Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

In the blink of an eye, four days had passed.

Ever since Uchiha Haruki visited Uchiha Shisui four days ago, life had returned to its usual rhythm. Each day, he was either training or on his way to train.

As for missions, perhaps because Kirigakure had just conquered the Forward Base and was still digesting its gains, they hadn't increased their attacks on the Fire Nation's borders. In fact, they had even started taking a defensive stance.

Likewise, Konoha hadn't rushed to reclaim the Forward Base either.

Thus, a strange calm had fallen over both sides.

Because of this, Haruki simply went through the motions when it came to tasks, leaving all the specifics to the several dozen ninja under his command.

As for himself, he threw himself into intense training.

That afternoon, somewhere in the forest—

Haruki sat cross-legged atop a flat green boulder.

He activated the "Reflection of the Heart" Technique, and special wisps of chakra—stimulated by the jutsu—were produced in his brain, slowly flowing into his eyes.

A tingling, numbing sensation followed. Haruki resisted the discomfort and focused on the changes within.

Roughly a minute later, the technique's effects faded. The special chakra dissipated and disappeared entirely.

Realizing this, Haruki didn't hesitate. He quickly formed hand seals and cast the jutsu again.

Once... twice...

Ten times... twenty times...

Soon, an hour had passed.

The setting sun had already dipped behind the mountains, and dusk was approaching.

At a certain moment, Haruki opened his eyes, and a flash of excitement lit up within them.

He opened his interface, and saw the line for "Reflection of the Heart Technique" had changed from:

lv7 (19999/20000) → lv8 (1/50000)!

That's right—after more than four days of effort, he had finally leveled up the technique.

Strangely, he felt his understanding of the jutsu had reached a whole new level.

The version of "Reflection of the Heart" he now wielded was nothing like the awkward prototype his Uchiha ancestors had once developed.

If this illusion technique were made public, the entire Uchiha clan would probably go crazy with excitement.

Unfortunately, Haruki had no plans to reveal it—at least not before he reached the pinnacle of the shinobi world.

He understood all too well the meaning of "a man's wealth is his guilt."

If it ever got out that the Uchiha clan possessed an illusion that could steadily develop the Sharingan's power, not just Konoha, but every other village would come after them.

Everyone with knowledge of the Mangekyō Sharingan's power knew the threat it posed. No one would allow the Uchiha to grow unchecked.

So, to prevent a clan-wide disaster, Haruki decided to keep this secret to himself.

He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Once his emotions settled, he closed the interface.

Then, as if he were casting the jutsu for the first time, he carefully formed the seals, circulated chakra through his body, and activated the newly upgraded lv8 Reflection of the Heart Technique.

The now-familiar special chakra surged into his eyes and began stimulating his optic nerves, subtly evolving them.

A minute and a half later, Haruki opened his eyes and checked his interface again. The "Mangekyō Sharingan" progress bar under his bloodline status still read:

(5231/50000)

Nothing had changed.

Seeing this, Haruki was a little disappointed.

But he quickly regained composure.

While this indicated that a single use of lv8 didn't raise his Mangekyō's evolution progress, it didn't mean the previous pace still applied, where he had to perform the jutsu three times to gain a single point.

He closed the panel, focused again, and cast the jutsu twice.

As expected, just two casts of "Reflection of the Heart" now yielded one point of Mangekyō Sharingan evolution.

This meant the efficiency had improved by one-third compared to lv7.

At this pace, he only needed about 15 months to accumulate the remaining 45,000 points—and thus, advance his Mangekyō to the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

Fifteen months. That's one year and three months.

Currently, it was June. Which meant by September next year, his eyes would evolve.

That timeline was over a month earlier than Naruto's birth.

And that assumed he kept his chakra allocation for "Reflection of the Heart" the same. If he increased investment—say, by cutting time from Palm Sage Technique physical training—he could evolve even faster.

Also, by the time his Mangekyō Sharingan hit around 30,000/50,000, the "Reflection of the Heart" would likely reach lv9, further increasing its enhancement efficiency.

So barring any major surprises, Haruki was confident:

"My Mangekyō Sharingan will fully evolve before September next year."

This realization sent his previously calm heart racing with excitement once more.

After several failed attempts to calm himself, he gave up and stood up, heading over to where his shadow clones were training.

Not long ago, he had copied and learned the Water Style: Giant Shark Bullet Technique from Kisame Hoshigaki.

However, like the Muscle Fiber Extraction Technique and Water Style: Hidden Mist Technique he learned earlier, he hadn't yet had extra chakra to invest in them. So for now, they were on hold.

Currently, he had six shadow clones training.

Three of them were training:

Wind Style: Blade of Wind

Rasengan

Wind Style: Rasenshuriken

The other two were working on:

Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique

Water Style: Water Formation Wall

The last clone was practicing:

Illusory Sword Technique

Instant Sword Technique

In other words, both his time and chakra were being pushed to the limit.

Seeing this, Haruki nodded with satisfaction and returned to the green boulder to resume practicing Reflection of the Heart.

Despite the skill panel showing visible progress, the repetitive nature of training could still get dull over time.

So every so often, he'd switch to another technique—like Palm Sage Technique.

Before leaving the Forward Base, Haruki had said that his body would reach its transformation threshold within ten to fifteen days.

Now, more than four days had passed, and that feeling had only grown stronger.

He was certain that in at most another week, he'd reach that critical point.

When that happened, by harnessing the power of Human Dominion, he would be able to shatter his current limits and initiate his next stage of physical transformation.

Once that occurred, his physical attributes would increase, his chakra capacity and recovery speed would improve, and he'd finally have enough extra chakra to train:

Muscle Fiber Extraction Technique

Water Style: Hidden Mist Technique

Water Style: Giant Shark Bullet Technique

With that thought, Haruki stopped overthinking and threw himself into intense Palm Sage training once again.