WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Chapter 67 of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, “Rift,” by Masashi Kishimoto, Mikio Ikemoto, Mari Morimoto and Snir Aharon, now available in English from Viz Media.
One of the most appreciated aspects of the Naruto series was its flashbacks to the Hokages of Konoha during times when the Hidden Leaf knew no peace. Fans loved the stories of Hashirama, Tobirama and Hiruzen, as well as Naruto's father Minato, as they tried to turn an era of war into something more hopeful.
Interestingly, Chapter 67 of the Boruto manga threw back big time to one of Minato's coolest moves. It came when Code laid a sinister trap down, which had nostalgics remembering what Minato did as the Fourth Hokage, in what's widely considered the franchise's best fight.
When Obito, masquerading as Uchiha Madara, attacked the Hidden Leaf the night Naruto was born, he fought his former master. However, he was no match, finally realizing why Minato was a master teleporter and the quickest shinobi ever, ironically named the Yellow Flash because of his hair.
Minato marked him with a seal, teleporting to Obito in the blink of an eye to break the contract. It felt instantaneous, showing how fast Naruto's father could strategize and why many considered him the most intelligent of all the leaders. Sadly, as much as he'd break Obito's hold on the Nine Tails, it led to him and his wife Kushina dying, and Kurama the Demon Fox being placed in their son.
This kind of subterfuge is repeated in Boruto -- but on a less heroic level -- when Code got beaten down by Kawaki after the latter left a possessed Boruto bloody and seemingly dead. Code held Shikamaru hostage in the forest, but after kicking him away, he lost to Kawaki, who was using the full power of Isshiki thanks to Amado's new Karma mark. Code couldn't even teleport away as Kawaki used the shrinking jutsu, Sukunahikona, to reduce the teleporting bands to a microscopic size.
Thus, Code couldn't fit in them and had to flee on foot after he used Daemon in a Hail Mary play to knock Kawaki out. However, he left with a clever twist, which addressed why he let Shikamaru live. Many readers were wondering why he didn't kill Naruto's chief advisor, but as Chapter 67 ended, Code told Eida he had plans to get to Amado, who was hidden in the heart of Konoha.
Boruto Chapter 67 closed by showing Shikamaru's back, implying he secretly placed his teleporting bands on the shinobi without him knowing, which is what Minato did to Obito twice. The first allowed Minato to teleport above Obito, hitting him with the Rasengan, and the second allowed this Flying Raijin technique to then break the Kurama trance.
In Code's case, once Shikamaru is near the scientist, he'll use Eida's all-seeing eye and teleport in to grab Amado. Once he's been snared, Code can make the former Kara science chief remove his limiters so he can access the full power of Isshiki as well. This would allow Code to beat the new Kawaki, and use either him or Boruto as sacrifices to the Ten Tails, completing the God Tree plan Isshiki wanted. He'd become the god Isshiki was meant to be, draining the planet of its chakra, killing off mankind and moving to a new world to repeat -- all due to these little black bands.
