Chapter 90: A Teacher's Experience in Scamming Funding
When Kenichi heard that Kakuzu was working part time just to cover travel expenses during missions, he found it ridiculous, but not exactly surprising.
After all, Kakuzu genuinely loved money, and he probably loved saving it even more. Kenichi had practically never seen him spend anything. So the idea of Kakuzu squeezing travel costs out of side jobs almost felt normal in its own twisted way.
"Troublesome," Kenichi sighed.
He had originally planned to swindle a bit of cash from Kakuzu, but now it looked far harder than expected.
His earlier plan had been simple. Either coax some money out of Kakuzu, or just snatch Kakuzu's money bag and solve the problem in one move.
But now it seemed Kakuzu did not even have hobbies.
His only hobby was making money, and that was it.
In that case, getting money from him peacefully was basically impossible.
The only method left was theft.
"If you really want to raise funds, you can just take it from Konoha," Orochimaru said with a smile. He had been doing research for a long time, and he had plenty of experience when it came to obtaining research funding.
"Huh? What do you mean, Teacher?" Kenichi asked, genuinely curious. Konoha definitely had money, but getting it was an art form.
"Didn't you blow up Kumogakure?" Orochimaru said calmly. "You can take bounties from Konoha. And for research, you find something Konoha cares about, then get them to invest so you can solve it."
The first part made sense. Nagato was already handling it.
The second part also sounded workable. Kenichi's thermobaric bomb was a ready made solution.
But thermobaric weapons were dangerous. If he handed that kind of thing to someone else, what if it ended up pointed back at him someday?
So he had no intention of selling thermobaric bombs.
If he had to sell something, it would have to be something he had not fully researched yet.
Something like increasing grain production.
"But, Teacher, I still have some money on me," Kenichi said, a little awkward.
"Who said you have to sell something you've already made?" Orochimaru gave him an odd look. "You can pitch a concept first, and have Konoha pay you to develop it."
Kenichi froze.
Good heavens.
That was basically empty promises.
In his old world, this would have been called scamming research funding.
And yet, when he thought about Orochimaru's cooperation with Konoha, it really had been smooth. Even something as sensitive as Wood Release research had produced results. Yamato had obtained Wood Release, even if it was nothing like the First Hokage's.
But it was still a result, and that was exactly why Konoha had been willing to keep funding it.
Just as Kenichi was about to respond, heat spread through the ring on his finger, followed by Nagato's voice.
"Yu, Konoha doesn't really believe it," Nagato said bluntly. "They need more proof. If you can recreate it on the main battlefield in the Land of Frost, Konoha will pay a huge bounty."
Kenichi felt helpless.
Recreating it was not the main issue.
The trouble was that the thermobaric bomb would have to be rebuilt.
Still, he had to find a solution. So Kenichi spoke with his teacher, then used the money he had left to start purchasing raw materials for another thermobaric bomb. It would take time for everything to arrive.
Delivery took time, and without a sealing scroll, it would take even longer.
While waiting for the supplies, Kenichi decided to begin researching another project.
Hybrid rice.
If it succeeded, the profits would be enormous.
At that point, not only the Five Great Nations, but practically every country in the shinobi world would need it. If people were fed and productivity increased, the chance of war would drop.
After all, many wars in the shinobi world came from the same cycle.
Too many shinobi.
Not enough resources.
They fought for those resources, then the fighting reduced the number of shinobi, and the world pretended that solved the problem.
"Hybrid rice is such a hassle," Kenichi muttered. "I didn't exactly go to an agricultural university in my last life."
It was only after he started that he realized how many issues there were.
He had heard of hybrid rice. He understood the idea in general terms.
But he did not know the practical steps of hybridization, or the details, or the pitfalls.
Science was like that. If you did not know where to begin, you could stare at the subject forever and still be clueless.
Hybrid rice was a perfect example.
Most people had heard the term, but how many could explain it clearly without looking anything up?
Only professionals in agriculture would be able to name the steps and methods, because they had studied it properly.
"Still, maybe I can study chakra's effect on crops," Kenichi said, falling into thought.
The biggest difference between this world and his old one was chakra. Kenichi decided to start there and see if chakra could accelerate crop growth.
But that came with a drawback.
It would reduce replicability. It would be hard to spread widely if it required chakra input every time.
So the more fundamental solution was improving the crop itself.
For example, he could use Yang Release chakra to stimulate seeds, then select the best results, then continue cultivating and selecting until stable seeds emerged.
As for whether anyone in the shinobi world had studied this already, Kenichi doubted it. All he had to do was look at the hot air balloon situation.
The shinobi world had some technology that looked advanced and modern, yet other areas were completely blank. Even a hot air balloon was considered shocking.
As for using other chakra natures on seeds, Kenichi did not believe they would improve anything.
At best, they would ruin them.
"Alright, I'll have to trouble everyone," Kenichi said as he formed hand seals and used the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Several copies of him split off at once.
"This project is about using chakra to study whether it can affect the genes of crop seeds."
Doing research alone was too slow.
Dividing tasks into groups was faster. It was tiring, but it saved time.
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