Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 47 The Secret of Bloodline Limits

In one of the few forests in the Land of Waves, three children stood together, looking at each other blankly. These three were Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, representing Konoha, and Haku, representing the Land of Waves. Because Sakura had completely fallen behind her teammates, Kakashi decided to give her some individual guidance, leaving the two children with Tori. However, Tori was very busy; the bridge construction was about to begin, and he needed to oversee the materials and manpower allocation. Plus, he had his own selfish reasons—he hoped Haku could make some friends his own age—so he gave Haku a break, leaving the two children behind. Thus, this scene unfolded.

"Um, how about we have a fight first?" Naruto suggested.

"Agreed." Sasuke was eager to try.

Bai felt somewhat helpless, but fighting was also a way to quickly get to know each other, so he couldn't refuse.

Are you two coming at me together?

Sasuke's eyes reddened, and a slight smile actually appeared on his face. "You're very confident."

"I can fuse wind and water chakra to use Ice Release, which is also a type of bloodline limit." Looking at those blood-red eyes with swirling tomoe, Haku smiled brightly, and seemed to have a bit of competitive spirit ignited within him.

As the one who saw things most clearly, Naruto didn't play the role of peacemaker this time. Instead, he slowly took a few steps back and said, "I think we should do it one by one."

He was also very curious whether Sasuke could defeat Haku on his own this time.

Finally, Naruto moved his viewing spot from a few meters away to a tree more than ten meters away, because if he got too close, he would have to actively dodge the senbon needles and shuriken.

During the initial probing phase, neither side went all out, exchanging only punches and kicks. Finding their speeds to be roughly equal, they began using ninjutsu and ninja tools to support their attacks. This time, Haku didn't leisurely flaunt his one-handed hand seals. With a flying kick to create some distance, Haku used one hand to deflect Sasuke's thrown kunai, while his other hand rapidly formed hand seals. Dewdrops in the grass, amplified by chakra, condensed into a barrage of flying needles, densely propelling them towards Sasuke.

Such surprise attacks were nothing to them during sparring, because Naruto often could cast spells without hand seals. Those spells weren't very powerful and had a small range, but they were perfect for surprise attacks in combat.

Sasuke didn't even need to activate his chakra; he simply adjusted his stance and lightly touched the ground to dodge, then retaliated with a lightning arrow rain that required fewer hand seals. Haku slightly increased his speed, retreating while using his unique technique. Naruto had been carefully sensing everything that was happening in the battle, and he clearly noticed that Haku's chakra had split into two attributes: water and wind. Under the influence of the hand seals, they rapidly merged, becoming inseparable, and finally forming a power as cold as ice.

A hard ice mirror appeared in front of Bai, blocking the dense barrage of lightning arrows.

"Is this Ice Release?" Sasuke stared intently ahead, making sure Haku, who was hidden by the ice mirror, wouldn't leave his sight. At the same time, he rapidly formed hand seals, spitting out several fireballs while quickly throwing several shuriken into them.

This is an advanced version of the Phoenix Flower Technique. Sasuke was just pretending to break the ice mirror with a few fireballs, but in reality, these fireballs, like the Uchiha's amazing shuriken technique, could bypass obstacles and go straight for the bullseye.

However, Sasuke's plan failed. The ice mirrors were enough to allow Haku to unleash his true secret technique; several ice mirrors completely surrounded Sasuke, trapping him inside.

"Now, the real battle begins." White's figure appeared on the mirror, and with the refraction of light, he appeared in all the mirrors. Even with his Sharingan activated to its maximum, Sasuke couldn't distinguish which was real, and he finally began to tense up. He had confirmed that the Ice Mirror's strength was incredibly powerful; the Phoenix Flower Flame couldn't break through its defenses, and rashly using a stronger Fire Release technique could easily leave him vulnerable due to the lengthy hand seals. He needed to understand how this secret technique worked before finding a way to break the deadlock.

