Konoha General Staff Headquarters, Archive Analysis Room.
A bitter smell peculiar to burned paper permeated the air, mingling with the musty odor of the thick files. Breathing it for too long made one dizzy and light-headed.
It was already deep into the night. The entire building was so quiet that the monotonous sound of rainwater striking the eaves outside could be heard clearly.
Spread across the desk before Shikaku Nara was a pile of gray-black fragments carefully extracted from an iron box with tweezers. These were the so-called "core account books" salvaged from the Konoha Oceanic Trading Company's fire scene.
Most of them had been carbonized and crumbled at the slightest touch.
The Joint Investigation Team's work had reached an impasse. The Hokage's thunderous methods of freezing the company's accounts had cut off its cash flow, but had also driven the other side into desperation, prompting them to burn away the most direct evidence.
Without the accounts, they could not form a complete chain of evidence, and thus could not completely nail Mitokado Homura and the other elders.
Shikaku rubbed his aching temples, then picked up the teacup beside him and took a sip of the tea, which had already gone completely cold.
His gaze fell once more on the fragments.
Over the past few days, he had led the Intelligence Analysis Division's shinobi in sorting through them repeatedly, trying to find clues among the scattered bits of information. They had cross-checked every financial transaction between the trading company and Konoha Bank, and each one corresponded to a legitimate trade contract, flawless from beginning to end.
The other side had clearly prepared in advance and kept two sets of accounts. One was used to withstand inspections; the other had been burned to ashes in this fire.
Shikaku's finger brushed lightly