Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

"I lost."

Uchiha Shisui's voice was tinged with unwillingness.

Upon hearing those words, Uchiha Haruki slowly withdrew the short sword from Shisui's neck.

To be honest, even though he'd won this fight, it didn't feel satisfying.

For one, he hadn't been able to completely overpower Shisui in a direct confrontation. Instead, he had to rely on repeatedly using ninjutsu to force Shisui into making a mistake.

But this method was inefficient, chakra-consuming, and overly dependent on the opponent's performance.

If Shisui had been replaced with a more experienced Uchiha shinobi, there was no guarantee this strategy would have worked.

In fact, if they fought again, Shisui likely wouldn't make the same mistakes so easily.

That would drag the battle out even longer.

And as the saying goes—the longer something drags on, the more things can go wrong.

If every fight in the future took this much time, there was no telling when one would backfire.

The best path, Haruki realized, was still swift, decisive victory.

But that's easier said than done—because that kind of victory requires a huge power gap.

In the future, Haruki wasn't too worried. With the Proficiency Panel on his side, his strength would one day surpass others by a wide margin.

But for now—and for quite a long time to come—he would not be invincible.

So encountering equally matched opponents would be common.

Which meant… swift victories couldn't be counted on.

In those moments, to win without being constantly on the back foot like today, he would need to cover his weaknesses.

Exactly—his weaknesses.

Today's fight had made it clear:

He lacked large-scale attack capabilities.

Whether it was Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique or Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique, they were all geared toward single-target combat.

Even Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique, which was supposed to be a group attack jutsu, only worked that way against much weaker opponents.

Against someone like Shisui—whose strength was close to his—even concentrating all the fireballs on one point didn't guarantee a hit, let alone real crowd control.

As for his other skills?

They had even less area-of-effect utility.

So strictly speaking, Haruki had no true wide-range attack options.

And that was a serious flaw.

If he'd had just one large-scale fire-style jutsu, even someone as elusive as Shisui wouldn't have been able to avoid a close fight.

He wouldn't have needed to keep casting smaller jutsu and hoping for a mistake.

Thinking back to the legendary battles between Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara—weren't all of their attacks powerful enough to reshape the landscape?

In battles at that level, tactics, battle IQ, taijutsu, genjutsu, even ninjutsu variety—they all became secondary.

Haruki felt like a veil had been lifted from his eyes.

Maybe that was the path he was meant to walk.

"Final round—Uchiha Haruki, victory!"

The proctor's voice rang out beside him, pulling Haruki from his thoughts.

Instantly, the room erupted in cheers.

The current time was still during the latter stages of the Third Shinobi World War.

Konoha hadn't yet experienced the chaos of the Nine-Tails Incident, and the anti-Uchiha sentiment driven by Danzo and the upper echelons hadn't begun.

So, most of the Konoha shinobi held no hostility toward the Uchiha Clan.

Naturally, Haruki's victory earned him genuine applause.

Especially from the genin examinees—after witnessing the power of the Sharingan, many looked on with envy.

But in the midst of that admiration, Haruki suddenly sensed a strong, unfiltered malice directed at him.

His brow furrowed.

He followed the sensation and soon spotted a familiar figure in the corner of the second-floor corridor.

The man had a thin but muscular frame and wore a gray-black kimono. His brown hair was short and bristled, and two cross-shaped scars marked his chin. His right eye was covered by bandages, leaving only a narrow, sinister-looking left eye.

Who else could it be but Danzo Shimura?

"When the hell did that troublemaker show up?"

Haruki narrowed his eyes, irritated—but quickly turned his gaze away.

Though it was their first meeting, Danzo had already made his malice crystal clear, leaving Haruki with a bitter taste in his mouth.

But Haruki knew himself.

With his current strength, he couldn't afford to challenge Danzo's authority.

In this situation, the best move was to stay as far away as possible.

He wasn't an idiot.

Jumping around and acting brave with no power to back it up only brought misery and death.

The right thing to do was to grow stronger—strong enough to one day slap that bastard down with ease.

As Haruki averted his eyes, Danzo turned to a nearby ROOT ninja and said coldly,

"I want a full report on both of them—by tonight."

"Yes, Lord Danzo."

The ninja vanished without another word.

At the same time, Hiruzen Sarutobi stepped forward, offered a few words of encouragement to the examinees, and announced the end of the Chūnin Exams.

As for the final results...

They'd be released in two days.

One by one, the genin followed their instructors or the designated Chūnin guides and left the central tower.

Haruki had just started moving when two familiar figures approached him.

It was Uchiha Jiren and Uchiha Shisui.

"Let's head out together," Jiren offered.

Haruki didn't hesitate.

Danzo's presence had already put him on high alert.

Staying close to a Jōnin like Jiren was the smart move.

Half an hour later...

Haruki bid farewell to Jiren and Shisui and returned home.

The first thing he did was scan his surroundings, making absolutely sure there was nothing unusual. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

You couldn't blame him for being so cautious—Danzo's malice had been undeniable.

Haruki still had his memories from his previous life, and he knew full well what kind of man Danzo Shimura was.

A man who would do anything to achieve his goals.

Hoping that someone like that would follow Konoha's rules and boundaries was nothing but a fantasy.

So he had to be extra careful.

Thankfully, he wouldn't be in the village for much longer.

For now, being overly cautious wasn't a bad thing.

Once he returned to the battlefield, Danzo would have far fewer opportunities to pull his usual underhanded tricks.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Haruki turned back to what was most important:

Fixing his weaknesses.

For large-scale Fire Release techniques, a few came to mind.

There were the advanced fire-style jutsu used by Jiraiya, and the devastating ones used by Uchiha Madara, like:

Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame

Fire Style: Flame Destruction

The former would require learning directly from Jiraiya.

And while Jiraiya was a friendly enough guy, they weren't exactly close.

It wasn't realistic to expect him to hand over his best techniques.

As for the latter...

"Maybe there's something in the Uchiha Clan's archives."

And if he couldn't find anything there, then he'd wait until he unlocked new chakra natures, and look into wide-range jutsu from other elements.

"A living man shouldn't die from holding in his piss," Haruki muttered under his breath with a crooked smile.

No need to overthink it.

He turned his focus back to training.

The Chūnin Exams may have just ended,

But he couldn't afford to slack off.

Only through constant effort could he make sure that, when danger came, he'd be ready—and never regret.