"I'm sure you all have questions. Why am I holding up such an ordinary-looking stalk of rice? And what does this have to do with the diverse applications of Chakra?"
Shinichi slowly swept his gaze across the crowd from the stage, paused briefly, then delivered a statement that stunned everyone.
"If I told you that the rice in my hand could yield thirty to fifty percent more than ordinary rice under the same land and climate conditions, and in certain circumstances, even more than twice as much? And that this was not an isolated case, but a variety that could be cultivated on a large scale and inherited stably?"
The moment those words fell, everyone present was shaken.
A thirty to fifty percent increase in yield?
Even double the original yield?
And not just an isolated case?
A stable variety that could be promoted on a large scale?
How was that possible?
Elder Zongzheng from the Daimyo Palace leaned forward slightly. The Third Hokage subconsciously lowered his pipe from his lips as well, his gaze fixed firmly on the rice stalk in the young man's hand.
Had Shinichi traveled across the Land of Fire to conduct research before leaving the village for this very reason?
That had to be it!
That period had been just before the autumn harvest, the best time to search for unusual rice varieties.
But how had Shinichi found these special rice plants amid that endless sea of paddies?
Through sensory perception?
Could sensory perception accomplish something like that?
And where had he gotten such a large batch of identical rice seeds?
He could not possibly have sensed them out one by one from the fields, could he?
But there had not been enough time to cultivate them. It had only been a month.
For a