Thinking about it, I'm pondering if that when the power levels started going up, Kishi had to make a choice between giving the Konoha Kiddos newfangled power and tools to keep them in the competitive loop, or just use the literally older characters and add new ones who'd yet to be established because it theoretically would make more sense for them to be holding their own against the kind of borderline nuke bringers the villains had upgraded to.
Moreso when of the Konoha lot, the only ones off the top of my head that had any big wins in a post time skip world were Shikamaru who uses plannage over power to beat the Akatsuki's resident dumbass, and Choji who has the ability to just turn GIANT.
But that's just some random musings of mine as of this moment.
In any case, the increase in scope from just the village to the ninja world and something that threatens it all definitely left the Konoha lot in the dust.
Truth be told it never really bothered me, my man Shikamaru got his moment, fuck you, got mine!
