Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Time passed quietly. In the blink of an eye, a week had gone by.

During that week, Uchiha Haruki gradually became familiar with the Forward Operating Base, and soon after, began leading his team to carry out missions in the surrounding seas.

At first, he thought he would quickly run into Mist ninja again.

After all, the situation in the region wasn't exactly peaceful. Otherwise, they wouldn't have needed to transfer reinforcements from the battlefield in the Land of Rain.

But to Haruki's surprise, several days passed and not even the shadow of a Mist ninja could be seen—as if all of them had suddenly gone into hiding.

On closer thought, it did seem possible.

Thanks to Danzo leaking intel, their support squad had walked into an ambush. Although their side suffered heavy losses, the Mist side had paid a steep price as well.

They had lost a significant number of elite shinobi, and even Kirigakure would need time to recover from that.

Especially with the deaths of Kurotsuchi Raiga and Jūzō Biwa, two of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, the village had lost some of its top combat power.

Given that, it was understandable that they would lay low for now.

And Haruki was more than happy with the situation.

"Retreat!"

Land of Waves – Southeastern Sea Region

On a small boat, Haruki looked at the setting sun on the horizon and gave the order.

Hearing this, several Konoha shinobi responded in unison and began maneuvering the boat back toward the Forward Base.

As they neared the coastline, Haruki jumped off the boat. Chakra surged to the soles of his feet, allowing him to land steadily on the surface of the water.

He turned to look at the team, his gaze falling on a young Uchiha shinobi, around fourteen or fifteen years old, with a black mole between his brows.

"Ironfire, I'll leave the mission report to you."

"Again?" Uchiha Ironfire responded with mild annoyance.

Haruki chuckled and said, "Thanks for taking care of it!"

With that, he turned and sped toward a distant, blurry reef.

Seeing this, Ironfire called out from behind, "Don't forget about the challenge three days from now!"

Haruki didn't stop. He simply raised his right hand behind him in acknowledgment as he kept moving forward.

"Captain's off to train again… He's really intense."

On the boat, a Konoha shinobi muttered as he watched Haruki's back.

"Yeah," another agreed. "The patrol missions alone are exhausting, but he trains every day after missions too. I don't know how he keeps it up."

"That's not even all," a third shinobi chimed in. "Didn't you notice? Captain's been training a jutsu even while on missions."

"No kidding! Of course we saw it," the first shinobi snapped. He sighed. "That's why I say our captain is a monster. With training that intense, I sure couldn't keep up."

"Heh, of course you can't!"

Uchiha Ironfire, hearing their conversation, responded with a bit of pride, "He's one of the two geniuses of our Uchiha clan. How can normal people compete with that?"

Ironfire hadn't been too happy with Haruki's appointment at first, seeing him as someone who parachuted into leadership. But after getting beaten up once by Haruki, he quickly fell in line.

After a few more exchanges, he even became something of a die-hard fan.

Haruki didn't mind it at all. In fact, he used the opportunity to offload all the team's trivial affairs to Ironfire.

Of course, that came at a small price—like the "challenge" Ironfire had just mentioned.

But in truth, the "challenge" was more of a training session where Haruki guided him.

The frequency wasn't too bad either—once every three or four days. It didn't take much effort, so Haruki went along with it.

At the Offshore Reef

Haruki arrived and scanned the area. Sensing no abnormalities, he crossed his fingers into the Ram seal and performed the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

Puff! Puff! Puff!

With a burst of chakra smoke, six shadow clones appeared.

Without needing instructions, they each scattered to different directions and began training in specific techniques according to plan.

At the moment, Haruki's swordsmanship was already perfected, so it no longer needed practice.

Instead, he had the clone that used to train swordsmanship now begin practicing Illusory Sword Technique.

Unlike the Instant Sword Technique, practicing Illusory Sword didn't require a chakra-conducting weapon. It focused more on the synergy between Sharingan Genjutsu and swordsmanship.

However, because of this, it also consumed much more chakra than ordinary sword training.

To manage this, Haruki allocated a portion of his daily chakra reserve toward training the Illusory Sword Technique.

Fortunately, the consumption wasn't too severe. With over 60,000 chakra points at his disposal, it would last quite a while.

Essentially, as long as he took half a day to rest every now and then to recover, the loss could be replenished efficiently.

This was how he maintained his chakra levels during training. Although it slightly slowed his progress, it was a manageable tradeoff.

Plus, it gave him some breathing room.

Balance between work and rest was the key.

Haruki naturally wouldn't keep himself constantly wound tight.

Time flew, and soon it was night.

After completing their assigned tasks, the shadow clones dispersed. Haruki absorbed all the experience and memories, then returned to the Forward Base.

Under the moonlight, he stepped into the small courtyard.

Suddenly, he paused mid-step. His Sharingan activated instantly, gaze shifting to a corner of the yard.

"Meow~"

A cat's cry echoed.

Haruki's eyes narrowed, and he walked over. There, he saw a large black cat grooming its paw.

When the cat noticed Haruki approaching, it didn't run. Instead, it looked up and gave him a long, thoughtful stare.

Its eyes didn't hold the usual cluelessness of an ordinary cat. Instead, they carried a human-like intelligence.

Its gaze lingered briefly on Haruki's Sharingan before it finally spoke:

"Are you Uchiha Haruki?"

That's right—it spoke.

Clearly, this was no ordinary cat. It was a ninja cat.

Haruki nodded. "That's me."

With the confirmation, the black cat relaxed and spoke again, tone slightly annoyed:

"Where have you been? Why are you just getting back now? I've been waiting forever."

Haruki ignored the complaint and got straight to the point. "You've got something for me?"

The cat stuck out its tongue and spat out a small scroll. "We found the person you were looking for. Granny told me to give this to you."

"Granny Cat, huh…"

Haruki muttered, instantly recalling the request he had made to Elder Hosen before he left.

It seemed the leader of the Land of Craftsmen had finally been located.

And the Kusanagi Sword he'd been longing for… might finally be within reach.

With that thought, Haruki picked up the note. As expected, it had an address written on it.

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