Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Whoosh—

A pair of pale blue chakra wings unfurled from Uchiha Haruki's back. With a light flap, guided purely by his will, he soared effortlessly into the sky.

Now high above the battlefield, Haruki scanned his surroundings, his mind quickly analyzing the situation.

"If Kirigakure sent a reinforcement unit, there's no way they'd cut straight through the main battlefield. Aoi Yamanaka didn't mention anything like that either. That means they probably took a detour."

"And if they took a detour, heading north would take too long. The southern route is the most logical path."

With that thought, Haruki activated the Telepathy Technique, linking up with the five Konoha Jonin below. He quickly briefed them on the current situation and told them to finish their fights quickly and prepare for a potential ambush from the enemy.

As for himself, Haruki turned and flew northeast—toward the coastline.

At first, he thought it would take some time to locate the reinforcements. But to his surprise, he hadn't flown far when he spotted the Mist Ninja unit.

Or more accurately—they weren't even trying to hide.

The entire unit was moving in a tight defensive formation, advancing rapidly through the terrain.

Haruki scanned them from above, roughly estimating the enemy's strength. He counted three squads, around 200 soldiers total.

A long breath of relief escaped his lips.

He had been worried when he first heard Kirigakure was sending reinforcements, fearing they might deploy a massive wave of troops all at once. But now it was clear—he had overthought it.

And realistically, if they had that many reserves, they would've deployed them straight to the front lines and broken Konoha's defenses by now. But they hadn't.

Which meant: they didn't have that kind of strength.

Two hundred troops weren't enough to turn the tide in a frontal battle. So Kirigakure's decision to hold them back until now was strategically sound.

And now—here they were.

While 200 might not seem like much on a wide battlefield, to Konoha's already exhausted forces, this could be a devastating blow.

Haruki narrowed his eyes, preparing to examine the enemy unit in more detail.

Just then, a man in the crowd suddenly snapped his gaze upward, locking eyes with Haruki midair.

He wore a dark indigo robe, and his right eye was concealed beneath a black cloth—an immediately recognizable figure.

Ao, known throughout the ninja world as the "Byakugan Killer."

Haruki's lips curled into a slight smirk.

"A Byakugan, delivered right to my door…"

He had been wanting to acquire a Byakugan for some time. Now, it looked like a perfect opportunity had presented itself.

As that thought crossed his mind, more Mist Ninja turned their attention upward toward him.

One in the sky, the others on the ground—an unspoken standoff formed between the two sides. The enemy force below came to a halt.

Haruki didn't rush in.

Time was on his side. The longer he could delay them, the better it would be for Konoha. So instead of engaging directly, he began to circle them from above in wide, controlled loops.

Minutes passed.

Eventually, it was the Mist Ninja below who cracked first.

Ao glanced at the people around him, gave it some thought, and commanded:

"Everyone, prepare for combat—then... move out!"

At his words, the Mist soldiers tightened their grips on their kunai and, under the leadership of three Mist Jonin, began advancing once more.

Yes—of all the ninjas in this unit, only the squad leaders were full Jonin.

Even with Ao included, the total number of Jonin was just four.

And of those four, only two were full-fledged Jonin. The other two were Special Jonin, whose specialties lay in stealth and assassination—making them stronger than average Special Jonin, but still not as versatile or powerful as proper, well-rounded Jonin.

In short, this Mist reinforcement squad was not exactly top-heavy in terms of elite power.

Haruki had been surprised by that at first, but thinking about the brutal main battlefront, it made sense.

Even if Mist's command chose not to send this reserve unit to the front, they surely wouldn't let their high-ranking Jonin sit idle. Most of them were probably pulled to support the primary assault earlier.

Which explained why this force had so few elite fighters.

And that, in turn, presented an opportunity.

Haruki's eyes tracked the unit as it resumed moving, and he prepared to reuse an old trick—"The Boy Who Cried Wolf"—to harass the enemy again.

However, his first dive was immediately met with danger.

A hail of kunai came flying up at him—faster and denser than he'd anticipated. His expression darkened, and without hesitation, he shot straight upward to avoid them.

Once he was back in the safety of the higher skies, Haruki cast a cold glance down at the enemy.

It wasn't just the quantity of kunai that bothered him. It was what he saw on them.

Many of the blades were coated in a dark purple-black venom, glinting in the light and giving off a pungent stench that made Haruki feel lightheaded just from a whiff.

The toxins were clearly extremely potent.

And it wasn't just one or two ninja carrying them—nearly half the unit was equipped with these poison-tipped kunai.

That wasn't a coincidence.

This was a trap, carefully laid out with him as the target.

In truth, that's exactly what had happened.

Ao had taken nearly half an hour to arrive precisely because he had stopped to gather and transport every tool and weapon Kirigakure had prepared specifically to deal with Uchiha Haruki.

Not just poisoned kunai—he had brought along specially designed ninja tools, and even a few sealing specialists trained in binding techniques.

It was true—Ao didn't believe he could guarantee victory over Haruki.

And taking him down wasn't his primary objective.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't try.

So, when Haruki dodged the first surprise assault and retreated into the sky unharmed, Ao felt a wave of disappointment.

All their preparation had been most effective in that first attack.

After that, with the element of surprise gone, even the most elaborate plans would lose much of their impact.

Still, these setups would make defending far easier, even if they weren't enough for an all-out offense.

Ao calmed himself and issued the command to keep moving.

Haruki followed from above, now hesitating slightly.

The poisoned kunai alone weren't enough to truly scare him. With his 19 Constitution stat, even if he got hit, he wouldn't be in danger right away.

Plus, he had access to Level 8 Mystic Palm Technique and Level 5 Precision Extraction Technique, which he could use to heal and detoxify.

But the real issue was:

What other traps had they prepared for him?

Without knowing the enemy's full hand, diving in recklessly would be downright foolish.

At the same time—he couldn't just let them through.

Yes, Konoha had gained the upper hand on the southern battlefield thanks to his earlier efforts, but the fight was far from over.

If these Mist reinforcements arrived unchecked, not only would Konoha fail to clean up the remaining enemies, even the surviving Leaf Ninja might be wiped out.

And if that happened, no matter how fast Sano Nobuhisa's second wave of reinforcements arrived, it might be too late.

Haruki didn't need to guess—he knew Sano couldn't spare that many troops. And even if he pulled them from the front lines, they wouldn't be at full strength.

Under those conditions, facing a fresh Mist unit was a long shot.

So the only solution was to delay them.

If he could buy time until Konoha's secondary reinforcements linked up with the surviving Leaf forces, they'd have a fighting chance.

That settled it.

Haruki no longer hesitated. He launched a direct attack on the Mist Ninja below.

Yes—he still didn't know all their hidden cards.

But with the Heavenly Armor Technique as his trump card, he had no reason to fear.