The Gray Booklet revealed its second layer in the Academic Affairs Room after school.
Iruka closed the door, leaving only Che, Sasuke, and Naruto inside. Naruto had not been on the list; he had planted himself in the doorway and refused to leave.
"I'm one of the people written about, too," he said.
Those words left Iruka silent for a moment.
In the end, he did not send anyone away. He simply set the Gray Booklet on the desk.
The booklet looked ordinary: a gray cover, worn corners, and student observation records inside. Naruto's page had originally listed only unstable chakra, poor concentration, and susceptibility to provocation. Sasuke's page said his fundamentals were solid, but his standard movements were somewhat stiff. Che's entry was even shorter: keen observation, reactions hidden behind jokes.
They already knew all of this.
As Iruka turned to the concealed layer, the paper made the faintest sound.
Someone had slipped a thin sheet between the gray cover and the inner pages. It was so thin it looked as though it had been torn from an official record form, then trimmed neatly. There were no names on it, only numbers and short phrases.
Readily responds to overtures.
Competitive but restrained.
Habitually hides behind laughter.
Beside each of the three numbers was a small red mark.
Naruto stared at the first line, his face slowly draining of color.
"What does 'readily responds to overtures' mean?"
No one answered right away.
Sasuke spoke first. "Someone calls out to you, and you respond."
Naruto jerked his head up. "I wasn't asking you!"
Sasuke gave him a cold look. "You're doing it right now."
Naruto opened his mouth to argue, then caught himself halfway through. He looked down at those words, as though he had discovered for the first time that