The blank receipt field stood out more glaringly than any name.
Had someone's name been written there, they would at least have had a lead to follow.
But it had been left empty.
As though a hand had deliberately hidden itself beyond the paper.
Mitokado Homura tried to steer the issue back toward procedural confusion.
"After the Night of the Nine-Tails, the Archives Room was severely understaffed. A blank receipt field was not entirely impossible."
Gen did not immediately argue.
First, he had Che break down the workflow sheet again.
The application field had an entry.
The contents of the supplementary page had an entry.
The filing date had an entry.
Only the recipient's name was blank.
If the confusion had truly been widespread, it should not have left only the most critical field empty.
Che wrote that sentence in the margin.
The blank was selective.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression darkened further when he saw that line.
A selective blank.
Those words were harder to refute than "someone falsified it."
Because they were not an emotional judgment.
They described a fact on the page.
Fugaku made a request.
"Please include the list of personnel involved in reorganizing the Old Records in the review."
Danzo said coldly, "How far do the Uchiha intend to take this investigation?"
Fugaku looked at him.
"Until we can explain the blank."
His answer conceded nothing.
Nor did it overstep.
If the leadership claimed the blank was normal, they needed to produce personnel handover records that proved it.
If they could not, they could not demand that the Uchiha accept this page as a trustworthy part of the Old Records.
Hiruzen Sarutobi finally nodded.
"Retrieve the roster of personnel on duty in the Archives Room that year."
The roster was quickly found.
Most of them had already