Lee straightened, brushing the dust from his green jumpsuit with a few swift motions. His posture roud, and the hint of a challenge in his stance was impossible to miss. Turning to face Kuro fully, he asked, his voice ced with both curiosity and a clear challenge, “Who are you?”

  Kuro’s lips quirked upward just slightly in a faint, almost unreadable smile. His tone remaieady, his voice calm as ever. “The name’s Kuro.”

  For a brief moment, Lee’s brows furrowed, and his gaze sharpened as he seemed to process the hen, as if a memory clicked into pce, his face lit up with reition. But the expression quickly soured, the sharpness of his words following immediately. “Oh, I remember you now. You and your panions got your butts kicked by Neji.”

  The jab, aimed with Lee’s usual bluntness, might have stung someone else, but Kuro’s smile remained unshaken. He could see the way Lee had delivered the remark—direct, unrefined, but not with any malice. It was simply how Lee spoke, the openness of his personality leaving no room for pretense or hidden iions.

  Kuro didn’t let it faze him. In fact, it almost seemed to amuse him, the ck of veiled hostility. He uood Lee's mentality—an ho fighter who spoke his mind. He’d been through worse.

  Before Kuro could respond, Naruto stepped forward, his grin wide and unabashed, clearly not sensing the iy of the moment. “Hey, that throw was awesome, believe it! You totally saved Sasuke’s ass!”

  Lee didn’t didn’t mind Naruto’s enthusiastic praise for Kuro. His attention remained fixed solely on Kuro, his eyes narrowing as though he were measuring Kuro up like a potential oppo. His posture shifted ever so slightly, muscles tensing and his weight shifting, ready for anything.

  Kuro, unfazed by Naruto’s interruption, tilted his head slightly, a hint of challenge noarent in his own gaze. His tone remained casual, but there was an unmistakable edge to his words. “Want to fight?”

  The question hung in the air, an unspoken dare. The weight of it settled into the space between them, as if the battle that had just been interrupted was about to resume in airely new form. Lee’s stance immediately ged, his body nguage shifting into a more bat-ready position. His feet grouhemselves, and his hands were poised, prepared for any movement. There was ation in him; the challenge had been id out, and Lee was more than ready to accept it.

  His eyes glinted with excitement, as though the idea of fighting someone who had so effortlessly intervened in his bout with Sasuke sparked something deeper in him—a thirst for petition, a o test his limits. A faint smirk curled on his lips, and with a swift motioook a step forward. “I don’t back down from challenges,” he said, his voice ced with resolve while thinking inwardly, “Ain’t I right, Gai Sensei!”

  Kuro’s smile remained small but purposeful, his eyes locked onto Lee with quiet focus. He didn’t o say anything more. The unspoken uandiween them was enough.

  Naruto, caught betweewo, blinked in fusion, unsure if he should cheer them on or step in to stop it. “Wait, hold on, are you seriously gonna fight now?”

  But the air in the hallway had already shifted, thick with the tension of two fighters on the brink of g. her Kuro nor Lee seemed willing to back down, and the energy surrounding them crackled, preparing for the stage of this uable frontation. The quiet before the storm had passed, and now, the battle was truly about to begin.

  But before he could respond, a deep voice rang out, cutting through the tension like a bde.

  “That’s enough!”

  Everyone froze, turning to locate the source of the anding voice. What they saw left Naruto’s jaw practically on the floor.

  Standing at the ter of the hallway was a tortoise, its small frame ingruous with the deep, authoritative voice it had just used.

  Naruto’s rea was immediate. “A talking turtle?!” he shouted, pointing at the creature with wide eyes.

  Kuro, oher hand, didn’t look surprised in the least. He crossed his arms, a faint smirk tugging at the er of his lips as he thought to himself, *Guy-sensei, always the dramatitrance—even in disguise.*

  Lee’s eyes widened in reition, and he quickly bowed his head. “Five me, master,” he said, his tone respectful.

  The tortoise gave a slow nod before speaking again. “Rock Lee, you were instructed not to engage in unnecessary fights before the in Exams. What do you call this?”

  Lee hesitated, his face a mix of guilt aermination. “I… I wao test myself against strong oppos,” he admitted.

  The tortoise sighed—a surprisingly humaure. “Strength es from discipline, not reckless challenges. Save your energy for the exams.”

  Naruto scratched the back of his head, still trying to process the situation. “Okay, am I the only one freaking out here? Why is no one else weirded out by a talking turtle?”

  The tortoise turs gaze to Naruto, its expression—or as much of one as a tortoise could have—serious. “I am not merely a turtle. I am Master Guy’s trusted panion. And you, young ninja, should focus more on your training than your surprise.”

  Before anyone could react, the ground trembled faintly, and suddenly, the tortoise began to glow with a strange light. A swirl of energy coiled around it like a storm, causing the air to hum with power. A smoke blust appear oortoise shell and to the shock of everyone, out leapt a figure—a blur of green, followed by a loud, eic shout.

  “YOUTHFUL STRIKE!”

  Master Guy, his signature green jumpsuit and wild, spiky hair, nded in the hallway with a dramatic fir. He struck a pose, one fist raised in the air, his expression exuding the energy of someone who had just stepped onto the stage of greatness.

  Naruto’s jaw dropped. “Wait… What?! Did he just… e out of that turtle?!” he excimed, his eyes wide with shock.

  Sasuke his eyes narrowing in fusion. “What kind of ninja is this?” he muttered under his breath, clearly taken aback by the strange, rger-than-life figure before them.

  Sakura’s eyes were just as wide as Naruto’s. “What in the world?!” she gasped, her voice rising in disbelief. “Did he just jump out of the turtle?!”