Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Tobirama argues that Hashirama shares responsibility for Naruto’s behavior because both are reincarnations of Asura’s chakra. He proposes that Hashirama enter the next Engraved Tsukuyomi world and work alongside Naruto, both to set him an example and to weaken Asura’s influence.
• Hashirama agrees. He sends the request through Shirozumi rather than approaching Uchiha Hikari directly, wary of her hostility toward the Senju. Shirozumi checks with Kushina, who approves.
• After the first world’s events—including Kushina’s influential speech about responsibility—the group is more convinced that Naruto must change before the real world repeats the same mistakes.
• Hikari creates a new world based on the test server. Naruto and Obito are offered another attempt, but this time their awareness that the world is a genjutsu will be sealed once they take on their assigned identities; those memories will remain only as dreams.
• Obito accepts immediately. Naruto also chooses to continue, unable to accept his failure to earn approval or become Hokage in the previous world.
• Their souls enter the new world and see a countdown until they appear as Naruto and Obito. Their identities are assigned, not chosen. As they survey the world, Obito begins planning to gather information, while Naruto admires the unfamiliar landscape.

Character development and interactions

• Hashirama accepts Tobirama’s criticism and is willing to change himself as well as help Naruto.
• Tobirama takes a practical, persuasive approach, framing Hashirama’s involvement as both a responsibility and a chance to set an example.
• Kushina shifts from a more moderate stance to supporting another attempt after her speech makes the danger of Naruto’s irresponsibility clear.
• Naruto remains determined to prove himself, but his previous awareness of the genjutsu world had kept him from fully treating its people as real. The new memory-sealing condition is intended to remove that distance.
• Obito readily accepts the second chance and approaches the new world cautiously, already thinking strategically.
• Shirozumi acts as an intermediary between Hashirama, Kushina, and Hikari, rather than taking a personal stake in Naruto’s reform.

Significant themes

• Responsibility and example: Hashirama is asked to model the change he hopes to inspire in Naruto.
• Immersion and empathy: Treating others as unreal undermines genuine emotional connection; sealing the characters’ awareness may make their choices more authentic.
• Failure and second chances: Naruto and Obito each choose to try again, though for different reasons.
• Identity and inherited influence: The chapter raises questions about how much Asura’s chakra shapes its reincarnations, and whether inherited patterns can be changed.

Key plot points and events

• The story begins at the Valley of the End, where Hashirama emerges after a hundred years of seclusion, hoping to use the Red Moon Orb to bring peace to a war-torn world.
• Heaven’s Will narrates that Hashirama is a celebrated martial-world hero opposing his former friend Madara, now a powerful general serving the Imperial Court.
• Hashirama realizes their roles have been reversed: Madara serves the state, while Hashirama belongs to an organized anti-government faction regarded as heroic.
• At the Valley, Madara demands the orb and Hashirama’s submission. Hashirama misunderstands Madara’s threat as an opening for their usual friendly banter, but Madara attacks.
• Unfamiliar with this world’s fighting styles and armed only with a wooden sword, Hashirama is quickly overwhelmed by Madara’s Dragon-Subduing Mace. Madara takes the orb and knocks him over a cliff.
• The orb glows, heals Hashirama, and returns him to the valley entrance, suggesting he may have another chance.

Character developments

• Hashirama is curious about this world’s reversed political roles and remains eager to reconnect with Madara. His confidence gives way to surprise when he discovers he lacks his familiar weapons and skills.
• Madara appears disciplined and unwavering in his loyalty to the Imperial Court. He treats Hashirama as an enemy rather than a friend and attacks without hesitation.
• Naruto and Obito can only observe from the sky because the story begins decades before their parents’ births.

Significant themes

• Perspective and legitimacy: The same kind of organized fighters can be called heroes by one faction and rebels by another.
• Reversed roles and identity: Hashirama and Madara occupy positions unlike those they held in the Shinobi World.
• Adaptation and humility: Hashirama’s assumptions and familiar combat instincts fail in a world with different rules.
• Power and authority: Madara’s mace is tied symbolically to imperial power, with the dragon presented as the emperor’s mark.

Character interactions

• Hashirama greets Madara warmly, expecting a familiar exchange; Madara responds with an ultimatum and then attacks.
• Madara taunts Hashirama for relying on a wooden sword and presses his advantage throughout the fight.
• Heaven’s Will addresses the observers and supplies the world’s history and political context, acting as both narrator and guide.

