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: Author and Kyluxia

I've begun working on the cover art for this story, as well as a possible replacement for the prequel. Hopefully, I'll get around to finishing them at some point. I'm no real artist, but I can trace and edit existing work together to make something decent and original looking I believe.

Chapter 10: Perception and deception

"Oh, and there goes my clone," Heikō informed Sakura as she stopped, as they had resumed their walk downward after Sakura's shadow clone misadventure.

"Really? So, what did it see?" Sakura questioned.

"A large pool of chakra, that's what's below us. The pillar seems to be standing in the middle of it, and there's a walkway connecting it to the edge of the pool. There also seems to be a lot of pipes connected to it." Heikō recounted what the clone had relayed to her.

"Doesn't that seem kind of risky? Giving intruders access to our chakra? Even if it is just the representation of chakra within the mindscape?" Sakura questioned, frowning slightly as she thought about it. She didn't feel like it made much sense.

"Maybe, but you should remember that it's our chakra. I doubt anyone could really control it against our will before converting it somehow. Something I don't think our mindscape would look kindly upon, or allow in the first place. I suspect the chakra itself is another defense mechanism for anyone attempting to go deeper into our mind. Being dumped into a pool of pure chakra doesn't really sound like the best of times, don't you think?" Heikō asked, smirking at Sakura.

"Ah, that's what happened to the clone?" Sakura guessed, receiving a nod from Heikō at the correct assumption. "Right, no, I see your point then. It's… odd to think about how our own chakra devised such defenses. Is there anything in our subconscious about our chakra relying on our knowledge? Did we somehow build this all unknowingly guided by our chakra?" Sakura wondered, shaking her head, as she knew Heikō didn't have an answer. Neither of them had been conscious when their mind had been rewired, again, and like every previous time, there were few traces of mental activity for them to find during that time period. She had already checked while waiting for Heikō to finish the array after all since she had her control of their mindscape back at the time.

"I don't think it's all that strange. Chakra does all kinds of crazy things. I mean, just think of all the Kekkei Genkai out there, and what they allow people to do. You saw the same papers I did about clans and their abilities when we worked with Kakashi. A Kekkei Genkai that can make Genjutsu practically real, this isn't that much of a stretch compared to that." Heikō pointed out, and Sakura nodded in agreement while letting out a sigh. It still didn't make the entire thing any easier to understand.

Sensing Sakura's train of thought, Heikō jabbed her lightly in the ribs with her elbow. "Oh, lighten up a bit. Sure, we're going into this blind compared to what many others go through, but we're literally the first person, eh, people with this Kekkei Genkai. We're breaking new ground, so there's no helping it." Heikō tried to assure Sakura. "Speaking of, we totally need to decide on a name for our Kekkei Genkai. I'd hate for someone else to do it, and get stuck with something lame sounding as Deiton. I mean, it reveals what the Kekkei Genkai is all about, but it's so lame!" Heikō complained, light-heartedly.

Sakura couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yeah, it does sound a bit lame to have a Kekkei Genkai named after mud. But all Kekkei Genkai seem to have a rather concise, straight forward name. I mean, the Sharingan is also like that. I don't know about the mirror part, but it definitely allows the user to copy things like movements or jutsu, so the copy wheel meaning isn't out of place." Sakura pointed out.

"And then there's the Byakugan. It's an eye, and it's white. Very descriptive, but a bit more subtle about what it does. Still, lame." Heikō decided with a nod, frowning as she stopped on the stairs, crossing her arms as she tried to think of a name for their own Kekkei Genkai.

There was a lot to consider, and it was a given that they needed to make it sound good, descriptive, without oversimplifying it or giving too much of their abilities away.

"Do we even know enough about our Kekkei Genkai to give it a name?" Sakura questioned, having stopped as well, and turned around to look at Heikō.

"Sure we do. We might not have reached the final stage of it, but we got the basics, don't we? I don't think we need more. It lets there be two of us running around in one brain, and Natural Energy is as deadly as water is to regular people, that is to say, only when we're drowning in it." Heikō reasoned while Sakura frowned at the logic.

"But we don't know why, do we? The changes to our biology might as well have been from all the Natural energy or the cursed seal, don't you think? Our Kekkei Genkai reacted to Natural energy, that we know, but we don't know how much of what resulted from it comes from the seal, the Natural energy, our Kekkei Genkai, or us!" Sakura pointed out, this time leaving Heikō frowning.

"I suppose you're right. It's a big mess of stuff, and we can't attribute everything to our Kekkei Genkai. We know the third eye we seem to be developing is due to us being a Human sage, so it comes from Natural energy, or rather, from our Senjutsu chakra. Our brain, however, isn't as definite, is it? Darn, there go my ideas. Guess we really do have to wait before naming our Kekkei Genkai, unless we want to name it something like Natural Twin, Nachurarutsuin." Heikō told Sakura, who stuck her tongue out in distaste.

"That sounds so lame, and it doesn't fit anyway. Wouldn't something like… From nature, Shizen kara, be better?" Sakura suggested. Heikō agreed that it sounded much better. It described them, as well as the way their Kekkei Genkai and body seemed to develop from Natural energy.

