Naruto: Echoes of a Distant Home

The approaching figures in the distance had a clear purpose, and they could only be enemies.

The ninja in the Iwagakure squad instinctively gripped their kunai, their gazes fixed on the three figures cloaked in white approaching through the snowstorm.

Han, whose body itself was his weapon, didn't draw a kunai like the three other Iwa-nin. As the distance between them shortened, the face of Ye Zi gradually became clear through the wind and snow.

"Konoha's rogue ninja… Ye Zi."

Han reached out with his index finger and lifted the edge of his straw hat slightly. A noticeable grin appeared under the mask. The moment he saw Ye Zi, he understood that the enemy was coming for him.

Thin wisps of white steam began to rise from his shoulders, drifting upward. It was the high-temperature steam emanating from within his body.

The snowflakes falling from the sky turned to droplets of water as they made contact with the steam, landing on Han's crimson shoulder armor. In mere moments, the droplets evaporated.

Without greeting his teammates, Han's body released increasing amounts of high-temperature steam. His robust figure shot forward like an arrow, leaving behind a puddle of water in his place.

"That's Ye Zi, isn't it?" Seeing Ye Zi and his companions' faces, one of the Iwa-nin's expressions shifted slightly. Watching Han charge alone without any warning, the ninja froze in place, unsure of what to do.

"Should we go assist Han?" another Iwa-nin asked.

"Are you kidding? Let him handle it himself. If we get too close, we might get caught up in the attack." The remaining Iwa-nin replied indifferently.

Just like that, they reached an unspoken agreement and stood their ground, watching Han, as a blazing red figure, charge toward the three white-cloaked figures running across the snow.

Above the snowy plains, the sky was gloomy and dark, with clusters of thick clouds piled together. The oppressive atmosphere loomed heavily over the landscape.

The fierce wind and snowstorm that swept through the heavens and earth had begun to weaken, though almost imperceptibly.

The red figure, steaming with high heat and brimming with unshakable confidence, pressed forward through the snow, rapidly melting it along his path.

Seeing Han take the initiative to attack, Ye Zi made a gesture, signaling Kotoe and Shin to move away from him.

Upon seeing Ye Zi's signal, Kotoe and Shin understood immediately. They split left and right, creating distance from Ye Zi's flanks. Their task was to deal with the three Iwa-nin.

Watching Ye Zi face the enemy alone was exactly what Han wanted, though he did not let his guard down. The two who had moved to the sides could attempt to flank him.

It wasn't impossible, but Han didn't slow down. In fact, he moved even faster.

By raising the chakra within his body to a boiling point and applying it to his whole body, Han could gradually increase his strength and speed. Alternatively, he could instantly raise it to its peak, causing his power to explode in a single moment. This was Han's ability.

Konoha's Tsunade and Kushina could also release their power explosively from their fists, controlling their chakra to unleash it in a moment's burst. That required extremely precise control.

Han's ability, however, did not require such precision. He relied on his Boil Release… and his taijutsu was an unstoppable weapon.

The distance between them shrank rapidly!

"You escaped last time. This time… you're dead."

Han's eyes were cold and murderous. His arm swung forward like a bolt of lightning, compressing all the air in front of his fist. With immense force, he struck toward Ye Zi's body.

The speed of the punch was extreme, the power overwhelming that it even created a small vacuum around it.

Ye Zi clearly saw Han's fist coming and naturally wouldn't block it head-on. Besides, the steam following Han's fist could shoot out around the arm, serving as another means of attack.

That steam had a burning effect, causing damage within a certain range. Even if one dodged the fist itself, getting too close would result in burns from the steam.

In pure taijutsu combat, Han's abilities were almost like cheating. Physical contact with him meant enduring both the strength of his attacks and the high-temperature steam.

Ye Zi was fully aware of Han's abilities, so there was no way he would engage Han in a taijutsu clash.

Forming a seal with one hand, he planned to dodge Han's punch, create distance, and use the Spirit Transformation Technique to turn the tide.

The Spirit Transformation Technique, when performed with one hand, could not simplify the required seals. It wasn't a conventional ninjutsu, and using one hand to perform it required two additional seals.

In the reflection of Ye Zi's pitch-black pupils, the red shadow of the fist flashed toward him in an instant.

Lightning surged through Ye Zi's body, and he pushed his power into his feet. The snow beneath him exploded as his figure disappeared from his original position, streaking upward to Han's airborne position.

The fist, brimming with terrifying force, punched through empty air, sending a rapid white stream of steam shooting forward into the distance.

Seeing his attack miss, Han's eyes narrowed slightly, though his expression remained calm. A countermeasure instantly formed in his mind.

