It was only after he obtained Obito Uchiha's Sharingan that Kakashi Hatake, with its aid, was able to fully control the speed of the "Chidori," turning the semi-complete ninjutsu into a truly finished product that would shine in his hands.
Of course, transplanting the Sharingan had a considerable impact on Kakashi's potential.
But for him, it was not necessarily a bad thing.
Sakumo Hatake's White Fang sword style was unparalleled in the ninja world. If Kakashi had inherited it, his future achievements, even if not equal to his father's, would not have been far off.
Because of Sakumo's early death and without his father's guidance, Kakashi would inevitably have encountered many unanswerable questions in his mastery of the White Fang style.
From his creation of the "Chidori," it was clear that he had already begun to abandon the White Fang style and started down the path of "ninjutsu."
With his talent, it would have taken a considerable amount of time to perfect the "Chidori" to the point of free control without the Sharingan.
In that turbulent era, it was debatable whether Kakashi could have even survived long enough to perfect the jutsu.
Tsunade, however, was different.
From the very beginning, under Li Anshi's guidance, she had walked her own "ninja way."
The deeper her mastery of medical ninjutsu became, the greater her future achievements would be.
"In terms of offense, Tsunade's 'monstrous strength' is in no way inferior to the Rasengan. I don't need to worry about that."
"But defense and speed are her weaknesses."
Li Anshi casually picked up a piece of wood and, while carving, mulled it over in his mind.
"Although her healing jutsu can quickly mend her injuries, it's always better not to get injured if you can help it."
"After all, before reaching the level of Yin-Yang Release, which allows one to create things and grant them life, all healing jutsus work by promoting cell division."
"And the number of times a person's cells can divide is finite."
"Relying too much on medical ninjutsu will greatly shorten a ninja's lifespan."
All ninjas knew this.
But that was the nature of being a ninja.
Relying on medical ninjutsu for injuries sustained in battle would only shorten one's lifespan.
But without it, forget a shortened lifespan; it was uncertain if one would even survive.
Only by reaching the realm of the "Six Paths" could this flaw be eliminated.
Yin-Yang Release could be said to be the most miraculous power in the ninja world.
The ultimate Yin Release could create things from nothing.
The ultimate Yang Release could grant life to those creations.
The nine Tailed Beasts were the embodiment of the ultimate Yin-Yang Release.
Yin Release gave them form, and Yang Release gave them life.
Naruto Uzumaki saving Might Guy after he used the Eight Gates Released Formation and recreating a new eye for Kakashi were applications of Yang Release.
"Defense and speed, huh..."
"The Six Powers of the Marines from the world of pirates are powerful physical techniques that can only be trained after the body reaches a certain level of strength."
"When my physical condition is a bit stronger, I can try to see if I can adapt it for the ninja world."
"If I succeed, I'll have a lot more techniques at my disposal, and I can also teach them to Tsunade to give her more options in a fight."
"With her mastery of taijutsu, she might even be able to combine it with medical ninjutsu to create even stronger derivative techniques based on the Six Powers."
After noting down his thoughts, Li Anshi began to focus on his carving.
Whatever you do, do it with passion.
Since he had chosen to be a woodcarving shop owner as his main profession, Li Anshi would naturally not let the current opportunity pass.
Business was like a gust of wind. When the wind was blowing, you could earn more.
Once the wind died down, it would be difficult to earn as much.
The White Fang short sword and his own flying dagger were the current trend.
As long as he carved them, he wouldn't have to worry about sales.
At his current carving speed, he could finish a dagger or a short sword in less than three minutes.
For Li Anshi, carving was not just a way to earn money, but also a way to cultivate and comprehend the concept of "freedom."
Integrating cultivation into life, where walking, sitting, lying down—every single movement—was a form of training, was a realm of its own.
Unfortunately, at present, he could only temper his conceptual understanding while carving.
If he could reach a state where he was cultivating at all times, that might be the moment he broke through to the "Xiantian" realm.
