Innate Time Control, a New Skill

Konoha lacked the experience and resources to keep ninja stationed at the border for long periods, too.

War cost money.

Qin Shi Huang had built on the efforts of six generations before him to conquer the Six States and unite the land. Emperor Wu of Han had inherited the prosperity left by the Wen and Jing Emperors, and with two brilliant generals, he had driven the Xiongnu north and largely ended their raids.

Where would Konoha find the money to leave a huge number of ninja sitting idle at the border?

The ninja system of the major villages resembled the militia system of ancient China. Soldiers trained when farm work was light and worked the fields when it was heavy, with six households supporting each soldier.

The difference was that ninja took missions instead of farming when they were not at war. In peacetime, they produced income; in wartime, they defended the village.

The ninja village system needed a steady stream of missions to survive. Without missions, individual ninja could not support themselves, and neither could their villages.

Konoha sat in the resource-rich Land of Fire, so it had built up substantial reserves of money and supplies from missions.

That allowed many of its ninja to remain away from income-producing work for long stretches while the village still managed to scrape by. Of course, it also needed the daimyo's support.

For the same reasons, Konoha recovered relatively quickly after a war and soon rebuilt its reserves.

Sunagakure, stuck in the desert with far fewer missions, had no such ability to recover.

Two successive Ninja World Wars had emptied Sunagakure's coffers. With too few missions to keep the village running, it had no choice but to submit to the Daimyo of the Land of Wind.

Missions were to the ninja system