However, even though Danzo Shimura considered himself to have completely mastered the dagger techniques he had obtained, he still could not achieve the same power as Little Li's Flying Dagger.
Forget killing a Kage-level powerhouse in an instant; without a surprise attack, it was difficult to even kill an Elite Chunin.
"That guy... he even concealed things from his own subordinates?"
Danzo's heart burned with rage.
Before, he had thought he had gotten a great bargain, but now it seemed he had acquired a hot potato.
Without the subsequent secret arts, the value of the dagger techniques was only comparable to that of a B-rank ninjutsu.
And for a mere B-rank ninjutsu, he, Danzo Shimura, now had to constantly avoid Li Anshi, terrified of accidentally straying within a hundred meters of him.
Every time Danzo wanted to go somewhere, he had to first check if Li Anshi had any intention of going there.
The moment he detected any sign of Li Anshi approaching, Danzo would leave immediately.
He had even built a network of underground tunnels a hundred meters deep beneath the Shimura clan's compound, to prevent Li Anshi from coming to his doorstep to corner him.
Most of the time, Danzo lived deep underground.
It was only when Li Anshi had left Konoha for the Land of Whirlpools that Danzo had gained his freedom, moving from below ground to the surface.
A few days ago, when the news of Li Anshi's battle record in the Land of Whirlpools spread, Danzo, no matter how much he didn't want to admit it, had to swallow the bitter pill.
The secret dagger technique he had gone to such great lengths to obtain was incomplete.
But thinking about it carefully, it made sense.
Back then, Sagawa and the other two were just small fry who hadn't even become Genin. Even if Li Anshi had told them the complete secret of his technique, they wouldn't have been able to master it.
It was just that Danzo had assumed that since Li Anshi had started creating the technique during his time at the Ninja Academy, the difficulty of learning it shouldn't be too high.
The dagger throwing techniques he had obtained from the three boys had perfectly led him to believe he had guessed the truth.
This time, with the news of Li Anshi's feats in the Land of Whirlpools, even if Danzo wanted to continue deceiving himself, it was hard to justify.
Putting other things aside, Sagawa and the others knew nothing of the "Blade Hiding Technique" that accompanied the throwing arts.
It was easy to imagine that for a secret technique like Little Li's Flying Dagger, which could kill enemies quickly, the number of daggers one carried was directly related to the threat one could pose.
Take Danzo himself, for example.
Even if he mastered the secret technique, the maximum number of daggers he could carry was limited by the tool pouches on his body.
A single tool pouch, packed tightly, could hold about fifty daggers. With one on each leg, he could carry a hundred.
And that was only by sacrificing a lot of other supplies.
And Li Anshi?
Three years ago, according to the Cloud's estimates, the number of daggers on his body was over three hundred.
Moreover, the "Blade Hiding Technique" lived up to its name; from the outside, it was impossible to tell just how many daggers he was carrying.
If one wanted to know the exact number, they would probably have to have a Hyuga clan ninja activate their Byakugan to confirm.
However, the Hyuga were not willing to do something that might offend Li Anshi.
Even Danzo Shimura, the Third Hokage's companion and an elder who assisted in managing Konoha, had been threatened with death if he dared to appear within a hundred meters of Li Anshi.
How could their unremarkable clan dare to provoke him?
If Li Anshi truly wanted to wipe out the Hyuga clan, the entire clan would probably be annihilated before the village's reinforcements could even arrive at their compound.
There was nothing they could do.
The Hyuga clan was completely countered by Li Anshi's daggers.
The Gentle Fist, pressure point strikes, Vacuum Palm, Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists, Rotation—all the secret techniques of the Hyuga clan were suited for mid-to-close-range combat.
If Li Anshi were to launch an attack on them, the Hyuga clan would have no way to resist; they could only await their slaughter.
Their attacks simply could not reach him.
It was for this reason that, despite visiting the Hyuga clan several times, Danzo had never received their assistance.
Otherwise, with the Byakugan's penetrative vision, he might have been able to glimpse the secrets of the "Blade Hiding Technique."
"What am I still missing?"
Danzo drew another dagger, rubbing it in his hand as he lowered his head.
To be taken as a disciple by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, Danzo could also be called a "genius."
Because of his admiration for the Second Hokage, Danzo, like Hiruzen Sarutobi, had made "becoming Hokage" his dream.
It could also be called his "ninja way."
But unfortunately, when they were ambushed by the Cloud, he had hesitated when faced with the Second Hokage's question.
