The Uchiha Elites who searched the parameter for any signs of clues left; now reunited and each one gave their report.

And all their report only indicated that no matter how carefully and meticulously they searched, they couldn't find even the slightest trace as such their follow-up pursuit came to an abrupt end. ​​

Among all the shinobi present here, Uchiha Hideki's younger brother, Uchiha Ryota has the most anxious expression.

A few days ago, he was being so arrogant and prideful, and now he is like a headless fly, moving around aimlessly, trying to find clues that do not even exist!

Uchiha Fugaku also had a gloomy look, "Signal regrouping, we will be returning back to the village!"

Ryota Uchiha was too unstable as such he couldn't care about the Patriarch's words and questioned with a cold tone, "Patriarch, are we going to abandon Hideki-nii?"

Fugaku shook his head, he did not get angry because of Ryota's cold tone and patiently explained, "There are no traces left by the enemy, pursuing blindly is meaningless and will only lead us in a trap, you should understand this!"

Uchiha Fugaku has another worry that he didn't explain.

This is the second time Amatsukami has taken an action inside the territory of Konohagakure, indicating that they have spies lurking in the village.

Currently, most of the elites of the Uchiha Clan are outside the Village in order to pursue the enemy, if Amatsukami uses this opportunity to attack the Uchiha Clan again then who knows how dire the consequences will be!

And Uchiha Ryota obviously did not realize Patriarch's concern, and pleaded, "Patriarch, let's expand the search radius and we are bound to find something, I don't believe that the enemy didn't leave anything!"

Fugaku frowned and said with a solemn expression, "Ryota, things aren't as simple as they seem on the surface, the enemy has ill-intentions towards the entire Uchiha clan and the village, therefore we must be very cautious with how we deal with them, we will return to the village for now, and plan out further actions in coordination with Sandaime-sama. This is an order!"

Seeing that Uchiha Ryota still wanted to argue; Fugaku signaled Shisui who stood not far away.

Shisui nodded and took advantage of Ryota's distracted expression to cast a Genjutsu upon him.

One of the clansmen carried fainted Ryota, while Fugaku ordered, "Go back to the village!"

Shisui who was following Fugaku closely sighed, this is the first time he has done something that is considered as an active betrayal to the village so there is always a fear of being caught, although he knew that with Kuroto-san's cautious nature he wouldn't have left any clue behind, he was still worried.

Therefore, he was greatly relieved when the team was returning back without finding anything.

…

Inside the Prison Dungeon.

After giving Uchiha Hideki a high dose of sleeping agent, Kuroto came to another room.

He took out a notebook that lied on the shelf with [Uchiha Hideki] written on the cover.

Recalling all the details just now, Kuroto thoughtfully wrote everything in the notebook.

[Uchiha Hideki has a strong poison and drug resistance, the specific reason is unknown, but I suspect that it has something to do with his Sharingan, this entails some tests to verify this conjecture in-depth.]

After writing some details on this page, Kuroto turned over the pages and came to the part with the heading, [Project – Mangekyou Sharingan]

Writing,

[Anger Test: Incite the 'Anger' of the subject for the awakening of Mangekyou Sharingan.

Observations: Violent Chakra Reaction, Slight increase in Ocular Power of the Sharingan.

Overall result: Failure

Reason for failure: Increase in Ocular Power was insufficient

Speculation 1 – 'Anger' is not the best stimulating emotion in the case of Uchiha Hideki for the awakening of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Speculation 1 – The level of 'Anger' was not enough emotional stimulation necessary for him to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan.]

After recording up to here, Kuroto stopped writing.

It is not unknown that the Uchiha must be stimulated with extreme emotions for them to successfully awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan.

These so-called 'Extreme Emotions' can be of many types such as 'Despair,' 'Grief,' 'Anger,' 'Regret' and so on.

Based on all the known successful cases of the Mangekyou Sharingan Awakening, the highest probability is always under the same emotion of 'Despair,' and 'Grief.'

For example, Uchiha Obito experienced the 'despair' of losing Rin, and Uchiha Shinichi experienced the 'despair' of witnessing the death of Uchiha Kurumi, the girl he loved.

Both of them were stimulated by the emotion 'despair' and successfully awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Among these two, Uchiha Obito even skipped the crucial stage of three tomoe and directly moved to Mangekyou Sharingan from the two tomoe Sharingan, which may have something to do with Hashirama Cells in his body, but there is no clear answer as of yet.

This event signifies that the emotion 'despair' has remarkable effects on the Mangekyou Sharingan awakening.

Additionally, 'Grief' is also an equally powerful emotion as the necessary stimulation.

Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Itachi, and Uchiha Fugaku experienced the 'Grief' of losing their friends and successfully awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan.

As for 'Anger,' there doesn't seem to be any case where the subject awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan purely through 'Anger' as the emotion.

The only case that comes close to the emotion 'anger' is the case of Uchiha Sasuke.

However, the awakening of Uchiha Sasuke's Mangekyou Sharingan has more to do with the 'Grief' of the tragic life his brother lived and the 'anger' towards Konohagakure that was the cause of all this. Therefore, we can conclude that his stimulation was a combination of 'Grief' as the primary and 'Anger' being the secondary emotion.

With that understood, Kuroto turned over the page of the notebook and wrote:

[Sadness Test: ...]

From Kuroto's perspective, making Hideki experience 'Grief' isn't that difficult. There are many very close relatives of Hideki in the Uchiha Clan, and all these emotional bonds can be used. Among these, Uchiha Ryota, the younger brother of Hideki is the best choice.

If Kuroto makes sure that Uchiha Hideki experienced some 'Anger' in conjunction with extreme 'Grief,' the possibility of him awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan will be very high.

After all, there is already an example of Uchiha Sasuke.

Therefore, the next test will be focused on stimulation through 'Grief.'

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Read up to Chapter - 422 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations