Tracing The Veins (Naruto fanfic AU)

6- Excuse Me, What?

~Chapter 6~

"You'll be going to school starting today."

That was what his uncle had told him, first thing in the morning when he came to wake his nephew up at six AM. Naruto wasn't (most definitely was not) ready for the news. One can imagine how pissed he was overall when he heard that he was going back to school already. Who wouldn't be? It is school after all.

A private school.

"Jiraiyaa." Naruto whined, brushing his side bangs behind his ears, a soon to be habit for sure, "I don't want to go to school yet. Lest a private one with all those uniforms." His mouth spat out the word 'uniforms' as if they were dirt in his mouth. His eyes narrowed at his uncle who seemed to pay no mind to his nephew's agony. Jiraiya flipped off the gas on the stove and pushed a heating pan towards Naruto, "Pancakes? They're homemade."

Usually, he would've refused his uncle's peace gift and go pout in a corner, too proud to accept anything while upset, but these were pancakes they were talking about. Homemade and blueberry pancakes.

With a present scowl on his face, Naruto picked off a large circle and placed it in his plate, not bothering to make eye contact or mutter his thanks. Jiraiya merely smirked and turned around to get his own plate out.

Sat in front of Naruto now, Jiraiya moved forward with a sly expression towards his nephew as if to share a secret, "Ne, Naruto."

The blonde gave a quick glance at his uncle and huffed out a breath, giving his uncle something like a 'what do you want' expression.

Noting that his audience was paying attention, Jiraiya leaned back into his seat and resumed eating. He swallowed a full mouth of pancakes and maple syrup before pointing at Naruto with a fork in his hands, elbow on the table and a set scrutinizing look on his face, "You better do your best in school."

Naruto scoffed, still munching on a piece of pancake, "Like I don't? You give me too little credit Jiraiya."

His uncle shook his head, suddenly serious, "Listen to me-"

"Oh, is it about yesterday again? You're treating me like a kid again, aren't you?"

Jiraiya didn't waver in his speech even when the blonde had interrupted. He kindly waited for his nephew's rant to be over and resumed his own, "-everything you've learned back in Canada? Forget it. You won't need it here anymore. All common sense you've grown up to learn? Lock it inside of you, deep in there. It'll only hinder your progress-"

Naruto sensed an unusual solemnity in his uncle's voice and felt slightly unsettled, "Hey, you're just joking-" His own slight voice was overrun by his uncle's steady one.

"-Everything will be fine as long as you do that. Leave everything behind you and keep moving forward. You might be confused at the start -hell, I'd be shocked if you weren't- but bear with it, learn, and I promise you, you'll become so much more."

"What do you mean..?" Naruto fully faced his uncle, slowly getting perturbed.

"It'll be scary, it won't be anything like you've ever learned before. But you can do it. You have to."

By now, Naruto had fallen silent and was staring at his empty plate. His uncle's words ran through his mind, not comprehending what his uncle was trying to imply.

You have to.

Leave everything behind? Even what he had learned at his old school? Though he hadn't learned that much back there... Why?