Well, i got mixed reviews for this story, and a few people expressing their desires for me to resume my work on my numerous other stories. For that i would like to apologize, Mechanical Engineering is a lot harder that i thought it would be, and it has been consuming my time like some kind of Diesel Engine in its injection cycle!... Nevermind... Lame joke...

And yes, i do know Neji has been killed off by Kishimoto for teh lulz, and i still had him in there. Well, ill let you in on a little secret: I was stoned out of my mind when i wrote that little part and thus i forgot. Sue me.

Anyway, all joking aside, i would like to present the next installment of everyone's favorite story from yours truly!

Disclaimer: I dont own Naruto

Chapter 3

August 1st

'Today is my first day of school. I won't lie, I'm pretty excited. I finally get to learn how to be a ninja! I'm going to do that idiot thing and be nice to everyone. Who knows, I might even make a few friends! After this it's a straight shot to become Hokage! Once I'm in charge people will HAVE to be nice to me! Time to go, don't want to be late!'

Hinata smiled at the entry. She could feel the child-like innocence and excitement radiating from the small boy's hastily written words. It was no surprise when the next entry took a much darker turn. Some of the ink was blotchy again, most likely from tears.

Still August 1st

'I was wrong. Nothing changed, and nothing is ever going to change. As soon as I entered the academy grounds all the teachers started glaring at me. I couldn't see them, but I could feel them. I felt like they were going to jump me in the halls, and no one would try and stop them…

Then I realized again how alone I was… Everyone had their parents or siblings there with them before class started… Something about meeting the teachers. It doesn't matter; no one came with me… I found this rope swing though. It was all alone, just like me, so I sat with it for a while, just watching everyone be happy. I could hear several parents talking about me, asking why I was there, like I was a virus or something, like I was trash.

It just got worse from there. I was the first one in the room, and I chose a spot by the window near the middle. Then this kid with white pants and a blue shirt came up and made me give him the seat. I tried to tell him I was there first, but these two girls told me to give him the seat. I didn't want to ruin the day so I just gave him the chair, what an asshole. I move to the back next to this girl with dark blue hair and pale eyes. I wonder if it is that same girl I met a while back? I'm pretty sure it was now that I think about it… not sure if I met anyone with blue hair before… I wonder if she dyes it?

I tried to talk to her, you know, maybe try to be friends with her since I helped her and all, but she was really quiet… I guess she doesn't like me… Just like everyone else… I eventually gave up trying to talk to her. I could tell she was scared of me; she kept glancing at me when she thought I wasn't looking.

Then there were "evaluations", to see what we knew or what not. I could barely read half the words on the paper they gave me, and I could feel the teacher's smirk when I couldn't answer any of the questions. Then we had "spars". They paired us up "randomly", but I had to go three or four times. They paired me up with some of the biggest kids in our class, and they beat me pretty bad… But it didn't hurt too much. Not nearly as much as when the adults do it.

After that they added up all the scores and put us in a ranking order. I wasn't surprised when I was at the bottom, in fact I expected it. Though, when everyone started to laugh and call me "dobe" or "dead-last" I got a little angry, but I stuck to the plan and just smiled through it, like an idiot.

I died a little inside when school let out and everyone ran to their parents waiting for them. Everyone looked so happy, so… peaceful. At least until I came outside. As soon as everyone saw me, the parents started whispering to their kids and rushed them out of there. I just kept my head down and did my best to ignore everyone as I made my way home.

The next passage was really hard to read for Hinata. To her it looked like he was shaking while he was writing, and she could only guess that it was because of his cries.

I hate it… I hate the glares, I hate the whispers, and I hate being alone… Sometimes I get this urge… It's like I can hear something telling me to let loose and destroy stuff… But I don't want to do that, I just wanna be a normal kid. I just feel so angry, all the time, every day. It scares me sometimes. At night I have nightmares where I see someone from my class on the ground with their family dead at my feet… and… I enjoyed it… I feel like I'm losing my mind sometimes, and I'm scared that one day ill snap and hurt someone. I can only hope that never happens…

Hinata finished reading and shut her eyes with a solemn expression on her face. She wiped the stray tears from her eyes with the tips of her fingers and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

She desperately wanted to stop reading. She didn't know what she was expecting when she promised to discover the real Naruto, but so far she didn't like what she was discovering. She had always thought that they were similar people, always fighting against life to reach their goals that always seemed to be just beyond their reach. Perhaps it was their similar childhoods filled with the pain of solitude that first drew her attention, and later on in life, her attraction. All this time she held this strange sense of connection, almost proud of the fact that she believed she was one of the few in their age group able to truly understand the enigma known as Naruto Uzumaki. Deep down she thought that with their similar backgrounds they would be able to understand each other, and maybe through that mutual understanding a relationship could be formed?

But she was wrong. They had never been the same. Sure, her childhood wasn't the best, and at the worst it could be called cold, but at the same time she had a childhood. She was still able to go to sleep each and every night with that pure innocence of the early years of life, believing that the next day would most definitely be better than the last. She was still able to play with her few friends, hold a birthday party every year where even her father seemed a little less distant, and attend the various festivals.

Naruto never had that. He was never innocent, in fact his innocence was stolen from him minutes after he was born when he was sacrificed by the village, and he never had those delusions about life. He knew that the next day would be just as painful as the last, so he never even tried to lie to himself otherwise. His childhood, if it could even be called that, had been hell. Plain and simple.

No, she could never actually understand him. No one could. Only those who had to live day in and day out with the weight of a burden they should never have had to bear could truly know the real Naruto Uzumaki.

But, maybe, with this little blue book, Hinata could try. So she opened her eyes, wiped at her tear-stained cheeks, and began again at the next passage.

END

Yeah, yeah, I know. It was short, oh well, big whoop, wanna fight about it!? Well, for those of you that do i apologize because i dont feel like getting my ass kicked, so ill just start writing something else...

Anyway, i am still working on some other stories, so yes, yes, i know... I havent updated in a while, so ill work on that.

Peace