Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

"Haruki, what are you doing?"

Just as Haruki was considering whether he could grind his Chakra Control up to the beginner level before handing in today's mission, Ryosuke's voice suddenly called out beside him.

He stared at Haruki's feet with a look of astonishment and exclaimed, "Why are you able to stand on the water?"

Hearing this, Haruki glanced down. The water was particularly clear in this part of the stream, making it easy to see that his feet were actually floating just above the surface.

Haruki didn't try to hide anything and openly explained that he was currently practicing chakra control.

"What's the use of that?" Ryosuke asked, clearly puzzled.

Before Haruki could answer, Furukawa spoke up, "Of course it's useful—very useful."

As he spoke, he approached from a distance.

"Sensei!" ×3

All three of them called out in unison upon seeing him.

Furukawa nodded slightly and gave Haruki's feet a glance before continuing, "Mastering this technique will help you conserve chakra when learning and using jutsu. It will also allow you to fight with greater endurance during battle."

"Can we learn it too?" Ryosuke asked eagerly.

Furukawa thought for a moment before replying, "I hadn't planned to teach you this so early, but since Haruki has already started practicing, you two might as well join in."

In truth, Furukawa had long noticed Haruki's little training habits. He hadn't said anything up until now because he wanted to see how far Haruki could go without guidance.

And clearly, even if Haruki wasn't a top-tier genius, he was at least far above the average.

To improve his chakra control this much in just a few hours was something most people simply couldn't do.

What's more, he hadn't even started with the optimal training sequence—tree climbing before water-walking.

Had he received guidance from the start, his progress would've been even faster.

Of course, that was only Furukawa's perspective.

From Haruki's point of view, there was no need to follow the traditional step-by-step training path.

Thanks to his proficiency panel, as long as he followed the standard routine—focusing chakra on the soles of his feet and maintaining it for a period—he could earn proficiency points.

As that proficiency accumulated, his chakra control would improve quickly.

Thus, he didn't need to begin with tree-climbing since it wouldn't help him gain proficiency any faster.

"Sensei, does that mean we're also going to start training on water?" Ryosuke shouted excitedly from the side.

"Nope," Furukawa denied flatly.

"Why not?" Ryosuke asked in confusion. "Isn't that how Haruki is training?"

'Because he's a genius,' Furukawa thought. But he couldn't say that—it would hurt their motivation.

So he softened his words. "Everyone is different. Haruki can start with water-walking, but you two need to start elsewhere."

"Then how should we train?" Ryosuke asked.

"Tree-climbing," Furukawa replied.

"Tree-climbing?" ×2

Both Ryosuke and Shizuko Mizutani echoed in unison.

"That's right." Furukawa nodded, then turned to Haruki. "You can stay here and continue your practice."

"Okay," Haruki responded, indicating that he understood.

"You two, come with me," Furukawa called to Ryosuke and Mizutani, leading the pair toward a grove of trees nearby.

What followed was the 'familiar' routine—gathering chakra, sprinting up a tree, falling down, sprinting again, climbing again, and falling again.

Perhaps spurred on by having Haruki as an example, both Ryosuke and Mizutani trained with great determination.

Don't be fooled by Ryosuke's usually carefree attitude—he was actually extremely competitive. Though he didn't say anything about Furukawa's unequal treatment, he clearly wanted to prove himself, which made him practice even harder.

The same could be said of Mizutani, who had a quiet, seemingly passive demeanor, but a strong will deep down. Once she set her mind to something, she followed through with it completely.

In short, neither of Haruki's teammates were ordinary.

Which made sense—if they had no redeeming qualities, they wouldn't have been placed on the same team or assigned a real jonin like Furukawa to train them.

And yet, despite being such promising individuals, Haruki had never heard of them in his past life. It was likely they had died during the Third Great Ninja War or some subsequent mission.

This was a sobering reminder of how brutal the ninja world truly was, and how dangerous the life of a ninja could be.

