The Third Hokage's Self-Deception

Bing San woke up that morning to see Asuma on the bed next to him. He was sitting quietly on the edge of the bed, staring blankly. Bing San walked over and patted Asuma's shoulder.

Asuma turned his head dazedly to look at Bing San. Bing San sighed and said, "Asuma, this isn't like you. What's wrong? We're good friends, right? Tell me about it, okay!"

Asuma looked at Bing San, his eyes slowly reddened, and he choked out, "Big Brother Xinye is dead, Big Brother Xinye is dead, sob sob sob..."

As Asuma recounted the story intermittently, Bing San finally understood what had happened.

Sarutobi Xinye was the Third Hokage's distant cousin. The Third Hokage was too busy to take care of his family, so he asked Sarutobi Xinye to protect the household, which meant taking care of Asuma and his mother, Sarutobi Biwako. By rights, Asuma should have called him uncle, but they were close friends, like father and son, so he was allowed to call him by his name.

In Asuma's words: "Sarutobi Hiruzen only cared about the village and never bothered with his family's well-being. Even when his mother fell ill, it was Big Brother Xinye who carried her to the hospital. He wouldn't even send a shadow clone."

Bing San could only pat Asuma's shoulder to offer encouragement. In truth, Bing San's influence on the Ninja World was already gradually becoming apparent.

Firstly, in the original timeline, there were constant skirmishes on the Sand Ninja front, leading to escalating tensions. This forced Orochimaru and Danzo to remain on the Sand Ninja front for years.

But now, because Orochimaru used Bing San's "I Love A Shiba Inu" on Ebizo, Orochimaru severed one of Ebizo's arms. The Sand Ninja commander was defeated, their morale damaged, and the situation stabilized considerably. Many injured ninja, along with Orochimaru and Danzo, returned to the village for rest and recuperation.

Secondly, in the original world, Tachibana Muneshige came to Konoha undetected, meaning he did not die in Konoha. When the Sand Ninja launched a surprise attack on Konoha using the Third Kazekage's death and disappearance as an excuse, Konoha was completely unprepared.

Now, due to Tachibana Muneshige's death, Konoha was forced to send reinforcements to the Sand Ninja front. This was, by chance, an early form of preparedness.

Thirdly, Danzo, who was becoming increasingly gloomy in the original timeline, now had Bing San as a strange concern. Danzo was still blackening, but at a much slower pace.

Fourthly, in the original timeline, Orochimaru, after his First Hokage cell experiments failed, began madly capturing children for further experimentation. Here, however, because Bing San survived by chance (actually kept alive by the System), he did not launch a new round of experiments. This means it's uncertain whether the future "Wood Style" ninja will appear.

Fifthly, Sarutobi Asuma, a very rebellious child in the original timeline, due to Bing San's mischievous nature, not only gave up pursuing Yūhi Kurenai but also underwent a significant personality change. It's likely that Konoha will have no future Hokage from the Sarutobi clan, and the future Twelve Guardian Shinobi, and so on, are even less likely. Furthermore, because Tachibana Muneshige, with whom he had no prior connection, died, Asuma lost a beloved relative and gained a different direction for his personal growth.

Sixthly, Jiraiya was always on the front lines. It's unknown when he encountered the Akatsuki Organization's trio, but it was likely within these few years. After all, based on age, Nagato should be slightly older than Kakashi and Jiraiya.

Now, Jiraiya is always thinking about Bing San's Kidney Treasure and hasn't gone out much. Coupled with the fact that the front lines are not as tense as in the original timeline but have relaxed considerably, Jiraiya is safely in Konoha.

In short, Bing San's appearance has affected many people, both adults and children, and even those yet to be born.

As the saying goes, it's the butterfly effect. A hurricane is already brewing, and it will only grow stronger as Bing San ages.

Bing San stood by the window, looking at the sky outside the Hokage Building. It was gloomy, and it looked like it was going to rain. Bing San clenched his fists tightly and said, "Asuma, stand up like a man! Let's train hard and avenge your big brother."

Asuma, after crying for a while, seemed to have cried enough and gradually calmed down. Asuma slowly got off the bed, his gaze gradually becoming determined: "Bing San, you're right. I need to train hard and kill all those Sand Ninja to avenge Big Brother Xinye!"

Soon after, it began to rain outside. The light drizzle washed over the land, but it couldn't wash away the bloody hearts of the two children.

"Ding, ding, ding."

"I'm coming in." With a voice from outside the door, a girl entered. It was Shimura Tomoko.

It turned out that because the Jonin meeting had lasted for a long time yesterday, after the meeting, the two of them were placed under house arrest in the Hokage Building by the Anbu due to their insufficient rank. It was announced to the outside world that the two children were recovering from injuries. Due to Danzo's strong stance, Shimura Tomoko was assigned to take care of the two children.

Tomoko bowed and said, "Young Master Bing San, Young Master Sarutobi, it's time to eat." She then began taking food out of the bento box from her arm.

After eating, Asuma clamored to see the Third Hokage. Since he was the Third Hokage's son, the many Anbu couldn't stop him forcefully, so they saw the Third Hokage amidst the commotion.

The Third Hokage said with a tired expression, "You two brats, you just snuck away with my Crystal Ball, and I haven't settled that with you yet, and now you're making a fuss about what?"

Zixiao bowed and retreated when he saw that the Third Hokage was about to handle family matters, and he closed the door behind him.

Sarutobi Asuma said with red eyes, "Old man, I want to become stronger, I want to learn powerful ninjutsu."

The Third Hokage looked at his youngest son in this state and felt heartbroken. He was just extremely busy, not that he didn't love this child. It should be known that when he took over the position of Hokage, he faced immense difficulties, with various clans finding ways to make things difficult for him.

Even now, a significant portion of people still obeyed his orders in name only. This included Konoha's largest ninja clan, the Hyuga, and Konoha's strongest ninja clan, the Uchiha.

In fact, these two statements don't conflict, because the Hyuga family alone has over three thousand members in its branch families, with countless affiliated families and commoners.

Although the Uchiha clan has only a little over a thousand members in total, they have over a hundred Jonin. Keep in mind that Konoha as a whole has less than two thousand Jonin. This doesn't even include elite Chunin and Special Jonin who have Jonin-level strength but haven't been promoted.

The Third Hokage took a deep drag from his cigarette and said, "Asuma, did you learn the scroll I gave you last time?"

Asuma retorted, "They were just two C-rank ninjutsu, I already know them. Big Brother Xinye also taught me a B-rank and two C-ranks, and I've learned them all. I want to learn more powerful techniques, techniques that can make me stronger quickly."

The Third Hokage was troubled. His youngest son had talent; Asuma, who was born with four elemental affinities, was just a bit unmotivated before. Now that he finally had ambition, he was becoming unrealistic.

The Third Hokage, with a splitting headache from processing many documents, didn't want to argue with the child. He thought for a moment and came up with a method that would make him regret half his life: he handed the sealing scroll to Asuma and Bing San. He promised that as long as they didn't make noise and didn't leave the Hokage's office, they could look at it freely.

He thought that the two children wouldn't be able to understand or remember it, but he didn't know that Bing San had a skill called "One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones."

His good disciple, Orochimaru, and his good partner, Shimura Danzo, copied the contents of the sealing scroll thoroughly. He was still under the illusion that he had found a way to trick the two children. What a naive Third Hokage.

(End of this chapter)