"Seal off the drainage channel. Don't touch the remaining traces."
Sasuke placed the white finger in a Sealing Box. Neji had already activated his Byakugan and followed the residual meridians underground.
"The chakra trail breaks off outside the village. They severed the clone and left. The ink came from the freshly printed Sanctions Decree. It can't have been more than a day."
Shikaku brought over the original three-nation joint declaration and compared the ink at the corner of the paper with the residue on White Zetsu's fingertip.
The colors matched, and there was no difference in the smell.
"The three-nation joint declaration hasn't been made public yet, but someone from the Akatsuki has already handled the original. At least one side gave them its contents before issuing the Sanctions Decree."
"Not just one."
Sasuke opened the evidence cabinet by the wall, took out the ledger Kakuzu had left behind, and laid out the mission scrolls seized at the Amegakure hideout.
The codes in the ledger were scattered. On their own, they could only prove that the Akatsuki had accepted missions from various nations, not identify who had issued the orders.
Now that the three nations had voluntarily signed the joint declaration, the matching verification seals, paper, and transfer dates finally connected.
Tsunade turned two pages and saw the hidden mark of the Land of Earth's Armaments Bureau.
"Why weren't these accounts made public before?"
"The evidence was incomplete."
"And now it's complete?"
"The Sanctions Decree filled in the gaps for them."
Sasuke laid the three-nation joint declaration beside the ledger.
The Land of Earth had used the same armaments hidden mark to pay the Akatsuki for weapons, then used it again to confirm the order to blockade Konoha.
The travel passes the Land of Lightning had confiscated from merchant caravans