A couple of days later, Sakura panted at the training grounds with sweat dripping down her face. In her hands, she concentrated on turning her chakra to electricity and trying to hold it outside her hands. A couple of times, there were sparks but not enough in her opinion.
"Give yourself a break, Sakura-chan," Kakashi scolded. "You don't have an affinity for lightning so of course it will take you longer to show results, no matter how superb your chakra control is."
"But Kaka-sensei…"
"No, Sakura," Kakashi hushed sternly. "Go home and get some rest. You're exhausted. Come back tomorrow around dusk where we can see the sparks more clearly."
The next day, Sakura stared in amazement at the little blue sparks that crackled around her hand.
"Better," Kakashi praised.
Sakura beamed up at him.
"Now, think bigger. Bigger sparks, bigger damage, bigger chakra."
Sakura nodded and closed her eyes. The Chidori grew noticeably when one of the sparks slashed at Sakura's arm. She gasped in pain but kept making it grow. Because she didn't have very big chakra reserves, she couldn't hold it that long. For now.
Feeling her chakra reserves close to empty, she cut the chakra flow, cancelling the jutsu.
"You're doing great, Sakura," Kakashi spoke.
Sakura smiled at him. "Thanks Kaka-sensei but I was wondering. How do you raise your chakra reserves?"
"Meditation or chakra scrolls. Everyone has eight chakra reserves. The average ninja uses about three of those. You use two, Sasuke uses seven and Naruto uses eight. Anbu use five."
"What are these chakra scrolls you're talking about?"
"They unlock a chakra bar to you. Training also helps."
"Can I get one of these scrolls?"
"They're rare to come by but I'll keep a look out for you."
"Thanks."
"In the meantime, just meditate."
One month later, Sakura stood a hundred metres from cliff face with Kakashi a couple metres away from her. Sakura closed her eyes and breathes in before opening them back up. She held her right hand out to her side where it started to light up. She could feel the weight of her Chidori in her hand like it was a solid object. The sound of a thousand chirping birds pierced their ears. Sakura kept raising it until electricity lashed out at the ground and everywhere around her. Then she darted for the wall.
Sending chakra to her feet, she blurred before smashing her Chidori into the cliff face. Her hand disappeared inside while her usual chakra enhanced punch crumbled the entire thing. Sakura quickly pulled her hand out and jumped away as everything fell away. Kakashi whistled.
"Excellent," he complimented before seeing her frown. "But you're not happy with it."
"It's not enough to defeat Sasuke."
"What do you want to work on?"
"Sasuke's Chidori Nagashi."
"What!? But you don't even know how he learnt it."
"I have an idea…"
A few more months later…
Sakura stood under a waterfall. Ino, Kakashi, Shizune and Tsunade stood ready to help in case something went wrong which was most likely going to happen. Neji and Hinata were with them with their Byakugan activated to help her know if something's off and help her before she could be too badly injured.
"So you're saying that Sakura can successfully replicate the Chidori Nagashi?" Tsunade asked.
"We believe so. At the moment, she's trying to create a Chidori barrier."
"She's starting," Shizune pointed out.
All eyes turned back to the pinkette who stood on the stones underneath the waterfall. Neji and Hinata saw the chakra within her body pick up speed before it was racing around, becoming electricity itself. Sakura pushed the electricity from her body, creating a bubble of electricity. Sakura watched in fascination as the barrier came to life when the water hit it. Kakashi decided to up it and started throwing kunai at her. Sakura's eyes widened but her chakra moved of its own accord and an electric flare knocked it away. She created the Chidori Barrier with the Chidori Nagashi. Everything Kakashi threw at her, she knocked away. Kakashi was now standing on the lake and Sakura sent an electric current toward him. Kakashi's eyes widened before he jumped away. The current came out of the flowing river and towards him. As it hit him, she realised he had used a substitution. No longer focused on him, she realised Tsunade, Shizune, Ino, Neji and Hinata were sending projectiles her way but were all deflected by the Chidori Barrier even though she wasn't paying attention to it.
"Amazing," Neji whispered.
"How well can you control it?" Tsunade asked. "Can you be in the field and be trusted not to injure your comrades?"
Sakura bit her lip. "I don't know."
Ino and Hinata jumped down and stood before Sakura. "Then we'll find out."
Neji and the others continued throwing kunai at her. Sakura wanted to close her eyes and pray but she had to concentrate. Electricity lashed out again and Sakura watched as the electricity bent around the girls to knock the kunai away.
"Look out, Sasuke-kun," Ino whispered to herself with a smirk. "Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn."