Kuro stood there, arms crossed, eyeing Orochimaru with plete indifferehe snake-like man was doing his usual vilin thing—gl, oozing malice, and generally looking like he was trying to be the star of a very poorly scripted drama.

  Orochimaru took a step forward, his voice dripping with venom. “Ah, the wonder boy. So much potential... too bad you’re too weak to uand the depth of my power.” His smile was as sinister as ever, like he was trying to sell the idea of his evilo an audience.

  Kuro gave him a look, unimpressed. “Yeah, yeah. Big bad snake guy, I get it. You’ve got the whole ‘a power’ thing going on. we skip to the part where you try to kill me and fail miserably?”

  Orochimaru tilted his head, clearly not expeg that kind of response. “You’re either very brave or very foolish. You have no idea what you’re dealing with, boy.”

  “Really? No idea?” Kuro smirked, hands in his pockets. “Buddy, I’ve literally read the manga, I kly how this goes. Yonna say something about how you’re ‘unstoppable’ or whatever, I’m gonna make some sarcastient, and then you’ll throw a big attack. But here’s the thing—I've seen it all before.”

  Orochimaru blinked, clearly thrown off by Kuro’s casual tone. He was expeg fear, maybe a little trembling, but all he got was a guy who seemed bored by the whole situation.

  “You think you mock me, little kid?” Orochimaru’s eyes narrowed, but there wasn’t the usual venom in his voice—he was actually a little curious. “Are you really so fident?”

  Kured. “fidence is a weird word. But, yeah, I’m fident. I’ve been around. I’ve dealt with bigger threats, more dramatic vilins. You’re kind of... ‘standard vilin’ material, if you know what I mean.”

  Orochimaru’s lips curled into a smile, not out of anger, but amusement. “So, I’m just another ‘standard vilin,’ am I?”

  “Well, yeah,” Kuro said, his tone light. “You’ve got the whole creepy shing going on, with the whole 'I’m an a being’ routine. You’re practically cheg off every cliché in the vilin handbook. I’m holy waiting for you to break out the ‘I’ll destroy this world’ speeext.”

  Orochimaru paused, taking in Kuro’s words. “You mock me, but you don’t seem afraid,” he observed.

  Kuro raised an eyebrow. “Afraid? Nah. I’ve seen this act a million times. You do the evil monologue, maybe summon a snake or two, then vanish for the dramatiext round.’ It’s like you’ve got a script or something.” He leaned against a tree, getting fortable. “So, what’s the pn, Orochimaru? An speech, or are you just gonna stand there looking creepy?”

  Orochimaru didn’t react with fury, like most vilins would. Instead, he tilted his head slightly, intrigued by Kuro’s casual tone. “You really think you know how this pys out?”

  “I mean, yeah,” Kuro said with a grin. “I’m pretty sure yonna do something super vilin-y, like try to trol me or offer me power... or maybe you’ll give me the whole ‘join me, and together we rule the world’ spiel. I’ll dee, obviously.”

  Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. “And you’re not worried about the sequences of your insolence?”

  Kuro chuckled. “sequences? I’m not too worried about them. I’ve been zapped, bsted, thrown into alternate dimensions. A guy like you? Pfft. You're just... a Tuesday for me.”

  Orochimaru's eyes gleamed, but it wasn’t with a was a quiet curiosity, like he was starting to enjoy this exge. “You really are something, aren’t you? You’re not like the others.”

  Kuro grinned wider. “Yeah, I’m kind of a big deal. You should have seen me ba my old world. They used to call me ‘The Bullied,’ because I had this thing where I would just watch people destroy each other. It was kind of my thing. But now, I’m here, watg you do your snake vilin thing, and holy? I’m impressed you’ve stuck with it for so long.”

  “Bullied?” Orochimaru asked, slightly intrigued. “Is that supposed to be some sort of joke?”

  “Not really. It was more of a power-up,” Kuro said, eyes sparkling with mischief. “I had this thing called the Bully System. Every time I got insulted, I got stronger. So imagihe chaos I caused just by walking into a room full of angry people. They’d roast me, and I’d get stronger and stronger. It was fun.”

  Orochimaru’s curiosity seemed to grow, but he kept his posure. “Iing. I’ve never heard of such a system.”

  “Yeah, there is something like that,” Kured. “Now, I’m just here for the show. You know, the whole ‘epic vilin shohere you try to kill me, and I pretend to be worried, the you in some ridiculous way.”

  “Is that what you think will happen?” Orochimaru asked, his voice still calm.

  “Holy? Yeah,” Kuro said with a grin. “Look, no offense, but you’re ly inal. You’ve got the creepy snake vibe, the long speeches, and the ‘I’m gonna take over the world’ routi’s all just too... predictable.”

  Orochimaru, who had been expeg a more serious frontation, found himself at a loss for words. “I... see. You really do think you know everything about me.”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” Kuro said with a grin, pletely rexed. “I’m not here for a fight. I just wao see what you’d do when someone wasn’t terrified of you.”

  Orochimaru seemed to sider this for a moment. Then, with a soft chuckle, he spoke again. “Perhaps you are more iing than I thought.”

  Kuro grinned back. “I get that a lot.”

  Without warning, the frontation ignited. Orochimaru, his serpent-like presenmistakable, shed out with unnatural speed. His tongue shot forward, a long, sinuous on coated in dark, venomous fluid. The mome almost surreal—like everything around Kuro froze in pce. He could see every detail in crisp crity: the flicker of Orochimaru’s eyes, the unnatural twist of his tohe fai breath of wind that seemed to linger, holding its own. The world around him felt distant, like he was watg a movie unfold with a remote in hand.

  But Kuro wasn’t just a passive observer anymore. His mind, honed by his past as James and his experien this chaotic world, clicked into gear without hesitation. He had learhe hard way that in this world, hesitatio death. Every sed ted.