Dawn.
It was Yahiko, Konan, and Kousuke.
After receiving Konoha's approval five days ago, they had set out immediately. They had rushed all the way and finally entered Konoha's gates two days before the society's founding.
Idaten Kousuke walked at the edge of the group, turning his head this way and that as he took in all the buildings around him, so utterly different from the Land of Rain's style. He muttered, "This is the foremost of the Five Great Ninja Villages? It looks pretty ordinary. It's not as big as I imagined, either."
The Land of Rain saw plenty of rain and lightning. Most homes there had lightning rods, with drainage pipes beneath the eaves, while crisscrossing ditches lined both sides of the streets. These clean, plain buildings before them had none of that, making them seem somewhat flimsy instead.
Konan did not respond. Her gaze merely swept quietly across both sides of the street. More than the buildings, she was watching the people.
The streets of the Land of Rain were full of vagrants huddled beneath eaves and orphans begging along the roadside. The people there wore perpetually dim, heavy looks in their eyes, like the leaden clouds that never dispersed from the Land of Rain's skies. Yet here, though Konoha was at war, pedestrians walked at an unhurried pace, shops remained open as usual, and several children chased each other and played at an alley entrance. Everything was peaceful and serene.
Konan suddenly sighed softly, though it was impossible to tell whether it was envy or something else.
"Konan? What's wrong?" Yahiko asked, turning his head after noticing her sigh.
"Yahiko." Konan spoke in a complicated tone. "Do you think that someday, the people of the Land of Rain can also be like Konoha's people... um, just