Kuro tilted his head, ued by the noise. His expression was one of mild amusement, almost as if the sound was nothing more than a passing nuisance. “It’s clever, though. Disorient and quer. That’s the goal.” He crossed his arms, with detached i as the battle unfolded.
Xero, however, didn’t flinch. He stood tall, his grin widening as he began to ugh, loud and carefree. “That’s it? A little noise?” His voice cut through the screeg sound, his body rexed and unfazed as he took a step forward, almost as if the attack had no effe him whatsoever. “I’ve lived through screams louder than this!”
His fidence was maddening, almost like a force of nature. He stepped fain, his movements almost reckless in their abandon, a, every step felt like it was calcuted for maximum chaos. His bde swung zily at first, but then it gained speed—eaent faster and wilder, as if he were dang with the fight itself. He wasn’t just reag; he was embrag it. Every swing was full of ferocity, like a storm that couldn’t be stopped.
The Sound ninja’s fidence faltered as Xero advanced, his every movement growing more uable and more terrifying. Xero wasn’t following any pattern. He was like a wild animal, attag from every ah no care for his own defe was as if he had no pn—except for oo overwhelm his oppo with sheer, uing force.
Before the csh could escate further, however, a voied through the room, slig through the tension like a bde.
“That's Enough!”
The voice echoed with authority, like a thunder the midst of a storm. The Sound ninja froze, his tration shattered by the sudden interruption. The high-pitched sound from his jutsu faltered, fading away as the trol of the situation slipped from his grasp.
Xero didn’t move. His grin never faltered, and his eyes locked onto the source of the and. The air itself seemed to freeze as his blood hummed with the excitement of battle, not wanting to stop but forced to by the undeniable power of the voice.
The sheer authority in the voice smmed into the room like a wall, suffog every ounce of tension in the air. **The Sound ninja froze mid-attack, his wrist traption inches from Xero’s bde**, as if time itself had stopped to take a breath. Xero, too, halted in his tracks, his grin fading just enough to reveal a flicker of genuine surprise, before slipping bato something more ral. Slowly, almost relutly, he lowered his sword, the sharp edge swishing through the air as if it were relut to rest.
**All eyes so the source of the voice.** From the entrance door of the room, a man stepped forward. His prese like a freight train—quiet, but deadly. His head was bald, gleaming uhe dim light, and his face was a roadmap of battle scars, eae telling a grim story of pain, survival, and violence. Every line carved into his skin whispered a history far darker than anything in this room. He wasn’t just a man; he was a *force*—something that bent the very air around him to his will.
Behind him stood several other shinobi, eae cloaked in an aura of authority that made the room feel even smaller. They moved with a chilling ess, their gazes unwavering, as though they were the final word in anything that happened here. **The room held its collective breath, a heaviness pressing down on every petitor.**
It was Ibiki Morino, the proctor for the first stage of the in Exams. His eyes, bd cold as the depths of an abyss, sed the gathered group, his gaze lingering on the Sound ninja and Xero. **It wasn’t a look of mere disapproval. It was the kind of stare that made you feel as if your very soul was under review.**
"This isn’t the battlefield," Ibiki’s voice cut through the air, low and grating, like gravel grinding against bone. **His words were calm, but the underlying menace was impossible to miss.** "If you want to fight, wait for the exam. But if anyone breaks the rules again..."
He let the words hang in the air like a loaded on, and for a moment, it felt like he could make the entire room colpse uhe weight of his threat. **His eyes flicked over to the Sound ninja, then back to Xero. The chill in his gaze was enough to make even the most hardened shinobi feel like prey.**
"I’ll disqualify them on the spot." The words dropped like the snap of a bone breaking, final and unfiving.
The Sound ninja’s bravado melted away, his spiraightening with a jerking motion as he stepped back, swallowing hard. His earlier coess was o be found, repced by a kind of raw, trembling fear. **He wasn’t scared of losing. He was scared of the very idea that Ibiki could make him vanish from the exam with a mere flick of his hand.**
Xero, however, didn’t seem phased. With a dramatic flourish, he sheathed his sword, the *click* of the scabbard log in pce eg through the room like a mogly casual bell toll. His griurned, wider this time, as if the threat didn’t even faze him. “What a buzzkill,” he muttered loud enough for Reika and Kuro to hear, his tone dripping with sarcasm. **He was a man who thrived on chaos and bloodshed, and this interruption only seemed to make him more eaihan annoyed.**
Kuro leaned closer to Reika, his voice barely a whisper but carrying a weight that didn’t o be heard by anyone else. "Looks like the fun’s over—for now." **His eyes never left Ibiki, though, as if silently aowledging the terrifying possibility that this man could stop the fight in the blink of an eye.**
Reika nodded, but there was no humor in her expression—only quiet calcution. **Her eyes were sharp, focused on Ibiki like a hawk sizing up its meal.** “He’s not someoo mess with,” she muttered, her voice carrying the weight of experience. She didn’t just *feel* the danger; she k.
Ibiki’s presence alone was enough to make the entire room tighten with uhe way he stood, the way he ahe space around him—it was as if the very rules of the in Exams bent to his will. His casual threat wasn’t just a warning. It romise. And in this world, promises made by men like him were not to be taken lightly.