Every time he thought about this, Haruki couldn't afford to slack off. He had to seize every possible moment to grow stronger and prepare for the future.

Time flew by like a fleeting shadow.

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.

It was now early November.

Uchiha Clan GroundsHaruki's Home – Late Night

Haruki completed his final training session of the day and, feeling drained, opened his panel.

Name: Uchiha HarukiAge: 10Constitution: 6Spirit: 7Chakra: 16 (910 → 1546)Bloodline: Sharingan · Not Awakened (58/100 → 71/100)Skills:Chakra Refinement Technique: Lv2 (81/500 → 240/500)Clone Technique: Lv2 (1/500 → 140/500)Transformation Technique: Lv2 (1/500 → 130/500)Substitution Technique: Lv2 (1/500 → 110/500)Fire Style · Fireball Jutsu: Lv1 (1/200 → 16/200)Reflection Mind Technique: Lv1 (77/200 → Lv2 1/500)Basic Taijutsu: Lv2 (1/500 → 150/500)Ninja Tool Throwing: Lv2 (120/500 → 260/500)Chakra Control: Lv0 (61/100 → Lv2 350/500)

The past half-month had progressed in an orderly manner.

During the day, he carried out mundane, non-technical tasks with his team. At night, he trained alone.

Initially, the missions did hinder his training schedule.

But as his Chakra Control continued to improve, that impact lessened.

Raising it from Lv0 to Lv1 reduced jutsu chakra consumption by 5%.Lv1 to Lv2 reduced it to 10%.Now, at Lv2 (350/500), he could save 13.5%.

In other words, he could now cast nearly 15% more jutsu using the same chakra pool.

That's no small margin.

Combined with extra training on days without missions, he had only fallen behind his plan by a day or two before leveling Reflection Mind Technique to Lv2.

And just as expected, his Sharingan progression rose by thirteen points—from (58/100) to (71/100).

The only letdown was that leveling Reflection Mind Technique to Lv2 didn't reduce its chakra cost. It only made the hand seals faster, which didn't benefit him much.

Still, the upgrade restored the original pace of Sharingan progress, which had recently slowed.

For now, he could still gain ten proficiency points in Reflection Mind Technique per day, pushing his Sharingan forward by one point daily.

The question now was how long he could maintain that pace.

As for unlocking it in one go?

Haruki hadn't even considered it.

If it were that easy, plenty of Uchiha would've awakened their Sharingan through this technique already.

He estimated he'd need to grind Reflection Mind Technique to Lv3 to succeed.

But for him, that wasn't a particularly difficult goal.

Besides the Sharingan and Reflection Mind Technique, several of his other skills had improved over the past two weeks—mainly thanks to Furukawa's training.

However, limited chakra meant his growth was modest.

Basic skills like the three foundational techniques, Basic Taijutsu, and Ninja Tool Throwing, which didn't cost much chakra, had increased by over a hundred proficiency points each.

Chakra Control, being trainable anytime and anywhere, had soared from beginner to Lv2 (350/500)—now his highest-leveled skill.

As for Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu, which cost at least 100 chakra per use, Haruki had barely touched it. As a result, it had only gained a few points.

The biggest improvement, however, was his chakra capacity, which had risen from 910 to 1546.

That was about mid-level for a civilian chunin.

It just goes to show—the gap between people can be even greater than the gap between humans and animals.

Everyone says Kakashi has low chakra reserves, but even with the drain from his Sharingan, he could still use multiple Raikiri and Kamui attacks—both S-rank jutsu.

That doesn't even count the Earth Wall, Lightning Clones, and other B-rank jutsu he used during battle.

If you tallied it all up, Kakashi's chakra might well exceed 10,000 points using Haruki's panel metrics.

So clearly, being "low on chakra" is relative.

Many jonin likely didn't even have as much chakra as Kakashi.

That meant Haruki still had massive potential left to grow.