Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

With his thoughts reined back in, Uchiha Haruki picked up the short sword beside him and swung it down, easily slicing through the Iwa-nin's throat.

To be honest, if he wanted to make the most out of his target, he shouldn't have killed him outright. It would've been better to keep him alive—imprisoned and forced to refine chakra continuously, so Haruki could return every so often and extract more. That way, the supply would've been nearly endless.

But clearly, in this current situation, that wasn't an option.

Besides, Haruki didn't have any reliable method of keeping the man restrained for long. So, he could only grit his teeth and end it.

Shifting his gaze, Haruki turned to the Iwa-nin whose limbs he had pierced through. Without hesitation, he walked toward him.

As he moved, he quickly formed hand seals and activated Chakra Absorption Technique. A layer of chakra coated his right hand once more.

"What… what are you doing?!"

The Iwa-nin shrieked in panic before Haruki even got close. Clearly, he'd seen what had happened just moments earlier.

But Haruki didn't care.

He flickered forward and grabbed the man's face.

In the next instant, an unending stream of chakra surged out of the Iwa-nin's body and flowed into Haruki's palm, funneling into his own system.

This one had a bit more chakra than the previous, so Haruki took a full thirty seconds to drain him dry.

Another 1,000+ chakra points gained.

Not wasting a moment, Haruki applied a bit of strength with both hands—

Crack!

The Iwa-nin's neck snapped cleanly.

Haruki stood up and made his way over to the third—his first victim—who had long since lost consciousness due to the wound across his chest.

That actually saved Haruki some trouble.

Stepping through the pool of blood at his feet, he pressed his hand onto the unconscious man's back. Around twenty seconds later, he had drained all his chakra too.

Without chakra to sustain him, the man died within seconds.

Just like that, Haruki had eliminated three enemies. And after deducting the chakra he used in battle, he still came out with a net gain of over 3,000 chakra points.

That amount of chakra would allow him to use 'Mirror Mind Technique' at least eighteen more times.

Converted into Sharingan evolution value—that was six points.

If he could collect four more, he'd hit his daily target.

In other words, he'd be able to evolve his Sharingan to the Three Tomoe state one day earlier.

It might just be one day, but keep in mind—these were only regular Chūnin. If he targeted more people, or higher-ranking ones, the amount of chakra he absorbed would increase significantly, allowing him to save even more time.

On top of that, his Chakra Absorption Technique was still only at Level 1, with nearly 50% conversion loss.

Once he gained more proficiency and the technique leveled up, that loss rate would drop, which would accelerate his Sharingan evolution even more.

Furthermore, the chakra he'd expended during battle wasn't wasted either. It had all been converted into proficiency points for other jutsu.

Which meant he could now cut down on time training those techniques and instead allocate more chakra toward practicing 'Mirror Mind Technique'.

This would only serve to speed up his Sharingan's evolution even further.

Thinking that, Haruki finally let out a long breath.

He could finally see hope on the horizon.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!

Suddenly, several kunai shot toward him from the side.

Haruki's Sharingan spun rapidly, and like a launched projectile, he kicked off the ground and shot forward, evading the ambush.

But just as he landed, more kunai came flying at him.

Their angles were especially tricky—right at the edge of his vision. Even with his sword drawn to parry, he couldn't block all of them.

He had no choice but to dodge again.

But as soon as he did—

More kunai followed.

Once again, Haruki had to evade.

Five consecutive times. It wasn't until the fifth volley that Haruki finally found an opening to counter.

Thud thud thud!

Using a tree to block part of the assault, he swatted away the remaining kunai with his short sword.

Then, he stabbed the sword into the ground, formed seals at lightning speed, and fired off a Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu in the direction the kunai had come from.

A massive fireball roared toward the shrubs, heat rolling off it in waves.

Suddenly—

A figure burst out of the foliage.

Haruki instantly pulled out several shuriken and hurled them at the person.

But the enemy's reflexes were incredibly sharp. The moment they saw the projectiles, they raised a kunai and knocked the first few out of the air. Then, in a blur, they ducked behind a large tree to avoid the rest.

Haruki had been planning to keep pressing the attack—

But just then, he noticed something odd.

Behind the kunai he had dodged earlier were fine, barely visible steel wires.

Suddenly, the area around him turned into a trap—a web of wire mesh surrounding him like a cage, rapidly shrinking.

For an ordinary ninja, this would've spelled disaster. But Haruki had the Sharingan.

Even under pressure, his eyes picked up on the faint glint of metal. He'd already anticipated something like this.

And because of that, he wasn't caught.

With a swift twist of his body—like a gymnast—he slipped through the wires just before they closed in.

The ambush failed.

Whoever was hiding in the shadows paused their attack.

Silence fell over the forest.

Haruki scanned the surroundings and finally said aloud,

"Come out. If you want to kill me, hiding in the dark won't cut it."

Tap, tap, tap…

Footsteps echoed softly.

Two figures emerged from the shadows.

Haruki turned toward the sound, his brows furrowing.

The two wore Iwagakure forehead protectors and Chūnin uniforms. But their presence… felt completely different from the other Iwa-nin he'd fought.

'Iwa Anbu?'

The thought popped into Haruki's mind—but he quickly dismissed it.

No, even if they were Iwa Anbu, they shouldn't give off this kind of deathly aura.

From what he could sense, these two were practically like corpses. There wasn't even a trace of life force in their bodies.

If his Sharingan wasn't clearly telling him they were alive, he would've thought they were puppets or reanimated corpses.

So then…

'What kind of ninja gives off this kind of aura?'

Haruki pondered for a moment—

And suddenly thought of one man: Danzo.

Not that Danzo himself had this deathly air, but the ROOT operatives under his command absolutely did.

He remembered, after the final round of the Chūnin Exams, when he sensed Danzo's malice and glanced in his direction, the shadowy figure next to him had exuded the exact same aura.

Back then, he'd looked away quickly to avoid drawing Danzo's attention.

But now, it seemed his wish to avoid trouble had been one-sided. Just because he didn't want to provoke Danzo didn't mean Danzo wouldn't come after him.

"…Danzo."

Haruki muttered the name through gritted teeth.

His eyes shifted slightly, trying to read the expressions of the two before him.

But they showed nothing. Their faces remained utterly blank—even when he said Danzo's name.

Which only confirmed Haruki's suspicion.

Only the emotionless ROOT operatives could carry themselves this way—soulless, like husks who had abandoned all sense of self.

Still… why had they come for him?

Was it simply because he was a Uchiha?

Wait.

That actually made perfect sense.

Considering Danzo's well-known prejudice against the Uchiha clan—and his lust for the Sharingan—it wasn't surprising that he'd want to eliminate Haruki, a rising star of the clan.

As he was still thinking this through…

The two ROOT operatives launched their attack.