The Masked Man's voice was filled with undisguised mockery:
"Is Konoha... really this weak? Is the security so lax? Could they let a thirteen-year-old boy carry out a clan massacre in the Village and only realize it afterward?"
"And the Uchiha Clan... are they all just pieces of wood? Could they not even run away?"
"As long as someone started to flee, create chaos, cry for help, or draw attention... how could Uchiha Itachi alone have killed them all?"
"How did he manage to keep the Village completely unaware?"
This series of questions, like a violent storm, completely shattered the worldview Sasuke had built upon his hatred!
He stood there blankly, his body trembling violently from fear and the subversion of his cognition; his Sharingan lost focus, and his mind went blank.
As it turned out... the 'truth' he had always firmly believed in was actually filled with so many unexplainable, absurd loopholes!
The real Ninja World was also in a dead silence.
Everyone was shocked by the Masked Man's progressive and logically clear analysis.
Indeed, thinking carefully, the Uchiha Clan Massacre was permeated with a thick, unnatural sense of eeriness from beginning to end!
Pairs of eyes filled with doubt, inquiry, and shock involuntarily turned toward Konoha again, toward the direction of the Hokage Office.
Outside the Akatsuki Organization base.
Orochimaru's voice, carrying a playful and inquisitive tone, bored into Uchiha Itachi's ears like a venomous snake:
"Hehehe... Uchiha Itachi, so, how exactly... did you do it? One person, thirteen years old, silently wiping out the entire Uchiha within Konoha Village... Truly interesting, so very interesting."
Uchiha Itachi maintained his surface calm, but his slightly quickened breathing and his fists unconsciously clenched under his sleeves betrayed that his heart was far from as composed as he appeared.
In the Hokage Office.
Tsunade and Jiraiya's gazes pressed down on Hiruzen Sarutobi with physical weight.
In those gazes, there was no longer the trust and support of the past, only heavy questioning and an indescribable complexity.
Facing the silent interrogation of his two disciples, Hiruzen Sarutobi seemed to have all his strength drained in an instant.
He leaned back dejectedly against his chair, avoiding their gaze, and looked out the window, letting out a sigh filled with endless exhaustion and helplessness:
"I... also had no choice... back then... for the sake of the Village... there was... no better option..."
These words, which were almost an admission, made Tsunade's eyes instantly turn cold as knives and filled Jiraiya's face with heartache and disappointment.
At the Ninja Academy.
"Aaaahhhh—!!!"
Uchiha Sasuke let out a roar like a wounded beast, and he slammed his fist onto the desk in front of him, sending wood chips flying!
He was almost going insane!
With such difficulty!
With great difficulty, he had seen his future self on the heavenly screen go through countless hardships and finally kill his enemy, Uchiha Itachi, with his own hands!
The hatred he had suppressed for years seemed to have found an outlet for catharsis!
But now?
This inexplicable Masked Man, with questions he couldn't refute, had smashed the perception of 'successful revenge' he had just established into pieces!
Telling him that all of this might be fake?
Telling him that there were deeper twists and hidden details he didn't know about?
So, what kind of damn revenge did he even get?
This felt worse than being killed directly!
This made Sasuke nearly collapse!
"What exactly happened? What exactly happened?!" Sasuke's eyes were bloodshot as he roared at the sky like a madman.
On the heavenly screen.
Uchiha Sasuke forced his weakened body up, his eyes staring so hard they almost bled, as he let out a hysterical roar at the composed Masked Man:
"Tell me!!! What... exactly happened?!"
The Masked Man looked at Sasuke's state—on the brink of collapse yet desperate for the truth—and knew the time was ripe.
In his single exposed Sharingan, a glimmer of a successful plan flashed, and in a slow, clear tone that seemed to come from the depths of hell, he began his narration:
"Since you have asked so sincerely..."
"Then I will tell you the real 'truth' of that Uchiha Clan Massacre Night, buried under the dust of history."
"The starting point of all this was not Uchiha Itachi's madness, but rather... the fear and suspicion of the Konoha Leadership, and... a dirty... political deal."
As soon as these words were spoken, it was like throwing a block of ice into a boiling pot of oil!
Konoha Leadership!
Political deal!
All fingers instantly pointed at the core of Konoha's power!
In the real Ninja World, everyone's heart was in their throat.
They knew that the bloodiest and darkest curtain was about to be completely pulled back!
"What does it have to do with Konoha?! Tell me everything!!" Sasuke's voice was hoarse from anger and urgency.
He felt as if he were standing on the edge of a massive truth, beneath which might lie a darkness he couldn't bear.
But, he needed the truth!
The Masked Man didn't care about Sasuke's loss of composure; instead, as if he had finally waited for this moment, he dropped the first bombshell in a calm tone, as if stating facts:
"A connection? Of course there's a connection. Because the cause of everything was precisely the exclusion and suppression by the Konoha Leadership."
"The Uchiha Clan, as one of the founders of Konoha, was deliberately marginalized, isolated from the Village's core of power, and even their residential area was moved to a corner of the Village, like prisoners under surveillance."
"Under this unjust oppression, the genius of the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Shisui, who possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan... he tried to change the status quo, but met a cruel end at the hands of the Konoha Leadership."
"Shisui... Big Brother?" Sasuke murmured, remembering that gentle and powerful older brother figure and friend.
The Masked Man's voice suddenly turned cold, carrying a trace of deep-seated irony: "He died. He died in a conspiracy by the Konoha Leadership. And one of his Mangekyo Sharingan... was even gouged out alive by the Konoha Leadership."
"What?" Sasuke felt as if he had been struck heavily, his body swaying.
Big Brother Shisui... didn't he commit suicide?
How could... "The Uchiha Clan lost their strongest combat power, and their situation became even more difficult. Driven to a dead end, they finally... could only choose a Coup d'état, a desperate struggle."
The Masked Man's words painted the Uchiha Clan as tragic characters forced into rebellion.
This massive amount of information bombarded Sasuke's brain, making it difficult for him to digest for a moment.
"By the way, Itachi knew all of this. I wonder what he thought when he looked at the person wearing Shisui's eye."
Everything the Masked Man said made Sasuke feel a wave of dizziness and confusion.
However, the Masked Man's narration did not stop.