*They've been holding back all this time,* Kuro realized, a pang of respect mingling with his surprise. The depth of their cealed abilities was far beyond what he had initially perceived. These were not the same people he had first entered; these were warriors who had mastered not just physical bat, but the very essence of power itself.

  Despite their bined efforts, however, the wolves kept ing. It was as though for every meical beast they destroyed, two more emerged from the chaotic periphery of the battle. Their numbers seemed endless, a releide of metal and murderous i. The wolves moved with a coordirategy, suggesting something—or someone—was trolling them with cold, calg precision. This was no random assault; this was an anized campaign.

  Vilgers screamed as they fled, their terror creating a backdrop of pure chaos. The air was thick with panic as people scrambled for safety, and the sounds of destru grew louder and more inteh each passing moment. Kuro could feel the weight of their fear pressing against him, adding a yer ency to the already dire situation. It fueled his growing frustration, a mounting tension that seemed to pulse within him like a dormant force seeking release. He had no time to pte his move; there was only the present and the overwhelmio act.

  And then, in the midst of this maelstrom, he saw it—a moment that would ge everything.

  A young child, no older than five, tripped and fell in the pandemonium. The child’s eyes, wide with terror, locked onto the approag danger. Amid the destru, a smaller Cerberus pup broke from the main pack, its meical jaws opening wide with a hydraulic hiss. The creature luoward the defenseless boy, its targeting systems log onto the most vulnerable target.

  Kuro didn't think. His body moved on pure, unadulterated instinct, honed by tless years of training and survival in hostile enviros. Time itself seemed to slow, transf into a visedium through whient became deliberate and crystalline. Every detail sharpened with impossible crity—the glint of the Cerberus's metallic teeth, the boy's tear-streaked face, the fairic st of ozone hanging in the air.

  *Sloth View,* Kurnized. A teique that allowed perception to accelerate while the world around him crawled. In that moment, he could see every miail of the battlefield as if it were unfolding in slow motion, and with it came a deeper uanding of the flow of events, a way to anticipate and ter his enemies before they even made a move.

  In what would have been a mere fra of a sed to an outside observer, Kuro reached the child. His movement was so swift, so precise, that it appeared almost teleportation-like. Grabbing the boy with one arm, he executed a perfect pivot, turning to face the ining threat. Every movement was calcuted, as though the very fabric of time and space had bent to his will.

  As the Cerberus pup approached, Kuro unleashed what he would ter call the *Kangaro Cut*—an uppercut so powerful that it defied the ws of ventional physics. The force behind the blow was so immehat it sent shockwaves through the immediate enviro, causing cracks to form in the grouh his feet. The Cerberus didn’t merely fall—it disied, its supposedly imperable armored body shattering like the most fragile of gss. Sparks flew, and the creature's pieces scattered in all dires, leaving only a trail of sm debris in its wake.

  Time resumed its normal flow, and Kuro stood there, momentarily breathless. The boy g to his arm, trembling but unharmed. With gentle care, Kuro set the child down, his eyes already sing the battlefield, searg for the hreat. He didn't o look back to know that the child's life ared, but he also khat this was far from over. The wolves were relentless, and the battle was still raging.

  A smirk tugged at his lips as he turo face the remaining threats. "Well, it's about time."

  The words carried a weight of significe that went beyond the immediate moment. Reika and Xero paused mid-fight, their eyes snapping to Kuro with a mixture of shod intrigue. They had seen his potential before, but what he had just doransded anything they had imagined.

  "What was that?" Reika demanded, her voice a blend of astonishment and growing respect.

  Kuro flexed his fingers, feeling the surge of energy c through him like liquid lightning. The *Sloth View* teique had heightened his awareness and reflexes, but it was the *Kangaro Cut*—the teique he had barely begun to master—that had granted him the power to take down the Cerberus pup in a single, devastating strike.

  "Just a little something I've been holding back," Kuro said, his voice light despite the ferocity of the battle around him. His fidence alpable, radiating from every pore. He had tapped into something deeper within himself, something that would tip the scales in their favor.

  The remaining wolves, sensing the shift iide, turheir attention to him. Their meical growls were a threat and a challenge, an aowledgment that they nnized him as a force to be reed with. But Kuro was beyond intimidatioepped forward, his stanwavering, his eyes locked on the enemy.

  "e on, then," he taunted, raising his fists. "Let's see how tough you really are."

  The wolves seemed to hesitate, as though pting the challenge before them. But Kuro khat no matter what they did, the battle was already in their favor. He had unlocked a part of himself that was limitless—a power that would reshape the battlefield and turide in their favor.

  Kuro's system, or rather James' system, had beeored. Kuro noticed a message h above his head.

  > gratutions! Your current body is now synced with your inal power.

  > gratutions! You have gaihe ability called "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Your skills have been adapted to the ninja world scale. Your inal abilities will now be merged with various chakra elements of this world.

  Kuro thought to himself, *That expins why my Kangaro Cut feels slightly different from the inal.*