Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Time passed quickly, and soon it was the next morning.

Today marked the first day of the new Chūnin Exams, and the venue was none other than the Ninja Academy.

As a result, the entire school had been given the day off.

Only the Genin candidates and the proctoring Chūnin and Jōnin were present at the academy.

Uchiha Haruki yawned as he looked at the academy gates—his first time seeing them in a long while—then dragged himself inside, looking half-asleep.

He took out his exam notification slip, glanced at it, and then headed for the assigned classroom.

It didn't take long before he arrived at a spacious classroom.

The room was already bustling with people. Although everyone present was a Genin, the aura they carried was vastly different from ordinary ninja during peacetime.

Haruki had arrived fairly late.

As soon as he stepped through the door, many eyes turned toward him.

The classroom quieted for a moment.

People gave him a once-over, their gazes briefly pausing on his Sharingan, before they began whispering to one another.

Even though they looked away quickly, Haruki could clearly feel their lingering attention.

But he didn't mind at all.

His gaze swept across the room—there were only a few empty seats left, mostly near the back. Without hesitation, Haruki headed straight over.

Just as he sat down, a warm voice came from nearby:

"You're Haruki, right?"

Haruki turned his head.

Sitting beside him was a young boy with a round, slightly upturned nose, smiling brightly with dual tomoe Sharingan in his eyes.

Who else could it be but Uchiha Shisui?

Seeing that Haruki had turned his way, Shisui introduced himself:

"I'm Uchiha Shisui. You must be Haruki, right?"

Haruki's gaze briefly flicked across Shisui's Sharingan. He nodded and replied in a cold, indifferent tone:

"That's me. What do you want?"

Shisui's smile stiffened a little at Haruki's unfriendly demeanor, but he quickly recovered and said with a grin:

"Nothing much. Just wanted to introduce myself."

"Oh."

That was all Haruki said before turning away, resting his head on the desk, and preparing to catch up on sleep.

Meanwhile, his thoughts drifted back to the results of last night's tests.

As for the outcome?

A mixed bag.

The good news: Even with his Sharingan activated, he still only needed five hours to gain one point of Sharingan proficiency.

The bad news: The effect of Mind Reflection Technique had clearly weakened.

Previously, every 2 proficiency points gained from Mind Reflection would increase his Sharingan's evolution meter by 1.

Now, it required 3 points, or 510 chakra.

Factoring in the fact that the chakra cost of maintaining the Sharingan had also doubled, if Haruki wanted to keep gaining 13 proficiency points per day like before, he would now need 5,700 chakra per day.

While his increased attributes had bumped his daily chakra ceiling from 5,500 to 8,000, he couldn't afford to burn 5,700 chakra every single day just for Sharingan advancement.

According to his prior calculations, even if he could keep up that pace of 13 proficiency points daily, it would still take 385 days to reach triple tomoe Sharingan.

And during that time, his progress in all other skills would slow to a crawl.

In other words, until his Sharingan reached three tomoe, his strength wouldn't improve much.

And that—was completely unacceptable.

After the Chūnin Exams, he'd be heading to the battlefield.

And enemies on the battlefield wouldn't wait around for you to "train at your own pace."

He couldn't afford to slow down in any aspect of growth.

But at the same time, he didn't want to delay the evolution of his Sharingan either.

That left only one option: Expand resources, and conserve energy.

Conservation First

(Spend less chakra for the same output.)

The best way to do this, as far as Haruki could see, was to increase the level of his "Chakra Control" skill.

Currently, it was Lv3 (220/1000), allowing him to save 16% chakra when casting ninjutsu or genjutsu.

Once it reached Lv4, that number would rise to 20%.

Four percent might not sound like much, but over time, those savings would add up into a massive reserve.

Conveniently, now that Haruki's Sharingan had evolved to dual tomoe, his chakra manipulation had also become much more precise.

That meant training Chakra Control wouldn't be as hard as before.

Of course, to go even further, he would still need to follow through with his earlier plan: Steal a puppet technique from the Sand Village, and train by using chakra threads for delicate control.

Only that would let him push the ceiling of his control much higher.

"Maybe once I'm on the battlefield, I can request to be deployed to the Sand front."

The idea passed through his mind briefly before he pushed it aside.

Now he turned his focus to resource expansion.

Expanding the Pool

(Get more chakra to work with.)

Unlike conservation, which had a fairly narrow path, expansion had multiple avenues.

The first method: increase his own base stats, especially Physique and Spirit, to raise his maximum daily chakra output.

This wasn't impossible.

Haruki had a hunch—once he fully merged Leaf-Style and Uchiha-Style swordsmanship, his Physique stat would likely increase.

That alone would bump his chakra capacity again.

That's one path—from within.

But he could also expand his chakra pool through external tools.

Take, for example, Samehada, the great sword of the Hidden Mist.

It could absorb chakra from others and transfer it to its wielder.

If Haruki could obtain it, he'd be able to steal enemy chakra and use it to grind skill proficiency.

That would massively accelerate his growth.

Unfortunately, at this point in time, Samehada was still in the hands of Kisame's predecessor, Hoshigaki Fuguki—a Hidden Mist ANBU.

Haruki had no way of reaching him, let alone defeating him.

Besides, Samehada wasn't something just anyone could wield.

It had a will of its own and only chose wielders it liked.

Even if Haruki got his hands on it, he might not be able to use it.

There were other tools like it though—such as the Infinite Core Armor from the Craftsmen's Village, which could also absorb external chakra and feed it back to the wearer.

But that wasn't even invented yet.

So for now, all he could do was dream.

There were also certain jutsu that could absorb chakra.

Techniques like:

Water Style: Great Shark Bullet Jutsu

Earth Style Barrier: Earth Prison Hall

Dead Demon Consuming Seal

Wood Style: Wood Dragon Technique

All of these had the potential to accelerate his growth.

But learning them wasn't easy.

Some required Kekkei Genkai, others required mastery of rare chakra natures, and either way, Haruki wasn't ready for them yet.

Still, the fact that such jutsu existed meant they were out there—waiting.

And as one of the oldest clans in Konoha, the Uchiha should logically have something similar tucked away in their archives.

"Maybe after the exam, I can try to look into it…"

With that thought, Haruki's consciousness slowly began to drift into sleep.

A few moments later, Shisui, watching from nearby, couldn't help but sigh internally.

"Even at a time like this... he can sleep like a baby. This guy really has nerves of steel."