Time rewound.
Just as Minato Namikaze had said before, he really had gone behind that wall.
It was not of his own accord, though. After hearing that voice, he had not chosen to hide. Instead, he stood where he was and waited for the footsteps to come down. Then, in a bizarre turn of events, he saw a "Minato Namikaze" who looked exactly like him walk down from upstairs.
"Who are you?!"
"Who are you?!"
The moment they saw each other's faces, both of their expressions changed. Transformation Techniques were nothing unusual in the Ninja World, but strangely, both of them felt something inexplicable. The person before them did not seem fake—but if the other was Minato Namikaze, then who was he?
Moreover... both of them slid kunai from their sleeves. Like looking into a mirror, the two Minato Namikazes could sense the Flying Thunder God Formula left by the other on their kunai, as if they had originally come from the same source.
"Was that black shadow you?"
"What black shadow?"
At the same time, another unhurried set of footsteps came from downstairs.
The two looked down...
"I hope my guess is wrong..."
"So do I..."
After a while, the three Minato Namikazes stood at the turn of the stairs like representatives of three separate factions. Keeping a certain distance between one another, they formed a triangle. The once-spacious stairwell now felt somewhat crowded with the three of them standing there.
The three eyed one another. Seeing that no one spoke first, the "Minato Namikaze" who had just come down the stairs broke the deadlock. "I have a guess. To be honest, it's rather unbelievable. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I never would have entertained such an absurd idea."
"However, before I tell you my