Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Hearing his question, Shizuko Mizutani broke into even heavier sobs.

From her choked and broken explanation, Uchiha Haruki learned what had happened—Furukawa-sensei had stayed behind to cover the team's retreat. He fought alone, and in the end, was killed by two Iwa Jōnin working together.

As for Ryosuke…

He died protecting Shizuko.

During the retreat, the two of them had terrible luck and ran into a squad of Iwa Chūnin.

Ryosuke had fought with everything he had to shield her. But sheer determination can't always bridge the gap in strength. The enemy had four Chūnin, and despite his best efforts, Ryosuke was killed on the spot.

Shizuko would've died too—if a Konoha Jōnin hadn't passed by at the right moment and pulled her out.

Haruki glanced at her more closely. Only now did he notice how many wounds she had on her body.

Just from those injuries, it was clear how dangerous the situation had been.

A thought crossed Haruki's mind: If I hadn't been on the infiltration mission to the Iwa supply base—if I'd been with them instead… would things have turned out differently?

He thought about it for a while. And he came to an answer.

If you looked only at the outcome—yes. Things likely would've gone better.

With his current strength, he might not have been able to save Furukawa-sensei—facing two elite Jōnin at once was still beyond him—but he definitely could've protected Ryosuke and Shizuko. Four Iwa Chūnin weren't enough to defeat him, even if they attacked together.

But even so… it's not like he could babysit them forever.

Not to mention, during missions, he already went out of his way to look after the two of them. Even when they were ambushed or attacked during the night, he had risked himself multiple times to protect them.

By Haruki's standards, he'd already done more than enough. If things still went wrong… then maybe it was just fate.

So while he did feel a twinge of regret over the deaths of Ryosuke and Furukawa, he wasn't overcome with guilt. At most, he just felt a bit of sorrow.

"I need to get stronger. Fast."

Haruki made the decision silently.

In the end, Ryosuke died because his strength wasn't enough. If he'd been stronger, even a bad encounter like that wouldn't have ended in death.

That's why strength is everything.

With that settled, Haruki didn't waste another second. He offered Shizuko a few words of comfort and escorted her to the medical-nin. After she received basic treatment, he quietly slipped away and resumed his training.

A few hours later.

The sky was just beginning to brighten.

The sound of wagon wheels echoed in the distance as the next group of ninja arrived to relieve them at the outpost.

Once the handover was complete, Haruki and the others started their return journey to headquarters.

They had left with 120 shinobi. Fewer than 50 were coming back.

A nearly 60% casualty rate—brutal didn't even begin to describe it.

And among the survivors, most were Chūnin or Jōnin. Very few Genin remained.

There was a reason people called Genin cannon fodder on the battlefield.

That said, this particular mission had been an outlier.

Under normal circumstances, the casualty rate during front-line rotation missions was nowhere near 60%. Not for a single deployment.

On the road.

The mood in the group was heavy.

Haruki glanced at Shizuko Mizutani walking beside him.

After several hours of rest, she looked much better physically—but judging by her expression, she still hadn't emerged from the shadow of losing her teacher and friend.

There wasn't much Haruki could do for that.

Time would have to do the healing.

Seconds turned into minutes. Minutes into hours.

The group moved at a steady but slow pace.

Without cargo or supplies to escort, they could've moved much faster—but the number of injured was simply too high. They had no choice but to slow down.

Even so, they managed to reach headquarters before nightfall.

As a Genin, Haruki didn't need to worry about writing mission reports.

As soon as they arrived, he threw himself straight back into training.

This time, he had a decent chunk of downtime. His goal? Push Chakra Refinement Technique to Level 4.

Two days later.

Late at night.

Inside his tent, Haruki's eyes snapped open, gleaming with joy.

After two full days of nonstop training, he had finally advanced Chakra Refinement Technique from Level 3 to Level 4.

"Now… let's see what kind of boost this gives me."

Muttering under his breath, Haruki closed his eyes again and began to meditate—drawing out chakra.

And immediately, he felt the difference.

At Level 3, using the technique was like drawing energy through a narrow straw—slow and limited.

Now, it was like that straw had been rigged with a high-pressure pump. The flow of chakra surged.

One hour later.

Haruki opened his eyes and glanced at his system panel.

+800 chakra points.

At Level 3, he'd only gotten +400 in an hour.

That meant the chakra regeneration rate had doubled with the upgrade to Level 4.

Which was perfect—it would let him spend more time on ninjutsu and other techniques.

Back when he hadn't yet learned Konoha-ryū Kenjutsu, he didn't need to worry much about time. Casting most jutsu didn't take long.

The main concern was whether he had enough chakra, not how much time he had.

But once he started learning Konoha Sword Style—and especially after leveling it to 3—time became a real issue.

Even if it didn't burn through chakra, gaining proficiency meant practicing the forms again and again.

And that took a lot of time.

So this efficiency boost couldn't have come at a better moment.

More importantly, though, was his total chakra pool.

Before he broke through the 8-point mark in his Constitution attribute, his daily chakra capacity capped at 3,500.

After crossing that threshold, it jumped to 4,200.

Haruki had guessed that leveling Chakra Refinement to 4 would boost that number again—and he'd been right.

He hadn't run full tests yet, but judging from the last hour's results, he estimated the new total to be around 5,500.

That was an increase of 1,300 points.

If he channeled all that into practicing Reflection Technique, it would grant him 7.6 proficiency points.

And with every 5 points, his Sharingan evolution progressed by 1.

In other words, his Sharingan could now gain 1.5 extra evolution points per day.

This was a big deal—it meant the growth rate of his Sharingan would increase significantly.

The only downside?

His base attributes hadn't changed.

His physical potential had already been pushed to the limit. So now, his chakra cap could only increase slowly over time.

If not, he would've known exactly how much extra his chakra cap improved per hour using the Level 4 refinement technique.

Following the usual doubling pattern from previous upgrades, it should go from +8 per hour to +16.

That way, once his base stats improved again, he could quickly convert that potential into actual power.

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