Not one of the four thin threads extending from the Black Sample pointed toward the stone tablet.
Shisui.
Itachi.
The Land of Rivers recorder.
And the Uchiha elder who kept the Old Transcription.
Black Zetsu already knew that the tablet's contents had been preserved in separate layers.
Simply destroying the stone would only leave more traces revealing why he was so desperate to act.
But if all four witnesses died at once, ordinary people would have no way to verify the reading process, and the clan's records could be dismissed as fabrications the Uchiha had created to clear their name.
What he wanted to destroy was not the evidence itself.
It was the conditions that allowed outsiders to trust that evidence.
Shikaku did not gather the four of them in the Hokage Building.
Protecting them together might seem safe, but it would allow a single spatial attack to wipe out every witness.
Shisui remained in the Uchiha Clan Compound, tasked with drawing the surveillance most sensitive to the Sharingan.
Itachi entered the Hokage's Direct Subordinates Isolation Facility, with his quarters completely disconnected from the tablet's secret chamber.
The Land of Rivers recorder returned to the border that same day and changed routes under the supervision of guards from his own country.
The clan elder, however, did not move.
The protection team only sent the Old Transcription away, deliberately making outsiders believe that the elder and the original were still in the same place.
Each of the four teams knew only its own arrangements.
Shikaku and Gen each held half of the full route information, so neither could disclose all the locations.
The protection list did not use the four witnesses' real names, either.
Shisui was listed under an old Fire Release serial number.
Itachi was listed under a meaningless medicinal