Episode Summaries

Sasuke finds it hard to believe that Itachi was protecting him, telling Tobi that Itachi was the one who murdered their clan. Tobi tells Sasuke that Itachi did not cause the massacre single-handedly, revealing that he helped and that he is none other than Madara Uchiha. He asks Sasuke to remember the memories of his brother when he was younger, causing Sasuke to remember talking to Itachi when they were younger as to why the crest of the Konoha Military Police Force bore the insignia of their clan. Unable to process the information, Sasuke lashes out at Madara and passes out soon after.

As he wakes up, Sasuke finds himself bound. Madara tells Sasuke that Itachi's fate is linked to the events of the Warring States Period as Itachi's decision to murder their clan was in actuality a mission given to him by the higher-ups in Konoha, and that it is a tale that he believes Sasuke should know; he adds that Itachi had passed down his Amaterasu to prevent Sasuke from hearing the story. Sasuke agrees to listen, and Madara begins his tale. Back during the era of the Warring States, where many villages attacked one another in an attempt to increase their borders or military strength, two clans stood out as the most powerful clans — the Uchiha clan and the Senju Clan. The Senju clan was led by Hashirama Senju, whom Madara had fought many times. One day, after a long time of fighting, both the Uchiha clan and the Senju came to a peace treaty, with only Madara being against it. However, as leader of the clan, Madara went along with the clan's wishes and together they formed Konohagakure.

However, when it came time to choose the Hokage who would rule the village, Hashirama was chosen, leaving Madara incensed that he was not. He attempted to convince the Uchiha clan to protest the Senju government, but was shunned by his own clan for wanting to start another conflict; to make matters worse, the clan believed that he had killed his own younger brother and had stolen his Mangekyō Sharingan, with Madara revealing to Sasuke that his brother had given them willingly. In an attempt to get revenge on the village, Madara fought with Hashirama using the Nine-Tailed Fox at what would later become known as the Valley of the End. Many shinobi, Hashirama included, believed Madara had died during that final conflict.

Over time, Hashirama's younger brother Tobirama Senju was chosen to be the Second Hokage, and as an act of "trust" towards the Uchiha clan, he had delegated all of them to the police force, thus barring them from high-ranking positions within the Senju government. Some of the Uchiha clansmen began to inherit Madara's will and ideology and did not like the idea of being the Senju's lackeys. Nonetheless, the Uchiha clan did nothing about it until sixteen years prior, when the Nine-Tails attacked Konoha. Since the Sharingan is able to control the tailed beast, the government had placed the Uchiha clan under suspicion of the attack and had forced them to relocate on the outskirts of the village. Thus, the Uchiha clan began to plan a coup d'état in order to overthrow the Senju government. Madara reveals that except for the Third Hokage, the other members of the government approved the decision to keep the Uchiha clan under observation. He reveals Itachi was an Anbu tasked with spying on the Uchiha clan who was eventually ordered to exterminate them, and that the only people who knew the truth were Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado (the two advisors of the Konoha Council), Danzō Shimura of the Anbu and the Third Hokage himself.