16autumnroad | [Voice / Action : Forest, 3/17] Arrival

Kai! [Sudden absence from the battlefield prompts Chouji's immediate attempt to dispel an illusion.]

Why won't the genjutsu break? It must be too strong. [Not to mention that genjutsu and fine chakra control are not his strongest skills. Pain should also work. It's hardly the preferred method for breaking illusions, but it's more reliable for anyone whose chakra control isn't near perfect. He reaches for a kunai, but none is available. Unarmed and unarmored in a genjutsu that could be used to do pretty much anything to him; somehow that isn't surprising. Chouji is starting to worry though. He crouches down, snatches a jagged rock, and slices open his left palm. Still nothing.

Unwilling to simply sit and wait, he pushes off lightly, leaping into the trees. Chouji conceals himself as well as he can among the branches, only now noticing the journal lying open on the ground below. Shivering from the cold, a twinge of pain between his shoulder blades makes Chouji twitch, wondering if the attack he's been braced for is finally coming. His eyes widen as he looks over his shoulder to see a pair of feathered wings. A little desperate now, Chouji makes one final attempt at breaking free. He stabs his thigh with the rock. Still trapped, he resigns himself to staying here until someone manages to free him, letting the stone fall back to the ground. Chouji keeps watch for any further signs of danger on the off chance the genjutsu's caster slips and gives something away.]

[Chouji can heard over the journal; he will pick it up as soon as he receives an answer. He can also be found in the forest or anywhere in the common areas of town after he eventually makes it there.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"How far from self-sustaining are we here, when they're not interfering?" Chouji assumes the answer is 'very.' He wouldn't mind being part of a village dependent on imports and such, but he and his comrades aren't involved in the system here. The idea of enclosure and utter dependence upon a foreign government makes him uneasy. Especially given the political unrest Shikamaru is telling him about.

Nodding again at the explanation of corruption, Chouji ventures, "Or like roots grow out of sight under the ground, where the leaves can't see them." Considering events in their own village, this twist on the metaphor is all too apt.

He nods. Chouji is hitting the nail on the head, as he expected.

"To answer your first question... nowhere near as much as we should be. The village can pull together in a crisis remarkably well, but we have no council. If you're looking for people to defend us, we're fine, but if our food and water were cut off we'd be toast in a matter of months, if not sooner. You couldn't get enough from the farmlands and orchard to feed the whole village for long as things are currently."

In a way, it's ironic. Most of the village loathes the Malnosso, but they've yet to move on from being dependent on them.

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.

"Fairly so. It's not the highest on my list, but it happened for the duration of one week before. It could happen again."

Agriculture has never been his field of expertise, however. With all the problems in Luceti, he felt the need to pick something he's more suited for.

Chouji nods. "Wells, then, as a start. I'll look for somewhere that makes sense to put them." As for food, he is less help, to his own dismay. Chouji knows enough to help plan, and to help work, but he has no desire manage the food supply for an entire village. If he meets whoever currently maintains their farmlands, maybe they can figure out a plan for expanding. "We can worry about the farms a little later."

He needs to settle into this place first, learn more about it.

[Voice / Action : Forest, 3/17] Arrival

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