Silence.
Freezing silence.
After the masked man's words fell,
The entire teahouse room was so quiet it seemed the air itself had frozen.
After a long while,
Danzo suddenly came to his senses, then fiercely gritted his teeth, looked up at the masked man, and said deeply:
"Uchiha Madara!"
"I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that?!"
"That night, my Root's members personally witnessed you taking Uchiha Itachi and directly leaving Konoha!"
"Now you come back questioning me about the Sharingan, what do you mean?!"
As he spoke,
The more Danzo thought about it, the angrier he got, and his tone naturally became more and more agitated.
His old face was practically flushed.
However,
Hearing this,
The masked man clearly didn't buy it at all, just sneering coldly and saying:
"Heh,"
"Quite the performance, Danzo!"
"At the time, I was misled by your plan, and now you still want to deceive me with such clumsy tricks—"
"???"
Hearing this, Danzo's throat momentarily choked.
'Perform?'
'When the f**k did I ever perform?!'
'Isn't the one acting you, Uchiha Madara?!'
Just as Danzo was feeling aggrieved,
The masked man snorted again and said flatly:
"Hmph, it seems you have no intention to admit it..."
"Well then, I'll be direct."
"At the time, while Itachi and I were carrying out the annihilation operation, your subordinate, that guy wearing the fox-like ogre mask and carrying the pure white sword, appeared!"
"He first deliberately lost to me, then stole all the Sharingan and left!"
"Could it be..."
"That all of this was not on your orders?!"
"Shi·mura·Dan·zo!"
By the end, the masked man's eyes were fixed on Danzo, almost word by word.
If it weren't for finding out the whereabouts of the Sharingan, he would have wanted to eliminate this old bastard right now.
However, at this moment,
After hearing the masked man's words,
Danzo suddenly shook violently, his expression slightly changing.
"Huh?"
"You say... a guy wearing a fox-like ogre mask?"
Then, as if he had thought of something, his pupils suddenly constricted, and he said quickly with an ugly expression:
"Impossible!"
"In my Root, there has never been any member with a fox-like ogre mask!"
"As for the pure white sword, I've never heard of it either!"
"That night, all my subordinates were also monitoring the Uchiha Clan's compound and Hiruzen and the others!"
"It's absolutely impossible for anyone to have gone to snatch your Sharingan!"
"Moreover,"
"If I were going to deal with you, how could I have sent only one person!"
"In the entire Konoha, how could there exist someone capable of dealing with both you and Uchiha Itachi at the same time!?"
Having said this, Danzo suddenly drew in a cold breath, then narrowed his eyes and said heavily:
"Uchiha Madara, haven't you realized yet—"
"The two of us seem... to have been played by the same person!"
"?!?"
As the words fell, the masked man's expression instantly stiffened.
'Huh!?'
'Not Danzo's man?!'
Originally still suspecting Danzo of acting, after hearing these words, he suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart!
At the time, he had already found it strange,
Why was that fox-like ogre so strong, yet insisted on working for Danzo...
Moreover, when he appeared, he had clearly mentioned a mission about "silencing", but in the end, he instead only stole the Sharingan and then completely disappeared...
This was all completely self-contradictory!
It was very possible,
His fundamental purpose in appearing was originally just for the Sharingan!
"...Tsk."
Thinking of this, the masked man slightly gritted his teeth.
At this moment, even he couldn't help but start to believe Danzo's words a bit.
That guy had from the very beginning likely used Danzo to divert his attention, thereby completing the theft of the Sharingan!
'Hmph... quite the perfect instigating plan!'
The masked man slightly narrowed his eye, an unprecedented anger revealed in his gaze.
At this moment, Danzo's expression was naturally also very ugly,
But he still raised his head, looked at the masked man, and said solemnly:
"Uchiha Madara, now perhaps there is an opportunity for us to renew our cooperation."
"Since that fox-like ogre knew about the existence of the annihilation plan and took this opportunity to steal the Sharingan..."
"Then, he is very likely someone close to the two of us!"
"As long as we find his true identity, the Sharingan... can still belong to us!"
Danzo spoke with a firm tone, appearing very sincere.
"..."
The masked man, after pondering for a long while, finally snorted coldly and spoke lowly:
"Hmph, let's cooperate then—"
"We must find the existence of that fox-like ogre as quickly as possible and retrieve the Sharingan!"
"I will... come to you again."
As the words fell,
A black vortex appeared before the masked man's eyes, his entire body quickly drawn into it, and finally disappeared.
Obviously, he seemed about to start investigating.
Then, Danzo quickly called over a Root's member and sharply commanded without hesitation:
"Go investigate immediately!"
"In these past few days in Konoha, has there ever been a man wearing a fox-like ogre mask and carrying a pure white sword?!"
"And immediately post the highest-level bounty mission in the various nations of the Shinobi World—"
"Place a direct bounty of 90 million ryo on this person!"
"?!"
'What?!'
'90 million?!'
Hearing this, this Root's member's expression drastically changed, completely dumbfounded.
In his entire life, he had never heard of anyone in the world having such an enormous bounty.