Arima walked through the streets of Konoha, heading toward the Ninja Academy.
There was no choice—his living location was too secluded, and to reach the academy, he had to pass through the streets of Konoha.
He wasn't a masochist; being insulted like this made him uncomfortable.
When he arrived at his class in the academy, Arima habitually walked to the corner and sat down.
There was no one sitting in front of him or to his right, as no one was willing to sit with him.
Arima had been in the academy for three years now. During class, he worked hard and studied diligently.
After all, if Arima wanted to change his situation, becoming stronger was his only option.
When he first enrolled and began practicing chakra control, Arima immediately tried it himself.
He felt that his talent wasn't too bad. While it took an ordinary person one or two days to initially chakra, Arima succeeded in just half a day.
However, there was someone even more talented than Arima—Minato Namikaze, a civilian-born ninja.
Over the past three years, Minato had defeated the Uchiha, Hyuga, Nara, and other talented students from prominent ninja clans, becoming the top student in the academy.
On top of that, Minato, with his sunny personality and good looks, was very popular in school.
Unlike Arima, who was also handsome but universally disliked.
Arima laid his head on the desk, waiting for class to start.
Right now, besides going to school, all Arima could do was wait for Kushina Uzumaki to arrive. He couldn't do anything else.
In his mind, Arima began to reflect on the village of Konoha.
Having seen the falsehoods in this village, Arima thought back to Kushina Uzumaki's story, which seemed odd to him.
Back when Minato and Kushina were still genin, Kushina was captured by three highly skilled ninjas from the Cloud Village.
As they neared the border, when Kushina began to despair, Minato managed to track her by the markings and, despite being a genin, defeated the three Cloud ninjas, heroically rescuing her.
This was strange.
Putting aside whether Minato could have defeated three at least special jōnin-level Cloud ninjas, it was odd that Konoha couldn't find those three Cloud ninjas—didn't they have sensory ninjas in the village?
Arima began brainstorming, and suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head. He looked up at Minato, who was chatting with others.
The Nine-Tails' Vessel!
At this point, Kushina was not yet the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki.
Due to the imminent death of the first Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Mito Uzumaki, and for strategic reasons, Konoha needed to maintain the balance of the tailed beasts. They chose Kushina to be the new Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and secretly brought her to Konoha.
So, Kushina had been brought to Konoha because the village wanted her to become the second Nine-Tails vessel.
Kushina never had a choice in the matter.
According to Kushina's own words, the loneliness and despair she felt were suffocating—she didn't want it, but had no choice but to accept this cruel reality.
The first reason for her feelings was that she couldn't change her fate.
The second reason was likely tied to her bond with Minato. She loved him, so she had to stay in Konoha, accepting the harsh reality.
It was very likely that Konoha's higher-ups had played a role in this from the very beginning.
Perhaps from the start, Konoha had planned for Kushina, the orphan of the Uzumaki clan, to form a bond with Minato. This bond, this "lock," was what kept Kushina willingly becoming Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
The result was obvious: Konoha succeeded.
If Arima's guess was correct, then from the start, Kushina was nothing more than a tool.
Arima quickly shifted his gaze to another direction.
Minato noticed that Arima wasn't looking at him, thinking he had misjudged, and turned back to continue chatting with others.
Arima's heart was pounding rapidly.
If his suspicions were true, then Konoha was even darker than he had imagined. Maybe Minato, the future Fourth Hokage, was also a mere pawn.
Arima took a deep breath. He had to stay calm.
Whether this was the truth or not didn't matter to him. He was going to leave Konoha sooner or later, so strengthening his abilities was his priority.
The upcoming Third Shinobi World War would be a crucial time to earn witness points. If his strength wasn't enough, he wouldn't even be able to protect his own life, let alone earn witness points.
At that moment, the door to the classroom suddenly opened.
Their instructor, Shōta Hayashi, entered the room.
Arima's eyes brightened when he saw the small figure behind him.
After three years of waiting at the Ninja Academy, she finally appeared!
Kushina Uzumaki!
Kushina was a little shy, standing beside Shōta Hayashi.
Shōta introduced her to the class: "This is our new transfer student…"
Kushina took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and gathered her courage to introduce herself loudly: "I'm Kushina Uzumaki, Dattebane!"
Kushina immediately covered her mouth, feeling embarrassed.
She had instinctively said her trademark phrase, "Dattebane."
Arima found Kushina's actions quite cute.
However, the other students began to laugh at her.
"Look at that hair color, unbelievable."
"How do you get it so red?"
"That's so weird."
...
Kushina, feeling self-conscious, tugged at her red hair.
Shōta Hayashi scolded, "Alright, alright, quiet down, everyone!"
Hearing the mocking voices, Kushina's body slightly trembled, and she clenched her small fists tightly.
Then, as if making a vow, Kushina shouted loudly: "I... I'm going to become the first female Hokage of this village!"
Upon hearing Kushina's words, the entire class fell silent, staring at her in shock.
At that moment, Minato stood up and flashed a bright smile: "I also want to become a Hokage that the villagers recognize."
Kushina pouted as she looked at Minato, thinking to herself that he seemed a bit effeminate and unreliable. How could he ever become Hokage?
Next, Shōta Hayashi began to assign seats for Kushina.
However, most of the seats in the classroom were already occupied, and the only empty spots were around Arima.
When Shōta Hayashi saw Arima, he frowned and looked at him with a hint of disgust.
"Well, there's no other choice. Just sit there for now."
Kushina looked in the direction Shōta pointed, and noticed that despite the classroom being large, no one was sitting near Arima. It was clear he had been isolated.
She also noticed that many of the other students were eyeing her with malicious intent.
Kushina felt irritated and angrily walked over to Arima's direction, choosing an empty seat near him.