Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Clang! Clang, clang, clang!

A flurry of metallic clashes rang through the forest.

Uchiha Haruki swung his short sword, parrying over a dozen blows from the two attackers in a single breath—but there was no trace of satisfaction on his face.

Why?

Because the pressure he was under now was far greater than anything the two previous Iwa-nin had put him through.

Those Iwa-nin still valued their lives in a fight. These two, however, were completely different. They didn't care about their own safety—in fact, they were even using themselves as human shields to create openings for each other.

That kind of suicidal combat style was making it genuinely hard for Haruki to keep up.

Under normal circumstances, Haruki would've risked injury to quickly take out one of them and deal with the second afterward.

But not now.

He glanced at the kunai both of them held—dark, shimmering with a sickly black-purple glow. If he wasn't mistaken, they were likely coated with a potent poison.

Given that, Haruki couldn't afford to take even a single hit.

So he had to hold back, play it safe for now.

Fortunately, his swordsmanship was leagues above theirs. After adapting to their rhythm, he gradually regained the upper hand.

Soon, both of them were covered in several cuts.

Still…

As expected of shinobi trained by the ROOT organization, even with those injuries, their fighting strength showed no signs of waning.

But at the end of the day, they were still human. No matter how strong the will, when the body reached its limit, their strength would inevitably falter.

That would be his opening.

So Haruki didn't rush. He stuck to a steady, methodical pace, slowly grinding away at their "health bar."

However, as time passed, he started to feel that something was… off.

His strategy was obvious—there was no way these two couldn't tell what he was doing.

And knowing the typical ROOT tactics, they would never passively accept a slow death. Most likely, they'd retaliate with full force at some point, and Haruki had prepared for that.

But instead… they just kept fighting like automatons, completely unaware of the danger, as if they were buying time.

The forest floor was already soaked in blood—and still, they didn't panic?

Wait—

Blood.

A sudden realization struck Haruki, and his gaze swept the area.

Somehow, without him noticing, the ground was covered in blood—spilled from earlier clashes. But now, the blood seemed to be forming faint lines… connecting… as if outlining a sealing formation.

Haruki's heart sank.

"Not good!"

He leapt back immediately.

But just then, one of the ROOT shinobi lunged forward and clung to him desperately, trying to hold him in place, while the other rapidly formed hand seals.

Blood gushed from the ninja's wounds, racing along his skin in dozens of crimson markings.

The blood lines extended from his body and flowed downward through his legs—connecting to the blood scattered across the forest floor.

The blood began to writhe, shaping itself into a structured sealing array.

"Blood Demon Barrier—activate!"

The heavily wounded ROOT shinobi let out a deep, almost chant-like voice.

In an instant, four blood-colored walls erupted around them, quickly joining at the top to form a small barrier, about twenty meters wide and ten meters high.

At that moment, the ninja who had been grappling with Haruki suddenly pulled back—wounded and staggering—but now putting distance between them.

Haruki didn't give chase. Instead, his crimson Sharingan eyes closely examined the newly formed barrier.

He'd heard it clearly—"Blood Demon Barrier."

So… where's the Blood Demon?

Just as he had the thought, the heavily injured ROOT ninja drove his kunai straight into his own chest—stabbing directly into his heart.

Without flinching.

Then, he calmly pulled it out.

Blood gushed out like a fountain, soaking his clothing, dyeing him entirely red—like a man of blood.

The barrier seemed to react.

The bloody walls surrounding them glowed faintly, as if resonating with the sacrifice.

Haruki narrowed his eyes.

He could feel the ninja's life force plummeting rapidly. What the hell was he doing?

But before he could make sense of it, the ninja's life signs stabilized—barely clinging to life, but not dead.

A bad feeling welled up in Haruki's chest.

Without hesitation, he flickered forward, slashing with his sword—

Slice!

A clean cut across half the man's neck.

The ROOT ninja collapsed stiffly to the ground.

But before Haruki could breathe easy, he noticed something strange.

The man's life force was still there.

Looking closer, Haruki saw the blood at the wound begin to squirm, slowly mending the fatal gash.

"What the hell… is this the Blood Demon?"

Haruki's expression grew grim as he slashed again—twice.

But the result was the same.

Each wound sealed itself back up with blood that seemed to move with a will of its own—faster than before.

"Physical attacks… don't work?" Haruki muttered, forcing himself to stay calm.

He considered switching to ninjutsu.

But then—

A growl escaped the bloodied man's throat—low, inhuman.

In the next instant, the blood-soaked ninja sprang up like lightning, kunai stabbing straight for Haruki's heart.

At the same time, the second ROOT operative hurled several shuriken, locking down Haruki's escape routes and targeting his vital points.

Haruki's Sharingan spun wildly.

In a blur, he parried every attack.

But this was just the beginning.

Over the next several minutes, the second ninja repeatedly launched attacks, using the blood man as a shield.

No matter how many times Haruki "killed" the blood man, he kept getting back up—over and over again.

Haruki wanted to test if fire-style ninjutsu could bypass the regenerative effect—but he never found the opening.

It had to be said: a meat shield that could revive endlessly was ridiculously troublesome.

If not for Haruki's elite swordsmanship, which prevented either of them from getting in close, he might've been seriously injured by now.

He even tried using genjutsu on the blood man.

But by this point, the man had completely lost all reason—he was just a mindless puppet charging toward Haruki.

His genjutsu felt like throwing stones into a bottomless lake—no ripple, no effect.

Clearly, the ROOT had come prepared.

Left with no choice, Haruki shifted his focus to the other ninja.

Unfortunately, that one was slippery as hell, never engaging in direct combat.

But with the aid of his Sharingan, Haruki was finally able to predict his opponent's movement—and found his moment.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two precise strikes—one severed the blood man's windpipe, the other took off his right hand.

As the blood man stumbled, Haruki dodged a kunai from the other ninja like he'd foreseen it, then lunged forward and closed the gap instantly.

Sharingan's hypnotic ability triggered—causing the ROOT ninja to freeze momentarily.

Haruki didn't waste the opportunity.

Slash!

His blade carved a half-foot-long wound across the ninja's chest.

The pain snapped him out of the daze, and he tried to leap back.

But Haruki wasn't done.

With a flick of his left hand, a shuriken appeared in his palm.

Whizz—!

The spinning blade shot out, landing precisely in the man's throat.

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