The first page of the review checklist contained only one central question.
Why had the old patrol authorization access point been used a week before the Night of the Nine-Tails?
Uchiha Jun was puzzled when he read that line.
"Shouldn't we put Morikawa Kai's testimony first?"
Gen shook his head.
"Testimony can be attacked. An access point can't."
Testimony could be affected by faulty memory.
There were issues with sealing.
There was also the possibility of someone being led to give certain answers.
But as long as the Old Permission Entry existed, the route through which it had been used had to be explained.
Who had approved it?
Who had used it?
Who had witnessed it?
Who had handled the receipt afterward?
These questions were more objective than "Was Morikawa Kai trustworthy?"
Fugaku took the checklist into the Hokage Building.
Sure enough, Mitokado Homura was the first to object.
"We should verify the witness before discussing the old records."
Fugaku replied, "The old records can be used to cross-check the witness."
Hiruzen Sarutobi said nothing.
It was a solid response.
If the Old Permission Entry did not exist at all, Morikawa Kai's testimony would naturally lose weight.
If it existed, and the timing matched, then that testimony could not be dismissed so easily.
Itachi was responsible for tracing how the old authorization had been used.
He laid out the Konoha Military Police Force's old records, the Hokage Building's receipt numbers, the Supply Point Fragment from the border, and the times given in Morikawa Kai's testimony together.
Before long, he discovered a bypass.
Under normal circumstances, use of the old patrol authorization should have been registered with the Konoha Military Police Force.
But the instance a week before the Night of the Nine-Tails had left only traces of a provisional directive