After the ink fingerprint was sealed away, Shisui did not immediately head out in pursuit.
This time, even he stopped at the records desk.
Because they finally had the Gray-Robed Ninja's "hand."
But they still did not have his name.
A partial fingerprint.
An old scar on the web of his left hand.
Gray robes.
Temporary assistance.
Appearances across three lines of inquiry: logistics, the Medicinal Herb Warehouse, and the archiving of discarded documents.
These clues were enough to narrow the field.
But not enough to make an arrest.
Uchiha Toru stood beside them, staring at the criteria sheet with a grim expression.
"We've gotten this far, and we still can't arrest him?"
Uchiha Gen set down his pen.
"Arrest whom?"
"The man in gray with an injured left hand who showed up at all three places."
"His name?"
Uchiha Toru had no answer.
Uchiha Gen did not scold him. He merely turned the criteria sheet toward him.
"All we have now are criteria, not an identity. Criteria can rule people out. They can't establish someone's guilt."
Uchiha Toru gritted his teeth.
"But he's already gotten his hands on the classified Nine-Tails files."
"Which makes arresting the wrong person even less acceptable."
Gen looked at him.
"Arrest the wrong person, and the real culprit will disappear for good. More importantly, what the Hokage Building will remember won't be that we discovered the Gray-Robed Ninja, but that the Uchiha arrested someone on the strength of a partial fingerprint."
Uchiha Toru fell silent.
He understood that.
But understanding did not make it any less frustrating.
Shisui spoke up beside them.
"Start by eliminating people based on the criteria."
He picked up the record sheet.
"First, they entered or left the Hokage Building's side building or the Medicinal Herb Warehouse on the morning