With Li Anshi standing behind Sakumo Hatake, it seemed that a greater burden could be placed on him, allowing him to begin handling some of the village's affairs.
This way, he himself could also relax a little.
At this thought, the smile on Hiruzen Sarutobi's face grew even wider.
After the war ended, he had taken over the management of Konoha, and a mountain of matters had to pass through his hands every day.
Information from outside and inside the village, mission documents—they practically buried his desk.
Sometimes, he had to use the Shadow Clone Technique to assist him in handling these affairs.
For three years, Hiruzen had left early and returned late. Even his training time had been greatly reduced.
Currently, he had only completed a four-nature combination ninjutsu, still a considerable distance from his peak technique, the "Five-Style Great Flame Bullet."
Seeing the strength of the younger generation like Li Anshi and Sakumo Hatake catch up to and even surpass his own, Hiruzen, while gratified, also felt a reluctance to admit his age.
He was the Hokage of Konoha!
The Kage of the other ninja villages, which one of them was not the strongest in their own village?
How was it that when it came to him, he might not even make the top three?
Delegating a portion of the village's affairs to Sakumo would, on the one hand, train his management skills.
On the other hand, it would also greatly reduce his own pressure, giving him more time to train.
If he could complete the "Five-Nature Combination Ninjutsu," his offensive power would surely take a leap.
However, thinking of the difficulty of practicing the five-nature combination, Hiruzen shook his head.
It seemed he had to make some trade-offs.
For the time being, he would focus on practicing the Five-Style Dragon Bullet.
This was the easiest five-nature combination ninjutsu to complete.
Among the five-nature techniques, there was the Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet, Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet, Fire Style: Fire Dragon Bullet, Lightning Style: Lightning Dragon Bullet, and Wind Style: Wind Dragon Bullet. These five techniques were almost all derived from the same ninjutsu.
Fusing these five dragon bullet techniques was relatively less difficult.
"Lord Hokage, Anshi, let's go in."
Sakumo Hatake began to usher Li Anshi and the Third Hokage into his residence.
Generally, at a banquet, apart from close relations, the higher one's status, the later one arrived.
The guests at Sakumo's wedding were no different.
If nothing unexpected happened, the most important people would arrive around dusk.
However, with both Li Anshi and the Third Hokage present, if they still put on airs, they would just be making things difficult for themselves.
In Konoha, besides Mito Uzumaki, who dared to place their status above the Hokage?
Therefore, many ninja clan members who had not planned to come, or who had planned to come late, all rushed over at the fastest speed after learning that the Third Hokage had arrived.
Sakumo only invited Li Anshi and Hiruzen inside after most of the guests had arrived.
Otherwise, it would be awkward for those who came later to arrive after Lord Hokage.
…
"Damn it!"
"How do you have the face to ask me to go?"
In the village of Uzushiogakure, Ashina Uzumaki slammed his hand down on the table before him.
In front of him, a dozen or so Jonin from the village looked around awkwardly or stared at the ground in silence.
Although his age had dimmed the once-vibrant red of his hair and his mustache and beard were now white, the surging chakra emanating from his body still allowed one to feel the terror of a remnant from the previous era.
As the head of the Uzumaki clan, it was Ashina who had led them to establish a foothold in the Warring States period, eventually allying with the Senju and repeatedly thwarting the Uchiha clan.
In the end, he had joined forces with Hashirama Senju, Madara Uchiha, and others to end the Warring States period and found Konoha.
However, because the Uzumaki clan was simply too large, and because of the conflicts with the Uchiha during the Warring States period, not everyone could let go of their grudges.
Not actively seeking revenge against the Uchiha was the limit of what some of them could do.
To have them live in the same village as the Uchiha was, without a doubt, a form of torture and torment.
Therefore, after Konoha was established, Ashina led all the members of the Uzumaki clan not to live in Konoha, but to establish the Land of Whirlpools and the village of Uzushiogakure directly on their ancestral lands.
