Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

After disengaging from the battle, Uchiha Haruki retraced his steps, and within minutes, he had rejoined the main force.

At this moment, the main unit had already stopped advancing. Several jonin, including Shisui Nara, were huddled together, seemingly in the middle of a strategy discussion.

As soon as they saw Haruki return, before he could even speak, Shisui Nara took the initiative and asked, "Haruki, what exactly is the situation on your side?"

After all, the information that could be transmitted through the whistle was extremely limited. Haruki had been under the watchful eyes of dozens of Iwa shinobi at the time and hadn't dared to signal for long. The only message he managed to send was a few simple words: "Ambush ahead!"

Because of that, Shisui and the others only knew there was an ambush in Haruki's direction—but not the number of enemies or their strength. They had no choice but to hold position until they had more intel.

Now that Haruki had returned, they immediately began asking for a detailed report.

Without wasting time, Haruki quickly explained that there were twenty enemy shinobi in the vanguard, and many more behind them.

As his words sank in, Shisui and the other jonin didn't look pleased.

Haruki swept his eyes across the gathered jonin and instantly spotted a few other members of the combat unit, deepening the bad feeling in his chest.

He didn't hesitate. "What's the situation on your sides?"

A member of the combat unit shook his head and replied grimly, "Not good. Basically every direction has enemies."

The meaning was clear—they were surrounded.

"No wonder those Iwa shinobi didn't care whether I signaled or not. Turns out they were so confident because we were already encircled."

In that moment, all of Haruki's earlier doubts vanished.

And once again, his bad feeling had proven accurate. The situation was definitely not looking good.

But judging from the expressions of Shisui and the others, things hadn't yet reached a hopeless stage.

That was indeed the case.

After some intel-sharing, Haruki learned that—excluding the Iwa shinobi he'd encountered—there were enemy forces spotted in multiple directions, plus those chasing from the rear. Altogether, the number of enemies was around four hundred.

Even if the area Haruki had scouted held a hundred more Iwa shinobi, the total enemy count would be no more than five hundred.

As for their side?

Despite losing some people in the brutal battle half an hour ago, they still had 382 ninja remaining.

That meant they were outnumbered by only about 1.5 to 1. And when taking into account the difference in average combat power, Konoha still held a decent advantage.

This was why Shisui and the other jonin weren't panicking.

Still, they couldn't afford to be entangled with these Iwa forces for too long. These five hundred enemies were likely only the first wave of reinforcements. More would surely come.

Some of Iwagakure's strongholds were quite far from here. Even if they had mobilized quickly, it would still take time for further reinforcements to arrive.

That meant their best option was to break through immediately.

This was the consensus reached among the jonin.

After a round of tactical discussion, the group unanimously decided to break out toward the southeast, where the Iwa shinobi presence was lightest and the odds of success were highest.

With the decision made, they wasted no time and immediately set the group in motion.

This time, it wasn't the combat unit—including Haruki—leading the way. Instead, several elite jonin from the Hyuga clan stepped forward.

Given the current situation, shinobi with the Byakugan were undoubtedly the best pathfinders. Their vision could help the entire group avoid unnecessary combat.

Time ticked by, minute by minute.

Half an hour later.

Several of the Hyuga elite jonin, who had been scouting at the front of the formation, came to a sudden stop.

"What is it? Is there a problem?" Haruki asked one of the nearby Hyuga shinobi.

"There's no path forward," replied Hyuga Rinka.

"No path?" Haruki frowned. "What do you mean?"

"All the routes ahead have been blocked by Iwa forces. It looks like they've figured out our intent and are conducting a net-style sweep. There's no way we can bypass them."

As he spoke, Hyuga Rinka continued to observe the front lines using the Byakugan's x-ray-like vision.

Soon after, Shisui Nara received the same report. Once it was confirmed that there was no way to avoid detection, he decisively issued a new order—charge forward in one direction.

After all, there weren't too many Iwa shinobi directly ahead. If they could push through, it would force the enemy to redeploy their encirclement. That alone would delay reinforcements—mission accomplished.

At this moment, the Iwa forces up ahead were still unaware that Haruki and the others had already launched their charge.

By the time they realized something was wrong, Haruki and the others were already right in front of them.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

Haruki was the first to act. With a powerful burst of wind-style ninjutsu, he forced all the hidden Iwa shinobi out of cover.

Then a middle-aged jonin stepped forward, rapidly forming hand seals. With a deep inhale, he spat out a torrent of water.

As the water hit the ground, it surged forward in a giant wave, rushing toward the enemy and transforming the landscape into a shallow lake.

This was no ordinary move—it was a B-rank Water Release jutsu: Exploding Water Shockwave, a high-level technique capable of altering terrain.

Seeing the incoming wave, the Iwa shinobi quickly began retreating.

Only one stepped up to counter. Forming the Snake–Hare–Dog hand seals, he slammed his palms to the ground.

"Earth Style: Earth-Style Wall!"

A towering wall of rock, over ten meters tall, rose abruptly in front of the Iwa formation.

The crashing wave struck the stone barrier and bounced back. Then a second wave crashed in, pushing the water against the wall again. Over and over, the water surged and rebounded, shaking the ground—but unable to shatter the wall.

After a few seconds, the middle-aged jonin ended his technique.

Seeing this, the Iwa shinobi standing on the wall finally breathed a sigh of relief. They had been genuinely afraid the Konoha jonin might keep attacking and break through.

"Still… it's a good thing it's Jonin Nogawa holding the line," many of them thought. "If it had been someone else, they might not have blocked that attack."

Nogawa himself didn't appear the least bit relaxed.

He stared seriously at the Konoha forces standing on the lake below. He clearly understood—this wasn't over. As long as the Konoha shinobi wanted to escape, they would keep trying to break through.

Sure enough, a loud crackling sound rang out.

A streak of lightning shot out from within the Konoha ranks, like a spear piercing through the air. It slammed directly into the earth wall.

Everyone knew—Lightning Release counters Earth Release.

The move, Lightning Style: Thunder Spear, instantly split the wall with several meter-long cracks.

Right on its heels, two massive elemental dragons—one of water and one of fire—burst from the Konoha formation, diving toward the wall and the Iwa shinobi standing on it.

"Scatter!!"

The Iwa jonin maintaining the Earth-Style Wall shouted the moment he saw the incoming attacks.

He himself leapt backward at once.

But just then—a pair of blood-red Sharingan filled his vision, dominating his field of view.

"No! Sharingan genjutsu!"

He immediately realized what was happening and tried to form hand seals to dispel it. But before he could react, his consciousness was pulled into a powerful illusion.

From atop the lake, Haruki lowered his hands.

Staring at the Iwa jonin who had just been crushed by the Water Dragon Bullet, he muttered, "No wonder it's a level 6 genjutsu—this thing's absolutely brutal."

That's right. Just now, Haruki had used his Genjutsu: Sharingan at level 6.

When prepared in advance, this technique was incredibly overbearing.

Even from this distance, he'd managed to pull a real, full-fledged jonin into a genjutsu without resistance.

The fact that someone of that level had been instantly disabled said everything. Most others wouldn't fare any better.

The only downside was the technique required a few seconds of preparation to reach full effectiveness.

And in a true battle between equally matched shinobi, such a window of opportunity was rare.

Shaking his head, Haruki stopped thinking about it and refocused his attention on the battlefield.