Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

"As I thought…"

Watching the three fireballs rise behind him, Uchiha Haruki's eyes narrowed.

"So they really do all have explosive tags."

As soon as he spoke, more spider puppets began leaping toward him.

Haruki didn't dare take them head-on—he quickly retreated.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Several more explosions rang out in quick succession.

From a cloud of smoke, Haruki dashed out at full speed, dozens of spider puppets—big and small—chasing after him like a swarm.

At that moment, Haruki wished more than anything that he'd already learned Wind Style: Great Breakthrough. One good gust and he could scatter these spiders like dust.

Unfortunately, although he had obtained that jutsu, he hadn't trained with it yet.

It wasn't for lack of wanting to. The problem was, he had yet to fully master the form and nature transformation of Fire Release chakra. Jumping into Wind Release now would only slow his progress and waste extra chakra.

Even with his Proficiency Panel, force-learning Wind techniques at this point would only drain him unnecessarily. It just wasn't worth it.

But after this battle? Haruki resolved to invest more chakra into Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu and speed up his mastery of Fire Release chakra control.

Once that was done, he could finally begin developing Wind Release—and if something like this happened again, he wouldn't be so passive.

As he thought about this, Haruki leapt aside once more, dodging another sneak attack from several spider puppets.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The now-familiar sound of explosions followed, but once again, none managed to harm him.

In fact, with time, Haruki had begun to notice these spider puppets' weaknesses.

The deadliest flaw? They couldn't spread out too far.

Haruki realized it must be a shortcut trick that Chiya had used to control so many at once.

Yes, a shortcut.

Haruki could now tell that Chiya wasn't directly controlling all the puppets. Instead, he was using indirect control—managing a few core puppets, and letting the rest follow them.

That meant most of the spider puppets had to stay clustered around the core units, which made it impossible to effectively surround Haruki.

And if they could only chase him or self-destruct individually, Haruki wasn't too worried.

There were only so many of them—once they were gone, it'd be his turn to go on the offensive.

To speed that process up, Haruki fired off Phoenix Fire Jutsu periodically while dodging.

While it wasn't strong enough against giant puppets, against these crudely made spider models, it was more than enough.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!"

Over a hundred flame bullets, each the size of a clenched fist, rained down on the puppets.

Unfortunately, the spiders were tiny and agile—most of the fireballs missed, but about ten struck home.

That was still plenty.

A string of explosions followed, and those targeted puppets were instantly destroyed.

Just like that, Haruki began whittling down their numbers.

A few minutes later, not a single spider puppet remained on the battlefield.

Chiya stepped out from behind a tree, face grim. He looked like he wanted to say something.

But before a single word left his mouth, Haruki's expression shifted.

He vanished in a blur—appearing directly in front of Chiya, short sword flashing as he slashed at the man's neck.

Chiya had never expected such a silent, sudden strike.

He scrambled to raise his kunai in defense.

CLANG!

Steel met steel with a sharp ring.

Haruki pressed in, forcing Chiya backward. But he didn't let up.

With fluid transitions between Leaf-Style Kenjutsu and Uchiha-Style Swordsmanship, and his Sharingan pushed to its limit, it took less than ten breaths for Haruki to land a devastating blow—a deep gash, nearly down to the bone.

But as the wound opened, Chiya's figure suddenly unraveled into a puff of chakra smoke, dispersing into nothing.

Obviously, it had only been a Shadow Clone.

Haruki's face darkened slightly, though he wasn't surprised.

Because from the moment Chiya had appeared, Haruki had noticed something was off—specifically, the amount of chakra in his body.

While the Sharingan couldn't see chakra pathways like the Byakugan, it could still sense chakra volume to some degree.

And compared to earlier, Chiya had far less chakra now.

Thanks to his Chakra Absorption Jutsu, Haruki always kept a close watch on an enemy's chakra.

He clearly remembered—not long ago, Chiya still had a decent reserve.

But after finishing off the last few spider puppets, Haruki noticed his opponent's chakra had suddenly dropped by half.

That left only two possibilities:

Either Chiya had used a massive, chakra-draining jutsu—

—or he'd used Shadow Clone Jutsu, which splits chakra evenly between the original and clone.

Since there'd been no massive blast, no deadly aura—Haruki quickly ruled out the first option.

That left one conclusion: Shadow Clone.

Which was why Haruki had attacked so decisively—to test that very theory.

If he was wrong, fine—he'd just capture him. If he was right, then he'd need to immediately track down the real body.

As it turned out—he'd been right.

Now came the next step—locate the real Chiya.

Haruki had come too far to let him escape.

He reviewed every detail of their last clash, retracing the battle, narrowing down the moment and place Chiya had slipped away and replaced himself.

A few breaths later, Haruki stopped behind a large tree—not the one where the clone had been, but another nearby.

This, he remembered, was where Chiya had briefly left his line of sight.

After a thorough inspection, Haruki found a few telltale clues.

Once he confirmed the direction Chiya had gone, he didn't hesitate—he gave chase.

Time passed.

After more than half an hour of tracking, Haruki finally caught up to Chiya—blocking his path deep within the forest.

"You just won't give up, will you?!"

Chiya's face twisted with frustration as he saw Haruki appear yet again.

When he'd merged with the clone's memories, he'd realized Haruki had uncovered his deception and would definitely pursue him.

But what he hadn't expected—was for Haruki to catch up this quickly, even though he'd taken every precaution.

Clearly, he had underestimated the perceptive power of the Sharingan.

Once Haruki had the direction, there was no escaping.

With his experience and those eyes—he couldn't lose the trail.

Haruki didn't waste time with words. This battle had dragged on long enough.

He activated Body Flicker Jutsu, instantly arriving in front of Chiya.

The fight erupted.

As a puppeteer, Chiya's combat style revolved around puppet manipulation.

But without his puppets, he was like a tiger without fangs or claws.

Still fearsome, perhaps—but unable to inflict real harm.

So it didn't take much for Haruki to take him down.

Looking at the unconscious Chiya lying on the ground, Haruki thought for a moment. Then, he used Chakra Absorption Jutsu to drain all the chakra from his body.

After carefully cleaning up the surrounding area to cover his tracks, Haruki hoisted Chiya over his shoulder…

…and headed toward the underground chamber.