Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

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

Uchiha Haruki had neither encountered any enemies nor faced any danger. Other than the routine patrols, he spent all his time on intensive training.

The two sword techniques he was focused on were both progressing steadily—particularly Konoha-Style Kenjutsu, which was now almost at full mastery.

At this point, Haruki only wanted to complete the mission as soon as possible and return to push further progress.

But as always, things rarely went according to personal plans.

Just when he thought today would be as uneventful as the previous three, a distress signal suddenly came from one of his subordinates.

That's right—his subordinate.

Ever since being promoted to Chunin, Haruki was no longer treated as cannon fodder. Combined with his status as a member of the renowned Uchiha clan, he was often placed in a commanding role.

This time, he was the captain of a patrol squad, leading three other Chunins. The distress signal had come from one of them.

By the time Haruki arrived with the other two teammates, the man who had sent the signal was already dead.

Immediately, the three tensed up, their focus sharpened to the max. Haruki activated his Sharingan fully, scanning every movement in the surrounding forest with utmost caution.

Their alertness was warranted—whoever the enemy was, they weren't ordinary.

It had taken less than a minute from receiving the signal to arriving at the scene.

To be able to kill a Chunin in such a short window... regardless of how it was done, the opponent had to be dangerous.

They had to be extremely cautious.

After a brief period of observation, Haruki raised his right hand, signaling that the immediate area was temporarily secure.

Only then did the other two lower their guard.

Haruki gave an order:

"Terumitsu, inspect the body."

"Yes, Captain!"

One of the Konoha shinobi stepped forward and began examining the corpse in detail.

After a few moments, he stood up with a grim expression and said,

"Captain, judging by the wounds, it was likely a puppeteer from Sunagakure."

"Puppeteer?"

Haruki's interest piqued. He motioned for him to continue.

Seeing his captain's reaction, Terumitsu elaborated,

"Captain, look at the wound—it's extremely clean and precise. A person could technically do it, but it would be unnecessary."

Of course, Haruki understood the logic.

Killing with such precision would take extra effort—an inefficient choice in a real battle. If you can kill in one strike, why waste energy making the wound look neat?

He nodded to indicate his understanding and let Terumitsu continue.

Unlike Haruki, who had only recently been transferred here, Terumitsu had completed several missions in the area and had fought Sunagakure shinobi before. Naturally, he knew their tactics better.

So Haruki wasn't going to overrule someone with more local experience.

Receiving the nod, Terumitsu resumed:

"Only puppets from Sunagakure tend to cause such wounds. Also, look here—"

He pointed to the skin around the wound. Slight black discoloration was visible.

Terumitsu added,

"There are traces of poison spreading from the wounds. Sunagakure puppeteers are known for coating their puppet weapons in toxins. Also, there are no signs of any other enemy nearby.

So, I believe the attacker was a puppeteer hidden in the shadows, remotely controlling a puppet to ambush Kuraki."

After hearing the analysis, Haruki nodded, signaling agreement.

He thought for a moment before issuing orders:

"Terumitsu, search the surrounding area. The enemy may be controlling a puppet, but they shouldn't be too far off. Look carefully and see if you can pick up their trail."

"Understood, Captain!"

Terumitsu replied and quickly got to work.

Haruki then turned to the third team member, who had been silent until now.

"Yoichi, send a message to the nearby squads. Have them sweep the perimeter—we can't let the enemy escape."

Without a word, Kamijo Yoichi nodded, then bit down on his right thumb. Blood dripped into his palm as he quickly formed the hand signs: Boar–Dog–Bird–Monkey–Ram.

Poof!

A puff of chakra smoke appeared, and a parrot-like summoning beast popped into existence.

"Yoichi! What now? I swear, if you're making me run errands again for nothing, I—hey, this time I'm not doing it unless you—"

The parrot's rant came to an abrupt halt the moment it caught sight of Haruki's glowing crimson Sharingan.

Yoichi seized the opportunity and fed it the message. He went over the details several times to ensure accuracy.

Annoyed, the parrot flapped its wings impatiently.

"Yeah yeah, I got it, stop repeating yourself!"

It gave Haruki one nervous glance before flapping its wings and flying high into the air.

Watching the parrot vanish into the distance, Haruki found himself wondering if he should get a summoning beast of his own.

But then again—weak summons wouldn't be much help, and the strong ones were currently beyond his reach.

And besides, most summoning beasts had a tendency to flee when in danger.

Haruki figured he might as well just wait until his Sharingan evolved further and use genjutsu to control one directly.

At least that way, it could serve as a meat shield if needed.

While Haruki was lost in thought, Terumitsu's voice rang out again:

"Captain, I've found something!"

Without hesitation, Haruki used his Body Flicker Technique, instantly appearing beside Terumitsu.

Seeing him suddenly arrive, Terumitsu couldn't help but think,

"Captain's Shunshin is still terrifyingly fast…"

Haruki didn't care what his subordinate was thinking. He got straight to the point:

"What did you find?"

Terumitsu pointed to a patch of grass in front of them.

"Captain, you see here? Someone has clearly been lingering in this spot for a while."

Haruki followed his gaze and indeed saw trampled flowers and crushed vegetation, along with two shallow footprints in the damp soil.

Thanks to the constantly drizzling rain of the Land of Rain, the grass and earth retained impressions better than usual.

However—

Haruki turned back toward Kuraki's body and measured the distance.

This spot was nearly twenty meters away from where Kuraki had been killed, and there were no visible traces connecting the two points.

Which meant—the enemy had been controlling the puppet from at least twenty meters away.

To maneuver a puppet so precisely from that distance and land a clean kill on a Chunin in seconds... That kind of skill spoke volumes.

Haruki immediately heightened his alertness.

But he wasn't going to back down.

Leaving aside his duty to stop enemy infiltration, just the fact that the opponent was a puppeteer made it worth pursuing.

Haruki opened his system interface and glanced at his Chakra Control, currently at Lv3 (530/1000).

If he could get his hands on puppet techniques now, it would give him a huge head start toward mastering chakra control.

Originally, his plan had been to take it slow.

But fate had handed him a golden opportunity—his first encounter with a Suna-nin after being reassigned… and the opponent just so happened to be a skilled puppeteer.

There was no way he was letting this chance slip by.

"Captain! Over here too!"

Terumitsu called again, breaking Haruki out of his thoughts.

Haruki quickly walked over and found more traces.

After examining them carefully, he confirmed they were left behind by the same enemy when they left the area.

Without delay, Haruki gave his command:

"Terumitsu, Yoichi—continue the search forward. We're not letting them get away."