The atmosphere in the shelter instantly turned cold.
The specially made kunai in Minato Namikaze's hand lowered slightly. Its edge did not move, yet it had already locked down every muscle Naruto could use to exert force.
"Don't be nervous."
Minato's voice was warm as jade, yet it carried the oppressive force of someone controlling the entire room. "I'm just curious. Why would an ordinary repairman have the muscle memory to deal with the Body Flicker Technique?"
Naruto remained sprawled on the floor. He even had the leisure to pick his nose, his face utterly blank.
"What Body Flicker? I don't get it." Naruto blinked his clear eyes. "The back of my neck just felt chilly, like a workshop exhaust fan was leaking air."
Minato smiled.
The smile never reached his eyes as his golden figure vanished into thin air.
The specially made kunai sliced through the air, cutting at an extremely tricky angle toward Naruto's right carotid artery—the blind spot in his vision, and the area where human defensive instincts were weakest.
If he had been an ordinary shinobi, even a Jonin, his instinctive response would have been to form hand signs to defend himself or unleash chakra for a substitution.
The moment he used chakra, his identity would be confirmed.
Then Naruto moved.
"Whoa! Huge rat!"
He let out an outrageously dramatic shriek, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. His entire body flopped backward without any grace, his butt sliding half a meter across the floor as the back of his head narrowly avoided the flash of cold steel.
Then he rolled across the floor like a lazy donkey, snatched up a rusty heavy wrench, held it before his chest, curled into a ball, and shivered as he shouted, "Don't come any closer! I've repaired