After the watchman admitted that someone had guided the wording of his report, everyone in the Conference Room understood that this had gone beyond an ordinary filing oversight.
An anomaly had appeared at the barrier's edge back then.
Someone had approached.
Someone had told the watchman to downplay it.
In the end, that report had not entered the main file on the Nine-Tails Incident, but had been left among the ancillary records of peripheral anomalies.
Gen looked at that ancillary record and reached just one conclusion.
The real door wasn't in the main file.
It was in the ancillary records.
The main file drew too much attention.
The Third Hokage would read it.
The Anbu would seal it.
The senior leadership would review it.
But as long as an ancillary record seemed unimportant, it would be tucked deep inside a cabinet, only to be pulled out years later because of some chance clue.
Fugaku asked the watchman, "Who told you to downplay it?"
The watchman's face went pale.
"I don't know his name."
Danzo said coldly, "Testimony without a name is worthless."
Gen did not let Fugaku rush.
Not knowing a name did not make the testimony worthless.
They just needed to keep breaking it down.
Fugaku asked, "What was that person wearing?"
The watchman struggled to remember.
"The kind of clothes worn by administrative staff in the Hokage Building."
"Was he wearing a forehead protector?"
"No."
"Was he wearing an access pass?"
The watchman stopped.
That pause made everyone turn toward him.
"Yes."
Crow immediately pressed him. "What kind of access pass?"
The watchman swallowed.
"An administrative staff pass, with copper edging and a diagonal scratch in the lower-left corner."
The head of the Archives Room immediately requested the catalog of administrative access passes for the Hokage Building.
Once