Next day, early morning!
Arata woke up in his room; all the traces from yesterday's event had long disappeared.
He stood up and stretched his arms lazily before getting dressed. Just as he was ready to go out, Kushina's distinctive stern voice sounded in his mind, "Brush your teeth and wash your face."
"Oh." Arata sighed with eyes wide open and walked into the bathroom obediently.
"Good, you should pay attention to your own image! Girls would feel disgusted if they smelled bad breath coming from you," Kushina smiled with satisfaction.
"Okay, you're an old mother; you're right," Arata rolled his eyes.
"Haha!!!" Kushina laughed even louder and pointedly at his eyes. "If you little bastard were my son, you wouldn't have such dead eyes like now!"
"Then I would become a clown as well, right?" Arata countered ruthlessly.
"Tch tch, you just mocked your good brother like this?" Kushina's tone was quite dissatisfied, and then she became arrogant, "Even if Naruto became a clown, at least he dares to confess to the girl he likes! Huh, he is indeed my son!"
"Then, haven't I confessed to you before?" Arata asked back with a smile on his face.
"You..." Kushina was suddenly rendered speechless, seeing his seamlessness, she choked on her words.
"Old mother, I need to go to the toilet," Arata reminded her before walking in a certain direction.
"Well, I will close my eyes," Kushina's muffled voice sounded.
The two of them were now in a very strange symbiotic state.
Kushina in the Soul Enhancing Pearl could see and sense the outside world through Arata's eyes.
While going to the toilet and taking a bath, if she opened her eyes, she could really see everything Arata was seeing.
"Do you think the Third Hokage will send someone to look for me?" Arata asked Kushina suddenly to break the awkward silence.
"Probably." Kushina was silent for a moment and analyzed, "A student who has not yet graduated from the ninja school can kill a chunin. No matter what era he is born in, he can be regarded as a genius. Old Man Hokage has always been looking for geniuses."
"Very interesting."
"What?"
"The younger you are and the more you can kill, the better a genius you are. Ninjas are really cruel beings."
"Well."
Kushina didn't comment on Arata's conclusion and just sighed slightly. "Young man, look where you are aiming."
"Uh, thank you." Arata looked down and quickly straightened himself up.
Only after he fastened his trousers did he realize what he had just heard. The corner of his mouth twitched fiercely as he lost his cool. "Oye! Didn't you say you would keep your eyes closed?"
"I didn't do it on purpose. While I was chatting with you, I opened them subconsciously," Kushina said in a nonchalant tone. "It doesn't even matter anyway. In my eyes, you are just a child, so it's not a big problem."
"I am the one who suffers. Don't little kids have the right to privacy?" Arata retorted angrily, picked up his backpack, and walked out of the house.
Arriving at the Ninja Academy, Arata walked into the class and found that Shikamaru and Naruto were already sitting in their seats.
"Arata, here!" Naruto waved to him loudly with a big smile on his face.
"Why is he so stupid? I don't know who has been teaching him to act like this..." Kushina couldn't help but complain. During the time she was staying in Arata's body, she had a deep understanding of how her son was being treated in Konoha ever since he was born.
If it hadn't been for the boy Arata, who had been lending him a helping hand, even if her son could survive because of her bloodline, he would have probably been half-dead by now.
Even though fate was so cruel to her child, he could still greet people with a smile every day. The very scene made Kushina's heart twist in heart-wrenching pain and made her feel guilty at the same time.
Sometimes, seeing the stupidity Naruto occasionally shows left her very embarrassed. Neither she nor Minato used to act like that. The boy obviously had excellent genes, but then why was he so stupid?
"No matter who he is, he is still your son," Arata sighed and looked at the two brothers opposite him. "Hey, why are you two here so early?"
"What a drag. My mother woke me up and took me to do some exercises early in the morning," Shikamaru yawned, with a look of helplessness on his face. "I didn't even get to sleep well."
"The milk I drank yesterday was expired, and I felt a stomachache this morning because of that." Naruto scratched his head and told his embarrassing story without caring.
"Are you an idiot? You knew it's expired but you still drank it." Arata was speechless and reached out to knock his head hard.
"Damn it, it hurts!" Naruto held his head and screamed in pain. "What was that for? Why did you suddenly hit me?"
"Don't get me wrong, your mother asked me to hit you just now." Arata opened his dead fish eyes and replied with a straight face, "By the way, she also asked me to give you two sets of homework after school as a punishment."
"No, you are a devil!" Naruto showed a scared expression when he heard what Arata said about homework and even ignored his 'excuses.'
"My dear, did you hear that? Your son said you are a devil." Arata's laughing voice echoed in the soul bead.
"What does it have to do with me? It was you who told him that, and he is calling you the devil." Kushina scoffed at Arata, shamelessly denying she ever said those words.
"Okay, okay, put your pants up and don't admit it, right?"
"It's so funny, I don't even have any pants on at all now~"
…
Arata choked hard when he heard her quick reply and was left speechless. The scene of the moment when he first saw her flashed through his mind.