As if ohe st sliver of daylight vanished, and the forest plunged into near darkness. Guided by their instincts and practiced sehey navigated deeper into the woods, searg for a suitable campsite. Soon, they found a small clearing, a natural pocket amidst the derees.
“This’ll do,” Xero announced, his voice eg slightly in the open space. He immediately shifted into practical mode, sing the perimeter fns of danger, his earlier pyfulness pletely gone, repced by focused efficy. Reika, with her i practicality, began gathering fallen branches and dry leaves, her movements swift and eical.
He watched Reika expertly coax a fme from the kindling, the firelight illuminating her calm face. He observed Xero’s methodical sweep of the clearing, his focused gaze missing nothing. They were so capable, so grounded in this world.
"Kuro, earth to Kuro!" Xero's voiapped him back to the present. "Daydreaming again? Need a hand with anything, or are you going for the 'brooding hero in the shadows' look tonight?” Xero’s tone was teasing, but there was an underlying invitation to participate, to reect with the present moment and shake off the lingering darkness.
Kuro managed a small, genuine smile this time, the first in a while that felt real. "Sorry," he said, pushing himself into a. "Just… processing the sery. What I do?" He stepped forward, ready to tribute, to ground himself in the present, and perhaps, momentarily, outrun the shadows in his mind. For now, the warmth of the fire and the familiar camaraderie of his panions offered a small measure of so a world that roving to be far more plicated and painful than he had ever imagined.
Kuro and his team pressed on, the hunt for the other team—the oh the Earth Scroll—dragging on and on. Every rustle of leaves, every distant bird call, sparked a fleeting hope, only to be extinguished by the endless wall of green. The forest seemed to mock their efforts. Finding the scroll was their ticket to the third stage of the in Exam, but at this rate…
Kuro's patience was wearing thiried to remain calm, but frustration g him. "This is pointless," he muttered, his eyes sing the derees, searg for anything that would break the monotony. He hadn't expected it to be easy, but this was absurd.
He g Xero. Xero's initial enthusiasm had long since faded, repced by restless fidgeting. Even Reika, usually so posed, showed signs of the strain. Kuro noticed a subtle tightness around her eyes, a clear indication that she, too, was feeling the pressure of the seemingly fruitless search.
They'd bumped into other teams twiow, and each time it was this whole awkward, suspicious little se that ended in total disappoi. Heaven Scrolls. Always just Heaven Scrolls. Seriously, it was starting to feel like the Earth Scroll had just vanished off the face of the p, like it was actively avoiding them specifically.
Xero had started making a whole performa of it every time they spotted that blue glow of a Heaven Scroll. He'd groan super dramatically, turning their scroll hunt into this running joke about their terrible luck. "Maybe we should just start colleg Heaven Scrolls," he'd said, with a bit of a wry smile after their sed empty-handed enter. "At least we'd be good at something in this stupid exam."
As m started to turn into early afternoon, they decided to just stop for a bit, needing a break from their pointless search. They leaned against a big old tree, all of them feeling pletely worn out. The air was still and humid, and for a moment, a quiet calm settled over them. But Kuro k was a fake peace, just a thin yer over the stress of the exam and the feeling that danger was always nearby.
Suddenly, the quiet shattered. A loud, animalistic roar tore through the silence, boung off the trees, and right after that, all hell broke loose. Shouts, panicked and sharp, mixed with the harsh etal hittial. Then, that familiar crackle of chakra energy fred up – Kuro could feel it on his skin, a sudden prig that shot adrenalihrough him. This wasn't just a little fight; this was a serious, all-out brawl, and it was happening close.
Kuro’s weariness vanished in an instant, repced by a surge of focused alertness. His senses sharpened, his body tensing instinctively. bat. Nearby. And intense. He reized the raw energy signatures, the unmistakable sounds of shinobi teiques g. He could distinguish individual voices amidst the chaos, some raised in furious shouts, others strained with pain. The iy of the battle alpable, radiating outwards in waves of sound and energy.
“That’s that way,” Kuro said, his voice quiet but with no room fument. He was already moving before he even finished speaking, pushing off the tree and instantly shifting into a fighting stahere was ation, o talk it over. The sheer urgency of the situation was enough of a and in itself.
Xero and Reika were right behind him without a word. Suddenly, all the tiredness from before just vaheir movements were sharp and focused again. They fell into position behind Kuro, the frustration from the scroll hunt pletely gone, repced by a shared goal and a serious alertness. They moved like they’d dohis a million times before, quiet as shadows slipping through the trees, their footsteps light and careful. They were being pulled towards the growing sounds of the fight, their seraining to pick up aails with every step they took.
As they he source of the otion, the sounds intensified, being a r maelstrom of noise. Kuro slowed, signaling for Xero and Reika to do the same. Stealth became paramount now. They moved with deliberate caution, their bodies low to the ground, utilizing the dense undergrowth for cover. Peeking through a s of thick bushes, they finally gained a visual on the clearing, and the se that unfolded before them was a chaotic tableau of brutal bat.
