Only now did the Gray Booklet truly open.
The Academic Affairs Director held the booklet under the light, turning first to the front pages, then to the middle. The earlier pages contained routine observations, but farther in, two kinds of handwriting gradually appeared. The older writing was rounder, the newer finer, as though someone had added it later.
"This page isn't yours." The Academic Affairs Director pointed to a line.
Mizuki glanced at it. "No."
"Who added it?"
"I'm still looking into that."
"Did you know there were added pages when you took over?"
"A little."
"Does 'a little' mean you knew, or you suspected?"
Mizuki pressed his lips together. "Suspected."
No one in the classroom spoke. Everyone had already understood: this booklet was no simple record book. It was more like a hidden waterway that had been altered several times. Everyone knew there was water inside, but no one knew where it flowed.
Iruka turned to the pages about Naruto, Sasuke, and Che.
"Did you write these original observations, or were they added later?"
"I wrote them."
"Did you show them to anyone else?"
Mizuki looked at the Academic Affairs Director. "Yes. The records clerk, the academic affairs assistant, even Iruka. I gave all of them excerpts."
"Then why didn't you simply file the original?"
"Because I wanted to organize the parts that would help the children first."
Sasuke cut in coldly. "Useful for whom?"
Mizuki looked at him. "For teachers, for the classroom, for people who could help them improve."
"Then that wasn't yours alone to decide," Sasuke shot back.
Listening beside him, Naruto suddenly lowered his head. He saw "easily provoked" written on his page, then the later addition beside it: "if stabilized, reaction speed may improve." Read together, the two lines made it seem as though