When Iruka rubbed the chalk line fainter, Naruto was the first to get upset.
"Why erase it?"
The chalk line was still there, just so faint it looked veiled by mist. Teacher Iruka crouched on the floor and rubbed it again with the corner of the eraser. The white mark spread out, becoming a blurry patch.
"Today, we're looking at faint lines."
Naruto frowned. "How are we supposed to see it if it's faint?"
"That's why you have to slow down."
Kiyo crouched beside him, staring at the floor for a long time before suddenly saying, "It looks like noodles that are about to disappear."
Morita Yu turned and walked away. "I don't know you."
Teacher Mizuno split the children into two groups. One group watched clear chalk lines, while the other watched lines that had been rubbed faint. The clear-line group moved quickly, but the faint-line group often stopped in the wrong place. Stop too early, and they were too far from the line; stop too late, and their toes pressed into the chalk dust. Naruto had been assigned to the faint-line group, and he had looked unhappy from the start.
On his first attempt, he stopped too far from the line. Kiyo softly reminded him from the side, "Too early."
Naruto immediately said, "I know."
The second time, he stepped a little too far over. Sasuke stood with the other group, glanced over, and said nothing. Naruto grew even more irritated, as though that faint line were deliberately dodging him.
Che stood farther back in the line. When it was his turn, he looked at the floor first, then at the strip of wood by the threshold that had been polished smooth by countless shoes. The chalk line was faint, but the grain in the wood beside it