Throughout the Nine-Tails's entire life of combat, it had never once been defeated due to a lack of chakra.
The same was true for Hashirama Senju.
To be honest, the fact that Hashirama had died shortly after his battle with Madara Uchiha was, in Li Anshi's view, highly unusual.
It was common knowledge that a ninja's spiritual and physical energy could be fused to refine chakra.
The reverse of this statement was also true.
That is, the quality and quantity of a person's chakra could also reflect their spiritual and physical energy.
With Hashirama's immense chakra, how could his physical and spiritual energy possibly be weak?
His body was the Sage's body, and as for his spiritual energy, that could be seen from his "ninja way."
Hashirama Senju was a figure who had ended an entire era. He had already walked to the very extreme of his "ninja way."
Li Anshi suspected that Hashirama's "peace" was in no way inferior to the "sentiment" he had inherited from Li Xunhuan.
Furthermore, because the concept of "peace" was of a far higher order than "sentiment," the breadth of the two could not be compared. Even if Li Anshi were to use Li Xunhuan's "sentiment," he would be no match for Hashirama Senju.
Judging from the performance of the reanimated Hashirama and Madara in the Fourth Great Ninja War, Hashirama was more than a notch stronger than Madara.
With his Wood Release alone, Hashirama could suppress Madara's Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
Even when Madara found the strongest Tailed Beast, the Nine-Tails, as his summon, he was still utterly crushed by Hashirama using "Sage Mode."
Aside from managing to bite a piece of Hashirama's flesh with all his might, Madara had not been able to inflict any real damage on him.
Li Anshi suspected that the Sage of Six Paths might have had a hand in Hashirama's death.
The hundreds of years of turmoil in the ninja world had originated from the struggle for succession in the "Ninja Sect."
This was the war between the Sage of Six Paths's two sons, Indra and Asura.
For whatever reason, the Sage of Six Paths seemed to turn a blind eye to the destruction his sons' conflict brought upon the world. Instead, he secretly allowed their chakras to reincarnate time and time again, to continue their struggle.
Could this be the Sage's punishment for his rebellious elder son, Indra?
Just because Indra was dissatisfied with the Sage designating Asura as the successor, did the Sage want Asura to defeat Indra again and again, to make Indra realize he was wrong?
To be honest, Li Anshi also couldn't understand how, before Hashirama Senju, Asura had managed to defeat Indra time after time.
As the Sage's eldest son, Indra had inherited his Sage's eyes, while Asura inherited his Sage's body.
Indra's talent far surpassed Asura's; he had evolved the Sharingan step by step to the level of the Eternal Mangekyo.
And Asura?
His aptitude was mediocre. Besides inheriting the Sage's body and possessing a huge amount of chakra, he had almost nothing else to show for it.
His well-digging was just a matter of gathering chakra in his palm to drill a hole.
How could such a level compare to Indra's Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan?
But absurdly, Asura had supposedly defeated Indra with the help of the others in the Ninja Sect.
Was this a joke?
In an era where even the hand seals for ninjutsu had been created by Indra, could the ninjutsu of those Ninja Sect members break through the "Complete Body Susanoo" created by the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan?
Even in the Fourth Great Ninja War, more than forty years later, how many people could break the defense of a Complete Body Susanoo?
How could those nobodies from the Ninja Sect possibly defeat Indra?
If the Sage of Six Paths hadn't meddled in this, Li Anshi would take the Sage's surname, Otsutsuki!
Moreover, there was an even more obvious point.
In the repeated reincarnations of Indra and Asura, Asura grew stronger and stronger, while Indra became weaker and weaker.
By Hashirama Senju's generation, his Sage's body allowed him to comprehend Sage Mode on his own, becoming the "God of Shinobi."
And Madara Uchiha?
His Mangekyo Sharingan had only been elevated after he absorbed his younger brother Izuna Uchiha's.
Since when was Indra's chakra insufficient to even awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan?
By Naruto Uzumaki's era, it had become even more ridiculous.
The chakra reincarnation of the great Sage of Six Paths's elder son, Sasuke, had only managed to awaken a one-tomoe Sharingan after the massacre of his entire clan...
It could be said that if Itachi Uchiha had not guided Sasuke step by step, he would have truly been just an unremarkable member of the Uchiha clan.
In the end, if it weren't for Black Zetsu's actions, which led to Kaguya Otsutsuki breaking her seal and forcing the Sage of Six Paths to divide his power between Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, Sasuke would probably have just re-enacted the story of the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha.
