Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

A few kilometers from the battlefield, Haruki had taken over a cave that belonged to a rock bear and was now sitting cross-legged inside, cultivating in silence.

He repeatedly cast the Mind Reflection Technique, stimulating his brain to generate that special chakra that could further evolve the Sharingan.

A short while later, Haruki opened his eyes, sighed deeply, and shook his head.

"Ugh… too slow."

Now that he no longer had "chakra batteries" supplying him with extra chakra, the only chakra he could use each day was the 17,000 points his body could naturally recover.

As a result, his cultivation speed had drastically slowed down.

Even after halting all other skill training and pouring nearly all his chakra into the Mind Reflection Technique, he could only gain about half the usual proficiency—roughly 100 points per day.

Converted to Sharingan evolution progress, that was only about 50 points daily.

At this pace, evolving his Sharingan from Three Tomoe (1702/10000) to the Mangekyō would take at least 165 days—over five months.

And during that time, his other skills would be completely stalled.

That was completely unacceptable to Haruki.

"What should I do?"

As he pondered, a wave of chakra surged through him via a distant link—along with it came the memories of one of his shadow clones.

Haruki closed his eyes and carefully browsed through the memory stream, quickly understanding the current state of the battlefield.

This, after all, was one of the primary reasons the Shadow Clone Technique had been developed by Tobirama Senju—for recon and scouting.

Since he was deep in enemy territory, Haruki hadn't dared to scout personally and had sent only a clone. That clone had completed its mission well.

Though a bit discouraged at the vast power gap between himself and the Third Raikage, Haruki had also spotted a golden opportunity hidden within the chaos.

The battle between Kumogakure and Iwagakure had reached a fever pitch, drawing attention from across the shinobi world. In the surrounding areas, there were undoubtedly many spies and operatives lurking—just like him.

If he could capture these agents and turn them into "chakra batteries," then he wouldn't need to worry about chakra supplies for training.

The more Haruki thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.

Even though these batteries couldn't be kept for long—especially in enemy territory—even getting just one day of use out of them would be worth it.

With that thought, Haruki left the cave and began circling the battlefield, searching for other covert shinobi.

"The mission?"

"Please. That's what shadow clones are for."

He gave a nod to the clone he had just summoned beside him.

Understanding the signal, the shadow clone immediately headed toward the battlefield to carry out the mission, while Haruki continued hunting for suspicious shinobi.

But those assigned to this kind of mission weren't pushovers.

It took him nearly three hours before he finally spotted a suspicious individual.

The man was dressed like a typical Iwagakure chūnin, but his actions were too deliberate—just like Haruki's shadow clone, he was quietly observing the distant battlefield.

That told Haruki one thing: this guy was a fake.

Of course, even if he wasn't—as long as he had chakra, Haruki didn't care who he was.

Just as Haruki prepared to approach, another thought struck him:

"Wait... what if he's like me—using a shadow clone to scout?"

If Haruki revealed himself and attacked now, he might end up alerting the real one.

No good. I need a perfect plan.

Haruki stepped back, concealing himself carefully as he began to strategize.

After a while, his eyes lit up.

"This could work."

He quickly formed a hand seal and used the Transformation Technique, changing his appearance into that of an Iwagakure chūnin.

Then, stepping out of hiding, he ran toward the target, shouting:

"Hey, you over there! The operation's about to start. Why aren't you with your squad? What are you doing here?"

The nonsensical outburst nearly crashed the man's mental processor.

Before he could respond, Haruki abruptly froze and stared at him, scanning up and down with widened eyes.

"Wait a second… you—you're not one of us!"

He turned on his heel and bolted.

Seeing this, the "Iwa-nin" had no time to process how he'd been exposed. Acting purely on instinct, he gave chase.

Haruki deliberately ran a bit slower, allowing himself to be caught.

The man didn't waste words—he immediately attacked, aiming to subdue Haruki.

Haruki fought back with full effort. After a few minutes of combat, he seized an opening and plunged a kunai into the man's shoulder.

Poof!

A puff of chakra smoke exploded—the figure vanished.

Haruki's expression shifted, no longer wild or frantic. He simply muttered:

"As I thought… a shadow clone."

Just as he'd suspected, the man was only a clone. If Haruki had rushed in recklessly earlier, he'd have ruined everything.

But this time, it wasn't seen as a warning. Why? Because of the "operation" he'd shouted about.

"Now it all depends on whether he falls for it…"

Muttering to himself, Haruki quickly withdrew, hiding in a concealed position nearby.

A few minutes later, a figure wrapped in a dark cloak crept onto the scene.

The man surveyed the area carefully, clearly trying to determine where Haruki had run off to.

Haruki smirked silently.

Hook, line, and sinker.

The guy couldn't resist the bait. He came sniffing around to find out more about the so-called "operation."

Did the man suspect Haruki's identity? Probably not.

After all, if Haruki weren't in need of chakra himself, he wouldn't have been hunting other scouts either. From a certain perspective, spies like them were all on the same side.

Without any conflicting interests, it was unlikely anyone would suspect or attack one of their own.

Which meant his offhand mention of the "operation" sounded entirely believable.

Haruki was 80% certain this guy would try to follow up on the lead.

Sure enough, here he was.

Haruki didn't waste any more time. He struck the moment he got an opening—three shuriken flew through the air.

The cloaked man reacted quickly, dodging to the side the instant he sensed danger.

But as soon as his feet touched the ground—three more shuriken came flying in.

The man had no time to evade. He drew his kunai and deflected them in a flurry.

Clink! Clink! Clink!

Three crisp clangs rang out as the blades collided.

He deflected all three—but lost his window to retreat.

In the same instant, Haruki closed the distance and, without hesitation, slashed his short sword toward the man's chest.

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