Uchiha Makoto made his mistake the next morning.
It was nothing major.
It was even smaller than yesterday's dispute over bandages.
A shipment of clean cloth had arrived at the western shelter site. It needed to be logged into storage, then distributed to the medical tents.
The Transport Squad handled the hauling.
The medical ninja determined whether it could serve as a temporary substitute for bandages.
The Konoha Military Police Force maintained order in the queue and recorded the handover.
Everything was perfectly ordinary.
And precisely because it was ordinary, mistakes came all too easily.
Uchiha Makoto stood beside a wooden crate, holding a daily report template.
He was already much more practiced than he had been yesterday.
Time.
Location.
Type of supplies.
Transport Squad signature.
Medical ninja signature.
Villager representative signature.
He filled in every entry clearly.
But just as he was making the final check of the witnesses, an argument suddenly broke out on the other side of the queue.
Someone said there was not enough cloth.
Someone said the Uchiha had given it to people close to them first.
Uchiha Toru immediately went over to bring the crowd under control.
Uchiha Ryo also asked the medical ninja to count the supplies again.
Uchiha Makoto glanced up, his pen pausing for half a breath.
That half breath was all it took.
He wrote down the medical ninja's name.
He wrote down the Transport Squad member's name too.
But he missed the villager representative's name.
When the record was sent back to the Konoha Military Police Force, a member of the Hokage's Anbu spotted it first.
"One witness entry is missing."
The hall instantly fell silent.
Uchiha Makoto's face went pale.
He looked down at the daily report.
The space for the villager representative's signature was blank.
Painfully blank.
Uchiha Toru immediately said, "It was chaotic out there. He just missed it."
The Anbu member said nothing.
But that silence weighed more heavily than an accusation.
On the Rotating Records Team's first official day of operation, they had already left out a witness.
This was just the thing to prove a point.
The younger clan members could not be trusted.
A decentralized process could not be trusted.
The Konoha Military Police Force Reform still could not function without Uchiha Gen.
Uchiha Makoto gripped his pen, his knuckles white.
"I'll go fix it."
He started for the door as soon as he said it.
Uchiha Gen stopped him.
"How?"
Uchiha Makoto froze.
"I'll get him to sign."
"And then?"
Uchiha Makoto's lips moved, but no words came out.
If he simply ran off to get the missing signature, it would look as though the Uchiha had discovered a flaw and patched up the records in private.
The more he rushed, the guiltier he would look.
Uchiha Makoto lowered his head.
"Then what should I do?"
Uchiha Gen looked at him.
"Follow the correction procedure."
Those words made Uchiha Makoto's shoulders tremble.
He knew what to do.
But knowing did not mean he had the courage to do it.
Following the correction procedure meant openly writing down his own omission.
It meant everyone would see that the lead recorder on the first day of rotation had made a mistake.
Uchiha Makoto grew paler and paler.
"Gen, have I let you down?"
Uchiha Gen did not answer immediately.
Several young clan members in the hall were watching them.
Even an older clan member stood in the doorway, frowning without a word.
Uchiha Gen picked up the daily report and set it on the table.
"I'm not the one you're letting down."
Uchiha Makoto bowed his head even lower.
Uchiha Gen continued, "If you get that signature in private now, that's when you undermine the entire process."
Uchiha Makoto's head snapped up.
"Recorders make mistakes."
Uchiha Gen said, "That was never something to fear. What's frightening is wanting to hide a mistake after making it."
He pushed a blank correction sheet in front of Uchiha Makoto.
"Write."
Uchiha Makoto stared at the sheet, his hand shaking even harder than before.
"What should I write?"
"The facts."
Uchiha Gen dictated each word clearly. "In the cloth handover record at the western shelter site, the name of the villager representative serving as a witness was omitted. Discovered by: the Hokage's Anbu. Cause: a brief dispute broke out at the site, and the recorder omitted the name while looking up to check that order was maintained. Remedial action: the recorder, the person handling the handover on-site, the Transport Squad member, and the medical ninja will return to the site together, ask the villager representative in person whether he is willing to provide the missing signature, and note the time of signing."
