After Fugaku finished speaking, the Conference Room remained silent for a long time.
The village's safety should not be written beside a child's name.
There was nothing ornate about those words.
Yet they carried more weight than any accusation.
Because they pushed Danzo's favorite justification back where it belonged.
The village's safety.
Those words could explain many things.
Anbu missions.
Root's existence.
Secret surveillance.
Even certain sacrifices that could never be made public.
But their scope could not expand without limit.
It could not expand until even a child's interactions with his family had to be entered into a risk index.
Danzo said coldly, "The Uchiha's power begins awakening in childhood. There is nothing improper about the village observing them in advance."
Gen looked at him and, for the first time, did not leave Fugaku to respond alone.
"Observation can have boundaries."
He placed Sasuke's training records on the table.
"Training, emotions, interactions with family-these are not evidence of wrongdoing. They are part of a child's growth."
Mitokado Homura frowned.
"Are you using an individual case to argue against the village's safety?"
Gen shook his head.
"I'm saying that if the village labels normal growth as a risk, it will create that risk with its own hands."
Something shifted in Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes at those words.
Gen continued, "Sasuke waiting with a kunai for Itachi to come home was an agreement between brothers. If Root records it as emotional dependency, it will conclude that early intervention is necessary. The more it intervenes, the deeper the misunderstanding becomes, until the child really is pushed in the direction the village fears."
Itachi stood to one side, feeling as though something weighed on his heart.
He knew Gen was talking about Sasuke.
And about him, too.
If all his silence back then had