The Academic Affairs Register came again the next day.
This time, it did not stay on the teacher's desk for long. An upperclassman delivered it, and after Teacher Iruka checked two pages, he immediately had the student take it back. The sound of the register closing was dull, like a wooden door softly clicking shut.
Naruto's eyes followed the register all the way to the door.
Kiyo watched too, even more anxiously than Naruto. The upperclassman had barely turned around when Kiyo's toes twitched forward. Che reached out and grabbed his backpack strap.
"What are you doing?"
"I'll ask for him."
"He didn't ask you to."
Kiyo held himself back, his face full of the agony of worrying for a friend. Naruto stood beside his seat, clenching and unclenching his fists. He did not chase after it.
Sasuke saw it.
Teacher Iruka saw it too.
"Sit down," Teacher Iruka said.
Naruto sat down, moving more slowly than usual. The short pencil on his desk rolled a little. He reached out and stopped it before it could fall to the floor.
That morning's exercise was changed to "keep doing things after something leaves." The Academic Affairs Register had left, but the cleaning duty still had to be done. The short pencil had rolled, but they still had to write. The red line still needed to be recognized; everyone could not just crowd around and stare at it. After hearing this, Kiyo looked utterly miserable.
"Teacher, that sounds hard."
"That's why we practice."
Naruto wrote slowly. Today, he was writing a short sentence: The register is gone, but the sweeping remains. When he reached the character for "gone," his pencil tip paused. Beside him, Sasuke nudged the Shared Box a little closer, bringing the short pencil within easier reach. Naruto saw it.