Chapter Two: A Day Relived

Naruto and Orochimaru reappeared in a strange place with a flash.

Looking around, Naruto didn't recognize it at first. It was a bit familiar, but something was off about it. "Where are we?" Then he saw some landmarks. "Wait, hang on, I'd almost forgotten what the village looked like."

"Welcome home, Naruto," said Orochimaru. "This is the Leaf Village in your first day at the academy. You've just been enrolled with Sarutobi Hiruzen as your sponsor. Another thing we have in common."

"Stop pretending like we're alike," said Naruto. "Hang on, you're like a missing-nin! Won't somebody kill you?"

"Don't be dense; obviously no one but you can see or hear me," said Orochimaru.

Naruto nodded. "Right, I guess that makes sense." He'd almost forgotten what the village looked like after Pain wrecked it a month ago. So much time had been spent on rebuilding and such. "Still, I guess it's good to be back-"

"Hey, look, Mommy. It's that boy," said a child.

"Hush, don't look at him, honey," said the mother.

Naruto looked around at the passersby and saw them looking at him and denying his existence. "Oh right. I kind of forgot what it was like being an outcast. Well, I guess I'll just fix that sooner."

"Go right ahead," said Orochimaru. "The academy awaits you."

Finding the academy was a bit more difficult than anticipated. Some of the old construction was very different from how Naruto remembered it. But he did remember the time he was supposed to get to class. He'd overslept and arrived late last time, hadn't he?

Better to get there first and show everyone he meant business.

"Hey, you brat. Stay away from my store; you'll drive away my customers!" said a shopkeeper.

"Keep away from him," said another person.

"Hey, come on, I'm just walking down the street here? Can't I-" began Naruto.

"Then keep walking! And don't come back!" said the shopkeeper.

Naruto walked on, feeling, well, bitter and angry. But those were bad feelings. He'd forgotten how often he used to feel them before joining Team 7. "How did I forgive these people so easily?"

"I imagine you didn't," said Orochimaru. "You simply put your hatred of them to one side because it was not important to your career. Your ninja career was the happiest period of your life up to that point, so it did not seem so significant.

"That's what I did at any rate.

"I only realized how much I'd hated them when I was denied my rightful place as Hokage for Minato."

Naruto looked up. "Yeah, did you and my Dad ever fight?"

"Yes," said Orochimaru.

"Who won?" asked Naruto.

"Me, of course," said Orochimaru. "It was quite an effortless victory."

"See, that doesn't really sound right to me," said Naruto.

"Don't you have a life to relive?" asked Orochimaru.

"Is that boy talking to himself?" asked a girl. "You don't think that well..."

"Quiet, we aren't supposed to talk about that!" said another.

Naruto sighed. "I'd uh... better stop talking to you." Which was kind of a bummer, given that no one else wanted to talk to him. And then he saw two familiar figures, Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka, walking along the road. "Oh, hey, it's Sakura and Ino. Wow, I'd forgotten how close they used to be without arguing. Hey, Sakura?!"

Naruto ran forward and saw Sakura, and Ino looked up to him. Sakura frowned. "Do we know you?"

"I um... probably not, no. I'm Naruto Uzumaki and-" began Naruto.

"Um, I don't mean to be rude, but we really, really have to get to school," said Ino.

"Oh, really, I'm heading that way too. Mind if I walk with you?" asked Naruto.

"We... sort of would prefer to walk on our own," said Ino.

"Oh," said Naruto. "Okay."

"But Ino-" began Sakura.

"Not now, Sakura, let's go," said Ino.

On they went.

"Why couldn't we let him walk with us?" asked Sakura.

"Shh, Sakura, Dad is always telling me we can't talk with that boy," said Ino.

"Well, at least they were nicer than the others," said Naruto. Some part of him wanted to follow, but he didn't want to bother them.

"Ignores social cues and walks with them anyway. Annoys Sakura and Ino and sets seeds for their future relationship," said Orochimaru. He was reading from a postcard.

"What's that?" asked Naruto.

"Oh, I'm just reading off what you did the first time you took this walk," said Orochimaru. "You ignored Ino's hints that she didn't want to walk with you and followed anyway. You and Sakura actually got on quite well. At least before Sakura suffered social humiliation for being alongside you. Ino foisted the blame on Sakura, weakening their friendship in the long run.

"But then, Sakura never did completely reject you. Which was the reason you kept pursuing her, time after time."

"So, things will be better then?" asked Naruto.

"Well, Sakura and Ino's friendship won't be tested," said Orochimaru. "And you might get hit a great deal less. So, maybe? It remains to be seen.

"So, on to school."

Naruto had nearly forgotten.

He raced as fast as he could to get there and managed to arrive on time. However, when he got there, he ran into his teacher, who scowled at him like everyone else. Right, Iruka-sensei didn't come to the academy until later. "...Amazing, you're actually on time."

Naruto gave a winning smile "Good morning sensei, I'm Naruto Uzumaki-" began Naruto.

"I don't care. Just shut up and don't disrupt the class," said the teacher.

"But I..." began Naruto.

"I don't want to hear it," said the teacher.

And Naruto was brought before the class and came before them. Obviously, he would have to work extra hard to get people to give up on their hatred.

"Alright, class, we have a new student here," said the teacher. "You can introduce yourself."

"Hi everyone, I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" said Naruto. "My dream is to become Hokage someday! It's really nice to meet all of you!" That was pretty much how things had gone for him.

"Isn't that the boy our parents warned us about?" murmured one.

"He looks like a total loser," said another.

