After Old Supplyman disappeared, the Hokage Building did not immediately declare that Obito was the Masked Man.
Quite the opposite: Shikaku called everyone back to the Review Room to reassess whether the conditions for opening a candidate file had been met.
The Masked Man had a Sharingan in his right eye.
Kakashi possessed Obito's left eye, and a unique spatial resonance existed between the two.
The Masked Man knew the routes around Kannabi Bridge and the old team's private codes.
The injuries on the right side of his face matched the direction of the falling rocks.
Abnormal plant cells could explain his survival and recovery after such severe injuries.
Supplyman had been transported away without any traceable route just after being placed under protection.
The six pieces of evidence were independent of one another, yet linked together into a complete chain.
Shikaku also marked the source of each piece of evidence.
The right eye and spatial resonance came from observations in combat and medical testing.
The old routes came from the Uchiha codebook.
The direction of the injuries came from mask fragments and blood and tissue samples.
The goggles lead came from old belongings kept by his family, supply lists, and the underground site.
These sources did not belong to a single department, nor were they repeated accounts from the same witness.
Even if one piece were disproved, the remaining evidence could still be independently reviewed.
Obito became a candidate not because someone had suddenly recalled a familiar name, but because different records had converged around that name for the first time.
They had already gone beyond mere rumors.
Yet they still lacked a complete view of the face beneath the mask, a sustained firsthand account from the man himself, and direct physical evidence that could rule out Eye Theft