Reika swallowed hard, you could practically hear a tiny ‘click’ iill air. She tightened her grip on her kunai, those etal scales feeling almost… grounding somehow iermath of everything. Even she was rocked, and Reika usually radiated unfppable chill. But instead of Xero's open-mouthed shock, her rea was all tucked away, quiet, simmering uhe surface.
"He’s always… measured," she murmured, more to herself than anyone else, like she was fitting puzzle pieces together in her head. "trolled. Restrained. He’s been everything, you see it… learning.” She nodded, just a tiny dip of her . “‘Holding back’ is exactly the right word for it.” She gnced sideways at Xero, still staring like he’d just seen a uni, and then her gaze drifted back to Kuro. Thoughtful. Calg.
"But this…” she said again, her voice still barely above a whisper, carrying this mix of serious respect, and something else… a tiny hint of apprehension, maybe? “This is… different. This is what it looks like when he decides to… stop pying his…” she repeated o time, letting the word hang in the air, “this is who he really is, isn’t it?” It wasly a question, but it wasly a statemeher. It was more like an uanding dawning, heavy with unspoken implications.
The Cloud ninjas, those swaggering loudmouths from all of five minutes ago? Now they were just a colle of groaning, twitg lumps scattered amongst the trees. All that chest-thumping, all that ‘we are the superior ninja species’ nonsense – just gone. Vaheir bravado hadn’t just been chipped at or bruised; it had been pletely obliterated, pulverized into a fine mist of whimpers, gasps, and profoundly bewildered fusion. The fident swagger, the sneering insults that felt so important moments ago, the whole smug assumption of an easy walk in the ninja park victory? All of it evaporated the instant Kuro decided to stop… politely requesting scrolls. Now they looked less like intimidatie Cloud ninjas and more like… well, victims. Victims of a very swift, very effit, and probably very disgruntled, forest animal. A very ninja forest animal.
Kuro, meanwhile, seemed pletely in his own zoher not notig or just ft-out ign the whole ‘Xero and Reika are experieng a mild existential crisis’ situation unfolding beside him. He just rolled his shoulders a bit, like loosening up after a light jog, letting go of aover tension.That smirk of his? It was still there, but it had… shifted gears. What reviously this pyful, teasing grin had now morphed into something with a sharper edge. More… predatory, maybe? Standing there, literally looming over the groanihat was ohe Cloud leader (aaphorically t over the entire se, let’s be ho), he just radiated this air of… effortless and. It wasn’t about shouting or p; it was just this quiet, solid fidehat was holy way more intimidating than any amount of bellowing threats could ever be. He just owhe space, and everyone in it. Everees probably felt a little intimidated.
He crouched down beside the Cloud leader, who was lying there like a defted balloon animal, each breath a ragged wheeze of pure misery – courtesy, no doubt, of that little Thunder Cp of his that had rearranged his internal ans into abstract modern art. “Now, listen up,” Kuro murmured, his voice sinking into this low, almost silky purr that somehow mao be even more menag than a full-on shout-fest. There wasn’t a trace of anger in his tone, just this unnerving, bone-chilling calm authority.
“You and your little… posse,” he tinued, his crimson eyes log right onto the Cloud leader’s gzed, pain-filled stare, “you guys strolled ihinking this was gonna be a cakewalk, huh? A little woodnd piic? Spotted those Tsukigakure headbands, thought ‘jackpot’, just another bunch of fresh-faced genin to push around. That we were just ripe for the pig. Right?” He paused, just for a breath, letting those words nd like tiny ice shards, cold and sharp. “Well, then, gratutions on your… spectacurly wrong guess. Because let me spell something out for you, crystal clear, so you tell all your Cloud buddies when you crawl bae – assuming you crawl," Kuro added with a totally pleasant, totally insincere smile. “We,” and here he even subtly gestured towards Xero and Reika, still clearly processing the Kuro-tornado they’d just witnessed, “are not the ones you or anyone else o be feeling all superior about. Uood?”
He straightened back up, brushing his hands off like he was just getting rid of a bit of dust bunnies rather than cluding a rather decisive ninja battle. Didn’t even wait around for an answer from the groaning Cloud leader. Didn’t o, really. The message, let's be ho, had probably been received loud and clear in a more visceral way than words could ever manage.He just gnced back at Xero and Reika, a quick, silent flick of his eyes – no need for eborate expnations, no need for firmation. "Let's go," was all he said, the words short, sharp, and final. Just like that, it was time to move on, leave the defeated Cloud ninjas to their post-traumatic forest experience, a back to the actual objective: Earth Scroll acquisition. The casualness of it all was almost as striking as the beatdown itself.
Xero and Reika, jolted back to ph by the sheer ‘right, objective’ vibe radiating off Kuro, so attention – or at least, their own slightly stunned version of attention. They both the same time, kind of like synized robots who’d suddenly been switched ba. But their movements? Still a bit… jerky. Definitely not the usual smooth ninja glide they usually had going on. They were still ial slow-motion repy, probably scrolling back through the highlights of the Kuro-show they’d just witnessed, minds trying to catch up with reality. Without another peep, not even a quick backeek at the groaning Cloud ninja ensemble left scattered in their wake, they just pivoted and fell into step behind Kuro. Like they were pulled along by his sheer forward momentum, drawn deeper into the hushed shadows of the forest. The bravado was gohe banter was silent, repced by this new, unspoken uanding. Things, you sensed, had just shifted. And things, you also sensed, weren't quite going back to the way they were anytime soon.
