"Oh?"
Hearing Hiruzen Sarutobi's words, the Jonin present couldn't help but cast a surprised glance at Li Anshi.
They were surprised that he would actually pass on his signature secret technique to his subordinates.
At the same time, they had more or less guessed the content of this Jonin meeting.
As ninja families with traditions passed down for over a hundred years, their clan histories recorded many such incidents.
Those were the mistakes of their ancestors, lessons learned the hard way.
This was also the reason why, when cultivating the children of the clan, they only taught the basics before the age of twelve and did not pass down profound secret techniques.
A child carrying gold through a bustling city invites disaster, not fortune.
Hiruzen Sarutobi said in a deep voice, "Former elder Danzo Shimura, after learning of this, did not report to me or Jonin Li Anshi. He privately conducted a test for Anbu candidacy on Jonin Li Anshi's three subordinates."
"The test was whether Jonin Li Anshi's three subordinates could, under various forms of interrogation, refrain from revealing his secret flying dagger art."
As Hiruzen spoke, the expressions on the faces of the Jonin present became quite interesting.
What a joke.
After the fame of Jonin Li Anshi's "Little Li Flying Dagger" echoed throughout the ninja world, information about him was no longer a secret to the world's ninjas.
What other ninja villages could gather, the ninja clans of Konoha could gather.
And the more secret information that other ninja villages couldn't gather, the ninja clans of Konoha could also obtain.
As Jonin from the ninja clans who were registered in Konoha, their status within their families was beyond question.
Therefore, they could view the various pieces of intelligence collected by their clans.
Li Anshi's three subordinates were third-year students who had graduated early just last year. Moreover, they were the dead-lasts of their class, left over after the other squad-leading Chunin had made their choices, and were finally taken in by Li Anshi.
However, no one could have imagined that for those three dead-lasts, this was a heaven-sent opportunity.
With one burst of power, Li Anshi had directly reversed the tide of battle between the Cloud and Konoha, killing the Two-Tails Jinchuriki and severely wounding the Third Raikage.
Thus, the status of Sagawa and his friends naturally rose with the tide.
But even the Jonin in this meeting room hadn't expected Li Anshi to actually teach his secret art to the three boys.
Since the Sage of Six Paths passed down chakra and ninjas appeared in this world, making it the "ninja world" and their profession mainstream, in the hundreds of years since, besides the Sage of Six Paths, only Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha were publicly acknowledged by ninjas as "God" and "Demon."
Li Anshi's flying dagger already possessed a touch of that divine or demonic style.
A secret technique like that, in any ninja clan, would be regarded as the highest inheritance, with very few having the qualification to even view it.
And Li Anshi had just so easily passed it on…
Never mind Danzo Shimura; even they, if they had known, might have been tempted to take a peek.
The three boys were only about ten years old.
Everyone present knew at least seven or eight ways to get what they wanted from them.
"Now, I have already placed a sealing jutsu in the minds of the three boys to prevent them from leaking the secret of the flying dagger by any means."
"Furthermore, the three of them have now become Anbu candidate ninjas and are currently undergoing Anbu training."
"In this Jonin meeting, our main topic of discussion is how to deal with Danzo."
After explaining the cause and effect, Hiruzen Sarutobi stated the purpose of the Jonin meeting.
"This…"
The group of Jonin exchanged glances, feeling a bit troubled.
As high-ranking members of the village's power structure, they were aware of the relationship between Danzo Shimura and Lord Hokage.
From the way Lord Hokage had handled Danzo before, they could tell that after the storm passed, Danzo would surely return to his seat as an elder.
And the mistake Danzo had committed this time was not too big, yet not too small.
If they were to kick him while he was down now, no one could say what impact it would have on their clans when he rose to power again.
Of course, this wasn't because they were particularly afraid of Danzo.
As ninja clans within Konoha, the Senju had already disbanded and integrated into the village.
The Uchiha stood alone as a great power, but due to the actions of Madara and Setsuna Uchiha, they were ostracized by most of the other clans.
Setting these two aside, the remaining ninja clans in Konoha saw the smaller clans attached to the larger ones, while the mid-sized clans allied for mutual advancement, ensuring their own interests.
Take the Ino-Shika-Cho trio for example. Although each individual clan was not large, their alliance and the coordination of their secret techniques made them second only to the Sarutobi and Hyuga clans in Konoha.
An elder with real power, if he were to pull some strings on certain matters, could indeed cause some trouble for a ninja clan.
However—
Coveting another ninja's secret technique was a great taboo among ninjas.
What you did in secret, as long as you weren't caught, you could justify it however you liked.
Of the ninja clans that had survived from the Warring States period to the present, which one didn't have some underhanded methods that couldn't see the light of day?
One only had to look at the Cloud Village.
Everyone knew that when the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, went to negotiate a truce with the Cloud, he was betrayed, and that the Second Raikage was involved.
But when Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others were still there, the Second Raikage had been locked in a fierce battle with a "rebellious" Cloud ninja, allowing the majority of the rebels to attack the Konoha delegation.
When the Second Hokage stayed behind alone to let Hiruzen and the others escape, with no other witnesses, the Second Raikage surely attacked him alongside the Gold and Silver Brothers.
Otherwise, the Second Raikage could not have died there.
It was just that after the Second Hokage's death, the Cloud side had cleaned up the battlefield. By the time Hiruzen and the others arrived with a large force to support him, they could find no evidence to prove the Cloud's involvement in the assassination of the Second Hokage.
Seeing that no one answered him, Hiruzen Sarutobi turned his gaze to Li Anshi.
"Jonin Li Anshi, what is your opinion on the punishment for Danzo Shimura?"
The many Jonin also followed Hiruzen's words, turning their gazes to Li Anshi.
After all, the secret of the flying dagger that Danzo had stolen was Li Anshi's technique.
It was reasonable for him to propose a punishment for Danzo.
Of course, while that was the case, whether his proposed punishment would be adopted depended on what it was, and the final decision would be made by Hiruzen Sarutobi himself.
However, the Jonin present all knew that in this matter, the punishment for Danzo, decided by Hiruzen and the many Jonin, would not be too severe.