Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Tap, tap, tap...

Urgent footsteps echoed through the narrow underground corridor.

Led by Hiura Hinata, Uchiha Haruki and his three companions wove through the labyrinthine passageways of the underground base, drawing closer and closer to Minato Namikaze's position.

Suddenly, Hiura Hinata came to a halt.

Seeing this, Haruki immediately asked, "What's wrong?"

Before she could answer, a powerful tremor surged through the ground. Haruki instinctively gathered chakra under his feet just to stay balanced.

Crack—crack—

Fractures began appearing across the corridor floor and ceiling. The entire underground space shook violently.

This wasn't anything like the minor tremors caused by their earlier battle—this felt like a full-blown earthquake, affecting every part of the structure.

And indeed, it wasn't far off.

Once the shaking subsided, Hiura Hinata quickly explained, "Someone above used an Earth Release jutsu to tear open the ground. Four enemy squads have entered this underground space through the fissures."

She glanced ahead and added, "One of those groups is directly blocking our path."

Haruki frowned. "Can we bypass them?"

Hiura Hinata scanned the surroundings, then shook her head. "No. There are Iwa-nin stationed at all other routes. They seem to have a general idea of our position."

"I see..." Haruki muttered, then immediately said, "Forget it—stick to the original plan. You lead the way. Leave the enemy to us."

"Understood," Hinata responded and dashed ahead again.

Haruki and the other two jōnin followed without hesitation.

Meanwhile, the Yamanaka clan jōnin was still trying to pinpoint Minato Namikaze's position. Once located, he could use Mind Communication Technique to establish a direct link.

Unfortunately, the terrain here was far too complex, and he couldn't risk stopping to perform the sensing jutsu properly. They'd have to move forward and adapt.

Time ticked by second by second.

Soon enough, the team encountered the enemy squad Hinata had warned about.

Without a word, Haruki swiftly formed hand seals and launched a jutsu—Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!

In the narrow corridor, Haruki opened his mouth wide, and a roaring fire dragon surged forward, hurtling toward the Iwagakure shinobi.

"Quick! Use Water Release!"

"No! It's too late—!"

"Run!"

"AAAHHH—!"

Agonized screams filled the hallway.

Haruki's casting speed was simply too fast. The two sides had only just spotted each other, and the Iwa-nin didn't have time to react. They were burned and blasted in an instant.

But it wasn't over yet.

Haruki flipped his hand and pulled out several kunai from his tool pouch—each one wrapped with explosive tags.

His Sharingan tomoe spun rapidly, locking onto the few survivors. His fingers danced in a blur as he hurled the kunai.

"Aaah! AAHH!"

The corridor echoed with screams once more.

Then came the thunderous series of explosions as the tags detonated.

Once the noise died down, all fell silent.

The confined space had amplified the force of the explosions, and the kunai had been thrown with deadly precision—trapping the surviving Iwa-nin in the blast radius.

There was no way anyone could've survived that.

Well… almost no one.

Certainly not among the lower-ranked or average jōnin.

"Go!" Haruki said calmly, voice cold.

Hiura Hinata swallowed nervously, nodded, and took off ahead. Haruki and the others followed closely.

What they had just eliminated wasn't the entire enemy squad Hinata had detected—only one of the advance search parties.

As they pushed forward, they encountered several more waves of enemies. But with Haruki, the Nara jōnin, and the Yamanaka jōnin working together with overwhelming force, they were all dealt with swiftly.

Even so, the enemy had generally locked in on their location and was tightening the encirclement.

But it didn't matter anymore—because they had finally made contact with Minato Namikaze. A reunion was imminent.

A dozen seconds later, they rounded a corner—

And there, approaching at speed, was Minato Namikaze.

Despite the intense battle he had just experienced, his clothes remained spotless, looking exactly as they had when he first arrived.

It was clear that Kuroki Ittou and the other Iwa jōnin had posed no real threat to him.

They'd likely only managed to hold out for so long by relying on their familiarity with the underground terrain to stall the inevitable.

In fact, that's exactly what had happened.

Although Kuroki Ittou had come across as righteous and valiant when he attacked Minato first, it was clearly a tactic to boost morale.

When the real fight began, he immediately called for his fellow Iwa-nin to retreat with him while resisting. Bit by bit, they had withdrawn from the battlefield.

Unfortunately for them, Minato Namikaze had targeted them from the start—and his strength was overwhelming.

Even with all of them combined, they couldn't hurt him.

And they couldn't escape either.

Eventually, all of them were slain in an unremarkable, forgotten corner of the battlefield.

After killing them, Minato had retraced his steps, preparing for the final phase of the mission: evacuation.

At first, because he hadn't known who would survive, Minato had not handed out any Flying Thunder God kunai to the squad.

It wasn't because he was stingy, or that the kunai were rare.

On the contrary—he could craft those specialized kunai easily.

His reasoning was purely for security purposes.

The Flying Thunder God Technique wasn't just his signature move—it was a forbidden jutsu recorded in the Scroll of Seals. It couldn't be allowed to leak under any circumstances.

Unless absolutely necessary, Minato would never hand out anything related to the technique.

Even after every battle, he would personally recover every single marked kunai he had used.

While he didn't believe anyone could actually reverse-engineer the formula for the Flying Thunder God seal, the possibility—no matter how remote—couldn't be ignored.

The Great Nations had deep roots and resources. If they ever managed to develop a countermeasure, it would become a major problem.

And so, in this mission, aside from a single marker used for his own teleportation, he hadn't distributed any special kunai to the others.

That kunai had already been recovered after he arrived.

Which meant—if Minato wanted to find Haruki's group, he had no choice but to rely on conventional methods.

Sure, he could've placed a seal or marker on Haruki's body for tracking—

But putting someone's life under your control like that?

Even with all the trust in the world, no shinobi would willingly accept such a thing.

So Minato hadn't even suggested it.

As for secretly doing it?

That was even more out of the question.

Minato's personality simply wouldn't allow him to sneakily mark his comrades, no matter the circumstances.

Luckily, it had all worked out in the end.

The battle had just ended, and while he was still on his way back—

Haruki's team had found him.