Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Ding—

Clang clang clang—

Uchiha Haruki wielded his short sword, facing off against two Iwagakure jonin. He didn't falter in the slightest—in fact, he even managed to counterattack from time to time.

The reason he'd attracted the attention of these two jonin traced back to a few minutes earlier.

After first entering the battlefield and eliminating a mid-ranking and a low-ranking Iwa-nin, Haruki had continued advancing. Along the way, he didn't leave a single enemy alive.

At first, no one noticed him. But after he had consecutively killed more than twenty Iwa-nin chunin and genin, someone finally identified him.

From that point on, his opponents became the two in front of him now.

They had been fighting for nearly three minutes. Though Haruki's left arm was injured, as long as the battle stayed at close range, it didn't affect his swordsmanship much.

Which meant these two jonin couldn't do much to him.

In fact, as the battle dragged on, Haruki gradually figured out both of their fighting styles and abilities.

So, he decided there was no point wasting any more time.

With that thought, Haruki abruptly abandoned all unnecessary defense and shifted into full offensive mode—targeting the weaker of the two.

Indeed, of the two jonin, only one was a fully-developed combat-type jonin. The other was merely a special jonin, primarily skilled in assassination techniques.

Haruki's focus fell on the latter.

Though his opponent was good at stealth kills, this was a direct confrontation. With the powerful insight granted by his three-tomoe Sharingan, Haruki could see through any trick or feint.

He quickly spotted an opening.

Evading a sideways strike from the regular jonin, Haruki closed the distance and thrust his short sword straight toward the special jonin.

The special jonin's eyes lit up. Rather than retreat, he twisted his body just enough to narrowly dodge the stab—then immediately retaliated, slashing a kunai toward Haruki's throat.

In that instant, Haruki had no time to retract his sword and block. His only option was to dodge.

But dodging meant giving up the initiative he'd just claimed.

Once that happened, the regular jonin behind him would follow up with an attack, suppressing Haruki for a while.

That would give the special jonin the chance to capitalize on his strengths and launch a flurry of strikes. If all went according to plan, they might not kill Haruki, but they could force him into a defensive position.

To be fair, their plan wasn't bad.

If things had truly unfolded as they imagined, Haruki would've been in real trouble.

But there was one crucial flaw—it was Haruki who had orchestrated this entire situation. The opening wasn't earned—it was bait.

Haruki had deliberately given them that opportunity.

And if he dared to do that, it meant he had no fear of their counterattack.

He didn't show it immediately. Just as they expected, Haruki leaned back and dodged the kunai slash.

By all appearances, everything was going their way. But to Mishima Takaki, the special jonin, something felt wrong.

He wasn't relieved by Haruki's retreat—he felt a rising sense of dread.

Why?

Takaki stared at Haruki's blank expression. His mind raced.

He replayed the evasive motion Haruki just made—it was smooth, calm, and decisive. Too calm.

In that kind of situation, any normal person would first try to block, only dodging if there was no other option.

But Haruki had never even considered blocking. Not for a second.

Which meant…

Unless—

Suddenly, Takaki's eyes widened in horror. He realized something and instinctively tried to call out to warn his teammate.

But before he could utter a word, a wave of danger surged through him.

In his field of vision, Haruki's left hand—yes, his supposedly "injured" left arm—pressed a pale blue orb into his chest.

BOOM—

An explosion of pain.

Takaki coughed up a mouthful of blood as the Rasengan detonated point-blank, blasting him through the air.

This was Haruki's plan all along—feign a mistake, create an opening for the enemy to strike, and then take advantage of that information gap to counterattack and end the fight in one move.

From the start of the battle, Haruki had barely used his left arm. Combined with the bandages he wore, this gave the illusion that his arm was badly injured.

But that alone wasn't enough to fool two jonin.

What really sealed the deal was the Rasengan—a jutsu that required no hand signs, and therefore had excellent concealment.

The combination of illusion and timing caught Takaki completely off guard.

If Haruki had used a different technique, Takaki might have dodged. But with this setup, he'd been heavily wounded in one strike.

Haruki refocused, no longer concerned with the downed Takaki. His attention turned to the other jonin.

This man wasn't rattled by his teammate's injury. On the contrary, he immediately launched a strike at Haruki to protect his comrade.

Just as expected, Haruki's previous dodge had cost him the initiative. Now, this jonin was forcing him onto the defensive.

However, without Takaki to assist in the assault, Haruki didn't stay suppressed for long. Soon, he regained momentum.

With one less enemy, Haruki's offense intensified.

The jonin was quickly pushed onto the back foot, forced to defend.

But the longer you defend, the more openings you reveal.

Just a few minutes in, his body was already riddled with new wounds. Haruki's blade moved faster and more aggressively.

Just as the jonin was nearing his limit, another Iwa jonin joined the fight, teaming up to confront Haruki together.

Haruki scanned the battlefield.

The number of Iwa-nin was nearly two or three times that of Konoha. While the jonin-level combat power wasn't quite that skewed, Iwa still had about 1.5 times as many elite fighters.

And with several Konoha jonin tied up dealing with Han, Iwa-nin could more easily send reinforcements.

That's how another enemy arrived so quickly.

Haruki knew his current strength wasn't enough to tip the scales of the entire battle. So for now, he went with the flow, continuing to tangle with these two jonin.

Time passed second by second.

A few more minutes went by.

In the middle of the clash, Haruki suddenly sensed unrest at the edge of the battlefield—something had changed.

Moments later, Yamanaka Kaze's voice rang in his mind:

"Attention, everyone! Our reinforcements have arrived. All units, regroup with the nearest jonin and break out to the northwest!"

Haruki's heart stirred. So the allied forces from Tiger Mountain Camp had arrived! No wonder things were shifting at the outer edges of the field.

Now they had a real chance to break out.

Haruki immediately stopped engaging the two Iwa jonin and slipped away from the fight, heading northwest at top speed.

On the way, any Konoha chunin or genin who saw him instantly rallied around him, quickly forming a squad that followed his lead toward the breakout direction.

And not just him—other jonin were doing the same, leading their own groups of Konoha shinobi, advancing together toward the northwest.

Of course, the Iwa-nin weren't idiots.

At first, they were caught off guard by Konoha's sudden, coordinated movement.

But it didn't take them long to figure out what was happening. They quickly reorganized and began trying to block the breakout.

Soon, the fighting became even more intense than before.

Konoha desperately tried to escape. Iwa-nin refused to let them go. Both sides gave it everything they had—ninja tools and explosive tags flew like confetti.

And because the forces were now more tightly clustered, both sides began unleashing large-scale offensive jutsu.

With that, the clashes became even more ferocious.