Hanzo speculated that his own strength should be considered among the powerful in the five great villages. However, he was probably a step below the very top tier. But, with his summon, the salamander, he was not without a fighting chance.
In such a short time, however, it was impossible for the strength of the Rain ninjas to compare to that of a great village. The best way was to hold back in the war. In this way, he could not only do Konoha a favor, but also let the other villages know that the Rain was not weak, that it could, like them, hold back a Konoha unit.
After the war, as long as the Rain still retained a considerable amount of combat power, it would surely be able to ascend to the status of a great village. At the very least, the Cloud and the Stone would acknowledge it. If not for this, how could he possibly have agreed to start a war? He was not some small fry, but the leader of the Rain Village, Hanzo of the Salamander!
…
"Tsk..."
On the mountaintop, Li Anshi watched the battle between Hanzo and Tsunade, clicking his tongue.
Although he had already decided not to interfere in her fight, and he knew that with her strength, it was impossible for Hanzo to kill her, Tsunade was the granddaughter of the First Hokage, the God of Shinobi, and the disciple of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. These two identities determined her status in Konoha.
It could be said that in this war, Hanzo could kill anyone, but he could not kill Tsunade.
He wouldn't dare!
If she were to die at his hands, then the ninjas of Konoha would be locked in a fight to the death with him and the Rain.
War was a game of the higher-ups. This was no exception in the ninja world. The commoner ninjas of each village, if they died on the battlefield, they died. But if a ninja with a deep background was killed, one had to consider whether they could bear the consequences.
Of course, this was a problem for the small villages to consider. For the great villages, they had the ability to ignore such risks.
In the First Great Ninja War, many powerhouses from the great villages had died at the hands of Konoha ninjas. These powerhouses were either clan heads or the core strength of a certain group. If they had been killed by the ninjas of a small village, they would probably have slaughtered the entire village to avenge their own. But since they had been killed by the ninjas of a great village, revenge could only be sought on the battlefield.
Take Chiyo of the Sand, for example. In terms of strength and influence, her status in the Sand was in no way inferior to that of the so-called "Kazekage." But her son and daughter-in-law had been killed by Konoha's White Fang, Sakumo Hatake, yet she could not exact her revenge on Konoha and could only swallow the bitter fruit.
On one hand, she and her brother, Ebizo, together were probably no match for Sakumo. If they went for revenge, they would probably just be adding to his battle merits. On the other hand, the Sand could not bear the consequences of going to war with Konoha.
The Rain was still just a small village. Although, in Hanzo's mind, it was no weaker than the Sand, if it could not show strength comparable to that of a great village, how could it gain the recognition of the others? Even the Sand would not dare to kill Tsunade before a full-scale war had broken out. How could Hanzo?
Of course, Li Anshi knew all of this. But he also didn't want any accidents to happen to Tsunade. So, after completing today's special training for Nawaki and the others, he had used the Flying Thunder God Technique to come to the battlefield.
To avoid being detected by Danzo Shimura, he had not directly locked onto the mark on Tsunade, but had instead moved here using the spatial marks he had previously left in the Land of Fire. And in order not to break his vow, he had also deliberately hidden himself more than a hundred meters away from Danzo.
This was, after all, Tsunade's battlefield. With the current situation, if he were to kill Danzo, Root would lose control, and it was not impossible that Tsunade's own unit would have to take over.
Although she also regarded the members of Root as Konoha ninjas, even in a family, there were degrees of closeness. In a common front against an external enemy, she would do what she could, providing medical support for them so they could fight the Rain without worry.
But internally, she did not want the ninjas under her own command, who were closer to her, to die. It was for this reason that she had made the agreement with Danzo to have Root fight the Rain.
Perhaps, for these ordinary ninjas, the danger of fighting the Rain was in no way comparable to fighting Hanzo. But for Tsunade, it was the exact opposite. She would rather face Hanzo herself than let her own subordinates fight to the death.
In any case, as the supreme commander of this stronghold, if Hanzo entered the battle, she would surely have to hold him back, to prevent him from summoning his salamander in the middle of the main battlefield and causing even greater damage to the Konoha ninjas. That's right. Even though she had made an agreement with Danzo, she still had to ensure that powerhouses like Hanzo and his summon could not affect the battle of the ordinary ninjas.
However, if Danzo's side couldn't hold on, she would also step in. This would be true even if he had chosen to lead Root to block Hanzo instead of fighting the Rain. Although she was very dissatisfied with Danzo's willingness to sacrifice the Konoha ninjas stationed at the border for his own political capital, as the granddaughter of the First Hokage and the one who aimed to be the next Hokage, she would not, like him, be indifferent to their deaths.
"Tsunade has grown up..."
Seeing her summon her beast to heal the Root ninjas, causing her own bearing to grow considerably and the quality of her chakra to improve, Li Anshi nodded slightly.
Tsunade had already found her "ninja way," and she had been moving towards this goal all along. Perhaps this war would be a big step for her in practicing her ninja way, allowing her to completely enter the ranks of the "Kage."
At that time, it would be a great boost to her competition for the position of the Fourth Hokage. After all, as the Kage of a village, one's strength had to at least reach the "Kage" level.
Before, although she had already started to make a bid for the position, her strength was still a line short of the "Kage" level. So, even if many ninjas from various clans supported her in their hearts, they were deterred by her strength.
