Chapter Summaries

Gen prepared the Uchiha’s border verification mission to investigate possible outside manipulation in the Nine-Tails attack while ensuring every step was witnessed and recorded. A former informant requested a private meeting with Shisui, but the team set rules that could suspend it if witnesses were refused.

• Gen told the Young Action Group that the mission was an investigation, not a chance to earn glory, and Fugaku ordered all travelers to be officially registered.
• Che prepared detailed departure records, and Shisui and Itachi agreed to accept witnesses and avoid keeping evidence or files in their sole custody.
• The Hokage Building reported that a suspected former informant would meet only with Shisui, and Shisui refused to meet him alone.
• Gen required the Anbu, the Uchiha, and the Recorder to approve any last-minute changes to the meeting, or else the meeting would be suspended.
• Gen checked the departure paperwork and wrote that keeping the team safe was essential.

The Uchiha investigated old informant Morikawa Kai after he requested a meeting with Shisui, uncovering irregular records tied to the Military Police Force shortly before the Night of the Nine-Tails. The chapter ended with Gen directing the clan to investigate the gaps in those records.

• Shisui agreed to meet Morikawa Kai only with Uchiha, Hokage's Anbu, and medical or border garrison witnesses present under jointly confirmed conditions.
• Itachi found that Morikawa Kai's old files linked him to Military Police Force patrol access privileges, though his briefing and witness information were missing.
• Fugaku requested the Hokage Building's acknowledgment records, but it replied that some materials were unavailable because of archival disorder after the Night of the Nine-Tails.
• Shisui suggested Morikawa Kai might be leading them toward gaps in the old records, so Gen ordered the clan to follow verifiable records rather than his claims.
• Itachi uncovered an anomalous record showing access to old patrol privileges near a sealing-related area one week before the Night of the Nine-Tails, and Gen ordered an investigation into the missing information.

The Uchiha investigated an anomalous use of the Military Police Force's old patrol authorization a week before the Night of the Nine-Tails and found that the matching receipt had gone missing. An old approval template linked the record to their recent leads, leaving them to investigate whether someone had used the Uchiha as a front to approach a sensitive area and frame them by implication.

• Itachi showed the clan a damaged record indicating that someone had borrowed the old patrol authorization to approach a perimeter associated with sealing one week before the Night of the Nine-Tails, but the name and location were obscured.
• Fugaku requested the receipt corresponding to the record's surviving number from the Hokage Building, which replied that temporary receipts had gone missing during the post-disaster archive reorganization.
• Gen had Che record the borrowed authorization, sensitive location, and missing receipt, while Shisui asked whether the Masked Man or Root had been behind the access.
• Che noticed that the receipt used an old approval template similar to those on the fake interview summons and Root's peripheral records, prompting Fugaku to order a review of all matching templates and numbers.
• Che concluded that an outsider might have used the Military Police Force's authorization as a front, leaving traces that would make the Uchiha appear involved.

Che and the Uchiha compared old-style directive samples with records tied to the Night of the Nine-Tails and recent Root operations, finding a recurring format but no proof that implicated anyone. Hiruzen ordered an investigation of verifiable early directives, leaving Danzo facing scrutiny as the paper trail grew.

• Gen said the matching directive format linked the missing Night of the Nine-Tails records to recent Root paperwork but could not identify who was responsible.
• Danzo argued that post-disaster chaos explained the old format, while Fugaku pointed out that it also appeared in recent incidents.
• Itachi noticed that one directive’s final stroke resembled Danzo’s early writing, but Gen warned that handwriting alone was insufficient evidence.
• Itachi, Che, and Cheng added the samples and related records to a comparison chart and identified further evidence to check, including paper, sealing wax, access trails, and archive gaps.
• Hiruzen ordered the retrieval of early directive samples that could be openly verified, deepening Danzo’s concern.

Gen and the Uchiha investigated evidence linking Danzo to old directives and found that outsiders could have used Military Police Force authorization to leave suspicious traces before the Night of the Nine-Tails. The clan decided to keep the resulting inference secret until they could identify who used the authorization and establish a stronger chain of evidence.

