With the dual-signature ledger at the front of the classroom, even the first lesson felt very different.
The slim ledger had Iruka on the left and Mizuno on the right. Every student's observations, suggestions, and short transformation results had to be recorded during class, with no filling them in afterward. When the Academic Affairs Director had it delivered, even Kiyo knew he couldn't let his handwriting run wild today.
"This looks like a new assignment," he said quietly.
Morita Yu said, "To you, anything can turn into an assignment."
Kiyo gripped his pen in anguish, poking a tiny dent in the paper with its tip.
Mizuki sat in the back row instead of standing by the window again. Today, he held an ordinary notebook, and he had even switched to a plain gray pen cap. On the surface, he was as quiet as the other teachers, but Che knew that silence didn't mean he had withdrawn. He had changed positions and was watching first.
Iruka wrote down the Demonstration Group's results before pushing the ledger over to Mizuno.
"Today, we record observations only. No guiding prompts."
Mizuno nodded. "Understood."
Naruto sat a little straighter than yesterday, but he no longer jerked his head up the instant a teacher called his name. He tucked his consecutive-test sheet beneath his exercise book, looking at the rows and columns first and the names second.
It was such a small change that even Kiyo might not have noticed, but Che did.
Because now Naruto looked at the paper before looking at people.
The first round was still observation and judgment. Today, they switched to peer reviews in class: after reading out their conclusions, everyone had to add a sentence explaining what they had seen. They couldn't talk only about impressions.
When Naruto's turn came,