The Team Beneath Hokage Rock

On the day of the preliminary assessment, the wind beneath Hokage Rock was gentler than at the northeastern training ground.

At least, Kiyo thought so.

"The wind here doesn't slap you in the face," he said. "It feels more like normal wind."

Che looked at the Fourth Hokage's face carved into the distant cliffside and did not reply at once. The rock wall was tall, and the morning light caught the edges of the carving, illuminating that young face clearly. Minato Namikaze gazed quietly down over Konoha from above, as though the aftermath of Nine-Tails Night had been carved into stone and turned into a memorial everyone could see, though not everyone was willing to discuss it in detail.

Che knew what had happened that night.

He also knew that without that night, he probably would not be standing here as an Uchiha orphan, holding a preliminary Ninja Academy assessment notice and trying not to clench his hands too tightly.

Kiyo bumped him with his shoulder. "Did you stare yourself stupid at Hokage Rock?"

"I was wondering whether rocks get trained by waking up early too."

"Probably not. Rocks are already working hard enough just standing there."

Saori hugged her doll and asked softly, "Is the Fourth watching us too?"

Nao stood behind her and smoothed the hem of the doll's clothes. "Rocks don't watch people. But when people see them, they're reminded which way to go."

That made Che glance at Nao.

Nao was dressed more neatly than usual today, with tidy cuffs and her hair tied more tightly. She was not taking the assessment and could only walk them to the gathering point outside the Ninja Academy's side courtyard. Yet as she stood there, she seemed like a gate that was neither tall nor soft, seeing the children of East Row 2, No. 7 all the way from their clan grounds to the threshold of Konoha's institutions.

Mine was already waiting at the gathering point.

She held a roster, with Yamashiro Takuma standing beside her. Today, Yamashiro Takuma was not sitting in the back row as an observer, but stood at the side of the group as a Ninja Academy teacher. When he saw Che, he nodded without saying much.

That somehow made Che feel more troubled than if he had said a lot.

There were not only Uchiha children in the group. On the other side of the courtyard stood several children from Konoha civilian families, dressed in clean but old clothes, accompanied by parents or older siblings. When they looked toward the Uchiha group, there was curiosity in their eyes, along with a trace of poorly concealed nervousness. After Nine-Tails Night, many in Konoha had begun to look at the Uchiha with complicated expressions. Children might not understand adults' suspicions, but they would imitate the way adults hesitated.

"They're looking at us," Kiyo said in a low voice.

"We're looking at them too," Che said.

"So we're even?"

"For now."

A boy with a short braid overheard them and frowned as he looked over. "Do all you Uchiha talk like that?"

Kiyo immediately wanted to retort, but Che spoke first. "Not necessarily. Some are more serious than me. Some are sleepier than me."

The boy froze for a moment.

Che continued, "Do all Konoha kids ask questions about clans this early in the morning?"

Mine looked up from her roster.

Che immediately added, "I mean, we should do the assessment first. Clan studies can wait in line."

The braided boy did not know whether he should be angry. In the end, he snorted and turned away.

Kiyo whispered, "Were you about to start a fight just now?"

"I was conducting low-intensity diplomacy."

Saori said, "Teacher Mine looked at you."

"A common sign of diplomatic failure."

Mine walked over, her voice calm. "No diplomacy before the assessment."

"Understood."

She looked at Che. "And don't treat every question like a probe."

The hint of a smile on Che's face faded slightly.

He knew Mine was right. The braided boy's question might not have been friendly, but it did not necessarily carry some deeper intent either. A child influenced by adults, casually asking an awkward question, was not the same as genuine hostility. Che was too used to looking for structure, positions, and future cracks behind every sentence. But if he kept doing that, he would push his peers to the opposite side before he had even entered the Ninja Academy.

This might count as a small mistake.

Not a big one, but one that would leave a taste behind.

The taste appeared quickly.

After the braided boy turned away, he whispered a few words to the girl beside him. The girl looked back at Che, a little more wariness in her eyes. Kiyo saw it too and immediately tensed his shoulders.

