The same old number linked two threads that should never have been connected.
One concerned the transfer of Obito Uchiha's personal effects.
The other concerned contact records for a former border informant.
The former came from old battlefield archives compiled after the Third Shinobi World War.
The latter came from recent intelligence on the Masked Man's identity.
The dates were far apart.
So were the locations.
Yet the number was the same.
As Gen studied the cross-check chart, his first reaction was not excitement.
It was wariness.
Something that looked "too much like a lead" could also be a hook someone had deliberately planted.
If the Uchiha rushed to claim this proved a connection between the Obito thread and the Masked Man thread, Danzo could immediately turn the question back on them.
Why were they so eager to link a former Uchiha to the Masked Man?
But if the Uchiha did not investigate, the number would remain hidden in the shadows.
So they could only investigate the number itself.
No conclusions about identity.
No questions of clan responsibility.
Only how many times it had appeared, where it had appeared, and who had been authorized to use it.
Inside the Hokage Building, Danzo had already begun downplaying this lead.
"The reuse of old wartime numbers was hardly uncommon. Particularly for temporary contact covers, which were never tied to fixed personnel in the first place."
Mitokado Homura looked toward the head of the Archives Room.
The man said quietly, "There were indeed cases of repeated requisition during the war."
Danzo's expression eased slightly.
But Fugaku was not led astray.
Following the reasoning Gen had prepared beforehand, he asked, "Should each requisition have had a defined period?"
The man nodded.
"It should."
"Should there have been a record of where the requisition came