Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

"You're back."

Upon seeing Uchiha Haruki return, Uchiha Shisui immediately put down what he was doing and walked over.

"Yeah."

Haruki nodded, ignoring Shisui's subtly inquisitive gaze. He went straight to the point:

"What's the situation now?"

Hearing the question, Shisui temporarily set aside his curiosity, his face turning serious.

"Not great. Everyone is injured. We're in no condition to continue traveling."

"Injured..."

Haruki murmured under his breath.

He opened his system panel and quickly scanned his medical jutsu:

Healing Technique: Lv5 (0/0)

Mystic Palm Technique: Lv7 (19490/20000)

Chakra Scalpel: Lv5 (1200/5000)

With just these three medical techniques, Haruki could treat the vast majority of external wounds.

And fortunately, most of the injuries sustained by the Konoha shinobi were caused by ninja tools, making them entirely treatable.

Some injuries caused by ninjutsu might be harder to fully heal—but that wasn't necessary.

All he needed was to stabilize the wounds so that everyone could keep moving.

With that thought, Haruki closed the panel and walked over to one of the wounded Konoha ninjas.

Seeing him approach, the injured chūnin weakly greeted him:

"Captain…"

"Mm."

Haruki nodded, carefully examining his injuries.

"Relax. Don't move."

As he spoke, Haruki formed hand seals and activated the Chakra Scalpel.

A thin layer of chakra enveloped his right hand, and a small chakra blade extended a few inches from his fingertips.

Swish, swish—

With precision enhanced by his Sharingan's insight, Haruki swiftly cut away the necrotic tissue from the chūnin's wounds.

Then he formed another set of hand seals, activating the Mystic Palm Technique, channeling Yang Release chakra into one of the deeper wounds.

A warm, tingling sensation spread.

The chūnin involuntarily twitched in response but quickly remembered Haruki's instructions and forced himself to stay still.

Seeing this, Haruki nodded with approval and continued injecting more bursts of healing chakra into the remaining injuries.

Within minutes, the treatment was mostly complete.

Now, it was just a matter of letting time and rest do the rest.

Without wasting another moment, Haruki stood and moved to the next injured ninja.

Seeing this, Uchiha Shisui quickly caught up, asking curiously:

"Haruki, that technique you just used was Mystic Palm, right? Why does it seem different from the usual version?"

"The original Mystic Palm was too slow. This is a version I improved."

Haruki replied calmly.

"You modified it yourself?"

Shisui repeated in awe, then said with admiration:

"That's incredible…"

"It's nothing much. Just consumes more chakra than normal."

As he said this, Haruki paused slightly, then turned toward Shisui with a serious expression.

"Prepare yourself."

"Prepare for what?"

Shisui looked confused.

Haruki glanced at his abdomen with his Sharingan, then replied:

"If I'm going to treat everyone, I might not have enough chakra. I'll need you to lend me some."

"My chakra?"

Shisui was momentarily stunned. Then he remembered seeing Haruki absorb chakra from enemy Mist ninja during the previous battle.

Clearly, Haruki had mastered a technique that could extract chakra from others—and now, he was going to use it on him.

But rather than fear, Shisui was glad he could help.

"No problem," Shisui nodded earnestly.

"I'll refine as much chakra as I can."

Haruki didn't hear even a hint of reluctance in his tone. He gave Shisui a thoughtful look, then nodded inwardly.

"This kind of selfless mindset... truly embodies the Will of Fire."

Though Haruki didn't particularly care for the ideology of the Will of Fire, he couldn't help but admire those who lived it out.

He withdrew his thoughts and resumed treatment on the second injured ninja.

As for Shisui, once he agreed to provide chakra, he immediately sat cross-legged to the side and began pushing his body to the limit, refining chakra at full speed.

Time ticked by.

Nearly an hour later, thanks to Haruki and Shisui's combined efforts, the surviving twenty-plus Konoha ninjas had all received effective treatment.

Although their injuries weren't fully healed, they were now well enough to move and fight if needed.

Soon, the group was back on their feet, ready to travel again—with Haruki and Shisui leading the way toward their target destination.

This wasn't because Haruki was eager to return to battle.

The truth was—this place was no longer safe.

Although they had killed the majority of the attacking Mist ninja and the rest had fled, that didn't mean the enemy wouldn't launch a surprise return attack.

That alone wouldn't worry Haruki—given how few enemies were left, he wasn't intimidated.

But the real risk came if the enemy called for reinforcements.

If they gathered a new force and launched another assault, that would be truly dangerous.

The chances were slim—but Haruki wasn't the type to take unnecessary risks.

Better safe than sorry.

Then there was the issue of Danzo...

Even though Haruki had already eliminated Aburame Ryoma's squad, and even confirmed from Ryoma's memories that no other Root teams were involved in this mission—

In theory, Danzo wouldn't find out about this incident for at least a couple of days.

But again—Haruki wasn't the gambling type.

If you don't gamble, you don't lose.

So long as the team had the ability to move, it was best to leave immediately.

That way, even if the enemy had some backup plan, they'd be in a better position to react.

That was why Haruki had gone through the trouble of exhausting his chakra to treat the Konoha shinobi.

Unfortunately, despite all that practice, his Mystic Palm Technique still hadn't leveled up—stuck at Lv7, just shy of the upgrade to Lv8.

If he had hit Lv8, his body would've undergone a major transformation.

Still—it was close.

Once they reached their destination, Haruki estimated that within a day or so, his Mystic Palm would finally reach Lv8.

At that level, the technique's physical enhancement effects would far surpass those of Lv7.

At that point, Haruki's body would begin its next evolution, accumulating deeper foundations within a week.

When that happened, his Constitution stat would increase—improving not just his physical potential, but more importantly, his body's tolerance for stress.

The former was nice, but unnecessary for now—his body's potential hadn't even been fully tapped yet.

But the latter—

Improved physical resilience would mean he could use the Mangekyō Sharingan with less risk.

If his body could better handle the strain, then the curse of blindness from overusing the Mangekyō could be delayed significantly.

And that, for Haruki, would be a massive advantage.

Of course, that was all speculation for now. He'd have to see how things went once his stats actually improved.

Shaking his head slightly, Haruki pushed those thoughts aside and continued leading the team forward.