In the martial arts world, reaching the Xiantian (Innate) realm allowed one to absorb the primordial energy of heaven and earth and refine it into Xiantian true qi, greatly increasing one's strength.
As long as the primordial energy was not exhausted, a Xiantian expert was almost like a "perpetual motion machine," able to continuously replenish their true qi from the outside world.
In the ninja world, the primordial energy of heaven and earth was natural energy.
The Xiantian realm was similar to the "Sage Mode" of the ninja world.
As long as Li Anshi advanced to the Xiantian realm, his own body would be equivalent to a "Sage's body," able to continuously absorb natural energy from the outside world to form sage chakra and enter "Sage Mode."
At that time, Li Anshi would become part of the first tier below the Six Paths level. Even when facing a Six Paths-level existence, he would not be without the power to fight.
…
After the four great ninja villages destroyed the Land of Whirlpools and got what they wanted, they all began to cease hostilities.
Although no truce was signed, they all had a tacit understanding to no longer engage in large-scale battles.
Gradually, the general environment of the ninja world returned to peace.
However, while the five great villages were at peace, the dozen or so smaller villages that had been ravaged by the war began an even more brutal series of conflicts after the four great villages withdrew from their lands.
There was no helping it. In the battles between the four great villages, these small countries had become buffer zones.
When the war ended, the homelands of the five great nations had suffered almost no losses.
But these small countries, which had served as battlefields, were left in ruins.
In order to survive, the ninjas of the small countries had to wage war to plunder the resources of other small nations to sustain themselves.
In the midst of these fierce battles, some geniuses also rose from the small villages.
For example, the samurai Mifune from the Land of Iron, and the ninja Hanzo from the Land of Rain...
To the five great villages, the battles of these small villages were just minor skirmishes.
But for the small villages themselves, it was a matter of survival.
In their campaigns, both Mifune and Hanzo of the Rain displayed strength that was in no way inferior to the Jonin of the five great villages.
In the end, Mifune protected the Land of Iron and became the leader of its samurai.
And Hanzo of the Rain also became the leader of the Hidden Rain Village, leading his ninjas to repel all invading enemy forces.
He even led them to plunder a considerable amount of resources from neighboring countries, greatly alleviating the pressure on the Land of Rain.
In battle, the strength Hanzo displayed, and the poison gas of his summon, the salamander, became things that everyone feared.
For this reason, the ninjas he defeated believed that in the entire ninja world, the combination of Hanzo and his salamander was second only to the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju.
Therefore, they called him "The Demigod."
This title gradually reached the ears of the five great villages.
However, they did not pay much attention to this information.
It was a joke. The ones who had been able to come together and establish ninja villages under the immense pressure of the God of Shinobi and the Asura of the Ninja World, Madara Uchiha—would they be simple characters?
Even in the Warring States period, they had been top-tier ninja clans.
Even if they were not as strong as the Senju and Uchiha, they were not far behind.
At the very least, they were of the same magnitude as the Uzumaki clan.
What they lacked, compared to the Senju and Uchiha, was an existence as powerful as Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.
A great clan naturally had its pride.
This saying was still applicable in the era of the ninja villages.
At the very least, the five great villages looked down on the ninjas from outside their ranks.
Because the ninjas in these small countries were, in the Warring States period, the kind of small clans that could be wiped out at any moment, or they were wandering ninjas who had obtained chakra through some fortuitous encounter.
Over the long course of time, they might have obtained some basic ninjutsu from the bodies of some dead ninjas.
However, they knew nothing of the true nature of chakra, the hand seals for ninjutsu, or the circulation of chakra through the meridians.
Occasionally, one or two with exceptional talent would comprehend a chakra nature transformation, and they would already be considered a super-powerhouse in their small village.
But even such a person could not describe their understanding in a way that formed a system, so it could not serve as a foundation for future generations to build upon.
In other words, even if a Jonin appeared in a small village, it was not guaranteed that every generation would have one.
Moreover, a Jonin from a small village simply could not compare to a Jonin from a great village.
As for the "Demigod" that was being talked about in the small villages, the five great villages just smiled and said nothing.
