Once the trail of internal procedural interference was established, Danzo found it hard to remain silent.
Not because the Hokage Building had already caught him.
But because every internal procedure required authorization.
Why had the record tags been moved?
Why had similar rumors surfaced at mission dispatch points?
Why had Anbu logistics repeatedly circulated certain unverified claims?
Viewed separately, all these incidents could be explained as oversights.
But laid out in a single table, they no longer looked like coincidences.
Shikaku Nara's skill at compiling tables proved especially incisive at that moment.
He had not written "Root manipulation."
Nor had he written "Danzo's orders."
He listed only times, locations, personnel, and sources of authority.
The more dispassionate the table was, the more uncomfortable it made people.
Because it offered no emotion they could attack.
When Fugaku saw that table in the Hokage Building, he understood why Gen had kept insisting that they investigate authorization.
As long as they followed the authorizations, Root would reveal its shadow sooner or later.
Danzo could deny his motives.
He could dispute how the incidents were characterized.
But he could not deny that certain people had used Root's old authority.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's brow furrowed deeper and deeper as he studied the table.
Mitokado Homura said, "These are merely overlapping procedures."
Shikaku replied, "Which is why I haven't written a conclusion."
Utatane Koharu asked, "Then what do you want?"
"An explanation."
Shikaku put down his pen.
"An explanation of the sources of authority behind these overlapping procedures."
The Conference Room fell silent again.
Those words carried little force.
Yet they pressed precisely where Danzo least wanted anyone to touch.
Many of Root's operations had always navigated the gray areas between the Hokage's tacit approval, consultation with the advisers, and authority left over from wartime.
No one