The rest of the days were all bland; lessons in the morning, practical training after, then the daily challenges of taijutsu, ninjutsu, or whatever they knew. These challenges were often made by Jiraiya, either challenging Orochimaru, or Akira.
It always ended up in devastating defeat for him though. Akira and Orochimaru never minded these confrontations, and everyone already knew the results every time. There were times when some would mock him for losing every time, but both of his self-proclaimed rivals knew that if he now fought anyone else, he would probably win.
One one of these normal days, Akira could be seen arguing with his friends about some useless and trivial subjects, quite intensely if you may. On other times he could be seen arguing with his dear sister, often ending up in a fight, and the question of the winner relied on the topic of fight.
He had many friends, whom he had made with his outgoing and playful personality. Tsunade also had many friends, though she was more popular with the boys rather than the girls, with her temperament and personality.
Orochimaru eventually became one of their friends, as did Jiraiya, but the two would never call each other anything within an inch of the term friends. Orochimaru, contrary to first opinions, was not in the slightest as deceiving and cunning as most believed him to be. He was actually quite nice and sometimes even slightly shy, nothing you would expect this future human experimenter could be. He was just smarter than you would expect, accompanied with his realistic attitude, made him seem calculative and cold-hearted.
Akira truly believed that he could change this person's path later in life. Jiraiya, on the contrary, was hopeless. He was a blockhead, who had trouble understanding the theory behind even the most basics of the basics. Jiraiya could catch up with hard work, but that wasn't the problem. He did have terrifying ninja talent, just in other areas.
He was kind of like that student who understood advanced algebra and quadric equations, but not simple addition and subtraction. This explained his situation pretty well, in Akira's opinion. After all, he was somebody who couldn't understand the clone technique, but can summon even a toad like Gamabunta.
Speaking of math, Akira didn't need two brain cells to know that the school curriculum was several more years advanced than his previous world. It was no wonder Naruto sucked at this, most five-year-olds couldn't understand a word of this.
By this time, they were not just learning about multiplication and long division, but also fractions and decimals. While this was no means a hard topic for Akira, who had already graduated high school long ago, it was clearly a stretch to say it was easy for a small child, right?
Some other subjects, like history and geography, were completely new to him, but he caught up quickly as he had more experience for remembering things, after late nights of last minute studying.
Occasionally, a group of him and his friends would study together, though it was more of a excuse to get away from home. This group included the sannin trio, Akira, and the rest were mostly clan members. One thing they could relate with each other was the crazy clan training expected of them.
The two Senju had no problem with this though, making the others slightly 'envious', sometimes getting 'angry' at them.
"Kira-kun, Kira-kun, are you still alive?" Sakata, an Inuzuka, questioned playfully.
Akira, annoyed, snapped out of his thoughts, "I told you to stop calling me that!"
Tsunade, who had been sitting on his table, bended over and cheekily remarked, "Hmm, but Suzuki started it, you know? It's clear that she likes you."
Another friend, Hyuga Ishida, chimed in mischievously, "Right, I heard that she gave you a present for no apparent occasion, didn't she? You're so lucky, many in our clan would beg for her attention."
"What? Orochimaru, please help me here!" seeing everyone ganging up on him, Akira could only beg for his only loyal friend for help - or so he thought.
He smiled apologetically, before admitting, "Sorry Akira, but they're kind of right."
This made Akira's eyes widen in mock betrayal before dramatically exclaiming, "Even you Orochimaru? And here I thought you were my only loyal friend!"
Jiraiya suddenly popped up out of nowhere, hooking an arm around his shoulder, "Aw, come on Kira-kun, Suzuki's a real catch, unlike your flat-chested sist-"
Two black lines appeared on Tsunade's face, raising a fist at Jiraiya, "Shut up! I'm not even six yet!"
Honestly, she was flat-chested but it was obviously due to her barely being five. When she grew up, she would become the shinobi world's most beautiful kunoichi. But as she clearly hadn't gone through puberty yet, Tsunade really was flat-chested.
And so, the unfortunate Jiraiya went flying again into the sky, disappearing with a bling.
Akira threw his hands up in the air, continuing his theatrics, "Everyone has truly abandoned me...alas, even my dear sister and friend has, ack!"
He too received a hard smack on the head.
The rest of the day would be spent laughing and making jokes, most of the times which would end up with Tsunade beating someone of the sort.
Days like this made Orochimaru sometimes, just for a little while, forget about the pain and loss of his parents. Maybe Akira could really change him, even if unknowingly by just doing what he normally did.
He had a welcoming aura, bright and comforting, making you want to trust him. He could make you laugh, even when you're feeling like the world's on your shoulders. He was like the shoulder you could cry on, the person you would rely on, some one people naturally gravitated to.
Orochimaru could probably had not fallen into the darkness if there had been someone like that in the original universe. He was just too absorbed in immortality, after the death of his parents. He wanted to achieve this so he wouldn't see someone precious die again. It was just his way of doing it was wrong, so he lost himself on the way.
Akira was here in this universe now, so maybe he wouldn't go along this path anymore. Because when Orochimaru looked at him, he was bright and welcoming, with a smile that could calm your heart down within seconds. It reminded him of his late father.
Whenever he had looked at Akira, the resemblance was so similar, not in appearance, but in personality. The same bright smile, same comforting aura, same personality. It made the hole in his hollow heart begin to mend again.
Every smile, every laugh, every joke, it helped him walk back onto the brighter path. Akira might have changed Orochimaru's fate without even knowing it. If he did know, he would be glad though, because these days shown him who Orochimaru really was. A lost child who lost himself after his parents deaths.
The sounds of cheerful teasing and joking died away together with the Sun as it set, but Orochimaru could tell, even though he didn't know how, that he wasn't so lonely anymore.
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