And the carving of her grandfather, Hashirama Senju, although he appeared to be smiling foolishly, possessed an air of extreme, self-assured dominance.
Never mind the little bird beating its wings; even the carving of Madara Uchiha further away, arms crossed, clad in armor, with a Gunbai fan on his back, looking down on the world with invincibility, seemed somewhat diminished in its presence.
"Hmph, I suppose you have a point."
Although she was reluctant to admit her judgment was lacking, under the presence of her grandfather's carving, Tsunade had to acknowledge the difference between the two.
With a roll of her eyes, Tsunade simply reached out and took the carving in her hand.
"Anshi, this is mine now!"
"No problem, Lady Tsunade."
"That will be five thousand four hundred Ryo."
In Li Anshi's shop, this was already in the highest price range.
Neither Li Anshi nor Tsunade found anything wrong with this.
This was the First Hokage, the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, after all!
"Deduct it from the rent!"
Tsunade waved her hand magnanimously.
Outside of a casino, no one could get a single coin from her!
"Alright, in that case, the rent is now paid up to forty years from now."
Li Anshi shrugged, already accustomed to Tsunade's payment method.
"By the way, Tsunade."
At that moment, something occurred to Li Anshi, and he asked, "Does the Senju clan still have the Flying Thunder God Technique created by the Second Hokage?"
The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, was widely recognized as a master of ninjutsu.
His life was spent either creating ninjutsu or on the path to creating ninjutsu.
It could be said that of the thousands of powerful ninjutsu in the world, saying the Second Hokage was responsible for half was far too modest.
In Li Anshi's view, at least eighty percent of the world's most powerful ninjutsu came from Tobirama Senju.
One could say that whenever a strange and powerful ninjutsu appeared, if you didn't know who created it, writing Tobirama Senju's name down would be correct eighty percent of the time.
He had recorded all the various ninjutsu he invented on a scroll.
Because most of the techniques recorded on the scroll were extremely powerful and had very high learning requirements, they were also called "forbidden jutsu."
This scroll was known as the "Scroll of Seals."
The Flying Thunder God Technique was the ninjutsu Li Anshi had chosen as most suitable for himself after the battle with the Cloud, based on his own weaknesses.
As he was now, if he were to be surrounded by three hundred ninjas and run out of daggers, four or five Jonin could easily defeat him.
But if he learned the Flying Thunder God Technique, he could carry a sealing scroll with thousands or even tens of thousands of daggers. When he was about to run out, he could use the technique to leave the encirclement, buying himself time to replenish his supply.
In that situation, as long as he had enough chakra to use the technique, he would be invincible.
According to his plan, he was supposed to use his achievements as the commander on the Cloud front and for forcing the Cloud to sign a truce and pay war reparations to exchange for the qualification to view the Flying Thunder God Technique from the Third Hokage.
Given Hiruzen's attitude towards him, Li Anshi felt there wouldn't be much resistance.
But after the incident with Danzo Shimura, he knew that his desire to exchange for the technique from the Scroll of Seals would surely meet with much more opposition.
The Little Li Flying Dagger never misses its mark.
It pursues the soul, steals life, a cycle of life and death.
In the ninja world, all who knew of his technique understood that to kill him, one would need to dispatch at least a four-digit number of ninjas and be prepared to sacrifice more than three hundred lives for a chance at success.
A God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, and an Asura of the Ninja World, Madara Uchiha, had ended the Warring States period over a decade ago, ushering in the era of the ninja villages.
The ninjas, having grown accustomed to this era, did not wish for a new God of Shinobi or Asura of the Ninja World to appear.
Because they did not know in what direction a new one would lead the world.
The Warring States period had only passed a little over a decade ago. Those ninjas from the clans who had lived through the transition still remembered the glory of their clans in that era.
Of the hundreds of ninja clans, could even fifty be mustered in the era of the ninja villages?
If the situation in the ninja world were to change again, would one village annihilate all the others and dominate the world?
Don't think the ninjas of the world are fools.
Of the Kage of the five great villages and the dozen or so smaller villages, besides Konoha's First Hokage, which one did not have the "dream" of unifying the ninja world?
Even Madara Uchiha, before he was tricked by Black Zetsu, had such thoughts.
Unfortunately, Hashirama Senju was an obstacle he could not overcome, forcing him to bite a piece of Hashirama's flesh to obtain the Rinnegan, tattooing Hashirama's face on his own chest.
Unless this new "God of Shinobi" or "Asura of the Ninja World" was from their own village.
And was a ninja within their control.
Otherwise, no one was willing to have their interests harmed.
But would a powerhouse of such strength be a "weapon" that would listen to the commands of others?
Who could guarantee that this was a person who loved peace like the God of Shinobi?
Therefore, although the ninjas of Konoha were happy to see Li Anshi's existence, if he went beyond their control, they would not let him threaten them.
Indeed, the current Li Anshi had already grown to a level they could not touch, but they could still place some obstacles on his path to further advancement.
For example, by not allowing him to learn a space-time ninjutsu like the Flying Thunder God.
As he was now, if the five great ninja villages were determined, they could still kill him by mustering the full strength of their village.
If he abided by the rules of a ninja, then all was well, and they were willing to give him the respect his strength deserved.
But if he truly disregarded the rules, they were not incapable of doing what the Cloud Village had done—mobilizing their entire village to encircle and kill him alone.
Ninjas were a profession where one's life was always on the line.
They did not fear death.
In fact, from the moment a ninja was born, it was destined that they would die in battle.
The only difference was whether it was sooner or later.
Not one in a hundred ninjas could enjoy their old age and live to their natural limit.
