After the irregular records access request was intercepted, the Archives Room immediately sealed its doors.
It was not a complete lockdown.
Only the area containing the relevant volumes and pages was sealed.
But that was enough to put many people on edge.
Because it meant the Hokage Building had acknowledged for the first time that someone might still be tampering with the old records.
The request was sent to the Conference Room.
On the surface, all the paperwork was in order.
The requester was named.
The seal was stamped.
The stated purpose was to cross-check old records.
But the mission number did not correspond to any actual mission.
It was like a face with every feature intact, yet no shadow.
After seeing the request, Che immediately checked the requester first.
He was a clerical ninja who had left Root's peripheral network years ago.
His name had appeared on an early list of peripheral personnel.
Later, he had been marked as retired.
By rights, he should no longer have had access to the old Nine-Tails records.
Fugaku asked, "Is he still around?"
The Hokage Building quickly sent people to find him.
While they waited, Gen added this irregular request to the timeline.
The identity of a deceased logistics worker had been appropriated.
Sealing wax had been collected irregularly.
An old authorization entry had been added retroactively.
The receipt for the supplementary pages had been left blank.
An irregular access request had been submitted before the temporary sealing.
This series of actions did not resemble a dormant case from the past.
It was more like a live wire that kept reacting after being touched.
Uchiha Jun said quietly, "They're still changing things?"
Gen said, "At least someone still wants to deal with the traces."
It followed the same logic as the cleansing