Agent Coulson was practically the model American agent. He had exceptional organizational and operational skills, and he was also proficient with firearms and hand-to-hand combat.
Most importantly, Agent Coulson had been personally trained by Nick Fury and was an agent he could trust completely.
That was another important reason Nick Fury had sent Phil Coulson to join Natasha and Minato Namikaze's team.
Having settled on his choice, Nick Fury notified Natasha and Agent Coulson separately.
After hearing about the mission, Agent Coulson readily agreed. He then drove to where Natasha and Minato Namikaze were, intending to meet up with them.
Natasha, meanwhile, told Minato Namikaze whom S.H.I.E.L.D. was sending. Only after he nodded did she reply to S.H.I.E.L.D.
A few minutes later, the three met up.
Wearing a faint, friendly smile, Phil Coulson said to Minato Namikaze, "Thank you so much for saving all those civilians during the Hulk incident!"
Minato Namikaze smiled as well. "It was the right thing to do. You don't need to thank me for it."
Wu Chen was quite fond of Phil Coulson, a good man in the purest sense of the word, so he was naturally friendly toward him now.
Seeing Minato Namikaze's attitude, Agent Coulson breathed a sigh of relief.
The target was indeed as the intelligence described: easy to talk to and kind to others. As long as no one made him angry or crossed his bottom line, he was easy to get along with.
Agent Coulson had already met one person with great power: Iron Man.
To be fair, Tony Stark's personality was terrible. When Coulson first met Tony, he would have wanted to beat him up if not for his excellent agent training.
Fortunately, since becoming Iron Man, Tony's personality had slowly begun to change. He had gained more of a sense of responsibility and had become friendlier in his dealings with others.
Coulson had heard that Tony had apparently upgraded a young hamburger seller's food truck for free today. He really had changed a lot!
Once they had all confirmed that the others were people they could talk to and get along with, the atmosphere among the three became more relaxed.
Seated at the same table, Agent Coulson glanced at Natasha. When he saw her gesture toward Minato Namikaze, he looked at Minato Namikaze and said, "Mr. Namikaze, when are we going to act? Do you have a plan?"
"As for taking action..." Minato Namikaze paused.
He was estimating whether his original body had already packed up his stall and gone home. He looked up at the time and saw that it was only eleven. Deciding it was too risky, he said, "There's no rush. Let's discuss the plan first, then have lunch."
"After all, as the old saying goes, sharpening the axe doesn't delay the work of chopping wood!"
Coulson and Natasha exchanged a glance and nodded in agreement. "Right, right, let's discuss it first~"
Actually, Coulson and Natasha weren't used to discussing countermeasures and the like.
In the past, they had followed orders and only improvised in exceptional circumstances.
But exceptional circumstances were rare, so they seldom had occasions to work things out through discussion like this.
They were agreeing now because they were following Nick Fury's instructions: "On any issue that doesn't violate your principles, go along with Minato Namikaze as much as possible."
Of course, this was also a novel experience.
"I think it would be best to sneak in first, then grab a small fry and interrogate him about the situation." Coulson offered a fairly reasonable suggestion.
"My suggestion is similar to Agent Coulson's," Natasha said. "But I think it would be better not to alert them after we get in. We should quietly observe first."
Investigating the reason for the unusual situation among the gangs was not a particularly difficult task to begin with.
It was only because there might be powerful chakra users from some mysterious organization involved that S.H.I.E.L.D. was willing to entrust Minato Namikaze with the mission he had proposed.
Since it wasn't very difficult, it would naturally be much easier to handle.
Minato Namikaze agreed with Coulson and Natasha's suggestions, though he did raise an objection to part of them. "We can skip the infiltration step."
Under their puzzled gazes, Minato Namikaze said, "I left a Flying Thunder God Mark in Hell's Kitchen. We can go straight there; there's no need to sneak in."
"Come to think of it, didn't you both know that? Why did I have to bring it up?"
Natasha and Coulson were a little embarrassed. They couldn't very well say, "We were so nervous around you that we didn't think of it," could they?
Fortunately, Minato Namikaze didn't press the issue. Instead, he continued, easing the awkwardness. "Then it's settled. I'll take you both straight in later. Once we get to the gang, we'll observe quietly first, then look for a chance to grab a small fry and interrogate him."
"That's a fantastic plan!" Natasha praised him, laying it on extremely thick.
Even though she and Coulson were the ones who had come up with it.
Coulson glanced at Natasha, and when he saw her signal to him, he hurriedly said, "This plan has a high chance of success. As expected of Konoha's Fourth Hokage, Mr. Namikaze!"
"Haha~" Minato Namikaze laughed heartily, seemingly quite pleased by the flattery.