Still, Naruto remembered the general outline of the story.
Including the night of the Uchiha Massacre.
But in the original tale, wasn't it supposed to be silent? Not this chaotic. In fact—if he recalled correctly—it was completely silent. No commotion, no uproar. Just one night, and an entire clan was gone. Only three survivors left. Everyone else slaughtered—quietly, efficiently.
At the very least, no villager in Konoha had noticed until the next morning.
That had been the mark of the higher-ups' planning, with spies on the inside.
If a single ripple had reached the public, that would've been suspicious.
In canon, everyone—aside from the involved parties—learned of the Uchiha's extermination only the day after.
The cause, the process, the result—
Naruto might not recall every detail,
but one truth was crystal clear:
That night had been a deal struck between Itachi Uchiha and Konoha's leadership.
He traded his clan's lives for peace,
and for his younger brother's survival.
He had even cut down his own parents with his own hands.
The massacre had been carried out almost entirely by Itachi alone.
But Naruto knew with certainty that before Itachi moved, the area had been surrounded by ANBU—or Root operatives.
There had been barriers, surveillance, every precaution—
all to keep the noise contained.
All to ensure the Uchiha vanished without a sound.
Yet the scene before Naruto's eyes—
the roaring fire, the chaos spilling across the village—
was nothing like what he remembered.
This was something else.
"Could it be… someone in the Uchiha clan discovered the plot? And they're fighting back?"
The thought struck him sharply.
After all, this was Konoha's proudest clan, perhaps even the strongest in the shinobi world.
Not everyone could have been blind.
It wasn't impossible that someone pieced the clues together,
and launched a desperate rebellion.
But even as the idea flickered through his mind,
Naruto dismissed it.
Too many things didn't fit.
Watching the unending firestorm,
listening to the village fill with noise and panic,
he frowned deeply—
then slowly let out a breath and relaxed his brow.
"…Whatever the reason, whatever the outcome—what does it have to do with me right now? Better just go back to sleep."
He gave a bitter little laugh, shook his head, and drew the curtains shut.
Even with the glow seeping through the fabric,
even with the screams carried faintly on the wind,
Naruto returned to bed.
Tonight, he was only a bystander.
No—he didn't even want to be that.
Whether because of his lack of strength,
or his lack of standing,
the Uchiha's destruction had nothing to do with him.
In this blood-soaked world,
the greatest sin of all was powerlessness.
Naruto shook his head once more.
Through the curtains, he cast one last long look at the burning horizon.
Then he pulled the blanket over himself,
and closed his eyes.
Tomorrow, for Konoha—
for the entire Land of Fire—
would dawn with a very different landscape.
The fall of its mightiest clan.
A sign, clear as day,
of a great village beginning to wither.
By the next morning, the news of the Uchiha massacre had spread like wildfire.
When the explosions and chaos had erupted the night before,
every villager had noticed.
The smoke in the air,
the booming detonations,
the screams carried on the wind,
the sky turned scarlet with flame—
who could possibly have missed it?
Some had even whispered guesses—
Were we invaded?
Is this the start of another Great Ninja War?
But before rumors could run rampant,
the Hokage and the other elders moved quickly.
Under the Third Hokage's lead,
the official story was announced:
The Uchiha's prodigy, Itachi,
had conspired with outside forces to overthrow Konoha.
Discovered by his own clan,
he had turned on them,
slaughtering nearly every Uchiha.
He was driven off only when Konoha ninja arrived.
Now, Uchiha Itachi was branded an S-rank missing-nin.
The village was left reeling.
A boy who had graduated the Academy at seven,
become a chunin at ten—
the clan's brightest genius—
a traitor?
That alone was staggering.
But the follow-up—
that the Uchiha clan was nearly annihilated,
with only one survivor, Uchiha Sasuke—
That news shook Konoha to its core.
The Uchiha were not just any family.
They were one of the two founding clans of the village.
They were, even now, among the strongest shinobi families in the entire world.
And just like that—
they were gone.
Not disbelieved.
But almost impossible to believe.
A revelation that would not only rock Konoha,
but spread outward.
The Land of Fire.
The entire shinobi world.
Every village would feel the tremor.
And inevitably,
the other Great Villages—
Suna, Kiri, Iwa, Kumo—
would peer closer.
What was the truth behind this?
How much had Konoha's strength been crippled?
Such questions would soon hang over the world.
Naruto, however,
was not fooled by the "truth" announced from on high.
He almost laughed at it.
The truth?
He knew better than anyone how false it was.
The Third Hokage, Danzo,
the two advisors—
they had all played their roles in this "truth."
Yes, the Uchiha had brought some of it upon themselves.
But the village leadership—
their hands were hardly clean.
Not ruthless enough.
Not clever enough.
Especially in the cases of Shisui Uchiha and Itachi.
To Naruto, their choices were nothing short of idiotic.
He didn't hide his scornful thought:
If the First and Second Hokage knew their successors had been this foolish…
they'd be rolling in their graves.