Even a burned warehouse leaves ashes

The people from the Logistics Squad and Medical Squad arrived quickly.

They had clearly heard about the fire at the West Street Old Warehouse before coming.

Yamazaki Keiichi, a chunin from the Logistics Squad, stood at the street entrance with a grim expression.

Nara Chie from the Medical Squad looked straight at Uchiha Gen.

"When was the fire discovered?"

Uchiha Makoto handed over the record board.

"Three quarters past Chen Hour. The police investigation team and a witness from the Hokage's Anbu arrived together. The fire had already been put out with water before we arrived."

Nara Chie glanced at the record, then looked at the Anbu beside her.

The Anbu nodded.

"That's correct."

Only then did Yamazaki Keiichi's shoulders relax a little.

It wasn't that he trusted the Uchiha.

He trusted the nod from the Hokage's Anbu.

Uchiha Toru saw this, and the corner of his mouth twitched, but in the end he said nothing.

In the past, he would have felt humiliated.

Why did no one believe the Uchiha, while a single nod from the Anbu could put them at ease?

But now he understood. That nod was exactly what Gen wanted.

He wasn't trying to make everyone trust the Uchiha immediately.

He was making it impossible for them to dismiss the Uchiha's records so easily.

Uchiha Gen stood outside the old warehouse's door, in no hurry to enter.

"From now on, everyone will enter according to the marked boundaries."

He pointed to the wooden stakes Uchiha Makoto had just planted.

"Only the recorder, witnesses, and evidence collectors may enter the first perimeter. The police will not handle any remains on their own."

Yamazaki Keiichi frowned.

"You're not collecting anything?"

"We are."

Uchiha Gen said, "But we'll do it while you're watching."

Nara Chie glanced at him.

"You're certainly cautious."

"Someone burned the warehouse like this. Isn't our carelessness exactly what they're waiting for?"

His words silenced everyone for a moment.

Wet ash lay everywhere inside the old warehouse.

Charred boards lay across the floor. Several empty crates had burned down to their frames, and there were streaks of mud in the corners where water had washed through.

The fire hadn't been large.

But it had burned with precision.

The area in the middle where documents and crates had been stacked was the blackest, while more of the clutter near the outer walls had survived.

Shisui crouched by the door. Without touching the ground with his fingers, he lightly gauged the marks with the handle of his kunai.

"The arsonist wasn't trying to destroy the warehouse."

Uchiha Toru asked, "Then what was he trying to do?"

"Destroy that pile in the middle."

Shisui looked inside.

"The fire started on the inside and spread through the gaps between the wooden crates. The outer walls didn't burn all the way through. Whoever did this controlled the fire. They didn't want to draw too many people here."

Yamazaki Keiichi's expression grew even grimmer.

"The Logistics Patrol checked the old warehouse last night."

Uchiha Gen looked at him.

"When?"

"Once at Hai Hour and once at Chou Hour."

Uchiha Makoto immediately wrote it down.

"Who was on patrol?"

Yamazaki Keiichi hesitated.

"I'll check when I get back."

Uchiha Gen didn't press him.

If he pushed too hard, Yamazaki Keiichi would only feel that the police were interrogating Logistics.

"Please add that as a follow-up item."

Uchiha Makoto nodded.

Itachi had already walked over to a corner.

His movements were light, almost soundless.

A thin black thread was caught beneath the wet ash, with only half an inch exposed.

Most people would have taken it for a piece of burned straw cord.

But Itachi studied it for a long time.

"Senior Gen."

Uchiha Gen walked over.

Itachi hadn't touched the thread.

"It looks like ledger binding thread."

Nara Chie crouched down to examine it too.

"It certainly isn't ordinary cord. Medicinal supply ledgers often use this kind of fine hemp thread. It's soaked in glue, so it forms hard segments when burned."

Uchiha Makoto marked its location.

"Remnant number one: suspected ledger binding thread. Found at the eastern corner along the old warehouse's inner wall."

At the word "ledger," Yamazaki Keiichi's expression shifted again.

The West Street Old Warehouse wasn't an official accounting office.

If ledger binding thread had appeared here, that meant someone had brought documents inside.

And most likely, it hadn't been just a single sheet brought in briefly.

It had been an entire volume.

Uchiha Gen looked at the member of the Hokage's Anbu.

