Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

A few minutes later—

Hyūga Crimson finished her rest, gave a nod to Haruki, then activated her Byakugan once again and moved forward to lead the way.

Seeing this, Haruki also activated his Sharingan and followed behind with the other two teammates.

Thanks to the intelligence gathered earlier using the Byakugan, the four of them quickly bypassed the Iwa patrols and infiltrated the enemy camp.

Hyūga Crimson made a hand signal, instructing them to stick close.

As per their plan, she was the one taking point during the infiltration. Haruki and the others had no objections and nodded to confirm they understood.

With that, the four of them silently made their way deeper into the Iwagakure encampment, weaving through its interior while avoiding all stationary guards.

Every time a patrol passed nearby, Hyūga Crimson was able to alert them in advance, allowing them to hide or reroute accordingly.

They moved like ghosts—

slipping through the Iwa camp undetected, invisible to all.

This was the true power of the Byakugan.

With it, enemy defenses and traps became meaningless, drastically lowering the risk of infiltration.

A few minutes later, guided by Hyūga Crimson, Haruki and the team finally reached the outside of the Iwa Command Center.

Hiding in the trees, they watched as two Iwa chunin stood guard at the entrance—a dark, shadowy cave mouth behind them.

Haruki narrowed his eyes in thought.

Indeed, the command center was built underground, carved out using Earth Release techniques. It had only one visible entrance—this one.

According to Hyūga Crimson, the rest of the underground facility was surrounded by barriers.

Any unauthorized entry would immediately trigger an alarm.

In other words, they'd be exposed the moment they forced their way in through anywhere but this entrance.

However—

this single entrance was also being watched closely.

In addition to the two visible guards, there were two more Iwa shinobi hidden in the shadows.

The best way in would be to blend in somehow.

But without the proper passwords or clearance procedures, there was no chance they'd succeed at bluffing their way in.

And at this point, it was too late to gather such information.

As the saying goes: "Hesitation invites trouble."

After brief consideration, Haruki gave orders to the two special jōnin skilled in stealth and assassination—

they would take out the two hidden guards.

He would handle the two visible ones.

As for being exposed?

That was inevitable.

But so long as they weren't discovered right away, he could accept the risk.

After all, their mission was decapitation—to strike the enemy command directly.

The moment the attack began, exposure would follow anyway.

So there was no need to worry excessively.

Haruki glanced at Hyūga Crimson.

Using her Byakugan, she scanned the surroundings, then nodded to indicate no one was approaching for now.

With her signal, Haruki waved his hand—time to move.

The two special jōnin didn't hesitate.

They split left and right, silently approaching the hidden guards.

Those two were also just chunin-level.

Not because Iwa's defenses were lax or under-resourced,

but simply because this was the center of the camp—

heavily shielded from the outside.

It was assumed no intruder could possibly make it this far.

But unfortunately for them,

this time, they were wrong.

A few moments passed.

When Hyūga Crimson indicated that both teammates were in position, Haruki began his own move.

He first distanced himself from the cave entrance, choosing a quiet corner.

There, he performed a Transformation Jutsu, taking on the appearance of an Iwa jōnin.

Then, confidently and openly, he strolled toward the two guards.

Seeing a familiar figure from afar, the guards instinctively lowered their guard.

Only when he got close did one of them speak, per protocol:

"Please show your authorization seal."

Haruki nodded indifferently and raised his right hand, reaching into his uniform as if to retrieve the seal.

As both guards' attention followed his hand—

one of them suddenly collapsed to the ground.

"What?!"

The second guard's face twisted in shock.

He instantly sensed something was wrong and turned to Haruki, ready to raise the alarm—

only to see a pair of blood-red, Sharingan eyes staring back at him.

Their eyes met.

In that moment, Haruki activated the hypnotic ability of the Sharingan.

With just a single glance, the man froze in place—completely paralyzed.

The first guard, the one who had already fallen, had been taken down by a subtle Genjutsu: Sharingan cast while Haruki was reaching into his cloak.

It all happened in a blink of an eye.

Meanwhile—

the two hidden Iwa guards monitoring the entrance sensed something wrong.

But before either could make a sound—

their throats were silently slit.

Two shadows appeared behind them—

the special jōnin from Haruki's team.

After confirming both were dead, they quickly dragged the bodies away and concealed them as best they could, then returned to Haruki's side.

By now, Haruki had already dealt with the visible guards and hidden their bodies as well.

He turned to his team and said:

"Transform immediately. We're heading underground. Crimson, lead the way!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Despite Haruki's young age, the other three responded with full seriousness and respect.

The three of them instantly used Transformation Jutsu,

disguising themselves as ordinary Iwa shinobi.

Together, the four entered the dark passage to the underground facility.

Hyūga Crimson reactivated her Byakugan, carefully scanning the area to avoid traps and searching for the actual command room.

How would she identify it?

Simple—

any place with high-level chakra, particularly multiple jōnin-level signatures gathered in one area, had to be the command center.

Following that logic, the group advanced through the tunnel.

Time ticked by.

Suddenly, Hyūga Crimson stopped in her tracks and said, with a grave tone:

"Something's not right."

"What is it?" Haruki asked immediately.

She focused her Byakugan again, scanning the surroundings, and then replied:

"The guards in the area are on the move. It looks like they're searching for something."

That was unusual.

This underground facility had its own defense detail.

Under normal conditions, they wouldn't move around—

after all, it was the command center, filled with sensitive information.

Wandering about made it easier to expose secrets.

So unless absolutely necessary, they stayed stationed in fixed posts.

But now, they were mobilizing.

And their movements—scanning, watching, searching—

clearly indicated one thing:

They were looking for intruders.

Meaning—Haruki's team had been exposed.

And indeed, that was the case.

Not long ago, an Iwa chunin had approached the command center on official business.

But when he arrived at the entrance, he discovered the guards missing.

Alarmed, he began to search the area and quickly stumbled upon the hidden corpses.

He immediately sounded the alert.

The command center responded at once, ordering all guards to begin a sweep—

to hunt down any enemies that might have infiltrated.

And those enemies...

were Haruki and his team.

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