Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

An hour later…

The sky had darkened. Uchiha Haruki and his team returned to Eagle's Beak Cliff.

About half an hour after that, all the patrol squads had also made their way back to the base.

Haruki then began listening to their reports.

Only after hearing them did he realize—it wasn't just his squad that hadn't encountered any Mist-nin today. None of the other squads had either.

"Could it be that Kirigakure has given up on reconnaissance?" Haruki thought, puzzled.

He immediately called over a Konoha shinobi and instructed him to contact Kurozawa Nariki to inquire about the situation in the other sectors.

Without hesitation, the Konoha ninja bit his thumb, performed a summoning technique, and summoned a hawk-type messenger beast.

Haruki watched silently as the bird soared into the sky.

Roughly half an hour later, a reply came.

It turned out, Mist-nin had still been spotted near other outposts today—Kirigakure had not abandoned their surveillance operations.

Something wasn't right.

Eagle's Beak Cliff was the weakest point in the entire northern defensive line. Even if Kirigakure knew Haruki was stationed there, it was impossible they'd just stop scouting altogether.

As one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Kirigakure had its own pride. There was no way they'd be intimidated by one man alone.

"There's definitely something suspicious going on."

Haruki thought to himself and then ordered, "Everyone stay alert tonight. Double the number of night watchmen."

Upon hearing this, the surrounding shinobi's expressions subtly changed, but they all responded in unison, "Yes, Captain!"

"Good."

Seeing they had taken his warning seriously, Haruki nodded. "Alright, go get everything in order."

"Yes, Captain!"

The group dispersed quickly.

Watching their backs fade into the distance, Haruki fell into deep thought. He wasn't certain whether Kirigakure was planning a surprise attack, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

As it turned out—nothing happened that night.

The next day.

Morning.

Haruki didn't remain at the base. Once again, he joined the patrol squad on their mission.

But just like yesterday, he didn't accompany the team in person. Instead, he left behind a shadow clone as a communication relay.

As for his real body, it found a secluded place and resumed his daily training.

Day turned to night.

Another day passed in the blink of an eye.

Once again, they came up empty-handed.

None of the teams had seen even a shadow of a Mist-nin.

Strangely, however, other outposts had reported increased sightings of enemy forces.

This anomaly put everyone on edge.

Haruki once again ordered increased vigilance at night.

Then—he returned to his quarters to train.

"If soldiers come, we resist. If floods rise, we build walls."

If he couldn't figure out Kirigakure's intentions, then he wouldn't waste time trying. In a world where power determines everything, strength was the only constant.

Before absolute power, all schemes and plots were meaningless.

Rather than get lost in guesswork and anxiety, it was better to focus on training—use every moment to grow stronger.

That way, no matter what schemes the enemy had, he'd have a better chance of winning.

His calmness soon affected everyone in the base. The anxiety from earlier disappeared, and everyone got back to doing their jobs earnestly.

That night too—nothing happened.

Day Three.

Morning.

After breakfast, Haruki once again set out from the base with Uchiha Tekka and the others.

When they arrived at the reef site, Uchiha Tekka asked, "Haruki, you're going to train again?"

"Yeah." Haruki nodded, then raised his hands, forming the seal for "Water" and performed the Shadow Clone Technique, creating nine clones.

As usual, he left one clone aboard the boat to act as a relay, then led the other eight to the reef.

Watching him leave, Tekka shook his head and gave the order to steer the ship toward the patrol zone.

Mid-afternoon.

Haruki once again dispelled his shadow clones, absorbing the training experience and memories of the last hour from all eight.

Moments later, he opened his eyes—gleaming with joy.

"Finally… Mastered!"

Yes, after nearly a week of dedicated practice, his Wind Release: Blade of Wind had finally leveled up from Lv. 6 (8100/10000) to Lv. 7 (0/0)—the Mastery Level.

Now, Haruki felt a deeper understanding of the technique than ever before. His control over Wind Release chakra had also clearly stepped up a notch.

He raised his hands, rapidly formed the necessary seals, and performed the technique.

In an instant, a nearly ten-meter-long transparent wind blade appeared and shot forward, slicing into the reef with a smooth, clean gash.

Compared to when it was Lv. 6, the Lv. 7 Mastered Wind Blade was clearly stronger and faster.

Though its size had increased, making it slightly less covert, its speed made up for it.

"In the world of ninjutsu, speed trumps all. Even if the enemy spots it, they won't have time to dodge."

Besides, if needed, he could reduce the chakra input and make the blade smaller—thus regaining its stealthiness.

Haruki withdrew his hands in satisfaction.

Now it was time to decide how to allocate the chakra he used to spend daily on this technique.

Up until now, Haruki had been assigning 24,000 chakra points daily to Blade of Wind. That's a lot of chakra—enough to dramatically boost the growth of any jutsu. So he needed to choose wisely.

First to be ruled out: Palm Sage Jutsu and Reflection Technique.

These two required his real body and lots of time. He didn't have the bandwidth to practice them more.

Next off the list: Water Release: Water Formation Wall, Water Dragon Bullet, Rasengan, Illusionary Sword Technique, and Instant Blade Technique.

They were all progressing well and didn't urgently need improvement.

After narrowing the list down, one choice stood out: Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.

His first S-rank forbidden technique—the ultimate ace up his sleeve.

Even more importantly, it was the foundation for developing future flight-based ninjutsu.

Nothing could be more suitable.

But this would mean assigning a staggering 58,000 chakra points to it daily. That's 22,000 more than what he used to give his most demanding skill, Palm Sage Jutsu (36,000).

With this much chakra going in, it would be unwise to have only one clone working on it. He'd need at least two shadow clones training it simultaneously.

Just as Haruki was mulling this over—a wave of memory suddenly surged into his mind.

Startled, he quickly browsed through it.

Moments later, his expression changed slightly.

He abruptly opened his eyes—and turned to look in the direction Uchiha Tekka and the others had gone.