Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

After a short rest, Uchiha Haruki began treating his own injuries.

Most of the wounds on his body were manageable. With his current near-mastered level of Healing Technique, healing them wasn't too difficult.

But the gash on his left arm—inflicted by Wind Release: Blade of Wind—was a different matter. The wound was so deep the bone was visible.

Worse, he had forced himself to use a Rasengan with that same left hand just moments ago to finish off Shoji Obara—layering fresh damage onto an already serious injury. It wasn't something that could recover quickly.

"Forget it. I'll just heal what I can for now," Haruki muttered.

He placed his right hand on his injured left arm. Yang Release chakra, generated through his Healing Technique, concentrated around the wound, stimulating cell division and regeneration.

Moments later, the deep wound sealed shut.

Of course, that was just surface healing.

The moment he exerted too much strength with that arm again, the wound would reopen.

Still, in his current situation, it wasn't realistic to avoid using his left arm entirely.

After thinking it over, Haruki retrieved a bandage from his ninja tool pouch, applied medicinal ointment, and wrapped it tightly around the injury.

This served two purposes: First, it could mislead enemies into thinking his left arm was completely disabled, allowing him to bait them later. Second, it could help reduce bleeding if the wound tore open in battle.

A win-win.

After securing the bandage, Haruki glanced around, then picked up some kunai and shuriken scattered nearby and restocked his ninja pouch.

He had nearly depleted his entire supply during the fight, so replenishing was a must.

With that done, Haruki turned to leave—but then paused, as if recalling something. A few quick body flickers later, he arrived deep within a nearby forest.

There, he used some subtle clues and tracks to locate a hidden Konoha shinobi.

The man wasn't a stranger. Just minutes ago, this same ninja had used Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall in an attempt to stop Han's escape—only to be bulldozed along with the wall by the Jinchūriki's raw power.

Now, the man lay motionless, his body covered in blood and wounds. If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, Haruki would've assumed he was already dead.

Haruki took a few steps forward and crouched beside him, carefully checking the man's injuries.

Honestly, his condition didn't look good.

External wounds were manageable—Haruki's Healing Technique could take care of those—but internal injuries were another story.

As the saying goes, every jutsu has its domain.

Healing Technique worked well for external trauma but was limited when it came to healing damaged organs.

This Konoha jonin's internal organs had suffered massive impact. Some were bleeding internally, while others had been severely ruptured.

If he weren't a shinobi, using chakra to hold on, he would've died eight times over by now.

And he was lucky Han hadn't directly rammed into him—he'd only caught some of the collateral damage. Otherwise, he would've been obliterated already.

"Forget it. I'll do what I can and let fate decide," Haruki muttered.

He got to work within his limits.

First, he stabilized the external wounds to stop further blood loss. While Healing Technique couldn't mend the internal injuries, it could at least stabilize the damage and keep it from worsening.

Several minutes later, Haruki finished his treatment. The injured jonin finally regained consciousness.

He looked up at Haruki, voice weak. "You… saved me?"

Haruki nodded. "Mm." Then, in a brief summary, he explained what had happened. Finally, he added, "I've taken care of the surface wounds. But I can't do much about your internal injuries right now."

The jonin—Kambara Kei—checked his body with chakra.

Sure enough, his insides still throbbed with pain.

Even so, he looked at Haruki gratefully. "Thank you. If not for you, I'd be dead."

"No need," Haruki replied calmly.

Just then, as they spoke, a soft landing sound echoed nearby—like someone had just jumped down from a tree branch.

"Shh." Haruki quickly raised a finger to his lips, signaling silence.

Though injured, Kambara Kei was still a jonin. He knew exactly what to do.

He immediately fell silent, then pointed at himself, then toward the source of the sound, nodding to Haruki.

Haruki understood. With a quick flicker, he vanished into the nearby trees, hiding atop a large trunk.

A few seconds later, four figures appeared at the edge of the clearing—Iwa-nin.

They glanced at the weakened Kambara Kei lying on the ground and, without a word, hurled several kunai straight at him.

Clearly, they meant to finish the job.

But this was exactly what Kei had planned—to be used as bait so Haruki could ambush the approaching enemies.

And there was a hidden message in that offer: if things got dangerous, Haruki was free to abandon him and escape.

But the moment Haruki saw who the enemies were, he knew—he wouldn't need to run, and Kei wouldn't need to die.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

Several kunai flew from Haruki's hand, perfectly intercepting the ones flying toward Kei.

The Iwa-nin were stunned.

"Careful!" shouted their squad leader. He quickly looked toward the direction the interception had come from.

But all he saw were a pair of blood-red eyes.

Sharingan?!

In the instant his consciousness began to slip, the name of those eyes flashed through his mind.

The next instant, a shuriken slammed into his throat.

"Ghhkk—!"

Gurgling, he looked in shock toward the tree branch, eyes filled with unwillingness, as Haruki stood there in silence.

"Captain!" the other three Iwa-nin cried in alarm. One of them followed their fallen leader's line of sight.

The squad leader weakly raised a trembling hand, trying to stop them from looking.

But it was too late.

That shinobi froze in place—and another shuriken came flying, piercing his throat cleanly.

Seeing this, the squad leader coughed up a mouthful of blood. His head slumped, and he died on the spot.

The remaining two finally spotted Haruki. As they laid eyes on those crimson Sharingan, realization dawned—this was how their captain and teammate had died.

Immediately, they looked away to avoid eye contact.

But it was too late.

Haruki rapidly formed hand seals and unleashed Fire Release: Phoenix Fire Technique.

Tiny fireballs, like fluttering phoenix flower petals, shot out in droves and encircled the two Iwa-nin.

They dodged skillfully, avoiding most of the blasts and sustaining only minor burns.

But before they could even catch their breath, Haruki appeared between them.

"What?!"

They gasped. His speed had completely caught them off guard.

Shhkk—

A flash of his blade. One of them had his throat cleanly sliced.

The other struck back with his kunai—but before the blade even touched Haruki, he vanished.

From behind, a wave of killing intent surged.

Without thinking, the Iwa-nin dived forward, narrowly dodging Haruki's next strike.

But that was just one attack.

Haruki's figure flashed again and again, his short sword jabbing from the blind spots of the enemy's vision.

In the blink of an eye, multiple wounds had been carved into his target's body.

Haruki's movements grew even faster. The last Iwa-nin could no longer keep up.

Finally, another piercing thrust—he couldn't block it in time. Haruki's blade pierced straight through his chest.

"Y-You…"

The man tried to say something, but Haruki wasn't interested. He pulled out his blade and ended it cleanly.

With that, all four Iwa-nin were dead.

The entire skirmish had lasted less than a minute.

Not because the enemies were weak. Truthfully, the four Iwa-nin were far from pushovers.

Their captain was a special jonin, and the other three were mid-to-high-tier chunin.

They only fell so quickly because Haruki had caught them off guard—and acted with ruthless precision.

If he hadn't immediately used his Sharingan to instant-kill both the strongest member and one other with a surprise assault, this battle would've been much harder.

In the end, their carelessness—and his overwhelming strength—had sealed their fate.