External Liaison Office

Tekka gritted his teeth. "The clan head has already had people seal off Shinsuke's residence."

"There are two delivery receipts hidden in a compartment there."

"They look like they're from an ordinary shop delivering food."

"But we checked the list of merchants, and that shop hasn't received any orders from the Uchiha Clan Grounds recently."

Shin-getsu took the paper and pondered for a moment.

"Delivery receipts."

"That suggests the exchange point might not involve meeting face-to-face. They could be passing information under the guise of ordinary purchases."

Tekka froze.

"You can even figure that out?"

Shin-getsu glanced at him.

"If Root wants to plant someone in the clan grounds, they have to think about staying hidden."

"Meeting face-to-face is too easy to detect."

"Using what looks like ordinary deliveries is the safest way."

Tekka said gravely, "So what do we do now?"

Shin-getsu handed the paper back.

"Check the shop."

"Check the delivery routes."

"Find out who visited that shop in the past week under the pretext of 'clan purchases.'"

"If Shinsuke met with the other party, there'll definitely be traces where their paths crossed."

Tekka took the paper, his expression complicated.

"That brain of yours..."

Shin-getsu replied calmly, "I'm just used to assuming the worst about everything."

After hearing that, Tekka felt strangely troubled.

A nine-year-old shouldn't have had to develop that kind of mindset.

It meant he really had been forced into an environment where he had to stay on guard against everything at all times.

Tekka looked at Shin-getsu and said quietly,

"You were right at the clan meeting tonight."

"What the Uchiha need isn't a banner pushed out to die."

"Don't worry. This time, I won't let anyone force you into that role."

Shin-getsu smiled.

"You're worrying too much, senior."

"The people who want to force me into it have already started showing themselves."

Tekka snorted.

"Then we'll pull them out one by one."

As soon as he finished speaking, a faint noise came from beyond the courtyard wall.

They both turned at once.

Shin-getsu's expression changed.

[Causality Perception] gave a faint tremor.

Something was there.

Not a person.

And not an ordinary patrol cat or dog.

It felt more like some kind of... trigger point someone had deliberately set up.

Shin-getsu raised a hand to signal Tekka to stay still.

He walked slowly toward the wall.

In the moonlight, an exceptionally fine black needle was wedged into a crack between the stones at the corner of the wall.

A short piece of red thread was wrapped around its end.

Shin-getsu bent down for a closer look, and his expression instantly turned cold.

"This is a Trigger Needle."

Tekka frowned.

"What is that?"

Shin-getsu didn't answer right away. Instead, he carefully lifted the needle with a kunai.

The needle was extremely thin, and its surface was coated with a nearly invisible layer of pale gray powder.

"Someone hid it by the courtyard wall."

"If I'd gone near it just now, or if a patrolling ninja had stepped on it without noticing, it would've been triggered."

Tekka's face changed dramatically.

"A trap?"

Shin-getsu nodded.

"And it wasn't meant to kill."

"It was meant to track."

Tekka's pupils contracted.

"Track?"

Shin-getsu continued,

"The red thread on the end of the needle is probably connected to some kind of short-range chakra-sensing tag."

"As soon as it comes into contact with the target's chakra, it records their chakra signature."

"That way, the other side can confirm whether I was at the Training Ground tonight, whether I activated my Sharingan, and whether I used chakra frequently."

Tekka was furious.

"Root again?"

Shin-getsu didn't answer directly.

But this time, there was hardly any need to guess.

Who else would use such a sinister trick besides Danzo's men?

Tekka gritted his teeth.

"I'm going to report this to the clan head right now."

Shin-getsu raised a hand to stop him.

"Wait."

Tekka paused.

Shin-getsu stared at the Trigger Needle and spoke slowly,

"Don't alert them this time."

"If they've come back, it means they still haven't realized Shinsuke's been exposed."

"This Trigger Needle isn't a kill trap. It's more like a way to verify things afterward."

Tekka frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Shin-getsu said,

"They want to confirm whether I kept training tonight."

