Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

The night wind rustled softly.

Uchiha Haruki stood face-to-face with the two Mist Jōnin, the air around them gradually becoming stifling. The oppressive atmosphere thickened, and it felt as though the very air had solidified—suffocating and heavy.

Unnoticed, the surrounding Chūnin had long since withdrawn from the battlefield.

Then, in a brief, almost symbolic moment—a single leaf drifted down and blocked Haruki's field of vision.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh—

In the very next instant, several kunai were hurled toward him by one of the Mist Jōnin. Some sealed off his path of retreat, while others aimed directly for his vital points.

His Sharingan spun rapidly.

In an instant, Haruki captured every projectile in his vision—and immediately noticed that three of the kunai were wrapped with explosive tags.

He didn't hesitate.

Haruki quickly pulled out several kunai of his own and launched them in return.

Clang clang clang—

A sharp metallic collision rang out as the kunai clashed mid-air, producing brilliant sparks and ricocheting off in different directions.

Immediately afterward—

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three searing fireballs exploded in the air, shattering the surrounding darkness with their crimson brilliance.

The sudden transition from darkness to blinding light, combined with the proximity of the blasts, forced Haruki to close his eyes momentarily.

"Now!"

At that very moment, the other Mist Jōnin let out a low shout and activated a technique he had been preparing in secret.

"Earth Release: Rising Earth Spear!"

In an instant, countless stone spikes burst out of the ground, like venomous snakes lunging from all directions, stabbing toward Haruki.

Sensing the danger, Haruki immediately leapt into evasive movement—but the sheer number of spikes was overwhelming.

To make matters worse, the Mist Jōnin had clearly anticipated this moment. His timing was perfect, and the stone spears were both fast and precise in their attack patterns.

It left Haruki momentarily off balance.

Rip!

A gash tore across his left arm, blood splattering from the cut as a stone spike grazed him.

Fortunately, that was the extent of the damage.

Regaining focus, Haruki's eyes snapped open once more.

With the incredible perception of the Sharingan, no matter how fast the stone spears moved, they could no longer touch him.

At that moment, Haruki became like a dancer on the edge of a blade—his every step and movement was fluid, precise, and elegant, dodging each incoming spike with supernatural grace.

Though the situation looked dire, his calm expression and confident gaze transformed the danger into something awe-inspiring.

From a distance, the Mist Jōnin who had launched the technique frowned deeply.

He had fought Uchiha clan Jōnin before.

The Sharingan had always been troublesome—but never had one seemed so untouchably refined and composed.

"Could it be… that his eyes are even stronger than those of veteran Uchiha Jōnin?"

The thought startled him—Wasabi, the Mist Jōnin, actually shivered at the possibility.

But the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.

After all, how else could Haruki have managed to kill Kaguya Morinosuke?

Even though he personally held little fondness for the lunatic clans like the Uchiha, he had no choice but to acknowledge Haruki's strength.

Looking back, during Haruki's battle with Morinosuke, he always seemed to evade the latter's Taijutsu attacks with absolute precision, using every moment to set up deadly counterattacks.

"Tch…"

Wasabi shuddered again.

Looking at Haruki, who showed no signs of chakra exhaustion despite all the fighting, Wasabi felt more and more that they had fallen into a trap.

But now it was too late for regrets—they had already committed.

They would have to fight to the end.

Steeling himself, Wasabi turned to his comrade and asked, "Are you ready?"

"Just finished!"

The other Mist Jōnin, Hayakawa Kaede, responded as he completed his final hand seal.

Then he spread his hands wide and slammed them into the ground.

In the next instant, a surge of violent chakra rushed from his body into the earth, connecting with the leylines below.

"HRAH!"

With a fierce cry, Hayakawa shouted in his mind: "Ninjutsu—Heaven and Earth Reversal!"

Suddenly, a ripple of invisible force burst outward from his position, extending rapidly across the battlefield.

Within moments, the entire area around Haruki—spanning dozens of meters—was covered in this strange field.

Immediately, Haruki felt an immense pressure rise from the ground beneath him, as if gravity had suddenly multiplied several times over.

"Ngh…"

Haruki grunted as his body felt sluggish and heavy, his movement significantly slowed.

But it didn't end there.

Cracks began to appear in the earth beneath him—first one, then two, then three...

Before long, the ground looked like a shattered mirror, crisscrossed with fractures of various sizes.

Haruki gritted his teeth and dodged left and right, narrowly avoiding the deepening fissures.

But that was just the beginning.

Once the cracks stopped spreading, they suddenly expanded rapidly, reaching a breaking point—and then, with a thunderous rumble, collapsed entirely.

In that instant, everything aboveground—plants, insects, animals, even people—was swallowed by the crumbling earth.

Then, in an even more terrifying twist, the broken ground fused together again, becoming solid and level, as though the entire field had reversed and reset.

It was as if the land had flipped upside down—a terrifying phenomenon.

This was the true power of the A-Rank Ninjutsu: Earth Release — Heaven and Earth Reversal.

Its technique first crushed the battlefield with intense pressure, limiting the enemy's movement.

Then, by shattering the ground and burying the enemy alive, it would smother them beneath the crushing weight of the soil.

Finally, it would reconstruct the terrain, leaving nothing behind.

Seeing the now-barren ground, Wasabi instantly used a Body Flicker and appeared in front of Hayakawa Kaede.

He asked quickly, "Did it work?"

"Hah... Hah..."

Hayakawa panted heavily, exhausted. "It should have. I could feel it—he was really buried under my jutsu."

Hearing this, Wasabi let out a subtle sigh of relief.

As Hayakawa's longtime partner, he was well aware of just how deadly this jutsu was.

Yes, it took time to cast and consumed a huge amount of chakra—but its destructive power was horrifying.

Even if the collapsing ground hadn't killed the target, the extreme compression that followed would have crushed them, shattering their bones and suffocating them.

And trying to use a jutsu to escape?

Virtually impossible.

Once buried, the victim's whole body would be pinned under pressure—unable to move, unable to form hand seals.

Without hand seals, how could you use ninjutsu?

"Oh… wait. Didn't he have a jutsu that doesn't need hand signs?"

Suddenly, Wasabi remembered Haruki's Rasengan, and his heart skipped a beat.

But then he relaxed.

That Rasengan was obviously non-elemental. To escape from underground, you'd need an Earth Release technique.

And what were the chances that Haruki also knew a sign-less Earth-style jutsu, and a mobility-based one at that?

The probability was minuscule.

There was nothing to worry about.

Shnk!

Suddenly—a blade pierced flesh, and the sound of coughing blood followed.

Wasabi whipped around in shock.

There—standing right behind Hayakawa Kaede—was a familiar figure.

Haruki.

Who else could it be?