Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

The ROOT ninja whose throat had just been slashed let out a series of choking, gurgling sounds.

Yet even as death loomed over him, his sense of duty remained. With the last of his strength, he forced his hands into a seal—and in the next moment, he too transformed into a Blood Demon.

Uchiha Haruki had just finished off the blood-drenched warrior who kept coming back to life, only to turn his head and see the transformation happening.

It was already too late to stop it.

Thankfully, things weren't as bad as they could be.

Though the newly created "Blood Demon" possessed that same pseudo-immortality, Haruki had already learned that killing one repeatedly would gradually erase its sanity. Once it was completely mindless, even facing two at once wouldn't be a real threat to him.

The real issue now was—how to break this barrier?

Indeed, even after both ROOT ninja had essentially "committed suicide," the blood-red barrier still hadn't vanished.

That led Haruki to a reasonable suspicion—maybe the so-called Blood Demon Barrier and the two "Blood Demons" were intrinsically linked. To destroy the barrier, he'd likely have to kill them both.

This wasn't just baseless speculation. When the Blood Demons had first appeared, the walls of the barrier had noticeably glowed brighter in response.

So if that were true, then damaging or killing the Blood Demons should weaken the barrier.

No reason to hesitate.

Haruki began by finishing off the newly transformed Blood Demon several times. Once its rational mind had completely faded, he sheathed his short sword at his waist.

Then, avoiding their reckless lunges, he flickered backward and formed hand seals at lightning speed. With a deep breath, he released a wide wave of flames from his mouth.

The flames split and swirled in mid-air, condensing into hundreds of fist-sized fireballs.

"Go."

With a low shout, Haruki controlled the fireballs, splitting them into two waves—each headed straight for a different Blood Demon.

The Blood Demons didn't dodge. Fireballs pelted them on contact, detonating in rapid succession.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The forest shook with each blast.

Both Blood Demons collapsed to the ground, their blood-covered skin sizzling with a zzzzzzz sound—an eerie hiss of blood cells forcibly stitching flesh back together.

Before long, the monsters stood up again, shrieking and charging toward Haruki as if completely unharmed.

But Haruki noticed something subtle—the blood-red barrier surrounding them had dimmed.

That confirmed it.

His theory was right—killing the Blood Demons did weaken the barrier. More importantly, ninjutsu clearly could injure them.

That made sense. Immunity to physical damage was already absurd. If they were immune to ninjutsu too, they would've been legendary by now, even at great cost.

And yet Haruki had never even heard of such a thing before.

Through this experience, Haruki realized something critical: the memories from his past life—about the Shinobi World—were useful but not absolute truth.

After all, what he remembered was just one small corner of a far bigger reality.

If just the ROOT could develop such bizarre barrier techniques, who knew what secrets were hidden in the other great shinobi villages?

"I'll need to be more cautious in the future," he silently warned himself.

With that thought, Haruki stopped holding back.

He unleashed three different Fire-Style jutsu in succession, wearing down the Blood Demon Barrier until the glowing red walls had faded to near-invisibility.

Then, with a flicker, he appeared before one of the dimming barrier walls.

After a brief moment of observation, he formed seals again—this time for his strongest single-target jutsu:

Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu.

A huge fireball roared from his mouth and exploded against the barrier wall.

Crack!

A single crack appeared.

Then another.

And another.

In the blink of an eye, spiderwebs of fractures spread across the wall. Then, with a faint tinkle, like glass shattering, the entire Blood Demon Barrier scattered into twinkling embers and vanished into the air.

Haruki finally breathed fresh air again and felt his whole body relax.

But he had no time to enjoy it.

Whish! Whish!

Over ten kunai suddenly flew out from the trees—rushing straight at him from every direction.

Haruki's pupils shrank slightly. In an instant, he unsheathed his short sword and slashed rapidly, deflecting all incoming kunai.

Then, without pausing, he bolted toward the side—flickering into motion.

But before he could get far, an Iwa-nin suddenly stepped out to block his path.

And in the next moment, figures began to appear behind him and to both sides.

"Surrounded... Just as I thought."

Haruki muttered to himself, voice low.

He had suspected this from the moment the ROOT ninja activated the Blood Demon Barrier.

Even though it was a specialized technique with a limited area, the sheer uniqueness of the barrier would've drawn attention—enough for surrounding Iwa-nin to home in on his location.

That was why Haruki had tried to end things as fast as possible, regardless of chakra cost. He'd hoped to break the barrier and escape before reinforcements arrived.

But… it was still a step too late.

"Well then, looks like I'll just have to fight my way out."

Haruki didn't hesitate. Steeling himself, he gripped his blade and charged toward the Iwa-nin in front of him.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The clash of steel rang out again in the dense forest.

Haruki fought fiercely, weaving deeper into the woods as he cut down his enemies and avoided pursuit.

Two hours later.

Second rendezvous point.

Haruki finally met up with his teammates.

According to their mission plan, they'd set two predetermined locations to regroup after completing their ambush assignments.

When he reached the first rendezvous point after a brutal chase, he found only two dead Iwa-nin and signs of battle. Not a single teammate in sight.

Left with no choice, he continued onward.

Along the way, he unfortunately encountered another Iwa-nin squad—four shinobi, led by a Special Jonin.

Escaping them had cost him—he'd taken a slash to the side of his waist.

Thankfully, with his Healing Jutsu, the injury wasn't serious.

After another hour of hasty travel, Haruki finally arrived at the second rendezvous point.

At last, he saw his comrades.

But before he could greet them, a kunai suddenly whistled through the air—aimed straight at him.

Haruki's expression didn't change. He stopped moving, and the kunai embedded itself in the ground just half a meter in front of him—a warning shot.

"Password?"

A voice called out from ahead.

Haruki frowned slightly and replied bluntly, "What password?"

Surprisingly, at his answer, the shinobi ahead—and the others beside him—breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"You're one of us."

"Come on over."

Haruki hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward.

As he got closer, the man who had asked the question spoke again.

"Haruki, don't take it the wrong way. Back at the first rendezvous point, someone tried to sneak in pretending to be one of us. So we had to improvise a test."

Only then did Haruki understand the traces of battle he'd seen earlier—and the reason for the password question.

They hadn't agreed on a passcode ahead of time. The mission had been rushed.

But outsiders wouldn't know that.

So if someone paused or gave an irrelevant answer when asked for the password—it would raise suspicion.

On the other hand, a real teammate like Haruki would simply respond honestly or ask back, as he had.

That alone was enough for a preliminary confirmation.

Verifying identity afterward was relatively easy.

After a few more words of conversation and confirming there were no issues, Haruki headed straight toward Uchiha Shisui.