They thought it was because the ninjas of the small villages had not witnessed the power of the true "God of Shinobi," and that their own imaginations could not even begin to fathom the power of a "god."
Therefore, upon seeing a relatively strong ninja, they would bestow a title like "Demigod" on a ninja from the Rain.
Had they not seen the terrifying killing efficiency of Little Li's Flying Dagger, and how his daggers, which even the Third Raikage could not block, had shaken the ninja world? And yet, the five great villages had not hailed him as a "god."
Because they were ninjas who had truly seen the "God of Shinobi" in action.
It was for this reason that, even with his incredible killing efficiency, in their eyes, Li Anshi was still a long way from being a "God of Shinobi."
If the term "demigod" were to be applied to him, people probably wouldn't have much of an objection.
But for the leader of a small village in a small country to be called a "demigod," the five great villages simply treated it as a joke.
Of course, since he was a ninja who had made a name for himself, no matter how much they looked down on Hanzo, they still sent some intelligence personnel to gather information on him.
Not just Hanzo, but intelligence on other villages was also being collected.
After understanding the recent battles of the small villages, the five great villages also discovered that they were not entirely useless.
Some ancient ninja clans that had declined during the Warring States period had, after settling in small villages, actually managed to restore some of their ancestral glory with the help of the small country's resources.
War was the greatest catalyst for development.
Whether it was technology or ninjutsu.
In the space between life and death, there were always some people who, either through a burst of inspiration or by a stroke of luck, created many impressive secret techniques or technologies.
For example, the Star Village's Peacock Myojin, which allowed one to fly for a short time.
The Iburi clan's smoke transformation jutsu, which was somewhat similar to the Hidden Mist's Hozuki clan's Hydrification Technique.
And the so-called "Jashin" ritual developed by the Hidden Hot Water Village, which had created a batch of ninjas who feared neither pain nor death.
It was said that the ultimate goal of their "Jashin" ritual was to create an immortal existence.
This news was also met with scorn by the ninjas of the five great villages.
Even the Sage of Six Paths, the ancestor of ninjas who had passed down chakra, had not been able to live forever. How could the ninjas of these small villages possibly create an "immortal" existence?
If there was anyone in this world who could possibly develop a jutsu to make someone "immortal," in the eyes of the ninja world, it could only be the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.
After all, Tobirama was universally acknowledged as the "Master of Forbidden Jutsu."
There were hundreds of thousands of forbidden jutsu in the ninja world, and Tobirama was responsible for half of them. This was no joke.
What's more, the Second Hokage had created the forbidden jutsu "Reanimation," which could summon the souls of the deceased from the Pure Land. It could be considered an incomplete resurrection technique.
If he had been given more time, who knew what other powerful forbidden jutsu he could have invented?
Perhaps this was also one of the reasons the Cloud had set up a scheme to assassinate him.
…
The turmoil in the small countries and villages seemed to have made the five great villages quite busy.
Well, "busy" here did not mean going to fight with the ninjas of the small villages.
That would be a curb-stomp battle.
Moreover, if they wiped out these small villages, the five great villages would share a direct border, and if any conflict arose, there would be no buffer.
The current situation in the ninja world was the result of careful consideration by all the great villages.
The small villages were the buffer zones for their conflicts.
Normally, any friction they had was resolved in the small villages outside their borders.
If it ever escalated to their own borders, that was a signal for war.
And it would be a Great Ninja War.
No one was a fool. Everyone knew the saying about two clams fighting while the fisherman benefits.
Regardless of who won or lost, no one wanted a third party to reap the rewards.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, the two sides in a conflict would first eliminate any third party.
Thus, the five great villages either didn't fight at all, or when they did, it was a Great Ninja War!
Now that the five great villages had ceased fighting, the small villages had become even more chaotic.
Under these circumstances, many merchants who wanted to do business had no choice but to post escort missions to the five great villages, lest they enter a small country and be treated as a delivery service by its ninjas.
Thus, in addition to the welfare missions from their own countries, the escort missions from these merchants also allowed the five great villages to recover some of their losses.