No one had touched the second cup of tea in the Old Supply Runner's House.
After Containment of the room, the Anbu first recorded the water temperature, the rim of the cup, the settled tea leaves, and its position on the table.
There was no poison in the cup.
No genjutsu chakra.
And no stranger's fingerprints.
The cup was only seven-tenths full, with its handle facing the door.
At first glance, it was simply a cup of tea the host had prepared for a visitor but never had the chance to hand over.
After studying the scene diagram, Kakashi asked, "How did he mark routes when he handled frontline supplies?"
The Local Postal Station brought over an old toolbox the Supplyman had kept.
Inside was a set of wooden measuring cups, each with short lines carved into its handle to indicate different directions.
During the war, full routes for transporting medicine could not be written on public maps, so the Supply Team combined handle directions, water levels, and tea leaves at the bottom of cups to create temporary markers.
A cup seven-tenths full meant an underground passage.
A handle facing the door meant leaving the current base.
The actual direction was hidden at the bottom of the cup.
The Anbu did not lift the cup.
They first photographed its position from four angles, then slowly drew out the tea through a thin tube.
Three larger tea leaves rested at the bottom.
Two lay near the north side, while one pressed against the west, forming the old Supply Team code for "northwest, downward."
To confirm that the leaves had not settled there by chance, a logistics archivist repeated the brewing process ten times with the same kind of tea and the same amount of water.
When settling naturally, large tea leaves