Their departure was set for a week later.
Uchiha Makoto looked at the mission scroll. Far from feeling weighed down, he was actually looking forward to it.
"Only sixty clan members ranked Chunin or higher," he calculated. "Even in the worst case, if every one of them dies on the battlefield, that won't cripple the Uchiha Clan, with its population of nearly a thousand and deep reserves. Old Yashiro might seem radical, but he knows exactly what he's doing. This is a tentative commitment with the risks kept under control."
As for Shisui not being sent out, he wasn't surprised in the least.
Shisui had only just recovered, and he was also the Uchiha's most dazzling genius right now. Yashiro would have to be out of his mind to throw both of the "Uchiha Twin Stars" onto the front lines at once and gamble on their luck.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket. The old man still had that much political sense.
This gave him more time to deal with the matter closest to his heart: the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Back at the Secret Base, Uchiha Makoto once again turned his gaze toward Kakuzu, who was locked in a cage.
"Mr. Kakuzu," Uchiha Makoto said, his tone brimming with the sincerity of an "academic discussion," "shall we talk about the Mangekyō Sharingan again? What sort of trigger do you think an Uchiha genius like me would need to awaken it?"
Kakuzu's eyelids drooped as he replied listlessly, "Uchiha brat, you've asked this question eight hundred times. An enormous emotional shock, witnessing the death of someone you love, extreme pain and despair... what else could there be? Isn't that the sort of thing you Uchiha love?"
"Isn't there... any other possibility?" Uchiha Makoto refused to give up.
"Hmph. The Sharingan