"Lord Madara, you really mustn't. We just need to wait. There's really no need to take the risk."
"Exactly, Lord Madara! Pot poison is extremely dangerous. Those things devour chakra!"
Nara Yūma and Yamanaka Ayano kept trying to persuade Madara at his side.
They wanted to dissuade him from heading early to Sunagakure, which was surrounded by purple poison mist.
The safest thing to do now was wait!
Wait until Sunagakure's ninja had all died for one reason or another, leaving no chakra to sustain the pot poison that blotted out the sky, then kill off the poisonous insects with the specialized insecticide Hiruko had rushed to make.
Sunagakure could then officially be declared conquered.
But Madara turned a deaf ear to the clamor on either side and walked straight toward Sunagakure, where a hint of purple was visible.
Sweat beaded on Ayano's and Yūma's heads. They wanted to reach out and pull the old man back, but neither dared extend a hand.
Seeing that Madara was nearly beyond the bounds of their camp, Ayano and Yūma could only stop helplessly and watch him slowly walk toward Sunagakure.
"Couldn't talk him out of it?"
Gekko Yūma had walked between them at some point. Seeing that neither seemed to know what to say, he asked.
"Talk him out of it?"
"How were we supposed to do that?"
At a loss, Ayano spread her hands and asked Yūma in return.
Yūma scratched his cheek awkwardly and fell silent as well.
Sunagakure.
Chiyo's residence.
Unlike the cramped workshop of the past, the puppet materials room in Chiyo's home had now undergone several expansions.
It looked bright and spacious.
All sorts of puppet materials were neatly separated and arranged throughout the workshop.
There were so many that it seemed as though all the