As long as the ninjas here confirmed a transaction between Tsunade's side and the herb merchants, then no matter what Tsunade said, Danzo could claim it was slander against him.
Unfortunately, all of this was predicated on Hiruzen Sarutobi being willing to help him.
"That's enough, Danzo."
"I will investigate those matters later."
"What I want to ask you now is this: the antidote for the salamander poison. Tsunade successfully created it three years ago."
"Collecting the herbs, making the antidote—it was you who said you could complete this task, which is why I entrusted it to you."
"But why was it that when you handed things over to Tsunade, there was only a small portion of the herbs in the unit's possession?"
"Could it be that in these three years, you haven't produced a single dose of the antidote?"
Following Hiruzen's questioning, the gazes of the remaining jonin on Danzo grew increasingly hostile.
To create the antidote for the salamander poison, in the entire ninja world, currently only Tsunade was capable of it.
However, after Tsunade created the formula, an ordinary medical ninja could also successfully produce the antidote by following it.
In three years, if Danzo had not been derelict in his duty, the amount of antidote in his hands would have been enough for Konoha to wipe out the Rain Village several times over.
But the current situation was that the ninja unit led by Tsunade, stationed at the border to guard against the Rain, did not have a single vial.
The existing antidotes had all been newly made by Tsunade after she had collected the herbs herself.
It would be fine if they didn't encounter Hanzo of the Salamander.
But the moment he joined the battlefield, this unit would likely be completely wiped out by the salamander's poison!
"Elder Danzo, is what Lord Hokage said true?"
The head of the Nara clan frowned, questioning Danzo.
The unit resisting the Rain had no antidote; it sounded like a joke.
Even if the other villages hadn't successfully created a perfect solution, they had still produced a second-rate version and kept a considerable stock, so they wouldn't be completely countered by the poison in a potential future conflict.
A second-rate antidote, while unable to clear the poison on the spot, could greatly increase a ninja's resistance to it, allowing them to last longer in the poisonous mist.
If they were lucky enough to survive, they could still be saved with the A-rank medical ninjutsu, the Mystical Palm Technique.
Konoha had the perfect antidote created by Tsunade and had even rehearsed a battle with the Rain.
But they had never imagined that Elder Danzo would pull the rug out from under them, not giving Tsunade a single dose.
It was fortunate that the Rain had not yet officially declared war on Konoha.
Otherwise, the entire ninja world might already be embroiled in the fires of the Second Great Ninja War.
According to the current situation, Konoha only needed to develop step-by-step, and it would far surpass the other four great villages.
In terms of top-tier powerhouses, Konoha had the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Mito Uzumaki, and Little Li's Flying Dagger, Li Anshi.
In the next tier of Kage-level powerhouses, there were Hiruzen Sarutobi and Sakumo Hatake, who were in no way inferior to the Kage of the other great villages.
Further down, among the elite jonin, Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya had already come into their own, displaying their prowess.
Furthermore, the new generation of ninjas, such as Shisui Uchiha, Yoshino Nara, Shin Yamanaka, and Choza Akimichi, were also gradually growing, possessing strength comparable to that of ordinary jonin.
Given time, they would all become elites among the jonin.
And what about the other villages?
In the Stone Village, below Onoki, only his son Kitsuchi and the two Tailed Beast Jinchuriki were worthy of note.
In the Cloud Village, although the Third Raikage's son was also strong, he still had a ways to go before reaching his father's level.
As for their Jinchuriki, the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails had been killed by Li Anshi eight years ago, and it was unknown if they had been revived yet.
The Sand Village, well, even their Second Kazekage could only be compared to the second-in-command of the other great villages. Only their One-Tails Jinchuriki showed some semblance of a "perfect Jinchuriki."
The Mist Village, due to its geographical location, was almost completely isolated from the other four.
Since the Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hozuki, and the Second Tsuchikage, Mu, had perished together, they had only appeared during the attack on the Land of Whirlpools and had not been seen since.
Therefore, everyone could only estimate the Mist Village's true strength.
Judging from their battle with the Stone during the First Great Ninja War, they were in no way inferior.
It was only after the death of the Second Mizukage that the new Third Mizukage had been defeated by Onoki, leading to their retreat.
Over the years, the Mist Village's development would not have been much better than the other villages.
From this information, it was clear that, let alone the Rain Village, even any one of the other great villages, when faced with Konoha alone, was at a great disadvantage in terms of sheer scale.
However, even so, if Konoha were to be besieged by the entire ninja world, it would still be an extremely dangerous situation.
At the very top tier of combat power, neither the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki nor Little Li's Flying Dagger had a match in the other great villages.
For high-tier combat power, the other great villages would need to combine their forces to barely gain an edge over Konoha.
But in terms of regular ninjas, the combined number of the four other villages was at least three times that of Konoha.
Under these circumstances, if a great war were to break out, the final outcome would still be an unknown.
After all, even someone as powerful as Mito Uzumaki could be killed if swarmed by a sea of enemies.
Li Anshi would not underestimate a great village's determination to kill someone.
Look at the Stone Village. During the Second Great Ninja War, in order to kill the Third Raikage, they had dispatched ten thousand ninjas to surround and intercept him, ultimately wearing him down to his death.
Of course, because Li Anshi had learned the Flying Thunder God Technique, he could completely escape before his daggers or chakra ran out. The human wave tactic would not work on him.
More importantly, a ten-thousand-ninja siege against the Third Raikage for three days and three nights would result in, at most, a few hundred to a thousand deaths at his hands.
But if they were to besiege Li Anshi for three days and three nights, he would only need a few passes to annihilate all ten thousand of them.
However, even if he could kill all these enemies, during that time, the other villages might have already inflicted heavy casualties on Konoha.
