Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Clap, clap, clap—

A burst of applause rang out.

Uchiha Haruki turned his head toward the sound and saw a figure appear in the distance. In the next moment, the figure flickered and reappeared right in front of him.

"Uncle!"

Upon recognizing the newcomer, Haruki gave a slight bow of respect.

The young man was Uchiha Feika, eighteen years old, a rising star within the Uchiha clan who had already awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan. He was one of the clan's most talked-about geniuses in recent years.

Unfortunately, Haruki, who retained memories from a previous life, had never heard of this name. That meant Feika had either died during the upcoming ninja world war, perished during a mission, or perhaps fallen to Itachi's blade and ended up a nameless corpse.

Unaware of Haruki's mental sarcasm, Uchiha Feika simply nodded, swept his eyes across the surroundings, and commented casually, "Your Great Fireball Technique is not bad."

Before Haruki could respond, Feika reached into his robe and tossed him a scroll.

"Here. The Shadow Clone Technique you applied for. Remember—don't share it with anyone else."

That's right. In addition to Phoenix Fire Technique, Dragon Fire Technique, Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes, and Body Flicker Technique, Haruki also planned to learn the Shadow Clone Technique.

Within the Uchiha clan, any newly graduated genin could apply for one jutsu—ninjutsu, genjutsu, or taijutsu—as a clan benefit.

Haruki had never claimed this benefit since his graduation. But with deployment to the battlefield imminent and an uncertain return date, it made sense to finally collect it.

Besides, he genuinely wanted to learn this jutsu.

As skill levels increased, each technique required more proficiency to improve. Managing that alone was becoming difficult.

Shadow Clones, being solid physical entities, could perfectly share their experience and memories with the original body—making them ideal for grinding skill proficiency.

The only unknown was how efficient they would be.

Haruki took the scroll, flipped through it quickly, and after confirming its contents were accurate, he thanked Uchiha Feika politely.

Feika waved dismissively, then vanished after a few quick flickers of movement.

Haruki sat down cross-legged, carefully studying the scroll in his hand. Only after confirming Feika had truly left did he tuck the scroll away.

He wasn't being paranoid—he simply had too many secrets. Any one of them being exposed could bring endless trouble.

Haruki just wanted to quietly grind his progress—not get dragged into any unnecessary drama.

That's exactly why, the moment he sensed someone approaching earlier, he had instantly launched the Great Fireball Technique, obliterating all traces of his training ground.

After all, there was a stark difference between jutsu cast with and without Sharingan assistance.

For example, while an ordinary Uchiha could perform the Phoenix Fire Technique without the Sharingan, their level of control would never compare to Haruki's.

This subtle difference might go unnoticed by outsiders—but an experienced Uchiha, especially one with activated eyes, would see through it instantly.

That kind of exposure could easily give away the fact that his Sharingan had already awakened.

Haruki wasn't willing to gamble on whether the visitor was an Uchiha—or whether they could detect the truth.

So he incinerated everything.

Not just his training marks—even when going outside, Haruki never let his chakra reserves exceed 2,000 points.

He knew that Sharingan, Byakugan, and sensory-type ninjas could all gauge another ninja's chakra reserves to estimate strength.

2,000 chakra points was a safe threshold.

Any less, and he'd be vulnerable in a crisis.

Any more, and he might attract unwanted attention.

Though Haruki doubted anyone would specifically target a low-profile genin like himself, he wasn't going to take chances.

Anyway, since grinding proficiency required tons of chakra, it was easy for him to keep his reserves suppressed.

The only thing left to consider now was—when he marched to the Rain Country in a few days, should he continue holding back?

That journey was almost guaranteed to be dangerous.

Inside the borders of the Fire Country, enemy ninja probably wouldn't dare attack too openly. But once they crossed into the Rain Country, anything could happen.

If he were to fall into a trap with low chakra reserves, the consequences could be... fatal.

After a few moments of silent contemplation, Haruki sighed softly to himself.

"Sigh... Hopefully there'll be more people in the deployment squad. Otherwise, this really might be tough."

With that, he put the matter aside and resumed training the Body Flicker Technique.

As his go-to escape method, he had to raise its proficiency before heading into real combat.

Just like that, three days passed.

Early morning.

Haruki was fully dressed in his gear—ninja pouch strapped, forehead protector secured, backpack slung over his shoulders—as he stepped out of his home.

He walked through the village streets and alleys, heading toward the gathering point.

Along the way, he spotted several other young ninja dressed similarly, carrying gear as they moved in the direction of Konoha's main gate.

That's right—today was departure day.

They were scheduled to first assemble at the village gate, confirm headcount, and then set off together toward the Rain Country battlefield.

A few minutes later, Haruki arrived.

By now, a sizeable crowd had gathered.

Dozens of carts were lined up, filled to the brim—some loaded with food, others with ninja gear and supplies.

All of it was to be escorted to the frontlines.

Whether in his past life or this one, Haruki understood that wars were ultimately won or lost on logistics. If your supply chain faltered, you couldn't win.

Because of this, their squad of rookies wasn't the only group traveling. Several jonin from major clans were also present to escort them.

That eased Haruki's nerves a bit.

After all, with his chakra restricted to 2,000 points, he couldn't fight at full strength.

That's right—he'd decided to maintain his usual low-chakra state.

He didn't believe he'd be so unlucky as to encounter an enemy so dangerous that even 2,000 points wouldn't be enough.

And if he did—he'd run.

"Haruki, over here!"

As Haruki scanned the crowd, he heard Ryosuke calling out.

Looking over, he spotted Ryosuke and Furuhara standing by a supply cart, waving to him.

Haruki quickly walked over.

Before Ryosuke could say anything, Furuhara spoke first: "How's your Body Flicker training coming along?"

That's right—Haruki had learned the technique from Furuhara.

His parents hadn't left behind this particular jutsu, and Haruki didn't want to waste his clan request on a mere D-rank technique.

So, he'd asked Furuhara instead.

As the team's leading jonin, it was Furuhara's duty to instruct the genin under him. So when Haruki requested to learn the technique, Furuhara hadn't hesitated.

Technically, this jutsu was usually reserved for chunin—but having seen Haruki cast C-rank Great Fireball Jutsu, Furuhara knew a D-rank technique wouldn't be a problem for him.

So he didn't hold it back.

Now that a few days had passed, and Furuhara asked about it again—

Haruki quickly glanced at his skill panel.

"Body Flicker Technique: Lv1 (10/200)" → "Lv2 (15/500)"

At that proficiency, he could now activate it in less than a second.

But keeping with his usual low-profile nature, Haruki simply replied:

"I've learned it."

"Oh?"Furuhara raised an eyebrow, neither confirming nor denying anything.