1zara-uchiha1 and I don't own the Naruto cast or anything else you might recognize. 1zara-uchiha1 owns Laura and I own Kahlan. Together we own the plot.

Chapter 85

Note: Chakra training is tiring so be grateful for goodbyes.

~Kahlan's POV

I stand in front of Sasuke in the dead part of the yard with my arms crossed. He just stares and I stare back. I thought Leader said something about chakra not a staring contest. What is chakra? And as if reading my mind Sasuke starts speaking.

"Chakra is essential for every technique," Sasuke says sounding a bit bored. "It is the molding of physical energy in every cell of the body and spiritual energy. Once it is molded it can be channeled through the chakra circulatory system. So do you understand so far?"

I raise my brow, and if my arms weren't already crossed they would have been crossed now. "That is bullshit," I reply. "There is no such thing as a chakra circulatory system. I know the anatomy of the human body and that is never shown or mentioned at all in the medical field."

"This world is different from mine, but that doesn't mean what I said doesn't exist," he slightly growls out. "Every living thing has chakra including the people of this world."

"Whatever," I reply not in the mood for an argument. "Continue on with your lesson."

"Physical energy is collected from the body's cells and can be increased through training, stimulants, and exercise. Spiritual energy is derived from the mind's consciousness and can be increased through studying, meditation, and experience. Though for this one needs to have good chakra control. We'll get to chakra control later. Anyways, a good way to build up chakra in the body is to spin it into a tight spiral. Give it a try."

"What," I say looking at him in bewilderment. How in the world am I supposed to gather any of those energies into a spiral?

"Put your hands together like this," he says as he clasps his hands together. He then has the first two fingers up. "Then try gathering your chakra."

Sighing, I uncross my arms and put my hands in the position he showed me. Closing my eyes, I try concentrating to gather chakra. "Does chakra have any feeling," I ask that way I can at least know what to look for.

"It's like a warm sensation…think of warm water flowing over you."

"Got it," I say and then go back to concentrating.

I stand there trying to find this chakra and the feel of it. For a very long time I'm standing there feeling nothing and so start imagining waterfalls going into a whirlpool so I could have it spiral the chakra. Still there is nothing and I'm trying so hard not to get annoyed. After all this might just take time, but God dammit I feel stupid doing this.

"Here," Sasuke says and I open my eyes to look at him. He places his hands over mine and a second later it feels like something warm starts running through my veins.

Immediately I feel my body reacting to the foreign sensation. For a moment it seems like it is accepting it, but then the warm sensation starts burning as my body fights it trying to push it out. Sasuke quickly takes his hands away and it stops. I blink my eyes a few times so glad that the burning is over because it was actually hurting like holding your hand too close to a candle. And now my body just feels weird…different then it was before. It's hard to explain and I'm not sure if it is a good or bad thing.

"What was that," I ask.

"I was trying to make you get a feel of what chakra feels like and to open your dormant chakra system."

"Did it open?" He nods in reply. "So…is it supposed to be warm or burning?"

"Warm," he replies going back to his place. "It was only burning because your chakra was rejecting mine and went to fight it out of your system."

"Is that normal?"

"I'm not sure," he replies, his eyes furrowing just a bit. "Go ahead and try to collect your chakra now."

I nod closing my eyes again. Concentrating I feel for my chakra. It feels like a calm flowing river. I let that feeling wash through me for a while sort of in a form of meditation. After about…fifteen minutes I then proceed to gather it up in a spiral. It moves slowly, like a snail and is resisting. So I try harder, and it moves at a turtle pace but the resisting intensifies. Feeling as if this is a battle of tug-of-war, I pull harder. For a moment the resisting stops but then kicks right back up. The only reason I can think of it moving and resisting like it is doing is as Sasuke had said is that it has been dormant.

Sighing, I ignore the sun beating its hot rays of light down and the sweat sliding down my skin. Instead, I think of another way to make the chakra do as I want. Forcing it just makes it resist giving me a nausea feeling.

Taking a deep breath I probe at the chakra, carefully trying to guide it into a form that Sasuke instructed me. The chakra moves slowly but there is no resistance. So I continue doing what I'm doing imagining it starting off in a very small spiraling ball. As time continues the flow moves faster and the ball increases in size. All of this takes what feels like an hour.

"Okay," I say opening my eyes. "I think I got it."

With a nod Sasuke says, "Now onto chakra control. You are to cloak your hands with chakra. This will increase the damage of your attack. However, to little and it won't be very helpful, but too much and you risk the chance of hurting yourself. Give it a try then attack me."

Nodding, I once again close my eyes. I just feel the flow of my chakra for a few minutes then guide it to my hands. I imagine it cloaking my hands for about ten minutes then open my eyes. Looking down at my hands I notice they're glowing in red. I freak out a bit and that causes it to flicker like lights.

"Calm down," Sasuke says.

I take a deep breath to calm down and the flickering stops. Looking back up at Sasuke, I get into my fighting stance. He gives a nod and that's when I make my move. Charging, I think about the moves I know and try formulating a plan with the help of my surroundings. Right now we're in the open, so any sneak attacks are out of the question. Any attacks from the back won't do because as Kisame had informed me it is never good to have your back to an opponent, so it is very likely Sasuke follows that. Air attacks are useless because I can't fly, nor do I ever want to. So, I'll just have to hope that I can attack him with surprise attacks.

