Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Inside the Rocky Bear Cavern.

Uchiha Haruki carefully set down the unconscious Mist ANBU. After thinking for a moment, he raised a hand and performed the Shadow Clone Jutsu, summoning two clones.

Since the clones inherited the main body's memories, Haruki didn't need to give them any orders—they immediately exited the cave and rushed outward.

Their task: patrol the nearby area and remain on guard for any potential danger.

Even though Haruki was fairly certain no one would follow, even a one-in-ten-thousand chance warranted caution.

After all, this wasn't the Leaf's territory. If someone were to discover him here, he would likely be surrounded by several times more enemies than he could handle.

Haruki had no intention of running around like a stray dog being hunted.

So, when caution was needed—he chose to be cautious.

Once all precautions were in place, Haruki turned his gaze back to the Mist ANBU.

Seeing the opponent's body covered in sword wounds, Haruki didn't hesitate. He immediately cast Healing Jutsu to treat the injuries.

This man was now a valuable asset—he had to be kept in good condition.

After half an hour, Haruki removed his hand from the final wound and said flatly,

"If you're awake, stop pretending."

At those words, the Mist ANBU slowly opened his eyes. His gaze was sharp and clear—there wasn't even a hint of grogginess.

Clearly, the man had been awake for some time and had simply been pretending to be unconscious.

"What exactly are you planning?"

The Mist ANBU stared coldly at Haruki, his voice laced with suspicion.

Haruki replied casually, "Nothing much. I just want you to help me with something."

But as soon as the words left his mouth, the Mist ANBU's expression tensed. His body sprang upright, and his mouth opened wide—

—biting straight toward Haruki's throat!

"Hmph."

Haruki was momentarily surprised, but then snorted coldly. His Sharingan activated in an instant, and with just a flicker of light, he hypnotized the opponent again.

Thud—!

The Mist ANBU collapsed, falling unconscious once more.

After the previous fight, the man had been utterly drained. Haruki's simple hypnosis technique was more than enough to take him down again.

Staring at the ANBU, now back in slumber, Haruki realized something.

Unlike the captured Sand shinobi before, this one wouldn't willingly obey or extract chakra on command.

Why?

Because this guy wasn't afraid of dying.

That changed everything. It wasn't just about extracting chakra now—Haruki was lucky the guy didn't try to kill him the moment he opened his eyes.

Fortunately, Haruki's Chakra Absorption Technique had already reached Level 5, allowing him to directly drain the target's spiritual and physical energy.

No cooperation required.

Now, all Haruki had to do was keep the ANBU asleep and continue siphoning his energy to convert into chakra.

Granted, this method was essentially draining the well dry. It would damage the ANBU's body and make him useless over time.

But so what?

Haruki had no intention of staying in this region long enough for sustainability to matter.

What he needed was maximum benefit in the shortest amount of time—as much chakra as he could extract.

Forget long-term strategy. This was about short-term gain.

Having clarified his priorities, Haruki's internal conflict vanished.

Now, only one question remained—should he continue targeting ANBU and agents from other villages?

Initially, Haruki had gone after these hidden operatives because of their covert identities. Even if they went missing, no one would notice for a while.

But he had overlooked one thing—these people were extremely powerful.

If future targets were as tough to subdue as this Mist ANBU, it wouldn't just compromise secrecy—his life would be at risk.

Worse still, if these agents tried to commit suicide before capture, and Haruki failed to stop them, it would all be for nothing.

Clearly, the risk no longer matched the reward.

Haruki began re-evaluating his plan.

Perhaps it was better to shift focus and target Cloud and Stone ninja patrolling the outer perimeter of the battlefield.

Compared to elite ANBU operatives, these guards were much easier to deal with.

The only downside was the potential for discovery.

If Cloud and Stone command noticed missing patrols, they might send scouts to investigate.

Like the saying goes:

Where people walk, they leave footprints. Where birds fly, they leave a call.

No matter how careful he was, if he acted too many times, someone would eventually notice the pattern.

And when that happened—it'd be a real problem.

"No… I have to give it a try," Haruki muttered.

After long deliberation, he made his decision. He would change his strategy.

Compared to being noticed by ANBU from various factions, drawing attention from battlefield command posed less risk.

As long as he kept a low profile, things should stay under control—at least for now.

And by the time they did notice, the final showdown of the war would likely be underway.

At that point, no one would have the bandwidth to care about one rogue ninja siphoning chakra behind the lines.

With this resolved, Haruki no longer hesitated.

He prepared to cast Shadow Clone Jutsu and send out a clone to start looking for new targets.

But just as he began forming hand seals, he remembered something—

His Level 1 Shadow Clone Jutsu could only support three clones, and they were all still out on patrol.

Which meant—he couldn't summon any more.

With no other option, Haruki recalled one clone that had been guarding the perimeter and reassigned it to search for suitable targets.

After the clone departed, Haruki opened his status panel and checked his progress.

In the past twenty days, his Shadow Clone Jutsu had gone from Level 1 (40/200) to Level 1 (91/200).

He was only about a hundred points away from reaching Level 2.

Thinking for a moment, Haruki had another clone dispel itself to free up a slot so he could grind clone proficiency.

That's right—he had decided to level up Shadow Clone Jutsu to increase the number of clones he could summon.

But he couldn't just spam it mindlessly.

Not long ago, he had drained a huge amount of chakra from the Mist ANBU, and his chakra reserves were overflowing.

If he practiced clone techniques in that state, it would waste a lot of chakra.

So, instead, Haruki decided to first train Yōjin Jutsu (Soul Projection), until his chakra dropped to around 3,000 points.

Then, he would switch to practicing Shadow Clone Jutsu.

This way, each attempt would consume about 200 points, which was still manageable.

Soon, Haruki had completed five repetitions of Shadow Clone Jutsu.

By then, his chakra had dipped to around 2,000 points. Any lower, and he wouldn't be able to use the technique.

So, he returned to the Mist ANBU's side and cast Chakra Absorption Technique, drawing out spiritual and physical energy again.

He then converted the harvested energy into chakra and refilled his reserves.

Haruki didn't drain too much.

Once his chakra went back above 3,000 points, he stopped absorbing and resumed practicing Shadow Clone Jutsu.

And so, the cycle repeated.

This process lasted an entire day. Haruki even sacrificed a considerable amount of his own chakra to make it work.

But finally, he succeeded in raising Shadow Clone Jutsu to Level 2 (1/500)!

Truth be told, it shouldn't have taken that long to grind clone proficiency.

But since chakra refining also took time, the process was slower.

Still, it was worth every effort.

At Level 2, he could now summon five clones, and the stability had improved significantly.

Moreover, chakra consumption had also improved.

Previously, summoning three clones cost 10% of his total chakra.

Now, it cost only 9%.

A minor change per clone—but when he eventually started summoning even more, that efficiency would stack and pay off tremendously.