"I was still a step too late."
By the time Hashirama arrived, Minato Namikaze was already being taken away by the Imperial Court's men. All he could do was watch from a distance.
Although he had never intended to intervene, late was late.
Arriving late meant he had missed a great deal and had no idea what had happened along the way.
As for why Hashirama had arrived late, naturally, it was because he, too, had received the shocking news that Tsunade was not actually his granddaughter.
Fortunately, unlike Naruto and Obito, Hashirama had entered with his memories intact. He knew he belonged to the Real Shinobi World, so it did not matter if his counterpart in this world had been cuckolded. That was how he had steadied himself and managed to get here in time.
Hashirama had also discovered that this world's power had its drawbacks compared to the Shinobi World's.
With a few exceptions, such as the Uchiha Clan, imperfect jinchuriki, and Obito as the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki in the previous world, chakra in the Shinobi World was simply power. It had no connection to one's state of mind.
In this world, however, an unstable state of mind seemed to cause a condition called "qi deviation." Mild cases led to injury, while severe cases could leave someone completely paralyzed or even kill them.
The main reason the Senju and Uchiha of this world had once become the foremost powers in the Martial Arts World was their heritage.
The Senju possessed the Buddhist Dharma passed down by the monk Six Paths a thousand years ago. It could cultivate the mind, greatly reducing the risk of qi deviation.
The Uchiha's ancestors, however, had discovered that this world offered too little joy and too much misery. They had taken the opposite approach,