"Were they saying bad things about us?" Kiyo asked.

Che instinctively wanted to say, "Maybe." That maybe could lead to plenty of analysis: family influence, impressions of clans, collective fear after Nine-Tails Night, the Ninja Academy testing relations between clans. But before he could say it, Mine's warning pressed down on him again.

Don't treat every question like a probe.

Che swallowed the word maybe. "They might just be saying I talk too fast."

Kiyo looked at him. "That's not exactly a bad thing."

"Thank you for being objective."

Saori looked up at the braided boy, then back at Che. "He didn't clench his fists."

Che paused.

Saori observed people differently. She did not break details down into a list of risks the way Che did. She was more like someone listening for a very faint sound. The braided boy had not clenched his fists, nor had he leaned his shoulders forward, which meant he was not preparing for a conflict. He was just uncomfortable.

Che let out a breath.

His small mistake had not turned into a major problem because Mine had reminded him in time, because Kiyo had not rushed in at once, and because Saori had seen another angle. No matter how observant someone was, they could not grow eyes for every perspective.

He should remember that too.

Yamashiro Takuma began organizing the group.

"The preliminary assessment has four sections. It won't count toward your official grades, only record your basic aptitude," he said. "You can be nervous, but don't run around. The Ninja Academy doesn't eat people."

Kiyo let out a breath of relief.

Yamashiro Takuma added, "But being late will be recorded against you."

Kiyo's breath caught right back in his throat.

As the group entered the side courtyard, Che saw several old wooden plaques hanging along the Ninja Academy wall, marked with different class symbols. The grounds were flatter than the Uchiha's temporary training field, the soil packed firm. There were shuriken targets in one corner, with buckets and wooden benches set on the other side. There was none of the wind at the northeastern district's edge. Instead, the place carried a lively feeling, as though countless children had trampled across it.

This was where Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru, and the others would spend so much of their time in the future.

Those names surfaced in Che's mind, and he quickly pushed them down.

This was not the time to think about future companions and rivals.

Right now, he needed to take every step properly in this assessment group.

The first section was literacy. The children sat at temporary desks in the side courtyard, reading words from wooden plaques before writing down the words they heard. When Kiyo took hold of his brush, he looked as though he were holding an especially ill-tempered kunai. Sitting diagonally behind him, Che saw Kiyo write the second character in "training" as though it had been stepped on.

The proctor walked over, and Kiyo's ears turned red with nerves.

Che desperately wanted to remind him, but he could not.

This was an assessment, not the dinner table at East Row 2, No. 7.

Kiyo bit the end of his brush, then finally crossed out the character and wrote it again. It was still crooked, but recognizable. Che quietly breathed a little easier.

When it was Che's turn to read from the wooden plaque, he deliberately paused for half a beat.

The plaque read, "Basic Observation." He could read it, and he understood the weight behind those four words. But he could not spit them out as though he were reciting a mission report. He looked at the wood grain, at a faint smear of ink beside the characters, then read them aloud at a child's pace.

"Basic observation."

The proctor nodded without giving him another look.

Before the second section, physical fitness, the braided boy ended up near him again.

Awkwardly, he said, "That's not what I meant earlier."

Che looked at him.

The boy kicked at the ground. "My dad says Uchiha kids are all really impressive. I was just asking."

Che fell silent for half a beat.

By his old habits, he would have kept dissecting those words: his father's judgment, impressions of clans, the sense of distance hidden behind impressive. But this time, he remembered Mine telling him not to treat every question like a probe.

So he said, "Some of us write like we're being chased by dogs."

Kiyo abruptly looked up from farther away. "Were you talking about me?"

The braided boy froze, then laughed.

The laughter was not exactly friendly, but it washed away some of the stiffness from before.

Che made a note to himself: some tensions did not need tactics. They only needed a joke that was not too hurtful.

The assessment was not over yet, and Hokage Rock still stood in the distance.

Che did not keep staring at the Fourth Hokage's stone face.

The group slowly moved forward beneath the rock, and he moved with them, like a child who needed to be recorded and was also learning not to let those records define him.