Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Chapter 1026 One Week Later
The sun and moon revolve, and time flies.

A week has passed in the blink of an eye.

Just as his 'Natural Energy Perception' and 'Natural Energy Control' were about to advance, it was time for him to rest and recuperate.

However, Qingming did not disrupt his cultivation plan or prolong this round of arduous training because of this.

In any case, given the current situation, the 'Nine-Tailed Chaos' is not going to erupt anytime soon, so there is absolutely no need for him to rush.

Of course, the reason he made this choice was because he wanted to take advantage of this rest period to exchange information with the wooden clones who remained in the other three villages.

Although in his memory, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Kumogakure remained relatively quiet during the 'Nine-Tails' rampage,' this was ultimately just a memory from his previous life, something that happened on another timeline.

Now that he's involved, who knows how things will turn out?

Furthermore, he was unsure whether Obito Uchiha would deliberately leak this information to further complicate the situation and increase his chances of success.

Therefore, he needed to find out the movements of each village in advance.

With those spies around, he wasn't worried about not getting the relevant information.

Without hesitation, Qingming quickly packed his equipment, then immediately used 'Wind Release: Wings of Wind' and 'Chakra Feather Robe', followed by 'Earth Release: Super Light Heavy Rock Technique' to reduce his weight, and flew straight towards the direction of Kirigakure.

As the first village he invaded, Kirigakure was undoubtedly the one most severely infiltrated by him.

Even the village elder, Yuan Shi, has been controlled by him using his Mangekyou Sharingan.

If he could obtain relevant information from these villages, then Kirigakure (Hidden Mist Village) would undoubtedly be the most likely candidate.

Therefore, he chose this place as his first stop.

As he expected, everything went smoothly. After he infiltrated Kirigakure again and exchanged memories with the wooden clone who remained there, he immediately gained a detailed understanding of Kirigakure's movements.

According to the intelligence gathered by Master Yuan, although Kirigakure has sent out some people to gather intelligence due to Konoha's unusually high level of vigilance recently, it has no intention of launching a large-scale invasion.

The people they sent out were mostly spies, and their main objective was to find out what Konoha was up to.

Unfortunately, Kushina Uzumaki's production was a closely guarded secret, and these people had no way of finding out any relevant information.

Therefore, one thing is certain: as long as no one deliberately leaks this information, the possibility of Kirigakure participating in this turmoil is extremely low.

Having confirmed this, Qingming wasted no more time.

He immediately used the 'Wood Clone Technique' and the 'Sealing of All Things in the Forest' to leave behind another wood clone containing a million points of chakra to continue monitoring Kirigakure, and then quietly left Kirigakure.

His second stop was Kumogakure (Hidden Cloud Village).

Unlike Kirigakure, which was isolated overseas and slow to react to the outside world, the ambitious Kumogakure noticed Konoha's unusual activity early on.

Therefore, it was the one that took this matter most seriously, not only sending out spies but also dispatching several elite squads to infiltrate the Land of Fire in an attempt to obtain intelligence.

Unfortunately, Konoha and Kumogakure have not yet signed a peace treaty, and border conflicts still break out from time to time.

Under these circumstances, Konoha's vigilance towards Kumogakure is at its highest.

Therefore, Konoha received the relevant intelligence as soon as the operation was launched and simultaneously began counter-infiltration work.

Thus, the two sides were secretly engaged in a fierce battle of wits, but Kumogakure still couldn't figure out what Konoha was up to.

This also relieved Qingming.

After leaving behind another new wooden clone, Qingming left Kumogakure and headed to the last village, Iwagakure.

Considering the damage he caused to Iwagakure during his last infiltration, Qingming was extremely cautious this time, fearing that he might attract the attention of the Iwagakure ninja.

And as it turned out, his caution was justified.

On his way into Iwagakure, he saw quite a few baits and traps.

Clearly, Onoki was extremely annoyed by Obito's (his previous impersonation) escape and had gone to great lengths to lie in wait. But unfortunately for him, he wouldn't fall for it.

Using the superior concealment of 'Heavenly Defense', he passed through layers of obstacles and entered the underground space where his wooden clone was hiding.

After dispelling the 'Wood Clone Technique', Qingming obtained the other party's memories.

It took him some time to roughly review the other person's memories.

Intelligence indicates that while Onoki is also interested in Konoha's unusual reaction, he is currently focusing most of his energy on searching for Obito Uchiha.

Therefore, Konoha was given slightly more importance than Kirigakure, and they also sent some spies to gather relevant intelligence.

In this situation, naturally nothing will be gained.

Having confirmed this, Qingming immediately stopped wasting time, left another wooden clone behind, and departed from Iwagakure.

After that, he traveled all the way back to the Land of Fire, entered Konoha Village, and returned to his home.

Because he had a clear goal, he didn't spend too much time this time, and he got home just after midnight.

Qingming quickly finished washing up and then immediately returned to his bedroom to rest.

······
A speechless night!
The next day.

morning.

Qingming slept until he woke up naturally.

After that, it was a familiar routine—he satisfied his appetite on the 'food street,' relaxed at the hot spring bath, and wandered around the village, getting familiar with its changes.

And just like that, the day passed quickly.

After leaving a shadow clone in the village, Qingming returned to Moon Island and began a new round of arduous training.

And this round of arduous training had barely begun when he reaped his first reward.

It’s noon this day.

On the open ground in the center of Moon Island.

Qingming's figure suddenly appeared.

He paused for a moment, allowing his skin, which had been red and burning from the intense heat of the volcano, to gradually recover, and then deactivated the 'Multiple Shadow Clone Technique'.

In an instant, all the shadow clones, both inside and outside the island, including the fifty shadow clones that he had just sent to the primeval forest in the northeastern part of the Land of Fire an hour earlier, where they were absorbing natural energy, disintegrated and vanished.

A flood of memories rushed into his mind. Qingming suppressed these memories and first sent the natural energy that was returning to his body synchronously into the sealing space formed by the 'Three Elements Sealing Technique'.

Then, they began to absorb and digest the memories in their minds.

Time passes minute by minute.

About twenty minutes later.

Qingming suddenly opened his eyes.

A glint of light flashed in his eyes.

A smile appeared on Qingming's face.

At that moment, a sudden realization quietly dawned on him, a deeper understanding of 'perceiving natural energy' and 'controlling natural energy'.

At this moment, Qingming knew that his two skills had been upgraded.

Immediately, he closed his eyes again to carefully understand and digest this knowledge.

(End of this chapter)