Konoha.
Early morning.
The first ray of morning sunlight spilled down, but Konoha did not burst with new life.
Ever since the Village Sealing, the entire village's rhythm had begun to slow.
The roads no longer had the bustle and laughter of before, and there were far fewer villagers coming and going.
Because they had to be self-sufficient, over the course of more than a year, the villagers had grown used to a small-scale peasant economy of working at sunrise and resting at sunset.
But at the same time, Konoha's so-called Village Sealing had not completely cut them off from the outside world. It had merely tightened supervision over people leaving the village.
Without permission from the village's upper ranks, no one could enter or leave. But anyone who received permission from the upper ranks could go out for a period of time.
Because even Konoha could not be self-sufficient in everything.
Many daily necessities still had to be purchased from the outside world, so every so often, Konoha would send out several ninja squads with the grain turned in by the villagers to the Land of Fire's capital to exchange for daily necessities.
After bringing them back to Konoha, they would distribute them uniformly, deciding how many supplies each household received according to the Grain Coupons each family had received when they turned in grain.
In such a stifling, heavy environment, most villagers simply muddled along, and the entire village gradually took on a lifeless air.
It was a scene of ruin. Even now, the wreckage from more than a year ago still had not been repaired.
Instead, several decent fields had been planned out on top of it.
Perhaps the lingering souls of the Three Great Shinobi Clans were protecting them, because the wheat planted atop those three