!"
And so it went at school, each day, annoyed him more, each day the lessons annoyed him more, each day his classmates annoyed him more. One boy, Hayate disliked more than the rest, Umino Iruka, was a bundle of energy that annoyed Hayate to no end. He laughed, he made fun of everybody, played tricks on the teachers, disrupted lessons. He wasn't cruel, never, but by the Kami, he could drive anyone crazy.
Only much later the sick boy realized that Iruka, like him knew pain and sleepless nights. Iruka, like him knew how unfair fate was, and Iruka like him felt the same contempt towards fate, as there was no one else to feel contempt for.
All these things Hayate did not know, and his days at the academy did not belong to the best. There was however, some comfort in the academy. It all started when they were made partners for kunai sparring practice. He liked her straight away, she did not babble all the time, but she wasn't overly sad either. She had a slight smile as they bowed to each other but when they fought her brows furrowed slightly, and her lips clenched together. She didn't treat him different either, when he coughed she waited for him to finish, not once asking whether he was all right, and attacked him as soon as he was done. Never before had he felt so happy. Seeing their fight, the other kids started treating him more seriously, they weren't so afraid of getting sick, and they didn't treat him like an invalid so much.
When he headed home that evening he ran. He ran filled with glee like he rarely was. Sooner or later dark and rainy days would come for sure, but this evening as Hayate ran towards his home the crows scattered in a rush of black wings to make way for him, and he was happy.
AN: Right, I hoped you liked this. More down to earth this time, but I just had to add the crows...And Iruka, if I remember correctly they were the same age, I thought that as kids they wouldn't like eachother too much, I also think that later they could have become friends as Iruka mentions him out of all that were killed during the attack on Konoha during the ceremony.
The girl, well you all know who that was supposed to be, I hope you like my interpretation of her!
DISCLAIMER: All the characters, and the world they live in, belong to Masashi Kishimoto, author of the manga "Naruto"