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"Forehead! Why aren't you wearing your chūnin vest!" Ino scolded and Sakura rolled her eyes.
"Because I look like I'm six wearing my dad's clothes when I do," she retorted to the blonde's amusement.
"Why do you think I always want you to wear it," she teased leaving Sakura no recourse but to stick her tongue out at her and blow a raspberry. "What brings you by today?"
"Sensei's out on a mission and I've got a new seal that I'm hoping the Akimichi clan might be able to help me test, but I don't have any connections there other than you. Chōji, is more of a friend of a friend so I'm hoping for an introduction?"
"Sure, but I've got something that I need you to try for me," she said pulling her out of the house and towards the greenhouses. "Hey Ojiisan," she chirped as they entered a darkened, dry room that had hundreds if not thousands of drawers in all sizes lining the walls. "Can I get the key for greenhouse six?"
"What on earth for?"
"An experiment," she said waving a hand at Sakura who was just standing awkwardly in the door. She gave him a wave and a confused shrug because she didn't know what the experiment was either. The older man heaved out a sigh and shuffled off.
"What is this place?" Sakura asked enjoying the earthy smell that was a standard scent in the Yamanaka greenhouses.
"A seed bank, we've got hundreds of thousands of seeds that we can plant. From flowers to vegetables, to the flora of Konoha's pharmacopoeia and toxicum. We've got other banks that have seeds for the some of the flora present in the pharmacopoeia and toxicum of other countries too."
Sakura was impressed and could understand why there were so many greenhouses. She tilted her head as a thought came to her. "You want to see if I can grow things from seed."
"Yes. I do. Haha-ue had a customer this morning. A bride. Has changed her mind and wants Wisteria in her arrangements. The wedding is next month. We told her no, but it got me thinking about you and if you could," she wiggled her fingers making Sakura laugh.
"So what do I get if I am getting roped into producing out of season flowers for you?"
"Not just flowers. There are some plants that we just cannot get to grow in the greenhouses, if we can get a working supply of the flora from Mist and Kumo, the poison research department will be able to reverse engineer some of the poisons they've come across and create antidotes."
"Sensei showed me how he grows vegetables when out on long missions but some of them tasted weird, or stronger, and some had no flavour at all so they might need to test to make sure that what's grown with mokuton is the same as what's grown in the wild."
"That could be a problem- but you said it can be done, growing from seeds with mokuton?"
"Oh yeah. Yeah that's pretty easy."
Ino dragged Sakura out of the seed back yelling over her shoulder that she didn't need the key anymore. They left the area of the village that Sakura knew behind and headed out past a few of the smaller training grounds. She had no idea where Ino was leading her but resigned herself to the idea that she'd be growing plants all afternoon.
"Hi, we're here to see Machiko-sama. Tell her Ino Yamanaka is here and that I've brought someone she'll want to meet," Ino said to the chūnin behind the desk. She didn't even wait for him to acknowledge her, she just swept over to the chairs and pulled Sakura down to sit beside her.
"Who's Machiko-sama?"
"She's Shikamaru's Obasan. She's the Head of the Poison Research Department. Her and Haha-ue are good friends. What's the seal you want to get tested?" If Sakura wasn't so used to the way Ino flittered between subjects at the drop of the hat, she might have been more confused.
"It's a variation on a body sealing scroll." Ino wrinkled her nose.
"And how are the Akimichi going to be able to help with that?"
"Because it's a stasis seal. Slap it on a container or a wrapped piece of meat, and it places whatever is inside into stasis. It was something that Yamato-sensei said when he and Kakashi were showing the boys and I how to track and hunt."
"He's still making you interact with them as much as possible?" Sakura's disgruntled expression was all the answer Ino needed. "So what was this seal-producing pearl of wisdom?"
"That a good shinobi knows how to provide for them and their team when on long missions because sometimes it wasn't possible to go and buy groceries, and rations are good for a short period of time, but they weren't designed to be the sole item in your diet for too long."
"Makes sense that you'd need to supplement your diet any way you can."
"It does, and I started thinking when we brought down a boar, that even with the five of us, we were lucky that we were only a short way from the village because we had plenty of meat left over. That's now worked it's way into the boys fridges, but a small team- one that doesn't have a bottomless stomach when it comes to food like Naruto does, they'd be either stuck with wasting food due to no refrigeration, or potentially drawing attention to themselves, or stuck with smaller game that is sometimes difficult to get if you've spooked them." Ino was nodding along, her team had mostly stuck with fish on longer missions, but there were times when she'd have killed for something different.
"A body sealing scroll basically works like a freezer. It chills the body to slow down decomposition so it can be properly identified, and buried, or autopsied for information, and I mean it could work for large kills on animals too, but the thought of eating the..." she stuck her tongue out, pulled a face, and shuddered.
Ino agreed with that sentiment fully. "So what's different about these stasis seals?"
"They stop decomposition completely. Complete stasis. Last week we ate some meat that had been sitting wrapped up and sealed on the counter for a week before that. No refrigeration, fluids are retained, so there was blood in it still, but there was no leakage from the butchers paper I wrapped it in, no smell either, and it was as fresh and as tasty as the day I wrapped it up. Yamato-sensei is seeing how well they work in the field. We prepared everything needed for thirty meals- diced meat, chopped vegetables, made up sachets for seasoning's. Then we wrapped up everything individually and sealed each meal into it's own package. I even made a carry scroll for them all."
"He's going to be gone that long?"
"Would they work on plants?"
They turned from their conversation and Ino introduced Machiko Nara. "This is Sakura Haruno," she continued. "She's able to grow plants from seeds with her mokuton."
"Ino said you were having trouble growing some plants in your greenhouses. Fair warning, sometimes the plant will react in an unusual way so you'll need to test to see if what I grow is different to what's grown naturally in the wild."
"Those seals of yours might help with that. We've never been able to get a decent sample because by the time we get the cuttings or the plants back here, they've already started dying and are useless for doing any sort of tests. Tests that can't be done in the field in enemy territory. So do those stasis seals work on plants?"
"I guess they would. It's not something I thought of, but yeah. Cut flowers or stems, properly sealed could be unsealed months later and still be fresh. I'm not sure about plants that are still growing but I mean I guess you could try. Plants are different to animals, being placed into stasis probably wouldn't harm them at all."
Machiko led them through the building, past offices and labs and out into the greenhouses. Both of them were given a white jumpsuit complete with enclosed feet, hood, and mask. Goggles and gloves completed the ensemble.
"Everything in this greenhouse is poisonous in some way, shape, or form. No point in being careless."
She left them to wait while she and her colleagues collected the items Sakura needed to grow the uncooperative flora.
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Please review.
~G
