Food supply is one thing Chouji has always grasped, and it's impossible to avoid politics entirely in their profession. "I can dig holes well enough if you're worried about a future water shortage. I don't think wells are the solution we're looking for, though," he says with a rueful smile. "Otherwise there are probably people here who could already have managed the same."

"So there are farmlands, but they're small scale, designed as a supplemental food source rather than a primary one." The information about a fighting force and the collective ability to handle a crisis is reassuring, at least. The rest of it? Chouji will take that as it comes, and he's already calmer about the prospect than he was initially. The familiarity of Shikamaru's analysis neatly balances out the unfamiliarity of the situation.

"How concerned are you about that possibility?" Chouji wonders whether there have been any previous food or water shortages, or any signs more specific than an unstable government.