When the torn label was placed on the conference table in the Hokage Building, everyone noticed those words first.
Linked file for minor surveillance.
Not the main record.
Not the index.
A linked file.
Mitokado Homura frowned.
"A torn label doesn't prove the files have been moved."
Fugaku did not rush to argue.
Gen said nothing either.
The statement itself was not wrong.
A single label could not prove an entire file had been stolen.
But it was enough to prove that someone was handling linked materials that should have been sealed.
And in the Old Records system, linked files were sometimes more valuable than the main records.
The main record described an incident.
The linked file explained why that incident connected to another.
The main record of the Uchiha risk contingency plan could describe surveillance.
The main record of Underage Observation could describe an index.
The main record in the Nine-Tails Old Records could describe an access point.
But what truly tied these things together was often the linked file.
Who had consulted them.
Who had passed them on.
Which surveillance report cited which old case.
Which risk contingency plan cited which home environment record.
These details did not necessarily establish guilt directly.
But they could prove that multiple entries were interconnected.
Gen put this explanation into the review findings.
Linked files did not directly establish conclusions, but could prove that entries cited one another.
After Hiruzen Sarutobi read that sentence, his expression grew even grimmer.
Because he understood.
If the main records remained but the linked files were removed, Root could claim that every entry stood alone.
Underage Observation was merely an individual risk assessment.
The core sealed archive index was merely a remnant of old entries.
Preliminary Nine-Tails surveillance was merely a historical precaution.
Shisui's eyes were