• Gen rejected handwriting similarities as insufficient to identify Danzo and assigned the Uchiha further document and access-route investigations.
• Shisui found that the Hokage Building had briefly been able to use old Military Police Force patrol authorization, giving outsiders a way to approach areas near the sealing.
• Gen and Itachi concluded that someone may have laid a predetermined path of suspicion against the Uchiha before the Night of the Nine-Tails.
• Che's comparisons found similar sealing-wax impurities and numbering conventions, while the files' access routes had bypassed normal Military Police Force registration.
• Fugaku decided not to disclose the inference to the clan until the Uchiha could prove who used the authorization, handled the missing receipts, and drove suspicion after the disaster.

Gen and the Uchiha investigated evidence that suspicion toward their clan may have been arranged before the Night of the Nine-Tails. Morikawa Kai’s third message linked a spiral-masked man to Konoha’s patrol schedules, leaving the clan to verify whether an internal leak enabled the infiltration.

• Gen warned the Clan Meeting that prearranged suspicion was an investigative lead, then outlined four evidence links that still needed verification.
• Fugaku directed the clan to wait for Morikawa Kai’s next message, while Itachi and Shisui considered how engineered misunderstandings could have widened the rift between the village and the Uchiha.
• Morikawa Kai’s third message claimed he had seen a spiral-patterned masked man at the Land of Fire Border before the Night of the Nine-Tails, and that the man knew Konoha’s patrol rotation times.
• Itachi and Shisui questioned whether the message was true or intended to provoke suspicion of an insider, and Gen called for verification against border rotation records.
• Fugaku had Che prepare separate comparison tables for Morikawa Kai’s account and Konoha’s archived border rotations.

Shisui and Itachi prepared to investigate a border lead about the Masked Man while the Uchiha secured the Clan District and its records. The team departed under joint Uchiha and Anbu procedures, leaving the lead in the verification process.

• Gen identified the Masked Man’s appearance and possible knowledge of Konoha’s guard rotations as the first questions to verify.
• Shisui and Itachi volunteered for the border investigation, and Fugaku required them to stay with the main team while Gen ordered Uchiha Jun to guard the rear.
• Crow and Fugaku agreed that the Anbu and Uchiha would record their investigative methods and contacts in advance.
• Itachi told Sasuke he would not leave him waiting forever for an answer before departing for the mission.
• Che secured backup copies of the clan’s records as Gen prepared to leave.
• The border investigation team departed, and the system marked the Masked Man lead as under verification.

Itachi gave Sasuke a definite promise to return after the mission, then departed with a documented team to investigate the border clues and the Masked Man. The team left Konoha under strict rules for recording their movements, with the investigation poised to place its evidence into an official chain of custody.

• Sasuke gave Itachi his training kunai and asked him to return and keep teaching him, and Itachi promised he would come back.
• Fugaku warned Itachi that he was investigating with records, witnesses, and companions, while Mikoto told him to eat when he returned.
• Gen gave Crow the departure record, and the team agreed to document stops and leave witnessed markers if they found a trail.
• Fugaku checked the team's roster, and the border verification team officially departed Konoha at first light.

Gen led the squad toward the border while insisting that every stop and anomaly be documented, believing the enemy was trying to split the group and create evidence that could be misinterpreted. Crow began cooperating with Gen’s witness procedures, and the chapter left the squad wary of a Body Flicker trail leading toward a path outside the agreed meeting place with the Former Informant.

• Gen warned Crow that the enemy would try to separate the squad rather than attack them directly, and the Recorder documented the journey.
• Shisui and the squad found suspicious footprints leading away from the designated route, and Gen had the discovery recorded instead of pursuing them.
• Itachi stopped an Anbu operative from retrieving an old-style signal marker, and Gen arranged for both sides to witness its documentation and removal.
• Shisui noticed a faint Body Flicker trace leading away from camp, but he and Itachi recognized it as a lure and stayed with the squad.
• Crow agreed to follow Gen’s witness procedures, while Shisui recorded the lure and Gen marked its destination on the map.

Gen led the team to an empty tea stall while a separate team secured the bait route, where they found blood and suspected spatial residue. The Masked Man escaped, but multiple parties recorded the evidence in Konoha’s official chain of evidence.

