By the time the complete list was torn down from the outer wall, more than thirty people had seen it.
Some had merely stopped to look.
Some had copied the names.
Others had recognized several Chosen Marks and immediately left the school gates.
The school administrator ordered every exit closed and kept the eleven students without village affiliation in their classroom.
Gen did not let the guards lock the doors.
The list had already leaked. Forcibly confining the children to one place would only make it easier for anyone who knew the address to find every target at once.
The response was divided into three initial steps.
Two Witnesses took down the original sheet and sealed it away. It could not simply be burned to erase its impact.
Teachers checked each student and caregiver for old debts, pursuit, disputes with relatives, or other concrete risks.
Routes home from school were no longer made public. Any relocation would be disclosed only to those directly involved, rather than posted as another complete set of arrangements.
Shuo's Notched Moon was the first to bring trouble.
A grain merchant from the past recognized the mark outside the school gates and claimed that Yayoi's husband had owed the North Valley caravan two wagonloads of goods.
He carried no weapon, only a stack of bills.
The bills had yet to be authenticated.
But he already knew Shuo's temporary residence and Witness Station.
Yayoi applied to change the pickup route, but she was not required to move out of Konoha immediately.
The debt claim was registered separately. The grain merchant could not approach the child at school, nor could he withhold the child's Travel Document over a debt his father might have owed.
Chengren faced a different risk.
The list had exposed his unusual wind affinity.
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