There was an extra piece of red thread in the Shared Box.
It had been lying beside the erasers and short pencils since morning, a thin little length, not bright in color, as if it had fallen from someone's wrist guard or book bag. Naruto spotted it first and reached out to grab it, but Iruka lightly tapped the edge of the desk with a piece of chalk.
"First, say what it is."
Naruto stared at the red thread. "Thread."
"Where is it?"
"In the box."
"What kind of box?"
Naruto was stumped and turned to Che.
Che pulled his hand back from the desk. "The Shared Box."
Naruto immediately added, "Thread in the Shared Box."
Kiyo, sitting nearby, listened with great tension, as if that piece of thread might suddenly turn into an exam question. He quietly reminded them, "It could also be lost property."
Sasuke glanced at the red thread. "Or someone might have put it there by mistake."
Iruka nodded and wrote three words on the blackboard: shared, lost property, temporary storage.
Once those three words appeared, the classroom grew quieter than usual. None of them looked difficult, but when applied to a piece of red thread, no one could decide right away. Naruto thought that if nobody claimed it, it was lost property. Kiyo thought that if it was in the Shared Box, it might be for shared use. Morita Yu said that if someone had deliberately put it there, it might only be temporarily stored. The three of them kept talking until they nearly made the red thread sound like a huge problem.
Sasuke reached out and took the red thread from the box.
Naruto immediately glared at him. "Why did you take it?"
Sasuke ignored him. He set the thread on the desk and