An internal staff pass was not a Root pass.
Danzo seized on that distinction, trying to sever the entire trail.
"Does the Uchiha now intend to cast suspicion on the Hokage Building's internal staff system too?"
It was a vicious question.
If Fugaku answered poorly, the situation would immediately become one of the Uchiha broadening its accusations.
The Hokage Building's internal staff, the Archives Room, the Barrier Team, and the Anbu patrols would all feel targeted by the Uchiha.
This was what Danzo did best.
He turned specific problems into conflicts between factions.
He turned a question about one pass into the Uchiha questioning the entire village.
Fugaku did not take the bait.
"The Uchiha has suspicions about this pass."
He wrote the pass number on a sheet of paper and pushed it to the center of the table.
"Not all internal staff."
Standing in the observers' area, Gen felt a little relieved.
That distinction had to be made clear.
Investigate the specific pass number.
Investigate the specific times.
Investigate the specific entry and exit records.
Do not broaden the scope.
Do not generalize.
Do not let Danzo dissolve the issue into a fog.
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the official responsible for access control.
"Investigate this pass."
The access logs were quickly retrieved.
The results were even more glaring than the issuance register.
The archived issuance register showed that this nighttime internal staff pass had been canceled two months after the Night of the Nine-Tails.
Yet in the access control system, it had appeared three more times after its cancellation.
The first was three months after the Night of the Nine-Tails.
The second was on the eve of discussions about the Uchiha Relocation order.
The third was the day before the recent review of files related to the Core Sealed