As Team 10 cautiously made their way through the forest, Ino found herself instinctively sing the surroundings for any sign of Kuro’s team. Her irritation with Reika hadn’t faded, and she couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy whenever she thought about the way Reika atention.

  "Seriously, what's wrong with her?" Ino whispered again. Then she looked somewhere else and said, "What's happening there?"

  "What is it?" Shikamaru asked. He sounded a little annoyed and a little curious..

  Ino didn’t answer, her attention drawn to a faint sound in the distance. She raised a hand, signaling for her teammates to stop.

  “Did you hear that?” she whispered.

  Shikamaru nodded, his expression sharpening. “Yeah. Sounds like a fight.”

  The three of them moved cautiously toward the aying low and using the dense vegetation as cover. As they drew closer, the sounds of g steel and muffled shouts became clearer.

  Peering through the foliage, they spotted a skirmish between two rival teams. Oeam, clearly outmatched, was on the defeheir movements desperate and chaotic. The other team pressed their advaheir strikes precise and uing.

  “Looks like they’re distracted,” Shikamaru whispered. “We could slip in and take one of their scrolls if we’re careful.”

  Ino’s eyes lit up with determination. “Finally, some a!”

  Shikamaru rolled his eyes but nodded. “Alright, but no heroics, Ino. Stick to the pn.”

  As they waited for the right moment to strike, Ino’s thoughts drifted again to Kuro’s team. She couldn’t deny that Kuro’s calm demeanor and sharp intelletrigued her, but the way Reika seemed to monopolize his attention g her.

  “What does he even see in her?” she muttered under her breath.

  Shikamaru, overhearing her, gave her a ft look. “You’re really letting this get to you, huh?”

  “I’m not letting anythio me!” Ino snapped, her cheeks flushing. “I just don’t like her attitude, that’s all.”

  Shikamaru smirked faintly, clearly unvinced. “Whatever you say, Ino. I am saying again, just don’t let your personal drama get us killed.”

  Before Ino could retort, Choji tapped her shoulder, pointing toward the clearing. “Guys, I think now’s our ce.”

  As Team 10 prepared to make their move, a sudden, bloodcurdling roar echoed through the forest. The skirmishing teams froze, their heads snapping toward the sound.

  Ino’s heart raced as the grouh her feet trembled. “What was that?” she whispered. .

  Shikamaru’s voice was low and teroublesome. This just got a lot more plicated.”

  The dim light of the Forest of Death flickered like a dying dle, casting eerie, shifting shadows across the undergrowth. Kuro, Reika, and Xero moved cautiously, their footfalls muffled by the damp, leaf-strewn ground. The oppressive air seemed to g to their skin, heavy and charged, like the moments before a thuorm.

  Kuro’s sharp senses caught every rustle of leaves, every faint crack of a branch, and every unnatural echo that seemed to bounce back at them from impossible angles. His dark eyes remained fixed ahead, but his mind cataloged every sound, every shadow that moved just out of reach, as if the forest itself were alive and watg.

  Reika adjusted her long crimson hair, the strands gleaming faintly even ied light, a striking trast against the dull greens and browns of their surroundings. She walked with an air of calm fidence, her steps deliberate and unhurried, but Kuro didn’t miss the way her fingers lingered he kunai holstered at her side. Beh her posed exterior, her body was tense, ready t into a at the slightest provocation.

  Xero, by trast, moved with his usual reckless energy. His massive bde rested zily on his shoulder, its edge gleaming faintly with a predatlint. Every few steps, he adjusted its position, the casual motioraying his eagerness for a fight. His golden eye sed their surroundings, not with caution but with excitement, as if daring the forest to challenge him.

  “Something feels… off,” Kuro murmured, his voice low but firm, cutting through the oppressive silence like a bde.

  “Yeah,” Xero agreed, the dangerous grin spreading across his face hinting at his anticipation. “Like something’s finally about to happen. I was getting bored with all this sneaking around. Let’s hope whatever it is puts up a good fight.”

  Reika rolled her eyes, though her expression didn’t fully hide her own unease. “Not everything o be a fight, Xero. Although...” Her gaze shifted to Kuro, her voice softening slightly. “Even I feel it. Something’s watg us.”

  Kuro didn’t respond immediately. His eyes narrowed as he sed the dense foliage ahead, his breathing steady. He felt it too—a presence, intangible but undeniable, like a pair of unseen eyes b into them from the shadows. It wasn’t just the forest’s natural hostility. This was something more deliberate, more dangerous.

  His mind raced, pieg together fragments of his training and his instincts. The faint rustle of leaves, the way the wind seemed to shift dire unnaturally, even the subtle ge in the forest’s st—it all poio something lying in wait.

  “We’re being hunted,” he finally said, his voice barely above a whisper.

  The tension in the air thied, and Reika’s hand immediately went to her kunai. Her sharp eyes darted around, searg for movement among the trees. Xero’s grin widened, and he swung his bde down into a ready position, the weight of it settling into his hands as if it were aension of himself.

  “Finally,” Xero said, his voice almost gleeful. “Let’s see who’s stupid enough to mess with us.”

  The shadows around them seemed to ripple, and then a low, guttural growl emerged from the darkness. It wasn’t a sound any of them reized—not animal, not human, but something far more primal. The undergrowth ahead began to rustle violently, and the air grew colder, a chill that bit through their clothes and g their skin.

  “Stay close,” Kuro said sharply, his calm demeanor unshaken as he drew a bde of his own.

  Reika moved to his side, her fideill intact despite the gnawing unease in her chest. “What do you think it is?” she asked, her voice steady but low.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Kuro replied, his tone devoid of fear. “We take it down or we move fast. Either way, stay ready.”

  The rustling stopped, and for a moment, the forest wehly silent. Then, with terrifying speed, a blur of bd gray lunged from the shadows, its form indistinct but massive, its glowing eyes fixed orio with deadly i.