Uchiha Yu did not rashly enter the village. Instead, he hid on a nearby hill and waited until dawn, confirming that no Sunagakure ninja were about before seeking out the village chief who had posted the mission.
After showing his mission document and forehead protector to prove his identity and purpose, he dispelled the chief's fear of a strange ninja. Only then did the old man explain the mission.
Jiusen Village was a small village that lived by logging. The villagers' daily lives consisted of going into the mountains to fell trees, then lashing the logs into rafts. During the season when the current in the valley was most stable, they pushed the rafts into the river. The strongest men floated them downstream to sell at the river's estuary.
They used the money from selling timber to buy grain, salt, cloth, iron tools, and other necessities. These were loaded onto small boats and hauled back to Jiusen Village by towline, meeting the villagers' daily needs. Because the land around Jiusen Village consisted entirely of slopes steeper than thirty degrees, the village could only be built halfway up the mountain. There was no land at all for growing food, making purchased grain essential to the village's survival.
But something had gone wrong with the river this year. Its flow was far too low, and there were at least a dozen places along the route that the log rafts could no longer pass.
The villagers had traveled upstream and inspected more than a hundred li of riverway, yet they had found nothing. Going farther upstream exceeded their abilities, so they could only seek the help of ninja.
Though Jiusen Village was remote, its villagers had both money and experience. They had sent someone to the southern estuary to find Konoha's agency and