Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

"Is the Sharingan really that powerful?"

As Uchiha Haruki's figure disappeared into the distance, Satō Masaru stepped up beside Nara Seihei, still rattled, and asked the question out loud.

"No,"

Seihei shook his head and replied seriously,

"It's not the Sharingan that's powerful—it's Uchiha Haruki who's powerful."

"...I see."

Masaru nodded slowly, deep in thought.

Off to the side, Seihei silently replayed the entire battle in his mind.

From Haruki's precise control of ninjutsu to the way he handled crisis situations, every decision had reflected a refined tactical mind.

With a mind like that—and the Sharingan backing it up—even with their combined strength, they had maybe a 20% chance of winning.

That was exactly why Seihei had chosen to surrender as soon as he realized Haruki wasn't aiming to kill.

It was the only way to minimize damage.

At the same time, he'd gambled that Haruki wouldn't take all of their scrolls.

And he'd gambled right.

Haruki had taken only one scroll—the one he needed—and left the other two untouched.

Their squad only needed one Earth Scroll to pass anyway. Losing one didn't stop them from progressing.

This, too, was why Haruki had commented earlier that the second exam was easier than expected.

Everyone here came from the same village. Unless absolutely necessary, no one was going to go for the kill.

That meant, when things got rough, larger teams could always surrender a scroll to save themselves.

Of course, that only worked if their opponents weren't part of a coalition of solo fighters who needed a ton of scrolls.

Otherwise, they'd be either eliminated or forced to snatch scrolls from someone else.

As for what Seihei and the others were thinking—Haruki didn't care.

Once he had both the Heaven Scroll and the Earth Scroll, he didn't waste a second.

He headed straight for the Central Tower.

Five days.

To some, it might seem like a long time.

To others, it'd pass in a blink.

But for Uchiha Haruki, it was an opportunity—a chance to grind skills.

He'd already mapped out a full training plan.

Of the 8,000 chakra points he accumulated daily, 3,500 would be used to train Mind Reflection Technique.

That would net him 21 proficiency points, and in turn, boost his Sharingan Evolution Progress by 7 points.

Add to that the 3 points he gained from keeping the Sharingan active for 15 hours (costing 600 chakra), and it was a clean 10-point boost daily.

The remaining 3,900 chakra points would be split as follows:

2,500 points for training:

Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu

Demonic Illusion: Shackles Binding Jutsu

Genjutsu: Sharingan

Each of those would gain 10 proficiency points.

This left him with 1,400 chakra points.

Of those, 420 points would go to training the Body Flicker Technique.

Since it was a D-rank ninjutsu, and thanks to his Level 3 Chakra Control (220/1000), the chakra cost was reduced from 50 to 42 per session.

Meaning 420 chakra would net him 10 proficiency points.

He also planned to use 600 points to train the Healing Jutsu, which, based on prior experience, would yield about 7 proficiency points.

With the last 300 or so chakra, he'd rotate practice among:

Leaf-Style Swordsmanship

Uchiha-Style Swordsmanship

Shuriken & Tool Throwing

Chakra Control

This meant that aside from:

Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu

Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu

Shadow Clone Technique

—every other skill would see improvement.

It might seem unfocused, but with his proficiency panel, Haruki could manage a balanced, parallel progression.

Unless something drastic happened, he intended to keep distributing chakra this way for the foreseeable future.

As for evolving the Sharingan further?

That would have to wait until after the exam.

Hopefully, he could acquire a chakra-absorbing technique from within the Uchiha Clan afterward.

If not, he'd just have to rely on increasing his base stats, or leveling up techniques like Chakra Refinement and Mind Reflection to push through.

With that thought, Haruki quickened his pace.

Half an hour later, he reached the outer perimeter of the Central Tower.

Along the way, he'd dodged what he could and crushed what he couldn't with overwhelming force, barely wasting any time at all.

It wasn't even sundown yet when he arrived.

After scanning the area to ensure there were no ambushes, Haruki approached the Central Tower.

Creak—

The large doors swung open as he stepped inside.

As expected—the place was empty.

Not even the usual "Chūnin's Creed" inscription by the Third Hokage was on the wall this time.

But Haruki didn't dwell on it.

He found a quiet corner and immediately began training.

For him, the Chūnin Exams were just a formality.

Progress—growth—mastery—that was what mattered.

Time passed. Slowly but surely, more Genin arrived.

The second to reach the tower was—Uchiha Shisui.

He arrived barely ten minutes later.

Clearly, the exam posed no real difficulty for him either.

Shisui tried to strike up conversation a few times, but seeing Haruki so focused on training, he refrained from interrupting.

In the blink of an eye, over four days passed.

By then, the number of Genin gathered at the tower had climbed to 25.

By the time the exam period officially ended, that number had reached 28.

One interesting point—

Nara Seihei's squad, despite losing a scroll to Haruki, had still passed and arrived on Day Two.

Clearly, in this more lenient version of the exam, intelligence had a distinct advantage.

Boom!

A sudden cloud of chakra smoke burst forth.

The Heaven and Earth Scrolls held by each Genin automatically unfurled.

A linked Body Possession Jutsu activated across all scrolls—

and in a flash, Takigawa Maki appeared in the middle of the room.

The crowd instantly went silent, all eyes focused with anticipation.

Maki didn't waste any time.

He looked around the room and said loudly:

"First of all—congratulations. You've passed the second exam."

As soon as he finished, a wave of cheers erupted, especially from the two- and three-person squads.

"Quiet down!"

Maki raised both hands to calm them.

Once order returned, he continued:

"You now have one night to rest. Tomorrow morning, we begin the final exam."

He then pointed to the floor:

"It'll be held right here. Medical-nin will be arriving shortly—if you need healing, find them."

With that, he disappeared using the Body Flicker Technique.

As soon as he was gone, the tower buzzed with chatter once more.

Haruki, however, was deep in thought.

The third exam will be held here? That means it won't be public.

Makes sense.

This wasn't an era of peace where the Chūnin Exams doubled as a demonstration of national power.

No—this was wartime.

The Genin taking the exam were the village's reserve forces, and the exams needed to be kept secret.

In that light, holding the final exam here was only logical.