Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

With his decision made, Uchiha Haruki didn't hesitate any longer. He immediately returned to his previous state and dashed forward at full speed.

As expected, that hawk in the sky began chasing after him again.

Haruki ignored it, continuing his sprint until he reached a dense forest. Once he confirmed that the trees above blocked aerial vision, he finally came to a stop.

Then, forming a hand seal, he quickly cast the Shadow Clone Jutsu and split off a clone.

Haruki looked at the clone and nodded. The clone silently nodded back and then sprinted ahead without a word.

As for Haruki himself, he flickered to the side of the path and concealed himself, suppressing all traces of his chakra. He waited silently for the pursuers to arrive.

Time ticked by.

Minutes passed.

Still, the enemy hadn't appeared. Haruki began to question whether his prediction had been wrong.

But in the end, he forced himself to remain patient and continued waiting.

A few more minutes later, faint footsteps rustled through the leaves. Two masked figures in black cloaks stepped into the forest path.

They looked exactly like the two ANBU that Haruki's clone had encountered earlier—clearly more of Iwagakure's covert operatives.

Seeing them, Haruki let out a slow, silent breath.

"As the saying goes: better to face a thief than worry about one."

Knowing there were enemies hunting you but being unable to find them—that was the most mentally exhausting part.

Now that they had appeared, there was nothing to be afraid of.

In the ninja world, strength was what spoke the loudest.

With that thought, Haruki seized the moment and instantly threw three kunai—aimed straight at one of the Iwa ANBU.

You had to hand it to them—ANBU reflexes were sharp.

Sensing danger, the target quickly flickered to the side.

However, Haruki's kunai weren't just regular projectiles—each one had an explosive tag tied to it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three thunderous explosions ripped through the forest, sending three fireballs into the sky and pushing back the darkness in an instant.

Haruki's Sharingan spun rapidly, locking onto the enemy's new positions as soon as the smoke cleared.

Without delay, he flipped his hand and hurled another set of three shuriken, again targeting the same Iwa ANBU who had been caught in the blast.

That ninja had already been rattled by the concussive shockwave, and now another sudden attack was coming. He couldn't react in time.

Panicked, he only managed to deflect two of the shuriken.

As for the third—

He twisted his body in an attempt to dodge, but it was already too late. All he could do was shift slightly, letting it cut deep across his waist, just narrowly avoiding a fatal blow.

Haruki didn't give him a moment to recover.

His hands blurred through a rapid series of hand seals, and then—

"Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!"

Dozens of small fireballs shot from his mouth like fiery flower petals, raining down on the wounded ANBU.

"Water Style: Water Wall!"

At the last second, the Iwa shinobi finished his seals, erecting a wall of water to block the flames.

Seeing this, Haruki clicked his tongue in mild frustration.

He had no time to press the attack. The other ANBU had already locked onto his position and was charging toward him.

But the first thing to arrive weren't fists—it was a barrage of kunai.

Clang!

Haruki drew the short sword from his waist in a blink. With a flurry of metallic clashes, he cleanly deflected all the incoming blades.

But just as he braced himself for close combat, the second ANBU suddenly braked mid-charge and darted behind a tree.

Haruki froze for a split second before realizing the truth—it had been a feint.

This guy never intended to fight him directly. His only purpose was to draw Haruki's attention and relieve the pressure on his comrade.

"Makes sense," Haruki thought.

His Sharingan was active—no sane shinobi would take him on in a head-to-head fight.

Besides, that pangolin summon had probably already relayed his swordsmanship skills back to Iwagakure.

Which meant these two had good reason to avoid close quarters unless they were confident in their strength.

Unless the opponent was as strong as that ANBU Captain from before, they wouldn't dare go toe-to-toe with him.

Sure enough, the wounded Iwa ANBU had already retreated into hiding again.

The forest fell silent—aside from the occasional crackling of flames from burning trees, there wasn't a sound.

Minutes passed.

The two ANBU still didn't make a move.

Haruki thought for a moment and understood their strategy.

They weren't confident in defeating him head-on.

So they were trying to stall for time.

And if they could just keep him tied down long enough, Iwagakure had a hundred ways to kill him.

"Hmph. Wishful thinking!"

Haruki snorted coldly, stabbed his short sword into the ground, then rapidly formed hand seals.

He took a deep breath—and then exhaled with force.

A massive gust of wind surged forward. A howling vortex tore through the forest, uprooting trees, grass, and even flinging loose stones through the air.

It looked like a natural disaster—the unleashed power of Wind Style: Great Breakthrough, executed at full force.

This single jutsu drained nearly a thousand chakra points—a heavy price.

But the effect was undeniably powerful.

When the windstorm cleared, the trees were gone, the path was open, and the moonlight shone down freely on the battlefield.

And in that mess, the two Iwa ANBU were now fully exposed, standing at triangle formation to Haruki.

They were trying to position themselves so that one could attack while the other was countering the Sharingan's illusion techniques.

But Haruki wasn't impressed.

Without the cover of the forest, even against two enemies, he felt no fear at all.

"Kill!"

With a low shout, Haruki drew his blade and charged.

In a blink, he was upon the wounded ANBU—the same one he'd been targeting all along.

As the saying goes: pick the softest persimmon first.

The man had already been injured, so naturally, Haruki went to finish the job. The other ANBU could wait.

The three of them quickly became locked in a chaotic melee.

Haruki immediately noticed—these two were significantly weaker than the ANBU his clone had fought earlier.

Perhaps their expertise lay in different areas—not direct combat.

Either way, in just over ten minutes, Haruki had slain them both.

They had launched several counterattacks throughout, but under the pressure of Haruki's Level 5 Swordsmanship and Three-Tomoe Sharingan, they barely made a dent.

To speed things up, Haruki had even used some trade-wound-for-wound tactics, taking a few light hits himself.

Thankfully, he had healing techniques.

After a quick patch-up, Haruki didn't linger.

He didn't even bother cleaning up the battlefield.

Without hesitation, he turned and vanished into the night.