All they needed was for Danzo Shimura to bring the antidote for the salamander poison that he had been hoarding for the past three years to the battlefield.
As for whether he would bring his privately stored antidote to the battlefield...
On this point, none of the jonin in the meeting had any doubt.
Danzo wanted to increase his influence in Konoha, to become a strong contender for the next Hokage.
He did not want to die on the battlefield.
After backstabbing Tsunade, how could she possibly look out for him on the battlefield?
It would be a blessing if she didn't assign him all the dangerous missions.
Therefore, once on the front lines, Danzo would likely not receive treatment from any medical ninja if he were injured.
Under these circumstances, the antidote for the salamander poison was the bargaining chip in his hands.
Only by handing over the antidote to Tsunade, allowing her to use it on the battlefield, could he maintain a certain degree of autonomy.
Otherwise...
These thoughts flashed through Danzo's mind, and he understood instantly.
But this was not the outcome he wanted.
He immediately looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"Hiruzen, I am an elder of Konoha! How dare you make a dignified elder of Konoha take orders from an ordinary jonin?"
"Danzo, you need to be clear. You were the one who made the mistake! What we are discussing now is your punishment!"
"As a criminal of Konoha, you can only accept this mission to atone for your crimes! Otherwise, I don't mind detaining you here and having someone bring Jonin Li Anshi to attend the meeting!"
"Hiruzen, you—"
Danzo pointed a finger at Hiruzen, his eyes filled with disbelief.
He had never imagined that Hiruzen, in order to get him onto the battlefield, would come up with such a vicious plan.
Of all the ninjas in Konoha, including the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki Mito Uzumaki, the only one Danzo feared was Li Anshi of the Little Li's Flying Dagger.
Over the years, the "Root" that Danzo had established, although an organization for training ANBU ninjas, was in fact no less powerful than the ANBU itself.
In fact, in terms of size, Root was much larger than the ANBU.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Root was the largest organization in Konoha.
ANBU ninjas were, if not one in a hundred, at least one in ten in terms of strength.
In order to train a qualified ANBU ninja, the number of ninjas recruited and trained by Root was more than ten times that of the ANBU.
Among these Root ninjas, aside from a small number of exceptionally talented individuals who were absorbed into the ANBU, the majority remained under Danzo's command, following his orders.
Although these Root ninjas were slightly inferior to ANBU ninjas in individual strength, they were in no way inferior in terms of coordination, assassination, and mission execution.
To better control Root, Danzo had even found the "Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal" from the Uzumaki clan's sealing jutsus to complete his control.
Over the years, through the ninjas of Root, Danzo had collected data on all of Konoha's ninjas.
This included comprehensive intelligence on their personalities, habits, and hobbies.
The ninjas, including himself, had a strong sense of identification with Konoha and were willing to give their lives for its future.
Danzo could use the phrase "everything for Konoha" to make most of the ninjas obey his orders, or at least, for the sake of the village's stability, they would not be too extreme about the things he did.
But Li Anshi was different.
Although he was a native-born villager of Konoha who had entered the Ninja Academy due to his potential, he seemed to have no strong attachment to the village.
Danzo suspected this might have something to do with the way he had become a ninja.
Li Anshi was the first student to fail the Ninja Academy's graduation exam.
The reason he had become a ninja was because he had been forcibly conscripted during a time of crisis for Konoha.
It made sense. Even without being a ninja, Li Anshi could have lived a good life in Konoha with his woodcarving skills.
To be suddenly conscripted as a ninja and sent to fight on the battlefield, it would be strange if he didn't have some resentment.
This could be seen from his actions on the border of the Land of Wind after he became a ninja.
He clearly possessed the power to change the course of a battle, yet for a whole year on the battlefield, there had been no news of his true strength.
It was only when he was transferred to the battlefield against the Cloud Village and assigned three subordinates that he had finally shown his prowess.
From this, one could see that in his heart, the "greater good" of protecting the village was less important than protecting his "friends and subordinates."
And yet, in order to recover and even improve his strength, Danzo had used some unsavory methods, which had angered Li Anshi.
If anyone else said they were going to kill him, Danzo could stick his neck out in front of their kunai, and they wouldn't dare touch him.
But if that person were Li Anshi, he absolutely would not hesitate and would cut off his head directly.
Not to mention, Li Anshi had long since made it known that he would act the moment Danzo came within a hundred meters of him.
Others might only know that when his dagger was thrown, someone would surely die.
But Danzo, who had now successfully completed the first stage of training in the technique, knew even better the power it held in Li Anshi's hands.
With just the first stage, Danzo could treat chunin as if they were nothing. The terrifying power of Li Anshi's complete secret technique was self-evident.
To not practice the technique was to see Li Anshi's dagger as a frog in a well seeing the moon in the sky.
To practice it was to see him as a single plankton gazing at the starry sky!
At the very least, Danzo did not dare to come face to face with Li Anshi.
"Good, good, good!"
Danzo gritted his teeth. "Hiruzen, you will regret this!"
With that, he turned and left the meeting room.
He was worried that if he didn't leave, he wouldn't be able to escape once Li Anshi arrived.
…
"Making Danzo come to the front lines?"
Tsunade stroked her chin, a cold glint in her eyes.
To her, Konoha was her home.
It was the village that her grandfather Hashirama, her granduncle Tobirama, and all the members of the Senju clan had worked together to build, a village that brought peace to the ninja world, a proof of their existence.
She would absolutely not allow anyone to harm Konoha in any way.
Danzo's actions had already touched her reverse scale.
"Alright, let's eat first, Tsunade."
Li Anshi lifted the bento box in his hand.