Therefore, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had raised his hand and offered to stay behind, had achieved a true unity of knowledge and action, practiced his ninja way, undergone a spiritual transformation, and stepped into the ranks of the Kage-level powerhouses, being appointed by Tobirama as the Third Hokage.
Danzo, on the other hand, had failed to fully practice his "ninja way" and had not crossed that threshold. This had led to him facing several near-death situations and suffering severe injuries during his campaign against the Stone ninjas, greatly diminishing his strength.
The reason Danzo had been fixated on the Second Hokage's question for so many years was because that had been his former ninja way.
It was only later that Danzo had taken a step back, deciding, "You are the leaves basking in the sun, I am the root hidden in the darkness." He became two sides of the same coin with Hiruzen, and through Hiruzen's indulgence, he had found an alternative way to practice his "ninja way," finally stepping into the Kage ranks.
Danzo had always believed that he was in no way inferior to Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Back then, he had also been prepared to raise his hand, but Hiruzen had been faster, which had led to him being surpassed.
But besides Hiruzen, Danzo didn't think he was weaker than anyone else.
For the past three years, Danzo had been trying to use the dagger throwing techniques he had stolen to recreate a new secret technique that was in no way inferior to Li Anshi's.
But unfortunately, he could only use more chakra to make his thrown daggers faster and stronger; he could not reach Li Anshi's level in the slightest.
"Should I go and witness Li Anshi's daggers for myself?"
Such a thought flashed through Danzo's mind.
But he quickly shook his head, casting the idea aside.
It was a joke. Danzo was already doing everything he could to avoid Li Anshi.
Even if he sent a shadow clone within a hundred meters of him, he would probably be met with another of Li Anshi's killing blows.
Last time, many of Konoha's Jonin had spoken up for him, so his act of plundering the secret technique had not become a public target.
But with the news of Li Anshi's battle record in the Land of Whirlpools, if the ninjas from the other clans wanted to speak up for Danzo again, they would have to consider whether they would incur Li Anshi's displeasure.
In just three short years, Li Anshi had made such progress.
If he was given more time, to what extent would he grow?
Will Li Anshi become the second God of Shinobi?
If he did, where would he lead the ninja world?
Whether it was Konoha or the other four great ninja villages, at a time when no one wanted to change the current state of the world, no one wanted to provoke Li Anshi.
They wanted to create a comfortable environment for him, to make him feel that the current situation was the best it could be.
That way, he would not develop the idea or the resolve to change the ninja world.
If he was provoked, and it did cause him to want to change the entire world, then no one knew what that future would look like.
It could be better, or it could be worse.
In fact, if Li Anshi were to make his secret dagger technique public, and if the difficulty of learning it was not high, perhaps in the future, ninjas would abandon all other forms of ninjutsu and focus solely on daggers.
You train hard for decades and finally become a Kage-level powerhouse who surpasses the Jonin, but another ninja, who has only trained with daggers for a few years, can easily kill you in an instant...
Who could accept such an outcome?
Fortunately, up to this point, Konoha had blocked the plan to spread the Little Li's Flying Dagger.
Although the reason was Konoha's own internal theft, it had also successfully extinguished Li Anshi's idea of disseminating the technique.
Without sufficient strength, one simply could not protect the secret of how to practice it.
The rise of Little Li's Flying Dagger could no longer be stopped!
Unless the other four great ninja villages united with Konoha to form a ninja allied force and were willing to pay any price, only then might it be possible to encircle and kill him.
However, Li Anshi himself was a ninja of Konoha.
Although it was unknown what kind of tacit understanding the Third Hokage and Li Anshi had reached, which allowed a peak combat power like him to remain a registered ninja of Konoha without fulfilling the duties of one, he was still one of them.
Of course, as a Jonin, and a battlefield commander who had led an army to repel the Cloud, forced them to sign a truce, and pay war reparations, Li Anshi had not received the treatment he deserved in Konoha either.
Perhaps this was the deal between him and the Third Hokage?
However, as long as Li Anshi was in Konoha, he served as a deterrent to the other four great ninja villages.
What's more, from the incident in the Land of Whirlpools, it was clear the Third Hokage could still get him to act, which put the ninjas of Konoha even more at ease.
What a joke. Help you deal with our strongest ninja? Are we brain-dead?
At the very least, in the few years Hiruzen Sarutobi had been in power, the atmosphere in Konoha was still very good.
Hiruzen, who was wholeheartedly focused on paving the way for his successors, had not been tied down by the ninja clans. The Sarutobi clan, under the management of Sasuke Sarutobi, had also been well-behaved, not causing any trouble for him.