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.

Proofread by: Author

Apologies for the late upload, but you know. Life. Got two exams next week to study for, and procrastinating is far too easy.

Well, I don't think I got any name suggestions for the new technique. Oh well, I suppose there's still time to consider that. Now, let's see how things go from here.

Chapter 124: A substitute for teachings


"Now then, you got everything you need out of that fight, brat?" Tsunade asked, although her tone and the smile on her face gave away that she didn't mean anything by calling them a brat. It was more playful than anything.

"Yeah, and even if we didn't, we can't make another Shadow Clone right now, and we'd rather not go through that again," Sakura answered although it was both a lie and the truth. They really didn't want to go through that again, so Sakura honestly explained why they would have lied, while pretending to be honest, letting the actual truth cover the more insignificant lie. There was much more they'd need to figure out, now that the foundation of their style had been figured out. After all, while they gained a significant advantage in durability and defense, the original goal was to enhance their body in its entirety. That included speed and attack power, which their current technique did not.

"Right, well I have things to do myself. I'll leave you two here then. Have a good day." Tsunade told them, before leaving at a civilian pace, likely dragging her feet back to the Hokage tower.

"Well, I have to say. You never stop surprising me you little geniuses." Anko spoke up as she suddenly appeared using the Body Flicker Technique.

"Geniuses?" Sakura asked while feeling the ANBU disappear one by one, only a pair of them deciding to linger.

"Of course, what else would you two be? Just learned the Shadow Clone Technique, and you can already make one capable of taking hits from Tsunade of all people? If you weren't part of a clan, even more so the heir of one, you would likely have been drafted into ANBU by now, and whatever you did with that clone would have been… well, you'd be encouraged to share your secrets. However, considering your status, it is now considered a Haruno special and secret by default, since the Hokage decided not to question you about it. Or at least, that's how the ANBU sees it." Anko informed them, and Sakura nodded in acceptance that made sense after all. However, there was something Heikō pointed out.

"Haven't seen you around lately, Anko. Where have you been?" Sakura asked, only to see Anko smile brightly.

"Well, thanks to you, Jiraiya, and Fezā freeing me of that cursed mark, I finally got the go-ahead to progress in my career. So, it's no longer my mission to look after you two. Instead, I'm training for an evaluation and hopeful promotion." Anko revealed, sounding incredibly excited at the prospect.

"Congratulations. We're glad to help." Sakura offered with a smile, glad that things were working out for Anko and that they had been a catalyst for it. Heikō decided that it would be a good time to take over, and flipped their braid over to the left shoulder, before addressing Anko again.

"I bet they would freak out knowing that it was just the first step of our technique." She pointed out, drawing a laugh from Anko.

"Oh, yeah. That sounds just like you two. I imagine the shadow clone is necessary not to mess yourselves up with whatever it was you did, right? You've been planning this for the longest time I imagine, and now it's all coming out at once. Speaking of, when the hell did you get the chakra reserves to pull a clone off? I distinctly remember your limit being far from what you'd need back when you practiced summoning the hares with me." Anko pointed out, curious about the change, which made Heikō chuckle in return.

"Ever heard of the Calm Golden path?" Heikō inquired. Furrowing her brows slightly, Anko thought for a moment before shaking her head.

"Can't say I have. What is it?" She asked, intrigued.

"It's an alternative to opening the Eight Inner Gates," Heikō explained, surprising Anko who clearly knew of the Eight Inner Gates if her reaction was anything to go off of.

"The Eight Inner Gates? If it's an alternative, I imagine it's safer, but weaker, right?" Anko guessed, making Heikō chuckle.

"Kinda. It's kind of the original technique that the path of the Eight Inner Gates was born from. Consider it the complete, long, and boring way to do things. It's safer but supposedly takes so long to master, that it has never been done. The big plus, however, is that once you open any of the gates, the increase in power it grants you is not just safe, but permanent." Heikō explained, making Anko go wide-eyed.

"Damn, that sounds a lot more useful than destroying your own body before dying. Why the hell is it that the Eight Inner Gates is a supposed improvement then? It still takes years to master, but it's supposedly awful for the body." Anko inquired, making Heikō roll her eyes as she sat and patted the ground next to her, inviting Anko to sit down next to them.

"That might take a while to explain," Heikō told Anko who sighed and rolled her eyes in a good-natured way before sitting down.

"Well, I got some time to spare, so tell me." Anko agreed. And so, Heikō filled Anko in on what the Calm Golden Path was, how they had managed to unlock thief first tenketsu each, and that She had been lucky enough to unlock her Gate of Death as her first tenketsu, acquiring them their first significant boost in chakra, safely.


"Like always, you two just can't stop being surprising little geniuses. No wonder Orochimaru tried to kidnap you two." Anko eventually told them with a sigh after their discussion about the Calm Golden Path had ended.

"What can I say? We're just that awesome." Heikō replied with a smirk and a shrug, making Anko chuckle and shake her head.

"Whatever you say, kid." She replies, before sighing and standing back up. "Well, as eye-opening and entertaining as it has been catching up with you two, I got places to be, training to suffer through, and hares to see. See you around later." Anko told them, before performing the summoning jutsu, disappearing in a cloud of smoke, having apparently reverse summoned herself to the Kōdaina Meadows.

"Huh, seems she's training with the hares. You think she's trying to become a hare sage?" Heikō mused.

