The Uchiha clan meeting was not convened immediately after the old battlefield's missing persons list was retrieved.
Fugaku allowed only the core members to see it.
Because the most dangerous name was hidden on that list.
Obito Uchiha.
The name itself was not frightening.
What was frightening was how it might be used.
If the Masked Man really was connected to Obito, suspicion over the Night of the Nine-Tails would descend on the Uchiha once again.
The village would not first ask how a missing boy had survived.
It would not first ask who had saved him.
It would not first ask who had used him.
Many people would simply say, "It was the Uchiha again, just as we thought."
That was the greatest danger.
Itachi spread out the missing person record.
The record was very old.
Battlefield collapse.
Severe injuries confirmed by teammates.
Remains not fully recovered.
Death concluded.
By wartime standards, this record was nothing unusual.
Too many people had died in the chaos.
Too many bodies could not be recovered.
But now, every incomplete detail had become a possibility.
Shisui looked at the record, his voice low.
"A gap in the confirmation of death."
Gen nodded.
"Write only that."
Uchiha Jun could not help saying, "We've come this far, and we still can't write that he might have survived?"
Gen looked at him.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because 'might have survived' will immediately become 'former Uchiha member suspected of being the real culprit.'"
The room fell silent.
Gen continued, "Right now, all we can prove is that the confirmation of his death was incomplete. Whether he's alive, whether he became the Masked Man-those conclusions must emerge naturally from further evidence."
Fugaku agreed.
"When this record is submitted to the Hokage Building, write only that there was a gap in