Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Three days later.

Early morning.

Uchiha Haruki stepped out of his tent and walked through the main base, watching the crowds of shinobi coming and going. Despite the normal activity, he couldn't shake off a vague sense of looming tension—like a storm was on the horizon.

Haruki knew exactly where that feeling came from—Orochimaru's temperament.

A man like him would never just sit back and take a beating without striking back.First, it was the canyon ambush. Then, three days ago, another sneak attack. Two consecutive setbacks—Orochimaru wouldn't let it go.

Haruki strongly suspected that something big was brewing.

However—

He glanced around at the scorched remains and burnt supplies around the base and knew one thing: even if revenge was coming, it wouldn't be anytime soon.

Three days ago, during the joint attack by the Sand and Stone shinobi, while Konoha had successfully defended the base, over half of their supplies were destroyed.

So until new resources arrived, Orochimaru was unlikely to make any bold moves.

Considering the time it took just to get to the Land of Rain a month ago, transporting supplies from Konoha would take at least twenty days—and that's without delays, sabotage, or supply chain disruptions.

Realistically, Haruki figured it'd take a full month before things were back on track.

In other words, no large-scale battles were likely in the next thirty days.

That brought him some relief.

Leaving the main camp, Haruki passed through several defense lines before reaching a dense forest on the northwest side of the base.

As he approached, the sounds of training rang through the air—grunts, shouts, and the clanging of weapons striking wood and steel.

Haruki wasn't surprised in the slightest.

This was the designated training area the main base had allocated for ninja practice. Given the wartime conditions, it was perfectly normal for people to be here sharpening their skills.

Even in the middle of war, shinobi weren't on missions 24/7. They usually got a few days off every ten or fifteen days.

Faced with the pressure of combat, most chose to spend that time training, trying to grow stronger.

For convenience and order, the base had assigned this area for that exact purpose.

Haruki had been coming here to train ever since he arrived on the battlefield over a month ago—especially in the past three days, where he came every single day without fail.

Quickly making his way to a quiet corner, Haruki drew a short sword.

It was the same one he had taken from Shirashikurato's body—about half a meter long, silver in hue, forged from fine steel mixed with chakra-conductive metal.

It wasn't just durable—it was also excellent at transferring energy.

Unfortunately, Haruki's Fire Release skills weren't high enough yet. His understanding of fire chakra was still shallow—he hadn't mastered shape and nature transformation, so he couldn't unleash the blade's full potential.

Otherwise, just one slash with a Blazing Blade technique would inflict both physical and fire damage, searing enemies with high temperatures.

Shaking those thoughts away, Haruki refocused and began training in Leaf-Style Kenjutsu.

Yes—he had successfully exchanged his military merit for this technique. The process went smoothly, with no complications.

As he trained, Haruki discovered that his Maxed-Out Basic Taijutsu was providing bonus synergy.

In less than three days, he had not only grasped the basics but had already reached Level 1 (60/200) in Leaf-Style Kenjutsu.

Haruki estimated this sword technique had the difficulty level of a C-rank skill. Even if it didn't consume much chakra during training, it should've taken at least three days just to get started.

Compared to that, his rapid progress was a massive leap.

So—why was it happening?

Haruki had a theory: a lot of the techniques in Basic Taijutsu were also embedded within Leaf-Style Kenjutsu.

In other words, maxing out Basic Taijutsu had already laid the groundwork. He had unknowingly trained for parts of the sword technique in advance.

That explained the faster-than-expected results.

However, Haruki didn't think this boost would last forever. Eventually, those built-in synergies would be exhausted.

After all, there's only so much content in Basic Taijutsu. Once that foundation was burned through, the benefits would vanish.

Just as Haruki predicted—

Two days later.

In the morning, after another round of training, he only gained one single point of proficiency.

Then something odd happened—his Basic Taijutsu icon began to flicker on the skill panel… and then disappeared completely.

At first, Haruki panicked.

But after confirming the knowledge was still present in his mind, he calmed down.

Clearly, Basic Taijutsu had been completely absorbed into Leaf-Style Kenjutsu.

At this point, his sword technique had reached Level 1 (181/200).

Seeing how close he was to leveling up, Haruki didn't hesitate. After a short break, he resumed training.

Without the Basic Taijutsu bonus buff, his progress slowed, as expected.

Finally, by late afternoon, Haruki had pushed Leaf-Style Kenjutsu to Level 2 (1/500).

While he wasn't exactly a swordmaster, his movements with the short blade had become smooth and refined.

After swinging it around a few more times, Haruki put the weapon away and began mentally reviewing the entire learning process from the past few days.

One thing was certain: his lightning-fast progress in Leaf-Style Kenjutsu was entirely thanks to Basic Taijutsu.

This realization reminded him of his earlier training experience with Fire Release: Phoenix Fire Jutsu.

Back then, it was because he had already mastered Fireball Jutsu (Lv1) that he was able to quickly learn Phoenix Fire.

Later on, when he moved to Dragon Fire Jutsu, his familiarity with both Fireball and Phoenix Fire had allowed him to accelerate the learning curve yet again.

It had become clear to him even then—similar element jutsu could support each other's development.

But once all three jutsu reached Level 1, that synergistic effect dropped off drastically—or even vanished entirely.

So, he hadn't thought much of it afterward.

Now, Haruki realized he had been wrong.

He shouldn't have tried to level all three Fire jutsu simultaneously.

Because they were all C-rank techniques with similar difficulty, trying to raise them together didn't offer much cross-learning benefit.

Progress could only come little by little.

The correct approach would have been to focus on maxing out one first—master its chakra nature and transformation—and then move on to the next.

That way, it would be like a senior student solving junior-level problems—the efficiency and learning rate would soar.

And on the panel, that would translate to faster proficiency growth.

It would save both time and chakra.

Haruki couldn't help but feel a tinge of regret for not realizing this sooner.

Still—it wasn't too late.

He glanced at his panel and made a decision: among the three Fire jutsu, he would first prioritize leveling up Phoenix Fire Jutsu.

Why?Simple—it was the most practical and versatile.

As for his other skills—

Since they weren't closely related, he'd just raise them step by step.