Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

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Sssht—

Iwagama Yōto barely dodged Haruki's sword aimed directly at his vital points, but still took a slash across the waist.

Seeing this, Fukui Ichiro rushed in to cover for him, clashing with Haruki once more.

Haruki stuck to his strategy. After a few clean exchanges, he shook off Fukui's interference and turned his blade right back toward Yōto.

Initially, the two Iwa Jonin had been able to somewhat restrain Haruki by working together. But as Haruki focused more and more on Yōto, his condition began to rapidly deteriorate.

Gradually, Yōto stopped being helpful and instead became a liability—even dragging Fukui Ichiro down, limiting his own ability to fight.

It was obvious where this was going—if things continued like this, the two would eventually die at Haruki's hand.

Fukui was the first to realize this grim reality.

"This won't do… I need to find a chance to create distance."

With that thought, Fukui subtly signaled Yōto—a quick hand gesture telling him to break away from the battle as soon as an opportunity arose.

At the same time, Fukui ramped up his attacks, trying to pull Haruki's focus onto himself.

Haruki noticed something was off. He didn't know the details, but he could guess enough.

And there was no way he was going to let them get their way.

So he decisively tightened his grip on Yōto, refusing to let him disengage.

As for Fukui's assault?

Haruki dodged what he could, and even when he had to tank some of the pressure, he always managed to shake him off quickly, ensuring Yōto never got a chance to escape.

Seconds turned to minutes.

The trio clashed and split, over and over again. But no matter how they maneuvered, Fukui and Yōto couldn't get free.

Either Yōto was locked down and couldn't retreat, or Fukui found himself in too dangerous a spot for Yōto to abandon him.

And so the fight dragged on—for several more minutes, the two Jonin utterly unable to retreat in unison.

As Yōto's condition continued to worsen and the pair's situation became increasingly dire—a third Iwa Jonin finally arrived.

The moment he appeared, he launched a jutsu at Haruki:

"Lightning Style: Roaring Thunder!"

BOOM!

A deafening crack of thunder exploded in Haruki's ears, and for a moment, his consciousness slipped into a genjutsu—a storm of writhing lightning serpents danced across his vision.

It was a rare lightning-style illusion, triggered through sound.

The instant Haruki heard the thunderclap, he had already fallen under its spell.

But his Sharingan's innate resistance to genjutsu, combined with his 15-point Spirit stat, let him break free almost instantly.

And as soon as his mind cleared, the first thing he saw was Yōto, kunai in hand, thrusting straight at his throat.

Not just Yōto—

To Haruki's left, Fukui Ichiro was also swinging his kunai directly toward his neck.

In that split second, Haruki pushed his Sharingan to its limits, his neural reflexes firing at full capacity.

First, he cast a genjutsu, locking Yōto in place.

Then, even as he twisted to dodge Fukui's attack, he snatched Yōto's kunai from his frozen hand—then immediately countered.

Shhk—!

The sound of flesh being pierced echoed.

With his left hand, Haruki reversed his grip and drove the kunai straight into Fukui Ichiro's chest.

All of this took place in a flash—so fast that Haruki's movements left behind afterimages.

Fukui looked down at his chest, at the kunai lodged in his heart—still gripped in Haruki's hand.

"You…"

He tried to say something, but no words came out.

He had expected Haruki might dodge. Maybe even counterattack.

But he hadn't expected Haruki's retaliation to be so fast, so precise, so… lethal.

Even the new Iwa Jonin who had just arrived stood frozen in disbelief.

Just a moment ago, he'd been thinking how seamlessly Yōto and Fukui were working together—and now, one was dead on the spot.

It had all happened so fast his brain couldn't even process it.

But Haruki didn't care what he thought.

After killing Fukui Ichiro, Haruki didn't stop.

He flicked his short sword upward, then drove it forward—piercing straight through Yōto's gut.

The wound snapped Yōto out of his trance. A wave of pain hit him like fire.

But he didn't flinch. His eyes locked onto Haruki, and despite the searing pain in his stomach, he lunged, kunai aimed straight for Haruki's throat.

Only when he struck… he realized his hand was empty.

The kunai was gone.

His eyes shifted to the right—and he saw it: Haruki's left hand gripping the kunai buried in Fukui Ichiro's chest.

"That… that's my kunai…"

Yōto's mind almost crashed.

It felt like he'd missed an entire era—everything around him was completely different from what he remembered.

Sssht—!

Haruki yanked the kunai from Fukui's chest, then spun and slashed across Yōto's throat.

Only now did Yōto begin to piece things together.

He finally understood what had happened.

But it was too late.

Thud. Thud.

Two bodies dropped heavily to the ground—Fukui Ichiro and Iwagama Yōto, both lying still, eyes wide open in death.

Haruki didn't even glance at the corpses.

He turned to the young Jonin in the distance—the one who had cast the lightning genjutsu on him.

Yes, young. That was Haruki's first impression.

The boy looked no more than fifteen or sixteen, and to already be a Jonin at that age? He was clearly a genius in Iwagakure.

But when Haruki's eyes landed on him, the young ninja instinctively took a step back.

Haruki narrowed his eyes… then smiled.

"Thanks for the assist. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to kill those two so quickly."

He glanced down at the bodies.

It was true—without that genjutsu disrupting him, taking down both Jonin would've been difficult, even with the upper hand.

Having an advantage in combat didn't mean an easy victory. Turning advantage into outright victory—especially a double kill—was no small feat.

Not to mention the fact that other Iwa-nin could have come to their aid, or that Fukui and Yōto might have sacrificed one to let the other escape.

In theory, killing them both together was almost impossible.

But then… this young Jonin had "intervened."

It was that one genjutsu—the illusion of opportunity—that made Yōto and Fukui believe they had a real chance to kill Haruki.

They went all-in, recklessly.

And Haruki recovered too fast.

Before they could react, he had already killed them.

But was it fair to say this young ninja had "helped" him?

That would be a stretch.

More accurately, Fukui and Yōto had been under pressure for too long. The sudden release made them reckless. Their deaths weren't entirely on the newcomer.

Still—why did Haruki say it like that?

Simple—to mess with him.

The kid had already taken a step back from just a glance. His will wasn't firm, at least not in that moment.

And Haruki wasn't going to waste the chance to get inside his head.

With a smirk, Haruki continued:

"By the way… did you have a grudge against them or something?"

The moment those words left his mouth, the young Jonin's face turned purple, and he snapped:

"Nonsense! Why would I help you, I—"

But before he could finish—

Haruki's Sharingan lit up.

A genjutsu was already in motion.