Key plot points and events

• After Madara knocks him off a cliff and takes the Red Moon Orb, Hashirama discovers that the orb has reversed time, restoring events to the start of their fight. Unlike Izanagi, it changed the outcome of events rather than merely healing him.
• Hashirama returns to confront Madara, now determined to claim the orb.
• He summons a Wood Dragon, which is unexpectedly strengthened by a mysterious golden power. Hashirama realizes the power is available to others, not just to Madara’s Dragon-Subduing Mace.
• The fight shifts to close combat. Hashirama uses Qi and a Golden Bell Shield to withstand Madara’s blows, eventually disarming him and holding a sword to his throat.
• Madara admits defeat. Hashirama lets him go, despite still wanting the orb.

Character developments

• Hashirama grows more confident after learning that his abilities are as strong as—or stronger than—those in his original world. He adapts to the setting’s Qi-based power and is surprised by his own enhanced strength and durability.
• Madara appears unusually honorable, accepting Hashirama’s tactics and admitting defeat rather than continuing to fight unfairly. Hashirama’s respect for him grows, though he is also bemused by his restraint.
• Obito recognizes the orb’s value and resolves to pursue it when he enters this world; Naruto watches the events with curiosity.

Significant themes

• Fate and second chances: The orb’s time-reversal power gives Hashirama another opportunity to change events.
• Power and myth: The emperor and Qi seem to bring legendary forces—such as the dragon’s golden power—into reality.
• Honor and fairness: Madara’s apparent commitment to fair combat contrasts with Hashirama’s pragmatic use of powerful techniques.
• Perspective and morality: Hashirama wonders whether, in this world, he—the outlaw—is the villain while Madara—the imperial general—is the honorable one.

Character interactions

• Hashirama and Madara reprise their confrontation, but Hashirama changes his strategy after the first outcome. Their battle moves from spectacular techniques to a prolonged physical contest, ending with Madara’s surrender and Hashirama sparing him.
• Naruto and Obito observe the fight as spirits: Naruto is entertained, while Obito studies the orb as a potential advantage.

Key plot points and events

• After Madara leaves, the Red Moon Orb rewinds time again, returning Hashirama to the Valley of the End. Hashirama suspects the orb is set to reset events whenever his wish for peace becomes impossible.
• Hashirama tests different choices: losing, winning, and avoiding the confrontation all fail to prevent the reset. When he tries to follow Madara out of the valley, he is sent back again.
• Hashirama then agrees to surrender to the Imperial Court and hands Madara the orb. This time, they leave the valley without an immediate rewind.
• Madara takes Hashirama to the Senju School and warns that it may be destroyed if Hashirama refuses the Court’s offer. Hashirama tells the Senju to submit, and they follow his decision.
• On the way to meet the emperor, Madara learns that the Senju School has been wiped out. Hashirama suspects that the Martial World’s other factions destroyed it in response to his surrender. The orb resets time once more.

Character developments and interactions

• Hashirama shifts from trying to defeat or evade Madara to surrendering, hoping to find a path that avoids another reset. He remains confused by the consequences and increasingly overwhelmed by the political situation.
• Madara is baffled by Hashirama’s unexpected compliance and mocks his perceived foolishness. He brings Hashirama to the Senju School, but leaves him behind after its destruction is reported.
• Hashirama’s unquestioned authority within the Senju School means its members accept his decision to submit without resistance—though that choice does not save them.

Significant themes

• Fate and impossible choices: Every strategy Hashirama tries leads to failure or another reset.
• The cost of political decisions: Submitting to the Imperial Court may protect Hashirama but exposes his clan to retaliation from other factions.
• Powerlessness and uncertainty: The orb’s conditions remain unclear, leaving Hashirama unable to predict or control events.
• Betrayal and mistrust: In a divided political world, even surrender does not guarantee safety.
  Ending: Hashirama concludes that the Senju School may be doomed whether he resists the Imperial Court or submits to it, and the chapter closes with him back at the valley, unsure what to do next.

