The note contained only ten characters.
"The third marker. An apology is still owed."
Shikaku searched every file on the Kannabi Bridge mission but found no mention of those words.
Kakashi, however, remembered.
During the mission, Obito had argued with him over being late and kicked over the third temporary marker beside the road.
Rin had made Obito set it upright again.
Obito had protested, but in the end, he had only said he would apologize after the mission.
It was a minor incident that had never made it into the report.
Only three people had been nearby at the time.
The investigators did not rely solely on Kakashi's memory.
They found the records of the combat engineers who had been responsible for placing the markers that year.
Three stone markers had indeed been temporarily erected along that stretch of road, and the third had shown signs of being secured again on the day of the mission.
The engineers had assumed combat tremors were responsible and asked no further questions.
This external detail could not prove who had promised an apology, but it confirmed that the event behind the private memory had actually happened, rather than being something Kakashi had constructed after seeing the note.
Rin was already dead.
Kakashi had never mentioned it to anyone.
The only other person who knew those words should have been Obito.
"Someone might also have read your memories," Itachi said.
Kakashi nodded.
Sharingan Genjutsu could affect memories.
The Masked Man had also approached Konoha several times, so they could not rule out the possibility that he had obtained fragments from Kakashi's consciousness or someone else's.
The private code increased the likelihood that Obito himself had survived, but it was still not definitive proof.
The Medical Squad's second report arrived at that moment.
They