"That's... the Uchiha compound!"
"It's the night of the massacre! This is what happened that night!"
Before the sky screen, the entire shinobi world fell deathly silent, then erupted in deafening cries of shock!
The Uchiha Clan's fan crest and the scarlet Sharingan still sitting in the corpses' eye sockets were unmistakable. No explanation was needed.
Everyone instantly recognized the scene of the Uchiha Clan Massacre that had rocked Konoha just a week earlier!
Everyone shuddered, their scalps prickling as they stared in disbelief at the utterly brutal scene on the sky screen.
Not only had the clan members been slaughtered, even their bodies were denied peace in death. The Sharingan they had been born with were brutally stolen. Such acts were nothing short of depraved!
Inside the Hokage Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi shot to his feet. His pipe clattered to the floor, his face turned pale as paper, and his eyes filled with panic and horror.
His worst fear had come true!
The Uchiha Clan Massacre had already left Konoha's major clans deeply suspicious and resentful of the leadership, stirring unrest.
Now the sky screen had laid this blatant eye-gouging atrocity bare for all to see, showing the entire shinobi world how Konoha High Command had exterminated the Uchiha without even sparing their remains.
This would inevitably bring every simmering conflict to a head and make Konoha High Command the target of everyone's outrage!
The situation was already spiraling out of control!
On the sky screen, the scene continued to unfold.
As the plundering of the Sharingan drew to a close, an unfamiliar figure suddenly appeared at the center of the image, instantly capturing everyone's attention-it was Shimura Danzō!
He stood amid the scattered corpses, his lone eye dark and brooding. Yet deep within it, the excitement and greed of obtaining so many Sharingan were utterly undisguised.
This scene definitively exposed the mastermind behind it all!
Meanwhile, at Konoha Ninja Academy, seven-year-old Sasuke Uchiha stood frozen in place, staring fixedly at the sky screen as his entire body shook uncontrollably.
Until now, he had buried the agony and hatred of the massacre deep in his heart. Convinced that his brother Itachi had slaughtered their entire clan, he had thought only of growing stronger and taking revenge on him.
But he had never imagined that his clansmen would suffer such desecration even after death!
He had always believed they would receive proper burials. Never had he imagined their Sharingan would be so brutally gouged out and their remains so callously trampled!
"Aaaah-!"
Overwhelming fury and grief surged through Sasuke. His eyes instantly became bloodshot, straining in their sockets, and his small fists clenched tight.
He stared fixedly at Danzo's figure on the sky screen, hatred threatening to burst from his chest as he screamed uncontrollably, "Damn you! Damn you! I'll kill you! I'll definitely kill you!"
The classmates and teachers around him fell silent, watching the nearly broken Sasuke with sympathy and horror written across their faces.
They could not imagine the heart-wrenching agony of watching their clansmen's remains being ravaged like this.
Had it been them, they probably would have broken down already.
On the sky screen, Danzo looked at the containers filled with Sharingan and gave the Masked Ninja an order in a bone-chilling voice. "Search everything thoroughly again. Not a single Sharingan is to be missed!"
"Yes!" The Root ninja acknowledged the order in unison, immediately splitting up to act without daring to delay.
Just then, a ghostlike shadow suddenly flashed into view behind Danzo. His voice was icy, carrying an uncompromising threat. "Do not touch Sasuke. Otherwise, I'll leak every piece of Konoha's classified intelligence."
Before Danzo could respond, the shadow vanished.
Danzo fell silent for a moment, then gave a cold, utterly dismissive laugh, dripping with mockery and contempt. "Sell out Konoha's intelligence? You think that little trick can threaten me, Shimura Danzō?"
"I've sold more of Konoha's intelligence in my lifetime than you've ever seen!"
"Threatening me with that? What a joke!"
"Uchiha Itachi, you really are a hopeless fool."
"Pathetic, and laughable!"
His mocking words rang across the sky screen, each one cutting deep.
Then, without lingering any longer, Danzo coldly addressed the remaining Root ninja again. "I'll leave the Uchiha Clan's bodies to you."
"Remember, reduce them all to ashes and scatter them. Don't leave a single corpse behind. Erase every trace that the Uchiha ever existed."
With that, he swept his sleeve aside, turned, and left this hell on earth without looking back.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stared fixedly at Danzo's cold, mocking face on the sky screen. His chest heaved, and a metallic sweetness surged into his throat. He nearly coughed up blood on the spot.
"Danzo..."
At this point, no one could say with absolute certainty whether the sky screen showed truth or falsehood.
But Hiruzen Sarutobi knew better than anyone that 99.99999% of the people in this world simply followed the crowd.
They would not think deeply about any conspiracy behind these images, nor would they investigate their supposed "authenticity."
They would trust the visceral impact of what they saw and believe this bloody scene was the truth.
As long as those 99.99999% chose to believe it, the sky screen was real.
And Konoha would be finished!
The major clans would use this as an excuse to turn against them completely;
The surrounding nations would use it as justification to openly claim the moral high ground and condemn Konoha;
And within Konoha, the ordinary villagers, already filled with unease, would be utterly consumed by fear and see Konoha High Command as butchers.
Damn it!
Who on earth was targeting Konoha?
Hiruzen Sarutobi roared inwardly, his gaze locked on the sky screen, his eyes filled with anger, anxiety, and a profound sense of helplessness.
Far away in the Land of Rain, however, deep within the Akatsuki's base, the atmosphere held an indescribable strangeness.
The Akatsuki members gathered in small groups, their gazes all drifting toward the figure in the corner-Uchiha Itachi.
The footage on the sky screen continued. Every word and every expression struck their hearts like a sledgehammer.
Yet Uchiha Itachi alone remained expressionless, his gaze almost eerily calm, as though the Itachi on the screen were not him, but a stranger.
On the sky screen, the scene shifted.
The next instant, it abruptly cut to a fiercely burning ruin.
Thick smoke billowed and flames soared as a bedraggled figure staggered out of the inferno, his clothes in tatters and his body covered in dust and blood.
He clutched his left eye tightly. In his other, exposed eye, strange red markings formed distinct rings-the signature pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan!
"The Mangekyō Sharingan! It's a Uchiha survivor!"
Someone cried out in shock. The faces of Konoha High Command changed sharply, their hearts pounding.
Just as everyone had suspected, the survivor raised his head, his eyes blazing with boundless fury. He stared in Konoha's direction and let out a low growl of utter rage. "Konoha! You destroyed my Uchiha Clan! I swear I'll destroy you!"
Before you continue