Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Uchiha Haruki once again turned his attention to the Bloodline section of his system panel:

Sharingan: Double Tomoe (1796/5000)

Based on the current effect where each point of proficiency gained in Impression Heart Technique added one evolution point to his Sharingan, all he needed now was 3,204 more points to evolve it into Three Tomoe Sharingan.

Given that he could currently earn 137 proficiency points per day from Impression Heart, that meant he'd need just about 23 more days for the evolution.

Even when including the week that had already passed, the total would only be about a month—a huge improvement compared to the three months he had initially estimated!

At that realization, the excitement that had just calmed inside Haruki surged once again.

He stood up, paced around the room a few times, took several deep breaths, and only after regaining composure did he throw himself back into training.

As for the extra 2,000 chakra points he had just unlocked?

Was that even a question?

Of course, he allocated all of it to Impression Heart Technique!

Even though the technique's recent upgrade to Lv6 had already significantly shortened the timeline for his Sharingan evolution, that didn't mean Haruki was content. If there was a chance to speed it up even further, he would take it.

With the new allocation, his daily proficiency gains for Impression Heart would rise to 150 points, cutting the evolution time down to just 21 days.

Three more days passed in a flash.

By midday that day, Haruki received word from command: a new rotation team would be arriving that afternoon. They were to prepare for the handover.

Once the shift change was complete, Haruki and his team could return to headquarters for a week of rest.

Haruki did the math—it had indeed been almost a full month since they'd been assigned to this patrol rotation.

No wonder they're giving us a week off, he thought.

Even for shinobi on the frontlines, rest was essential. Without downtime, mistakes and burnout were inevitable.

However, Haruki had no plans to return to base.

He still wanted to stay here and use his chakra battery stockpile for focused training.

So, later that afternoon, when no one was watching, he quietly used the Shadow Clone Technique, leaving behind a clone to complete the patrol duties.

As for his real self, he headed to the underground cave system.

Since he would have to remain hidden for the next week, he couldn't openly perform flashy techniques like Fire Style: Great Fireball or Dragon Flame Jutsu.

So instead, he simply reallocated the 1,300 chakra points originally set aside for those fire-style jutsu and dumped it all into Impression Heart Technique.

With that, his daily proficiency gains rose to 158 points.

Things seemed perfect—at least, until someone decided to mess it up.

Haruki's face darkened as he pulled his hand away from Sazekaze and ripped the duct tape off the man's mouth.

His tone was calm, but the cold killing intent in his words was unmistakable.

"Do you really want to die?"

Sazekaze didn't answer. He simply stared at Haruki with a blank expression, no trace of fear in his eyes.

They locked eyes for a moment.

Haruki suddenly sneered, "Good. Very good."

He slapped the tape back over Sazekaze's mouth, then walked over to the next prisoner.

Seeing the flicker of fear in the man's eyes, Haruki raised his hand and activated Chakra Absorption Technique.

Just like with Sazekaze, he only drew out half the usual chakra.

That was what had triggered his fury earlier.

It wasn't that Sazekaze had resisted the jutsu—it was that he hadn't refined any chakra at all over the past day.

What Haruki had pulled out was merely the naturally regenerated chakra, which amounted to about half of what Sazekaze could usually store.

Naturally, the amount Haruki could harvest was cut in half as well.

That, in turn, slowed his entire progression.

If this were some fantasy cultivation novel, this would be called a path-blocking grudge.

How could he not be furious?

And when the second guy turned out to be the same, Haruki's anger hit its peak.

With a sudden flash, his Sharingan flared to life. He scanned the chakra levels of all seven remaining Sand shinobi, including Kurosuna.

Just as he suspected—everyone's chakra reserves were only half of what they should've been.

They had clearly coordinated this.

But how? Haruki frowned.

Without wasting time, he marched over to the one who looked the most guilty and locked eyes with him.

Then he activated Genjutsu: Sharingan.

He had thought he wouldn't need the genjutsu's memory-reading ability for a while—but clearly, he'd been too optimistic.

And now?

It was exactly the tool he needed.

Guess the old saying is true, Haruki thought. Better to have too many skills than too few.

Shaking off the distraction, he focused entirely on guiding the prisoner's thoughts, steering them toward recalling the coordination effort.

Though it was his first time using the genjutsu this way, the power of the Sharingan more than made up for his lack of practice.

Soon, he had a full picture of what had happened.

No one had bypassed hand seals to secretly communicate with a jutsu. Instead, after spending so much time together, the prisoners had developed a simple code using glances and small body movements.

That was how they had silently conspired to stop refining chakra.

And why would they dare do this?

Because they'd realized something crucial: Haruki desperately needed their chakra.

So long as he didn't absolutely have to, he wouldn't kill them.

That gave them the confidence to test his limits.

After fully understanding the scheme, Haruki looked around at all of them and sneered coldly:

"Very well. You're all very brave."

Without another word, he turned and walked away.

Back in the private stone chamber his shadow clone had carved out, Haruki fell into deep thought.

After a while, he suddenly opened his system panel and checked the skill:

Chakra Absorption Technique: Lv4 (461/2000)

It had been over twenty days since he'd started grinding this skill.

He ran a quick mental calculation.

To upgrade the jutsu to Lv5, he'd need to absorb at least 35,000 chakra points.

Currently, he could regenerate 12,000 chakra points per day.

From the nine captured Sand shinobi, even with their reserves halved, he could still harvest about 16,000 chakra per day.

That gave him 28,000 chakra daily—which meant he could reach 35,000 in less than two days.

"Let's do this."

Haruki clenched his fists, made up his mind, and began grinding Chakra Absorption with full dedication.

After all, chakra itself was a mixture of spiritual and physical energy.

If this jutsu could absorb chakra, then in theory, it should eventually allow him to extract both energy types directly from a person.

If he couldn't do it yet, it was probably because the jutsu's level was too low.

So the only logical path forward was simple:

Grind. Until. It. Works.

They thought refusing to refine chakra would get under his skin?

Little did they know… they were about to witness something much worse.

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