Of course, although the Uzumaki clan did not integrate into Konoha, Hashirama and Madara did not distance themselves from them because of it.
In fact, they greatly admired his act of leading his clansmen away to avoid internal strife in the village.
Therefore, they also acknowledged that the departed Uzumaki clan was still a member of Konoha.
When designing the symbol of Konoha, they had even used the Uzumaki clan's crest as its main body.
The two sharp points on the crest represented the Senju and Uchiha clans.
However, although Ashina, Hashirama, and Madara all considered Uzushiogakure and Konoha to be one, after the successive deaths of the First and Second Hokage, the relationship between the two villages was no longer as close as it had been a decade ago.
In particular, after the death of the Second Hokage a few years ago, Konoha faced the greatest crisis since its founding. The Stone, Sand, and Cloud villages all launched attacks on it simultaneously.
At that time, Ashina had wanted to lead a portion of his ninjas to support Konoha but was refused by the majority of his clansmen.
Because, in their view at the time, even with Mito Uzumaki, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Konoha could only protect itself from being destroyed by the other three villages.
If the Land of Whirlpools were to support Konoha at that time, it could indeed reduce some of the pressure.
But Uzushiogakure had no Jinchuriki to protect it.
Moreover, Konoha was a village composed of many ninja clans, and the strongest one at that.
Uzushiogakure was a village composed only of the Uzumaki clan, its size not much different from villages like Kumogakure, Kusagakure, Takigakure, or Yugakure.
Even if the Uzumaki ninjas were much stronger than ordinary ones, at best they were comparable to the Rain Village of Amegakure.
Compared to the smaller villages, Uzushiogakure had an overwhelming advantage.
But compared to the five great ninja villages, it was still far behind.
The three villages might not be able to destroy Konoha, but destroying Uzushiogakure would not be a difficult task.
It was precisely because of this that even though Ashina was the Kage of Uzushiogakure and the Daimyo of the Land of Whirlpools, his proposal was rejected by both the nobles of the country and the Jonin of the village.
But no one could have imagined that Konoha would produce a "Little Li Flying Dagger"!
Because of Li Anshi's existence, the Cloud was shattered in a single battle and suffered a devastating blow.
The Two-Tails Jinchuriki died, the Third Raikage was severely wounded, and hundreds of Cloud ninjas died in the battle that made his name.
With his deterrent, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was able to dispatch more powerhouses to the Stone front.
Otherwise, if Hiruzen and the others had been tied down on the Cloud front, the ninjas on the Stone front would have been crushed, dealing a severe blow to Konoha.
Konoha, fighting on three fronts, had no room for error.
Once one front collapsed, the village would be in dire straits.
Both the Cloud and Sand fronts would have to retreat back to the village and use it as a base to fend off the attacks of the Stone, Sand, and Cloud.
But there were no "ifs" in this world.
The fact was, when Konoha was in peril, Li Anshi had appeared.
With his Little Li Flying Dagger, he had single-handedly changed the entire situation of the ninja world.
It was said that after the Cloud learned that Konoha had transported more than three thousand flying daggers to the front lines, they didn't dare to engage and their main forces retreated directly to their village.
Unfortunately, they still could not escape his attack later.
More than three thousand Cloud ninjas had surrounded him, suffering nearly a thousand casualties, and the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki was on the verge of death.
If they had not compromised in the end, the Eight-Tails would probably have been reborn like the Two-Tails, and the Cloud Village, having lost its high command and many of its powerhouses, would have fallen from the ranks of the five great villages to become a second-rate one.
It was precisely because of the existence of Little Li Flying Dagger, Li Anshi, that the Stone and Sand had finally signed a truce with Konoha, restoring peace to the village.
But while Konoha was at peace, the ninja world was not!
The losses that the three great villages—Cloud, Stone, and Sand—had suffered at the hands of Konoha had to be recouped from other sources.
Otherwise, the Third Tsuchikage, the Third Raikage, and the Second Kazekage would all become sinners in their respective villages.
