AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.

Proofread by: Me, as a result of both of my proofreaders being unavailable.

Chapter 23: It has a name, Natural Energy

"Really?" Sakura asked, surprised as her teammates informed her that her appearance had changed during her fight with Shino. She hadn't noticed, and now it was bothering her.

"Yeah, I was so surprised, but you also looked cool like that, hang on, I'll show you!" Naruto offered, excited, before transforming into Sakura, as she had looked during the fight, her skin and hair darker.

Taking in the sight of her transformed state, Sakura's face fell. She looked horrible! "No way." She whispered under her breath, only to see Sasuke give her a shrug that pretty much conveyed the message "It is what it is." Fortunately, he didn't seem to care either way.

"Well, at least we won." Inner Sakura offered, trying to cheer Sakura up from the revelation that she apparently looked completely ridiculous while using her energy like a bug-zapper.

"We can always apply a transformation whenever we have to use it so we appear the same," Inner suggested although she didn't really care for their appearance. What others thought of them didn't matter. Except for Sasuke that is, but from what she had seen with his lack of a reaction meant that it didn't matter, the strength of the form was probably a bigger deal to him.

"Well then, as interesting as this situation is turning out to be, I was thinking that Sakura and I need to have a little talk about her Kekkei Genkai now that her fight is over. You two should be fine without us here for a moment, won't you?" Kakashi asked, addressing the two boys.

Releasing his transformation, Naruto nodded eagerly. "We'll beat their asses and join Sakura in the third exam!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly and confident while Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"So you won't see us fight then? I had hoped you'd be able to coach us further after seeing us fight. Some pointers would be nice before the third exam." Sasuke mentioned, jabbing at Kakashi's lack of guidance in a lot of areas he considered unimportant, or simply not worth their time.

"Now, Sasuke. You wound me. But I suppose I should be here to show my support, shouldn't I?" Kakashi responded, feigning being hurt by his words before summoning a shadow clone. "How about this? Now I can attend my business with Sakura, while also remain here to observe. As a shadow clone, anything he sees, I will as well, once he dispels." Kakashi explained, smirking as he mentally patted himself on the back for teaching them something new right after Sasuke had implied he barely taught them anything.

"Naruto already figured that out." Sakura pointed out, visibly taking the wind out of Kakashi's sails as both he and his clone slumped.

"Is that so? I suppose you'll at least believe me without a fuzz then." Kakashi responded, before standing straight again. "Now then, with this, I believe the two of us should get going, hopefully, we'll be back before the two of you have your fights," Kakashi told them, before leading Sakura away, leaving Sasuke and Naruto with his clone, who had already begun to read from his book while Kiba and Kabuto's fight began as they left.

Having led Sakura to a small room that had been prepared in advance, Sakura noted with some slight surprise that it was a comfortable looking room with a couch, a coffee table, and a TV that showed the room where the Preliminaries were taking place. While the picture was small, lacked sound, and the fixed angle allowed for a rather poor overview of the ongoing match between Kiba and Kabuto, it at the very least allowed them to know who was fighting at the time.

"Now, sit down and get comfortable, we're the only ones here so I want you to feel comfortable with telling me everything you can about what you've discovered about your Kekkei Genkai, including things you believe I already know. Let's start at the beginning." Kakashi told her, inviting her to sit down by gesturing towards the couch.

Sitting down, Sakura got comfortable, before noticing Kakashi hadn't sat down and looked back up, only to see him gone. Standing up in alarm, she looked around and spotted him entering the room again, carrying a glass of water and a plate of sandwiches. Seeing her alarmed reaction, he chuckled lightly. "I just thought that you might be hungry for some proper food and that you might grow thirsty as we continue." He explained, allowing her to relax and sit back down as he placed the glass and the plate on the coffee table in front of the couch and then sat down. "Now then, how about you begin?" He prompted her, getting a nod in response before Sakura began.

"Here we go," Inner commented, as Sakura took a deep breath to calm herself slightly.

"Right, I should probably begin with a bit of a confession. Since I was little, I've had a bit of a second will." Sakura began, glancing at Kakashi to see his reaction, only for him to nod for her to continue. "At first, it was a lot like a reaction to things I couldn't say out loud because it wouldn't be socially acceptable, or inner thoughts I didn't want to share. In my mind, I could shout them loud and clear without having to worry about anyone overhearing or judging me… Then, something happened in the forest. When Orochimaru tried to bite Sasuke and give him the curse mark, despite having been paralyzed just moments before, I suddenly found myself moving. I pushed Sasuke out of the way and got bit instead." Sakura explained, pausing a bit to think of how she should formulate the following explanation.

"As the curse mark formed, I felt excruciating pain and soon fell unconscious. While unconscious, I suddenly found myself awake in some kind of black void, with another, transparent, black and white version of myself, with a headband naming her "Inner Sakura". She was in pain and explained that she was keeping part of the seal from functioning as intended, leaving the other part, the foreign chakra of Orochimaru, to me. Following this, I fought the mental representation of him in my mind, and eventually Inner managed to catch him by surprise and defeat him after I had exhausted almost all of his chakra. Afterward, she was about to explain things, only to nearly collapse from pain again. She explained that she had contained the energy Orochimaru had intended to use within herself. She explained a bit about how it seemed to work, and we agreed we would use it for ourselves from here on out. As we did, I blacked out again." Sakura explained, frowning at the memory, while Inner remained silent, only offering a few reminders and occasional corrections as Sakura spoke and was about to misspeak.

