Chapter 237: The True Cheat
The research that Haruno Sakura was currently conducting was the technology of converting human cells into stem cells, and then inducing the stem cells to differentiate into myocardial cells and form a heart.
However, speaking of which, due to the urgency of the matter, what she was doing couldn't be considered "research." At most, it was just following the instructions in the materials.
Konoha actually had its own stem cell technology.
The surgery to transform Yūgao's hair into a new heart was an application of this technology.
And in the world of Sakura's previous life, in fact, similar technology had been invented long ago. The conversion of human hair root keratinocytes into embryonic-like stem cells had already been achieved by humans on Earth in 2008. Compared to cloning a complete human, just de-differentiating somatic cells into stem cells and then creating human organs was not too difficult.
And in this magical world with chakra, the threshold for this technology would only be lower. Any problem, when encountered with chakra, would no longer be a problem...
It was just that later, because Konoha had completely halted human experimentation, this technology had stagnated. The technology, which was not perfected and had many loopholes, had resulted in Yūgao's new heart being a crudely made, inferior product.
And now, thanks to the materials obtained from Orochimaru's base, this technology was finally completely supplemented.
The research of stem cells was the most important prerequisite technology for the cloning project, so in Orochimaru's materials, the description of how to de-differentiate human cells and transform them into embryonic stem cells was very detailed.
It had to be admitted that Orochimaru was indeed a genius! With his own power, he had raised the biotechnology of the Naruto world from the level of the 20th century in her previous life to the level of the 21st century...
Perhaps the contribution of a person named "Shin" should also be included. From the materials, this person was the key experimental subject for Orochimaru's development of cloning technology. His constitution was very special, and he would not have a rejection reaction to any tissue transplanted onto his body.
Of course, the biological knowledge she had learned in her previous life had also been a great help.
Although she had not studied biology in her previous life and had only learned some superficial biological knowledge from textbooks and certain websites—scientific knowledge cannot be fooled with just made-up content—at least she had a high-level understanding of the essence of biology. Orochimaru had painstakingly researched for so many years just to know what a gene was, but it was common knowledge that she had to learn in high school in her previous life...
No joke, the knowledge from her previous life stored in Sakura's mind was a true cheat, more powerful than any external hack!
Then again, the situation in the ninja world was very similar to that of her previous life's ancient country. Both had developed science and technology, but their scientific theoretical research was not very deep, a situation of having skill but no principle. Was it probably because both were overly pragmatic? And this world had chakra, and many technologies could be used without understanding the principles, and the effects were all astonishing. So ninja often knew the "what" of a ninjutsu but not the "why," and did not feel the need to study the theory in depth...
In short, Haruno Sakura had quickly filled the gap in Konoha's stem cell technology. The materials from Orochimaru and Konoha, as well as the knowledge she had learned in her previous life, were combined and organized by her into a more complete and comprehensive system.
Following the steps in the materials, Sakura conducted the experiment step by step.
With the assistance of medical ninjutsu, the experiment went very smoothly, and the first few results were quickly obtained.
In the evening.
Sasuke, whose chakra was almost completely depleted, appeared in the laboratory, carrying a bento box and some dishes. "Aunt Koyuki said you've definitely forgotten to eat dinner and asked me to bring you a portion."
"Oh, is it dinner time already?" Haruno Sakura raised her head with a blank look, glanced at Sasuke, and then lowered her head again. "Wait a minute, just put it there. I'll be done in a moment!"
Sasuke sighed, walked over, and pulled the plug on the microscope's power. "It's already night... you haven't eaten lunch yet, have you, Sakura? Eat first!"
The light source disappeared, and the microscope was pitch black. Only then did the girl stand up, swaying as she rubbed her eyes. "Alright, I'll eat first!"
She also knew what her "I'll be done in a moment" meant. It usually meant waiting for more than an hour...
Because there were no mobile phones in this world to distract her, Sakura found that it was a very easy thing to do things with full concentration. It was just that she would often overdo it, to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep. Actually, it was just that when she was concentrating on her work, she would forget the passage of time.
While Haruno Sakura was eating her two meals as one, Sasuke walked two circles around her laboratory.
"Is this Yūgao Uzuki's heart?" the black-haired youth asked, pointing to the several dark red hearts soaking in an orange liquid in the experimental container.
Haruno Sakura's laboratory was a bit like the human experimentation labs he had imagined, but the tone was completely different.