Even Sakumo Hatake was the same. Although he was also a strong contender for the next Hokage, the most important thing in his heart was the "Will of Fire." For him, as long as he could practice his "Will of Fire," it didn't matter if he was Hokage or not. In fact, he would rather be the ninja who practiced the "Will of Fire" than the "Hokage" who sat in the office every day dealing with political affairs like the Third.
And compared to dealing with political affairs, his specialty was more inclined towards combat. This could be seen from the fact that he had been able to sublimate his family's swordsmanship to the White Fang Sword Style, becoming the second super powerhouse after Li Anshi to be universally recognized by the ninja world as someone who, "if encountered, one can abandon the mission and save oneself, and it will not be considered a mission failure."
One must know that even the "Kage" of the five great villages did not have such an honor. Of course, this was not to say that they did not have the strength to obtain such a title, but as the "Kage" of a village, unless it was an emergency, they rarely went on missions. Even in a war, the Kage would descend as a commander of a certain area, not as a ninja who conquered territory like Sakumo.
Before, when the Third Hokage had been grooming him to be his successor, he had also acquiesced, seeing that there were no other juniors with the same bearing. At that time, if anything had happened to the Third, the only one to succeed him would have been Sakumo. Now, if Tsunade were to grow up, he might even be overjoyed and pledge his allegiance to her. This was something that not only he, but also the Third Hokage, was probably aware of.
However, for the Third, as long as the Fourth was not someone with radical ideas like Li Anshi, it would be fine. Although the future of the ninja world that Li Anshi had painted was very captivating and desirable, with Konoha's current size, it could not bear the "future" he had described. But after he and Tsunade had patched up Konoha's weaknesses, it should be enough for the future generations to mess around with.
With his wisdom, Hiruzen naturally knew how magnificent Li Anshi's ideology was. Such an ideology could not be limited by the times. Even if Li Anshi himself did not realize it, those who were infected by his ideas would absolutely not give up on making this world a better place.
Weren't he, Sakumo, and Tsunade all like that?
It was just that their wills were relatively firm, and they all knew that it was not a great cause that could be completed in one generation. Therefore, they had all chosen to strengthen Konoha's foundation, waiting for a certain day in the future when someone who had inherited Li Anshi's will would lead Konoha to fire the first shot.
"Nawaki..."
Li Anshi rubbed his brow, feeling a little tired.
The reason he had agreed to Tsunade's request to become his supervising jonin was also to guide him, to speed up his growth, so that he could become Hokage in Tsunade's place and make things easier for her.
After all, after being enlightened by him, Tsunade had also completely understood her own dream. To lead Konoha on the right path, and to plan the direction of development for those who came after. Then, to make the "Hokage" of Konoha a goal that all its ninjas could pursue.
At the beginning of Konoha's establishment, the method of electing the Hokage had been, at first, for Hashirama Senju to be recommended by the many ninja clans. At that time, in order to get the support of Madara Uchiha and his clan, he had promised him that the position of the Second Hokage would be his.
Unfortunately, after he had stepped down, the position of the Second Hokage had not fallen into Madara's hands as they had wished.
"It's not that you get everyone's recognition because you become Hokage. It's that the one who gets everyone's recognition can become Hokage!"
This sentence had been proposed by Tobirama Senju, and he had united with the ninja clans of Konoha, including the Uchiha, to reformulate the rules for selecting the Hokage.
The interpretation of this sentence was to have the jonin of the village vote for the Hokage in their hearts. In this way, all the jonin, including the ninjas of the Uchiha clan, would theoretically have the qualification to compete for the position.
This method of election was fundamentally different from that of the daimyo and nobles, which relied on bloodline inheritance. It could be said that if the people of the ninja world knew about Konoha's method of selecting the Hokage, it was not impossible that there would be people who would rise up, shouting "Are kings, nobles, generals, and chancellors born to their station?"
It was for this reason that the position of the Second Hokage, which should have been succeeded by Madara, had been easily taken by Tobirama.
Without a doubt, this result was an absolute humiliation for Madara. Originally, for him, the position of Hokage was something he could have or not have. But what he could not accept was that although it had been Hashirama's promise, in the end, when Tobirama had proposed to choose the Second Hokage in such a way, Hashirama had not reacted at all.
Did Hashirama not know what kind of image Madara had among those clans?
In the Warring States period, under his leadership, no one except the Senju could compete with the Uchiha. Under those circumstances, the missions of many clans had been disrupted by them, and many of their clansmen had naturally been killed by their ninjas.
How many years had it been since the village had been established? Although under Hashirama's unparalleled strength, the ninjas of these clans seemed to have given up their hatred for the Uchiha and cherished this hard-won peace, after being persuaded by Tobirama, they also knew that if Madara were to ascend to the position of the Second Hokage, would he be as fair as the First?
It was not impossible that he would, in order to protect the Uchiha, send the ninjas of their families on dangerous missions, indirectly weakening their strength.
Madara simply did not believe that Hashirama would not know that if he chose to let the jonin of Konoha vote for the Second Hokage, his chances of being elected would be minimal.
But what made his heart grow cold was that not only did Hashirama not stop the method of electing the Hokage proposed by his brother, but he even raised his hand in favor.