Reaching Sasuke, I go to punch him, but he quickly evades and goes to swipe my legs from under me. Quickly, I go to do a backflip moving from harm's way. When I land back on my feet, I see a sort of scorch mark on the ground where my hands touched. Sasuke sees it as well and raises his brow but says nothing. I'll just ask about it later.

For the rest of the time I go after Sasuke trying to land a hit on him. He always dodges, and sometimes attacks back. Sometimes I get close to hitting him but he's always able to find some last minutes escape from the attack but not without wincing or hissing in pain. Why he would do that I have no idea since I don't even touch him.

When Sasuke attacks me, he attacks with everything he's got. There are times when I'm able to escape and then there are times he knocks me down right on my behind. And as the training continues, I'm feeling more and more drained but say nothing. I had made a deal with Leader and so I was sticking to it. I was going to swallow up any complaining of wanting a break, of my body aching.

Once again I go to attack Sasuke, but he dodges with a bored unworried look. That just angers me because I feel as if I'm not being taken seriously. Plus, I'm getting tired from all of this and when that happens I end up very grouchy. So I just stop attacking and dismiss the chakra as I place my hands over my hips.

"Can we move onto something else now," I ask with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Hn," he says as he stands up straight. "We'll talk about chakra nature now."

"We're not going talk more about chakra control?"

"No, but later you'll have to climb a tree. We'll use that as a way of testing your chakra control. Anyways about chakra natures, there are five main types. They are fire, wind, lightning, earth and water. Fire is strong against wind but weak against water. Wind is strong against lightning but weak against fire. Lightning is strong against earth but weak against wind. Water is strong against fire but weak against earth. Each person has at least one affinity to a chakra nature. Understanding so far?"

"Of course I am," I reply with a roll of my eyes. I'm not stupid.

"Good then take this," he replies reaching into his pocket.

He walks over pulling out his hand holding a piece of paper. I raise my brow as I grab hold of the paper. What does paper have to do with anything?

"Release a small amount of your chakra into the paper. This paper is able to tell what your chakra nature is. After finding out we'll move on from there."

"Okay," I reply and close my eyes. Once again I got to guide my chakra to my hands. Without a single problem it moves and I open my eyes. I watch as the paper quickly ignites and crumbles to the ground in ashes. I blink a few times in surprise and look up to Sasuke.

"Fire," is all he states. Well no duh Sherlock I thought it meant it was water.

"Okay," I reply dusting my hands. "So what do we do now?"

"There are no fire release techniques under B rank, so you're going to have to deal with a lot of training. The first technique we're doing is the great fireball technique. What you do is knead chakra inside your body and turn it into flames. The more you let it build up the powerful it will be. Once you think you're ready you release it through your mouth either as a massive orb of roaring flame or as a continuous flame-thrower."

"You want me to burn myself alive," I ask in outrage.

"You won't burn alive," he replies with a bit of annoyance. "Now here are the hand signs and you must do them in order. They are horse, tiger, ram, money, boar, horse, and then tiger again. Practice doing those hands signs until you feel comfortable and then try doing the technique."

With a sigh, I practice doing the hand signs he showed me. Doing them feels uncomfortable on my hands awhile and I even mess up…a lot. But I continue practicing, repeating the order in my head until I no longer have to do that. I practice and practices for an hour until finally it feels just a bit comfortable were I'm confident enough to try the technique.

Confident, I go through the hand signs then imagine my chakra inside me. First I imagine it going into its spirally ball form and slowly turn to flames. For a while I'm standing there not sure I'm doing it right, but don't question anything. Then I open my eyes to blow out flames feeling very stupid when a small little stream comes out burning not only my throat but also my mouth.

For the next two hours I continue the process. I feel the chakra build up and it burning as I imagine it turning to flames. Each time I go to blow it out, only a very small stream comes out only reaching a few inches away from my face while again burning my throat and mouth. Each time I feel more drained then before but continue to not complain. Sasuke seems to also find it slightly funny when I only get that small stream of flames out because his lips always twitch in amusement.

"That's it," I croak out falling to the ground exhausted. "Can we take a quick water break?" My goodness my voice sounds horrible.

"Fine," Sasuke says.

I go to sigh happily but decide against it since my throat hurts too much. Instead, I shakily push myself up and get to my feet. Sasuke watches but offers no help. Curse the damn Uchiha.

"It's time for us to leave," shouts out Mrs. Wilson.

"We must leave as well," my father says. "My wife has got a call that she's needed in the emergency room and I have a meeting to go to."

"Very well," Leader says. "All training is to stop."

"Yay," I croak out slightly waving my hand in the air. Oh thank you God for this welcoming break.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

We both hope that you have enjoyed this chapter and are enjoying the story. Thank you to everyone who has been reading, adding this to their favorites and/or alerts and for reviewing, it means a lot to us. Please stay tuned for the next update and once again thank you. Reviews are much appreciated and loved; until next time. ^.^