It had been a week since the Academy began, and Haruki still woke up each morning with a strange mixture of excitement and nervousness swirling in his chest.
His shirt itched slightly at the collar. His legs ached from endless running drills. His arms had already picked up a few faint bruises from sparring exercises.
And still, he loved it.
The classroom buzzed with the usual morning chatter as students filed in, carrying their bento boxes and shinobi textbooks. Haruki sat near the center again, his usual spot, pencil already in hand and notebook open. He wasn't the fastest runner, the strongest thrower, or the smartest in theory lessons, but he tried. Every day.
Today, though, felt different.
Instructor Daichi entered right as the bell rang. His flak jacket was slung over one shoulder, and instead of the usual clipboard, he held a small stack of scrolls.
"Good morning," he said, voice sharp and clear. "We'll be outside today. Bring your notebooks, you'll want to record what you feel."
A wave of speculation rippled through the class.
"Feel what?" someone whispered.
"Chakra," Daichi said plainly. "Today, we begin the process of unlocking it."
Even the rowdiest kids quieted.
Haruki blinked, heart skipping a beat. Already?
Daichi continued. "Some of you may already have access to your chakra. For others, this will be your first time learning how to sense it, draw it out, and eventually control it."
He handed out the scrolls as students stood.
"These are focus scrolls. Keep them with you. We'll go through the theory first, then the exercises."
They filed into the training yard, sun already warm on their heads. The air smelled of grass and dirt. A few older students trained further away, launching kunai or practicing taijutsu.
Haruki looked around. Jun, the boy with the oversized scarf, stood beside him, wide-eyed.
"You think it'll hurt?" Jun muttered.
"No," Haruki replied with a nervous laugh. "I think it's more… weird."
"'Weird' sounds like it might still hurt."
Their shared glance ended with a quiet chuckle. It was becoming easier to talk to Jun each day.
Another girl stood a few feet away, Haruki had noticed her before, a short girl with sharp green eyes and thick black hair tied into a messy ponytail. Her name was Sachi. She hadn't spoken much in class, but she always listened, and Haruki had seen her practicing late by herself a few times.
She glanced their way, and Haruki offered a small wave. To his surprise, she nodded.
***
Instructor Daichi had them sit in a loose circle on the grass.
"Chakra is the energy of both body and spirit," he said, "and every living being has it. As shinobi, our ability to manipulate chakra defines nearly everything we do."
"So, what is chakra?" Daichi sensei asked, holding up a piece of wood.
The students went quiet.
"It's the special energy inside all of us that lets shinobi do jutsu," he continued. "But it's not something you can use, you have to mold it to use it."
He drew two circles on the grass. One was labeled Body, the other Mind.
"You make chakra by mixing two kinds of energy. The first is physical energy, this comes from your body. So things like eating well, getting enough sleep, and training all help make this stronger."
Then he tapped the second circle.
"The other is spiritual energy, which comes from your mind and heart. Reading, learning, and even your emotions can build this up."
With a swipe of the stick, he drew an arrow between the two circles, leading to a glowing swirl labeled Chakra.
"When you bring your body and mind together just right," he said with a smile, "you create chakra. And once you learn how to control it, you can do all kinds of amazing things like walking on walls, healing wounds, or breathing fire."
Several students leaned forward, wide-eyed.
"But," Daichi sensei added, raising a finger, "too much or too little of one can mess things up. That's why balance is important."
Haruki nodded slowly, the image of the swirling energy burned into his imagination. It was like making a perfect soup, you needed just the right mix to make it work.
He knelt in the grass and held up a single leaf.
"To begin, we start simple: leaf concentration."
He placed the leaf on his forehead and closed his eyes.
"You will focus your chakra to this point. Not forcefully, just enough to keep the leaf from falling. This is not about strength. It's about control."
Haruki stared at his own leaf, turning it over between his fingers. It was light, simple… and suddenly very intimidating.
The first few attempts were, in a word, chaotic.
Leaves kept falling. Some never stayed up long enough to be considered "placed." A few kids grew frustrated within minutes, especially those who had assumed this would come easily.
Haruki closed his eyes and breathed, remembering what Might Duy had once said during one of their training session.
"The flame inside you is quiet at first. But if you breathe slowly, listen for it, it flickers. Then grows."
He pressed the leaf to his forehead, slowly shifting his attention inward. At first, it was just noise, breathing, wind, shuffling, someone groaning in frustration. But then...
There it was.
A warmth in his belly. Faint. Flickering.
He focused on that warmth and tried to guide it upward, the way Daichi had shown on the chakra diagram, stomach to chest, up to the forehead.
The leaf fell again.
But this time, it took longer.
He grinned.
Hours passed, and they took breaks only to drink water or write brief notes.
Jun collapsed onto the grass beside Haruki during one break.
"I think my chakra's hiding in my toes," he muttered. "I can feel it, but it's like I'm chasing smoke."
Haruki smiled and offered him some of his water. "You'll get it. You're already closer than earlier."
Jun accepted the bottle gratefully. "You?"
"Almost there. I think. I can feel it, like… like it's nudging the leaf before it falls."
"Better than my leaf," Jun said, holding up a piece of grass instead. "I already tore mine."
Sachi sat down nearby, stretching her legs.
"You're both trying too hard," she said softly, not looking at them. "You're pushing your chakra forward like it's water out of a hose. Try guiding it like a thread instead."
Haruki tilted his head. "Have you done this before?"
"No. But I've watched my cousin train. She's a genin. She told me that chakra doesn't like being yelled at."
Haruki laughed quietly. "Good advice."
For the next round, Haruki tried it her way. Not forcing, not commanding. Just… guiding.
And then, for two whole seconds, the leaf stayed.
It trembled. But it stayed.
He gasped and nearly knocked it off by blinking.
Jun saw it too. "You did it!"
"Not fully," Haruki said, breathless, smiling. "But it's something."
He turned to Sachi. "Thanks. That helped."
She looked faintly surprised. "You're welcome."
For the rest of the session, the three of them stuck a little closer. They didn't talk constantly, but the silences were comfortable, even supportive. It felt like the start of something, not quite a team, but not strangers anymore either.
By the end of the day, only a few students had managed to hold the leaf steady for more than five seconds. Haruki wasn't one of them. But he wasn't discouraged.
Instructor Daichi called the class to attention.
"Remember this: unlocking your chakra isn't about showing off. It's about discovering a part of yourself you've never met before. It will come. Some are faster than others. But it will come."
Haruki believed him.
As they packed up and walked toward the gate, Haruki looked over at Sachi and Jun.
"Same spot tomorrow?"
Sachi nodded. "Yeah."
Jun grinned. "I'm not stopping until I glue that leaf to my forehead with chakra."
Haruki laughed. "Deal."
That evening, Haruki sat on the windowsill of his room, watching the sky darken over the rooftops.
He hadn't mastered chakra. Not yet.
But he had felt it.
And maybe more importantly, he had felt something else too.
Connection.
A spark.
Like something inside him had finally begun to glow.