Shikaku delivers rare medicinal herb samples: three years to maturity, three months required
There was a gentle knock on the courtyard door, and Shikaku Nara's steady voice came through the door, with just the right amount of respect, without any overstep. "Mr. Rinto, I'm sorry to bother you, I'm Shikaku Nara, I have something to discuss with you."
Rinto frowned slightly. He had never had a good impression of Konoha High Command's visit. It was just for the upcoming war. Begging for this and that would be troublesome things that would delay his experiment time. But he still raised his hand to remove the blockade of the courtyard door and said coldly, "Come in, tell me what you have to say, don't beat around the bush."
The courtyard door opened, and Shikaku Nara walked in. He was wearing dark Jonin clothes, with a calm expression on his face that had always been in a high position. Behind him were two Nara Clan ninjas, carefully holding two sealed wooden boxes, walking very lightly, for fear of disturbing the people inside.
Shikaku walked to the experimental table and bowed to Rinto first. Instead of offering polite thanks like others, he went straight to the point and accurately followed Rinto's logic. "Mr. Rinto, I came this time to ask you to help us solve Nara is a core problem in the medicinal field. In exchange, we are willing to provide you with the Nara Clan's complete records of medicinal material cultivation that have been passed down for hundreds of years, the component analysis files of all rare medicinal materials, and the secret technique files related to medicinal herbs in the past, without deletion. At the same time, we will accurately record the experimental data and full growth cycle records of all subsequent medicinal materials and send them to you on time."
He knows Rinto's temperament very well. Talking about "for Konoha's wartime reserves" and "for saving the wounded" are all nonsense to this gentleman. It would be better to lay out the chips directly and clearly explain what can be given and what to exchange, which will make him listen more.
Sure enough, Rinto raised his gaze from the case and looked at the two sealed wooden boxes. His tone was still calm, but he paid more attention. "What's the problem?"
Shikaku motioned to the ninja behind him, placed the two wooden boxes on the stone table, and opened them carefully. In the first wooden box, covered with soft hay, there were more than a dozen samples of rare medicinal materials in sealed crystal bottles, including live plants and prepared medicinal materials., each bottle is marked with a detailed name, growth cycle, and medicinal ingredients; in the second wooden box, neatly stacked, are all dossiers bound in animal skins, which are exactly the Nara Clan he just mentioned, hundreds of years of medicinal material cultivation and ingredient analysis records.
"Konoha's wartime medical reserves mainly rely on the Nara Clan's medicinal fields." Shikaku pointed to the medicinal material samples in the wooden box and said in a serious tone, "Many core medicines for treating serious injuries, detoxifying, and extending life. The natural growth cycle of medicinal materials is extremely long, ranging from two to three years to five or six years, or even more than ten years before they mature and can be used as medicine. The usual reserves can be barely maintained, but once a war breaks out and the number of wounded increases dramatically, the consumption of medicinal materials will be more than ten times that of usual times. The existing reserves cannot last long at all."
He picked up a crystal bottle filled with fresh plants and handed it to Rinto: "For example, this dragon's blood grass is a core medicinal material for treating severe injuries to internal organs and activating body activity. In the natural environment, it takes a full three years to mature and be used as medicine. It also requires a very high growth environment and is difficult to plant on a large scale. There is also this bottle of ice lotus, which is a key medicinal material for detoxifying neurotoxins and stabilizing mental strength. It takes five years to bloom and be used as medicine."
Rinto's eyes fell on the plants in the crystal bottle, and he touched the bottle lightly with his fingertips, feeling the life breath and cell activity of the plants inside. His previous research was all centered on animal cells and human Chakra. The growth regulation and secondary metabolism of plant cells were areas that he had not touched in depth before, and these complete inheritance records and full-cycle growth data of the Nara Clan could just fill his research gaps.
"What is your request?" Rinto put down the crystal bottle and looked up at Shikaku.
"We would like to ask you to design a plan that can forcefully accelerate the growth cycle of medicinal materials." Shikaku said in a very sincere tone, "It is best to compress the medicinal materials that originally took three or five years to mature into three months to complete growth and maturity, and ensure that the active ingredients of the medicinal materials are not lost due to accelerated growth. At the same time, it is best to reduce their requirements for the growth environment, so that they can be planted on a large scale in medicinal fields."
