After the Nine-Tails cut off the voice link, Konoha did not activate the technique again.
The list of questions was sealed away unchanged.
The unanswered sections remained blank.
The Sealing Squad did not fill in conclusions based on the Nine-Tails' chakra reactions, either.
Two days later, however, the Transmission Line vibrated once from within.
It was not an attack on the seal.
The Nine-Tails had deliberately rung the Return Bell originally meant to halt the questioning.
When Gen arrived, the recorder had yet to put pen to paper.
The medical ninja responsible for safety first confirmed that the Bearer's condition was stable, then asked whether the Nine-Tails was willing to speak again.
"Take the Black Sample away."
The sample had never been kept near the seal.
The recorder informed the Nine-Tails of that fact.
"No coming in with the Sharingan."
Gen did not activate his ocular power.
The Sealing Squad also withdrew any sensory techniques that might be mistaken for attempts to pry into memories.
"Ask only about that black shadow."
All three conditions were entered into the record.
The Transmission Line was reconnected.
Gen did not ask who Black Zetsu was.
That would have planted their existing judgment in the question before it was answered.
"When did you first encounter a similar presence?"
The Nine-Tails fell silent for a while.
"When the old man was still alive."
The old man the Nine-Tails spoke of was the Sage of Six Paths.
Madara Uchiha had not existed then.
Neither had the shinobi villages of today.
That statement alone was enough to refute the claim that Black Zetsu was a will born only after Madara's death.
The recorder did not enter that inference in the verbatim testimony column.
He started a separate page, noting that the chronological relationship came from existing historical