"Just take your seat before you cause an even bigger stir," said the teacher. "My actual students have work to do."

Okay, so Naruto was... kind of annoyed as he sat down, being glared at or, if he was lucky, stared at. "Jerks..." Naruto sat through class, trying to do his work. However, as he did so, he found some of his old instincts coming back. "I'll bet I could get him with a paper airplane." Naruto felt Shikamaru's eyes on him. "...No. No, I've got to be better than this, no matter how much I suffer. If I pay attention in class, show I'm a good student, I'm sure I can make it."

And so began one of the most miserable days of Naruto's life.

At least when Pain wrecked the village, the adrenaline and battle lust had kept him going. And by the time he crashed, he'd been welcomed back home as a hero. So it had sort of been the best day of his life in the end. And everyone came back to life anyway.

This though...

Everyone feared, hated, or did not know what to think of him. His teacher constantly found fault with him. When he had a question, he was shut down without it being answered. Even so, he managed to do pretty well on his work. Unlike the first time, Naruto knew the value of hard work. He pushed himself to complete the assignments he was given.

And he usually got C's and B's instead of D's and F's.

Naruto knew he wasn't that dumb. Pervy Sage had forced him to relearn a lot of the basics and master them. So he began to think that his teachers were just a more honest version of Mizuki. He got laughed at, someone hit him with a spitball, and he was not punished or even chided. And no one talked to him or did anything to reach out to him.

Naruto thought about approaching Sakura and Ino, but he didn't want to humiliate them. So he figured he'd improve his standing by doing better at the academy. Except he was doing better. Naruto was doing just as well as Sasuke was; he was just being condemned as a slacker.

Sasuke was constantly getting praise and being cited as an example.

Soon Naruto began to feel the old jealousy he once felt back then. Why did Sasuke warrant this kind of treatment? But he pushed those thoughts aside and focused on doing the right thing.

"Hmm, I forgot that Iruka-sensei wasn't here when I first started out," said Naruto. They went out onto the training field. "Too bad, I was looking forward to getting off to a better start."

"Well, I'm sure there is time for that," said Orochimaru.

"Wow, Sasuke is just the coolest! Look at how he throws!" said Ino.

Indeed, Sasuke was throwing very well. His kunai were landing on the mark, and Naruto felt real anger now. Just why did he get praised for success while Naruto got condemned?

"...I could do that, I bet," said Naruto. Then he remembered that his muscles were still that of his old self. "No, no way. If I go up there, I'll just get laughed at. I've got to practice and make sure I give it my all before I try showing anyone up. Especially not Sasuke."

So Naruto instead chose to just make a normal throw without talking to anyone. He got no praise for success at all. Orochimaru observed and wrote something down in his notes. "And here I thought you had such a nice rivalry."

"That can come later after I make some progress," said Naruto.

And then a stone hit him in the face. He fell to the ground and looked up to see a group of students had hit him. Naruto realized that his honest attempt at a throw had outdone them. "Ow! You jerks! Watch it!"

"What's going on here?" said the teacher.

"Nothing at all, teacher," said the kids.

"They hit me deliberately with a rock?!" said Naruto, feeling the blood trickle down his face.

"Is this true?" asked the teacher.

"No, not at all. He's just lying," said a boy.

"Yeah, you can't trust him," said another.

"I've got blood on my face!" said Naruto.

"I don't see anything," said the teacher simply.

That was...

Evil.

Just evil.

Naruto had come to associate the academy with Iruka-sensei. But Iruka-sensei was the best teacher there. He'd blocked out the memory of the teachers looking the other way, of bullying being ignored.

But, no, no hatred was wrong.

Maybe that teacher had been having a really bad day. As well as the other students, and... everyone in the village. At least Ino and Sakura looked a little disturbed by what happened. So did Shikamaru and Choji, but none of them tried to talk to him.

Naruto wasn't human to them. He was an animal, either a dangerous animal at best or a docile one at worst. No one here saw him as human. He could have yelled at them; he could have punched someone out. But hatred didn't help anything.

So instead, he just walked off, muttering to himself. "Grr... these guys are really making my blood boil. How did I ever put up with this the first time?"

"You didn't," said Orochimaru. "You fought back by humiliating the people who hurt you with pranks."

Naruto stopped. "...Well, I'm not doing that this time. Hurting people is never the answer. I'll prove I'm better through schoolwork. Once I get really good grades, people will treat me like I'm somebody.

"I'd better head home right away and start practicing."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" asked Orochimaru.

Naruto was pretty sure he wasn't, and so he kept walking. "No, what do you mean?"

"Isn't there somewhere you are supposed to be?" asked Orochimaru.

"Where?" asked Naruto. Glancing to one side, he saw Hinata walking off on her own. She saw him, went pale, and ran off. That was right; Hinata had never really warmed up to him until he'd saved her from bullies.

Well, actually, got beaten to a pulp by the bullies, but they'd hit him instead of her.

When had that happened anyway? Hadn't it been around the time Iruka-sensei had joined the academy?

It wasn't like it mattered. Naruto was probably going to do it at some point. Right now, he had to focus on improving and practicing. If he did well enough for long enough and never gave up, he could make people acknowledge him.

Hurting others never solved anything. Hatred was a curse.

"Well, if you don't know, I'm certainly not going to tell you," said Orochimaru. "Would you care to end the day here?"

Naruto shrugged. "...Well, I mean, I don't really have anything else to do. I guess I could wander around town, but I might run into some of those jerks from before. Might as well avoid a fight."

"Then we'll end here and see what tomorrow brings," said Orochimaru.

Reality changed.