Once the temporary handling guidelines entered clause-by-clause review, Danzo felt uneasy for the first time.
It was not because the Uchiha had made particularly forceful demands.
Quite the opposite: those four guidelines all looked mild.
Record sources.
Preserve witnesses.
Conduct separate investigations.
Ratify afterward.
Each sounded like a platitude no one could disagree with.
But Danzo knew perfectly well that once those platitudes were put to paper, they would become ropes.
The operations Root excelled at had never been orders laid out in the open.
They occupied the gray area between tacit consent and denial.
The Hokage knew some things, but not necessarily everything.
The advisers approved the direction, but did not necessarily inquire into the details.
The Anbu carried out pieces, but did not necessarily see the whole picture.
Root hid in those gaps.
Once the guidelines were put to paper, the gaps would narrow.
At the meeting in the Hokage Building, Danzo planted his cane in front of him.
"Wartime secrets cannot be slowed down by these rules on paper."
Fugaku did not immediately argue.
He had known Danzo would say that.
Every blank-check authorization would ultimately be defended in the name of efficiency.
Shikaku Nara opened his copy of the guidelines and said, "No one is demanding layers of approval before wartime operations. The question is whether ratification needs to be recorded afterward."
Danzo said coldly, "Some operations cannot leave a record."
Shikaku asked, "Their details cannot be recorded, or their existence cannot be recorded?"
The Conference Room fell silent for a moment.
That question was crucial.
Classified details could be sealed away.
But the very existence of an operation could not vanish entirely.
If even its existence could not be recorded, that meant anyone could invoke secrecy to fabricate an operation afterward that the Hokage had