Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

While practicing "Reflection of the Heart", Uchiha Haruki also began reconsidering how to allocate his chakra.

Now that Shadow Clone Jutsu had reached entry-level, he needed to redistribute the extra 2,000 chakra points he had previously assigned to it.

As for why he wasn't continuing to grind Shadow Clone Jutsu:

There were two main reasons.

First, Level 1 was enough for now—there was no point wasting chakra to push it further when it already served its purpose.

Second, during missions, for the sake of personal safety, Haruki always kept his chakra at high levels. While practicing other skills wouldn't drain that reserve, Shadow Clone Jutsu worked differently.

Each clone split the user's chakra evenly with the original body.

Even if the clone did nothing and Haruki dispelled it immediately, 10% of the clone's chakra would still be lost.

What did that mean in practice?

If Haruki had 8,000 chakra points and created one shadow clone, then when dispelled, he'd lose 400 points.

If he created two, the loss would be over 500 points.

The more clones he created, the greater the waste.

That kind of inefficiency was something Haruki absolutely could not accept.

So this technique would only be practiced during his downtime, when chakra didn't need to be kept in peak condition.

But for the foreseeable future, he would be on active missions again, meaning no time to train Shadow Clone Jutsu.

That meant the 2,000 chakra points previously used for that had to be reassigned.

After some thought, Haruki decided to allocate 1,500 points to "Reflection of the Heart."

That would net him 9 additional proficiency points.

Combined with the 21 points he could already earn by investing 3,500 chakra points into it daily, that totaled 30 proficiency points per day.

And every 3 points of proficiency in "Reflection of the Heart" advanced his Sharingan evolution by 1 point, so 30 points equaled 10 evolution points.

In addition, maintaining his Sharingan for 15 hours a day cost him 600 chakra points, giving him 3 more evolution points daily.

So in total, his Sharingan's evolution would now increase by 13 points per day.

As for the remaining 500 chakra points...

Haruki planned to use them on Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu, which would grant him an extra 6 proficiency points.

Combined with the 10 points he was already gaining from investing 850 chakra points daily, he'd now earn 16 points in that skill each day.

Also, the chakra he had previously allocated to Body Flicker Jutsu could now be reassigned, since that technique had reached its max level and no longer needed training.

That chakra, Haruki decided, would go to the Chakra Absorption Technique, speeding up its progression.

Then there was the chakra he had been assigning to Leaf Style Swordsmanship, Uchiha Style Swordsmanship, and Ninja Tool Throwing—those could now be fully funneled into his new combined sword skill: Kenjutsu.

That ensured his Kenjutsu wouldn't suffer from a lack of training resources.

As for the chakra already allocated to Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes, Genjutsu: Sharingan, and Healing Technique, Haruki decided not to reassign any of it.

So, to summarize:

Out of his 10,000 daily chakra points:

5,000 would go to "Reflection of the Heart," yielding 30 proficiency points.

1,300 would go to Phoenix Fire Jutsu, earning 16 proficiency points.

1,700 would be split evenly between Shackling Stakes and Genjutsu: Sharingan, each earning 10 points per day.

That added up to 8,000 chakra points.

The remaining 2,000 were distributed as follows:

600 for Healing Technique, giving 7 proficiency points.

600 to maintain Sharingan, giving 3 evolution points.

The last 800 were divided between Chakra Absorption and Kenjutsu.

These two didn't consume much chakra, so 800 points would be enough to earn 20 proficiency points total between them.

And just like that, all 10,000 chakra points were efficiently allocated.

But that wasn't the end.

Haruki also had chakra provided by his "chakra battery"—in other words, the prisoner Chiya.

That extra chakra would be fully invested into training Phoenix Fire Jutsu and Reflection of the Heart.

Only by doing this could Haruki rapidly complete both the form and nature transformation of Fire Release chakra, paving the way for unlocking a second chakra nature.

At the same time, he'd be able to evolve his Sharingan as fast as possible—aiming to reach the Three-Tomoe stage.

With that thought, Haruki turned his gaze toward the darkened tunnel, as if he could see all the way to Chiya—still grinding his teeth in silent fury while refining chakra.

After a long while, Haruki looked away and resumed his own training.

······

In the blink of an eye, two days passed.

His "vacation" was over—it was time to go on another mission.

This time, the task was once again patrolling, in the same region as before.

Most of his teammates were also the same.

That wasn't a coincidence—this was a deliberate decision by command.

The reason was simple: familiar terrain and teammates allowed ninjas to perform at their peak.

So typically, a shinobi wouldn't suddenly be given drastically different assignments.

For instance, you wouldn't patrol one day and be sent on a deep infiltration mission the next.

Of course, it wasn't a hard rule.

Just a month ago, when Haruki had just returned to the front lines, his first mission was patrol—and his second was a critical emergency deployment.

But those situations only occurred under two conditions:

A shortage of manpower, forcing sudden deployment.

The ninja had a specific ability the higher-ups urgently needed.

In Haruki's case, it had been the first.

Back then, the Stone Ninja had launched a fierce offensive. The main base was short-staffed and had no choice but to throw even resting shinobi like him back into combat.

That mission had been unforgettably brutal.

Thankfully, it had only happened once.

Back to the present—

Haruki scanned the current squad and noticed a stark difference:

There were far fewer Genin.

It made sense.

The war had gone on for so long that even the huge pool of Genin couldn't withstand such relentless attrition.

With fewer Genin left to act as cannon fodder, Chūnin had to step up.

That meant the next battles would only become more intense and bloody, and the casualty rate among Chūnin—the backbone of the village—would spike.

Eventually, one side would no longer be able to hold the line.

And when that day came, the war would finally end.

"Everyone, move out!"

Just then, the squad leader at the front gave the order.

One by one, the shinobi moved into formation, setting off along their designated path toward the mission zone.