This round of rewards had benefited Arata immensely.
He was now confident that if he encountered Uchiha Madara again, he could kill the old monster for good.
At present, Madara's strength was roughly on par with Arata's. But with the addition of time freeze, Arata finally had a way to control him before he could escape—and finish him outright.
After all, Arata's speed was enhanced by his lightning-based abilities. If he truly wanted to close the distance, it wouldn't be difficult at all.
Across the entire shinobi world, the only person who could keep up with Arata in terms of speed was the Third Raikage.
Minato had not yet risen to prominence and was still far from becoming Konoha's "Yellow Flash."
For now, Arata was effectively unrivaled in speed.
Madara's taijutsu was formidable, but age was still age. His physical speed was no longer what it had been—certainly inferior to the version revived later through Edo Tensei.
As long as Arata chose the right moment, his chances of killing Madara were extremely high.
After sorting through and properly absorbing the two rewards, Arata turned his attention to the system options he had yet to complete.
The first—and most urgent—was the one requiring him to defeat the remaining Kage during the Second Great Shinobi War.
Defeating the other four great nations' Kage, as well as Hanzō of the Salamander of Amegakure, would directly reward him with Hashirama Senju's bloodline.
The difficulty of this option wasn't high.
Arata had already taken down the Raikage and the Mizukage with ease. All that remained was a trip to the Land of Rain, where he could deal with the final three targets in one go:
Second Kazekage, Shamon
Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki
Hanzō of the Salamander
All three were currently gathered in the Land of Rain, locked in fierce conflict with Konoha.
That actually saved Arata a great deal of trouble—one trip instead of hunting them down individually.
Having already experienced the benefits of Madara's bloodline firsthand, Arata was naturally extremely eager for Hashirama's.
He wanted to see whether the system's bloodline fusion would produce an even more perfect result than Madara's crude self-experiments with transplanted cells.
Madara, no matter how powerful, had been limited by the era he lived in—and by the fact that he performed surgery on himself. Imperfections were inevitable.
Arata's bloodlines, however, came directly from the system.
Madara's bloodline had already fused flawlessly, feeling no different from that of a natural-born Uchiha. Even his chakra reserves rivaled Madara's own.
If Arata could perfectly merge both Madara's and Hashirama's bloodlines, then in terms of lineage alone, he would no longer be inferior to the Sage of Six Paths.
After all, Madara and Hashirama were nothing more than reincarnations of Indra and Asura.
If their bloodlines were perfectly combined, breaking into the Six Paths level would become possible—without ever needing to become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki.
In truth, the Six Paths realm was fundamentally the domain of the Ōtsutsuki clan. Without Ōtsutsuki blood, no amount of training could ever truly reach it.
Even Arata, at his current level, would likely hit a hard ceiling at super–Kage peak without Hashirama's bloodline.
Of course, if Arata truly wanted to become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, it wouldn't be difficult at all.
With his current strength, no one in the shinobi world could stop him. Gathering the nine tailed beasts would be effortless.
After sealing them and summoning the Ten-Tails, he could ascend immediately.
But Arata knew very well that the Ten-Tails was essentially Ōtsutsuki Kaguya herself.
Reviving the Ten-Tails meant Kaguya would soon break free of her seal.
Until he was fully confident in facing her, Arata had no intention of taking that risk.
And that led directly to the next system option—
Black Zetsu.
During combat, Arata hadn't had the time to think deeply about this option. Now, with breathing room, he finally considered how to deal with that ancient schemer.
The first option was to ignore Black Zetsu's plan, allow him to resurrect Kaguya, and receive the reward: the Nine-Tomoe Rinne Sharingan.
The reward was undeniably tempting—but Arata dismissed it outright.
That option meant completely preserving the original plot and allowing Black Zetsu to act freely.
That was something Arata simply could not accept.
With his current strength, unifying the shinobi world was already on the table. He was tired of endless war and chaos and preferred to push the world toward peace as soon as possible.
After all, if you reincarnated into the Naruto world and didn't even try to unify it—wouldn't that be a wasted trip?
Arata wasn't some saint. He didn't seek to end war purely out of compassion.
He simply believed that ruling as an absolute authority—a dictator, even—would be far more comfortable.
If the entire shinobi world became his domain, his personal garden, that would be the proper status of a transmigrator.
But if he ignored Black Zetsu's plan, none of that could happen.
Black Zetsu was currently betting everything on Madara. And Madara's Eye of the Moon Plan required both Obito and Nagato to grow into their roles.
That would take decades.
If Arata unified the world during that time, Obito would never fall, Nagato would never be corrupted by Danzō, and Black Zetsu's plan would collapse entirely.
Option one, after careful consideration, was abandoned.
It affected too many variables—even Kushina's development could be disrupted.
The second option was to kill Black Zetsu before the Fourth Great Shinobi War.
Unfortunately, Black Zetsu was exceptionally well-hidden. Arata currently had no clue where he was.
Finding him would take time, and while the reward—Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo's Sage Body—was powerful, the option was the hardest to complete.
Moreover, once Arata fused Hashirama's and Madara's bloodlines, he might naturally evolve into a physique comparable to Hagoromo's anyway.
That made the reward less essential.
The third option, however, once again required ignoring Black Zetsu, allowing him to revive Kaguya, and then defeating her afterward.
After weighing everything, Arata realized he had only one realistic choice.
The second option.
Which meant that in addition to becoming Hokage and training Kushina, he would also need to seriously investigate Black Zetsu's whereabouts.
It might take time—but Arata refused to believe that a single Black Zetsu would require decades to track down.
More importantly, Arata's current power and influence already posed a threat to Black Zetsu's plans.
Even if Arata didn't act, Black Zetsu wouldn't sit still forever.
Sooner or later, he would make a move to eliminate Arata himself.
Which meant—
Arata might only need to wait.
Black Zetsu would eventually come to him.
With that realization, Arata stopped hesitating.
In his heart, he made his decision:
"It's decided. I'm killing Black Zetsu."
Whether Black Zetsu was watching him at this very moment, Arata didn't know.
But based on his understanding of that ancient schemer, there was a high chance Black Zetsu would not ignore him.
And Black Zetsu was a master of concealment.
Arata wasn't even certain whether his sensory network could detect Black Zetsu if he were nearby.