But immediately afterward, a profound exhaustion swept through his entire body like a tide.
It was not merely physical, but mental as well.
The brush with death, the excruciating pain inflicted by the Golden Circlet, the mental shock of awakening his Mangekyō Sharingan, and the crushing disappointment when its abilities fell short of his expectations... All of it piled up, leaving him wanting nothing more than to lie down somewhere, do nothing, and think about nothing.
"Forget it. Let's head back first. Collecting material... That can wait." He waved a hand listlessly.
With Pakura guarding him, Uchiha Makoto briefly cleaned up the scene, then set off toward the Konoha camp with his "sole surviving" teammate, "Uchiha Yeko."
By the time he returned to camp and faced questioning, Uchiha Makoto already had his story ready: they had been ambushed by an elite Kumogakure squad and driven the enemy back after a fierce battle, but suffered devastating losses. Hyuga Keisuke, Kano Yuya, and all the other chunin had died in combat.
Uchiha Tufeng had also sacrificed himself to cover him... The account was harrowing and vague on details, but its overall logic held together.
With Orochimaru, both his teacher and the commander-in-chief, providing deliberate or incidental support and endorsement, and casualties being commonplace amid the tense fighting at the front, the incident was soon entered into the records without anyone digging deeper.
As for secretly dealing with the bodies of fellow village shinobi and the prisoners, Uchiha Makoto would handle that after returning to Konoha.
On the Land of Hot Water front, the three squads under Uchiha Makoto had been almost completely wiped out.
Uchiha Makoto had indeed been behaving himself much more lately.
For one thing, his encounter with the Golden Circlet had been so harrowing that it still left him