Plot points and events

• Unable to determine who is responsible for the world’s turmoil, Hashirama decides to fake his death and investigate the Imperial Court. He leaves Madara at the Valley of the End and attempts to assassinate the emperor, but is reported killed.
• The emperor orders the Senju School destroyed. Hiruzen escapes with infant Tsunade and later takes Jiraiya as a disciple. Hashirama secretly watches them, choosing not to interfere so he can learn what drives events.
• Hiruzen raises Tsunade without encouraging vengeance, teaching her healing as well as martial arts. When imperial forces find their hideout, Hiruzen dies protecting Tsunade and Jiraiya. They part ways: Jiraiya travels and teaches, while Tsunade opens a tavern and guards Hashirama’s counterfeit Red Moon Orb.
• Hashirama gains greater control over the real orb, including the ability to disable its automatic activation and make it vibrate as a warning. Using it to jump forward in time, he witnesses the Nine-Tails’ attack and sees a masked Sharingan wielder—Obito—kill Minato Namikaze.
• Concluding that Obito is the source of the coming upheaval, Hashirama returns to the past. He believes Heaven’s Will will prevent him from changing fate directly, so he plans to act indirectly: approach Minato as a mysterious stranger, earn his trust, teach him, and warn him about Obito.

Character developments and interactions

• Hashirama shifts from uncertainty and passive observation toward a cautious plan to prevent disaster. His interactions with the Red Moon Orb teach him that direct intervention may be blocked by fate.
• Hiruzen proves compassionate and measured: he shares Tsunade’s family history but lets her decide how to respond, and emphasizes healing rather than revenge. His final act is sacrificing himself to protect Tsunade and Jiraiya.
• Tsunade and Jiraiya follow different paths after Hiruzen’s death. Tsunade withdraws into a tavern while safeguarding the false orb; Jiraiya travels the martial world and trains others.
• Madara and Hashirama are separated by Hashirama’s deception and investigation; Madara later learns that Hashirama supposedly died trying to reach the emperor.
• Hashirama and Obito do not directly confront one another, but Hashirama identifies Obito as the likely cause of the future catastrophe after witnessing Minato’s death.

Significant themes

• The difficulty of judging good and evil: Hashirama lacks clear evidence about the Imperial Court or the martial factions.
• Fate versus agency: The Red Moon Orb makes Hashirama a focus of Heaven’s Will, forcing him to seek indirect ways to alter events.
• Compassion over vengeance: Hiruzen’s guidance offers Tsunade a choice rather than shaping her life around retaliation.
• Observation and responsibility: Hashirama watches suffering without intervening, then recognizes that knowledge may require him to act strategically.

Plot points and events

• Hashirama tries to warn Minato about Obito, offering increasingly elaborate signs that the boy is dangerous. Minato notices the overstatement but, trusting Hashirama’s intentions and believing people can change, decides to protect and guide Obito rather than suspect him.
• Time advances several years, and Obito takes on his role in the new timeline. His memories of another life remain only in dreams, but they give him strength and experience.
• Convinced that Minato intends to kill him, Obito secretly accepts an invitation from the Imperial Court and trains with Madara Uchiha, the Court’s Great General.
• Hashirama learns of the arrangement and questions his own past choices, especially why he never considered killing Madara. Unable to identify concrete future harms or persuade Minato, he chooses to observe events rather than intervene.
• Obito realizes he needs to awaken his Sharingan to grow stronger, but his dream memories have left him emotionally numb. Before he can find a way forward, an injured Kakashi arrives.
• Kakashi tells Minato that Rin has been captured by the Imperial Court. Obito overhears and realizes that, by sharing information with the Court, he exposed Minato’s household and helped make the capture possible.

Character developments and interactions

• Minato shows deep compassion and faith in redemption. He keeps his decision from Hashirama because he knows Hashirama will worry and try to change his mind.
• Hashirama struggles to understand Minato’s trust in Obito and begins questioning whether Heaven’s Will has affected his own judgment. He ultimately remains a bystander.
• Obito is suspicious of Minato and driven by fear, so he turns to Madara and the Imperial Court. His calm response to betrayal—shaped by his dreams—also leaves him frustrated by his inability to awaken his Sharingan.
• Kakashi returns gravely wounded to warn Minato about Rin’s capture, bringing Obito face-to-face with the consequences of his actions.
• Minato tends to Kakashi’s wounds, while Obito listens from nearby and discovers that his own intelligence-sharing may have endangered Rin.

