Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

"Onima? Damn it!"

Seeing Kawachi Onima coughing blood and sent flying, Nobunaga Kamihara cursed under his breath, quickly pulling out another kunai as he charged at Uchiha Haruki.

At the same time, Shinya Shimazu, who had just dodged to the side moments ago, realized he had made a terrible mistake and immediately moved forward to try and help.

Unfortunately, Haruki had already torn open a gap in their encirclement—how could he possibly allow them to regroup and surround him again?

With a thought, he activated Genjutsu Sword Technique and charged directly at the closest enemy—Shinya Shimazu.

The moment Shimazu saw Haruki's short sword, his expression blanked for a second, and his movement inevitably faltered with a slight opening.

Haruki seized the moment and was about to deliver a heavy blow.

But just then, another Iwagakure Jonin—who had been blocked earlier by Haruki—rushed forward and threw himself in front of Shimazu.

Clang!

A sharp metallic clash rang out as kunai met short sword.

A screeching friction sound followed as the two locked weapons. In that moment of stalemate, Haruki suddenly raised his left hand in front of his chest.

Seeing this familiar movement, both the Iwa Jonin in front of him and Shimazu behind him turned pale instantly.

They hadn't forgotten how, just moments ago, Haruki had formed hand seals with one hand and unleashed a powerful Wind Style technique.

With his current speed, if Haruki started casting, they might not even have time to dodge.

Without hesitation, both men immediately leapt to either side.

"Heh…"

Watching their reactions, Haruki chuckled and swiftly spun around to face Nobunaga Kamihara, who was rushing over.

"Huh?"

Kamihara was startled and instinctively slowed down.

Haruki's left hand quickly weaved through hand seals. Then his mouth opened—and out came several small fireballs, shaped like phoenix flower seeds, shooting toward Kamihara like fire spirits, surrounding him with agile precision.

Kamihara didn't hesitate. He stopped immediately, leapt backward, and withdrew from the area.

But the fireballs were relentless, still chasing after him.

His expression turned grim. While retreating, he rapidly formed hand seals.

At the last second, Kamihara completed the jutsu and unleashed:

Water Style: Water Formation Wall!

A wall of water surged up before him, blocking the fireballs. Fire met water, and a loud sizzling sound echoed as steam rose in waves, quickly forming a layer of white mist.

Seeing this, Kamihara dashed forward, piercing through the mist just as the fireballs tried to loop around the water wall.

Although Haruki could control the trajectory of the fireballs, there was a limit—they couldn't turn 180 degrees in midair.

So when Kamihara shifted his position, Haruki had no choice but to abandon the attack.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The fireballs smashed into the ground, blasting blackened craters into the earth, a clear sign of their destructive power.

Though the description may sound lengthy, all of this happened in a split second.

Only after Haruki's attack failed did Shimazu and the other Iwa Jonin realize—they'd been tricked.

Both quickly began forming seals to launch a counterattack.

Unfortunately for them—they were too slow.

Realizing that Phoenix Fire Jutsu wouldn't work, Haruki immediately changed targets and redirected his attack back to the two of them.

Just as they began forming hand seals, Haruki flung six shuriken, aimed precisely at their vitals.

Forced to dodge, the two Iwa-nin were thrown off balance again.

That single movement gave Haruki another window of opportunity.

Without hesitation, he pulled out over a dozen more shuriken and, with both hands moving like a whirlwind, scattered them like a celestial maiden scattering flowers—raining deadly projectiles down on the two.

Overwhelmed by Haruki's precision and barrage, the two Iwa-nin scrambled to defend themselves.

By the time they managed to stop, all they heard was Kamihara's urgent warning:

"Watch out!"

On instinct, Shimazu ducked his head.

Whoosh—

A nearly two-meter-long transparent wind blade sliced right above his head. A few severed strands of hair floated gently down—leaving Shimazu cold with fear.

But before he could even feel relieved, a scream suddenly erupted behind him.

"What?"

Shimazu's heart sank. He turned to see his companion—who had just dodged alongside him—his right arm lying on the ground.

At the same time, a ten-centimeter-long wound had slashed cleanly across the man's right chest.

Blood and organs poured from the gash as the man gasped in pain—it was clear he wouldn't survive.

It was obvious now—Haruki hadn't aimed that Wind Blade only at Shimazu. He had spent a great deal of chakra to craft that wind blade, aiming to kill two birds with one stone.

Shimazu, with his faster reaction and Kamihara's warning, had narrowly dodged it.

But the Jonin beside him wasn't so lucky.

Swept by the wind blade—he didn't stand a chance.

Haruki's ability to release the technique so quickly was thanks to his relentless training over the past ten days.

Due to heavy chakra investment, his Wind Style: Wind Blade—just like his Rasengan—had recently leveled up.

Its mastery had risen from Lv4 (1660/2000) to Lv5 (870/5000).

Level 5 marked a turning point. For a C-rank ninjutsu, that was almost perfection.

Though Wind Blade, being a higher-level jutsu, hadn't reached full mastery, its performance had still improved significantly.

Combined with its fast attack speed and stealth, Haruki now wielded it with deadly fluency.

Just like the Rasengan, once deployed—it delivered results.

Now that two Iwa-nin had fallen in a short time, even the powerful Nobunaga Kamihara didn't dare rush forward recklessly.

Why?

Because with fewer allies, Haruki's Sharingan became a greater threat.

Before, when there were more of them, they didn't fear his genjutsu much. Even if one fell under illusion, the others could intervene.

But now, only Kamihara and Shimazu remained.

Without perfect coordination, Haruki could seize the opportunity to end them both.

If that happened, total annihilation wasn't out of the question.

So, Kamihara dared not attack rashly.

Shimazu felt the same.

In stark contrast, Haruki now appeared relaxed.

After all, fighting four attackers versus only two? That was a night-and-day difference.

When surrounded by four, Haruki had to be fully focused or risk falling into disadvantage and getting whittled down.

But now, with only two enemies left, things had become much simpler.

Even without activating his Mangekyō Sharingan, he could handle them with ease.

At the very least—he faced no real danger now.

Still, Haruki wasn't content with just coasting through.

He wanted to take this opportunity to test the true power of the Mangekyō.

Once the idea surfaced, it became hard to suppress.

After an internal struggle, Haruki decided to go for it.

Of course, since they were in the middle of a battlefield, he wouldn't use any overly flashy abilities. He merely wanted to test how much stronger his Mangekyō enhanced genjutsu compared to his previous level.

He wanted to see—against a fully developed Jonin, how effective was his illusion?

That way, he'd have a reference point for future combat.

With that in mind, Haruki raised his blade and charged toward the closer of the two—Shinya Shimazu.