Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Three days later.

Uchiha Haruki received official notice of his promotion to Chūnin.

After reporting to the Hokage's office and completing registration, he was issued two standard Konoha Chūnin flak jackets.

From this moment forward, he was a true Chūnin—recognized by the village.

As he stepped out of the Hokage building, Haruki paused for a moment before muttering to himself:

"Since I'm already out, I might as well drop by the clan's archive library."

"I wonder if my application got approved?"

He walked and pondered this quietly.

After all, rules were rules, and the Uchiha were strict about theirs.

Within the Uchiha Clan, any major milestone—whether it was promotion in rank, awakening the Sharingan, or reaching higher stages of the dōjutsu—granted the ninja a one-time pass to freely access the clan's archive library.

During that visit, one was allowed to read as many books or scrolls as desired. But if they wanted to take something home, they were limited to just one item.

Now, Haruki had just been promoted to Chūnin, awakened the Sharingan, and evolved it to two tomoe recently.

By clan rules, that qualified him to take three scrolls or books out of the archive.

So there shouldn't be any issue with his request.

Sure enough, when he arrived and made the inquiry, the Uchiha guarding the archive told him that his application had already been approved.

Wasting no time, Haruki requested entry.

After a thorough inspection by the archivist, he was allowed in.

Inside the vast library, Haruki finally understood the true weight of heritage.

Aside from a few forbidden or secret techniques, nearly every jutsu, scroll, and record the Uchiha had collected for over a thousand years was stored here.

Before stepping in, Haruki had been worried he might not find the kind of ninjutsu he was after.

But now, looking at this immense sea of knowledge, that worry vanished.

With this many resources, finding ninjutsu that either absorbed chakra or had a wide-area effect couldn't possibly be that hard.

Or so he thought.

But reality proved otherwise.

Although the archive held an enormous number of scrolls, they weren't organized in any logical way.

So searching for techniques with specific traits took more effort than expected.

Luckily, Haruki had clear objectives and the aid of his Sharingan, which helped him navigate faster. Before his allowed reading time expired, he managed to find exactly what he was looking for.

The first was a chakra absorption jutsu—literally called Chakra Absorption Technique.

Yes, the very same jutsu that would later appear during Naruto's generation's Chūnin Exams, used by the Sound Village spy Yoroi Akadō when fighting Sasuke.

Back then, Haruki had assumed it was an original technique created by Orochimaru.

But here it was, tucked away in the Uchiha archives.

So clearly, Orochimaru hadn't invented it.

And the jutsu itself provided some clues to that.

It had significant flaws.

The most glaring problem: the chakra absorption rate was too slow.

Take that Chūnin Exam fight, for example.

Sasuke had already been weakened by the Curse Mark, barely holding on after a brutal match.

Even then, Yoroi couldn't drain his chakra fast enough to finish the fight before being countered and defeated.

That alone showed how weak the technique was.

Add to that the requirement of physical contact to activate it, and it became little more than a gimmick.

If you're already close enough to hold someone down and maintain contact, wouldn't it be easier to just knock them out?

With such glaring weaknesses, it was hard to imagine a perfectionist like Orochimaru creating something so sloppy.

Even if he had, he'd definitely have tried to improve it—not just hand it off the way he supposedly did.

Haruki guessed Orochimaru had probably stumbled upon the technique by chance, studied it briefly, and then just tossed it to Yoroi—who, tragically, treated it like a treasure.

But for Haruki?

It actually was a treasure.

Why?

Because the framework was solid, and the concept was powerful.

That meant he could grind its proficiency, raise its level, and eventually push it far beyond what its original creators could have imagined.

Just like with the Mind Reflection Technique—originally designed just to help Uchiha awaken the Sharingan. But after Haruki trained it to higher proficiency, it became a powerful tool for accelerating Sharingan evolution.

So no—he wasn't afraid of the jutsu's flaws.

As long as he could level it up, those flaws would eventually disappear.

One day, he might even use this technique to forcibly absorb tailed beast chakra, achieving a dream its creators could only fantasize about.

Because that was the jutsu's original goal:

to convert tailed beast chakra into one's own power.

That's why Haruki had called it "high-concept."

It just fell short in execution.

Shaking off those thoughts, Haruki turned to the second book.

This one wasn't about ninjutsu at all—it was a compilation of insights on how to develop a second chakra nature.

Yes, Haruki had already decided:

Once he mastered Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire, he'd begin working on his second elemental affinity.

And he'd already chosen it: Wind Release.

To that end, the third book he selected was a Wind-style jutsu:

Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.

It was only a C-rank technique, but its power scaled directly with chakra input.

If the user was strong enough, it could affect an area hundreds or even thousands of square meters wide.

The perfect way to make up for his lack of area-of-effect options.

As for the large-scale Fire-style jutsu he'd hoped to find—like Majestic Destroyer Flame or Blazing Fire Annihilation—he hadn't seen either of them in the library.

Maybe they were stashed in some obscure corner...

Or maybe Madara Uchiha had taken them with him long ago.

Either way, they weren't available.

And that, too, had reinforced Haruki's decision to make Wind Release his second chakra nature.

After tucking away the three selected scrolls, Haruki completed the final checks and left the library.

He went straight home.

Seated in his private training room, Haruki reviewed the latest updates from the village.

According to the latest intel, he'd have about a month of rest before being sent back to the battlefield in the Land of Rain.

Clearly, the village had intentionally granted this time for newly promoted Chūnin to grow stronger.

Which probably meant the frontlines weren't in critical danger yet.

Otherwise, forget training time—they'd already be sending everyone to the meat grinder.

Still, a full month of rest was a rare gift.

And he had plenty of skills ready for upgrades.

That month would be enough to significantly boost his strength once more.

With that thought, Haruki cleared his mind and focused completely on his training.

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