For a brief moment, their figures overlapped—one above, one below.

Ye Zi seized the opportunity, multitasking: with one hand, he swung his blade toward Han's head, and with the other, he formed seals. As their figures overlapped, a spiritual form shot out alongside the blade, both converging on Han.

Boom!

At that moment, a significant portion of Han's chakra evaporated like steam from his body. He suddenly erupted with an immense blast of steam, enveloping Ye Zi instantly. The Spirit Transformation Technique and the blade vanished into the steam, striking nothing but empty air.

The searing steam came at him like a torrent. Ye Zi's body was enveloped in lightning, solidified to withstand the heat, but it was not a defense he could maintain for long.

With his Spirit Transformation Technique missing its mark and the blade cutting a deep scar into the snow-covered ground, Ye Zi wasted no time. Using his forward momentum, he escaped the steam's range. He landed, skidding through the snow, leaving a long trail behind him.

He did not turn back immediately—his mind was already formulating his next move.

The moment Ye Zi launched his Spirit Transformation Technique and blade, Han had explosively released chakra, flooding the battlefield with steam and covering a distance of dozens of meters in the blink of an eye, narrowly avoiding Ye Zi's attack.

Han didn't pause for even a moment. Seeing Ye Zi's back turned to him, he charged again.

The combat style of taijutsu users was relentless. Skilled taijutsu fighters linked one wave of attacks seamlessly into the next, never stopping until their opponent was down.

This time, Han was no longer surrounded by just steam—dark red tailed beast chakra enveloped his body.

Using the tailed beast chakra heightened emotions, making him irritable and aggressive—perfectly complementing Han's combat style.

The cold wind split as Han's body surged forward. The wind turned hot in his wake, and the snow beneath his feet melted instantly, leaving puddles of water behind.

With the tailed beast chakra enhancing him, Han's speed surpassed the first wave, and the steam was even more ferocious.

I can't let him get close…

Just as this thought crossed Ye Zi's mind, he sensed wind rushing toward him from behind.

Facing away from Han, Ye Zi swiftly dropped a smoke bomb to his feet.

White smoke exploded, shrouding his body.

Seeing the smoke, Han's eyes flared with brutality. The frenzied crimson figure charged straight into the smoke.

Boom!

The slowly swirling smoke was instantly blown apart by the sudden force, scattering like a gust of wind.

Han's fist struck Ye Zi's side.

Seeing his punch land successfully, a layer of savage delight appeared in Han's eyes. But in the next moment, the strange sensation from his fist froze that delight.

Zzzt! Zzzt!

Ye Zi's body transformed into crackling strands of lightning, dispersing like an electrical current. As if drawn to Han, the lightning clung around him. Even as he charged forward, the strands continued to attach themselves to his body.

"A Lightning Clone?"

Han frowned slightly. He ignored the crackling lightning around him, dismissing it as mere remnants of the Lightning Clone.

He quickly turned, scanning the surroundings. Ye Zi was nowhere in sight.

The smoke had barely erupted when his body had entered it, and his punch had landed immediately on Ye Zi, only for it to turn out to be a clone. This revealed just how fast Ye Zi's hand seals were.

But where was the real Ye Zi?

The thought had barely formed when Han sensed something stirring beneath his feet. Instead of dodging, he raised his foot and stomped down decisively.

In such a situation, most ninjas would choose to evade, but Han was different. He seized this chance to deal significant damage to his opponent.

Wrapped in scorching steam, Han's foot crashed into the snow-covered ground. A loud explosion erupted as the snow around him shot into the air. Before it could land, the snow turned to countless droplets of water.

The immense heat carried by his stomp caused the snow beneath him to fracture into countless cracks before immediately melting, creating a small, ten-meter-wide lake.

Moments later, the lake's water evaporated into rising steam.

In the blink of an eye, the ground Han stood on turned into a dry, barren pit—completely devoid of snow or moisture. Against the vast whiteness of the snowfield, the exposed ground looked stark and striking.

Yet, there was still no sign of Ye Zi.

Han had definitely felt something below him earlier, but his stomp had found nothing.

"Where did he go?" Han's murderous gaze swept across the surroundings.

At that moment, about three meters behind Han, the ground swelled upward, forming into a humanoid shape that turned into Ye Zi.

This was a derivative ability of White Zetsu's Wood Release. Ye Zi, capable of using Wood Release, naturally knew this technique as well, though not as skillfully as White Zetsu.

