He has some pseudo-chemistry-like experience, at least when it comes to milking snakes, analyzing the venom and altering it to use as medicine, as well as building up his own resistance to the toxic effects. His methods are extremely primitive (and have a bit of mysticism to them when it comes to adding his chakra) but he'd be genuinely fascinated with getting to work with those substances in a futuristic lab. Unfortunately, he's not always the sharpest kunai in the pouch.

If you want to handwaive some of that basic lab intro CR, we could at least have them doing something side by side in there.