The house was within reach, and Toneri was about to investigate further.
A clear, slightly languid teenage voice suddenly rang out above his head:
"No getting through here."
Toneri reeled in shock!
He jerked his head up, directing the puppet's gaze overhead.
There, on the wooden house's sloping roof, a blond boy sat casually. Toneri had no idea when he had appeared.
One leg was bent, his arm resting on his knee, while the other hung down, swaying slightly.
The boy wore a faint, ambiguous smile. His azure eyes shone unusually bright in the moon's dim light as he calmly looked down at the puppet below.
What horrified Toneri most was that he had not sensed the boy's presence at all before he spoke.
"I'll come find your real body in a moment."
The moment Naruto saw that this Toneri had eyes, he knew he was only a puppet. The real Toneri was blind, born without eyes.
"I'll take this puppet body first."
Before his words had finished ringing out, Naruto's relaxed posture changed in an instant.
He blurred, vanishing from the roof as though he had teleported. In the next instant, he was directly in front of Toneri's puppet, moving so fast he left an afterimage in the air.
A wooden sword had appeared in his hand, and a layer of pale green chakra instantly wrapped around its blade with a faint hum.
"What?"
Toneri barely managed half a startled cry in his mind. He tried to make the puppet dodge or defend, but Naruto was simply too fast.
Whoosh!
The wooden sword, coated in highly concentrated wind release chakra, cleaved straight down through the center of the puppet's head, cutting as easily and effortlessly as a knife through tofu!
There was no clash of metal, no violent explosion.