Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

"Hmm, this spot will do."

A minute later, Uchiha Haruki arrived at a rocky reef and nodded in approval. This was the place he had spotted from the boat earlier—a suitable area for landing.

Though with his current chakra reserves, he could easily stand on water for 24 hours straight, there was still something comforting about solid ground underfoot.

However, the jagged rocks beneath him needed a bit of smoothing—otherwise, it would be too uncomfortable.

With that in mind, Haruki turned to one of his shadow clones and said, "You, handle it."

The clone didn't respond with words—just nodded and leapt away, landing atop the nearby sea surface.

Without delay, it formed hand seals and unleashed a jutsu—Wind Release: Blade of Wind!

In the next instant, a transparent wind blade several meters long shot forward, skimming across the sea's surface and slicing into the reef.

Like tofu under a blade, the rocks were cleanly severed—the top layer slid off and splashed into the sea, revealing a smooth, flat surface underneath.

The shadow clone repeated the process several times, adjusting its position and casting Wind Release: Blade of Wind over and over again until it had carved out a relatively spacious, flat area.

Now standing atop this platform, Haruki and his eight shadow clones felt far more secure.

Wasting no time, Haruki immediately issued instructions to his eight clones—each was to practice a different technique.

The clones, all sharing his personality, didn't speak a word. They nodded and swiftly dispersed across the surrounding sea to begin their assigned training.

Before long, the surrounding waters were alive with the effects of various jutsu—each clone focusing diligently on honing its skill.

Haruki nodded with satisfaction at the sight.

Then, ignoring the clones, he found a quiet spot, sat cross-legged, and began his own training.

Alternating between Palm Sage Jutsu and Reflection Technique, Haruki silently strengthened both his body and spirit.

And just like that, the entire morning passed.

Before he knew it, the sun had reached its zenith overhead.

The scorching rays beat down on him, drying his lips and throat.

Haruki paused his training, grabbed a nearby water pouch, took a large gulp, and let out a long sigh of relief.

Standing up, he looked out over the vast ocean. The sea stretched endlessly with nothing in sight—Uchiha Tekka and the others had long disappeared from view.

Still, since his clone hadn't sent back any distress signal, it meant everything was fine. They hadn't encountered danger.

Which meant Haruki didn't need to worry.

As for sightings of Mist-nin…

Haruki had joined the mission mainly to try his luck. It had only been half a day—it was perfectly normal not to find anything.

He wasn't in a hurry.

He shook off the thought, stretched a bit, then reached into his ninja pouch and pulled out a handkerchief.

Inside were more than a dozen soldier pills.

Haruki took three, tossed them into his mouth, and chewed without hesitation.

To be honest, soldier pills tasted awful.

While they were packed with essential nutrients for the body, no shinobi would eat them unless absolutely necessary.

Only Haruki, having long gotten used to the taste, could consume them without flinching.

Time ticked by.

Soon, Haruki could feel his stamina returning. Without further delay, he resumed his training.

Time passed slowly as the sun crept from its peak toward the west.

Afternoon.

As sunset approached, streaks of crimson clouds painted the sky. From the horizon, Uchiha Tekka and the others returned aboard their small boat.

Before they even got close, Haruki opened his eyes.

At that moment, the shadow clone left onboard for communication dispersed with a poof, turning into a cloud of chakra and returning its memory to the original body.

In the next instant, a wave of memory flooded Haruki's mind.

These were the memories of the clone's experiences from the day.

Haruki closed his eyes and quickly browsed through the information.

Moments later, he opened them again and shook his head.

From the clone's memory, he confirmed that throughout the entire day—not only had they not encountered any Mist-nin, they hadn't even seen another living soul.

This made Haruki feel somewhat relieved he hadn't gone with them himself. Otherwise, it would've been a full day wasted.

As the boat drew near, Haruki flickered forward with a few Body Flicker Steps and landed on the bow.

Seeing him, Tekka opened his mouth to speak, but Haruki cut him off, "I already know what happened. Let's head back."

"Alright."

Tekka nodded heavily and immediately ordered the crew to turn the boat around and head back toward Eagle's Beak Cliff.

At the same time, Haruki dispelled all remaining shadow clones.

A massive influx of training experience and memories surged into his mind, causing him to rub his temples instinctively.

Then, he returned to the rear of the boat, sat cross-legged, and began sorting through the memories—converting them into points of proficiency on his skill panel.

Of course, he wasn't absorbing the entire day's worth of clone experience—only about one hour's worth.

That had always been Haruki's rhythm when it came to absorbing clone memories during training.

This iterative process was the most efficient way to leverage the proficiency panel and master multiple jutsu.

Otherwise, it would be incredibly inefficient.

In the past, Haruki had tried something different—sending out clones to train for an entire day and then absorbing all their memories in one go.

It was more convenient, yes.

But the efficiency was terrible.

When converted into proficiency points, the gain was only one-fourth to one-fifth of what it should have been if he had trained personally with the assistance of the panel.

However, when he shortened the memory interval, the efficiency immediately increased.

Eventually, Haruki did thorough tests and found the optimal balance between training efficiency and time cost—one hour.

Without relying on the proficiency panel, one hour was about the maximum limit of his natural talent.

Within this window, there wasn't much difference between training through clones and training personally.

Thus, by refreshing every hour, promptly absorbing and converting memory into proficiency and staying updated on the clone's training progress, he was able to maintain maximum efficiency.

This system allowed him to train many techniques simultaneously.

It was also how someone with mediocre talent like Haruki could match—and even surpass—true geniuses.