Chapter 100

As they walked along the path, Sakura took in some of the natural beauties that were around them—Inner Sakura making note of them while outer Sakura continued the explanation without faltering. There was a shrub of chrysanthemum flowers growing on the side of the road, and in the underbrush there were snails and slugs crawling slowly in the dampness. A cicada was chirping somewhere nearby and faded away as they grew farther from it.

"That is the entire reasoning behind the sensing of spirits—some people are more sensitive chakra by nature, like myself, while others have to search for it. Being able to detect chakra at will is very helpful, however most ninja mask their chakra exceptionally well—but nobody is capable of completely hiding their chakra signatures because chakra is used to hide it, so there is always some trace of it," Sakura told him, watching as a small snake slithered out from the underbrush and crossed the path some ways ahead, "It requires damn good chakra control, but with practice, any chakra signature can be detected."

She watched the snake slither gracefully and surreptitiously on the path, coming up to a leaf lying on the ground, and passing over it, crushing it beneath the slender body. From the underbrush, a small weasel was eyeing the small reptile with interest, its eyes glinting.

"For the next week, we're going to cut back on taijutsu and ninjutsu training; I am going to have you practice focusing your chakra. Hopefully by the end of that week, you'll be able to detect many chakra signatures that you couldn't before," she explained further, Sasuke merely listening to her words and nodding at places to show he understood, "Guarding your chakra signature is second nature to ninja, and most of them have it masked at all times. You have yours masked and I have mine masked—but I'm going to lower it slightly so that you will have a better time of detecting it."

The weasel dashed out from its hiding spot, scampering across the path, and snatched the snake up off the road, the sharp teeth digging into the writhing body. Taking its prize to the wayside, the weasel promptly bit into the flesh of the snake, tearing the head off. The gates of the village lay just ahead, and as they approached them, she waved happily hello to the men on duty. Even though she had probably delivered hundreds of letters to them from Tsunade, she could never for the life of her remember their names.

"The desired end result should be that you are able to detect where your opponent is at all times, no matter where they are. Of course you'll only be able to detect to a certain range, but people shouldn't be able to get close to you without you knowing before hand—whether it's from above or below, behind, or dead ahead," she finished as they passed through the open gates.

"Why don't people usually use this to detect their opponents?" he asked her after a moment of absorbing her words.

"You have to be able to control your chakra just above ANBU level," she replied evenly, walking the familiar path back to the Uchiha manor, "Most ANBU have difficulty with it, and because of that, it's generally unused. But you are talented, Sasuke, I strongly believe that you can pull it off. Your other senses have become ridiculously enhanced—you hear things better, you are more sensitive with touch, you comment on things being too sweet or salty and I don't know what you're talking about. You can smell meals when you're in the bedroom, but when you make something, I can't smell it until I go into the living room. Your chakra senses haven't been lazing around doing nothing—they've most likely become more sensitive as well."

"Why didn't you teach me this earlier?" he asked her, a confused frown descending upon his face.

"It's easy to start to rely too heavily on chakra," she told him as they turned the corner into the old Uchiha neighbourhood, "I wanted you to be able to rely on all your senses equally."

"Aa."

She smiled warmly, as they came up to the main gate—the lock had been replaced and Sakura now had a key for it; they were no longer required to jump over it. After closing the gate behind them, she took his hand instead of his arm, brushing the back affectionately, and led him towards the back yard.

"Come on, let's start focusing your chakra."

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