Sakura caught the boys not at the training site, but as they were on their way back to the house. "Hey, Sasuke-kun, Naruto!" she called to them, about to launch into story about what she had seen and what she had thought. She stopped, however, when she saw the look on Sasuke's face. "I-is something wrong?" She asked worriedly, not wanting to direct his anger to her. "Did Naruto do something?"
"It's not what he did, it's what he didn't - what he can't do," Sasuke growled - actually growled - motioning almost wildly at Naruto. "I finally figured out why Naruto doesn't get chakra. He can't feel it!"
"Huh?" Sakura asked with confusion, not understanding why Sasuke was so moved by it. "He can't feel chakra?"
"Yeah, that sensation you get when you're gathering chakra, the prickly feeling in your chakra coils, he can't feel it. Even when he gathers chakra to his feet, he can't feel the build up - not even the warmth. Naruto can't feel his chakra at all - he's handicapped!" If Sakura hadn't know better, she would've thought that Sasuke was actually about to tear his hair. She had never seen the stoic Uchiha be so… emotional. Even if it was frustration he felt.
"I'm not handicapped!" Naruto argued, though he seemed slightly confused. "And I don't get what he's talking about. What prickly feeling?" he turned to Sakura. "Help me out here, Sakura-chan. Sasuke stopped making sense some half an hour ago when he started ranting."
"Uh…" Sakura blinked with confusion, looking between the two boys. Sasuke was still fuming with what seemed to be angry aggravation and Naruto was confused and slightly hurt. "Wait, wait, start from the beginning. You can't feel chakra?"
"How am I supposed to know if I can feel it or not, when I don't even know what it's supposed to feel like?" Naruto asked almost helplessly, folding his hands and tilting his head to the side.
"Well, can't you feel it when you concentrate it to your feet? The pulling sensation - like something is being tugged down inside you? And then the warmth when you've gathered the chakra - like you're standing on something warm?" Sakura asked.
"Uh… huh?" Naruto asked with confusion.
"He doesn't know what you're talking about because he has never felt it," Sasuke snorted, shaking his head with disbelief. "He's chakra-handicapped. He's numb. His chakra coils are either under-developed or they're damaged - in any case, he can't feel chakra."
"How can he do Ninjutsu if he can't feel chakra - how can he control his chakra at all?" Sakura asked with confusion. It had taken her years to start feeling her chakra, and only then she had been able to do anything with it.
"Because he has so much chakra, that even when he doesn't feel it, he can use it to some degree. That's why his control sucks - hard to control something you can't feel," Sasuke shook his head angrily. "I only noticed it when I started to wonder how he can stand the burning when he gathers too much charka to his feet. He didn't even understand what I was taking about."
"He is standing right beside you," Naruto pointed out with a frown, folding his hands. Then he frowned with slight worry. "Everyone can feel their chakra?" he then asked almost carefully. "I always thought…"
"And no one explained it to you," Sasuke shook his head, folding his hands. For a moment he looked like he was going to get even angrier, before he forced himself to calm down. "What I really would like to know is how did Naruto manage to go through years in academy and no one noticed this," he snorted. "Kakashi probably hasn't noticed either. What wonderfully perceptive teachers we have."
"Is it really such a bad thing?" Naruto asked quietly.
"If I couldn't feel chakra, I wouldn't be able to use it," Sakura answered quietly. "I thought it was like that with everyone," she turned to Sasuke, hoping that he would know.
"It is for me - I think it is like that for everyone," the raven haired boy nodded. "Naruto wouldn't be able to either if he didn't have as much chakra as he does - and I think he might've subconsciously developed a different way of using it. By mimicking maybe."
"Huh?" Naruto asked with confusion.
"You use chakra blindly. Like a deaf person learning to speak by copying those who can speak," Sasuke shrugged. "It's still a handicap - a severe one."