Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Pulling his thoughts back together, Haruki turned his attention to the rest of his skills.

The two newest additions were:

Genjutsu: Sharingan and Uchiha-Style Kenjutsu.

The first was something he had picked up while studying the techniques in the Sharingan scroll. Rather than a new genjutsu entirely, it was more like an advanced version of the Sharingan's innate hypnotic ability.

According to the scroll, once fully mastered, this technique could be used without hand seals—a single glance would be enough to trap someone in an illusion.

Even better, the user could build the illusionary world themselves, shaping it however they wanted. Whether for combat or interrogation, it was an extremely useful tool.

Because of that, Haruki had put in some real effort to grind the technique up to Level 1 (150/200).

Right now, he could cast it in under half a second.

That said, the effect was still limited. It was only slightly stronger than the default hypnosis provided by the Sharingan.

Anyone who had some experience with genjutsu—or a stronger mental fortitude—could break out of it.

Still, he could also choose to spend more time preparing and craft a far more convincing illusion to enhance the effect.

That method would be much harder to break.

In essence, Genjutsu: Sharingan had two modes:

Quick cast – fast but weak

Long prep – slow but powerful

Haruki could use whichever mode fit the situation.

Although realistically, he figured he wouldn't be using the second method any time soon.

Why? Simple—if he had that much time to spare, he might as well just cast Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes instead.

That genjutsu was way stronger than a basic-level Sharingan Genjutsu.

Still, the quick-cast version would come in handy for disrupting enemies during combat. Paired with Uchiha-Style Kenjutsu, it could deliver results greater than the sum of its parts.

Speaking of Uchiha-Style Kenjutsu, Haruki glanced at his status panel.

Thanks to his solid foundation with Leaf-Style Kenjutsu, his progress with the Uchiha version was surprisingly fast.

In just two months, it had already reached Level 3 (510/1000)—nearly catching up to where his Leaf-Style was two months ago.

His speed learning it was on par with how fast he had initially leveled up Leaf-Style.

But it wasn't as if he'd only been practicing Uchiha-style.

In reality, he'd spent a lot of time and effort continuing to train both Leaf-Style Kenjutsu and Ninja Tool Throwing.

So the fact that he could reach such a high level in a short time with divided attention? That absolutely counted as progress.

Also thanks to his consistent grind, Leaf-Style Kenjutsu had leveled up from Lv3 (615/1000) to Lv4 (315/2000).

Right now, if he had to face Kohara Shuji in another close-range fight, Haruki was confident he wouldn't lose.

Not necessarily win, but not lose.

Why not win? Simple—while his technique was no longer lacking, his battle experience still couldn't compare. And in close combat, experience could be everything.

But once he raised Uchiha-Style Kenjutsu to Level 4 as well, Haruki was confident he could beat Shuji even in melee.

As for long-range physical combat, he had Ninja Tool Throwing. Even two months ago, that had been enough to hold his own.

Now, after steady training, it had improved from Lv4 (50/2000) to Lv4 (350/2000).

He felt even more confident now.

However, when it came to ninjutsu, Haruki was still limited.

He only had access to Fire Style. And even then, his best jutsu, Phoenix Fire Technique, had only gone from Lv3 (226/1000) to Lv3 (612/1000)—still far from breaking into Lv4 and evolving into a higher tier.

Meanwhile, someone like Kohara Shuji, as a seasoned jonin, likely had at least two elemental chakra natures and could mix them together for far more versatile attacks.

Plus, Shuji probably also knew supporting jutsu like Shadow Clone Technique, which gave him even more options.

All of this meant Haruki couldn't compete in that area.

Perhaps genjutsu was the only category where Haruki, thanks to his Sharingan, could even the playing field.

But if he wanted to surpass someone like Shuji, he'd probably need his Sharingan to evolve to Two Tomoe first.

With that thought, Haruki glanced over the rest of his mostly unchanged skills, then closed his status panel and began testing the effects of Lv5 Reflection Technique.

With well-practiced ease, Haruki wove the necessary hand seals and cast the technique on himself.

The moment he did, he felt something different.

In the past, casting this technique would trigger the generation of special chakra in his brain—but only in trace amounts.

This time, though, the flow was constant, like a slow-moving stream. It wasn't much per second, but the duration more than made up for it.

By the time that special chakra funneled into both his eyes, the difference was obvious.

Haruki had a strong feeling that every two casts of Reflection Technique would now give him one full evolution point for his Sharingan.

Excited, he immediately began casting a second time.

Two minutes later, he opened his eyes and checked the status panel.

Just as expected—his Sharingan's evolution progress had gone up by one.

Even better, those two casts had only cost 340 chakra points—comparable to the 300 chakra he used to spend just keeping the Sharingan active over time.

If he stuck to this new training plan and kept the same chakra allocations, he'd now be gaining 13 evolution points per day.

That meant reaching full evolution—from 715/1000 to 1000/1000—would take just a little over 20 days.

Way faster than he'd originally estimated.

"As expected of a technique that needed 2,000 proficiency points to reach Lv5. This result is absolutely worth it!"

Then he remembered—getting to Lv6 would require 5,000 proficiency points, and he immediately felt a headache coming on.

That much grinding felt impossible in the short term.

Still...

"What kind of effect would Lv6 Reflection Technique have?"

Haruki licked his lips unconsciously, curiosity gleaming in his eyes.

It was a long time before he finally looked away and closed the panel.

After that, he did a quick calculation.

Turns out, 20 days from now would line up almost exactly with the Chūnin Exams.

But that didn't matter much.

With his current strength, those exams wouldn't pose any real challenge.

So whether or not his Sharingan evolved by then wasn't that important.

He only noted the timing casually and didn't dwell on it. With that, he resumed his next round of training.

Time flew by.

In the blink of an eye, a full week passed.

That afternoon, Haruki finished his final patrol mission and returned to the main camp.

According to orders, tomorrow he and a group of genin would return to the village in preparation for the Chūnin Exams happening in half a month.

That night—inside his tent—Haruki finished packing, completed his daily training, and opened his panel before bed.

After a week of focused effort, his Sharingan had evolved to 807/1000—one step closer to the two-tomoe state.

In addition, both Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes and Genjutsu: Sharingan were on the verge of leveling up.

The former had risen from Lv2 (371/500) to Lv2 (412/500), while the latter had gone from Lv1 (150/200) to Lv1 (191/200).

Seeing this visible, tangible progress was what kept Haruki going through such an intense, ascetic lifestyle.

Without these clear signs of improvement, even the strongest willpower would eventually waver when results felt out of reach.

But Haruki was different.

As long as the proficiency panel remained in front of him, he would never slow down.

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