Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Clang—!

A crisp metallic clash echoed through the battlefield.

Haruki swung his short blade, precisely parrying the kunai thrust from Shikō.

Originally, Haruki thought they would engage in a brief deadlock.

To his surprise, Shikō immediately broke off after just one exchange.

Using the recoil from the parried blade, Shikō spun gracefully and darted away toward another battlefield—

without even looking back.

The entire maneuver was executed with such fluidity and decisiveness that Haruki was left momentarily stunned.

Just moments ago, the guy had charged in so aggressively, Haruki was sure a fierce fight was coming—he was fully prepared to clash head-on.

"And that's it?"

A giant question mark might as well have hovered over Haruki's head.

Still, credit where it's due—

Shikō had managed to fool the Sharingan's powerful insight, hiding his true intent long enough to make his escape.

Shaking his head, Haruki decided not to pursue.

Instead, he shifted his attention to the remaining mid- and lower-ranking Iwa-nin in the area.

Their squad leader's "strategic withdrawal" had clearly thrown them into disarray.

They stood around, panicked and confused—one step away from total collapse.

Then came the final blow:

Haruki's cold gaze swept toward them.

That was all it took.

Having already witnessed Haruki's brutality firsthand, none of them dared to face him.

One by one, they abandoned their opponents and scattered in all directions.

Haruki didn't waste words.

With a flash of his body, he snatched several of them like catching chickens—

draining their chakra completely.

Feeling the chakra in his body nearing its limit, Haruki made his way to a new location under the pretense of scouting,

and spent over twenty minutes burning down 16,000 points of chakra through Palm Sage Technique, boosting his proficiency.

Once done, he launched into another battlefield, where an intense skirmish was underway.

This area hadn't seen his interference, so the fighting was still fierce.

Haruki didn't wait around.

He spotted an opening and moved—

subduing several mid- and low-tier Iwa-nin in an instant.

Casting Chakra Absorption Technique,

he moved both hands at once and drained all of their chakra in less than ten seconds.

Before the squad's jōnin leader arrived, Haruki slipped away again.

Of course, not everyone was as cowardly as Shikō.

But no matter how aggressive the others were, none of them dared to chase him deep into the forest alone.

That wouldn't be bravery—it'd be suicide.

Haruki capitalized on this fear, moving back and forth across the battlefield at will.

Unnoticed, he'd already accumulated over 160,000 chakra points,

and his Palm Sage Technique had reached:

Level 6 (9120/10000)!

Just 130,000 more chakra, and he could finally rank it up.

Haruki was just about to press on and finish the job—

When, all of a sudden—

Iwagakure began a full retreat.

That's right—

They were pulling out.

And not just in Haruki's sector.

The Iwa-nin attacking the mountain to the north and those surrounding Windwillow Town were all retreating as well.

From his perch atop a treetop, Haruki watched as the Iwa-nin withdrew in an orderly fashion,

the pale morning light just beginning to spill over the horizon.

He could tell—

This battle was far from over.

It was obvious that Iwagakure's full-scale nighttime assault had been a desperate attempt to end things in one swift blow.

But their hopes were shattered the moment Minato Namikaze appeared.

After several grueling hours of battle through the second half of the night, the enemy had realized the truth:

Their goal was no longer achievable.

So they chose to retreat.

And from the looks of it, there probably wouldn't be another large-scale offensive anytime soon.

Unless Iwagakure planned to completely annihilate them,

any further attacks would likely shift to small squad-based skirmishes, which were far more efficient for ninja operations anyway.

But—

This new approach was bad news for Haruki's chakra-harvesting plans.

In squad-based tactics, the proportion of jōnin in enemy teams would dramatically increase.

While Haruki didn't fear them, it meant he'd no longer be able to drain chakra as easily as last night.

Still, this wouldn't impact the advancement of Palm Sage Technique too much.

Just 130,000 chakra left.

Even if he had to rely solely on his natural recovery rate without absorbing from others,

he could gather that much in just over three days.

Nothing to stress about.

As for what came after—

He'd take it one step at a time.

After watching the retreat for a while, Haruki retracted his gaze, leaped down from the treetop, and returned to camp.

He handed off the battle casualty assessments to other jōnin,

then made his way to the field hospital.

There, he began treating the wounded using his medical ninjutsu—

and used the opportunity to grind proficiency for Palm Sage Technique.

Morning passed quickly.

Although the Iwa forces had retreated, Konoha remained on high alert.

Everyone stayed on guard, ready for another surprise attack.

That caution turned out to be well-founded.

By early afternoon, Iwagakure launched another offensive.

As expected, they had split into multiple small teams, targeting Windwillow Town's strongholds.

Konoha didn't turtle up either.

They also deployed teams to meet the enemy head-on.

This time, the battlefield spanned a full five kilometers in radius.

Fighting broke out everywhere, and the scene was utterly brutal.

Iwagakure had superior numbers, often using that to their advantage.

But Konoha's average combat strength far outmatched their opponents.

So despite being outnumbered, Konoha often managed to match or even outperform the enemy's results.

As a result, the battle reached a stalemate.

Now it came down to a war of attrition—

who would run out of stamina first?

Several hours flew by.

By dusk, the fighting gradually slowed.

Both sides, drained and battered, retreated to their respective camps to recover.

On the western mountain, Haruki too had endured several fierce battles—

but unfortunately, hadn't harvested much chakra.

The reasons were twofold:

First, his body had a limit to how much chakra it could hold.

With the constant fighting, he simply didn't have time to burn it off, and so couldn't absorb more.

Second, Iwagakure had started targeting him specifically.

They seemed to have figured out that Haruki could absorb chakra from others.

So during combat, the Iwa-nin would specifically watch out for that—

The moment they saw him try to drain a comrade, they would:

Either immediately kill the captured ninja,

Or unleash high-level jutsu to interrupt the extraction.

No matter what,

they weren't letting him farm chakra in peace.

It annoyed Haruki to no end.

Worst part?

He couldn't do anything about it.

The jōnin he encountered never came alone—

they always moved in pairs.

Unless Haruki went all out, he couldn't kill them easily.

But if he did go all out, he'd draw reinforcements, and the end result would be the same—

no successful kill.

The whole situation was maddening.

Thankfully, Haruki's strength was solid.

He didn't have to worry about dying.

So instead, he just gritted his teeth and endured—

taking this as a chance to grind proficiency for his swordsmanship.