"I next woke up thanks to Inner waking me to a fight happening nearby, with Sasuke and Lee fighting three Otogakure Shinobi. Things weren't going too well for them, and by the time Inner and I managed to get up in time to attack their leader as he went to attack Sasuke. Lee attacked at the same time, but missed, I assume Dosu focused on him more, considering him a bigger threat, but I managed to land a hit on him, and Inner channeled a great portion of the energy from the seal into his body. The aim was to immobilize him like the curse mark had done to me when I got it. Instead, his skin changed color, different in different places from what I could see, and then he just turned to stone." Sakura explained, Inner helping her remain focused and ignore the feelings of horror and disgust at herself that she felt from that time. Kakashi simply continued nodding, now certain that he knew what exactly Sakura had gained from her encounter from Orochimaru.

"So you can use Natural Energy then? Can you feel it as well, outside of your own body I mean?" Kakashi asked, deciding to speak up, giving Sakura the actual name for the energy, while digging for a bit more information, as he felt she had accidentally left some details out.

"Oh, yes. I can feel it around me in about… a ten feet radius I'd say. I can't stop sensing it, just ignore it. It's not detailed either, I can just feel vague shapes and the concentration of the… Natural Energy you said?" Sakura asked from confirmation, getting a nod before continuing. "Yeah, I can feel Natural energy now, not details or anything far away." She explained. "Inner actually felt Lee's arrival while I was still asleep, and so she woke me up for a clearer picture of what was going on."

"Your inner self can be awake while you're still asleep?" Kakashi asked, astounded as he received a nod in confirmation.

"Anyways, after I… killed Dosu, I turned to the rest of the team and threatened them to give us their scroll, as they could no longer pass anyways. Zaku tried to attack me and blew up his petrified teammate in the process before I managed to get close enough that he surrendered and we got their scroll. After that, we used the following few days for recovering, and Inner explained to me that she has been aware of herself from before the incident with Orochimaru, but after it, she felt a lot more active and… real, complete. She's now constantly with me, and she sleeps separately from me. She can control my body in my stead, regardless if I'm asleep or awake." Sakura explained while Kakashi's brow furrowed.

"You mean, she can take over? Against your will?" Kakashi asked, glad to see Sakura shake her head.

"She can take control when I don't expect it, but I can just as easily take control back. Most of the time, we act together. While she can act independently from me, Inner is still me, just… different." Sakura explained, trying to think of a better explanation.

"I see. Then, is that everything you know about your Kekkei Genkai?" Kakashi asked her, only for Sakura to shake her head again.

"No, you see, one of Lee's teammates, Neji, he's a Hyuuga. He used his Byakugan to look at my chakra network and discovered that I've developed additional pathways in my brain, as well as my brain structure changing somehow. He said it looked like a recent addition, and all I can think of is how my Kekkei Genkai awakened just before that. It also explains why Inner is so different now." Sakura concluded, pausing to finally take a sip of water and begin eating one of the sandwiches, giving Kakashi time to digest what Sakura had told him.

"A rather unique Kekkei Genkai, I must admit. From what you've told me, it seems like your body is incredibly resistant to the effects Natural energy normally has on the human body. In addition, your body also adapted in order to let you control Natural energy better by developing "Inner"." Kakashi summarized, having taken note of how Sakura referred to Inner, using it as a name, rather than a designation as her inner self. He didn't want to offend Sakura, so he would simply call her Inner as well, it wasn't the worst name she could have chosen.

"Yeah, there's just one more thing. During the second exam, we befriended a girl named Karin Uzumaki. During our last fight, she got hurt pretty badly, and Inner talked me into doing something crazy. I managed to pretty much heal Karin completely using Natural energy." Sakura explained, making Kakashi show his surprise by raising his eyebrows.

"You healed her, using Natural energy?" He asked for clarification, getting a hesitant nod from Sakura.

"Well, that's certainly… something. I've never heard of something like that, but I'm no expert when it comes to Natural energy. You'll need to have someone teach you more about it. Fortunately, I already have someone in mind." Kakashi told her, seeing Sakura immediately go wide-eyed and excited.

"Really? You'll introduce me to someone who can help me?" She asked, excited at the prospect to learn more about her newfound power.

Chuckling, Kakashi nodded, amused. "Of course. You'll need to learn how to control your Kekkei Genkai after all, and figure out what else you can do with it. Unfortunately, before we get to any of that," Kakashi told her, before reaching behind the sofa and pulling out a rather thick file, putting it down on the coffee table. "We have some reading to do." He told her, sharing Sakura's immediate enthusiasm as she saw the width of the file.

AN: No fighting this time I'm afraid, and most of this is simply a recap of what we've already gone through, but I was hoping that this chapter made it a little bit easier to understand how Sakura's Kekkei Genkai supposedly works.

Like always, reviews are appreciated, feel free to speak your mind and ask questions. I'll get around to answering them… eventually.