The Hokage's Son

After Orochimaru left, Hiruzen Sarutobi pondered in private for a while, then gave an order and summoned all his trusted subordinates in the ANBU.

It had to be said that the former Hiruzen Sarutobi had possessed greater talent for political maneuvering than for ninjutsu.

The Third Hokage was known as the Professor of Ninjutsu, though most of what he knew were rather unimpressive techniques that were of little use against true experts.

But the killing power of combined ninjutsu against low-ranking ninja was beyond question—an absolute battlefield slaughterhouse.

When it came to crafting his public image, he could not be said to have done an exceptionally good job, but aside from a handful of people, no one in all of Konoha, from top to bottom, failed to acknowledge Hiruzen Sarutobi.

In the villagers' eyes, Hiruzen Sarutobi was powerful and upright, a great Hokage who had given them good lives.

In the eyes of most ninja, Hiruzen Sarutobi was likewise worthy of respect.

Only the small number of ninja who had truly been harmed by power knew that Hiruzen Sarutobi was Konoha's greatest darkness.

Glancing at the documents on his desk, Hiruzen Sarutobi immediately decided to leave them for Orochimaru to worry over.

He left the Hokage Building and strolled along Konoha's streets.

"It's Lord Hokage!"

The children became wildly excited upon seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi. The Will of Fire had permeated every aspect of life, and the shared dream of most Konoha children was to become Hokage.

"Lord Hokage! I want to become an outstanding ninja like you someday too!"

A snot-nosed little boy broke free from his mother's hand and ran up before Hiruzen Sarutobi, his voice filled with longing.

"My apologies, Lord Hokage."

The woman, dressed like a housewife, hurried over. Facing Hiruzen Sarutobi, she could not help feeling nervous and restrained.

She knew perfectly well what her child was capable of. He was mischievous every day and at the bottom of his class in the Ninja Academy.

She and her Genin husband were merely ordinary people, unable to offer their child much help at all.

All she prayed for was that war would not come, that her child would not be sent to the battlefield at such a young age.

Hokage? That was far too distant...

Almost instinctively, Hiruzen Sarutobi reached out and touched the boy's forehead.

"Work hard toward your dream. I believe you can succeed!"

After saying that, Hiruzen Sarutobi left, leaving behind the stunned boy and a crowd of citizens discussing among themselves.

"Yuta, don't make such trouble again next time."

"Mom, I'll definitely become Hokage!"

Looking at her son, her smile was somewhat bitter. Perhaps...

Hiruzen Sarutobi no longer had the mood to continue wandering around Konoha and quickly returned to the Sarutobi Clan estate within the village.

The Sarutobi Clan's luxurious residence alone was enough to show Hiruzen Sarutobi's influence in Konoha.

Konoha's largest Lineages were undoubtedly the Senju and Uchiha Clan. After them came secret-technique Lineages such as the Hyuga Clan and Ino–Shika–Cho.

But the Senju Clan had already disappeared, melding into Konoha. This was also the fundamental reason Konoha continued to produce outstanding civilian talents in abundance.

Yet the Senju Clan's sacrifice had not achieved its intended effect.

The original plan of the two Senju brothers—the First and Second Hokage of Konoha—had been for Konoha's remaining Lineages to follow the Senju's example, cast aside their Lineages and bloodlines, and fully integrate into Konoha.

Such a Konoha would certainly have grown ever stronger.

Thinking of this, Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head. Hashirama Senju had been far too naive.

The vision was beautiful, but reality was cruel.

Leaving aside the corruption of Konoha's Third-generation leaders, people such as Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura, the differences in talent between individuals alone doomed this idea to fail.

The powerful Senju bloodline had indeed allowed Konoha to produce many civilian geniuses afterward, but the secret techniques of most Konoha Lineages could not be passed on to outsiders.

Take the Inuzuka Clan and Aburame Clan, for example. The bodies of both Lineages had already changed in ways suited to their summoned beasts and secret techniques.

Over generations of inheritance, the Inuzuka Clan's bodies had developed certain canine traits, while the Aburame Clan had even needed to alter their bodies in order to house more insects.

How could such secret techniques be passed on? Even if those Lineages cast aside their prejudices and allowed civilians to learn them, it would still be a losing proposition.

The secret techniques of Ino–Shika–Cho required talent for Yin–Yang Release.

Hashirama Senju's idea was ultimately nothing more than empty talk.

"Father."

After returning to the estate, Hiruzen Sarutobi's eldest son, Shinnosuke Sarutobi, respectfully greeted him.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had two sons: Shinnosuke Sarutobi and Asuma Sarutobi.

To be honest, neither son possessed much talent as a ninja.

Shinnosuke Sarutobi was currently a Jonin, while Asuma Sarutobi was not in Konoha. After clashing with Hiruzen Sarutobi two years earlier, he had left the village and become one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja tasked with protecting the daimyo of the Land of Fire.

The daimyo were ordinary people, but whether in the Land of Fire or any other nation in this world, ordinary people vastly outnumbered ninja.

Ninja carried out assassinations but did not engage in production, and they could not separate their daily lives from ordinary people.

Because of the existence of ninja, the daimyo actually treated ordinary people fairly well. They did not exploit them excessively, and there was no slave class in the social structure.

Furthermore, before ninja existed in ancient times, it had been these nobles who ruled the populace. Their inheritance through the ages had led to the present situation.

Although training a ninja was not particularly difficult, very few people possessed the talent required to become one.

This led Konoha and the Land of Fire to guard against each other while also relying upon each other.

Simply put, for nations such as the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, ninja were military power, Kage Level experts were weapons of mass destruction, and the Tailed Beasts were strategic nuclear weapons.

Thus, wars between ninja never ceased, while relations between nations remained relatively peaceful.

As the Hokage's son, Asuma Sarutobi had gone off to become one of those meaningless Twelve Guardian Ninja. He truly did not understand his place.

Still, thinking of Asuma's talent, Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed.

The Sarutobi Clan's greatest strengths lay in two areas. The first was Five-Style Ninjutsu with all five elemental attributes, and the second was the ability to summon the Monkey Demon Clan.

Summoned beasts also varied in rank. The Monkey Demon King could not only transform into a weapon, but also form hand seals and cast ninjutsu on his own, as well as partially transform.

After years of training alongside Hiruzen Sarutobi, he had developed a unique style of combat.

Neither Asuma Sarutobi nor Shinnosuke Sarutobi had earned the recognition of the Monkey King Clan, which showed just how limited their talent truly was.

The former Hiruzen Sarutobi had more than once considered training his two sons to become Hokage.

He wanted to bind the title of Hokage completely to Konoha, turning Konoha Ninja Village into the Sarutobi Clan's private backyard.

Unfortunately, without sufficient strength, becoming Hokage was simply impossible.