"That's a good start, actually. Shizen kara, I think I could live with that as our Kekkei Genkai. Not as lame as the Byakugan, and it is as deceptive, as it is descriptive to those in the know.

"Great. We'll work on it some more later if needed." Sakura decided, looking over the edge of the staircase again. "How far are we from the bottom? I can't see anything from here." Sakura pointed out, which was true, as the pervasive blackness even kept them from seeing the steps of the stairs below or above them as they circled the pillar.

"We're about halfway there, I think," Heikō informed Sakura, who stopped and looked back at her.

"You're kidding, right? We've been walking for what feels like an hour. There has got to be a faster way down!" Sakura complained, while Heikō suddenly felt it dawn on her.

"Oh, that's what this is. I have to admit, it's clever." Heikō commented with a smirk, confusing Sakura.

"Wait, what did you figure out?" Sakura asked, hoping it was some way to get down faster.

"Why this pillar is so damn tall, and why this descent is taking so long. It's meant to test an intruder's patience, make them show their true colors before making them either throw caution to the wind by either jumping off or begin racing down the stairs. Did you notice how some of the steps are slightly off on occasion? I've yet to find a pattern as to when to expect one, but I suspect they're there to somehow trip people up in case they rush down the stairs. If not, it's something we could add." Heikō tells Sakura with a smile, while Sakura frowned instead.

"So that means we can't rush down the stairs either?" She asked, dismayed that they'd be spending another hour, at least, going down stairs at a moderate pace.

"Well, considering who we are, and where we are, I believe there are a few shortcuts we can take," Heikō revealed, before grabbing Sakura by the wrist and moving them down to the walkway she had mentioned previously, the one her clone had seen on its way down when falling from the pillar.

"Oh, right. We can move to any place we already know where to find. And your clone saw this place. Why didn't you do this earlier?" Sakura asked, a little annoyed that they had wasted so much time.

"I was still trying to figure out the purpose of the staircase. I was also worried that we might miss something on our way down. However, if our hypothesis is correct, I doubt there would be any more rooms built into the tower or anything else for us to find." Heikō explained, before looking around the area a bit herself, able to inspect it properly now that she wasn't a clone falling past at terminal velocity.

"At least this place has guard rails," Sakura commented, as she held onto one of the said guard rails and looked down, glad to no longer see the never-ending void stretching out below them, but what looked like a pool of luminescent blue liquid, far below them, stretching out over an area the size of Konohagakure. "Woah," Sakura let out in awe. Heikō's description hadn't really given an idea as to how massive the area really was. At the edges of the giant lake of chakra, there were indeed pipes, lining almost the entire edge the whole way around. Only an occasional opening in between the pipes revealed the smooth curve where the pool wall became the floor upon which the pipes laid.

"Huh, that's neat," Heikō commented, prompting Sakura to look at her in curiosity, only to follow Heikō's gaze upward to see that nothing was obstructing their vision; letting them see the entire pillar at once, including where it began, at the top. With a small mental push, Heikō reset the stairs, making the remaining steps slide back into the tower.

"More like annoying. You really think that's an effective defense?" Sakura asked, which just made Heikō smile as she looked at her.

"Of course. Annoying and antagonizing the enemy draws their attention, while each step met with opposition will have them thinking they're getting closer to their goal, while the answer, the sealing array at the beginning, is the true key to getting into our mind. A solution almost freely given will always seem too good to be true." Heikō pointed out, and Sakura had to admit, it really did sound like a decent trap.

"But, if that's the case, then where does this path lead?" Sakura asked, gesturing in the direction where the walkway connected to the edge of the giant basin containing their chakra.

"Only one way to find out." Heikō pointed out before she began walking down the walkway, Sakura soon decking to follow her after taking one last look at the chakra below them.

Considering the sheer size of the basin, just the walk to the edge took a long time. Something Sakura eventually grew frustrated enough with, that she simply manipulated their perception of time and distance to avoid being bored to death. Something Heikō was happy to see Sakura managing to do, even if her motivation for mastering such methods was a bit petty.

Of course, just because Sakura was behaving as silly as she was, didn't mean it was actually a good idea. Heikō immediately considered applying a similar effect to the stairs, although with the opposite effect, prolonging a person's perception of time and distance, to ensure the psychology of being stuck on an endless descent hit that much harder. Unfortunately, adjusting what Sakura had done for the desired effect was a bit more complicated than simply altering the visual representation of their mindscape, as this would affect an intruder's perception of time, not their own. Not to mention that it was infinitely harder to make something last longer than it actually did than it was to shorten the perceived time.

AN: I makes sense, no? That altering perception to forget or lose track of time is easier than extending it. Living life in slow motion would be such an advantage for Shinobi during fights. So, naturally, such an effect is much harder to achieve.

And yes, I am making my own art as a cover for this story, but I wouldn't reject any offers to help if anyone fancies themselves an artist. What I have in mind is relatively simple after all.