One of the strangest parts of this strange, new world was the chakra.

At first, Hanako hadn't given it much thought. She was too preoccupied with keeping a low profile while also doing justice to the Hatake reputation as a family of geniuses. They were a quality over quantity kind of family, for sure. However, after starting her first full school year at the academy a year after coming to Konoha, chakra control and manipulation had become part of the curriculum. Her taijutsu scores were below average—just how she liked them—and had been balanced out by her place at the top of academics, but now, if she wanted to maintain her place in the middle of the pack, she had to at least somewhat master it. She checked out a few books in the library and inhaled as much theory as she could—never mind that many of the authors who published on chakra held very disparate ideas on how it actually worked.

Just like academia back home.

For the first time, Hanako felt herself at a disadvantage when compared to her peers. Chakra was just a part of life to them, using it as simple as breathing. Coming from a world where no such thing existed—or, if it did, those who could use it were rare and generally disregarded as hacks—she had to put more effort into even sensing it.

Well, she didn't have to. She knew she was overcomplicating it. Maybe all that theoretical study, coupled with an adult mind lacking the flexibility of youth, had done more harm than good.

Eventually, she had to swallow her pride.

"Neji-san," she said one day as the class let out for lunch. "May I ask you a question?"

The Hyuuga regarded her with his pale eyes—freaky pale, she could hardly stand to meet them—and nodded. "You may. I might not answer, though."

She laughed. "That's fair. Um," she hesitated. "Can you explain chakra to me?"

His eyebrows rose. "Explain chakra?"

Hanako sighed and looked away, scratching at the edge of her mask. "I know what chakra is, theoretically, and I know how I'm supposed to interact with it. But theory and practice are different, and I feel like I'm overthinking it, you know? I thought, since you can actually see chakra, you'd be able to explain it to me in a way that makes sense, practically."

He didn't say anything for a while, and Hanako began to fidget with nervousness.

"If you don't understand chakra, how did you summon your ninken?"

Yeah, that.

Momiji sat on the desk between them, dark eyes regarding them both serenely. Hanako absently reached out and pat her head.

"That was different, for some reason. I don't know how to explain it. Well," she corrected. "I do, but I don't have the words to do it efficiently."

"Try."

"Well, ok. It's like my chakra is a ball of yarn and I have to unravel it to use it. So, that's what I did with Momiji. But charka isn't static. It's constantly in motion, like a spiritual cardiovascular system, or something. I shouldn't have to unravel anything, right?"

She hazarded a look at Neji's face and found him pensive.

"No," he agreed. "You shouldn't. Come," he gestured for her to follow him. "Let's find a sensei and see what we can do."

Eh? "Y-you don't have to do that!" She rushed to say. "I didn't mean to cut into your training."

"You're not," he assured her. "Chakra study is training, too."

Well, when he put it like that.

She followed him meekly as he flagged down one of the chunin senseis on playground duty. He explained the situation shortly and then lead both Hanako and the sensei to the training area.

So much for keeping a low profile. If word got out that Kakashi's kid had trouble with her chakra, his reputation would certainly suffer. A ball of guilt began growing in the pit of her stomach.

"Hatake."

Neji's voice pulled her from her wallowing. "Y-yes?"

"Use your chakra."

He followed the curt order with an activation of his Byakugan. It was the first time she'd seen it in real life, and it was freaky. Not something she wanted to ever see again, if she was honest. Blegh.

She shook off her disgust and closed her eyes, forming a hand sign as she mentally delved into herself in search of the mysterious power source that was chakra. In her mind's eye, she pictured it the way the anime had displayed it: as a network of light starting at her navel and traveling through her body like another bodily system. She pulled at the pool of light in her belly and coaxed it into her extremities.

"Stop."

Concentration broken, Hanako could practically feel the alien substance shrink back into itself.

Neji was shaking his head when she opened her eyes, his Byakugan still active. "That doesn't make sense," he said. "Your chakra looks normal when you aren't using it, but the moment you started to channel it, it pulled itself back. What were you trying to do?"

"Eh? Ah, well," she looked at the supervising sensei, who just looked intrigued. "I was trying to spread it."

"Spread it?" Neji's eyes were sharp.

"Um, yes. It starts here, right?" She placed a hand on her stomach. "So, I was trying to make it go..."

She trailed off as Neji shook his head.

"No," he said, exasperated. "Chakra doesn't start, it just is. Does your blood start somewhere? Can you decide its point of origin?"

She knew what he was getting at, but, "Yes, it starts in the marrow."

His freaky eyes widened. "What?"

"Blood cells are created in the bone marrow," she continued. "And then released into the bloodstream. The electrical impulses which move our muscles start in the brain and travel to nerve endings which force our bodies into action. Oxygen starts in air but is pulled in to blood stream via specialized cells which exchange it for carbon dioxide. Everything has a point of origin," she clenched her fists and scrunched her face as she held Neji's gaze. "Why should chakra be exempt? It's a bodily system, right?"

Both Neji and the chunin sensei looked at her like she'd grown an extra head. Then, the sensei laughed.

"Oh, wow, you Hatakes sure don't do things by halves, do you?"

She wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but she was taking it as a compliment.

The sensei crouched down between the two students, a smile on his face. "Now, Hatake-chan, what you're saying is technically correct, but you're overthinking it." Well, duh, she knew that. "Do you need to know how your lung work to breathe?"

"Breathing is an involuntary process controlled by the brain stem," she replied. "We don't control it."

"No," the sensei agreed. "But you can affect how you breathe, right? Whether its deep or shallow, or how long to hold it, right? Chakra is the same way. Its flow is an involuntary process you can learn to affect manually."

That made sense. "But, how? How do I affect it without disrupting its primary functions? Breathe too fast or not enough and you pass out!"

The sensei nodded with a growing smile. "The same thing can happen with chakra. Young Hyuuga-kun, here, has an instinctive understanding of how much chakra he can safely use and how to use it—that's probably why you asked him for help, right?—but even he is limited by how much chakra he actually has. That's why we start small, so you can build up your chakra reserves and jutsus won't knock you out."

Hanako nodded. "Like holding your breath."

"Yes, exactly!"

"I still don't know how to actually get to my chakra, though."

The sensei snorted. "Now, that is something Hyuuga-kun can help you with. Come on, start again.