Could it be that the Sage of Six Paths's ultimate goal was to weaken Indra, have him grow with the help of his loved ones, let him experience "familial love," and then have him get beaten down one last time, to make him grateful?
It was not impossible that Hashirama Senju's death was because the Sage of Six Paths, seeing Madara die, wanted the two brothers to continue their fight together in the next era, and so had taken Asura's chakra from Hashirama's body, causing his sudden death.
Shaking his head, Li Anshi finally cast these "unofficial histories" from his mind.
He was still some distance from Madara, let alone Hashirama.
However, time was on his side.
Li Anshi's mindset was very good.
The chakra of other ninjas was refined from a fusion of spiritual and physical energy, which placed a considerable burden on both the body and the mind.
For them, fighting with chakra was no different from fighting with their lives.
The only difference was that as long as they didn't expend their lives all at once, their spiritual and physical energy could slowly recover.
However, intense battles also shortened a ninja's lifespan.
In the ninja world, being fifty years old was considered advanced in age.
And that was for ninjas who had not engaged in any battles since their peak state had declined.
If one continued to fight intensely after their state had declined, fifty would be their absolute limit.
But for Li Anshi, such a situation did not exist.
Compared to the destructive power of chakra, which damaged the body's potential, internal energy was much gentler.
Moreover, internal energy could slowly nourish and strengthen the body, making it stronger.
Li Anshi's chakra was an internal energy chakra that circulated through the meridians in his body, refined from practicing Li Xunhuan's internal arts. It possessed both the explosive destructive power of chakra and the nourishing, strengthening properties of internal energy.
As his chakra grew stronger, the effect of strengthening his body became more apparent.
And the stronger his body became, the more chakra he would have in turn.
After the age of twenty-five, the physical strength of a ninja reached its peak. To improve, they could only make progress in ninjutsu and spiritual transformation.
But Li Anshi was different.
As long as the strengthening effect of his internal energy chakra on his body had not stopped, his base strength could continue to improve.
Furthermore, the stronger his chakra, the better the strengthening effect on his body.
It was a relationship of mutual amplification and promotion.
In other words, the improvement of his strength would, over time, snowball and become larger and larger.
Three years ago, his chakra reserves were not much different from an ordinary Jonin's.
Three years later, his chakra reserves surpassed most ninjas, placing him in the ranks of the Elite Jonin.
In two more years at most, his chakra might reach the Kage level.
An increase in chakra would allow him to use the semi-complete Flying Thunder God Technique more times, which in turn would increase the number of daggers he had at his disposal.
In a way, this was also an improvement in his strength.
However, if possible, Li Anshi still wanted to learn the true Flying Thunder God Technique.
That way, he could advance to attack and retreat to defend.
Even if he wanted to protect someone, he wouldn't need to take risks like he had in the Land of Whirlpools, fighting his way out of an encirclement of numerous ninjas.
Instead, he could directly move the thirty-odd children outside the encirclement, preventing them from being hit by stray attacks during the battle.
"I'll rest for a few days first."
"After those Uzumaki children are escorted back, I'll go and ask the Third Hokage if I can exchange for a chance to view the Flying Thunder God Technique."
…
Swoosh!
Thud!
In a dark, underground training ground, the sound of something cutting through the air was heard. In the firelight, something reflected a faint white light, streaking across the air and pinning itself to the red dot at the center of a target.
"Damn it, what am I still missing?"
Danzo Shimura's face was grim as he looked at the dagger on the target ahead, his heart filled with resentment.
Three years ago, Danzo had used his position to obtain the throwing techniques for the Little Li's Flying Dagger from Li Anshi's three subordinates.
At that time, Danzo had dreamed that once he had mastered the technique, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sakumo Hatake, and Li Anshi would all tremble before him.
At that point, wouldn't the position of Hokage be his for the taking?
As for why the secret technique he had obtained from Sagawa and the others consisted entirely of techniques, Danzo hadn't found anything wrong with it.
After all, in his view, Li Anshi was just a commoner ninja. It was already a stroke of incredible luck that he had been able to create a secret dagger technique.
How could such a technique possibly have any deeper secrets?
However, once Danzo began to practice, he discovered that although this secret technique did indeed improve the speed and power of his tool-throwing considerably, it was a world of difference compared to Li Anshi's Little Li's Flying Dagger, which never missed its mark.
Before, Danzo had refused to believe that what he had obtained, at the risk of offending Li Anshi, was not the complete secret technique.