The trihead wolves surged forward like a releide, their glowing red eyes gleaming with predatory i. Their sleek forms darted through the shadows, eaent unnervingly coordinated as they closed in on Xero. The grouh their cws cracked and splintered, leaving a trail of destru in their wake.

  Xero, standing amidst the chaos, didn’t flinch. Instead, he ughed—a wild, reckless sound that echoed across the clearing. The fire in his golden eye burned brighter as his excitement grew. L his massive bde to his side, he paused, a cocky grin spreading across his face as though he were inviting the wolves to attack.

  “Kuro,” Xero called out, his voice filled with exhiration, “I’m going to show these tin dogs what real power looks like.”

  Kuro didn’t reply, his sharp eyes locked onto Saibogu Ichigō. His silence carried an unspoken trust, a mutual uanding born from tless battles fought side by side.

  Xero’s grin widened as he raised a hand to his face. In one deliberate motion, he reached up and tore off his eyepatch, tossing it aside carelessly. For a moment, the clearing seemed to hold its breath.

  Then it came.

  A surge of energy exploded outward, rippling through the air like a shockwave. The force alpable, sending a gust of wind tearing through the forest. Neji’s Byakugan caught the surge before his other senses could even process it. His pearlest eyes widened as he tracked the raw, unfiltered energy radiating from Xero’s now-uncovered eye.

  The eye itself was a sight to behold—a swirling vortex of fiery gold and crimson, glowing with an iy that seemed to burn through the air. Around Xero, a fiery aura ignited, crag with arcs of energy that danced across his body. The grouh him scorched and cracked as his power surged.

  “What... is that?” Tenten whispered, her voice barely audible over the hum of energy. Her wide eyes stayed fixed on Xero, a mix of awe and unease creeping into her expression.

  Xero’s entire demeanor shifted. The chaotiergy that had always fueled his fighting style was now tempered, focused into something far more dangerous. His strikes, once wild and uable, transformed into devastatingly precise movements. Each swing of his bde tore through the wolves with overwhelming force, their meical bodies crumpling uhe sheer impact.

  He moved like a storm, an uable rhythm to his attacks that left his enemies scrambling to reaoment, his bde cleaved through a wolf mid-leap, the he inning through a cluster of attackers, sending parts flying in every dire. The fiery energy radiating from his eye infused every strike, amplifying his strength to inhuman levels.

  Neji stood frozen, his fists ched tightly as he watched the dispy. His Byakugan traced the flow of energy emanating from Xero, and what he saw defied logic. The energy didn’t folloattern—it was chaotic yet inexhaustible, as if it were drawing from an endless reservoir.

  “His power…” Neji murmured, his voicharacteristically uain. “It’s unlike anything I’ve seen. It feels... limitless.”

  Tenten g him, her brow furrowing. “Limitless? Is that even possible?”

  Neji didn’t answer. His gaze remained locked on Xero, his mind rag to make sense of the impossible. The iy of the energy was unlike any chakra or teique he had entered. It was raw, untamed, a Xero wielded it with a fidehat bordered on recklessness.

  Xero’s ughter cut through the tension as he brought his bde down in a final, thunderous strike. The shockwave of the blow radiated outward, scattering the remaining wolves like leaves in a storm. The clearing fell silent for a brief moment, the ground littered with the shattered remains of the Cerberus Children.

  Xero turned, his fiery eye log onto Saibogu Sangō, atg him instead of fighting Kuro. “You’re ,” Xero growled, his voice low and brimming with anticipation.

  Neji’s fists tighte his sides, his posure slipping for just a moment. Whatever Xero had bee, whatever power he wielded, it was clear that it wasn’t something born of ordinary means. And it left a gnawing unease i of his stomach. —----Meanwhile, as Xero unleashed his power, the shockwaves of his energy rippled far beyond the fines of the Forest of Death. The spiritual pressure emanating from his unleashed aura spread across the nd, an invisible force that carried both iy and unease.

  Miles away, in the bustling streets of the Hidden Leaf Vilge, several ninja paused mid-step. versations fell silent, and an inexplicable sense of tensioled over the vilge. Birds took flight in startled flocks, their cries cutting through the uneasy quiet.

  In the Hokage’s office, the atmosphere was anything but calm. A seasoned Jōnin stood by a monit station, his sharp eyes sing the live reports from the in Exams. His frown deepened as his chakra senses fred, pig up on the fn energy even from such a distance.

  “What is this power?” he murmured, his voice tinged with disbelief. He turo a colleague seated beside him, his hands tightening into fists.

  The other ninja, a sensor specialist, sat rigidly, his face pale as he processed the readings in front of him. “It’s overwhelming,” he said, his torained. “Like nothing we’ve ever registered before. This… this is beyond Jōnin level.”

  At the ter of the room, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, set down his pen, his previously calm demeanor repced by a look of . The aging leader rose from his chair, his eyes narrowing as he looked toward the dire of the Forest of Death, though it was far beyond his line of sight.

  “From the in Exams?” he said slowly, his voice ced with skepticism and curiosity. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

  Hiruzen’s years of experieold him that this wasn’t an ordinary anomaly. The sheer magnitude of the energy hi something far more dangerous—and far more signifit—than any in didate should have been capable of.

  The office fell silent for a moment, the tension thi the air. Then, one of the Jōnin spoke up hesitantly. “Hokage-sama, should we send reinforts to the Forest of Death?”

  Hiruzen stroked his beard thoughtfully, his sharp mind weighing the possibilities. If this energy was ing from a partit, it could disrupt the bance of the exams. But if it was from aernal force, the implications were even more dire. “No,” he said at st. “We don’t know enough. For now, we observe. Give me the crystal ball, I will watch them.”