This requirement, in the eyes of any medicinal herb family in Shinobi World, is a fantasy. The growth cycle of plants and the synthesis of active ingredients are fixed laws that have evolved over thousands of years. Even if Yang Release Chakra is used to force ripening, it can only make the plants grow quickly. It is large, but the medicinal active ingredients in it have no time to synthesize and accumulate, and what is produced is just a waste grass with no appearance, which cannot be used as medicine at all. Nara Clan has been researching for hundreds of years, and can only slightly shorten the seedling cultivation cycle. It is impossible to compress the three-year growth cycle to three months.
But Shikaku believes that what others cannot do, Rinto may not be able to do. This gentleman can always use his extremely accurate Chakra configuration to break the "common sense" in everyone's eyes and solve problems that others have been unable to solve for hundreds of years.
Rinto did not agree immediately, nor did he refuse. Instead, he picked up a volume of medicinal material cultivation files in the wooden box and opened it. The records in the file were extremely detailed, from the growth environment requirements of each medicinal material, the growth changes throughout the cycle, and the maintenance points of different growth stages, to the accumulation rules of active ingredients, the differences in the composition of medicinal materials from different origins, and even the failed records of ripening experiments in the past.
These things are extremely precious first-hand research information for him. The growth regulation of plant cells and the synthesis logic of secondary metabolites are blank areas that few people have touched on in the field of Chakra applications. This topic just allows him to extend the application of Yang Release Chakra and Natural Energy from animal cells to plant cells, and improve his underlying understanding of Chakra's life regulation.
He finished flipping through a volume of files, picked up a few samples of medicinal materials, and felt the structure and activity of plant cells. After being silent for more than ten seconds, he raised three conditions without any room for negotiation:
"First, I only provide configuration plans and parameter specifications. I am not responsible for planting, maintenance, and on-site debugging. You arrange for people to follow the plan. If you have operational problems, don't bother me.
Second, for each medicinal material, the full cycle data from seed germination to mature harvest, daily growth changes, active ingredient accumulation, and environmental parameter changes must be accurately recorded and summarized to me daily. You must send me all experimental samples on time for my testing and analysis.
Third, all Nara Clan's inheritance records and experimental files related to medicinal materials, including the failed ripening experiment data, are all sent to me, and there cannot be any concealment or deletion."
These three conditions are all based on his research needs. There are no additional requirements for the wartime reserve problem that Nara Clan wants to solve, and there is no guarantee that it can even be achieved 100%.
But when Shikaku heard his condition, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and immediately agreed, "No problem! It's all as you said! We have sorted out all the information and are here. If there are any omissions, we will fill them in and send them over immediately. We will arrange for a dedicated person to record the data 24 hours a day and send it to you on time every day. The samples will be collected and inspected on time. There will be absolutely no mistakes."
He was already prepared to be rejected and even thought of more bargaining chips. Unexpectedly, Rinto only mentioned these three research-related conditions and did not mention any additional requirements at all.
"I will make a plan, starting with the two core medicinal materials of dragon's blood grass and ice lotus, and designing an appropriate configuration." Rinto pulled the file and samples in front of him, with a tone that suggested he was expelling guests. "You can leave behind the things. If there is additional data needed for the experiment in the future, I will let Sakura tell you, don't knock on the door to disturb me from doing the experiment."
"Okay, okay, we won't disturb you." Shikaku responded quickly, bowed to Rinto again, and quietly left with the two ninjas, even closing the courtyard door with extra caution.
After walking far away, the Nara Clan ninja who was following could not help but whispered, "Master, can Mr. Rinto really do it? Compressing the three-year growth cycle to three months, and ensuring the efficacy of the medicine, this... This is not in line with the growth laws of plants at all."
Shikaku looked back at the closed door and said with determination, "Just because others can't do it, doesn't mean he can't do it. Have you forgotten Konoha's barrier system? Have you forgotten those medical patches he took out? This gentleman has always been a rule-breaker. As long as he agrees, we will just wait and get the plan."
In the laboratory, Rinto had completely forgotten the conversation just now. He moved all the medicinal material samples and cultivation files to the experimental table, his eyes full of concentration.
For him, Nara Clan's wartime medicinal material reserve requirement is just the introduction to a new research topic. What he really cares about is the growth control logic of plant cells and how Chakra can accurately intervene in the life process of plants. This is a brand new and untouched research field.
He picked up the charcoal pen, spread out the blank slate, and wrote the title of the new topic: Research on plant cell growth cycle regulation and secondary metabolism enrichment.
The sunset outside the window set, the laboratory lights came on again, and a dismantling and reconstruction of the laws of plant life officially began.