Significant themes

• Conscience and moral trust: Minato’s belief in Obito’s capacity to change clashes with Hashirama’s warnings.
• Heaven’s Will and fate: Characters question whether their choices are genuinely their own or shaped by a corrupting force.
• The danger of suspicion and secrecy: Obito’s fear leads him to aid the Court, while Minato’s concealed decision and Hashirama’s incomplete understanding complicate their choices.
• Responsibility and unintended consequences: Obito’s actions now appear connected to Rin’s capture, setting up a reckoning.

Obito learned that Rin had arranged her own capture and entered the imperial palace to turn him against the Imperial Court. Hashirama confessed that his warning had prompted Rin’s plan, while Minato worried over Kakashi’s injuries and Rin’s rescue.

• Obito confronted Madara Uchiha about Rin’s capture, and Madara revealed that Rin herself had leaked her whereabouts.
• Madara told Obito that Rin had entered the imperial palace, leaving him alarmed and confused.
• Minato Namikaze worried about finding a renowned physician for Kakashi while also needing to rescue Rin.
• Hashirama confessed that he had told Rin about Obito’s alliance with the Imperial Court and had hoped she would help eliminate him.
• Hashirama explained that Rin planned to offer herself to the emperor so Obito would turn against the Imperial Court, with another plan to expose Obito if he remained loyal.
• Minato admired Rin’s willingness to sacrifice herself for the martial world.

Minato tested Obito and traveled to Tsunade for medicine to save Kakashi, still hoping Obito could be redeemed. When Minato returned, he learned Obito had kidnapped Kushina and planned to send her to the Imperial Palace, where Obito hoped to find Rin.

• Hashirama warned Minato to test Obito before deciding whether he could trust him, after Obito overheard Minato refuse to rescue Rin.
• Obito refused Minato's request to fetch Tsunade and urged Minato to go himself, while Minato secretly tested whether Obito was working with the Imperial Court.
• Minato reached Tsunade without being followed, received her medicine for Kakashi, and returned to give it to him.
• Kakashi woke and told Minato that Obito had drugged their food and abducted Kushina to punish Minato for abandoning Rin.
• Obito told Madara he intended to send Kushina into the Imperial Palace and search for Rin, while Madara gave him his personal forces and withdrew into hiding.

Obito saw Rin in the Imperial Palace and awakened his two-tomoe Sharingan, then resolved to find the Red Moon Orb and save her. After the emperor ordered Madara Uchiha's arrest, Obito was imprisoned and woke the next morning immobilized and in pain.

• Obito spotted Rin crossing a bridge, and the shock of seeing her with another man awakened his Sharingan to two tomoe.
• Rin met Obito's gaze without reacting, but he imagined she was acting cold to protect him and grew more hateful toward Minato.
• Obito decided to use the Imperial Court and Madara's forces to find the Red Moon Orb and change the past to save Rin.
• The eunuch returned with guards, who sealed Obito's meridians and arrested him as an accomplice in Madara's scheme involving Kushina.
• Obito ate egg yolks in prison and slept, then woke unable to move, with a sharp pain in his body.

After being forcibly castrated, Obito learned that the Red Moon Orb could not restore him and saw no way to reclaim what he had lost. While searching through Madara’s belongings, he discovered the legend of the Six Paths Remains and gained hope of becoming whole again.

• Obito realized that he had been castrated and despaired because the Red Moon Orb could not restore its user.
• Obito smashed the jar containing what had been removed from him, then held back from attacking the eunuch after hearing that it would be treason against the emperor.
• Obito learned that Madara had reportedly been secretly executed and went to claim his legacy, intending to kill his master, Minato.
• Obito found Madara’s record of the Six Paths Remains, a legendary treasure once said to restore flesh and bring the dead back to life.
• Obito questioned why the legend had been replaced by that of the Red Moon Orb and wondered whether the emperor had ruled for over a thousand years.
• Obito decided that finding the Six Paths Remains might allow him to become whole again.

Minato Namikaze sought Tsunade’s help to rescue Kushina, and she gathered Ay and Mei Terumi to join him. Hashirama and Obito watched their plans take shape, while Obito decided to secretly help them in hopes of using the aftermath to get close to Rin and search for the Six Paths Remains.

