April 25, Sunday.
It was already the tail end of April. As the weather warmed, grass grew and warblers flitted about, and Japan entered its annual peak hay fever season.
Uchiha Naruto took the train to school. There were not all that many people wearing masks on the train, but once he got off and walked down the street, more than a third of the pedestrians wore masks.
Hay fever could be considered the Island Nation's national ailment.
The timing of hay fever outbreaks in the Island Nation overlapped considerably with the advance of the Cherry Blossom Front. Some foreign tourists even thought cherry blossoms caused hay fever.
But the actual culprits were cedar trees. Cedar was a commercial tree well suited to mountain planting. During the postwar economic recovery, to meet both greening and development needs, the state encouraged planting, and nonnative cedars came to cover mountains and fields throughout the country.
The clouds of pollen in cedar forests were quite a spectacle. Viewed from a distance during flowering season, they looked like yellow rain and mist, or smoke from a wildfire rising above the trees.
Every year at this time, hay fever tormented the Island Nation's people beyond endurance. Many public figures deliberately avoided this period by going abroad, simply to protect their voices or avoid the indignity of streaming tears and snot in front of their fans.
Although Uchiha Naruto did not have hay fever, seeing the passersby looking as though they faced a formidable enemy made even his nose feel a little sore and irritated.
As usual, Uchiha Naruto arrived at the classroom for Class 1-B.
"Achoo-"
Tanaka Hikaru, who sat in front of Uchiha Naruto, wore a tightly fitted mask. His hay fever allergies looked quite severe: his eyes were red and swollen, with tear