When Ye Zi had thrown the smoke bomb, he had immediately split off a Lightning Clone capable of forming a Thunder Prison while he himself merged into the snow-covered ground, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Originally, he intended to launch an attack from underground and activate the Thunder Prison on Han's body with Lightning Release. However, Han's decisive response had foiled that plan. If not for Ye Zi's ability to sense the sudden surge of chakra, he would have been struck solidly by Han's stomp.

For any non-sensor-type ninja or one proficient in Earth Release alone, Han's stomp would have been fatal.

Now revealing himself, Ye Zi extended his hand toward Han. Lightning surged in his palm, shooting forth a brilliant beam of energy.

Han sensed the danger but was too late to react. Just as he moved, the lightning beam struck his Tailed Beast Cloak.

"Zzzzt!"

The persistent strands of lightning from earlier flared violently like fuel meeting fire. The thin threads turned into thick streams of lightning as wide as a thumb, forming a web that wrapped around Han's massive body.

Ye Zi kept his hand extended, continuously channeling chakra to tighten the lightning web.

Han grunted as the Tailed Beast Cloak was visibly distorted, the properties of the lightning chakra gradually penetrating the cloak and seeping into his body, causing slight paralysis.

"You think this can hold me?!" Han snarled, ignoring the pain. His expression twisted with rage as the color of his Tailed Beast Chakra visibly darkened. The lightning web trembled violently, as if it were about to be torn apart.

Ye Zi gave a cold, silent smirk. Of course, this wasn't the end. This Thunder Prison technique would seriously injure even the resilient Kōri Uchiha, often rendering her unconscious or even dead.

However, a Jinchūriki's Tailed Beast Cloak could effectively resist the Thunder Prison, significantly weakening its effects. Ye Zi never expected to control Han with the Thunder Prison alone.

If one wanted to suppress a Tailed Beast or its host, Wood Release was the best tool for the job.

Just as Han was about to forcefully transform into the next stage of his Tailed Beast form, Ye Zi withdrew the lightning beam. With the chakra output halted, the Thunder Prison would last for about two more seconds on Han's body.

Two seconds was enough.

Ye Zi reversed his grip on his blade, Chijin, planting it firmly into the ground. His hands became a blur as he rapidly formed seals.

The earth in front of him split apart with a series of cracks that spread to Han's feet. From the ground burst over a dozen massive wooden pillars, each as thick as a water barrel, snaking upward like serpents.

About half of these wooden pillars had sharpened tips.

The first sharp pillar thrust upward, striking Han and pushing him into the air. More pillars followed in quick succession, resembling a swarm of serpents competing for prey, piercing and propelling Han higher and higher.

With each strike of the sharp wooden pillars, Han's body briefly paused in midair before being pushed even higher.

Despite the sharpened tips, they lacked the lethal power of Lightning Release or Wind Release and failed to break through the Tailed Beast Cloak, inflicting only minor impact damage.

"The offensive power of Wood Release is still too weak," Ye Zi thought silently.

By the time Han's body was pushed seven or eight meters into the air, the remaining wooden pillars coiled tightly around him. They bound him entirely, leaving no room for resistance or escape.

"How could I… be restrained by you?!"

The crushing force pressed on every part of his body. Furious and unwilling to accept this, Han let go of his restrained rationality. A corner of the skin on his face peeled back, revealing the deep red chakra swirling underneath.

In moments, Han's entire face seemed to peel away, transforming him into a partial Tailed Beast form. His entire body became shrouded in a dense, dark red chakra cloak.

He did everything he could to fight back, but unlike the Jinchūriki of the Three-Tails or Five-Tails, Han's control over his Tailed Beast was incomplete. The Wood Release quickly suppressed his resistance, snuffing it out before it could escalate.

The raging Tailed Beast Chakra, in the end, could only become nourishment for the wooden pillars.

As the Tailed Beast Chakra surged outward, the wooden pillars began to expand visibly, growing thicker and sprouting arm-sized branches. In mere moments, lush green foliage spread outward, blanketing the battlefield.

In less than ten seconds, an enormous and strange tree towered over the ground. Its massive trunk was formed from intertwined branches, and its canopy spread outward, emanating a vivid, life-giving aura.

The verdant giant tree stood out starkly against the white, snowy world.

"It's done." Ye Zi coldly observed the tree, ensuring it had absorbed Han's chakra and firmly restrained him. Satisfied, he turned his gaze toward Kotoe's direction.

Just in time, Kitoe and Shin's battle with the three Iwa-nin was also coming to an end. The two of them efficiently and decisively finished off their enemies.

Check out the patreon and get 55 chapters in advance -> SaintXI

Currently on Chapter 407 - Konoha Launches An Attack