• Minato refused to seek revenge on Obito and accepted Hashirama’s Senju School token so he could ask Tsunade for help rescuing Kushina.
• Tsunade agreed to help Minato and invited Ay and Mei Terumi to join the rescue effort.
• Ay and Mei agreed to help Minato, and Ay was won over by Minato’s words about the bond between disciples and their master.
• Hashirama recognized the gathered martial artists as Kage from the real world and wondered why the Tsuchikage was absent.
• Obito decided to keep the plan from the Imperial Court and leak intelligence to Minato’s group so he could exploit the coming purge to get near Rin and search for the Six Paths Remains.

Obito sent Minato a secret letter about Tsunade, prompting Ay and Minato to flee before the Imperial Court’s men could seize them. After they discovered that Tsunade was being hailed as a princess, Ay explained the truth behind her ancestry and warned that she could no longer be part of their plans.

• Obito disguised his handwriting as Rin’s and sent Minato a secret letter by pigeon.
• Ay rushed Minato from his lodging, explaining that Mei Terumi had escaped after warning them that Imperial Court forces were coming.
• Minato insisted on checking what had happened to Tsunade, and he and Ay saw Imperial Court men kneel to her as Princess Tsunade.
• Obito investigated the princess’s identity while Ay explained to Minato and Mei Terumi that Mito’s tale about Hashirama’s time-traveling children had been fabricated to conceal Tsunade’s true parentage.
• Ay told Minato that Tsunade could not join their plans and urged him to act before she accepted her identity and informed the emperor.

Minato Namikaze and Ay planned to assassinate the emperor, but the Imperial Court declared them wanted before they could act. Ay and Mei Terumi sacrificed themselves to help Minato gain the emperor’s trust, leaving him to carry out the plan alone.

• Mei Terumi returned with wanted posters showing that the Imperial Court was hunting Minato Namikaze and Ay.
• Ay refused Minato Namikaze’s offer to turn himself in and pledged to continue their mission.
• Ay realized Minato Namikaze could use his head to gain the emperor’s trust and killed himself with his saber.
• Mei Terumi fired a signal flare, then offered herself to the emperor as another way to help Minato get close to him.
• Minato Namikaze picked up Ay’s saber and staged the scene to make it appear that he had killed Ay.

Hashirama arrived too late to stop Minato Namikaze from being taken away, while Tsunade in the Real Shinobi World reacted furiously to the hidden hero world's revelations about her identity and Shirozumi. Minato then sought an audience with the emperor, claiming he could help destroy the rebels, and the eunuch left the decision to the emperor.

• Hashirama arrived after Imperial Court men had taken Minato Namikaze away and reflected on the hidden hero world's qi deviation and Tsunade's family revelations.
• Hashirama mistakenly believed the hidden hero world's Tsunade was having a meltdown, but she had been spared deep hatred by Hiruzen Sarutobi's teachings.
• Tsunade in the Real Shinobi World watched the hidden hero world and deduced that Shirozumi was its emperor and that Uchiha Hikari had given Tsunade a strange family identity on purpose.
• Minato Namikaze brought Ay's head to the emperor's residence with blindfolded, sealed Mei Terumi and claimed he knew how to eliminate the rebel forces.
• A suspicious eunuch heard Minato Namikaze's request for a private audience but left the decision to the emperor.

Minato blinded himself to prove his sincerity and secure an audience with the emperor, while secretly preparing to assassinate him. The eunuch revealed that Kushina was safe and about to give birth, but threatened the child if the emperor remained dissatisfied, leaving Naruto alarmed above.

• Minato recalled Ay's masked younger brother and the ancient musician's failed assassination, then decided to blind himself as proof of sincerity.
• Minato blinded himself with smoke and announced that he was unworthy to look upon the emperor.
• The eunuch suspected Minato's intentions and told him Kushina was alive, secluded in the palace, and expected to give birth that day.
• Minato rejoiced at the news that Kushina was safe and he would have an heir, strengthening his resolve to assassinate the emperor.
• The eunuch threatened that Minato's newborn son might be made a eunuch if the emperor was dissatisfied, and Naruto panicked above.

Minato Namikaze’s attempt to assassinate the emperor failed when Sasuke Uchiha killed him, then took custody of his infant son Naruto. Hashirama concluded that Sasuke had come from another time and possessed a Red Moon Orb, while Obito set out to claim one of the palace’s newly vacant eunuch positions.

