Konoha. At the same time.
The room had no windows.
That was intentional—natural light reminded people of time, and time reminded them that a world existed outside these walls. Danzo did not want anyone in this room thinking about the world beyond them.
He sat behind his desk. Before him stood a man in a white mask, back straight.
"The child?"
"He left Kori. Southeast direction."
"Sato?"
"Captured. Not dead."
Danzo nodded slowly.
"And Kanai?"
"With the child. Or he was."
"Was."
"Yes. Surveillance lost the trail after the border."
Silence.
Danzo looked at the file on his desk.
The same photograph.
The same gray eyes.
"The seal awakened."
It was not a question. The report had been clear.
"Yes, sir. The mark appeared during the confrontation in Kori."
"The layer?"
"We do not know with precision. But the response was defensive, not offensive."
"Yet," Danzo said calmly.
He rose and walked toward a false window—a wall he knew was only a wall, though he still stood before it out of old habit.
"Kimi Uchiha built something we still do not understand," he said in a voice not truly directed at anyone. "She placed it inside a child. The child is growing."
He turned.
"I want the child intact. Is that clear?"
"Clear."
"I do not want a pursuit. I do not want pressure." He looked directly at the mask. "I want observation. From a distance. Until I say otherwise."
"And if Kanai moves?"
"Kanai knows what he knows," Danzo said coldly. "That is what makes him useful. And what makes him dangerous."
He paused.
"Watch him too."
The masked man left.
Danzo remained alone.
He looked once more at the file.
The third layer.
He had not known this. Kanai had hidden it from him—or Kanai himself had not known.
The third layer meant the seal was not on the body. It was woven into the chakra structure.
Which meant extracting it…
He closed the file.
Some thoughts were not meant to be completed too early.