By evening, another sheet of paper had appeared on the East Corridor wall.
It was not a seating chart, but a duty roster.
When Teacher Mizuno put it up, the edges still carried a faint smell of glue. She did not explain it specifically. She merely pressed down the top corner with a finger, then stepped back. Kiyo spotted it first and immediately leaned in close, as if afraid the paper might run away.
"What's this?" he asked.
"Rotating duty," Teacher Mizuno said. "Starting tomorrow, Class One in the morning, East Corridor in the afternoon. The desks, blackboard, floor, and scraps of paper all need someone to take care of them."
Naruto's eyes went wide at once. "We have to take care of the desks too?"
"Desks, chairs, blackboard, doorway. The places you've used, you take responsibility for."
"Then I know the most places," Naruto said quickly.
Kiyo gave a light cough beside him. "Knowing the most doesn't mean you're the best at taking care of them."
"Oh, and you are?"
"I know how to watch shoelaces."
"That doesn't count as taking care of things."
"How doesn't it?" Kiyo said with perfect conviction. "If shoelaces cause trouble, the corridor causes trouble. If the corridor causes trouble, the desks cause trouble too."
Naruto froze, as if he had only just discovered that shoelaces could really be connected to desks. He looked at the cloth strips around Kiyo's feet, then at the duty roster. His expression slowly shifted from indignation to something a little more serious.
The first column on the roster was for wiping the blackboard, the second for sweeping, the third for collecting paper, and the fourth for pushing chairs back under the desks. Names were lined up row by row, like another, longer seating chart. But while a seating