Once the frozen ID was confirmed, no one at the Uchiha Clan Meeting spoke.
Because this time, the problem was no longer an old incident.
It was not the week before the Night of the Nine-Tails.
It was not pages added after the disaster.
It was not the name of someone who had died long ago.
It was the present.
A frozen ID had appeared outside the Core Sealed Archive, pushing an unmarked document cart right under the Hokage Building's nose.
The old shells were still pushing carts.
When Che wrote that sentence into the internal record, even his own hand paused.
It was too blunt.
And too accurate.
Fugaku studied the chain of current activity.
A dead person collecting sealing wax.
A retiree retrieving old files.
A frozen ID pushing a cart.
Taken together, those three threads were enough to show that the old-shell system was not an isolated historical problem.
It had a past.
And a present.
Gen said, "This is the change we needed."
Uchiha Jun looked up.
"This counts as good news?"
"It isn't good news."
Gen said, "But it means Danzo can no longer call it merely a legacy issue."
Legacy issues could be addressed gradually.
Current activity had to be restricted immediately.
That was the difference.
In the Hokage Building, Hiruzen Sarutobi had clearly realized this as well.
He ordered Root to suspend all use of peripheral old shells.
Danzo accepted on the surface.
But at the same time, he proposed that Root retain an exception for emergency missions.
His reasons were compelling.
Sudden incidents at the border.
Infiltrators from enemy nations.
High-risk targets within the village.
Some matters could not wait for the full procedure.
If all use of old shells stopped, Root would lose some of its rapid-response capability.
After hearing him