Sure enough, when Minato walked up to his target station and habitually reached for the training kunai, he found that they seemed to have grown out of the rack, refusing to budge. He paused, applied a little more force, and still got nowhere. Then, as though he had suddenly understood everything, he gave a soft, resigned sigh. His gaze instinctively drifted toward the red-haired figure nearby, who was pretending to be utterly absorbed in practicing shuriken throws with an almost rigidly textbook stance.
"Childish," Shinji heard another voice beside him remark, low and flat. He knew without turning that it was Shibi Aburame-the heir to the Aburame Clan who always kept himself thoroughly bundled up in a high-collared coat and sunglasses. Shibi was withdrawn and sparing with words, but possessed extraordinary sensitivity to insect ecology and chakra perception.
Minato showed none of the embarrassment or irritation Kushina had expected. He simply examined the glued joints carefully, then calmly took a small glass bottle from the ninja tool pouch at his thigh, as though he had come prepared all along. He dripped a little colorless liquid onto the glued areas. The strong adhesive soon began to dissolve, and he easily removed the kunai. The entire process was calm, efficient, and quintessentially Minato Namikaze.
"He actually... carries a universal solvent around?" Choza Akimichi exclaimed in a muffled voice between crunches of potato chips. "Isn't that taking... being prepared a little too far?"
Inoichi Yamanaka chuckled and shook his head. "That's Minato for you. Always prepared, always composed. Pulling off a prank on him is no ordinary challenge."
Kushina clearly hadn't expected her "trump card" to be neutralized so easily. Watching Minato begin his throwing practice as though nothing had happened, she puffed out her cheeks and pouted. Her bright red hair seemed