Unlike the tension between the opposing sides, Naruto's attention was entirely focused on observing the birth of Ice Release, even comparing it with Hashirama's Wood Release with great interest. While Wood Release is said to be a fusion of water and earth, Naruto clearly sensed that the chakra Hashirama used to activate it didn't undergo much nature change. It could be said that Hashirama himself was the best fuel for Wood Release. He had assumed this was normal for those with bloodline limits, but seeing Haku today made him realize otherwise. Haku's chakra had clearly undergone a proper transformation, unlike Hashirama's seemingly unrestrained and explosive movements.

Wind and water? Those are indeed his strongest attributes right now. With Haku as a template, he might be able to give it a try. Anyway, this isn't Konoha. He just randomly forms hand seals when he uses ninjutsu, and he hasn't been discovered yet.

Without further ado, Naruto imitated Haku's chakra flow and proportions, gathering two different types of chakra in his hand. He then symbolically formed the Snake Hand Seal. Almost simultaneously with the collision of the two chakra streams, a small ice crystal appeared before him, gradually condensing and growing larger. After drawing his conclusion, Naruto immediately stopped, catching the ice crystal and examining it repeatedly.

"This isn't right." Although he didn't show any shock on his face, Naruto still muttered to himself. He thought that being able to transform into five elemental attributes since he was a child was already his limit, but now that he tried it, how come he could even use his bloodline limit?

Kurama yawned and calmly replied, "What you humans call bloodline limits are actually different applications of chakra. With your soul strength, you can manipulate chakra however you want. There's nothing strange about it."

Naruto had never heard of this before and asked, "Chakra control is linked to the soul? Then what about these bloodline holders? Are they born with powerful souls?"

"Tsk, that's not how it's understood." Kurama was completely helpless against his Jinchūriki, who was sometimes clever and sometimes dull. "That's precisely why human lifespan is limited, which is why we need the convenience of bloodlines to fuse different chakra attributes. In reality, once the soul reaches a certain strength, the control over chakra becomes much easier. Before I was about three hundred years old, I was a walking calamity, completely unable to control my increasingly powerful chakra. But after three hundred years, the situation changed dramatically. I can not only control my own chakra, but I can even gradually control the size of my body. Ordinary humans simply don't live to that age."

"So, this is a gift of rebirth...?" Naruto rubbed the ice in his hand. The ice showed no signs of melting even with his body heat, until he channeled a tiny bit of fire-attribute chakra into it, at which point it gradually crumbled.

Most people would be happy to discover they have a new ability, but Naruto felt no joy at all. He had never possessed this power before his death, and a soul doesn't become stronger for no reason... Whatever the reason that made him stronger, it only added to his heavy responsibilities.

The cry of the Thousand Birds startled all the birds in the forest, and with a crisp cracking sound, Sasuke finally broke through the encirclement of the ice mirrors. At least he didn't turn into a hedgehog; he only had a couple of senbon needles stuck in his back and legs, and some scratches on his body. This was Sasuke's trump card technique; he would only use it twice at most in a battle, and he wouldn't use it lightly.

However, after the mirror shattered, both sides withdrew their ninjutsu and stood there catching their breath. Haku didn't seem to have gained much advantage either, as he had quite a few bruises on his body.

"That's quite surprising, Sasuke-kun. If you had used full speed, I would have died just now," Bai Xian said.

"You're not bad either. If I had used a different weapon instead of the senbon needles, I probably wouldn't have had a chance to use that move." Sasuke rarely praised anyone, but this time he was genuinely impressed. This was a completely different feeling from fighting Naruto. Because he wasn't familiar with his opponent, he had to consider and test the waters before making a move. Gathering information and considering countermeasures at the same time was indeed very tiring.

"What a wonderful battle!" Naruto, who had just been feeling heavy-hearted, jumped down from the tree with a smile and said, "Now, let's form the reconciliation seal!"

Sasuke didn't hesitate; he pulled the senbon needle from his leg and extended his hand. This was indeed a habit he developed after fighting Naruto: forming the opposition hand seal before a fight and the reconciliation hand seal afterward. He couldn't understand why Naruto was so insistent on this ninja tradition.

Bai was somewhat bewildered, but he was gentle by nature and had not lost his kind nature even though he was born in the Blood Mist Era, so he obediently extended his hand.

A seal of reconciliation has been drawn.