• Gen ordered the main team to follow the official route and assigned a witness team to secure the bait route, keeping Shisui away from it.
• The team reached the tea stall, but Morikawa Kai did not appear.
• The access-point team found fresh blood on the bait route, and the Medical Ninja assessed it as likely nonfatal and deliberately left.
• Itachi and Shisui identified abnormal chakra and spatial traces near the blood, which Crow linked to the initial border report.
• Gen, Crow, Shisui, Itachi, the Medical Ninja, and the Recorder documented the evidence and timeline together.
• The Masked Man watched from the woods as the team preserved the evidence instead of pursuing the bait.

Gen, Shisui, Itachi, and Crow examined staged bloodstains and a clean token linked to Morikawa Kai, concluding that both might be bait in a second test. They documented their suspicions and continued to withhold judgment about whether Morikawa Kai was truly in danger.

• Gen ordered the team to check the blood, and the medical ninja found too little to indicate a serious injury.
• Itachi and the Anbu identified unnatural drag marks, aligned grass creases, and spatial residue that suggested the scene had been staged.
• Crow had the Anbu record that independent pursuit was not recommended, aligning their assessment with the Uchiha's cautious approach.
• Itachi found half of Morikawa Kai's identifying token beside the bloodstains, but the medical ninja noted that it was unusually clean.
• Shisui ordered the token recorded as suspicious, while Gen recognized that the team's real task was to understand why the enemy had arranged the clues so neatly.

Gen and the others discovered that the Former Informant's wooden token had been treated with a trace-removal agent, making it seem like bait rather than evidence of his escape. The finding linked Root-style cleanup to the Masked Man's spatial residue, and Crow agreed to report both trails to the Third Hokage as an Anbu witness.

• The Medical Ninja identified residue on the washed token as a trace-removal agent associated with infiltration and cleanup operations.
• Itachi and Shisui concluded that the token may have been planted to make them pursue a false lead, and Gen ordered the team to investigate who had treated it.
• Itachi found black powder on the token, and the Medical Ninja linked it to residue from the treatment of Root control seals.
• Gen had the Recorder separate the Masked Man's spatial residue trail from Root's trace-removal trail.
• Crow agreed to submit the report to the Third Hokage as a witness from the Hokage's Anbu.

Gen ensured the border investigation recorded both the Masked Man’s spatial residue and traces resembling Root’s cleanup methods. After the team found a second coded mark that might connect to the Konoha Military Police Force’s Old Archives, the case widened into several parallel lines of inquiry.

• Gen persuaded Crow to record both the Masked Man’s spatial residue and possible Root traces, and the Recorder organized the evidence into three columns.
• Shisui questioned whether the clues had been deliberately left for them, and Gen ordered the team to record them regardless.
• Itachi, Shisui, and Crow rechecked the site, finding spatial residue by a tree, a lure aimed at Shisui’s habits, and signs of someone lingering near the chemical residue.
• Gen kept the squad on the designated route to preserve the evidence, and Crow recognized a second coded mark from Morikawa Kai on a tree.
• Itachi noticed an added stroke that might link the mark to the Konoha Military Police Force’s Old Archives, and Gen ordered a rubbing and cautious documentation.

Itachi deciphered a hidden second layer in Morikawa Kai’s code, revealing that it was meant for someone familiar with the Konoha Military Police Force’s Old Archives. The team identified an abandoned border supply point as the next destination and set out together, suspecting Morikawa Kai was passing clues about erased records and Konoha’s internal affairs.

• Itachi spotted a faint annotation mark beneath the informant code, and Gen concluded the message was not written for Shisui.
• Itachi recorded the code’s two layers, while Crow and Gen considered how Morikawa Kai might be using the Uchiha to reveal clues to old files.
• Itachi decoded the destination as an abandoned Konoha supply point on the border, distinct from the tea shelter and diversionary trail.
• Gen ordered the main team to stay together, and Crow agreed that they would all go to the supply point.
• Gen explained that Morikawa Kai had hidden the clues because he might be silenced if he spoke openly, and Itachi sealed the rubbing.

Gen, Crow, and the others found evidence at an abandoned supply point linking it to missing Old Archives records from the week before the Night of the Nine-Tails. They found no sign of Morikawa Kai, but clues suggested he might still be alive and caught between opposing forces.

