Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

After taking care of the four unexpected intruders, Uchiha Haruki returned to Kambara Kei's side.

Seeing Haruki approach, Kei struggled to sit up and asked, "You handled it?"

"Yeah," Haruki nodded. "They were four Iwa-nin."

"Iwa-nin?" Kei murmured, then said thoughtfully, "Must've been a scout squad from Iwagakure. Given the timing, they should've arrived by now."

Haruki agreed. Judging by the pace of operations, it made sense that the outer Iwa-nin forces had started tightening their encirclement toward this area.

Which meant—the area was no longer safe. They needed to leave immediately.

Haruki didn't hide his thoughts and directly voiced his concerns. Then he asked, "Can you move on your own?"

Kei stood up, moved his limbs slightly, clutched his chest, and coughed twice. "As long as I don't overexert myself, I should manage."

Haruki nodded. "Alright. Let's move."

"Yeah," Kei replied, letting out a quiet sigh. "I just hope the main force is still holding up…"

Haruki heard him mumble but didn't respond.

In his view, the main force wouldn't get away so easily. Since they had failed to stall Han on their end, it was highly likely that the enemy had managed to intercept the main unit.

Han might've been just one man, but he was a Jinchūriki. Without sufficient preparation, even an elite force would struggle to deal with him. Normal attrition tactics were useless, and the lower-ranked ninja in the unit would be practically ineffective.

Worse, those weaker ninja might even become human shields, making the Konoha jonin hesitate to strike freely.

Given that, it wasn't hard for Han to stall them.

The encirclement forces from Iwagakure were only five kilometers away. At their pace, it wouldn't take long for them to arrive.

And once the main unit was surrounded, a massive battle would be inevitable.

In fact—that's exactly what was happening.

Back when Haruki was killing Shoji Obara and treating his wounds, Han had already caught up with the main Konoha unit.

He had forcefully charged through multiple attacks from the jonin and even smashed through a joint defensive jutsu from two jonin, bursting directly into the crowd.

The mid-to-lower ranked shinobi had never seen anything like it. Many froze from sheer fear at the savage aura emanating from him, unable to muster even seventy percent of their strength.

That wouldn't have mattered, really. Even if they had fought at full power, they wouldn't have been able to break through the Tailed Beast Cloak protecting Han's body.

But the problem was—their slowed reaction times made it even harder to avoid Han's wild charges.

And since there were no Iwa-nin around, Han could fight with complete freedom.

Within a short span, he inflicted massive casualties on the Konoha forces.

Meanwhile, the Konoha jonin, surrounded by their own comrades, were afraid to go all-out, lest they accidentally hurt their allies.

That hesitation gave Han even more room to rampage.

Eventually, it took Nara Sui and several members of the Nara clan working together to simultaneously unleash Shadow Imitation Technique, barely managing to restrain Han temporarily.

Seizing the opportunity, the lower-ranked ninja immediately withdrew, pushing forward while the jonin surrounded Han and launched a coordinated assault.

But Han wasn't easy to deal with.

He dodged what he could, and what he couldn't dodge—he simply endured.

No matter what, he kept chasing after the Konoha main force, refusing to let them escape.

The fight became a series of staggered clashes, and the main unit couldn't pick up any momentum.

Eventually, the Iwa encirclement force arrived.

Though they failed to fully surround the Konoha unit, they managed to pin them down.

Now, escaping wasn't as simple as before.

Unless Konoha was willing to abandon a huge portion of their troops, there was no way to break out.

Even then, there was no guarantee they'd succeed.

After weighing all options, Nara Sui finally gave the order: hold the line and fight in place.

With both sides mixed together in close quarters, even Han had to hold back. Konoha's casualties began to slow.

Though this meant they couldn't escape anymore, Nara Sui had already calculated—if they could hold for fifteen to thirty minutes, reinforcements from Tiger Mountain Camp would arrive.

When that happened, they could still turn the tables.

Meanwhile…

Elsewhere, Haruki and Kambara Kei were still some distance from the battlefield when they began to hear the sounds of war.

Clashes of metal-on-metal from ninja tools. The thunderous roar of exploding tags. And the agonized screams of wounded shinobi on both sides.

The cacophony was endless.

Haruki and Kei exchanged a glance and instinctively quickened their pace.

But the moment they stepped into the battlefield—several kunai came flying their way.

Haruki's ears twitched. He sharply turned his head toward the sound.

In an instant, the kunai's trajectories were clearly visible to his eyes.

With a few quick flickers of his body, Haruki dodged them all.

But that wasn't all—he also immediately locked on to the attacker: an Iwa Chunin perched on a tree branch not far away.

The moment their eyes met, the Iwa-nin realized something was wrong.

But it was already too late.

Haruki activated his hypnosis technique through his Sharingan. The man froze instantly, body locked in place.

Haruki raised his hand and flung a shuriken.

Whoosh—the blade cut through the air and embedded precisely into the enemy's throat.

Severely injured, the Iwa-nin snapped out of the hypnosis—but he was already beyond saving.

He stumbled forward a few steps, then tumbled from the branch.

Crack!

A chilling crack rang out as his head smashed into the ground, snapping his neck on impact.

Even in death, his eyes were wide with unwillingness.

Haruki shook his head and turned back to Kambara Kei. "You're still hurt. Want me to escort you to the med squad?"

"No need," Kei replied without hesitation. "Things are chaotic right now. Others need your help more. Don't waste time on me."

"I see…"

Haruki fell silent for a second, then nodded. "Alright. Be careful."

With that, he drew his short sword and vanished with a body flicker.

He reappeared before a bare rocky outcrop—and with one slash, blood sprayed out from thin air.

A figure materialized—an Iwa Genin who had used Rock Concealment Technique.

The man had been hiding here the entire time. It was unclear whether he had been avoiding the fight or working in tandem with the earlier Chunin in the tree.

Regardless, Haruki had noticed him the moment he entered the area.

In fact, so had Kambara Kei—despite being injured.

But neither of them had said a word. They both knew how to play along.

That's why, when Haruki struck, the hidden Iwa-nin was completely unprepared—and met a swift death.

Not that preparation would've helped.

The gap in power between them wasn't something a little awareness could fix.

Haruki sheathed his blade and nodded at Kei before stepping into the battlefield.

A short while later, Kei followed behind, having waited just long enough to let Haruki clean up the front lines.

Though he didn't want to drag Haruki down, he wasn't foolish enough to ignore the advantages.

He knew that following in Haruki's footsteps would mean a much safer path than any other direction.

And he wasn't about to pass that up.

Thus, the two of them entered the battlefield—one ahead, one behind.

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