Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Clang! Clang!

Roughly two kilometers southwest of the outpost in a small war-torn town, Uchiha Haruki was deep in combat with Furukawa in the middle of a dense forest, short blade in hand.

Kunai and short sword collided repeatedly, producing crisp metallic sounds as the two exchanged fast-paced blows. The duel was intense and evenly matched.

It was now the eleventh day since their team had been dispatched for rotation duty.

Over the past ten days, their squad hadn't encountered any serious threats. The few skirmishes with enemy shinobi had been minor, barely qualifying as real battles.

Haruki could clearly feel that the Iwagakure shinobi stationed in the northern outpost opposing them were acting with extreme restraint.

In fact, "cautious" was an understatement—they seemed downright timid.

They avoided direct confrontation entirely. Most of their activities were limited to surveillance, and the moment they were discovered, they would immediately retreat.

Haruki guessed that they were probably worried about Konoha's retaliation.

After all, Iwagakure had provoked Konoha more than once, and Konoha was certain to respond in kind.

Given that, it made sense their focus would shift toward defense and prevention, hence the passive stance on the frontlines.

Haruki welcomed this development. After all—what's the point of fighting to the death? That time and energy would be much better spent on training!

Just like now—thanks to Furukawa's sparring, Haruki's Leaf-Style Kenjutsu had advanced rapidly and was on the verge of breaking through Level 2.

Another ten minutes passed.

Furukawa finally withdrew his kunai and stepped back, saying, "Alright, that's enough for today."

"Thank you for your guidance, sensei."

Haruki bowed slightly as he expressed his gratitude.

Furukawa nodded in response. "Your swordsmanship is close to its current limit. To break through this bottleneck, you'll need to carefully refine your fundamentals for a while."

Haruki glanced at his status panel:

Leaf-Style Kenjutsu: Lv2 (497/500)

Just three more points of proficiency and the technique would break through to Level 3.

"Bottleneck?"

"Not for me."

Though confident in his mind, Haruki didn't show it outwardly. He simply replied, "Yes, sensei. I understand."

With that, he began practicing on his own again.

Seeing his dedication, both Ryosuke and Shizuko Mizutani, who were resting nearby, immediately stood up and resumed their own training.

Furukawa observed silently with a smile.

He knew their talents were above average—but certainly not at genius level.

However, thanks to Haruki's presence, they had become incredibly diligent, and their growth had matched or even exceeded that of many gifted ninja.

In just over four months since graduation, they had both reached low-tier chunin strength.

This was the power of leading by example.

One hour later.

As evening approached, Haruki suddenly paused mid-swing, sheathed his blade, and closed his eyes, quietly feeling the changes in his body.

Just moments ago, his Leaf-Style Kenjutsu had reached Level 3 (1/1000), after accumulating the final three points.

At the same time, a warm current surged from deep within his bones, spreading rapidly through his veins and chakra pathways, nourishing every cell in his body.

Haruki knew this feeling well. He had experienced it once before when his Basic Taijutsu had upgraded from Level 1 to Level 2, increasing his physical attribute.

Now, it was happening again—which clearly meant his Physique stat was about to rise.

Moments later, the warm current dissipated.

Haruki opened his panel again, and as expected, his Physique stat had increased from 7 to 8.

Along with it came a refreshing sense of release, like a shackle had been broken.

Haruki could tell that if he activated the Chakra Refinement Technique now, his chakra capacity would increase significantly—this was the result of breaking a physical limit and unlocking greater potential.

Originally, he had thought he'd need the Sharingan to evolve again before this kind of physical growth could occur.

To his surprise, Leaf-Style Kenjutsu had given him an unexpected gift.

Then again, it made sense. Leaf-Style Kenjutsu included physical training elements, so if Basic Taijutsu could lead to physical evolution, there was no reason a more advanced sword art couldn't.

Of course, the real driving force behind his body's improvement was the foundation built through long-term effort.

The sword art or taijutsu merely served as the trigger.

If he wanted to continue growing, he'd have to keep training relentlessly.

On top of that, with this breakthrough, the evolution speed of his Sharingan should also accelerate.

Whether that would happen as expected, however, still needed testing.

As Haruki pondered all of this, Furukawa returned and said, "Alright, that's enough for today. Let's head back."

Haruki and the others packed up and followed him back to the town outpost.

That night.

In his room, Haruki sat cross-legged, refining chakra with his eyes closed.

After a while, he opened his eyes and checked his status panel again.

Just as he'd expected—now that his Physique had improved, his body's potential had risen, and his chakra capacity had also increased.

For the first time in a while, he saw his chakra limit climbing rapidly again.

But that alone wasn't enough to speed up his Sharingan evolution.

What mattered most was whether his daily usable chakra had increased. If it hadn't, then the evolution rate wouldn't change.

Right now, he needed to see whether raising his Physique from 7 to 8 had pushed his daily chakra output past 3,500.

With that in mind, Haruki closed his eyes again and continued testing.

Three days later.

After several rounds of controlled testing, Haruki confirmed it:

His Physique increasing from 7 to 8 had indeed shattered the limit of only being able to use 3,500 chakra points per day.

That number had now risen to 4,200.

It might not seem like much—just 700 points—but when it came to the Insight Technique, that equaled four proficiency points.

And since it took five proficiency points to evolve the Sharingan by one level, this was no small boost.

In other words, every five days, he would now gain four extra points toward his Sharingan's evolution—a significant improvement.

And this was just the most direct benefit.

With a higher Physique stat, Haruki's body could also handle longer chakra refinement sessions each day.

That meant his Chakra Refinement Technique would now level up faster too.

Once it reached Level 4, his daily chakra usage would increase even more—further accelerating the Sharingan's evolution.

This was what people meant by:

"Gain speed in one step, and you'll gain speed in every step."

As long as Haruki maximized every aspect of his training, he could push the Sharingan to evolve as fast as possible.