"Again!" Iruka repeated, returning to his neutral stance.
Asahi took a deep breath, but the air felt thick and heavy, as if he were inhaling wet sand. He raised his hands, but the boxing stance now felt strange, like a borrowed suit that didn't fit right.
'Rely on your muscles, not your chakra.'
Iruka's words bounced around in his skull like a pinball, striking every wall of his frustration.
'Okay,' Asahi thought. 'I won't use my muscles. Relax. Like with Kawarimi.'
He emptied his mind of boxing technique. Relaxed his shoulders. Loosened his knees. Tried to feel that inner energy, that hum he had struggled to control.
"Start!" Iruka commanded.
Asahi lunged forward.
It was, without exaggeration, the worst movement of his life.
By trying not to use his muscular training, his body had no instructions. It was a clumsy stumble, a forward wobble without balance or grace. The movement of an eight-year-old who had never exercised in his life.
He raised a fist to strike, but without the kinetic chain from his training, it was just a weak swipe.
Iruka didn't even move. He simply watched, confusion growing on his face, as Asahi—the boy who moments before had delivered a punch with the strength of a genin—wobbled like a newborn deer.
Horrified by his own clumsiness, Asahi tried to correct himself. His muscular instincts kicked in to prevent him from face-planting, tensing his core and legs. But that tension cut off the chakra flow he was trying to summon.
The result was a spasm. His body shook, half efficient physical movement, half failed chakra attempt.
He froze completely, a meter from Iruka, trapped in a state of total motor contradiction.
The training yard fell silent for a moment. Asahi could feel, more than see, the gazes of the other students. Kiba stopped moving. Shino lifted his eyes from his insects. Sasuke, still sparring, turned his head slightly.
Iruka slowly lowered his hands and sighed. "Asahi, stop."
The relief was so intense that Asahi almost collapsed.
Iruka approached and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. He leaned in, his face now serious and analytical. "Asahi, what are you doing?"
Asahi didn't know what to answer. 'I'm trying to unlearn eight years of training in thirty seconds…'
"In that first punch," Iruka said quietly, so only he could hear, "I saw excellent technique. Clean, powerful, well-executed. It's a form of foreign Taijutsu, isn't it? Very… rigid, but effective."
Asahi nodded, speechless.
"But now," Iruka continued, "it looks like you're trying to forget how to walk. You're fighting with yourself. Your body wants to do one thing, and your mind is ordering it to do another."
Iruka gestured toward Sasuke and Arashi, who were a blur of motion. "Look at them. They're not thinking 'now I use muscle, now I use chakra.' It's one thing. Chakra enhances the muscle. It's an amplifier, not a replacement."
'He doesn't get it,' Asahi thought in despair. 'My problem is that my "muscle" is too strong.'
Iruka seemed to sense the boy's frustration. "This isn't something you can fix in a fight, Asahi. You have an excellent physical foundation. The best in the class, no doubt. But you haven't integrated it with your chakra. You haven't even connected it."
He straightened up. "Your task for this week is different from the others."
Iruka walked to a tree and plucked a leaf. He returned and placed it on Asahi's forehead.
Asahi tensed. 'The leaf exercise. For control…'
"No," Iruka said, as if reading his mind. "I don't want you to spin it. I don't want you to cut it. I don't even want you to stick it."
He placed the leaf in Asahi's palm. "I want you to do two things. First, hold it with your chakra. Stick it to your hand. Easy."
Asahi focused, feeling the familiar hum. The chakra flowed, and the leaf adhered to his palm like glue. It took more energy than it should have, but he could do it.
"Good," Iruka said. "Now… I want the leaf to stay stuck while you close your fist."
Asahi frowned. 'What?'
"Do it. Maintain the chakra flow keeping the leaf on your palm, but contract your muscles at the same time."
Asahi tried.
He concentrated on the chakra flow.
Then, slowly, he began to close his fingers.
The moment his tendons tensed, the chakra flow cut off as if someone had flipped a switch. The leaf, freed, fell to the ground.
Asahi stared at the fallen leaf.
"You see, right?" Iruka said calmly.
Asahi saw it. His body had a nullifying system.
"Your body thinks these are two separate systems," Iruka explained. "You have to teach them to coexist. You must be able to be in the middle of a Taijutsu fight, every muscle tense, and still mold chakra for a Kawarimi or any jutsu."
"This is your new task," Iruka said. "Stick the leaf. And then, make a full punch. The leaf must not fall."
Iruka patted him on the shoulder. "The rest of the class is learning to fight. You, Asahi, have to learn to walk first. Now, go aside and practice!"
Asahi picked up the leaf. He felt humiliated, but also… relieved.
He moved to a corner of the yard, away from everyone, and stared at the leaf in his hand.