Asuma held down the corner of the letter with two fingers, not letting Chiba open it right away.
"Let's be clear first. If the letter's poisoned, you getting poisoned counts as an injury on the mission. Me getting poisoned counts as a team leader's mistake. You'll be writing the report."
"You're afraid of poison?"
"I'm afraid of writing reports."
Chiba placed the thin sheet on the table. Fine roots slipped into the seal, confirming there were no hidden needles between the layers of paper and no chakra formulae, before snapping the brittle wax seal.
There were only four lines in the letter.
If the Senju main banner rises again, have the last bloodline come personally to the east of Kikyo Castle. The debts of the old Sakakibara Family should be settled by those still alive.
Sakakibara Shinya's signature at the bottom was neat, but beneath the ink, another name had been repeatedly scraped away.
Akizuki Shiguang.
Asuma bent over the letter for a long while before turning it over.
"The name in the files is fake?"
"Of the five Sakakibara Family members, none was named Shinya."
"You read that many pages just now, and you remember every name?"
"There were only five left. Not hard."
The intelligence officer took another household register from the drawer and flipped to Sakakibara Shinya's page. The edges of that page were newer than the surrounding ones.
"This register was added ten years ago. The person responsible for verification died in the Nine-Tails incident. No one noticed the problem at the time."
Asuma tucked the letter into Chiba's clothes.
"We'll investigate while moving. If we delay any longer, he'll reach the Land of Grass."
"He's waiting for me."
"Why?"
"The letter was left three days ago. The clan banner hadn't been raised then, yet he