He touched the blunt Sloth to the ground, as if pressing a slow button within five meters. The air filled with drifting dust, and breaths and heartbeats slowed more and more, while everyone could still clearly sense the changes around them.
"What is this?" someone exclaimed, their words also slowed within the area. The heaviness in Jiraiya's chest was pushed aside by shock at the sword's ability, because within five meters only his speed remained normal.
"Ten seconds, five meters?" Feeling Chakra drain rapidly, Jiraiya lifted the greatsword from the ground. Time returned to normal, but everyone stood in stunned silence.
Time deceleration. This greatsword, which had no direct killing power, possessed such a strange ability. Si Dong of the Akimichi Clan swallowed and said, "This is something a sword can actually do?"
"The duration is short, and the range is not large," the Nara jonin said, forcing calm. "Slowing time by half leaves very limited room in combat." Jiraiya licked his dry lips and replied, "No. I can feel that this sword can become stronger."
Silence fell again, and eyes burned as they turned toward the other six blades. If the remaining swords were also this strange and powerful, the meaning was obvious.
"Lord Jiraiya, how did you pull it out?" someone asked. All eyes turned to him, while a few who understood exchanged looks.
"I..." Jiraiya opened his mouth but could not continue, his face growing paler. The feeling was like having his long self-deception exposed and his past choices denied.
"It is useless. Everyone is different," the Nara jonin said, shaking his head. "If you cannot draw one, then you cannot. You can still try them all." With that, the questions stopped, and those who had not tried every blade stepped forward again.
There was little change until Kakashi Hatake stopped before "Envy" and lightly placed his fingers on the hilt. The same hum sounded, and the blade was pulled free by the instinctive force of Kakashi Hatake, whose face turned pale as he froze.
Beyond the so-called Seven Deadly Sins, there were also the corresponding seven virtues. Lust, sloth, greed, pride, wrath, gluttony, and envy stood opposite chastity, diligence, generosity, humility, gentleness, temperance, and tolerance. Envy's true opposite was tolerance, and envy itself was closer to hatred, the desire to gain what one hoped for but never obtained.
Kakashi Hatake's hatred was not for others, but for himself. It was for the self who now had nothing, who failed Obito's expectations, and whose hands were stained with Rin's blood. He hated the self who once had everything and destroyed it all.
This was his true nature. His hand trembled as he looked at the short blade called Envy, which gave off a chilling presence that clung to the senses. The twisted patterns on the blade seemed to reflect the ugliest corners of the heart.
As he was about to drop it, a hand caught his wrist. Kakashi Hatake looked up to see Jiraiya with a complicated expression, who only shook his head. "Calm down," Jiraiya said softly. "What is its ability?"
Kakashi Hatake forced down the fear of being seen through and answered hoarsely, "False mirror image. It copies a possible future image of the target and fights the target."
"What does this mean?"
Beside them, Si Dong scratched his head.
"It is actually very simple. For example, if you choose Senior Jiraiya."
The Nara Jonin let out a long breath. "It might copy an image of a future Senior Jiraiya who becomes a cripple after being caught peeking in the bathhouse and having his arms and legs broken by Lady Tsunade."
"It could also copy an image of a future Senior Jiraiya who becomes the Fifth Hokage."
When they heard the first possibility, the expressions around them were strange. When they heard the second, that strangeness turned into fear.
How could the abilities of these blades be more unsettling than the last? They had heard that the Fourth Mizukage's "Water Release · Water Mirror Technique" could create a clone identical to the enemy, able to use the same Ninjutsu with the same power.
That alone was already an extremely strong Ninjutsu. Yet the upper limit of this so called "false mirror image" was even more terrifying.
At this moment, even Yunchuan Hyuga fell silent, feeling a dull ache in his teeth. He seriously wondered if the system had malfunctioned, because this did not look like something that could be made with just a few thousand points.
The current initial state did meet expectations, but these seven blades could grow. Could creations like this, whose results even he did not fully understand and felt like a random draw, really be the most cost effective choice?
Thinking back, that seemed to be the case. The more detailed the requirements, the more points were consumed.
This kind of manifestation reduced the risk of plans going wrong. On the other hand, random results were unstable, and even he had not expected the blades in Jiraiya and Kakashi Hatake's hands to be so strange, though luckily the first ownership was still in his control.
But according to the rule that the system could only manifest things based on the power system of this world, how did these two abilities that touched on time even exist?
"Is it the so called Dragon Vein? Or that time traveling 'plow' of the Otsutsuki Clan?"
While Yunchuan Hyuga was thinking, he suddenly felt several gazes on him. He raised his head by instinct and met everyone's eyes.
"Yunchuan." Jiraiya looked at him with bright eyes. "It's your turn."
However, Kakashi Hatake, who believed he understood Yunchuan Hyuga well, had no expectations that he could draw a blade. Judging from the character Yunchuan had shown, Root did not align with the Seven Deadly Sins at all.
If Kakashi Hatake knew about the Akatsuki's "Seven Virtues," he would think Yunchuan Hyuga fit them perfectly. Chastity, diligence, generosity, humility, gentleness, restraint, and tolerance.
Even so, Yunchuan hesitated, unsure which blade to draw. He felt as if he might embody all of the Seven Deadly Sins.
After a brief pause, Yunchuan Hyuga stepped forward. He grasped the blade in the very center, "Greed."
A low hum echoed. Greed manifested as uncontrollable desire, and the other six sins were, in essence, born to satisfy that unreasonable desire.
As for Yunchuan Hyuga, when he played the good person he was gentle and polite, and when he played the villain he was cold and arrogant from above. Yet his truest self was neither of those.
It was ambition that wanted everything, the desire to control everything. Power, achievement, status, authority.
He wanted more, and to dominate more. Just like humanity as a whole, always moving forward because it wants more and never truly stopping.
Yunchuan Hyuga was the same. He wanted more than anyone else.
kacha. He drew "Greed" from the case.
The blade had a dark silver base, with a glass-like sheen flowing under the light. The hilt was wrapped in dark red, vein-shaped ridges, and when held, a faint pulse could be felt.
The most striking feature was the guard. A closed horizontal pupil was set at its center, and the moment Yunchuan Hyuga drew the blade, that pupil snapped open.
Everyone felt a sense of being watched. The gaze of that eye seemed to lick across their bodies inch by inch, making them shiver.
"What is its ability?" someone could not help asking.
All eyes were fixed on Yunchuan Hyuga, waiting for his answer, but no one noticed Jiraiya's gaze gradually turning strange.
"Mirror flowers, water moon. Control of the five senses."