The Masked Man chose to approach Konoha late at night.
He did not use the main gate.
Nor did he touch the perimeter barrier's most sensitive nodes.
This time, he only wanted to confirm one thing.
How far had the Uchiha gotten in investigating the spatial breaches along the perimeter?
If it was merely a few more records in the Hokage Building, that would be no trouble.
Records could be suppressed.
Witnesses could be transferred.
Suspicion could be redirected.
But if the Uchiha had already begun setting countermeasures, they had to be dealt with as soon as possible.
Space twisted silently among the shadows of the trees.
His figure emerged from intangibility, his toes touching a patch of damp earth.
The next instant, he stopped.
There were no traps on the ground.
No Explosive Tags in the trees.
No Uchiha lying in ambush nearby, either.
Yet he sensed something faintly out of place.
It was not an attack.
It was a record.
Several sheets of chakra paper, thin as cicada wings, clung to the backs of tree trunks, almost blending into the ordinary patterns of the bark.
They did not trigger alarms.
They did not prevent entry.
They only changed color when abnormal fluctuations in space chakra occurred.
The Masked Man watched the edge of one sheet slowly turn black, and his gaze grew cold.
This was no sophisticated trap.
Yet it caught his probing perfectly.
If he destroyed the paper, he would prove there was something here worth destroying.
If he did not, the traces would remain.
In the distance, Shisui stood in another stretch of woods.
He did not rush over.
Gen had reminded him repeatedly.
Seeing the Masked Man did not mean they had to pursue him.
They could not catch him.
Nor could they get drawn