Explosion

The Anbu Sealing Ninja did not answer.

The Anbu Captain said slowly, "You may record that."

Tekka sneered.

"Continue."

The stone door did not open immediately.

As agreed by both sides, the scene could not be disturbed at will.

So they first searched for traces around the stone door.

Before long, Uchiha Yashiro found a small fiber of cloth at the lower-right corner of the stone door.

Dark gray.

Extremely fine.

It looked like a scrap torn from a hem by the crack in the stone.

Tekka's eyes lit up.

"Preserve it."

The Anbu Captain had also seen the fiber.

His expression shifted slightly.

Its color and texture were very similar to the lining of Root combat uniforms.

Of course, Anbu had similar fabric too.

But the problem was that the Hokage's personal Anbu had sent no one into the Uchiha Clan Grounds last night.

If they kept investigating this, things would get very troublesome.

At last, he understood why Lord Hokage had looked so displeased yesterday.

This Secret Tunnel was probably connected to Danzo after all.

Fugaku had not said a word.

But his gaze had grown colder and colder.

He did not need to obtain a written order bearing Danzo's signature right now.

These traces were already enough to make the Uchiha see one thing clearly.

Someone had been active around the outskirts of the Uchiha Clan Grounds for a long time.

Someone had used Anbu Sealing Jutsu to maintain the passage.

Someone had retreated from here last night.

Someone had tried to spy on Shin-getsu.

Put together, these clues made the claim that this was the work of "enemy-village spies" untenable.

Unless enemy-village spies knew Konoha's Anbu system even better than Konoha High Command did.

The group returned to the junction and entered another passage.

This passage was deeper and older.

Moisture clung heavily to the walls.

After walking dozens of meters, they came upon a small underground chamber.

It was not large.

But some old wooden crates, a damaged weapons rack, and a burned-out record board remained inside.

The papers on the board had turned to ash.

Someone had clearly cleaned up in advance.

But no matter how hurriedly they cleaned, they could never get everything.

Inabi crouched and examined the bottom of a wooden crate.

"Ninja tools and scrolls used to be stored here."

Tekka asked, "Can you tell when?"

"Someone moved things recently."

Inabi pointed to the traces in the dust on the ground.

"The old dust has been disturbed, which means the crate was moved not long ago."

Looking at the underground chamber, the Anbu Captain felt his heart sink.

This was no ordinary Secret Tunnel.

It was an underground surveillance post.

And it was located on the outskirts of the Uchiha Clan Grounds.

If this got out in full, the Hokage Building would be in a very awkward position.

Tekka suddenly walked over to the burned record board.

He stared at the ashes and sneered.

"You burned it clean."

"Too clean, unfortunately."

The Anbu Captain looked at him.

"What do you mean?"

Tekka said, "If this place were really an abandoned facility, the record board would have rotted and gathered dust long ago."

"But it was burned recently."

"That means someone came in specifically to clean it up last night, or a little earlier."

"If this was an abandoned facility, why clean it up?"

The Anbu Captain fell silent.

Tekka wrote the statement directly onto the scroll.

The record board in the underground chamber was recently burned, suspected to have been deliberately destroyed.

After writing that, Tekka still felt it was not enough, so he added another line:

Anbu personnel were present and offered no effective rebuttal.

The Anbu Captain's eyelid twitched slightly.

Uchiha Tekka was determined not to let a single thing go today.

But he had no way to stop him.

Because what the other man wrote was true.

Fugaku looked around.

"Keep searching."

The group began to search the underground chamber carefully.

Before long, Uchiha Yashiro found a small metal fragment embedded in the dirt in one corner.

The fragment was tiny, like a piece broken off some kind of ninja tool.

The Anbu Sealing Ninja's expression visibly changed when he saw it.

Fugaku noticed immediately.

"You recognize it?"

The Anbu Sealing Ninja fell silent.

Tekka stepped forward.

"I asked you a question."

The Anbu Captain said slowly, "It's a fragment from an old-style Anbu Communication Needle."

Tekka's gaze turned icy.

"An old-style Anbu Communication Needle?"

"Good."

