Inojin gives Koji a firm Fuck You and tries to survive as Kobu, risking his own life to save him. Elsewhere, Eida discusses Mamushi with Daemon. Eida still doesn't want to use her Senrigan and she seems to suspect Mamushi has some unspoken intelligence gathering ability that they're not aware of. Sai also reluctantly agrees to help Shikamaru after some convincing.
WHY NOT TELL HIM THE PLAN?!
Inojin: "I do not want to kill that man!"
Koji: "That man is going to tell the daimyo to fire all ninjas and the unemployed ninjas will form a coup that will destroy the world!"
Inojin:"Fuck! Fine but you better start telling me ahead of time if you want me to help you with stuff like that!"
HOW HARD IS THAT?! One idiot plot after another!
Meanwhile the Mamushi clones have lost their intelligence so much that they start becoming a random violent mob. They lash out at everything, including each other. This becomes a real problem for them, prompting Sarada to use her Mangekyou to wipe out several at once with Delta's assistance. The use of her Mangekyou is very taxing though and her eyesight is starting to go. Really? It was used twice lmao.
Why is that weakness manifesting now? According to Koji, at the 20th clone, Mamushi is very vulnerable due to stupidity. Why did it take until the 200th clone to start behaving stupidly. And he is acting like a complete idiot too. The decrease of intellect should have been obvious a while ago. Also, if he is this prone to distraction and self-sabotage, why didn't Mamushi limit himself in how many clones he would make at a time? Didn't he know of his weakness? He is being nerfed! Once again, Ikemoto cannot plan for the powers he gives.
Inojin can't keep up anymore. Kobu's body is too old and sluggish for him. Koji decided to save him and forcibly undoes the mind transfer. Koji tells him to forget Kobu, he's dead and to put comms back up. Inojin tells Shikamaru that Kobu is being attacked by Mamushi and him and Sai go to save him. Boruto shows up and keeps Kobu from being burnt alive. He dispatches the clones as well. Shikamaru takes advantage of the confusion and asserts this is why the Divine Trees need to be stopped. Kobu agrees for the time being but asserts he isn't done and the Land of Fire will take any action necessary against them. Sai takes him away to get medical attention.
Doubt it will happen but here is how I would write Shikamaru's excuse:
Shikamaru: "We can continue the interrogation now."
Kobu: "Why was I at the roof? Was this your doing?"
S: "Yes, it was. We were trying to evacuate you by force due to the fact that the enemy was arriving at our location. We did not think he would attack you because you are not a target of his but he was starting to attack everyone including his own clones. We did not think he would target a non-ninja that does not even know the location of his target."
K: "Oh really?! You wanted to keep me safe? Am I supposed to buy that?"
S: "Look, I do not appreciate you getting in the way of my job but I do not want you dead either. I understand that you have a job to do and that you need my co-operation but I cannot let my village die. Interrogations can happen during a time when were are not under attack by monsters."
K: "Fair enough. I take that I can have your undivided attention now?"
S: "Yes, you may proceed with your questions."
I do not think it is a perfect scene but it would be far better in line with what a 200 IQ individual should be capable of.
Boruto, not being stupid, isn't really amused with all this. He immediately suspects Koji and asks his frog if this was just a coincidence or if he knew he would save Kobu. Koji is honest with him for once and states that he's firmly in the belief that Kobu needs to die. I'll give credit to art where credit is due, the reaction on the frog's face when it's asked this is pretty decent at displaying Koji's shame in all this. I just wish they didn't condense into this tiny sliver of a panel. However, I'm sure Boruto's relationship with Koji is further and further strained from this.
Koji is an ass. He keeps half the reasons to himself. I understand that he wants to ensure the future but there are some things he does not need to hide.
With comms back up, the team relays the situation to Shikamaru. The numbers are getting overwhelming and their chakra is starting to run low. The lowering intelligence causing them to act out is also becoming a problem. Shikamaru decides to use Eida as bait to lure them all to her and wipe them all out at once. Much to Eida's chagrin.
I mean, what other choice do they have? A war of attrition would be a losing one here.
Pretty much everything you said is what comes to pass. I find it a little clumsy to be honest, however Mamushi is what needs to be focused on right now. So I can forgive Kobu for letting off the gas pedal for the moment. Everything happened so fast, it's easy to take advantage of the confusion. I just can't help but lmao at Sarada already going blind though. Maybe it's because she has glasses and he eyesight is already not very good.
He shouldn't be conducting his interrogation right now anyway. Not unless he believes that the people he is about to lay off will defend him from the monster that might eat him. They have an excuse to let him die. Why play hardass now?
Well to be honest Itachi never used his MS abilities unless it was REALLY needed. And when he used them, he usually only used one or two abilities and then let his eyes rest for months before using another one.
Meanwhile Sasuke spammed his Mangekyou and probably used it 20 times in the span of two days.
And I would guess Susanoo makes you go blind the fastest out of the various abilities, since it's the only ability that is not one use but needs to be constantly channeled.
I'm not blaming Sasuke btw, he had no choice, he decided to go after opponents clearly much stronger than him and he had just lost most of his powers because he lost the Curse Mark, so he had to spam Mangekyou just to keep up.
I just find it more funny how you needed a surgical operation to replace your eyes before, then in the War Arc everyone can just plop eyes left and right like lightbulbs. Kishi should have said "only Madara can transplant eyes instantly because... huh the healing powers of Senju cells or whatever" but he did not even bother to explain it.
Kishi might have meant to imply that the reason he could do that was the Hashirama cells. Show, don't tell. I can get behind that.
(Except the six sage bullshit against Madara/Moon Bitch)
Even that was not hard to wield. I can accept that he could master that to easily. It is not like he got abilities that he had no frame of reference for. Just some Rasengan, Rasenshuriken, increased stats and the like. Stuff he already could understand. I can buy that he could wield those things.
