The next day.
Afternoon.
After another day of practice, his Illusionary Sword Technique finally broke through as expected.
Opening the interface panel and looking at the Illusionary Sword Technique displayed as Lv7 (0/0), Uchiha Haruki felt waves of comprehension rise in his heart.
Clang—
Haruki stood up and unsheathed his long blade. Then, like a beginner, he started swinging it in a precise and measured manner.
At first, his movements were slow, but as time passed, they became faster and faster—eventually so fast they became hard to track with the naked eye.
At a certain moment, a faint glow appeared along the blade in Haruki's hand, giving off a dreamlike, illusory aura.
Anyone who saw this gleam would momentarily feel a sense of daze or trance.
This was the transformation that occurred once the Illusionary Sword Technique had advanced to perfection.
At Lv6, although he could infuse illusions into his sword techniques during combat, they always came slightly after the attack.
While he could anticipate and prepare illusions in advance, so could his opponents, allowing them a chance to evade.
But now, if he wished, he could continuously keep illusions infused in his blade, making his technique truly flow with his intent.
At that point, unless the enemy completely ignored his blade from the very start, they would almost certainly fall into the illusion.
And given his current reflexes, even if the enemy was only dazed for a brief moment, he could seize the opportunity to land a devastating blow.
In short, once he activated this technique, during close-quarters combat, his opponents were practically guaranteed to fall into a disadvantage.
However, this technique wasn't without its flaws.
Constantly maintaining the illusion consumed a large amount of chakra and mental energy. Even for him, it couldn't be sustained for long periods.
Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, he wouldn't use it lightly.
With that thought, Haruki sheathed his blade and began contemplating his next steps.
At present, his Illusionary Sword Technique had reached perfection, and his Blink Sword Technique was already progressing well at Lv6.
"Maybe it's time to start developing the Shadow Sword Technique."
Back when his swordsmanship was only Lv5, he had already been thinking about future directions.
After much careful consideration, he came up with three techniques to develop: Shadow Sword Technique, Illusionary Sword Technique, and Blink Sword Technique.
Now, the latter two had either been perfected or were close to it. Only the Shadow Sword Technique was still non-existent.
According to his original concept, developing this technique would require referencing the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique—a secret forbidden jutsu of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, which very few people knew.
At the time, he had planned to use the Sharingan's ability to copy it from either the Third Hokage or Orochimaru, but he never got the chance.
Now, he had no choice but to try creating it himself.
The Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique, at its core, was built upon the Shadow Clone Technique.
And now that Haruki's Shadow Clone Technique had reached Lv5, he was more or less qualified to delve deeper into its development.
If successful, not only would he obtain a very practical A-rank skill, but his concept for the Shadow Sword Technique would also finally be realized.
At that point, with the Illusionary, Shadow, and Blink Sword Techniques working in harmony, he would be unmatched in close combat.
And this would mark a major leap forward on his path to becoming invincible.
Slurp—
Haruki wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, stopped overthinking, and formed the Ram seal with both hands to once again perform the Shadow Clone Technique.
Poof!
A burst of chakra smoke exploded, and eight shadow clones appeared on the field.
Haruki assigned seven of them to continue their previous training, while the last one began researching the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.
······
In a flash, another week passed.
That evening.
Near Eagle's Beak Cliff.
Over a stretch of ocean.
Haruki floated mid-air, a pair of two-meter-long chakra wings extended from his back, resembling real wings that kept him suspended.
Haruki opened the system panel and saw a new skill had been added—
Wind Release: Wings of Wind – Lv0 (1/100)!
That's right. After nearly a month of effort, he had finally developed a flight-based ninjutsu—Wind Release: Wings of Wind!
The light blue wings on his back were the physical manifestation of the technique.
As for its effect—
Because it was still at the novice level, it currently only allowed him to hover and had no other function.
For others, this would barely count as a success.
But for him, it absolutely was—because the system panel had acknowledged it as a valid skill.
From here on, all he had to do was grind it non-stop to gradually shape the skill into what he envisioned.
With that in mind, Haruki deactivated Wings of Wind.
In the next moment, the wings vanished, and he gently landed on the sea's surface.
Without hesitation, he raised both hands again to form the Ram seal and used the Shadow Clone Technique.
Poof!
Twenty shadow clones appeared at once.
Haruki looked at them and commanded, "Let's begin!"
The twenty clones responded without a word, simultaneously forming hand seals and focusing their chakra to manifest chakra wings behind them.
It was the very same technique—Wind Release: Wings of Wind!
Whispers of wind swirled around them, and one by one, they began floating into the air.
Haruki himself didn't remain idle either—he also cast Wings of Wind and rose into the sky, carefully sensing the technique's fluctuations.
Time ticked by.
Haruki and the twenty clones floated up and down, occasionally pausing to reflect.
Initially, all of them moved identically, but over time, subtle differences began to emerge.
By the end of half an hour, each one had their own distinct movements.
At that moment, Haruki dispelled the Shadow Clone Technique.
A torrent of training experience and memories rushed into his mind.
Haruki worked hard to digest and absorb the knowledge, converting it all into skill proficiency on his panel.
As a result, his understanding of Wings of Wind deepened significantly.
A moment later, Haruki opened his eyes and muttered, "Again!"
He once more performed the Shadow Clone Technique.
Poof!
Another twenty clones appeared.
Building upon their previous experience, they resumed refining and experimenting with Wings of Wind.
Soon, they were soaring through the air again.
Compared to half an hour ago, their movements were clearly more agile and graceful—just like birds taking flight.
Previously, Haruki had never fully committed to grinding a skill like this.
Now, he was finally experiencing how broken (OP) this method really was.
Although he couldn't split into a thousand clones like Naruto and train at a thousand times the speed, his proficiency panel had the "Once Mastered, Always Mastered" feature, so his progress was still fast.
To maximize the panel's effectiveness, he dispelled his shadow clones every thirty minutes, consolidated their experience, and converted it into skill proficiency.
Then, based on that, he would refine and improve it further.
And so, in just two short hours before and after sunset, he successfully mastered the basics of Wind Release: Wings of Wind.
Moreover, he had even made some progress beyond that.
Now, Wings of Wind could not only make him hover—
He could actually fly.