• Minato agreed to follow the eunuch into the palace, while Hashirama and Obito chose to wait outside rather than risk infiltrating it.
• After three days, news spread that Sasuke Uchiha had slain Minato during his failed assassination attempt and requested to raise Minato’s child.
• The emperor appointed Sasuke a palace-guard swordsmanship instructor, named his swords the Sword of Benevolence and the Sword of Righteousness, and entrusted him with infant Naruto.
• Hashirama recognized that Sasuke was from another time and might have used a Red Moon Orb to travel to the past, complicating Hashirama’s plans.
• Obito saw the palace notice about eunuch vacancies and applied, hoping to rise through the ranks and see Rin again.

Obito was ordered to leave the Capital and oversee construction of an imperial villa in the Northern Lands, so he hurried to make Rin a parting gift. After delivering it, he set out north, hoping to find clues about the Six Paths Remains.

• Obito accepted the emperor’s assignment to supervise construction of a new imperial villa in the Northern Lands.
• Obito slaughtered animals while searching for a suitable material for Rin’s gift, prompting rumors that he might kill a person.
• Obito dug up Ay’s grave and considered using his tough skin, but rejected the idea because it would feel like Ay was using Hell Stab.
• Obito made the gift from a tough fish’s bladder and sent it to Rin through a palace maid without a note.
• Obito happily departed for the Northern Lands, where he hoped the Library Pavilion might hold clues to the Six Paths Remains.

Rin explained why she had sided with the Imperial Court, while Kushina revealed the secret behind her child’s conception. The audience learned that the emperor, Ying Baimo, was the immortal Ancestral Dragon and that Kushina’s child might be a Ying Jinchuriki; Kushina remained unable to see or name him.

• Rin and Kushina had Obito’s disturbing farewell gift thrown out of the palace.
• Rin told Kushina she had joined the Imperial Court because she believed its laws protected ordinary people, and warned that the martial world would endanger Kushina if she left the palace.
• Rin realized that Kushina had also slept with the emperor and advised her to wait until her child grew older to confirm what she suspected.
• Tsunade learned that she was not the emperor’s granddaughter but had been made a Princess Royal because Mito Uzumaki conceived her through the Divine Dragon’s influence.
• The audience learned that the emperor was Ying Baimo, the immortal Ancestral Dragon, and that martial artists had secretly offered their wives to him in hopes of producing children with powerful innate Qi.
• Kushina’s child was identified as a possible Ying Jinchuriki, but Kushina worried that she could not see him and did not know whether his caretaker would love him.

Sasuke fed the newborn Naruto a potent medicine made from Naruto’s future blood, then explained how he had altered events to protect Naruto and change their fates. He put Naruto in his crib and set out to find a wet nurse.

• Sasuke realized Naruto needed food and gave him the contents of a white jade bottle, which made Naruto pass out.
• Sasuke explained that the bottle held medicine Naruto had made from his blood in the future, and hoped it would help awaken Naruto’s power.
• Sasuke recalled taking Izuna’s identity, killing the real Izuna, and stopping Minato Namikaze’s assassination attempt while ensuring Obito could not escape.
• Sasuke planned to raise and train Naruto himself instead of letting Hyuga Hiashi adopt him.
• Sasuke placed Naruto in his crib and went to look for a wet nurse.

Sasuke searched the Capital for a healthy woman who could nurse Naruto, but instead discovered that his future master Orochimaru had become a woman through the Yin-Yang Reversal Technique. After learning about Orochimaru’s past and his pursuit of immortality, Sasuke decided to ask him to nurse Naruto.

• Sasuke questioned women around the Capital and chose Fish Sister as a possible source of food for Naruto, intending to check her background first.
• Sasuke recognized Orochimaru and recalled how Jiraiya had left him behind, leading Orochimaru to believe that Jiraiya had abandoned him because he was not a woman.
• Heartbroken by reports of Jiraiya’s womanizing, Orochimaru used the Yin-Yang Reversal Technique to become permanently female.
• Orochimaru later pursued immortality by developing the Ninefold Reversal of Life and founding the Nine-One School, where Sasuke eventually became his disciple.
• Sasuke decided to make Orochimaru Naruto’s wet nurse.