Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

As the four Mist Village warships slowly retreated into the distance, Uchiha Haruki silently observed until he was sure they wouldn't turn back. Only then did he begin issuing orders for the troops to clean up the battlefield.

Originally, his plan for this confrontation had been to fortify the stronghold and wait for reinforcements.

But unexpectedly, due to a targeted strike by Kirigakure, the situation evolved into what had just occurred.

It was a classic case of man proposes, heaven disposes.

Still, the outcome wasn't too bad.

Despite suffering heavy casualties—eighty out of two hundred men lost, leaving less than sixty percent of the force intact—they had successfully repelled the Mist forces.

Not only that, they'd taken down a considerable number of enemy shinobi as well.

This meant that, at least for the short term, the Mist would not likely launch another large-scale assault.

And for Haruki, this opened up a valuable window—a chance to grow stronger.

With that in mind, Haruki found a quiet spot and resumed practicing Mystic Palm Technique to further strengthen his body.

Roughly half an hour later, a unit finally arrived.

The reinforcements were none other than the team sent by Kurozawa Seiju.

Unfortunately for them, they had arrived a little too late.

Well… not entirely in vain.

At the very least, they had brought fresh fighting strength.

In the blink of an eye, two more days passed.

As Haruki had anticipated, after the Mist's failed probing attack two days earlier, no more large-scale assaults followed.

However, there was a noticeable increase in small-scale skirmishes.

Haruki wasn't interested in such fights. He left them to his subordinates and focused instead on his daily training.

That afternoon—

Near the base.

In a clearing.

Haruki finished another round of training with Mystic Palm Technique. Feeling that the time was right, he released Shadow Clone Technique.

In the next instant, the clones that had been practicing different skills around him disappeared, returning their last hour's worth of experience and memory directly into his mind.

A massive influx of experience surged through him.

Closing his eyes, Haruki took a moment to absorb and process everything, converting the insights into proficiency points.

Fifteen minutes later, Haruki opened his eyes—and a glint of realization flashed within them.

Moments later, a smile crept onto his face.

After nearly ten days of persistent effort, his Wind Release: Rasenshuriken had finally leveled up.

He glanced at his system panel and saw the move had gone from:

Lv5 (2326/5000) toLv6 (1/10000)

This meant that from now on, when using Rasenshuriken, he could channel significantly more chakra into it.

Its destructive power would rise accordingly.

But that wasn't even the most important part.

What truly mattered was that this breakthrough gave him a deeper understanding of Wind Release overall.

Combined with the insights he'd gained four days ago when his Wind Release: Blade of Wind reached perfection, Haruki now had the confidence to develop a Wind-style flight jutsu.

Without delay, he formed the Ram seal and once again activated Shadow Clone Technique.

Poof!

A burst of chakra smoke dissipated—nine shadow clones appeared around him.

He instructed eight to continue their existing training routines, while the remaining one was tasked specifically with developing the flight jutsu.

That's right—Haruki didn't intend to work on it himself.

Besides the inherent risks involved in developing a new jutsu, he also had to maintain steady progress in Mystic Palm Technique and Mind Reflection Technique.

So, better to let a clone take its time experimenting.

After all, he wasn't in any urgent need to fly—sooner or later, it would get done.

Another five days passed.

It had to be said—developing a new jutsu wasn't easy.

In just five days, his clone had exploded over a hundred times from chakra overload.

Each detonation consumed a portion of his chakra reserves.

Thankfully, the increasing frequency of Mist attacks gave Haruki excuses to head out and engage, where he could harvest chakra to replenish himself.

Otherwise, the strain from clone failures might have started impacting his other training.

In the clearing, another wave of clone memories surged into his mind. Haruki let out a sigh, quickly browsed through the feedback, processed it, and then opened his system panel.

Confirming there were no new skills, he once again used Shadow Clone Technique—this time, creating one clone solely to continue developing the flight technique.

Compared to normal shinobi, Haruki's jutsu development was already far easier. As long as a technique had a working prototype and gained system recognition, it was considered successful.

Refinement afterward was simply a matter of grinding proficiency.

Even so—he hadn't succeeded yet.

Which spoke volumes about how hard jutsu development really was.

Especially flight jutsu—one of the hardest to develop.

All he could do now was keep testing and learning through trial and error.

Shaking his head, Haruki pushed aside those thoughts and recentered his focus.

He began practicing Mind Reflection Technique, aiming to push the evolution of his Sharingan even further.

After days of steady progress, his Sharingan's evolution progress had nearly reached 10,000 points.

If his earlier premonition was correct, then once he crossed that threshold, his Spirit stat would receive a significant boost.

And with increased Spirit, his potential would grow too.

Based on past experience, every increase in potential led to faster chakra recovery.

This would allow all his other skills to improve more quickly.

A chain reaction of progress.

All these thoughts flitted through his mind in an instant.

Before long, Haruki fully immersed himself into the evolution of his Sharingan.

Once, twice, three times...

Unknowingly, he had performed Mind Reflection Technique over forty times.

On the system panel, the Sharingan's evolution bar slowly approached the 10,000-point threshold.

Then—finally—when he activated the technique once more, the special chakra stimulated in his brain flowed directly into his eyes, and a barrier was shattered.

Haruki's vision blurred, and his consciousness slipped into chaos.

Time lost meaning.

He felt as though an entire year passed, and also as though only a second had gone by.

Suddenly—his eyes snapped open.

An immense surge of mental energy erupted within him. His ocular power skyrocketed—and his Mangekyō Sharingan activated instinctively.

Haruki remained still, quietly sensing the transformation.

In that moment, he had an overwhelming intuition—his Susanoo had finally moved beyond its initial form, entering Stage One.

To verify it, he expanded his perception to make sure no one was nearby. Then, with a single thought, a silver-white skeletal structure materialized around him, shielding him from all sides.

This was Susanoo's first stage.

Although it remained skeletal in appearance, it had surpassed the basic version that only formed ribs and arms.

Now, it could manifest a complete upper body.

And with that, its defensive capabilities had increased tremendously.