When the verification results for the seal-face details came back, the Hokage Building was terrifyingly quiet.
The missing Sealing Wax Ring.
The Investigation Team's temporary clerical directive.
The falsified destruction of the Old-Style Sealing Wax Ring.
The proxy signature on the genius ninja influence assessment.
The wear along the edges of all three impressions was confirmed to be highly consistent.
The head of the Archives Room did not dare state outright that they came from the same ring.
He wrote only: suspected common seal-face origin.
But everyone understood how much weight those words already carried.
A suspected common origin meant that the Sealing Wax Ring listed as "destroyed but not recovered" might have remained in use years later.
It had not merely been used to direct the Investigation Team's temporary clerks to adjust the indexes.
Even earlier, it had also stamped the genius ninja influence assessment concerning Shisui and Itachi.
Gen looked at the verification report, a chill spreading through him.
The missing ring had stamped Shisui's fate.
That sentence could not be entered into the Hokage Building's records.
But it was the truth.
An old object that should have vanished had stamped an assessment that should never have taken effect without a witness, leaving a mark that later generations could accept without question.
Shisui sat through the clan meeting without speaking for a long time.
He had once thought he was being pushed toward danger because the conflict between the village and his clan ran too deep.
Because he was too strong.
Because he had to shoulder the burden.
But now he saw another layer.
Someone had long ago recorded his strength as influence.
Recorded his influence as risk.
Then used a missing Sealing Wax Ring to enter that assessment into subsequent records.
Fugaku looked at Shisui.
"This assessment