Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Three days later.

It was now early February.

After more than half a month of focused training, Uchiha Haruki could clearly feel the changes in his body.

He could sense a growing power deep inside him—a force that was slowly pushing his physical form forward, evolving it in a more refined, perfected direction.

Haruki knew exactly what this meant—

His "Physique" attribute was about to level up.

Based on the pace of his progress, he estimated that within a week at most, the upgrade would go through.

Once that happened, both his chakra capacity and recovery rate would receive a major boost.

Even more importantly, the gap between his "Physique" and "Spirit" attributes would narrow—bringing him one step closer to safely awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Just as Haruki thought he could calmly wait until the upgrade happened, a sudden message threw his entire training plan into chaos.

Early Morning

Central Command Room, Forward Outpost

Inside the conference room, Captain Nara Soshimizu had just finished reading out the latest directive from headquarters when someone impatiently asked,

"Captain Nara, what exactly is going on? Why did HQ suddenly issue an order to retreat?"

Indeed, the latest command was urgent:

They were to immediately abandon their current outpost and fall back to the Fengliu Town base in the shortest time possible to support its defenses against a potential attack.

The problem was…

Fengliu Town was located behind them.

If even Fengliu was under threat, didn't that mean their own position—even closer to the front lines—was in even greater danger?

And yet, everything had seemed normal for the past few days.

No enemy activity. No major disturbances.

The room buzzed with confusion as everyone looked to Captain Nara for answers.

Nara Soshimizu's expression was grim as he responded,

"We've just received word—several of the outposts near us have already been overrun."

"What?!"

The entire room gasped in shock.

These outposts communicated with each other daily. They regularly exchanged updates to ensure information was current.

As recently as yesterday, all nearby outposts had reported nothing unusual—just the usual small skirmishes.

Yet overnight, they had all fallen?

All at once?

That was nearly impossible to believe.

But no one doubted Nara Soshimizu. He wasn't the type to joke about something so serious.

Someone quickly followed up,

"What exactly happened?"

Nara answered soberly:

"According to HQ, Iwagakure launched a sudden offensive last night, deploying both the Four-Tails and Five-Tails Jinchūriki, supported by elite demolition units."

"What?!"

"The Four-Tails and the Five-Tails?!"

"Demolition squads?!"

Several voices rang out almost simultaneously—all equally stunned.

It was no surprise. Any one of those assets—the Four-Tails' jinchūriki, the Five-Tails', or the demolition experts—was enough to cause serious problems.

But together?

It meant Iwagakure was going all-in.

Until now, their current outpost had been considered relatively safe. Since they had been pushed back by the Iwa forces, their location sat further to the rear—almost forming an inward dent in the front line.

But with the surrounding outposts crushed overnight, their "safe position" had just become a dangerously exposed salient.

No wonder HQ had ordered them to retreat.

If they didn't move now and Iwa's main army swept through, they'd be completely cut off—unable to escape at all.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, no one wasted time.

Retreat routes and plans were swiftly drawn up, and the meeting disbanded as everyone rushed off to prepare.

Haruki, meanwhile, didn't have much to do.

Once again, he had been assigned to the combat squad, which meant that while the logistics and command teams buzzed with activity, he seemed relatively idle.

But his mood was anything but relaxed.

In truth, he was furious.

His Physique attribute was just about to break through, and now this?

To make things worse, this sudden retreat meant he'd have to abandon the prisoners in the secret base.

That alone would cost him over 40,000 chakra points a day.

Of course, he hadn't been using all of that chakra on Mystical Palm Technique to boost his body...

But even if he now devoted every drop of his daily regenerated chakra to physical enhancement, the timeline for his breakthrough would still be delayed by two to three days.

"Is it worth it?" Haruki hesitated.

If he committed fully to physical strengthening, then for the next ten days or so, all his other skills would have to be put on hold.

He opened his panel and glanced at the list of techniques.

After some thought, he made up his mind.

Suspend training on everything else.

His current focus skills—Wind Release: Wind Blade, Rasengan, and Shadow Clone—were not urgent.

They were already at a functional level.

No need to compete for chakra with something as important as upgrading his Physique.

A solid foundation was always more important.

Once he'd made peace with that, Haruki stopped hesitating.

"Alright... time to handle the situation at the secret base."

There was still a shadow clone stationed at the base.

But Haruki had no way to communicate with it directly, and in this situation, he couldn't leave the outpost himself.

That left only one option.

"I'll have to send another clone."

Making his way to a quiet, unobserved corner, Haruki formed the seals for Shadow Clone Technique.

Poof!

A cloud of chakra smoke erupted, and a clone appeared before him.

Without needing instructions, the clone gave him a nod and quickly departed—sneaking silently out of the outpost, heading toward the secret base.

An hour and a half later

Southwest of the Outpost

Haruki was moving swiftly through the forest when his steps suddenly faltered.

Inside his body, two streams of chakra suddenly appeared—along with two sets of memories in his mind.

He quickly skimmed through them.

They were from the clone that had stayed at the secret base, and the one he had just sent there earlier.

Right beside him, a fellow jonin from the combat squad noticed his sudden pause and asked,

"What's wrong? Did you sense something?"

As he spoke, the jonin cautiously scanned the surrounding forest, wary of an ambush.

Haruki opened his mouth, about to say, "It's nothing."

But just then—

A barely audible whooshing sound reached his ears.

His expression shifted instantly.

Haruki's head snapped toward the sound's direction, eyes sharp.

His pupils contracted as he let out a loud warning:

"Watch out!"

Even as he shouted, he was already sprinting toward the dense woods to the side.

The Konoha jonin didn't hesitate.

He hadn't heard or seen anything—but he trusted Haruki's instincts.

After all, Haruki had earned that trust through countless battles.