Evening.
Anbu liaison point.
Itachi didn’t come here for Youye.
He needed to nail down the safety framework for Sasuke after the clan extermination.
Hiruzen had given verbal promises, but in the murky waters of Konoha, verbal checks were worth less than a bowl of ramen.
Especially with an old schemer like Danzo around.
The absurd stunts Youye had pulled in the last three days acted like a bucket of cold water, waking Itachi up.
If Danzo could probe three times against a dead last who was out of Chakra, could Sasuke really be safe after the operation?
This couldn’t rely on the conscience of the higher-ups; it had to rely on an impeccable system.
Itachi flipped through the pending review cabinet, intending to find a copy of the document where Hiruzen restricted Root.
Instead, a familiar file folder caught his eye.
It was that familiar reference number—the absurd ‘Inheritance Distribution Statement’ Youye had filed last time.
Only, it was significantly thicker.
Itachi casually opened it.
When his eyes scanned the key sentences of the new material, his gaze locked onto the paper.
“If this person’s body is damaged beyond recognition, please use personal belongings as a substitute for filing.” “No repeat verification.” “Neck shows sharp weapon wounds, suspected probing by unidentified personnel…” “Not part of the formal Konoha Military Police Force establishment; no one may contact the subject’s personal belongings for any reason.” At the end of the document, there was a dual endorsement and a bright red official seal.
Youye’s signature was still scribbled and shaky, as if his hand were trembling while holding the pen, revealing a sense of weakness, pity, and helplessness.
But Itachi’s hand, clutching the file, slowly tightened.
When the first filing came out, he thought Youye was just riding the coattails of the ‘confession incident,’ forcing himself into the spotlight.
But now, with these two documents combined, the nature of the situation had completely changed!
This wasn’t madness.
This was a perfectly executed ‘paper death closed loop’!
Fear records as a foundation, official statements as a continuation, and replacement with personal belongings as the conclusion.
Every step had witnesses, and every clause avoided crossing the clan’s red lines.
The most lethal part was the phrase ‘No one outside the establishment may contact personal belongings.’ Was this written for the Konoha Military Police Force?
No, this was a physical anti-explosion door slammed right into Danzo’s face!
After the clan extermination, if Danzo wanted to confirm whether Youye was dead, he would inevitably have to touch his files or belongings.
Once he touched them, it would leave an administrative record.
And this record was the perfect leverage for Hiruzen to manipulate Root politically.
A dying man had used an incoherent will to lock himself in an administrative cage that couldn’t be broken.
High-end political maneuvering often only requires the simplest administrative procedures.
Was this really an operation a ‘waste’ who couldn’t even perform the Three Body Technique properly could think of?!
Itachi frantically searched his memory for ‘Uchiha Yuya.’ A perpetual dead last, zero social circle, trembling like he had Parkinson’s when confessing to him.
Then there were only two possibilities.
Either this guy had a beast-like intuition for’survival rules,’ able to precisely exploit bugs in the Konoha system in desperate situations.
Or, he was a pure lunatic, and his madness just happened to create a logic that fried everyone’s CPU.
Which was it?
Itachi didn’t have time to verify it.
He only believed one thing: Danzo’s dirty tactics against unplanned individuals would definitely be used on Sasuke after the battle!
Youye’s experience over the last three days was a textbook warning.
Itachi pulled out a blank document.
He had to patch Sasuke’s future before acting tonight.
“Any contact and arrangement regarding Uchiha Sasuke must be confirmed by the Hokage and Anbu; no single department’s orders will be accepted!” This restriction was also to guard against Danzo.
The two locks checked each other; if Danzo dared to reach out, it would trigger an alarm immediately.
The pen tip moved across the paper, the handwriting steady.
A dead last used a will to lock himself in; a genius used clauses to lock his brother in.
The thought process was shockingly consistent.
After filling out the document, Itachi sealed it in a top-secret envelope and handed it over.
With a few leaps, he melted into the night of Konoha.