"Please witness this."

The Anbu approached, checked it, and nodded.

Only then did Uchiha Makoto use tongs to retrieve the black thread and seal it in a small paper bag.

Uchiha Toru stood at the doorway, scanning the surroundings.

He suddenly felt that maintaining order at the scene was harder than he'd imagined.

Because real order wasn't just stopping people from rushing inside.

It also meant stopping himself from immediately drawing conclusions about this pile of ashes.

Shisui's voice came from the other side of the old warehouse.

"Here."

Everyone walked over.

There were several footprints on the ground.

Most had been blurred by the water.

Only one patch of ashy mud near the back door looked strange.

There were signs of footsteps all around it, but a small patch in the middle was far too clean.

Uchiha Toru frowned.

"No footprints?"

Shisui shook his head.

"It's not that there are no footprints. Someone avoided this spot."

He pointed to a shallow, partial mark beside it.

"There should have been a complete footprint here, but whoever it was jumped over it. Being able to avoid the spot most likely to leave traces in the wet ash after the fire was put out means they knew what would give them away."

For the first time, the member of the Hokage's Anbu spoke without prompting.

"A ninja's habit of removing traces."

Shisui glanced at him.

"And not an ordinary caravan guard."

Those words didn't point directly at Root.

But everyone in the room understood.

A caravan ninja like Kawahara Takuma could provoke them or deliver false accounts.

But he might not be able to manage the fire, the footprints, and the gaps between patrols so cleanly.

Uchiha Gen didn't respond immediately.

He walked to the corner and stopped where the fire had done the least damage.

The improvement in chakra control from the system's reward wasn't extraordinary.

He couldn't see through everything out of thin air.

But when he compressed his chakra into a fine strand and let it sink through his fingertips, he could feel a slight, unnatural resistance in a gap in the wall.

It was as though a thin cord had once bitten into the wood.

Or like the faint trace left after a seal had been torn away.

Uchiha Gen briefly closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, he didn't say, "I sensed something."

That would sound too much like a personal judgment.

He simply raised his hand and pointed at the corner.

"Mark this spot separately."

Uchiha Makoto immediately asked, "What should I write?"

"Suspected location of seal residue. No definitive classification yet. Awaiting verification by the Sealing Squad."

Nara Chie looked at him.

"You suspect sealed documents were stored here?"

"I suspect something was stored here that wasn't supposed to be opened casually."

Uchiha Gen said, "But suspicion cannot be recorded as a conclusion."

Nara Chie was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"That sentence should go in the record."

Uchiha Makoto froze for a moment.

Then he carefully wrote it down.

Suspicion cannot be recorded as a conclusion.

Looking at that line, Uchiha Toru suddenly felt that it carried more weight than any reprimand.

At this point in the investigation, the old warehouse no longer looked like a warehouse that had simply burned.

It looked more like a box someone had emptied.

The charred boards were its lid.

The ashes were a covering cloth.

And whatever had truly been taken might have left this place long ago.

Just then, Itachi suddenly stopped in the middle of the wet ash.

He gently moved aside a piece of charred wood with the tongs.

Half a scrap of paper lay pinned beneath it.

Its edges had curled from the fire, and it was only the width of a finger joint.

Most of the writing was gone.

But half a red stamp remained in the upper-right corner.

Yamazaki Keiichi's breath abruptly caught.

Uchiha Gen looked at him.

"Do you recognize it, Chunin Yamazaki?"

Yamazaki Keiichi didn't answer immediately.

Nara Chie leaned closer for a look as well, and her expression shifted slightly.

"This is part of the stamp from a Temporary Logistics Order."

The pen in Uchiha Makoto's hand stopped.

The member of the Hokage's Anbu looked at the scrap of paper.

The old warehouse fell so quiet that only the dripping of water could be heard.

Uchiha Gen didn't reach for it.

He looked at the scrap amid the ashes, his voice steady.

"Mark it."

"Remnant number two."

"Suspected temporary access authorization slip for Konoha logistics."

"Seal it in place."

"Please have the Hokage Building send the Sealing Squad and the logistics supervisor to conduct a joint review."

Uchiha Toru finally understood why Xuan had said that even a burned-down warehouse would leave ashes behind.

Because ashes did not lie.

The ones who lied were the people in a hurry to explain the ashes.