Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

"Inhale… exhale…"

Uchiha Haruki took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. Once his mind calmed, he began the main task of the evening—training in Mystic Palm Jutsu.

Why was this considered the highlight of the night?

The reason was simple: after over three days of training, his Mystic Palm Jutsu was now on the verge of leveling up.

If nothing unexpected happened, tonight would mark its breakthrough.

And Haruki had been eagerly anticipating the body-enhancing effects of the Yang Release chakra condensed by the Level 6 Mystic Palm Jutsu.

That's why this training was so important.

Centering his mind, Haruki quickly formed the hand seals and activated Mystic Palm Jutsu, expertly keeping the generated Yang chakra circulating inside his body.

He then guided the chakra through his chakra network, allowing it to seep into every cell in his body, reinforcing him on a cellular level.

Time ticked by.

Three minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

As the chakra faded, Haruki formed the seals again, repeating the same process.

Just like that, every three minutes, he would perform Mystic Palm Jutsu, improving both his skill proficiency and further strengthening his body with the purified chakra.

The process was admittedly repetitive, but Haruki didn't find it the least bit dull.

There were two reasons for that:

First, each use increased his proficiency, deepening his understanding of the jutsu. So it wasn't just mindless repetition.

Second—and perhaps more importantly—the sensation of his body growing stronger was deeply satisfying. It was even addictive. That euphoric feeling made even tedious training enjoyable.

"Ahh… that's nice…"

Unknowingly, it had become deep into the night.

In the training room, Haruki once again cast Mystic Palm Jutsu. Immediately, a surge of refined Yang chakra flooded his cells, and a soft groan escaped his lips.

Three minutes later, he opened his eyes.

He reviewed the insights that had just flashed through his mind—yes, there was no doubt.

His Mystic Palm Jutsu had successfully advanced to Level 6.

And that ultra-refined Yang chakra he just produced was evidence of the upgrade—its strengthening effect had easily doubled.

Haruki estimated that, within a month, his Physique stat would undergo its second transformation.

At that point, the gap between his Physique and Spirit stats would narrow even further, releasing even more of his hidden potential.

His maximum chakra capacity and chakra recovery rate would rise again.

The thought made Haruki burn with excitement.

But he quickly forced himself to stay grounded.

"There's still a whole month. No rush."

With that mindset, Haruki returned to his planned routine and began practicing the newly leveled Mystic Palm Jutsu (Lv6).

It wasn't until the latter half of the night, after he had exhausted all 40,000 chakra points he had allocated for the day, that he finally allowed himself to rest.

Four hours passed in a flash.

Haruki awoke from his sleep, shook his head to clear his mind, and hurried to the deepest part of his secret base.

He checked the condition of the captured prisoners—after confirming they were stable, he left a Shadow Clone behind to monitor them and returned to the forward post.

A new day had begun.

That afternoon.

Taking advantage of a break, Haruki resumed training in Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu.

Not far away, three of his chunin subordinates were also immersed in their own training.

At one point, Haruki suddenly formed the hand seals for Great Fireball Jutsu almost instantly.

The fireball that erupted was noticeably more powerful than usual.

With a loud boom, the massive tree in front of him was engulfed in flames, startling the chunin nearby.

By the time they looked over, Haruki had already closed his eyes, mentally reviewing the flash of insight he had just received.

Moments later, he opened his eyes again and muttered,

"So this is the Mastered Realm of Great Fireball Jutsu..."

He raised his right hand.

Even without trying, he knew he could now perform the jutsu one-handed.

Just like Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu, once it reached mastery and was paired with enough chakra control, it could be cast with a single hand.

"Captain, what happened? That was crazy just now."

As Haruki fell into thought, his three subordinates walked over, asking with concern.

Snapping back to the present, Haruki shook his head and replied,

"Nothing much. Just made a bit of progress."

"A bit of progress…?"

They stared at the tree-turned-charcoal in confusion, completely baffled.

Not wanting to explain further, Haruki waved them off with a vague excuse and began training in Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu.

The moment he started, he noticed a change.

Before, the skill would improve at a steady rate of +1 per cast.

Now, it alternated between +1 and +2.

Clearly, the bonus came from mastering Great Fireball Jutsu.

"Maybe Phoenix Fire contributed too…" Haruki thought, then shook his head and focused back on training.

His Dragon Fire Jutsu had already been close in proficiency to Great Fireball, and now with this bonus, he reached mastery even faster than expected.

And just like Great Fireball, he could now cast Dragon Fire Jutsu with one hand as well.

At this point, Haruki had now mastered all three of his Fire Style techniques.

With this progress, he was now saving an extra 10,000 chakra points per day.

Haruki planned to divide this in two:

5,000 points would go to training Wind Style: Great Breakthrough, to further accelerate his proficiency gains.

The remaining 5,000 points would be allocated to Wind Style: Wind Blade.

Even though Great Breakthrough hadn't yet reached the mastery level (Lv5), and couldn't provide a full boost to Wind Blade, it didn't matter much.

Wind Blade was inherently far more difficult to learn, even more so than Great Breakthrough.

So even with the eventual synergy bonus, the effect wouldn't be drastic.

Haruki found the trade-off acceptable.

Besides, with the extra 5,000 points, he could probably master Great Breakthrough in five days at most.

At that point, the synergy boost would kick in—so the temporary loss wouldn't cause much delay.

Having thought it through, he proceeded without hesitation.

After half an hour of focused training, Haruki completed his scheduled Great Breakthrough practice, improving its proficiency by 65 points.

He took a short break, then called over his three subordinates for a sparring session—using it as an opportunity to train his Swordsmanship.

Due to the recent lack of enemy encounters, his Swordsmanship had been progressing slower than planned.

Originally, he was supposed to reach Level 6 today.

But judging by the current pace, he'd likely have to wait until tomorrow.

And that was only because he had sparring partners. Without them, it would've taken even longer.

Of course, his sparring partners benefited too.

Even just picking up fragments of Haruki's swordsmanship could significantly improve their combat ability.

Even for those who didn't specialize in swords, gaining more real combat experience was invaluable.

As a result, none of them ever turned down his invitations.

Thanks to that, Haruki's Swordsmanship skill continued to progress steadily.