The next morning, Uchiha Hayato headed to school as usual. The previous evening, after he'd seen Minato and Kushina off, Setsuna had actually sent someone over with the scroll of training notes anyway. It left Hayato scratching his head.
He'd accepted it, but he wasn't about to let his guard down. He'd watch and wait a few days before deciding his next move.
He rubbed his chin. The Ninja Academy didn't teach much that was actually useful. History, math, geography, ninja theory. He could learn all of that on his own. And the school wasn't going to teach any advanced jutsu either.
Once he learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu, he'd just send a clone to class in his place. Hayato's mind drifted to the belongings his parents in this life had left behind.
"Hayato, good morning!"
A burst of cheerful energy hit him at the same time as a heavy slap landed on his right shoulder. He winced, turned around, and found Kushina beaming at him.
He played it cool and greeted her back, thinking to himself: "If Kushina decides she wants to be Hokage for real, Minato might never get a shot."
Then again, Minato's combat instincts were still far sharper than hers.
"Kushina, has anyone ever told you that you're incredibly strong?" Hayato said, rubbing his shoulder.
"Hmm, let me think... I think so? Are you complimenting me, Hayato? My strength really isn't that impressive..."
The red-haired girl smoothed her long hair, looking a little bashful.
Hayato covered his face. That was not a compliment. But that sunny, straightforward personality was pure Kushina through and through.
"Alright, alright, let's just get to school."
"I'm sorry, Kushina!" A familiar figure blocked them at the Academy gates.
It was Dekai.
"What's going on with the second-years? So noisy." Up on the rooftop, a boy with a pineapple-shaped ponytail watched the school entrance with a bored expression. "Looks kind of interesting, though. Eh, forget it. I'll go find Chouza and grab something to eat."
Kushina was confused. She remembered this kid leading the charge in mocking her hair yesterday. He was the one who'd fought Hayato too. And now, just one day later, here he was apologizing?
She didn't want to forgive him that easily. But looking at Dekai's face, he seemed genuinely serious about it.
"Can you not block the way?" Hayato sounded impatient. "If you really feel bad about it, then go apologize to every single classmate you've ever picked on. One by one."
He could see Kushina freezing up, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her along inside, leaving Dekai standing there with his head bowed, lost in thought.
"Hayato, is that really okay?" Kushina was a kind person at heart. In this world, she hadn't suffered nearly as much bullying. The verbal abuse had barely started before Hayato shut it down. So she was already ready to forgive Dekai.
Hayato let go of her arm and laced his hands behind his head. "Who knows? I don't believe someone who used to enjoy picking on people can change that fast."
He thought of how the villagers had turned around after Pain's attack, then corrected himself. "If he really does change, that's a good thing. But first he needs to apologize to everyone else. If Dekai's serious about it, he'll do it on his own."
Kushina nodded, half-understanding, then turned toward the classroom and nearly jumped out of her skin.
She tapped Hayato and pointed inside. What greeted him was Namikaze Minato sporting a pair of dark circles that would make a raccoon jealous.
"Minato, what happened to you? Didn't sleep well last night?" Hayato stared at the faint shadows under Minato's eyes.
And whose fault is that? You dropped a bombshell like that on me yesterday!
Minato kept the thought to himself. He just looked at Hayato with mild resentment. "Yeah. Thinking about testing how big the gap between us really is today, and about getting a Pokémon... I was too excited to sleep."
"Ahhh..." Minato yawned wide, but his eyes sparkled with competitive fire. "Hayato, don't you dare go easy on me."
Hayato smiled. He could feel his own mindset growing younger, lighter.
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"Is everyone here? Good. Now, Kushina, we didn't assign you a seat yesterday. You can sit at..."
"Hey, Yohei-sensei! I'll just sit here!"
Kushina bounded over in three quick strides and planted herself in the seat right next to Hayato.
Yamaue Yohei smiled bitterly. The other students didn't react much. Dekai was sitting quietly in his own seat. That alone was enough to put the teacher at ease.
"Alright then, let's begin class..."
The rest of the day crawled by in a blur of boredom.
"Minato, let's go. Survival training grounds."
Hayato hadn't forgotten the mission he'd triggered. As the future Fourth Hokage in the original timeline, Minato was someone he absolutely needed on his side.
Meanwhile, in another classroom...
"It's fine, really. I stopped caring about it a long time ago. What matters is that you recognize what you did wrong."
A blonde girl adjusted her glasses and smiled gently, then asked her own question.
"Dekai, how did you manage it? Apologizing to every person you'd bullied."
"Oh, you don't know? Nonou, apparently he got beat up by Uchiha Hayato from their class and that's what turned him around." A lively girl with a ponytail laughed from beside her. "I'd love to see that guy in action."
Dekai's expression turned sheepish, his face cycling between pale and flushed. "It was my fault. I used to get made fun of for the way I look too. And then I went and did the exact same thing to other people."
"After Uchiha Hayato beat me, Lord Third pulled me aside. I thought for sure he was going to chew me out. But all he did was buy me a popsicle, sigh, and tell me to think about what I'd done."
Dekai's fingernails dug into his own palms. "I let Lord Third down. But Uchiha Hayato is different. He didn't just put me in my place. He did the thing I was always too scared to do when I was the one getting picked on. If I could be more like him, maybe Lord Third would see me differently."
Uchiha Hayato from the class next door? Yakushi Nonou nodded, a quiet spark of curiosity forming.
"So you really went and apologized to every single one of them, like he told you to?" The white-eyed girl asked.
"Yeah. But honestly, I wasn't bullying people constantly or anything. Most of the time I was just roughhousing with the other boys, playing ninja games." Dekai shook his head. "Of course, those boys won't hang out with me now either. Pretty childish of them, but I..."
"Nonou, you're the second-to-last person I needed to apologize to. I still owe Kushina one more apology, and I'm going to keep trying until she forgives me."
"Look! Isn't that Uchiha Hayato and them?" The white-eyed girl pointed out the window. Kushina's red hair was hard to miss, and walking out of the school beside her was, of course, Hayato.
"Want to follow them and see what they're up to?" The ponytail girl offered what she clearly thought was a brilliant suggestion.