Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Before long, Black Wind and three other Iwagakure Jonin broke free from their engagements with Konoha Jonin, aided by a group of Iwa mid- and lower-tier shinobi. They quickly regrouped around Ichiro Kurokawa.

During this, the Konoha Jonin had tried to stop them—but upon receiving a signal from Uchiha Haruki, they abandoned the chase and instead shifted their focus to suppressing the Iwa mid- and low-level forces still on the field.

Now, Haruki found himself facing a group of six Iwa Jonin.

Among them, only Ichiro Kurokawa and Black Wind were actual elite Jonin. The remaining four were Special Jonin—stronger than regular Chunin, but not on par with high-tier Jonin.

Overall, they were slightly stronger than the team of Nobunaga Kamihara and his comrades—but not by much.

And given that they had just fought prolonged battles against other Konoha Jonin, several of them bore visible injuries. Their conditions weren't great.

Haruki had more than enough confidence to handle them.

That was why he had ordered his allies not to interfere.

Earlier, Haruki had already slain numerous mid- and lower-tier Iwa shinobi. If he could now defeat this group, it would shatter the enemy's morale entirely.

And then—Konoha would win.

His eyes locked onto the six as they approached, his blood-red Sharingan gleaming coldly.

Feeling the intensity of his gaze, even these seasoned warriors felt a chill.

But they were all veterans who had crawled out of blood-soaked battlefields—Haruki's murderous aura didn't scare them into retreat. In fact, just as he looked at them, they launched their attack.

Two of them threw kunai aimed directly at Haruki's vital points.

Another two performed a collaborative jutsu—Earth Style: Rising Stone Spears, causing sharp stone spikes to erupt from the ground, trying to restrict Haruki's movements.

Meanwhile—

Ichiro Kurokawa completed a string of hand seals and launched an unknown Fire Style jutsu, conjuring six fireballs each the size of a human head, flying toward Haruki from multiple directions.

Black Wind's body suddenly turned gray-brown, his density shifting under some Earth Release technique. He then rocketed forward like a cannonball, launching a heavy punch at Haruki.

But despite the sheer number of attacks coming his way, Haruki didn't panic in the slightest.

His eyes spun rapidly—Sharingan fully activated—analyzing everything in front of him at lightning speed.

In that moment, Haruki pushed his neural reflexes to the limit, instantly calculating the trajectory and variation of every attack.

Using that data, his body blurred with high-speed movements.

He dodged the kunai with agile footwork and stepped just out of range of the stone spikes erupting from below.

The fireballs conjured by Kurokawa were intercepted mid-air by Haruki's own counterattack—Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu—which unleashed tightly packed fireballs that caused a chain of explosive collisions.

As for Black Wind—

Clearly enhanced by some defensive Earth technique, Haruki wasn't eager to clash head-on. Instead, with a single glance, he cast Genjutsu: Sharingan Illusion, freezing Black Wind where he stood.

Though this all sounds lengthy—it happened in mere moments.

In that instant, Haruki had completely nullified the coordinated strike of six elite enemies.

Wasting no time, his hands blurred through seals again as he executed:

—Wind Style: Wind Blade!

A meter-long crescent-shaped wind blade shot forth, targeting the immobilized Black Wind.

There were two reasons Haruki attacked him: First, it was a rare chance. Second, he wanted to test just how strong Black Wind's Earth Release body armor truly was.

But when Ichiro Kurokawa dashed forward and yanked Black Wind out of the way at the last second, Haruki understood.

"Looks like that wind blade would've gone right through him."

Kurokawa had seen this jutsu's power before, and clearly didn't believe Black Wind could withstand it.

Still, Haruki wasn't one to jump to conclusions. Until he could confirm Black Wind's limits, he wouldn't rely solely on that attack strategy.

While Kurokawa moved, the other four Jonin struck again—two using ninjutsu to restrict Haruki's mobility, the other two charging in for close combat.

Haruki's Sharingan spun without pause, and he evaded every jutsu with remarkable agility.

As the two close-combat Jonin neared, Haruki suddenly drew his short sword.

With a burst of speed, he launched himself like a bolt of lightning, closing the gap in an instant.

—Genjutsu: Sharingan Illusion!

The two Iwa Jonin, long-time partners, didn't bother avoiding Haruki's gaze. That was their mistake.

With a single look, one of them froze—caught entirely in Haruki's illusion.

The other immediately sensed something wrong and lunged forward, stabbing a kunai toward Haruki in an attempt to protect his comrade and push Haruki back.

But Haruki wasn't about to retreat.

Instead, with a precise sword strike, he parried the kunai—and simultaneously triggered Phantom Blade Technique, disorienting his opponent just long enough.

In that window, Haruki's left hand formed a Rasengan, a concentrated ball of high-speed rotating chakra.

He thrust his palm forward, driving the Rasengan directly into the chest of the Jonin still frozen by genjutsu.

"What?!"

The second Jonin snapped out of the illusion just in time to react, swinging his kunai for a desperate second strike.

But he was too late.

By the time his blade barely scratched Haruki's chest, the Rasengan had already landed.

The moment it connected, Haruki pulled away, avoiding a follow-up strike. His only injury was a gash across his chest.

BOOM!

Two more jutsu attacks from the other enemies rained down.

Haruki danced across the ground, nimble and swift, dodging both.

Thus ended their first full exchange.

Haruki had taken a kunai slash to the chest—but in return, he had severely wounded one of the Iwa Jonin.

And make no mistake—severely wounded was an understatement.

Even though the Rasengan had only made brief contact, the spiraling chakra had already torn through the enemy's insides. The internal injuries were devastating.

He was effectively out of the fight.

That meant one less enemy for Haruki to deal with.

Though Kurokawa was clearly displeased by this development, he didn't seem entirely despairing.

After all, Haruki had been injured too.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, Kurokawa's eyes locked onto Haruki again.

Haruki's hands flew into another series of seals, and a glow of green chakra enveloped his body.

After pressing the healing energy into his chest, the bleeding immediately stopped.

Even more terrifyingly—the wound began healing.

Slowly, but not sluggishly.

At this rate, in just a few minutes, he would be fully recovered.

Kurokawa's face turned pitch black.

Because no matter who you are, watching your side lose a valuable comrade while the enemy casually regenerates mid-battle… is soul-crushing.