Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Five days later.Morning.

Standing in front of a full-length mirror, Uchiha Haruki brushed aside his bangs and tied the Konoha forehead protector around his head, straightening his clothes in the process.

In that moment, his entire demeanor subtly changed — he now exuded a faint air of seriousness and lethality.

Graduating from the Ninja Academy meant he had officially stepped onto the path of a true shinobi. From here on out, whether he lived or died would be entirely up to him.

After standing in silence for a moment, Haruki summoned his proficiency panel.

[Name: Uchiha Haruki][Age: 10][Constitution: 6][Spirit: 7][Chakra: 312 (622 → 862)][Bloodline: Sharingan · Not Awakened (52/100) → (57/100)]

[Skills:]

Chakra Refinement: lv2 (9/500) → lv2 (69/500)

Clone Technique: lv2 (1/500)

Transformation Technique: lv2 (1/500)

Substitution Technique: lv2 (1/500)

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique: lv0 (75/100) → lv1 (1/200)

Reflection Technique: lv1 (10/200) → lv1 (65/200)

Basic Taijutsu: lv2 (1/500)

Ninja Tool Throwing: lv2 (120/500)

Over the past five days, aside from spending a bit of chakra in the first two days to push Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique to entry-level — adding another trump card to his arsenal — Haruki had dedicated all remaining time and energy to practicing Reflection Technique.

After pouring in over 10,000 chakra points, the skill proficiency for Reflection Technique had increased by 55 points.

And accordingly, the Sharingan awakening progress had also advanced by 5 points.

Basically, for every 10 points of Reflection Technique proficiency gained, the Sharingan progress moved up by 1 point.

With this, Haruki finally understood why no one else in the Uchiha clan had ever managed to awaken their Sharingan using this technique.

Sure, he could advance the Sharingan by 1 point for every 10 uses of Reflection Technique, but that was because each time he used it, he was improving — thanks to the proficiency panel guiding his progress.

Other people didn't have that luxury. Without a panel to track precise improvement, accumulating 10 points of proficiency was no simple task — especially as the technique got harder the further you went.

And if Reflection Technique didn't hit a certain proficiency level, it wouldn't promote Sharingan awakening at all.

In other words, unless you were continuously refining your mastery of Reflection Technique, it wouldn't help awaken the Sharingan.

Haruki, of course, wouldn't slack off — he had exact progress data in front of him.

But other people?

They'd likely give up once they stopped seeing obvious progress.

Even for him — if his Sharingan progress had started at 70/100 instead of 52/100, and Reflection Technique at lv0 or lv1 didn't help anymore — even he would begin to doubt its usefulness.

Would most people really spend years, even a decade, mastering such a difficult and not-particularly-practical genjutsu?

And that's not even considering whether they had the talent — even if they did, it would be hard to persist in the absence of clear results.

What's more, Haruki had a feeling — the last few points of Sharingan progress might be even harder to attain.

That would only make people more likely to give up.

But Haruki wasn't worried.

With the proficiency panel by his side, as long as he had proof the method worked, he would stick with it to the very end.

Shaking off his thoughts, Haruki turned away from the mirror, locked the door, and headed straight for the Ninja Academy.

Ninja Academy

Inside a classroom.

Haruki sat in the last row, quietly watching the classmates in front of him — some familiar, others not. He silently speculated about who might be assigned to his team.

Tap tap tap—

Roughly half an hour later, a young instructor carrying a roster walked into the classroom.

It wasn't Sugi Itō, the instructor Haruki was familiar with, but someone else — a teacher from another class whose name, Haruki recalled, was Kyōbōno.

"Alright everyone, quiet down," Kyōbōno said, clapping his hands lightly with a gentle tone.

The room gradually settled.

Then, Kyōbōno began introducing himself. "I'm Kyōbōno. Some of you may know me, others may not — but that doesn't matter.

"First, congratulations. Starting today, you are officially shinobi."

Upon hearing that, the classroom that had just gone quiet suddenly erupted in excited chatter again.

Clap—Clap—Clap—

Kyōbōno clapped his hands again, signaling everyone to quiet down.

Once the room was silent again, he continued, "I'm sure your previous instructors already told you — today is the day of team assignments.

"In other words, you'll be grouped into teams of three, and each team will be assigned a squad leader — a veteran jōnin — to guide you and carry out missions together.

"From now on, your teammates will be your closest allies and most trusted companions."

Excited whispers broke out across the room. Some students chatted eagerly, some argued over who would team up with their best friend, while others sat nervously in anticipation. The room was buzzing.

Seeing this, Kyōbōno simply smiled and didn't stop them right away.

Several minutes passed. When he judged the time was right, he said, "Alright, save your chatter for later. Let's begin the team assignments."

Everyone fell silent, their eyes fixed nervously on Kyōbōno.

With a small smile, he picked up the roster in his hand and began reading aloud:

"Team 11: Kōta Nakajima, Hanako, Hiryu.Team 12: Sōta Kimura, Haru Yamanaka, Ichiro Kuroda.Team 13…"

One team after another was announced. Some students looked thrilled, others disappointed, but no one spoke out loud.

Before long, Haruki heard his name.

"Team 17: Uchiha Haruki, Shizuko Mizutani, Ryosuke.Team 18…"

Shizuko Mizutani… Ryosuke?

Haruki quickly scanned the room.

Soon, two distinct figures came into view — one male and one female. The boy looked energetic and outgoing. Haruki didn't know him personally, but his previous memories suggested they were in different classes.

The girl looked quiet and reserved. She had been in Haruki's class. Her father was a jōnin. Her physical strength was weak, but her theoretical knowledge was solid.

Since his Sharingan wasn't awakened yet, Haruki couldn't gauge their potential — but he doubted they were weak.

Even putting aside his status as a member of the Uchiha, just based on his top-tier exam scores, the higher-ups wouldn't have paired him with teammates who had no potential.

Even the team leader — a jōnin — wouldn't accept that kind of imbalance. If the skill gap between teammates was too wide, it would be too hard to manage the team.

As for so-called geniuses?

Come on. Konoha didn't produce a genius every single year.

In the grand scheme, prodigies were the minority. For most graduates, making it to chunin level was already a solid outcome.

So Haruki didn't expect to be teamed up with a genius. In fact, to him, teammates were just teammates.

The battlefield was dangerous. Who could say who would live or die?

Getting too emotionally attached would only bring unnecessary pain if something went wrong.

Since that was the case, it was better to treat things professionally.

In just a short moment, Haruki had already made up his mind.

By this point, Kyōbōno had finished reading the list, and every student in the room had their team assignment.

"Next, take some time to get to know your teammates. In a little while, your squad leaders will arrive — just follow them when they do," Kyōbōno said.

With that, he walked out of the classroom.

The moment he left, the room erupted with noise again as everyone scrambled to find their assigned teammates.