A week before the Night of the Nine-Tails, someone entered a place they should never have entered

When the anomalous access record was laid on the clan meeting table, everyone's gaze changed.

One week before the Night of the Nine-Tails.

The timing was far too sensitive.

If the record had dated from after the Night of the Nine-Tails, it could still have been explained as part of the post-disaster investigation.

But a week before was different.

It meant that before the disaster struck, someone had borrowed the Konoha Military Police Force's old patrol authorization to approach the perimeter of an area associated with sealing.

Uchiha Jun stared at that line, his voice strained.

"Where exactly was this perimeter of an area associated with sealing?"

Itachi shook his head.

"The record is incomplete."

Che copied out an enlarged version of the damaged field.

Only the first half of the location code remained.

The second half was obscured by ink, as though someone had treated it with water afterward.

It had not been torn up.

It had not been burned.

Instead, it had been made to look naturally blurred.

Gen studied it for a long time.

"This is more troublesome than tearing it out."

If a page was torn out, everyone would know someone had tampered with it.

But if a few key words were blurred, anyone who came afterward would assume the old files had simply been poorly preserved.

Fugaku asked gravely, "Who borrowed the authorization?"

Itachi turned to the access request field.

"The signature is missing too."

Uchiha Jun could not help swearing.

But Che pointed to the receipt number beside it.

"The number is still here."

Those words made everyone look again.

The name was missing.

The location was missing.

But the receipt number remained.

That meant a corresponding receipt had once been submitted to the Hokage Building.

If they could retrieve that receipt, they could