Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Just as Karu vanished into the earth, Uchiha Haruki was preparing to search for him—

But right then, his teammate suddenly let out a miserable scream.

Haruki immediately turned toward the sound.

His teammate's left arm—everything below the elbow—was gone, and he was now desperately trying to dodge incoming attacks from surrounding enemies.

Haruki hesitated briefly, then gave up on tracking Karu and used Body Flicker Jutsu to instantly arrive at his comrade's side.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Haruki swung his kunai swiftly, deflecting the blows from several Iwa shinobi around them.

Then, activating his Sharingan, he cast Genjutsu: Sharingan and successfully immobilized the nearest enemy.

At the same time, he pulled out an explosive tag from his ninja pouch and slapped it onto the enemy's body like lightning.

Crackle... fsssshh...

The tag sizzled as it ignited.

"Watch out!"

One of the Iwa nin noticed and shouted in warning to the others.

Hearing this, the surrounding Iwa shinobi scattered in a panic.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Haruki grabbed his injured teammate's remaining arm and launched himself backward with a powerful leap, retreating several meters away from the immobilized enemy.

BOOM!

A thunderous explosion erupted behind them.

A bright burst of fire engulfed the enemy, and amidst the flames, painful screams echoed briefly—before fading away.

"Damn it!"

An Iwa jonin cursed loudly and shouted toward Haruki, who was retreating with his teammate:

"After them!"

The remaining Iwa shinobi immediately gave chase.

Haruki, carrying another person, couldn't move as quickly.

So, he suddenly spun around and stopped, casting Genjutsu: Sharingan on another pursuer while quickly weaving hand signs.

Seeing this, the Iwa jonin barked:

"Watch out!"

He too began forming seals, clearly intending to counter with a jutsu of his own.

But Haruki's hands moved too fast.

Before the jonin could finish, Haruki had already completed his seals and exhaled a massive fireball.

Faced with the incoming ball of fire, the Iwa jonin had no choice but to abandon his technique and, like the others, scatter in different directions.

BOOM!

The fireball exploded, its searing heat and shockwave igniting a large section of forest, scattering the Iwa formation even further.

Without missing a beat, Haruki formed more hand signs and unleashed another Fire Style technique—

Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!

Dozens of small, seed-like fireballs burst from his mouth like blooming phoenix flowers, raining down on the disoriented Iwa shinobi like scattered petals from the sky.

Already in the middle of retreating, the enemy couldn't react fast enough.

Several were struck directly and let out agonized cries.

Then a second scream, a third—

Watching his technique land so effectively, the enemy Iwa jonin could no longer sit back. They finally began casting jutsu in retaliation.

But Haruki stayed calm.

With the enhanced perception of his Sharingan, he effortlessly dodged their counterattacks.

Then, using Wind Style: Great Breakthrough, he blasted a fierce gust of wind behind him to disrupt their pursuit—

Before carrying his injured comrade and disappearing into the forest.

As the winds died down, the Iwa jonin regrouped, clearly preparing to give chase again.

But just then, Karu suddenly emerged from the ground.

"Don't pursue."

"Captain!"

The others greeted him quickly, but one of them asked, clearly unwilling:

"Captain, you're just going to let them go like that?"

"Let them go? No."

Karu shook his head and said coldly:

"We're just sparing their lives… for now."

"But—"

One of the shinobi still tried to speak, but Karu cut him off before he could finish.

"With our current numbers, we can't take both of them down—especially not Uchiha Haruki.

His strength isn't ordinary.

If we keep pushing, we'll only suffer meaningless losses."

He paused, then turned to glance off into the distant forest.

"By now, the village should have blocked off their retreat path.

All we need to do is track the movements of Konoha's main forces and wait patiently for the village's encirclement to be completed.

When that happens, we'll take them all out in one sweep.

There's no point sacrificing more people now."

The other jonin exchanged glances, then silently nodded.

Karu's reasoning made sense.

Meanwhile—

On the other side.

After several minutes of sprinting through the forest, Haruki and his teammate finally returned to their base camp.

But the atmosphere there… wasn't what they expected.

Before they even reached the main camp, they were stopped and subjected to a full security check.

Only after a thorough inspection were they allowed to approach the main force.

Haruki and the Konoha jonin exchanged glances, both sensing the same tension in the air.

Something's definitely wrong.

The sudden strict security meant something had happened.

And it just so happened that their scouting squad had encountered an Iwa team—

There were several other recon teams just like theirs.

Could it be…?

A possibility began to form in Haruki's mind, and it left a heavy weight on his chest.

If his hunch was correct… then the road ahead was about to get extremely difficult.

As he was still thinking, Nara Soshui and several other jonin arrived.

They glanced at Haruki's destroyed weapon and his teammate's missing arm and asked:

"You encountered the enemy too?"

"Too?"

Haruki caught that word instantly.

That one word confirmed his worst fears.

He didn't hesitate:

"You mean other teams ran into them as well?"

Soshui nodded grimly.

"Before you, three other teams returned.

All of them reported sightings of Iwa ninja squads.

And two more teams… have gone completely silent.

We believe they've been killed.

You're the fourth group to make it back."

"I see…"

Haruki fell into silence, then relayed what had happened with Karu in as much detail as possible.

When the others heard how strong Karu was, they all inhaled sharply—

Silently grateful that Haruki had been the one assigned to that area.

If it had been anyone else, they would've lost both ninja for sure.

Once everyone compared intel, a conclusion became obvious:

They were being targeted by Iwa.

And this wasn't something that had just happened on a whim.

The attacks had been premeditated.

There was no way multiple ambush teams had been set up so early along their route unless it was all part of a larger plan.

At first, they had felt lucky that Iwa hadn't launched an attack the night before.

But now…

It was clear they had celebrated too soon.

The reason Iwa didn't strike the previous night was probably because this outpost was too strong, and its location was too strategic.

Attacking it recklessly might've stalled them or alerted other nearby bases—potentially triggering a counterattack.

So Iwa didn't include this outpost in their first wave of strikes.

But that didn't mean they intended to spare them.

Now that the battles at the other outposts were wrapping up, it was their turn.

It was obvious that Iwa was now ramping up preparations for a decisive strike.

And once everything was in place—

What awaited them was nothing less than total annihilation.

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