When Uchiha Izumi spoke, all the children turned to look at Ran at the same time.
They hadn't yet recovered from the fear and grief—and now, they were desperate to know the truth.
"What do you want to ask?" Ran said calmly. "Let me be clear first: I don't know everything, and I can't perfectly connect every detail. You can ask whatever you want, and I'll tell you everything I do know."
He sat down directly on the ground. There was no dirt here—if he wanted, he could've just lain down.
"Itachi… is he really the killer?"
"Yes."
"Proof!"
"Konoha will soon issue a wanted notice for him. Shizuka's parents were killed by him—I saw it with my own eyes."
If anything could shatter Izumi's last sliver of denial, it was that.
Before Ran brought Shizuka into the Shadow Space, the little girl had been hiding in her room and witnessed her parents' deaths. She nearly screamed—but Ran arrived in time, covered her mouth, and dragged her away. In the process, Shizuka even bit his hand.
"Then… why did he do it?" Izumi asked, her breathing growing rapid.
"Why… why slaughter the clan…?"
Her mother was dead too.
Even though Izumi hadn't seen the body, with so few survivors left in the entire clan, how could her mother—who wasn't even a ninja—have lived?
In other words, the person she had always admired… was the murderer of her mother.
"I don't know," Ran said, shaking his head.
He did know—but this wasn't the time to say it.
"…Fine," Izumi said after a pause. She took several deep breaths, barely managing to steady herself.
"Then let me ask something else."
"Besides Itachi… who else was involved?"
"The Village," Ran replied flatly. "And enemies from outside the Village."
"The Village was involved? Is that really true?"
Ran lifted the test tube in his hand and gave it a light shake.
"Then where do you think I got this eye from?
Oh—right. You probably don't even know whose eye this is yet.
Uchiha Shisui. Have you heard that name?"
"I… I have," a small boy said timidly from the crowd.
"Uncle Shisui used to live not far from my house…"
His name was Uchiha Dan. He was eight years old—one year older than Sasuke.
"Shisui of the Body Flicker?" Izumi said, startled. "But wasn't he already…?"
Of course she knew the name.
Shisui had been extremely active a few years ago—a famous prodigy of the clan. As for how he died, opinions differed wildly. Some ordinary clan members believed he'd been assassinated by the Village. Others believed Itachi killed him.
Izumi had never firmly believed either version.
Only now did she suddenly realize—something about Shisui's death had always been wrong.
"He was driven to his death by Danzo," Ran said calmly.
"Danzo Shimura—Hokage advisor, and leader of the special Anbu division known as Root. I ran into him on the outskirts of the clan grounds… and found this eye on him."
"Just like with Shisui, the Konoha high command couldn't tolerate an Uchiha genius remaining alive. And for the same reason, they couldn't tolerate the Uchiha Clan continuing to exist."
"They simply never had the opportunity to act before. Now that Itachi took the initiative, Konoha didn't even need to send many people—just surround the compound and make sure not a single Uchiha escaped."
Ran's voice was steady and emotionless.
But to the listeners, each word struck like thunder.
"B-But why…?" a girl asked through sobs.
"Isn't the Uchiha Clan… isn't it part of Konoha too?"
Her name was Uchiha Ayatsuki, ten years old—she hadn't even graduated from the Academy yet.
"Because the Uchiha threatened the position of those in power," Ran replied.
"Some of you are too young to remember—but Sister Izumi, you do, don't you?"
He pointed upward.
"The Uchiha didn't originally live here."
Izumi nodded, then looked at the younger children.
"We used to live much closer to the center of the Village. Over the past seven years, we were gradually pushed here."
"Why did we have to move?" someone asked.
"Because seven years ago, someone released the Nine-Tails," Ran said coldly.
"It devastated the Village and killed the Fourth Hokage and his wife. Someone saw the Sharingan pattern in the Nine-Tails' eyes, so the Village concluded it was an Uchiha plot—and began suppressing us."
"And the Uchiha…" He gave a bitter laugh.
"During the last Great Ninja War, the clan paid an enormous price fighting the Hidden Mist. When the war ended, we gained nothing—only deeper suspicion from the high command."
"Discontent grew within the clan. And that discontent only gave the high command more reasons to distrust us. The conflict escalated until it became impossible to resolve."
"Fugaku—that idiot—couldn't suppress the radical voices within the clan. Step by step, things reached this point."
"Dying at Itachi's hands was too easy for him," Ran said, hatred seeping into his voice.
"I really wish he were still alive… so I could deal with him myself."
In truth, Ran didn't care about Fugaku personally.
But the fact that this man had ruined an entire clan filled him with rage.
Everyone—including Izumi—was stunned into silence.
"Ran… how do you know all this?" Izumi finally asked.
"I investigated," Ran replied.
"You didn't really think I spent all these years doing nothing but running a bookstore, did you?"
"I'm not as simple as you, Sister Izumi—thinking about Itachi all day. I sensed something was wrong in the Village long ago. I investigated in secret while trying to change the situation."
"Unfortunately…" He chuckled softly.
"Who would listen to a piece of trash who can't even awaken the Sharingan?"
"The pro-war faction kept shouting about a coup. The pro-peace faction was cowardly. And Fugaku was a useless leader who couldn't control either side."
"When I realized nothing could be changed, I immediately began preparing to save myself. I didn't know exactly when it would happen—but I knew it would happen."
"Fortunately, I survived."
"And I saved all of you."
These words were a mixture of truth and lies.
But it didn't matter.
No one here had any way to verify them.
Even if there were people in the world who knew the real truth—who could they ask?
Itachi?
The Konoha high command?
Once these children grew strong enough, the first thing they'd want to do was grind those people into dust.
The truth itself wasn't important.
Knowing who to hate—and who to take revenge on—was enough.
"Ran… thank you," Izumi said softly.
"And you're not trash. This ability of yours…"
She looked around the Shadow Space.
"I've never seen or even heard of anything like it. Is it a Sharingan ability?"
"No," Ran replied, shaking his head.
"It's another power of mine. I'll explain it later."
He pointed toward a wooden crate nearby.
"Eat something first, then rest. Tonight… isn't over yet."