The anonymous report and the filed records lay side by side in the Small Conference Room of the Hokage Building.
On the left was an accusation.
Shisui Uchiha had privately contacted Border Suspicious Ninja and was suspected of concealing part of their conversation.
On the right were four records.
Witness testimony from the Hokage's Anbu.
Uchiha Toru's perimeter observations.
The departure and return times recorded by Itachi.
The mission scope confirmation form signed by Shisui.
The four records were nothing impressive.
They were even rather tedious.
But they were just enough to undermine that accusation.
Standing outside the door, Uchiha Toru felt for the first time that all those dull timestamps he had written carried weight.
Arrived at the third quarter of the Si Hour.
Did not enter the inner perimeter of the old outpost.
Returned before noon.
There was nothing cool about those sentences.
No flashing blades.
No ninjutsu.
Yet they made the anonymous report's claim of "private contact" impossible to support.
Toru lowered his head and looked at his hand.
That hand had once been more accustomed to gripping a blade.
Today, writing had allowed it to block a blade meant for Shisui.
Hiruzen Sarutobi studied the delivery time on the anonymous report.
Before noon.
Shisui's recorded return was also before noon.
But when this report had arrived at the Hokage Building, Shisui had yet to complete his formal review.
Mitokado Homura frowned.
"How did the person who submitted this know Shisui would contact suspicious ninja?"
No one answered.
Because the answer was obvious.
He had not known.
He had prepared that claim in advance.
Uchiha Gen spoke.
"If Shisui hadn't filed his records, this report would have been difficult to refute."
Utatane Koharu did not object.
It was true.
Without an Anbu witness, if Shisui said he