Madara left.
Hashirama breathed a sigh of relief and sat down, only to feel a sudden heat against his chest.
He took out the Red Moon Orb and found it glowing again.
"You've got to be kidding."
Before Hashirama had even finished speaking, he was back at the mouth of the valley.
"Why?"
Hashirama scratched his head, baffled.
Last time, he could at least blame the rewind on his defeat. But what had triggered it now?
Wait. He thought he understood.
He had already considered how the Red Moon Orb differed from Izanagi. Now it seemed they had something in common, too: both could be set to trigger under certain conditions.
That idiot Danzo activated his after every injury.
Madara used the Transcription Seal to set his to activate a certain time after his death.
But what condition had the previous Hashirama set for the Red Moon Orb?
He didn't seem to have said.
If the Red Moon Orb was an artifact that could overturn fate and grant wishes, then Hashirama's wish was for the Martial World to be free of bloodshed and for peace to reign everywhere.
The Red Moon Orb could reverse time, which meant it existed beyond time.
Did that mean letting Madara go had made that wish impossible on this path, causing everything to start over?
"Then what am I supposed to do?"
Hashirama raked his fingers through his hair.
Losing didn't work. Winning didn't work either.
The problem was that the Red Moon Orb triggered too quickly. It wouldn't even let him see what went wrong.
"Huh?"
An idea suddenly struck Hashirama.
This time, instead of entering the valley from the front, he circled around.
With his experience from the previous two attempts, he soon entered from the side and found Madara standing there, having