After Sakumo had told him the outcome of the jonin meeting regarding Danzo, he had packed a bowl of ramen, used the Flying Thunder God Technique to come to the border stronghold, and relayed the result to Tsunade.
"Even if Danzo leaves Konoha right now, it will take at least two days for him to get here."
"You have plenty of time to think about how to deal with him on the battlefield."
"But this ramen in my hand, if you don't eat it, it will get soggy within three minutes and lose its deliciousness."
"What? Then why haven't you given it to me yet?"
Hearing this, Tsunade immediately forgot about how to deal with Danzo. She quickly came to his side and snatched the chopsticks from his hand.
What a joke!
Although the war hadn't started yet, how could a stronghold compare to the village?
The food here was mostly black bread that filled the stomach easily. A little bit of it with some water and you felt full.
The taste was unusually bad.
Slurp, slurp, slurp...
"Mmm, delicious."
"Slow down, slow down..."
Seeing her gobbling it down, Li Anshi quickly said, "I've left a spatial mark on you. From now on, whatever you want to eat, I can just bring it to you every day."
"Mmm, that's true."
Hearing this, Tsunade paused for a moment and nodded.
If it had been anyone else, she would have definitely refused.
But Li Anshi was different.
On one hand, there was the affection between them. Although they hadn't taken the final step, both knew how the other felt.
However, he also knew that Tsunade's current wish was to bring Konoha back to the path her great-granduncle had planned.
Before that, she would not devote any extra energy to romance.
A half-hearted relationship would quickly grow tiresome after the honeymoon period.
That was not what Tsunade wanted.
He knew this as well, so he had never taken that step in his interactions with her.
However, this did not affect their feelings for each other.
On the other hand, Tsunade knew that Li Anshi was considered an idle ninja in Konoha.
Other ninjas were either on a mission or waiting for one.
Only he, because of his deterrent strength, had a transcendent status in the village. Although he held a ninja registration number and was an official ninja of Konoha, even the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had to discuss it with him and ask for his opinion before assigning him a mission.
If he was unwilling to go, there was nothing Hiruzen could do.
Only when he was bored and wanted to go on a mission would he casually pick a few to play with.
More importantly, Tsunade knew that he possessed the Flying Thunder God Technique.
For other ninjas, it would take about three days to get from Konoha to this border stronghold.
But for him, while it might not be instantaneous, it would not take more than two minutes.
Therefore, she felt no burden at all in letting him bring her food.
"By the way, how has Nawaki been lately?"
After finishing the ramen, Tsunade casually wiped the corner of her mouth and asked.
Ever since she had seen him complete his first killing mission a few days ago, she hadn't seen him again.
Although it seemed he had not been injured in that mission and had not been left with any psychological scars, she had not gone to see him at the time.
But she was still very concerned about him.
"Well, after one mission, Nawaki has certainly grown a lot."
"However, his sense of responsibility is a bit too heavy, and it doesn't match his current strength."
Li Anshi did not hide Nawaki's changes from her.
"Because of his mistake, he almost got the little girl from the Hyuga family hurt, so now he's completely focused on training in the Flying Thunder God Technique."
"The Flying Thunder God Technique? Can he even learn it?"
"If he can't, isn't that a waste of a lot of time?"
Tsunade frowned.
The power of the technique was unquestionable.
Whether in the hands of her granduncle or in Li Anshi's, it had shown immense strategic value and significance.
A powerful ninja who had mastered it could single-handedly stabilize a front line.
With the support of comrades, it was not impossible to move freely across the entire battlefield of the Land of Fire.
Hadn't the Second Hokage, with the help of his disciples, repelled the repeated attacks on Konoha by the three great villages?
In fact, the Cloud Village had even had to resort to dishonorable means, using the pretense of signing a truce to trick him into an ambush.
If Nawaki could learn it, Tsunade would naturally be happy to see it.
But the technique's rank in the Scroll of Seals was listed as "Forbidden Jutsu."
So-called "Forbidden Jutsu" were not only powerful, but also represented a high degree of difficulty and danger in their training.
Over the years, quite a few ninjas had crippled or killed themselves while trying to learn them.
It was precisely for this reason that Tobirama had graded the learning difficulty of ninjutsu.
The difficulty of a forbidden jutsu was the highest "S" rank.
Nawaki's current strength was at the chunin level.
For an ordinary chunin, C-rank jutsu was the standard.
As a member of the Senju clan, his chakra was comparable to that of a jonin, and he could learn most B-rank jutsu.
If he were to force himself to learn an A-rank jutsu, he might suffer a backlash.
The Flying Thunder God Technique was not something the current Nawaki could learn.
However, Tsunade also knew that Nawaki was now Li Anshi's subordinate. For him to be learning the technique, he must have already gotten his tacit approval.
Otherwise, even if Nawaki wanted to learn it, Teacher Hiruzen would never have allowed the current him to view it in the Scroll of Seals.
Since it was Li Anshi's arrangement, she would not question the risk of Nawaki learning it.
What she questioned was whether it was appropriate for Nawaki's future to waste time on a jutsu he was unlikely to learn during a period of rapid strength improvement.
"Haha, don't worry, Tsunade."
"Nawaki's current state is that he wholeheartedly wants a jutsu that will allow him to appear by his friends' side and protect them when they are in the most danger."
"If he's not allowed to try, he won't be able to settle down and continue his training."
Tsunade was taken aback for a moment, then nodded.
"That's true."
"I almost had an existential crisis after my first killing mission."
"Later, it was only after Teacher Hiruzen took us to see the villages that had been ravaged by the bandits that I recovered."
"Oh? That happened?"