Therefore, considering the attitude of the Jonin from Konoha's ninja clans towards him, Li Anshi gave up on the idea of getting the "Scroll of Seals" from Hiruzen Sarutobi first, and instead looked for a breakthrough point with Tsunade.
The Scroll of Seals, although currently in the Hokage's keeping, who could guarantee that the Second Hokage hadn't left a backup copy of the techniques he recorded on it within the Senju clan?
"The Flying Thunder God Technique?"
Tsunade was taken aback for a moment, then she shook her head.
"Oh, right, Anshi."
"If you could learn Great-Granduncle's Flying Thunder God Technique, you would become the most terrifying ninja in the entire world."
"But I'm sorry, I don't know if he left a copy of it in the clan."
"How about this, I'll go back and look for it."
"If I find it, I'll bring it to you."
"Alright."
Li Anshi smiled and nodded. "As long as you bring me the Flying Thunder God Technique, I will cancel the more than forty years of rent."
"And from next month, I'll start paying you rent again, with a twenty percent increase!"
"Really?"
Countless money symbols seemed to roll in Tsunade's eyes as she looked at Li Anshi brightly.
Over forty years of rent.
You know, since returning to Konoha, Tsunade hadn't set foot in a casino. Who would believe that?
But it was true.
Previously, her gambling funds had come from the rent of this shop.
But this time, she had already collected the rent for over forty years in advance, and Li Anshi had not yet reopened for business. Even if she wanted to ask for future rent, she couldn't bring herself to do it.
But if she taught him the Flying Thunder God Technique, she would have no such qualms.
She could ask him to go to the casino to pay her gambling debts at any time, and he would have to bring enough money.
Li Anshi himself had no objection to this.
It was a joke. This was the Flying Thunder God Technique!
The first space-time ninjutsu to appear in the ninja world.
How could it be exchanged for just over forty years of a shop's rent?
Besides, for both of them, this shop was the bond between them. The rent was just a form of their interaction.
The most important thing was their "bond."
Whether he admitted it or not, his existence in Konoha had indeed established a "bond" with Tsunade.
If one day he were to act against Konoha, and Tsunade stood up to stop him, he might very well back down.
After watching Tsunade leave, Li Anshi once again picked up a piece of softwood and began to carve.
However, this time, what he carved was not a person, animal, or Tailed Beast, but his own "Little Li Flying Dagger."
In these few days, although he had not yet reopened for business, many children had already come to place deposits and order a number of flying daggers.
From this, it seemed the reputation of the "Little Li Flying Dagger" in Konoha was quite good.
It was just that these children didn't know that the real "Little Li Flying Dagger" was the owner of this unremarkable woodcarving shop…
If they knew he was the one, the number of daggers they ordered would probably at least triple, right?
…
"Where on earth is it?"
Returning home, Tsunade didn't even greet her grandmother, Mito Uzumaki, before diving headfirst into the library.
Through the sunlight streaming in from the window, one could see that many of the shelves in the library were already empty.
On the floor, many books were piled up in a mess.
If any one of these books were to fall into the outside world, it would probably be sought after by countless ninjas.
From the titles on the covers, one could guess their contents.
Some were about the concept of a certain ninjutsu, some were records of chakra experiments, some were complete ninjutsu…
And some were research and experimental records related to the human body…
Of course, the most numerous books piled on the floor were materials related to medical ninjutsu.
Before the Second Hokage, the concept of "medical ninjutsu" did not exist in the ninja world.
Ninjas of the Warring States period, once seriously injured, were almost certainly sentenced to death.
Even if they managed to survive, their strength would be greatly diminished, and they would soon die on a mission due to their reduced capabilities.
The so-called "medical ninjutsu" was developed by the Second Hokage after studying his older brother Hashirama's self-healing constitution and discovering the "Yang Release Chakra" within his body.
In Tobirama's research, if the Uchiha clan's "Sharingan" was the ultimate of Yin Release, then his brother's body was the ultimate of Yang Release.
After some research, Tobirama created the ninja system of "medical ninjutsu."
However, due to time constraints, the medical ninjutsu he created still had a huge gap compared to Hashirama's "self-healing."
It was only later that Tsunade specialized in medical ninjutsu and created techniques like "Creation Rebirth," which were comparable to Hashirama's self-healing.
These books were thrown on the floor so casually because Tsunade had already read and fully understood them all.
As for the books she hadn't read, or hadn't fully understood, they were still neatly placed on the shelves.
"Flying Thunder God Technique…"
"Flying Thunder God Technique…"
Tsunade's gaze swept over the titles on the rows of bookshelves.
Although she had been in this library countless times since she began learning ninjutsu, to this day, she still didn't know how many kinds of ninjutsu, how many kinds of theories, were in her great-granduncle's collection.
Sometimes, Tsunade would think that if her great-granduncle had possessed the same Wood Release as her grandfather, then her grandfather would definitely not have been his match.
In fact, after viewing the many materials left by her great-granduncle, a highly irreverent thought had even risen in her heart.
Perhaps, her grandfather's Wood Release ninjutsu had been developed for him by her great-granduncle.
To find the materials for the Flying Thunder God Technique in this vast sea of information was not a simple task for Tsunade.
"Sigh, this child…"
Mito Uzumaki walked into the library and shook her head at the sight of the materials Tsunade had carelessly thrown on the floor.
However, she did not scold her. Instead, she bent down, tidied up the scattered books, and placed them back on the shelves.
Knowing that Tsunade had been studying medical ninjutsu recently, Mito specifically placed all the related materials on the surrounding shelves.
As for the others that were unrelated, she placed them on the more distant, empty shelves.
But what surprised her was that even after she had finished tidying up all the messy books on the floor, Tsunade was still looking for something.