• Crow sent Anbu to check the supply point, and Gen had the team document its condition before entering.
• Itachi found a torn fragment of an old directive whose reference number was close to that of a missing acknowledgment receipt, and Gen recorded the discovery as evidence connected to the old files.
• The team found a scorch mark from a fire less than three days old, suggesting someone had tried to destroy papers at the supply point.
• An Anbu member spotted signs of a fight outside, where Shisui and Itachi judged that someone had made a failed attempt to silence a target.
• Gen concluded that Morikawa Kai might still be alive or that shadowy forces were fighting over him.

Gen, Shisui, Itachi, and Crow found evidence that Morikawa Kai had survived an attempt to capture or silence him. They discovered his conditions for a meeting with the Uchiha, the Hokage's Anbu, and a Medical Ninja, leaving the three parties preparing to meet him together.

• Gen and the Medical Ninja found traces of a struggle and blood from at least two people near the supply station, including signs linked to Root and a paralytic drug.
• Itachi and Gen concluded that Morikawa Kai had not been taken away and might have escaped, while Shisui said he was still alive.
• Gen asked that the evidence be preserved, and Crow ordered the Border Outpost to report developments to all three parties without acting alone.
• Itachi deciphered Morikawa Kai's message requiring the Uchiha, the Hokage's Anbu, and a Medical Ninja to attend a meeting on open ground north of the old border supply station.
• Crow agreed to prepare for all three parties to witness the meeting.

Morikawa Kai met with the Uchiha, Anbu, and medical team on open ground so no single side could control his testimony. He admitted that before the Night of the Nine-Tails, he had passed border-route intelligence to a masked man.

• Gen arranged the meeting with all three sides present and forbade an encirclement.
• A spatial fluctuation appeared across the river, and the Recorder documented it as suspected observation.
• Morikawa Kai arrived injured and told everyone not to approach him.
• Morikawa Kai asked the Recorder to write down every word and admitted he had passed border-route intelligence to a man wearing a mask before the Night of the Nine-Tails.

Morikawa Kai testified that a masked man watched him as he described passing border patrol routes through an old Konoha access point before the Night of the Nine-Tails. His testimony established that the person who provided the access point was not with the Uchiha, and he began to reveal that the handoff had an identification number.

• Gen had the recorder document Morikawa Kai's account of a masked man with an Uzumaki-pattern mask appearing about seven days before the Night of the Nine-Tails.
• Morikawa Kai said he had passed along border patrol rotation routes, while the masked man's presence caused another space fluctuation across the river.
• Morikawa Kai explained that someone had given him access through an old Konoha internal permissions point, but a sealing mark caused him pain when Gen asked who it was.
• Gen changed his questions to avoid provoking the seal, and Morikawa Kai repeated that the person who supplied the access point was not with the Uchiha.
• Morikawa Kai confirmed that the handoff had an identification number.

Morikawa Kai testified that an old internal authorization channel had allowed the Masked Man access, ruling out the Uchiha and pointing toward a deeper problem inside Konoha. He provided part of an old directive reference number, leaving Gen and the others to verify it in the Hokage Building archives.

• Gen asked Morikawa Kai for the reference number, and Morikawa Kai traced part of it on the stone.
• Itachi recognized the number as close to an old directive numbering system, and Crow ordered the evidence sealed in three copies.
• Morikawa Kai said no one would have listened to him before, while Shisui heard why he had waited to testify.
• The Masked Man's spatial fluctuation faded across the river, and Gen prepared to pursue the clue in Konoha's old archives.

Crow presented evidence linking Morikawa Kai’s testimony to an old authorization number and possible Root involvement in the border intelligence leak. Fugaku requested a review of the old files on the Night of the Nine-Tails, and Hiruzen ordered the review’s scope to be compiled.

• Crow reported the border evidence and Morikawa Kai’s testimony to Hiruzen Sarutobi and the council.
• Danzo questioned the reliability of Morikawa Kai’s testimony, but Crow presented the supporting evidence gathered at the scene.
• Fugaku requested a meeting to review the old files on the Night of the Nine-Tails.
• Hiruzen ordered the scope of the review to be compiled, beginning a process that would bring the old records together.
• Gen received system notifications that the review meeting had been triggered and the border evidence chain had reached Konoha.