While Arata was still deep in thought, the Thousand Years Pill began to take effect.
Almost instantly, he felt changes ripple through his body. Old hidden injuries accumulated from years of intense taijutsu training were completely healed, and the vitality of his muscles rose noticeably.
There was no visible change to his appearance, but Arata knew very clearly what that meant—
from this moment on, his looks would never change again.
As for the pill's lifespan-extending effect, he couldn't immediately feel anything. His body felt no different from before.
Still, this was a system reward. Arata had absolute confidence that the system wouldn't deceive him. If it said the pill granted a thousand years of life, then it was unquestionably a thousand years.
From now on, even if Arata did nothing at all, he would at the very least live for a millennium without aging or dying of natural causes. Compared to Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, that was hardly inferior.
Even the Sage of Six Paths, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, hadn't managed such a thing—
nor had his brother Ōtsutsuki Hamura, whose strength rivaled his own.
Those two brothers had possessed power beyond comprehension, yet in the end, neither escaped the erosion of time.
That said, Arata fully believed in Hamura's death.
Hagoromo's, however… he had his doubts.
The old man's actions throughout history hardly painted him as someone who genuinely cared for the shinobi world.
Sealing his own mother with his own hands.
Exiling his brother to guard her on the desolate moon.
None of that felt like the work of a truly benevolent man.
What's more, Hagoromo constantly preached peace, yet stood by and watched the shinobi world drown in endless warfare. Even when his own sons turned on each other, he refused to intervene, claiming he had already passed on all his power.
Many readers had questioned his motives for that very reason.
Still, the Sage of Six Paths was far beyond Arata's current reach. All he could hope for was that—if Hagoromo truly harbored ulterior motives—he wouldn't notice Arata too soon.
After all, Hagoromo had already been a Six Paths–level powerhouse a thousand years ago.
Arata hadn't reached that realm yet.
With that thought, after finishing assimilating the Thousand Years Pill, Arata turned his attention to the Mangekyō Sharingan resting in his system inventory.
The eye's pattern was striking.
A black pupil surrounded by a crimson six-pointed star, with a dark core at its center.
At first glance, Arata thought of Sasuke's Mangekyō, but he quickly dismissed the idea.
Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyō included a shuriken motif layered into the pattern.
This one was different.
There was, however, another Sharingan almost identical to this.
Indra's.
If Arata remembered correctly, Indra's Mangekyō bore this exact design.
And Sasuke—Indra's closest reincarnation—had awakened something similar.
This Mangekyō came directly from the system, so its origin was randomized. Whether it leaned closer to Sasuke's or Indra's remained to be seen.
Deep down, Arata naturally hoped it was Indra's.
Indra was the progenitor of the Uchiha. Even if Arata didn't know the full extent of his Mangekyō abilities, they were guaranteed to be anything but weak.
Sasuke's abilities, on the other hand, Arata knew all too well.
Amaterasu and Kagutsuchi.
They looked intimidating, but in Arata's eyes, they were about as impressive as the word "earth" in Kagutsuchi's name—plain and underwhelming.
In the original story, Amaterasu was hyped as flames that could burn anything, yet somehow failed to kill a single noteworthy enemy.
Kagutsuchi allowed control over Amaterasu's shape… which was meaningless when the flames themselves never finished the job.
Changing the form of something that never kills anyone doesn't suddenly make it useful.
As for Indra, Arata had only seen him use Amaterasu once in canon. The ability of his other eye was never revealed.
With that in mind, Arata opened his system inventory.
"Use: Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan."
In the next instant, his eyes transformed.
The six-pointed star spun rapidly within his crimson pupils.
Immediately, Arata felt his vision sharpen to an extraordinary degree. The world became clearer—sharper—and the movement of everything around him seemed noticeably slower.
This was one of the Eternal Mangekyō's most fundamental advantages:
overwhelming perception.
Arata was confident that even without relying on his sensory network, he could now clearly track movements as fast as the Third Raikage's lightning-speed charges.
But that wasn't what truly mattered.
The greatest enhancement of the Eternal Mangekyō lay not only in perception, but also in genjutsu amplification.
Still, the abilities Arata cared about most were the techniques bound to each eye.
The first was—unsurprisingly—Amaterasu.
Black flames said to incinerate anything.
At the very least, it was considered the strongest pure offensive ninjutsu in the original story. Unless one possessed Rinnegan-level absorption techniques, only sealing methods could counter it.
Arata could only console himself with that.
Compared to this disappointing first ability, the second one was outright terrifying.
The second Mangekyō ability allowed him to freeze time.
At his current level, Arata could stop time for one full second.
One second might sound insignificant.
But in the hands of a super–Kage-tier powerhouse, that single second was more than enough to decide everything.
Against opponents of the same level, one frozen second was sufficient for Arata to kill them dozens of times over.
Of course, the jutsu had severe limitations.
It could only affect an area roughly equivalent to one person's volume, and it required extremely close range.
If the distance between Arata and his opponent exceeded ten meters, the jutsu could not be activated.
In other words, time freeze demanded close-quarters combat.
He couldn't even use it while in Lightning Armor.
Once he entered Lightning Armor, his movements naturally spanned hundreds of meters at a time, making it impossible to maintain the necessary proximity.
Furthermore, despite his immense chakra reserves and peak super–Kage stamina, Arata could only use this ability once before requiring at least half a day of recovery.
The ocular power cost was astronomical.
In Arata's estimation, this wasn't a jutsu meant for someone below Six Paths level at all.
Even among the Ōtsutsuki clan, those capable of manipulating time were almost exclusively Six Paths–tier beings.
And yet here he was—still technically below that realm—already freezing time.
With this single jutsu alone, Arata could effectively ignore Amaterasu altogether.
Time freeze gave him a guaranteed escape option even against overwhelmingly powerful enemies.
It was, without question, his strongest self-preservation ability to date.
And if used offensively—
It was nothing short of a lethal trump card.
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