The anomaly reports sent over from the Hokage Building covered an entire table in front of Itachi.
A forged border roster.
Testimony from hired ninja.
Misplaced trade route markers.
An anonymous warning letter.
And three sets of unfamiliar footprints with almost no apparent value.
These clues came from different places, and there was no clear pattern to when they appeared.
Yet after studying them for a long time, Itachi kept feeling that they were questions posed by the same person.
When Shisui returned, Itachi was still moving the papers around on the table.
He had arranged them neither by location nor by severity. Instead, beside each report, he had written the first judgment it prompted.
The forged roster made Konoha suspect the border ninja.
The hired ninja made Konoha suspect old Uchiha contacts.
The trade route irregularities made Konoha choose between closing the roads and allowing passage.
The warning letter forced the Hokage Building to decide whether it was the truth or bait.
Shisui watched for a moment, then asked, "Are you looking for a common source?"
Itachi shook his head.
"The sources may be different, but they're all pushing Konoha to choose an answer first."
Shisui's gaze lingered on the words "choose an answer first."
Plenty of intelligence required a judgment.
But what was strange about these reports was how prominently they presented the choices.
Close the roads, and caravans would pile up while people along the border complained that Konoha was overreacting.
Allow passage, and if enemies slipped through, the blame would fall on the ninja guarding the area.
Believe the warning, and Konoha would have to mobilize personnel.
Disbelieve it, and if something really went wrong afterward, they would be accused of disregarding the risk.
Every question offered only two seemingly reasonable answers.
And whoever had designed