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. No characters were permanently harmed in this chapter.
Proofread by: Author
This is not another chapter, but the second Omake. To those of you not aware of what an Omake chapter is, it is essentially a little bonus. My personal view on this Omake is that it is not strictly canon. This Omake takes place somewhere during the second half of the training month for those curious about where it fits into the timeline.
Note, all Omake chapters I write will not follow the conventional rules I set for myself when writing new chapters, meaning I have no idea when new ones will be uploaded, how long they will be, or how much time I spend on them.
Warning: I posted this chapter right after chapter 93. If you have yet to read chapter 93, make sure to keep it in mind so that you don't end up missing it and become extremely confused when chapter 94 comes out.
Omake 2: Research and Poison
Sakura sighed as she leaned back in her chair, putting down the book she had been reading. "It has to be active chakra reinforcement," Sakura concluded, glancing down at her notes where they laid to the side, along with several other books and scrolls.
Naruto's training with Jiraiya had piqued her curiosity. With her own interest in getting stronger, and Naruto officially training under one of the Sannin, Sakura decided to figure out what it was that had allowed the three Sannin to become so powerful. The most common nominator she had found, was the self modifications they all had gone through.
Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, all three of them had in one way, or another, modified their bodies to reach new heights. Orochimaru by modifying his physical body, experimenting on himself, as well as others to reach his results. Jiraiya had done it by becoming a Sage, using Natural energy to create Senjutsu chakra to lend more power to his body and chakra. And Tsunade, as far as Sakura could tell, had honed her chakra control and turned it into a power that allowed her to become a reliable medical-nin, capable of standing along with her team and fighting on the frontlines.
Unlike Jiraiya and Orochimaru, Tsunade's method of self-improvement wasn't as apparent or clear. It had required a lot of research and reading about Tsunade's exploits for Sakura to conclude with certainty that her feats of strength weren't a specific jutsu she could just find in a scroll or raw, physical strength from physical modification like what Orochimaru would have tried. If Sakura was to guess, it was something akin to temporary chakra reinforcement, parroting the natural reinforcement of Senjutsu chakra. It was unfortunate, but also intriguing at the same time.
"Attempting something like temporarily reinforcing our body by concentrating chakra in different parts of our body is risky. After nearly giving ourselves brain-damage, I'm not really inclined to experiment with our own body without supervision, yet there's no one here to teach us." Heikō summarized their issue with the revelation.
"Pretty much. I wish Tsunade was in the village. If she could teach us how to become stronger the way she did, we'd be able to catch up with our teammates, guaranteed. Maybe we should try and learn medical techniques? It'd be useful if we get hurt, or have no choice but to experiment on our own in the future. Plus, it might be an in with Tsunade in the future. She'd appreciate someone who shows initiative and isn't a complete novice I suspect." Sakura reasoned, agreeing with Heikō not to experiment with their body without supervision. She'd rather not blow her own limbs off by accident or something.
"Yeah, let's look into healing. It's got the most potential. Besides, it could help us figure out our own body, how to use our chakra better, and maybe even develop new jutsu." Heikō agreed, glad that they finally had a plan on how to proceed with something new to learn from the library during their time reading.
Closing the book they had been reading from, Sakura got up from her seat and began collecting the books and scrolls to put them back where they belonged before she picked out new books on human biology, medicine, and poisons. The three areas all overlapping enough that they'd compliment each other. Of course, learning more about poisons would also help with the poison kit she had carefully been working with at home.
It wasn't a pleasant past-time, but poisoning herself in small doses to build up a resistance, was slowly beginning to produce results. Increasing the doses would work for a while, but eventually, she would reach poisons that one couldn't build up a resistance to safely by using small quantities. They needed to know how to counter them or build up a resistance to them properly if they wished to continue with developing that advantage.
There were moments when Sakura hated her past self and her past decisions. There was a reason poison was… well, poison. It wasn't good for the body, and trying to get the body used to poisons was never a pleasant experience. Even less so when one made a mistake ended up dealing with the consequences.
"This is so embarrassing." Sakura thought as she had found herself confined to the bathroom with a case of the runs.
"It could have been worse. At least we had the antidote prepared already." Heikō responded, although without any teasing or humor in her voice, as she seemed to also be afflicted with the same nausea and headache that Sakura was suffering from.
"Not that it seems to be helping much. I can't believe that even with the antidote, there are still symptoms like these. Shouldn't an antidote cure you of a poison completely?" Sakura questioned in frustration.
"It did neutralize the poison. Our symptoms are partly because of the antidote, as well as the remains of the poison. We're no longer poisoned, but our body still needs to purge itself of all the individual parts of the poison." Heikō reminded Sakura who ground her teeth.
"I know, I know! Just saying that a real antidote should be something painless, quick, and safe. Not something that results in… well, this!" Sakura replied, exasperated. Frowning as she felt her bowels complain again. "That's it, next time, I'm making sure we know not just the composition and method of making the antidote, but everything there is to know about it. And if it's one like this, we're not using that poison until we've figured out a better antidote!" Sakura declared, motivated to improve the future of poisons and antidotes that were ahead of Heikō and her.
"Well, it was kind of our fault. We did miss the page with the warning on it." Heikō reminded Sakura, who frowned sourly at the memory.
"We should look into seeing if we can sue the maker of that book. The fact that those pages were stuck together could have killed someone!" Sakura thought sourly, entertaining the thought about attempting to take legal action. Of course, the time and money it would take to pursue legal action against someone not currently in the village when they barely had a case, wasn't really viable. Not that Sakura couldn't enjoy imagining getting some revenge for her current situation.
AN: And so, with that, we have a short little omake about Sakura investigating the source of the 3 Sannins' power and a way to find some herself. We also got a little look into Sakura's training with poisons. Making them using a textbook, not that difficult for Sakura. Of course, accidents can happen, and Sakura and Heikō do seem to be showing a pattern of being slightly reckless at times, no? Well, a small mistake resulted in an embarrassing situation for them this time. Mainly this bit was added as an assurance that I haven't forgotten about Sakura's poison kit and intent to learn how to use it. Unfortunately, it is one of the things that takes too long for her to get used to before the final exam. It also acts as a bit of a reminder for those that forgot that Sakura had begun to dabble into poisons.
