After nightfall, Kiyoshi went to the tree line beside the base.
What couldn't be conveyed on paper had to be said face-to-face. Shisui was in his usual spot, in the shadows, his right eye wrapped in cloth. Standing still, he looked like a patch of night that had taken root there. Kiyoshi went over the final division of tasks with that shadow once more: what hour to act, which line would move first, where the door would open. When he finished, he added, "If they refuse to leave, knock them out first, then take them through the door. Even unconscious, they have to go."
Sentence by sentence, slow and level.
When Shisui had heard him out, he gave only one reply.
"Mm."
One syllable. He took everything else with him.
Kiyoshi returned to the slope behind the warehouse and found a blind spot to sit in.
It faced the mountain. Neither the village road nor the Clan Grounds were visible.
He had chosen this spot to wrap things up, even calculating beforehand where the light would fall.
Not one detail of the plan could be missed.
He opened the Ledger Body and went through it, entry by entry.
Mikoto: informed. His gaze lingered a moment longer before moving on.
Shisui's entry held one word: dead.
He had written it himself, his hand steady as he did.
Izumi's entry was blank.
Best if it stayed that way.
When he reached Fugaku, his pen hovered for a long time before he withdrew it.
Itachi's entry contained only one line: the blade was already in his hand.
As for Danzo, the note the crow had brought back that night was still tucked between the pages.
The final line in Root's files was settled: Shisui had been eliminated, and the Naka River incident was