He had always felt that a human experimentation lab should be covered in dark red spots, with bloody, mutilated corpses and pieces of flesh randomly placed on the tables, and the air filled with the stench of corpses and rot—early human experiments were indeed like that. But Sakura's laboratory was clean and tidy, with no strange smell... If he had to say there was a smell, it was just the faint body fragrance of a young girl. If not for the few heart-shaped pieces of flesh floating in the nutrient solution reminding him, Sasuke wouldn't have even been able to tell that human experiments were being conducted here.
Sasuke's guess was wrong.
"No, this is my heart..." Haruno Sakura, who was sitting on the side, chewing and swallowing her dinner slowly, answered his question.
After swallowing the last bite of food, Sakura wiped her mouth clean and explained, "There's not much living tissue from Yūgao-san, so I can't waste it. This is an experiment done with the cells from the roots of my hair."
"It looks pretty decent. Was it a success?"
"From the outside, it should be a success... I haven't tried it yet!" Sakura said, touching her chin.
"Tried it?" Sasuke's eyebrow rose, and he glanced at Haruno Sakura. "How? Don't tell me you're thinking of...?"
His gaze swept over Sakura's chest, and his unspoken words were already clear.
The girl gave him a sharp glare with her white eyes. "Am I that stupid, to joke with my own body!"
Of course she wouldn't cut herself open...
Actually, it was very simple to complete this test: she just needed to check how much chakra they could produce. The larger the amount of chakra, the stronger the vitality of the heart.
Sakura walked over, placed her hand on the container wall, and used medical ninjutsu to activate the heart floating inside. Very quickly, it began to beat with vitality.
"The physical power has already been generated... I'll put my spiritual power in now. If the experiment is a success, then new chakra will be generated in the heart!" she said, staring intently at the heart in the container.
Then, as Sakura poured her own spiritual power into the container, a change began...
The spiritual and physical powers, which came from the same source, merged together naturally, forming a non-negligible amount of chakra.
Frost flowers quietly appeared on the container wall. The nutrient solution in the container was frozen into ice in just half a second, expanding and enlarging, and with a crack, it shattered and broke.
She hadn't even performed a nature transformation, and the new heart had already naturally formed Ice Style chakra!
Haruno Sakura was also taken aback.
Such pure Ice Style chakra...
Has it already become a physical instinct? My DNA... has it been completely modified by the Ice Style Kekkei Genkai! Sakura thought of the Slug Sage's prediction in her heart. She now completely understood what it meant—the adjustment of her body by the Ice Style had already reached the level of the very source of life.
Therefore, the heart that was now de-differentiated from her cells and then re-differentiated would be a heart that belonged completely to Ice Style. Even without manipulating the chakra, it could instinctively begin the nature transformation of Ice Style... Sakura quickly realized that this was a heart that had completely adapted to the Ice Style Kekkei Genkai. If she used it to cast Ice Style, it might even be stronger than her old heart!
"What pure Ice Style chakra!" Sasuke said with praise, touching the ice spike that was emitting waves of cold air. "But as a heart, the amount is still not enough. It should at least be half of yours to be qualified, right?"
Sakura waved her hand and denied, "Not at all. This new heart hasn't been trained, so its physical power will definitely not be very high. To have this amount is already quite good."
The newborn heart clearly could not be compared with her own heart, which had been tempered a thousand times. The amount of this chakra was about the level of a newly graduated genin, which was already quite impressive for an untrained heart.
Of course, this was not yet the most perfect result. There was still room for improvement.
She sealed this heart in a scroll and then tested the next few hearts.
There were failures and successes. One had gone wrong and could not be activated at all; it was a dead heart. There were also several others that had various defects and showed no signs of life.
Haruno Sakura carefully recorded the experimental process of these failed products one by one—for an experiment, sometimes the experience of failure is more important than the experience of success.
After excluding those defective ones, there were four or five that performed well.
They could basically all reach a level comparable to the first heart. Their chakra amount was not small, and they were very adapted to Ice Style. There was even one that was naturally particularly sensitive to Ice Style. The ice it produced almost frostbit Sasuke, who had reached out to touch it.
Could it be that a new change occurred during the de-differentiation?
Unfortunately, at her current level, she was far from being able to explore this answer.
The wonder of life was beyond Haruno Sakura's imagination...
Sakura really wanted to know how a Kekkei Genkai modulated the body, what changes had occurred in her genes... But these questions would probably have to wait until a very, very long time later before she would have the time to explore this answer.
For now, she just needed to know that Ice Style was of great benefit to her body.
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