Chapter 124: Chapter 124
A few minutes later, Uchiha Haruki returned to the room carved out by his Shadow Clone. The Sand Shinobi who had been imprisoned deep within the underground cavern had all been dealt with.
However, he wasn't in a hurry to leave. Instead, he opened his system panel to review the progress and gains made over the past several days.
The most prominent was Genjutsu: Sharingan. Due to how ruthlessly he had been extracting chakra these days, his yield had increased by around 30% compared to before.
All of that extra chakra had been poured into training his Genjutsu: Sharingan, which had allowed him to reach Level 6 a full week ahead of schedule.
Just as he had predicted, now that the genjutsu had reached Level 6, even without much preparation, casting it unleashed impressive power.
When paired with his Level 5 Swordsmanship, even average jōnin would be under immense pressure when facing him.
If he had sufficient time to fully prepare and unleash the genjutsu's full strength, even a jōnin caught in it would be as good as dead.
Unfortunately, given the battle instincts and reaction speed of a jōnin, it was rare to have such opportunities—unless Haruki could grind Genjutsu: Sharingan to Level 7, reaching the point where he could cast illusions instantly with a mere glance or gesture.
Otherwise, landing a killing blow against a jōnin in a single move would remain difficult.
And even then, that would only work against average jōnin.
When it came to elite jōnin, he'd likely need to evolve his Sharingan to Mangekyō level to boost his genjutsu's strength to the point where instant kills would be possible.
That said, once he reaches that level, his options would be far broader—and he wouldn't need to rely on just one technique.
As for now...
Most lower- and mid-level ninja stood no chance against him, unless they ganged up on him. Individually, they posed zero threat.
Pulling his thoughts back in, Haruki turned his attention to Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu and Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu.
A week ago, both of them had reached the peak of Level 3 in proficiency.
To grind them to Level 4, Haruki had even left base briefly to find a secluded area for focused training.
As expected, once they hit Level 4, their power increased noticeably.
However, the residual benefit left behind by Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu—which had helped speed up their growth—was nearly used up.
Now, every cast of either jutsu only gave about 1 to 2 proficiency points.
So, grinding both of them to Level 5 (Maxed) would be no easy task, especially now that he had no more chakra "battery" sources to drain.
Fortunately, these two techniques were secondary tools for him—they didn't affect the big picture.
So Haruki decided to pause their progression for now.
Scrolling down the panel, his gaze landed on Wind Style: Great Breakthrough, currently at Level 3 (410/1000).
Originally, its progress should have been much higher, but over the past week, he had neither time nor opportunity to train it.
Hence, it had remained stagnant.
Still, the chakra he saved wasn't wasted.
With a flick of his palm, chakra began swirling in his hand, gradually forming a visible, dense chakra sphere.
Indeed, all that unused chakra had gone into training Rasengan, which had finally reached entry-level mastery.
In terms of sheer difficulty to learn, Rasengan was the toughest jutsu he had trained so far.
Even Mirror Heart Technique, which consumed massive chakra, only took around 20,000 chakra points to reach entry-level.
But Rasengan?
After some mental calculation, Haruki estimated it took him at least 65,000 chakra points.
To put that in perspective:
If he had used that much chakra on Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu, even without support from Phoenix Fire, he could have easily grinded it from Level 0 to Level 3.
That alone should tell you just how ridiculously hard it is to learn Rasengan.
That's why this jutsu is not suited for ninja with low chakra reserves.
Unless someone had genius-level talent like Konohamaru, who managed to comprehend it just from Naruto's brief demonstration and a few verbal instructions...
Otherwise, people like Haruki could only slowly grind proficiency.
And that required massive chakra reserves—something most shinobi simply couldn't afford.
Even though Haruki had used a ton of chakra, it still paled in comparison to Naruto, whose monstrous output was the true standard for learning Rasengan.
Haruki wasn't exactly a genius, but with the Proficiency Panel, every attempt gave him valuable insights.
So he couldn't be judged by normal standards.
Pulling himself out of that line of thought, Haruki willed the Rasengan in his hand to disperse.
Although he had reached the beginner level, its formation speed and density were still subpar, making it unsuitable for actual combat.
Thankfully, once the technique was unlocked, grinding proficiency became easier—as long as he could keep the Rasengan stable, proficiency would rise.
Otherwise, who knew how long it would've taken to get it strong enough to infuse with wind chakra?
Letting out a small breath of relief, Haruki's gaze moved one last time—this time to the Bloodline and Chakra sections of his panel.
In the Bloodline section, under the continuous stimulation of Mirror Heart Technique, his Three Tomoe Sharingan had now reached 1702/10000 toward evolution.
As for Chakra...
After several days of accumulation, his chakra capacity had risen from 17,380 to 19,828.
Nearly 20,000 chakra points—that number gave Haruki a genuine sense of security.
Satisfied, he closed the panel, gave one last glance at the room carved by his Shadow Clone, and left without looking back.
Three Days Later.
Land of Earth.
Roughly 200 kilometers northwest of Iwagakure, Haruki stood atop a massive boulder, gazing silently down at the battle in the valley below.
The look in his eyes was calm and unchanged.
From above, it was clear: although the Iwa-nin had superior numbers, they were defending, while the Kumo-nin, fewer in number, were on the offensive.
Why? Because every Cloud ninja present was elite, and more importantly—Third Raikage was leading the charge himself.
Just his presence alone forced Iwagakure to dispatch at least three jōnin to contain him.
And even so, the Third Raikage still found opportunities to kill or seriously injure one of them every now and then.
Watching the man, his body crackling with lightning, moving at speeds faster than the eye could follow, Haruki furrowed his brow and began assessing his chances in a direct fight.
After a long internal debate, Haruki arrived at the conclusion: he had no chance of winning.
With the Lightning Release Armor surrounding the Raikage's body, Haruki lacked any technique capable of piercing it.
And given the Raikage's terrifying speed, not even Haruki's genjutsu could land.
In other words, he'd be entirely on the defensive.
Taking into account the deadly nature of the Raikage's Hell Stab, Haruki knew he couldn't go head-to-head.
Even with Sharingan's predictive abilities, his current speed wouldn't allow him to dodge for long.
So after all the calculations, it was clear—he had no way of winning.
"As expected... there's still a large gap between me and the true powerhouses of the ninja world."
Muttering to himself, Haruki canceled the Shadow Clone Technique, his body dispersing into a swirl of chakra, carrying everything he had seen back to his original self.