"No idea. Although, we should see about trying that. First, however, we still need to bond more with Gochi and Gochi, as well as to inquire about learning seals from Jiraiya or Fezā. Our calligraphy is pretty good, and we've opened up a lot of practice time for ourselves thanks to learning the shadow clone technique." Sakura pointed out, excited about getting tutored in seals, as learning how to make seals on their own had just resulted in a bunch of non-functioning papers, despite looking identical to the store-bought ones they had copied. They had even duplicated the chakra they could feel within the ink, infusing their own, yet nothing. It had been incredibly frustrating that they either completely lacked the ability to make seals, or that there was some kind of secret to it that wasn't mentioned in any of the books on the subject that they had read.

No wonder that Fūinjutsu was a dying art. It required talent, information, and dedication. Sakura and Heikō considered themselves to be dedicated enough, and they had shown plenty of talent in other areas, so it was likely they lacked the necessary information, rather than a lack of talent, they hoped. Otherwise, all of their dedication would end up wasted on nothing in the end.

"We just keep hitting walls in our progress, like with the poison or body reinforcement we just managed to resolve. There were quite a few others when it came to Natural energy as well, and we still don't know what the third eye growing in our head is supposed to be for." Heikō pointed out, and Sakura couldn't help but sigh at the reminder while nodding in agreement.

"At least we're not stagnating completely, improving where we can. Clones should help us out with this tremendously. Especially once we get enough chakra for more than a single clone at a time." Sakura reasoned, and it became Heikō's turn to agree with her.

"Right, with clones now learned, I think we should inform Gai of our success in the Calm Golden Path. He deserves to know I guess, and if he knows we were successful, he might be convinced it was a good idea to teach us and might tell us more." Heikō decided, standing up as she began searching for Gai's Natural energy signature.

Normally, finding a specific person based on their specific Natural energy wasn't that easy. It required a lot of time to familiarize themselves with a particular quality of Natural energy. In Gai's case, it was impossible not to notice him. Compared to others, his Natural energy simply stood out on its own. Sakura and Heikō had wondered for a while why that was, but before they had asked him about it and what he thought might be the reason, they had both been assaulted by a mental picture of the man shouting "Youth!" at the top of his lungs while posing triumphantly, making them shiver and decide not to pursue that line of inquiry.

Finding Gai running laps around the village didn't come to much of a surprise, to either of them. Taking back control, Sakura flipped their braid back to the right shoulder, before setting off to intercept Gai and see if he was soon to be finished with his training, or self-imposed punishment. Whichever one it happened to be. Although, she supposed it wouldn't matter unless Gai was willing to discuss the Calm Golden Path with them in more detail. Sakura and Heikō both hoped he did.


Gai, unfortunately, hadn't provided them with anything more regarding the Calm Golden Path, but had been surprised at their progress and opened up more to the idea of helping them with it in the future. Learning that they had already opened one of the Eight Inner Gates using the Calm Golden Path had made him stumble, which let Kakashi, who had apparently been competing with Gai at the moment, win.

Since Sakura had mentioned that she could now use shadow clones, thanks to the boost in chakra from the Calm Golden Path, Kakashi had commented that he had considered the possibilities as well and that she should have asked him for help. When Sakura questioned if he could really have helped her, when he refused to even consider teaching her the shadow clones technique, and her previous lack of chakra, he asked them if they had ever considered using their technique for molding chakra outside of the body, to increase their reserves beyond their bodily limit.

Managing to stun his student, and having won against Gai, Kakashi left shortly afterward, and Gai chased after him to challenge him to another competition, leaving Sakura and Heikō questioning themselves. What else had they missed concerning their own techniques?

Going home, they spent some time contemplating the possibilities, and once their chakra had recovered enough, they summoned a shadow clone to begin experimenting with all of their techniques, trying to go at them from new angles and using out of the box thinking, while slowly molding part of their Physical and Mental energy into chakra.

While continuing to experiment and brainstorm, their reserves of Physical and Mental energy soon began running low, bringing them to the edge of exhaustion. Without thinking much about it, they handed the task over to their clone. After a few more minutes, they felt they could continue, only to realize it wasn't there. Confronting their clone, brought another sudden revelation. The chakra generated hadn't gone to waste. It had instead been safely tucked away inside of their clone.

The revelation that they could refill their chakra reserves, allowing the clone to persist beyond the hard limit previously set in place opened up a whole new category of experiments concerning chakra and energy sharing. Before the day was over, they had another technique, allowing them to collect Natural, Physical, or Mental energy into spheres outside of their bodies, just like they had with the chakra molded externally.


AN: I… I honestly had no real plans for this, but like this story always seems to do, I end up writing things, changing, editing it all last minute. I wonder if there'll be anything left for Sakura and Heikō to actually learn or master in the canon time-skip. I already have a lot of plans for it, but nothing is set in stone, and I am on the edge about one of the bigger decisions. It is a bit of a spoiler, but I wish to hear what my readers have to say on the matter. There are reasons as to why, when Jiraiya and Naruto decide to leave Konohagakure for a while, that Sakura would ask to go with them. Learning seals is a big reason, and I have a few reasons as to why Jiraiya would be inclined to agree, but Sakura going with them is not in any way necessary for the story, and it is just as likely for her to stay in Konohagakure, as she'll still have access to Fezā, as well as much more books and other resources in Konohagakure. She also has family there, so there is a lot to consider. What do you think would be more interesting, or credible? Any arguments for Sakura leaving with them, or staying? Her love for Sasuke is no longer a valid excuse after all.