Death Reset |Naruto|

3.2 ― Day Reload

When Keitaro woke up, he felt like he'd had a very strange dream. He remembered hazily the panic of walking home from the academy, and as he opened his eyes groggily, he could recall even more memories - blurry at first, then quickly becoming clear - of Naruto wanting ramen, of walking outside of his apartment, and then passing out.

He shot up, the movement making his arm ache in its cast, as he suddenly felt like he had to catch his breath. He couldn't shake the nagging feeling of deja vu. Those memories were real, right? So then, how did he end up here in his bed like it was a normal morning?

He looked around his apartment in his pajamas, hoping for someone to appear and explain to him exactly what was going on. His mind ignited as he remembered more and more of what had happened. He'd been attacked by something and incapacitated, but he couldn't have been hit by a weapon. There had been no pain at all, really. So then was it Sugaru from Root? Did that mean he'd been right to guess that he was being followed?

It opened up a new question - why was he alive? Even more strange than waking up as if nothing was unusual, more strange than the fact that he'd somehow gotten back to his apartment and back to his bed, maybe even more strange than the fact that he didn't feel sick or injured in the slightest and rubbing his neck didn't even reveal so much as a bug bite, more strange than all of that was the fact that someone had attacked him only to do nothing.

Root didn't want him incapacitated, he was sure they wanted him dead. But instead, whoever attacked him decided to knock him out for a day. Why?

Or maybe it was more than a day. Keitaro realized he wasn't sure.

He found himself going through the motions of a normal day, body on autopilot and brain somewhere else entirely. He put on his shoes and packed his bag and holsters, and then walked to the academy.

In class, he was distracted by his own thoughts and questions. For once, when his classmates sparred, he didn't feel self-conscious or afraid of being behind. Instead, he stood in the back of the class, sitting out of each round due to his arm, and tried to think of why he'd been attacked for seemingly no reason. During shuriken training, he was so distracted being deep in thoughts that he once just dropped his shuriken instead of throwing it.

When Iruka approached him after shuriken training, Keitaro assumed it was because his teacher could tell he was so lost in thought.

Iruka just calmly asked, "Could you stay after class today? There's something I'd like to talk to you about."

Keitaro almost laughed at how much he was staying after class now. He didn't figure he'd been that obviously distracted.

He couldn't help but comment, "Again?"

But then Iruka gave him a puzzled look, and Keitaro felt an icy chill down his spine that he couldn't explain.

After a history lecture that Keitaro didn't need to pay very much attention to, he moved from his usual desk in the back to one in the front to once again talk to Iruka. Iruka was as his own desk at the front of the classroom, shuffling through some papers and then tapping them against the wood of the desk. He set down the papers, and Keitaro was already starting to get the creeping feeling that something was very wrong.

"So, Keitaro,"

I've heard this before...

"I'm... concerned about you. Graduation isn't far away, and I can't help but be worried about your chances of graduating."

Why are we having his conversation again?

"I don't want to sugarcoat this. You excel at written tests, but you haven't shown any ability in Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, and your Taijutsu skill is severely behind. Do you do any training outside of class?"