Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Unknowingly, the night had entered its second half.

In the dark sky, the moon had already drifted westward from its peak position.

Yet, despite all their efforts, the Mist shinobi had failed to breach a single one of the three defense lines.

This fact infuriated the Mist Village's field commander.

At the coastline—

Onboard one of Kirigakure's warships, a high-ranking Mist Jōnin scowled at the battle reports in his hand. His face twisted with growing rage.

Finally, with a loud smack, he threw the reports onto the table and muttered under his breath:

"Useless… all of them are useless!"

Just moments ago, he had received word from the front lines: the area previously captured on the eastern battlefield had now been reclaimed by Konoha forces—and judging by their momentum, they intended to push even further.

On top of that, the southern and southeastern fronts were following a similar pattern. Konoha ninjas were steadily regaining lost ground.

In short, Mist Village was collapsing on all three fronts.

How could Chiyūryū, the commander, not be furious?

And as for the root cause of this entire mess—Uchiha Haruki, infamously known as "Ghost Blade"—Chiyūryū's hatred burned deeper than ever.

But at the same time, it was humiliating. A mere twelve or thirteen-year-old kid was proving impossible to take down.

If Haruki hadn't previously slain both Kiba Jūzō and Black Hoe Raiga, and more recently killed Kaguya Kotarō right under his nose, Chiyūryū might have suspected Mei Terumi and the others were going easy on him.

Even so, it was hard to accept.

Sure, an Uchiha Jōnin was powerful and top-tier in their class, but with seven or eight elite Mist ninja—including a dual kekkei genkai user like Mei and a sword wielder like Kushimaru—they should have overwhelmed him.

And yet… Haruki was like an unkillable cockroach—resilient, evasive, even managing to injure several of them in counterattacks.

Chiyūryū couldn't make sense of it.

But rather than wasting more mental energy, he came to a different conclusion.

If you can't beat him… just avoid him.

He had already tried withdrawing some personnel to leave just one or two behind to stall Haruki.

But Haruki's strength was far beyond average. Leaving regular Jōnin was just feeding them to him.

On the other hand, if he left behind their strongest—like Mei and the others—Haruki would simply avoid direct combat and crash into other Jōnin squads.

In one such instance, thanks to support from other Konoha Jōnin, Haruki had outright slain one of their own.

That loss had stung Chiyūryū deeply.

Left with no choice, he had to redeploy forces once more to encircle Haruki.

Even after realizing Haruki's goal was to stall them, he still didn't dare pull the encirclement away.

That's how devastating Haruki was—single-handedly pinning down nearly half of Mist's eastern Jōnin forces.

Such is the role of high-tier combatants in large-scale wars.

And thanks to Haruki's delay tactics, Konoha was able to launch a counteroffensive.

Without him, things would've gone very differently.

Chiyūryū forcefully pushed down his frustration and asked toward a dark corner nearby,

"How long until Konoha's reinforcements arrive?"

From the shadows, a figure emerged—another masked Mist Anbu in a black cloak.

"The Flying Fish squad just reported in. Konoha's reinforcements are currently near the Red Coral Reef. At most, they'll arrive in about three hours."

"Three hours, huh…"

Chiyūryū muttered to himself and fell silent.

His index finger tapped the table rhythmically, tap, tap, tap...

Roughly ten minutes later, he suddenly sat up straight and pulled the reports back toward him, reading them closely again.

After a moment, he sighed deeply.

"Ah… forget it. Pass on my order—we're retreating."

As soon as he spoke those words, his whole body seemed to deflate. He slumped into his chair, silent for a long time.

Chiyūryū understood that after this… his chances of climbing the ranks were all but gone.

As a Jōnin without a strong background or exceptional combat power, his only leverage was his strategic command skill.

If this battle had gone well, he might've had a shot at joining the inner circle of the village's leadership.

But now?

Not a chance.

Mist had waited patiently for this opportunity, stockpiling power for one decisive strike—and failed.

Not only did they lose men and ships, but they achieved none of their strategic goals.

Their original plan had been to seize Konoha's forward base in the Land of Waves, then use it as a stepping stone to invade the Land of Fire, and eventually push deep into Konoha territory.

Now, they couldn't even capture the scouting outpost—let alone push further.

At this point, avoiding blame was already the best-case scenario.

Of course, they could try to keep fighting—but Chiyūryū estimated their chances of success were no more than 10-20%.

To push on under those odds would be suicidal.

And though he wasn't a soft-hearted man, he didn't want to see his troops die needlessly. So, he chose to retreat.

There was another reason too.

Even if they somehow won this battle, once Konoha's reinforcements arrived, they wouldn't be able to hold their position anyway.

Better to preserve Mist's strength for future operations.

Hearing the command, the nearby Mist Anbu didn't say a word. He simply turned and vanished into the darkness.

Soon, Mist ninja across all three fronts began a coordinated retreat.

Konoha naturally noticed—but after thinking it over, the Uchiha Jōnin in command chose not to pursue.

Not because he didn't want to—but because he couldn't.

Though they had held the line, Konoha's forces had suffered considerable losses, and nearly every survivor was injured.

After fighting continuously for several hours, the troops were utterly exhausted, both in body and chakra.

If they gave chase, they might overextend and give the Mist a chance to counterattack.

So, the Uchiha commander wisely decided to hold position.

They had already exceeded expectations—no need to risk more.

Haruki, too, watched as the Mist Jōnin who had surrounded him began to withdraw.

He didn't pursue.

Although he was still in decent condition, his performance in this battle had already been outstanding.

There was no need to chase down a few more Mist shinobi.

Besides, doing so might attract even more unwanted attention.

He hadn't forgotten why he was sent to this front—he had already offended the Root organization. He didn't want to get tangled up with another.

While it was unlikely he'd go unnoticed, minimizing exposure was still better than nothing.

With that thought, Haruki flicked the blood off his blade and sheathed the Kusanagi with a sharp clang.

Sweeping his gaze across the battlefield, confirming Mist had truly retreated, he turned and began walking back toward the base.

But before he could even rest…

A Chūnin appeared in front of him.

Before the man could even speak, Haruki opened his eyes and frowned.

"What is it?"

The Konoha Chūnin swallowed nervously and spoke carefully:

"Well… Haruki-senpai, the medical team is short-handed right now. So, if you could—"

Haruki fell silent, his expression unreadable.