The countdown to the night of the Uchiha clan’s extermination was ticking.
At the same time, underground in Konoha.
Root’s lair.
A thin piece of paper lay on the table, an urgent report delivered fifteen minutes ago.
Core keywords: Body damage, replacement with personal belongings, unauthorized contact prohibited, unidentified personnel.
Danzo sat in the shadows, his right hand gripping his cane tightly, his face turning green.
This was the second one.
The first one, which listed Itachi as the heir, he thought was a joke.
But this second one came out, and the game was up!
This was someone using official procedures before dying to shove Root’s overstepping operations into an ‘evidence preservation bag’!
When the person is alive, this document is waste paper.
Once the person is dead, this thing is a political landmine buried under Root’s feet!
Whoever dares to check this file in the future will have to explain in public: Who was he guarding against?
Who inflicted the wounds on his neck?
Danzo wasn’t afraid of being blamed, but he feared Hiruzen’s ‘reasonable suspicion.’ As long as that old fox Hiruzen caught a trace of this administrative record, he could force Danzo to ‘cut flesh’ at the Imperial Conference!
“Bang!” The cane pounded heavily on the stone floor.
“On the night of the clan extermination, all Root members, give Uchiha Yuya’s house a wide berth!” The operative below the steps looked up, stunned, almost thinking he had misheard.
“Confirm life or death only after the post-war cleanup!
If the body is there, file it on the spot.
If the body is not there…
then hunt him down in secret!
Do not let the Anbu get a shred of evidence!” The operative took the order and disappeared instantly.
Danzo leaned back into his chair, his chest heaving violently.
Ridiculous!
Simply absurd!
He, the renowned ‘pot-carrier’ of the Ninja World and leader of Root, was actually being forced to steer clear of a dilapidated house by a fifteen-year-old lunatic on the night of the clan’s extermination!
What was even more frustrating was that he still couldn’t figure out if the other party was playing the fool to hide his brilliance, or if it was just pure luck.
Uchiha Clan Compound, Youye’s dilapidated courtyard.
The setting sun was like blood.
Youye squatted on the threshold, chewing the last dumpling, his advanced perception fully deployed.
Within five hundred meters, everything was clear.
The Root surveillance point had retreated forty meters an hour ago, extremely timidly.
This distance was calculated to avoid any contact with him.
As for Itachi’s Chakra, it had long since vanished from the Anbu liaison point.
Youye snapped the bamboo skewer with a ‘click’ and tossed it into the trash heap.
A hastily compiled supplementary will had forced these two big shots, Itachi and Danzo, to rewrite their scripts.
This, my friends, is what you call ‘Qin Shi Huang touching the electric wire’—winning big!
The system light screen lit up in his mind.
[Task Progress: 72%] [Completed: Association with old files ✓ | Dual witness ✓ | Replacement with personal belongings clause ✓ | Key observer informed ✓] [Pending: Pre-war sealing of personal belongings | Archival confirmation] Steady and solid, just the final kick left.
The silly forum in his brain was still scrolling frantically; netizens were even enthusiastically discussing ‘whether to stuff a pair of original-flavor smelly socks inside to gross out Danzo.’ Youye decisively ignored it.
He only focused on the deadline: before sunset.
He got up and dusted himself off, just about to go rummage through that pile of junk, when a cracked voice suddenly shouted from the alley entrance.
“Uchiha Yuya!
Konoha Military Police Force notice!” “If you want that trashy filing of yours archived today, you’re missing the final step!” “You must immediately submit’substitutable personal belongings’ for sealing and registration!
If you don’t submit it before sunset, it will be voided!” The clansman delivering the message stood at the alley entrance, pinching his nose, standing ten meters away, looking like he was guarding against some biological weapon.
Youye, with half a bamboo skewer in his mouth, poked his head out from the door crack.
One-second script switch.
He hunched his shoulders and nodded repeatedly: “I…
I’ll go get it right now.”