He wrote another line on the scroll.

A fragment from an old-style Anbu Communication Needle was found in the underground chamber.

After writing it down, Tekka looked up and asked, "Could enemy-village spies have gotten their hands on something like this too?"

The Anbu Captain did not answer.

Because this time, there was no easy answer.

They could claim the technique had leaked.

They could call the fabric a coincidence.

But finding a fragment of an Anbu Communication Needle in an underground post on the outskirts of the Uchiha Clan Grounds could not be easily explained away as something that had "leaked."

What was more, though the old-style Communication Needle had been phased out, it had once been used mainly within Anbu.

Root had used them too, of course.

Fugaku picked up the fragment and placed it in a sealing pouch.

He moved slowly.

But everyone around him could feel the pressure radiating from him.

The Uchiha Clan Head was truly furious.

Just then, a faint sound came from deep in the passage.

Click.

The sound was soft.

But everyone present was a ninja, and they caught it instantly.

The Anbu Captain's expression changed.

"Not good!"

Inabi shouted at the same time, "The Sealing Technique has been triggered!"

The runes in the four corners of the underground chamber, which had already gone dark, suddenly glowed with a faint red light.

Tekka's expression changed drastically.

"Someone's remotely detonating the evidence!"

The Anbu Sealing Ninja immediately formed Hand Seals.

"Seal!"

Inabi acted at the same time.

Their two streams of chakra pressed down on the runes in the four corners.

But the runes lit up quickly.

Clearly, this was a Destruction Formula that had been set up long ago.

Once someone investigated the core area, it would automatically destroy the remaining traces.

Or someone had triggered it remotely from outside.

Boom!

A muffled explosion sounded.

A wall at the far end of the underground chamber blew apart.

It was not a massive explosion.

It was a precise burn.

Flames instantly engulfed the hidden compartment inside the wall.

Whatever might have been hidden inside was reduced to black ash.

Tekka was furious.

"Bastard!"

The Anbu Captain's expression darkened too.

Even he could no longer make excuses for the other side.

If this was an abandoned passage, why was there an automatic Destruction Formula?

If these were merely enemy-village spies, why could they trigger it remotely while the group was investigating together?

It meant that whoever was behind the Secret Tunnel had been watching the scene the whole time.

They even had the authority to activate the seals here.

Fugaku did not shout in anger.

He simply watched the charred wall in silence.

The quieter he was, the more terrifying he seemed.

After a moment, he spoke slowly.

"Record it."

Tekka gritted his teeth and wrote:

During the investigation, the hidden compartment in the underground chamber was automatically destroyed by a Sealing Technique.

A cleanup measure was likely triggered remotely.

Anbu personnel were present and unable to stop it.

Uchiha Police Force personnel were present and unable to stop it.

Evidence was destroyed; responsibility remains to be investigated.

After writing it down, he looked coldly at the Anbu Captain.

"Can you still call this a coincidence?"

The Anbu Captain was silent for a long time.

At last, he said in a low voice, "I'll report this matter truthfully to Lord Hokage."

Tekka sneered.

"I hope Lord Hokage can still investigate Cloud Village spies this time."

Fugaku raised a hand.

"Enough."

Only then did Tekka fall silent.

Fugaku looked at the Anbu Captain.

"Keep the scene sealed off."

"Make two copies of all evidence found so far."

"One for the Uchiha Police Force, and one for the Anbu under the Hokage's direct command."

"Both sides will jointly seal away the residue from the Destruction Formula."

The Anbu Captain nodded.

"Agreed."

The investigation continued for a full two hours.

In the end, both sides confirmed several key facts.

First, someone had recently used and maintained the Secret Tunnel.

Second, traces of a sealing technique from the Anbu system remained inside the Secret Tunnel.

Third, the underground space was suspected to have been a long-term base.

Fourth, there were signs that records had recently been destroyed at the scene.

Fifth, fragments of an old-style Anbu Communication Needle had been found.

Sixth, during the investigation, a hidden compartment had been automatically destroyed by a Sealing Technique.

Taken together, these six points were already enough to make the Uchiha erupt.