Under these circumstances, how could they stop the war?
The spoils of foreign conquest came much faster than the rewards of individual missions.
And they didn't think that, besides Konoha, any other village could rival them.
So, the Cloud and the Stone, the Cloud and the Sand, the Sand and the Stone, and even the Mist Village, were all drawn in.
Not just the great villages, but the smaller villages of various small countries were also swept up.
The Land of Snow, the Land of Hot Water, the Land of Bears, the Land of Artisans—they all became battlegrounds for the great villages.
The ninjas of these small countries—the Snow, Hot Water, Star, and Artisan ninjas—had no choice but to attach themselves to one of the great villages and join the First Great Ninja War.
But as the war developed, the resources that could be plundered in the ninja world were almost all divided up by the Stone, Sand, and Cloud. The resources that could allow the three villages to recover were becoming scarcer and scarcer.
Under these circumstances, the Land of Whirlpools and the village of Uzushiogakure entered the eyes of the three—no, four—great ninja villages.
At first, because of Konoha, the Land of Whirlpools was not affected by the war.
But when the great villages had gathered enough intelligence and confirmed that the relationship between the Land of Whirlpools and Konoha was not that deep, they bared their fangs.
Although the ninjas of the Land of Whirlpools achieved considerable results with their powerful and strange sealing techniques, the four great villages seemed to have reached some kind of agreement. Afterward, their ninjas no longer fought among themselves but coordinated to attack the Land of Whirlpools.
The ninjas of the Land of Whirlpools suffered heavy casualties. In the end, they had to swallow their pride and come here, to ask Ashina Uzumaki to go to Konoha for help.
This was the reason for his rage.
"What? Has the cat got all your tongues?"
Sweeping his gaze over the ninjas before him, Ashina sneered. "When Konoha was in crisis, I asked you to go and support them, and you refused."
"So now you tell me, with our country in crisis, what face do I have to go to Konoha and ask for help?"
"A dozen years ago, our Uzumaki clan established the Land of Whirlpools and this village. Out of respect for me, Hashirama Senju, on behalf of Konoha, established diplomatic relations with us and signed an alliance."
"When Konoha was in crisis, you tore up that alliance."
"Now that Konoha has overcome its crisis, and it's our turn to be in danger, you remember the alliance?"
"Where is your shame?"
"You may have no shame, but I still have mine!"
The Uzumaki ninjas were all red-faced with embarrassment at his words.
Indeed, they had acted dishonorably in this matter.
If you don't support your ally when they are in trouble, why should they support you when you are in trouble?
Moreover, when they had refused to support Konoha, Konoha had probably already considered the alliance broken.
Since they were no longer allies, why should Konoha come to their rescue?
If there was something to be gained, then there was room for discussion.
But was the benefit of the Land of Whirlpools enough for Konoha to pay such a great price to rescue them?
Don't forget, the ones besieging them now were the other four great ninja villages.
No, not just them.
There were also the dozen or so small ninja villages that had been swept up by the four great ones!
In other words, if Konoha came to their aid, they would have to be prepared to be drawn back into the war.
And this time, the war would no longer be Konoha against three, but Konoha against the entire ninja world!
Even when the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, was alive, Konoha had never done such a thing.
Now, having lost the three stabilizing pillars of Hashirama, Tobirama, and Madara, did Konoha dare to make an enemy of the entire world?
"Lord Ashina."
An Uzumaki ninja stood up under the pressure of his gaze.
"Lord Ashina, we know that we were wrong in this matter."
"But everything we did was for the continuation of the Uzumaki clan."
"That was true when we refused to support Konoha, and it is true now that we ask for their help."
"We can die to protect the Land of Whirlpools, but our children, and the people of this country, they should not be affected."
"So, I implore you, Lord Ashina, to go to Konoha for help."
The ninja knelt before him and pleaded, "Lord Ashina, because we broke the treaty, a rift has formed between Konoha and our country."