The day before the Night of the Nine-Tails.
After those words were entered into the review record, no one in the Conference Room spoke right away.
They were too sensitive.
So sensitive that even Danzo did not immediately shut the discussion down.
An old code appearing in the transfer of wartime effects could be explained as wartime chaos.
An old code appearing alongside the Former Informant at the border could be explained as a remnant of an old channel.
But appearing on the day before the Night of the Nine-Tails was not something that could be brushed aside with a simple claim of leftover records.
Hiruzen Sarutobi studied the perimeter liaison summary, his voice low.
"Where was this summary retrieved from?"
Crow answered, "The perimeter liaison cabinet in the Hokage Building. It was not originally filed among the main records of the Nine-Tails Incident. It was only a supporting security record."
Supporting record.
Gen's gaze cooled slightly when he heard those words.
Supporting, again.
The truly dangerous things were not necessarily hidden in the most conspicuous main records.
They could be tucked away in subsidiary files, appendices, summaries, or handover margins.
By the time anyone investigated, the main records looked clean, while the crucial traces had long since been relegated to unimportant places.
Danzo finally spoke.
"On the Day Before the Nine-Tails Incident, security was tightened throughout the village, and perimeter communications increased. Temporarily reactivating an old code was hardly unusual."
Fugaku looked at him.
"If this was routine security, please identify the liaison assigned to that code."
Danzo said coldly, "Summaries do not record personnel in the first place."
Fugaku refused to be sidetracked.
"Then check the master roster of perimeter liaison personnel for that day."
The statement was direct.
The summary did not list people.
Surely the master