But, such a situation would only happen once.
The moment the other villages learned that he could use the Flying Thunder God Technique, they would certainly formulate a new battle plan against him.
Everyone knew that the start of the Second Great Ninja War was a means for the other great villages to join forces and weaken Konoha.
Therefore, assassinating Konoha's top-tier powerhouses and eliminating its lower-ranking ninjas was the most important objective of the four villages.
"I gave them the herbs," Danzo retorted.
The head of the Nara clan shook his head.
It seemed the truth was already obvious.
In three years, Elder Danzo must have already stored enough antidote to support a war with the Rain Village.
Otherwise, he would not have used such a method to set up Tsunade.
Because Danzo had to have the means to quickly counterattack the Rain after Tsunade's failure, in order to further elevate his own prestige.
Otherwise, if some other genius were to later defeat the Rain and rise to fame by stepping on Tsunade's name, then everything Danzo had done would have been for someone else's benefit.
"Lord Hokage."
The Nara clan head shook his head.
Politics. It had always been the dirtiest of things.
It was also because of this that he had chosen to protect himself and his own, letting the Ino-Shika-Cho trio develop in a low-key manner.
However, glancing at Sakumo Hatake, he had to admit that if there was anyone in Konoha he could pledge his full allegiance to, it would probably only be this man, and Lady Tsunade, who was far away on the border resisting the Rain.
Even with the Third Hokage, the Nara clan head could sometimes see the private desires beneath his actions.
The rapid development of the Sarutobi clan over the years was proof of this.
"I believe that since it was Elder Danzo who was responsible for the deployment against the Rain Village from the beginning..."
"Then, let Elder Danzo continue to be in charge of this mission now."
"Let Elder Danzo take his subordinates to the front lines, follow Lady Tsunade's orders, and become the vanguard of her forces."
"I think that as long as Elder Danzo is on the battlefield, perhaps Lady Tsunade won't even need to collect herbs; there will be enough antidote to use."
"Brilliant!"
"Nara, you truly are worthy of being the smartest clan in the ninja world."
After the Nara clan head had stated his proposed solution, the jonin in the meeting room couldn't help but voice their agreement.
Knowing the problem with Danzo, there were only two issues left before everyone.
First, how to solve the shortage of herbs or antidote at the border stronghold.
That was Konoha's fortress against the Rain, and without enough antidote, even with Tsunade leading them, they couldn't hold off an attack led by Hanzo of the Salamander.
The battle against the Rain was one Konoha could not lose!
On the contrary, they had to win it beautifully.
Second, how to deal with Danzo.
No matter what, he was a high-ranking official of Konoha.
For what he had done, he had to be punished.
If it were an ordinary ninja, even a jonin, they would have to be branded a "rogue ninja" and executed.
However, the current situation in the ninja world did not allow Konoha to deal with Danzo in a high-profile manner.
It came back to the same reasoning.
If word of Konoha's political struggles got out, it would give the impression that the Hokage could no longer suppress the ninja clans, and that the hearts of all of Konoha's ninjas were no longer united.
At that time, the other great villages would certainly decide to attack Konoha before it could resolve its internal problems.
The more discord among Konoha's leadership, the greater the advantage they could gain in a war.
Especially with Danzo.
During the First Great Ninja War, after being injured, in order not to be ridiculed by his fellow villagers for his mistake, Danzo had secretly sent several key pieces of intelligence to the Stone Village, causing Konoha to suffer considerable losses.
In this way, although the reinforcements led by Hiruzen had repelled the Stone, surpassing Danzo greatly in terms of merit and prestige, the heavy casualties among the ninjas had also made the difference in the war results between their respective commands not so great.
Although they could use the grudge between Lord Li Anshi and Elder Danzo to have him play the villain and directly kill Danzo—in that case, the other villages might not think too much of it.
After all, the grudge between them was no secret in the eyes of the other great villages.
Just as Konoha had its own spies in the other villages, there were naturally spies from the other villages in Konoha as well.
Over the years, the ways in which Danzo had avoided Li Anshi had also been sent back to their respective villages by these intelligence agents.
For Konoha to convene a jonin meeting today, and for Elder Danzo to be killed by Jonin Li Anshi for carelessly entering his hundred-meter range—it was a possibility.
However, if Elder Danzo's death were to be carried out by Jonin Li Anshi, while the jonin who knew the inside story would be fine, the chunin and genin who didn't know the situation might not have a very good impression of him.
No matter what, in the current ninja world, there was still a hierarchy of superiors and inferiors.
Even if Li Anshi himself didn't care about such things, the ideological shackles formed over hundreds of years were something that even ninjas could not escape.
Obeying one's superiors, giving one's life for their orders, was instead seen as an "honor."
In the propaganda of the rulers, "gekokujō"—insubordination—was absolutely the greatest crime.
Although, more than eight years ago, Jonin Li Anshi had already shown his intention to kill Elder Danzo, had he not refrained from actually doing it all these years?
Once Elder Danzo was really killed by him, Jonin Li Anshi might become the first in Konoha to commit "gekokujō" in terms of status, and would be regarded as a "rebel" by many ninjas and villagers.
This was an idea that not even the Hokage could change.
Unless Konoha was willing to risk being besieged by the great villages to clear his name.
But that brought them back to the original problem—
The political struggles of Konoha's leadership would be exposed to the world.
And now, the solution proposed by the Nara clan head—to have Danzo take his subordinates to the border and follow Tsunade's command—completely solved this problem.
Although sending an elder and Tsunade to face the Rain Village might seem like overestimating them, Danzo, while an elder, was a crippled one whose strength had declined severely. If he didn't have any other hidden means, he was only at the level of an ordinary jonin.
Of course, Konoha did not need Danzo to achieve any great merit on the battlefield.