"Uchiha Madara!"
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was the first to rise to his feet. Both hands braced against the table, his pipe slipped from between his fingers, rolled twice across the tabletop, and stopped beside a stack of documents.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
"Impossible! Uchiha Madara was personally killed by the First Hokage at the Valley of the End decades ago! The Second Hokage personally sealed and buried him. I was there at the time! I watched him be buried with my own eyes!"
His memories were pulled back to that war-torn era. He had watched Tobirama Senju seal Uchiha Madara's corpse, watched that cold body be laid to rest in the earth.
For decades, he had never doubted the truth of it.
Tianyi shook his head. His gaze was calm as still water, without the slightest ripple.
"He didn't die. At least, not then. He used Izanagi—at the cost of one Mangekyō Sharingan, he survived the battle at the Valley of the End.
"Then he hid underground, relying on the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to sustain his life as he waited for a certain moment to arrive."
The Third Hokage's brow furrowed deeply as he muttered those unfamiliar names to himself.
"The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path? Izanagi?"
The corner of Tianyi's mouth lifted slightly. He turned to Orochimaru, his voice steady and clear.
"That's right. The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path is the true body of the God Tree, and Izanagi...
"It is one of the exclusive abilities of the Uchiha Clan's Mangekyō Sharingan. At the cost of blinding one Mangekyō Sharingan, it turns the user's own death into an illusion and reverses the instant of death.
"Uchiha Madara used this technique to deceive the First Hokage and the Second Hokage."
He