Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

An hour and a half later—

The ANBU captain and the masked kunoichi codenamed Suzune finally arrived at the scene.

Looking around at the wreckage and the two fallen comrades, the composed demeanor they had maintained before was completely gone.

"Captain?"

Suzune wanted to speak, but the ANBU captain raised a hand to stop her.

"Survey the area first. See if there's any sign of the target's trail."

"Understood, Captain."

She responded promptly and began carefully inspecting the scene alongside him.

Half an hour passed.

When the two regrouped, the expressions behind their masks were grim.

It wasn't that they had failed to find any clues left behind by Uchiha Haruki.

On the contrary—they had found too many.

And that was the problem.

As ANBU, both of them were trained in reconnaissance and tracking. But compared to their two now-dead teammates—who specialized in these tasks—their skills were mediocre at best.

Now, without the help of those two specialists, they couldn't determine which trails were genuine and which were deliberate misdirection.

This meant they would waste valuable time.

And by the time they figured it out, Haruki would likely be long gone.

Though he hated to admit it, the ANBU captain knew—this time, they had almost certainly failed to capture Uchiha Haruki.

Still, even if there was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, he wasn't ready to give up.

After thinking for a moment, he turned to Suzune and gave a new order:

"Suzune, send a message to the forward teams. Tell them to immediately lock down every possible path leading to the Rain Country border."

That's right—just as Haruki had predicted, once his location had been exposed, Iwagakure had already mobilized a large number of ninja to set up ambushes ahead of him.

If he hadn't noticed the hawk overhead in time and continued moving forward recklessly, he would've walked straight into the trap they laid.

At that point, not even wings would've helped him escape.

What's more, due to his premature exposure, Haruki had been forced to retreat earlier than planned.

And that meant one thing—his Sharingan had not yet reached its evolution threshold. He was still a step away from unlocking the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Which also meant... he had lost his most powerful trump card.

If surrounded now, he'd have no way to break through.

It would be a certain death.

In the end, his caution had saved his life once again.

Three days later.

Land of Earth — Southern Border.

After days of fleeing, Uchiha Haruki carefully slipped past Iwagakure's final defensive perimeter and stepped into the Land of Rain.

From there, he spent another day maneuvering through enemy-controlled territory until he finally reached Konoha's secured zone.

At last—he was safe.

Thinking back on the past few days of narrow escapes, mountain crossings, and sleepless nights, Haruki couldn't help but sigh.

Iwagakure had sealed off every route and even sent ninja to sweep through the mountains.

To avoid pursuit, Haruki didn't dare relax. He couldn't travel on regular roads. Instead, he had spent days trekking through mountain forests, crossing rivers and cliffs—it wasn't an exaggeration to say he had lived like a wild animal.

By now, he was nearly unrecognizable.

All Haruki wanted was to find a quiet place, take a hot bath, and then sleep like the dead.

"Who goes there?!"

Just as Haruki was getting lost in his thoughts, a sharp, slightly youthful voice rang out from ahead.

Thud thud thud—

A flurry of kunai suddenly flew toward him, slicing past his cheek and embedding themselves in the trunk of a nearby tree.

Haruki immediately halted and activated his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, staring in the direction the kunai had come from.

What he saw made his eyes narrow slightly—

Another pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan stared back at him.

The owner of those eyes stepped forward—a young Uchiha shinobi, clearly younger than Haruki.

"Shisui?"

That's right. The one standing before him was none other than Uchiha Shisui.

Behind Shisui stood three Konoha chunin—obviously his squad members.

Haruki's gaze swept over them briefly before returning to Shisui.

Over the months they had spent on the battlefield, Shisui had changed greatly. Though his face still looked young, his demeanor had grown composed and steady.

Just standing there, he gave off an aura of calm reliability.

"Haruki?!"

Shisui's eyes flickered as he studied Haruki from head to toe. He hesitated before speaking—not because he didn't recognize him, but because Haruki looked nothing like before.

In the past, Haruki might not have been a clean freak, but he always appeared well-kept and sharp.

Now…

He looked like a caveman.

Haruki could see the disbelief in Shisui's eyes and gave a wry smile.

"Yeah… it's me."

Hearing his voice, Shisui raised a hand to signal his teammates to lower their guard. He smiled and asked,

"What happened to you? You look like you've been through hell."

Haruki lifted a finger and pointed northward.

"Mission. Couldn't be helped."

At the mention of a mission, Shisui tactfully refrained from asking more.

After exchanging a few more words and confirming Haruki's identity, Shisui let him pass.

As Haruki walked away, Shisui's eyes flickered with a strange light.

In that brief exchange, he had felt his Sharingan being suppressed.

In other words, Haruki's ocular power had surpassed his own.

And yet… wasn't Shisui considered a prodigy among the Uchiha?

Compared to other Uchiha jonin, he knew exactly where he stood—at the very top of his generation.

But Haruki…

He had awakened the Three-Tomoe after Shisui, yet now his ocular power had already surpassed him?

That stirred something in Shisui. Though he felt genuine happiness for his clanmate, a faint sense of rivalry also began to grow.

Meanwhile—

Haruki was also estimating Shisui's Sharingan evolution.

Based on the panel system, he figured Shisui was probably only 1,000 to 2,000 points behind him.

"Tch…"

Haruki sucked in a breath.

After all, he was training with cheat-like advantages, while Shisui had relied purely on his own ability.

Even then, the gap was barely significant.

This only proved one thing—Shisui's talent was monstrous.

Still, Haruki quickly collected himself.

So what if Shisui was a genius?

His journey was his own. There was no need to compete unnecessarily.

Besides, even if Shisui had sky-high talent, he'd still have to face the Mangekyō Sharingan bottleneck like everyone else.

Haruki, on the other hand, had another path.

If he pushed himself, he could unlock Mangekyō Sharingan in as little as two weeks.

But what would that achieve?

All it would do is increase his risk of chakra degeneration syndrome, without much of a visible improvement in combat power.

After all, he had no intention of revealing his Mangekyō anytime soon.

So for now, the priority was simple—

Focus on improving his physical stats, and bring them closer in line with his spiritual attributes.

Only then could he lay a solid foundation for what comes next.