The alternative answer offered by Root soon found a new target.
A name was put forward.
Uchiha Inabi.
The reasoning was simple.
He had a fiery temperament, had openly opposed further cooperation with the Hokage Building's review at a clan meeting, and had clashed with the Anbu while on patrol with the Konoha Military Police Force.
More importantly, he had considerable talent with the Sharingan.
Taken together, those traits were enough to make him look like someone who "might be hiding a Dōjutsu."
When some members of the clan heard his name, their first reaction was anger.
"They want to throw Inabi to the wolves?"
"Then find out who's spreading these rumors and drag them out!"
"As long as we prove Inabi is innocent, we can strike back at Root!"
None of that sounded wrong.
But after hearing them out, Gen said only one thing.
"We can't take the bait."
The clan meeting hall fell silent for a moment.
Someone frowned at him.
"They've already put a knife to our clansman's throat, and we still can't respond?"
Gen did not rush to explain.
He laid three sets of records on the table.
The first was the dedicated spatial anomaly file.
The second was the registry of rumor sources.
The third was a record of Inabi's past conflicts.
"Look at these three documents."
He pointed to the first.
"We still haven't identified who was behind the spatial anomaly."
Then he pointed to the second.
"We still haven't traced the rumors back to their original source."
Finally, he pointed to the third.
"Inabi's past conflicts really happened, but they have no direct connection to spatial abilities."
Gen looked up at everyone.
"If we rush to prove Inabi's innocence now, the investigation will become about whether there's anything suspicious about him. That would