Even what little Lee had been able to say was more sitting on the surface than absorbing: the players, both on Akatsuki's (or was it Sound, with Kabuto involved? but then where the hell was Orochimaru?) and Konohagakure's side. Konohagakure's alliance with the other village was in and of itself another thing that was difficult to swallow, between the old and older blood lying between villages.

Kabuto learning the Edo Tensei, that excessively showy and destructive jutsu -- another thing that was not quite absorbing. But Lee moved on with barely a pause into something that made Sasuke's gaze snap back up in the direction of the Konoha-nin's voice, because while the Edo Tensei was theoretically manageable with study, resurrecting a great deal of people required more chakra than Kabuto had.

And bodies -- was that why he'd kept such meticulous track? And how --

"How did he get access to their bodies?" He demanded, frown growing no less deep. "You must have an article of theirs to use the Edo Tensei, and we buried them --"

We, back when Sasuke had belonged to any we beyond the clan --

"... they would have been difficult to access," he concluded, voice drifting into slower contemplation. "He had to have planned on a large scale." And then, finally, another thought: "How much time has passed since I left Konoha?"