Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

"Zzzzz—Haruki, get ready to intercept. It's heading your way!"

Ryousuke's voice came through the earpiece.

Haruki tapped his comms and replied, "Got it. I've got eyes on it."

Perched on a tree branch, Haruki stared at the massive wild boar charging recklessly through the forest. With a flick of his wrist, he hurled a kunai.

The kunai sliced through the air like a bullet, hitting the boar directly in its left eye with deadly precision.

Blood poured down the side of its face as it let out a thunderous, pained howl.

ROOOAAR!

You had to admit—the wildlife in the shinobi world was insane. Size was one thing, but their vitality was even more ridiculous.

Even now, with an eye pierced and brain likely injured, the boar was still rampaging like nothing had happened.

"But this is where it ends," Haruki muttered.

He raised his right hand and activated the explosive tag tied to the kunai.

BOOM!

A violent explosion erupted.

A red blaze engulfed the beast, searing its body and sending it into a frenzy. It crashed into nearby trees in blind agony, even slamming into the tree Haruki was hiding on.

Haruki had no choice but to leap to another hiding spot.

Seconds later, the flames died down, and the boar collapsed—still, silent, and seemingly lifeless.

Haruki didn't let his guard down.

Instead of approaching, he drew another kunai and threw it like a lightning bolt—this time striking the boar's other eye.

Squelch—

The blade sank deep.

Suddenly, the boar shot up again, letting out a tortured scream as it toppled several trees, before finally collapsing once more.

Haruki watched the beast's chest—now no longer rising and falling—and scoffed coldly, "Hmph, a beast is still just a beast. No matter how cunning, it's not fooling me."

Sure, the boar had tried to play dead. But the rhythmic rise and fall of its chest gave it away easily.

Haruki had seen right through it.

Now though—it was really dead.

Rustle, rustle—

Two figures appeared: Ryousuke and Shizuko Mizutani.

"Haruki, that was a total waste," Ryousuke commented, eyeing the charred, blown-up head of the wild boar. "You know the Fireball Jutsu. Why use an explosive tag?"

To be fair, using an explosive tag to kill a wild boar wasn't cost-effective. Even with mission compensation, the math wouldn't work out well.

But Haruki had a reason: chakra conservation.

Sure, using the Fireball Jutsu would've helped increase its mastery level, but his current focus was elsewhere. If spending a little money saved chakra for more important training, he didn't consider it a waste.

At this point, a full week had passed since his unexpected encounter with Kakashi and the others.

In that week, aside from eating, sleeping, and doing missions, every second of his free time had gone into training.

Naturally, his progress had been impressive.

First, his mastery of the Three Basic Techniques had reached perfection—Lv3 across the board.

Whether it was the simplest Transformation Jutsu or the more complex Substitution Jutsu, Haruki could now perform them in under a second.

And that was a big deal.

Even many Chūnin weren't this skilled with those techniques.

Of course, that was where the comparison ended. These were basic E-rank jutsu, after all. For a Chūnin, maxing them out wasn't too difficult if they put in a little effort.

Second, his Basic Taijutsu had advanced from Lv2 to Lv3.

He had hoped that, like the leap from Lv1 to Lv2, this might raise his physique stat by another point—which would, in turn, boost his chakra capacity.

But he was disappointed.

Even at max level, Basic Taijutsu hadn't improved his physical attributes at all.

Thinking about it, that made sense. If it were really that easy to raise physique, there wouldn't be so many shinobi who spent their entire lives stuck at Genin.

Each single-point increase in physique was a transformation for a ninja.

A Genin who experienced just one or two such leaps in body strength would, if not guaranteed to become a Chūnin, at least have chakra reserves to match one.

So, it was perfectly reasonable that going from Lv2 to Lv3 in Basic Taijutsu wouldn't raise his stats. He'd need more advanced techniques for that.

Finally, there was the Shadow of the Heart Technique.

Over the past seven days, its mastery had increased by 125 points, rising from Lv2 (260/500) to Lv2 (385/500).

As a result, his Sharingan awakening progress had nudged forward too—from (85/100) to (87/100).

As expected, the rate of progress hadn't slowed.

All he needed now was to get Shadow of the Heart to Lv3, and if its effects improved significantly, he might awaken his Sharingan before the Chūnin Exams ended.

Otherwise... he'd be heading to the battlefield without it.

Yes—Haruki had already received the news: their graduating class would be sent to the front lines alongside the newly promoted Chūnin after the exams concluded.

That was exactly why Haruki now valued every drop of chakra like gold.

He'd even shelved his plan to learn Body Flicker for the time being.

From now on, aside from necessary mission use, every bit of chakra he had would go into mastering Shadow of the Heart.

Without the Sharingan as a trump card, he felt dangerously exposed.

As these thoughts passed through his mind, Haruki turned to Ryousuke and Shizuko.

"This forest is full of beasts, and we've got a lot to do. Wasting a few explosive tags is nothing."

Their current mission was to clear out all wild animals within a ten-kilometer radius.

They were required to kill at least a third of them.

With so many targets, going the conventional route would drain chakra fast and drag the mission out.

Haruki wasn't willing to spend days on it. If spending extra ryo meant completing the job quickly, so be it.

Before Ryousuke could reply, Haruki stepped forward, pulled his kunai from the boar's corpse, wiped it clean, and said, "I'm heading to Sector Two. You two drive the beasts this way."

And with that, he vanished into the forest.

Ryousuke watched him go, then turned to Shizuko.

"Hey, Shizuko... do you feel like Haruki's been kind of... agitated lately?"

"Yeah." She nodded. She'd noticed it earlier, but hadn't said anything.

"You know why?"

"Maybe it's because of the Chūnin Exams," she replied.

Ryousuke blinked. "The exams? What do those have to do with us? We're not even taking them."

Shizuko hesitated, glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, then leaned in and lowered her voice.

"I heard from my dad—he's a Jōnin—that after the Chūnin Exams, the village plans to send our entire graduating class to the front lines alongside the newly promoted Chūnin."

"WHAT?!" Ryousuke shouted, stunned.

He hated boring D-rank missions as much as the next Genin, but he wasn't exactly eager to charge into the chaos of war either.

"Shhh!" Shizuko raised a finger to her lips. "Keep it down. My dad told me not to spread this around. Don't go blabbing."

"O-Okay," Ryousuke nodded quickly. "I won't tell anyone."

Truthfully, they were overthinking it. Even if word got out, it wouldn't matter.

The decision was already final.

While the news was only circulating among Jōnin and the major clans for now, it wouldn't be long before everyone knew. There was no secrecy left to protect.

"Alright, Ryousuke," Shizuko said after a pause. "Let's go."

"Right," he nodded, shaking himself from the shock. "Let's move."

And the two of them set off together toward Sector Three.