"If I did, it means the clan meeting didn't affect me."

"If I didn't, it means the clan might have put me under control after the meeting."

"They need to decide what to do next: keep building me up to destroy me, or switch to another method."

The longer Tekka listened, the grimmer his expression became.

"So what do we do now?"

A trace of coldness flashed in Shin-getsu's eyes.

"Play along."

"Leave it there."

Tekka's eyes widened.

"Leave it?"

Shin-getsu nodded.

"Don't pull it out yet."

"Let them think it's still working as intended."

"Then we'll set up a layer of counter-surveillance seals around it."

"If someone comes to retrieve it or check on it again, the seals will record their chakra signature."

Tekka stared for half a second, then grinned.

"You're one sneaky kid."

Shin-getsu replied evenly, "I learned from Root."

Tekka's grin vanished at once.

Then he swore.

"Damn it, that old bastard Danzo really turns people into monsters."

Shin-getsu said nothing.

He simply watched the Trigger Needle, even more certain of one thing now.

Root wasn't just planting spies inside the Uchiha Clan.

They were also constantly monitoring how quickly he was growing.

That meant that, in Danzo's eyes, Shin-gettsu was no longer "an orphan they could casually take away," but a dangerous variable that was rapidly slipping out of control.

That was troublesome.

But it also proved that he was moving in the right direction.

When your enemies start taking you seriously, it means you've become a piece on the board they can't afford to ignore.

Shin-getsu stood up and said to Tekka,

"Senior, go find Inabi."

"Have him cross-reference the delivery routes from the receipts found at Shinsuke's residence with the spot where this Trigger Needle was planted today."

"If the two trails line up, it means their method of communication is fixed."

Tekka nodded.

"I'll go right away."

He had taken two steps when he couldn't help turning back.

"You're not resting?"

Shin-getsu had already raised his hand again and begun gathering Lightning Chakra.

"I'm almost there."

Crackle.

Blue-white arcs of lightning leaped up again.

This time, they were steadier than before.

Tekka watched him for two seconds. In the end, he said nothing and turned to leave.

The courtyard fell quiet again.

Shin-getsu continued training.

Lightning Style: Earth Flash. He had to at least reach the threshold today.

He knew all too well that after Shinsuke's exposure, Root wouldn't stay quiet for long.

They would change personnel.

They would change tactics.

They would change their lines of communication.

They might even begin testing him directly.

And what he had to do was turn himself into a blade that was harder to break before they made their next move.

Half an hour later.

A sudden flurry of footsteps came from outside the courtyard gate.

Tekka had returned.

His expression was even worse than before.

"Shin-getsu."

"Something's happened."

The lightning in Shin-getsu's hand dissipated, and he looked up at him.

"What happened?"

Tekka took a deep breath and lowered his voice.

"Shinsuke has started talking."

"But he hasn't told us everything."

"He says the messenger he met last night wasn't from inside the Uchiha."

Shin-getsu's pupils contracted.

"Who?"

Tekka said, one word at a time,

"The people from the External Liaison Office in the Hokage Building."

"And what that person gave him wasn't an order."

"It was a duplicate cover sheet for a Hokage document."

Shin-getsu's gaze suddenly turned icy.

A duplicate cover sheet?

How had something from the Hokage document system ended up in Root's hands?

Unless...

Someone higher up had opened a back door for them.

Tekka gritted his teeth.

"The clan head asked me to come and ask you."

"Should we report this directly to the Hokage Building?"

Shin-getsu didn't answer right away.

He gazed into the night, then slowly spoke:

"Don't report it yet."

Tekka froze.

Shin-getsu's gaze was inscrutable.

"If what Shinsuke said is true, then this goes deeper than we thought."

"If we report it now, our opponent will cut the connection before we can catch them."

"We need to catch the person from the External Liaison Office first."

Tekka asked in a low voice:

"How?"

Shin-getsu slowly raised his head.

"Tonight."

"I'll go meet him."