Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Swoosh—

Uchiha Haruki's figure appeared on the battlefield.

Without hesitation, he threw a kunai directly at Shirashikurato, who was still struggling on the ground.

The kunai shot through the air, slicing across seven or eight meters of distance, and was about to pierce its target—

But right at that moment, Shirashikurato suddenly lifted his head, revealing a wicked grin.

The next second, his entire body erupted with lightning, rushing toward Haruki at lightning speed.

This state…

Was completely inconsistent with how weak he had just appeared.

It was obvious—Shirashikurato had been faking.

Yet, in the face of his sudden counterattack, Haruki didn't panic.

As if he had already expected it, he instinctively stepped back the moment Shirashikurato lunged.

And even as he retreated, his hands moved rapidly, weaving hand seals.

"Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique!"

With a single mental command, Haruki cast the genjutsu just before Shirashikurato could get close.

As the massive image of the Sharingan filled his vision, Shirashikurato murmured in disbelief, "That's not ninjutsu…"

Clearly, he had assumed Haruki would cast another ninjutsu. But this time—it was an illusion he'd never seen before.

In the next instant, his consciousness was dragged into a mental illusion. Though he could still faintly sense his physical body, he couldn't move at all.

Looking down, he saw massive rusted iron stakes driven through his limbs and torso.

Even though he knew the scene before him wasn't real, the bone-deep pain made him involuntarily twitch.

Meanwhile—

Outside the illusion, Haruki exhaled deeply as he stared at the short blade crackling with fading lightning just inches from his neck.

But just then—another figure burst from behind him, moving with a speed not inferior to Shirashikurato's earlier charge.

It was clearly meant to be a killing blow, striking while Haruki let his guard down.

But was Haruki really off guard?

Just as the enemy revealed themselves, Haruki seemed to sense it coming—he vanished with a flicker, reappearing behind Shirashikurato.

Gazing coldly at the rapidly approaching figure, Haruki sneered, "So you finally showed yourself."

With that, he darted back.

The attacker—who turned out to be Shirashikurato's shadow clone—realized what was happening too late. He rushed forward, attempting to release the illusion on the real Shirashikurato.

But just then—a faint spark appeared on Shirashikurato's back. A burning explosive tag had been planted there without anyone noticing.

BOOM—

A violent explosion ripped through the area, engulfing both Shirashikurato and his shadow clone in crimson fire. The blazing flames illuminated the surrounding darkness.

Only now did Haruki finally let down his guard, panting heavily.

This fight may have looked easy, but in truth—it was won entirely thanks to the power of the Sharingan.

If not for its hypnotic ability, he would've been killed during his earlier blunder when Shirashikurato caught him off-guard.

It was clear that Shirashikurato had intended to end the fight quickly.

But thankfully, Haruki had activated his Sharingan early, saving himself from death.

And beyond the hypnotic genjutsu, the Sharingan also granted him incredible perception.

That perception allowed him to read Shirashikurato's movements clearly and pushed his skills in Fire Release ninjutsu and ninja tool throwing to their limits.

Without that, even though he had leveled up three Fire Style jutsu to Lv.2 and upgraded his weapon-throwing skill to Lv.3, it still wouldn't have been enough.

If his attacks couldn't threaten Shirashikurato, the enemy would have easily outlasted him until he ran out of chakra.

And at that point—death would've been certain.

Thankfully, the Sharingan gave him the edge, forcing Shirashikurato to go on the offensive.

Still, Shirashikurato's counterattack wasn't random—it had a plan behind it.

First, when he reappeared from behind that tree to counterattack, he had already secretly cast the Shadow Clone Technique, creating a clone out of Haruki's view.

Then he used himself as bait to draw Haruki's full attention, setting up the clone to launch a surprise assault.

Unfortunately for him, Haruki's strength exceeded expectations. The combination of Phoenix Fire Jutsu and precise ninja tool throws caught Shirashikurato completely off-guard.

From there, the battle began to slip from Shirashikurato's control.

But once things had begun, there was no turning back.

So when he was hit by the Phoenix Fire Jutsu, he played along—pretending to be severely injured to lure Haruki into revealing himself.

Haruki saw through the deception, but still exposed himself anyway.

At that moment, both of them were playing mind games.

Shirashikurato hoped to corner Haruki with a pincer attack using his clone.

But Haruki intended to turn the trap against him and eliminate both threats at once.

It wasn't that Haruki had some godlike strategic mind—it was that the Sharingan let him see it coming.

Although the Sharingan couldn't yet allow him to perceive chakra networks or tenketsu like the Byakugan, it could still sense the general amount of chakra in a person.

So even though Haruki didn't see the clone being made, he clearly noticed Shirashikurato's chakra suddenly cut in half.

If he hadn't figured something out after that, the Sharingan would've been wasted on him.

With that mental preparation, neither the clone's ambush nor Shirashikurato's final strike caught him off guard.

The old saying in the shinobi world was true—

In a one-on-one fight, the Sharingan holds an overwhelming advantage.

From the very beginning, Shirashikurato's trump cards had been exposed—and Haruki was destined to win.

Taking a deep breath, Haruki felt the pain in his chest lessen slightly and finally turned his attention to his status panel.

That battle had drained almost all of his remaining chakra.

Not just from the ninjutsu—but also from maintaining the Sharingan.

While normally the Sharingan only consumed 1 chakra point per minute, in the heat of battle, that number spiked dramatically.

In just a few minutes, he had burned through several hundred points.

However, there was good news—his Sharingan evolution progress had increased by 10 points.

It showed Haruki a shortcut to leveling up his eyes.

But after thinking for a moment—he gave up on it.

He had no desire to risk his life again just for faster upgrades.

With the proficiency system in place, there was no need to gamble with death—no matter how tempting the shortcut might be.

Watching the last of the flames die out ahead, Haruki clutched his chest, stepped forward, picked up the fallen short blade, and then quietly left the area.

From now on, his plan was to find somewhere to lay low and wait out this strange ambush battle.

As for the rest of the battlefield—

Whoever wants to fight, let them fight.

He had already done more than enough.

Whether they lived or died now—it was all up to fate.

Besides, even if he wanted to go back, his body wouldn't allow it.

Forget the nearly depleted chakra—his chest wound alone left him unable to fight at full strength.

To go charging into battle now would be sheer suicide.

And Haruki had no intention of dying for anyone else.