Contingency plan for handling high-influence individuals.
Once those words entered the Hokage Building's records, everyone knew this had gone beyond observation.
A contingency plan was not cultivation.
It was not reassurance.
It was not an ordinary assessment.
It meant that when someone's influence no longer met expectations, Root had already prepared ways to restrict, redirect, or even sever that influence.
Shisui sat in the Conference Room, his expression calm.
But Gen knew he could not be calm inside.
Because this plan was practically telling him:
You are not a bridge the village trusts.
You are a bridge they must be ready to tear down at any moment.
Fugaku looked at Danzo.
"Was this plan approved by the Hokage?"
Danzo replied, "Root possesses special emergency response authority."
Fugaku pressed on. "Did the Hokage approve the specific plan concerning Shisui?"
Danzo said coldly, "Emergency response authority does not require approval for each individual."
That sounded like an explanation of procedure.
Yet it made the Third Hokage's expression darken further.
Because if Root could use an old grant of emergency response authority to cover all high-influence Uchiha individuals indefinitely, the Hokage himself might not know how each specific plan had been established.
Hiruzen Sarutobi asked, "The source of that authority?"
Danzo looked at him.
"Hiruzen, you know Root needs this kind of authority."
"The source of that authority?"
The Third Hokage repeated the question.
The atmosphere in the Conference Room instantly tightened.
Watching this, Gen knew the Third Hokage was finally beginning to recognize the root of the problem.
It was not that Root lacked authorization.
Root's problem was that it had turned an old authorization into an umbrella kept open indefinitely.
Beneath that umbrella lay too many things that had only emerged later.
Shisui's influence assessment.
Underage Observation.
The contingency plan for