Rewards

"Back then, I really had been quick-witted and made the best possible choice." Uchiha Tenshu looked back on the past, carefully examining what he'd done. There hadn't been a single flaw.

Even those who'd realized he and Seventh Elder Uchiha Raimon had made a deal wouldn't dare speak of it openly.

After all, doing so would completely offend Seventh Elder and the other elders who supported him.

Even Fourth Elder Uchiha Kin, whose plans had been disrupted, might have been displeased with him, but he'd be the only one holding a grudge. The elders around him wouldn't just refrain from treating Tenshu as an enemy; they'd probably even approve of him.

After all, the values Tenshu had promoted with his actions were exactly what they wanted the Uchiha Clan to show other families: that they were united and cared for one another.

Even though the plan reduced the number of ninja being trained, elite ninja still received instruction, and countless clan members approved.

What's more, for the Uchiha elders who'd entered an era of peace, the answers Tenshu had given them—care for one another, unity, respect for their elders, and a love of learning—all fit exactly with how they wanted to manage the clan.

Care for your fellow clan members, and you'll win their hearts.

Unite the clan, and you can resist outside threats.

Respect your elders, and you'll obey their guidance.

A love of learning makes people seek the guidance of those in power.

And there was more.

Even if word outside the clan credited Uchiha Raimon with developing these food-preservation techniques, the elders must have known exactly who had invented them. So no matter what, they had to give a suitable reward to a clan member who'd earned such merit!

"And that was exactly what happened!"

"Being selected for the clan's elite ninja training program was only one part of the reward. He also received guidance from an Elite Jonin, medicinal baths worth over fifty thousand ryo each month, a monthly allowance of ten thousand ryo, and a complete set of ninja tools supplied by the clan every month. That's an incredibly generous training package!"

Uchiha Tenshu couldn't help but marvel at how decisively he'd acted.

If he'd hesitated even a little, he probably wouldn't have received these benefits.

And it was thanks to this training that, at just seven years old, Uchiha Tenshu had reached the level of an elite Genin in public, while secretly possessing the strength of an elite Chunin.

That was no small thing.

Reality wasn't like manga or anime, where everything was softened by censorship.

It was utterly brutal.

Ever since the Sage of Six Paths had spread Chakra, ninja had nearly overturned every existing order. All nations were constantly tempered by war, nourishing the world with suffering.

The ninja profession had been forged through killing.

And among ninja, the ranks that had gradually emerged were governed by strict, clearly defined standards.

Even now,

there were still people in this world who couldn't use Chakra. That didn't mean they lacked Chakra; it meant they couldn't extract it or put it to use.

More than half the world's population fell into this category. They lived as ordinary people.

Of the remaining half, even those who could extract Chakra

had varying amounts of it.

And half of them still couldn't use even the simplest ninjutsu, such as the Three Body Technique.

Still, they at least qualified to train. They served as samurai under the Daimyo's rule. Those who couldn't train were no better than common foot soldiers—not even samurai.

Only twenty-five percent of the population could effectively learn ninjutsu, even the simplest techniques.

But at least they could become apprentice or wandering ninja.

Even an apprentice ninja of this lowest rank, if they had a killer's instinct, could easily slaughter a hundred ordinary soldiers.

The Great Fireball Technique they used was as powerful as an incendiary bomb, while Phoenix Sage Fire was like a bomb—get hit, and you were dead.

A casual leap could carry them more than ten meters. A casual punch could shatter stone. They ran like the wind and swung their blades like lightning.

At the Genin level, their Chakra reserves increased significantly, allowing them to use low-level ninjutsu repeatedly. Even dozens of samurai with a rudimentary grasp of Chakra refinement were no match for a Genin.

One step further—

the so-called elite Genin level—

and they could wear down an army of thousands of ordinary people through repeated hit-and-run attacks, all by themselves.

Against ninja with strength like this,

armies of ordinary people were almost pointless.

That was the power of a mere Genin.

As for the ranks above them—Chunin, Jonin, and Kage—they were capable of changing the balance of power between nations.

That was why the great nations of this world treated the ninja in their villages as vital assets of the state.

There was only one reason.

Ninja were simply overpowered!

"Fortunately, I only needed a little trickery to earn the clan's support. Without it, relying on myself alone would've delayed my training by at least a year or two."

"And now, I've achieved my goal without revealing too much. Most importantly..."

"I haven't attracted Tobirama Senju's extreme attention!"

Uchiha Tenshu raised his head to the sky and thought to himself.

After all, even if people guessed that the food-preservation and alcohol-distillation techniques were connected to him, they still wouldn't know he was a "genius" at developing ninjutsu! Besides, neither technique was all that far ahead of its time. Even if his clanmates praised him as a genius,

Tobirama Senju—the Uchiha Clan's biggest hater—would see him as little more than "a bit clever."

After all, in a ninja's eyes, any invention or innovation that couldn't be applied to ninjutsu was just a useless gimmick.

That was true

even within the Uchiha Clan.

Uchiha Tenshu had been rewarded mainly for solving the elders' problem, preventing losses to the clan, and creating profit—

not for the act of invention itself.

Otherwise,

even if Uchiha Tenshu had invented countless other things, he still wouldn't have earned the approval of the clan's ninja.

Besides!

Were the two things he'd come up with really all that difficult?

Take food preservation, for example. All he'd done was use an ancient Chinese underground granary, a method that had existed for thousands of years. All he needed was a dry site on high ground with a low water table. He dug a round pit and burned it to dry it out, then spread wood ash to keep away pests. Next, he lined it with planks, straw, and mats. After adding the grain, he covered it with mats, added rice husks to keep out moisture, and sealed it with wooden boards. Finally, he laid straw on top for waterproofing and buried the entire storage space under soil. Stored this way, dried grain could last five to ten years.

That was more than enough time for the Uchiha Clan to figure out how to make proper use of their food supplies.

As for what would happen five or ten years later, Uchiha Tenshu figured he'd have left by then!

So he didn't need to worry about it.

And yet, the whole Ninja World had never come up with such a simple granary-storage method.

After Uchiha Raimon "announced" it, even the village learned the technique. Hashirama Senju had carefully considered it and built a larger, safer, more reliable granary for Konoha, using the same principles of keeping out water and pests while maintaining a dry environment. Tobirama Senju praised his older brother, while privately feeling that his family had won another victory over the Uchiha Clan.

Uchiha Tenshu had no words.

Could it be that no one in the entire Ninja World had come up with such a simple, practically useless way of storing food before?

But then, when he considered the state of the Ninja World,

Uchiha Tenshu instantly understood.

Every development came from a need.

For a thousand years, the Ninja World had never had enough food. Scarcity led to theft, theft led to conflict and bloodshed, and conflict and bloodshed led to war.

Then war reduced the number of people growing crops.

Fewer farmers led to more theft.

The theft led to more conflict and bloodshed.

The conflict and bloodshed led to large-scale war.

And then...

the cycle began again.

This was a damn vicious cycle.

"If this keeps going on..."

"No wonder nobody built granaries! In those days, they ate all the grain they harvested that same year. Who had any left to store for the next? When you ran out, you just went and stole more."

Uchiha Tenshu could only shake his head in disbelief.