Uchiha Makoto listened, slowly writing down every word.
When he reached "Cause," his hand was still shaking.
But he did not stop.
Uchiha Gen did not write a single word for him.
That was crueler than simply helping him fix it.
And more necessary.
About seven minutes later, Uchiha Makoto returned to the western shelter site with Uchiha Ryo, the Transport Squad member, the medical ninja, and the member of the Hokage's Anbu.
The villager representative was a middle-aged man.
After hearing their explanation, he looked a little nervous.
"I was there, and I saw the cloth being counted."
Uchiha Makoto bowed his head. "I was the one who left out your name earlier. We're following the correction procedure to add your signature now. If you don't want to sign, we can record your refusal instead."
The middle-aged man looked at him, then at the Anbu member beside him.
"Can I read the record first?"
"Of course."
Uchiha Makoto handed over the daily report and the correction sheet.
The middle-aged man read them very slowly.
Finally, he wrote his name in the space for the added signature.
"I'll sign. It really was chaotic earlier. It wasn't that you wouldn't let me sign."
Uchiha Makoto swallowed.
"Thank you."
The middle-aged man waved a hand.
"Don't thank me. Write things down properly next time, so people don't accuse us of taking bribes too."
Those words stung a little.
But they were true.
Uchiha Makoto nodded earnestly.
"I'll remember."
On the way back to the Konoha Military Police Force, Uchiha Makoto remained silent.
Walking beside him, Uchiha Ryo suddenly said, "You didn't run away back there."
Uchiha Makoto gave a bitter smile. "My legs nearly gave out."
"But you still went back."
Uchiha Toru followed behind with an empty wooden crate on his shoulder, refraining from teasing him for once.
"If it were me, I probably would've rushed over and told the man to hurry up and sign."
Uchiha Makoto glanced at him.
"Then it would've been all over."
"That's why you're better suited to writing records than I am."
Uchiha Toru said it casually.
But Uchiha Makoto froze for a moment.
This was the first time anyone had said he was suited to being a recorder.
Not because he was timid and unsuited to charging ahead.
But because he could make sense of a chaotic situation, putting it down clearly one stroke at a time.
By the time the correction sheet was brought back to the Konoha Military Police Force, Fugaku had arrived too.
He read the original daily report, the correction sheet, the time of the added signature, and the Anbu's annotation, then fell silent for a moment.
"Send this to the Hokage Building for filing as usual."
Uchiha Makoto went pale.
Fugaku looked at him.
"This isn't to punish you."
He placed the correction sheet back on the table.
"It's to show them that the Rotating Records Team isn't incapable of making mistakes. It simply doesn't run from them."
Uchiha Makoto stood stunned.
Coming from Fugaku, those words carried more weight than they had from Uchiha Gen.
The older clan member stood nearby and said nothing more.
He had originally thought the young people were bound to make a mess of things.
But what he saw now was not a mistake being hidden.
It was a mistake being corrected in front of everyone.
This was very unlike the Uchiha.
But it was also very useful.
Uchiha Gen looked at Uchiha Makoto.
"Now do you know what a recorder needs to steady first?"
Uchiha Makoto answered quietly, "Not his hand."
"Then what?"
"His heart."
Uchiha Gen nodded.
That evening, the correction record was sent to the Hokage Building.
Meanwhile, outside the western shelter site, the villager representative who had added his signature was about to return to his tent when a stranger stopped him.
The man handed him a small packet of medicinal powder, his voice low.
"Your daughter still has a fever, doesn't she?"
The villager representative's expression changed.
The man continued, "Tomorrow, someone will ask you whether the Uchiha forced you to add your signature afterward."
The villager representative clenched his fingers.
"I didn't say that."
"Not yet."
The man placed the powdered medicine in his hand.
"Tomorrow, you could."
The shadows closed in.
The man turned and left, leaving him with one final remark.
"Think it through. Who are you trying to protect-the Uchiha, or your own child?"
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