A Hunter Chronicle – 25

Sniff…

Sniff… Sniff…

That was a strange behavior for a certain orange and reddish furred creature, and it wasn't an odor that could be smelled, but rather can be sensed through its original and natural ability long ago.

Even though it was forced to fuse with its siblings during the last confrontation of the Great War that should not have begun, it still retained that useful ability.

The menacing slit eyes of the nine-tail fox stared straight passed through the dense tree lines and obscuring foliage, sensing something beyond the visible range.

"What is this?"

The creature sniffed again, trying to discern that dark aura that contaminated the air and ground.

"Felt hollowed like… hmmm…"

A few minutes ago, it was thrown out the window of a moving locomotive by a certain enraged black-haired young man for using his head as chew toy while giving him a slimy and sticky shower.

After being sent flying passed the beaming face of a young boy with spiky hair, the Bijuu pounced and bounced on the train tracks and graveled ground several times before sliding across the railing and lose its momentum completely.

It huffed once, pulling itself up from the spot before shaking and brushing its body from all the debris and dust that'd accumulated during the trip, showing no visible sign of damage whatsoever.

Nine small tails flickering back and forth as it readied itself for a dash back to the train for a brawl.

However, something else caught its attention as it sensed a powerful presence.

Following the invisible trail, Kurama sniffed the air and earth without paying any attention to his surroundings.

It was not until his forehead bumped into a tall and thick wall made of solid concrete that he stopped and looked around the area.

Kurama creased a brow at the manmade solid fence that dared to hinder his progress before making his own entrance into the vast virgin forest beyond.

With a loud boom and shower of chunky concrete along with a few silent alarms, the newly made foxhole with twisted protruding shredded metal was created in the wall.

Continuing on his treasure hunt, he ran into the gatekeeper and the guardian of the forest before he could reach the golden chest.

"Huh? Who are you…?"

Kurama asked, tilting his head back in a crouching position like a small puppy and looking directly at an enormous, but slender, hound with thick white fur.

The creature gazed back with its emotionless dark eyes.

It only took a second for the nine-tail fox to smack himself mentally.

He realized he was waiting for a response that couldn't possibly come.

"I keep forgetting that there're no talking animal in this place. Hanging around with an idiot all day makes me stupid."

Kurama exhaled and stand up straight on all four again as its nine tails swayed back and forth.

He quickly detoured around the beast as it was not of interest and continued following the faint trail but bumped into the hound again.

The single bushy tail beast was blocking the fox's path once more.

The nine-tail beast didn't make much of it at the time and took another detour around the other side, but the hound intercepted the path again which caused a mild annoyance.

From the beast's perspective, it did not know what to do at the moment.

Its order was to attack and kill all intruders, but it would be impossible to attack birds that flew high up in the sky.

This strange creature with nine tails was an intruder, but the creature was also an animal so one could see the contradiction in its simplistic mind.

However, seeing the fox could speak like a human then it must be a human in disguise, the hound made up its mind quickly.

"What's the big deal? Out the way yo– "

Kurama simply jumped to the side through intuition alone as a powerful vertical paw stomp that crushed the ground on his previous spot.

Feeling no emotion coming from the creature with that attack, the fox narrowed its eyes at the monster.

Everyone had emotions when they tried to kill something including oneself, and the preservation of oneself was always there no matter how small.

"Eh? Who trained you, annoying pest?"

****

Naruto growled angrily as he tried to put the massive gates back onto the remolded hinges one by one after losing the bet on a technicality.

The blond Sage had no money to compensate for the damage he caused as his ability to create things from nothing was sealed up.

Gon was helping his friend by carrying smaller few above his head with both hands with a cheerful smile on his face.

The spiky black-haired kid was piling it just outside the gate while Killua skating around on the pavement outside the gate, not offering to help.

"Oi! Put the smaller piece on top!"

Naruto scolded Gon, seeing the inverted mountain of stone doors.

"But it easier to get the smaller pieces first."

Gon replied with all serious expression.

"You don't really need to do that, we have people for that task since there are a few who do break down the gate when they tried to get in."

Killua said casually, skating around in a wide circle.

"And I was joking when I said you need to fix it."

"What? Why you tell me now, you bastard!"

Naruto shouted before throwing the heavy door at the silver-haired assassin.

Killua smirked, jumped up into the air at the approaching flying platform.

He jogged across the cracked door from one end to the other before landing back on his skateboard as the concrete slab slammed into the earth with a huge boom.

With a gentle flick of his leg along the ground, Killua continued skating around the area while Leorio watched in shock from inside the small checkpoint.

"What the!?"

Leorio shouted, seeing Killua just avoid something like that and returning back to skating around.

"How they got so strong?"

"Simpleton."

Kurapika muttered when seeing the brawl outside between Naruto and Killua. Gon apparently joined in once a piece of debris hit him.

"Well, Gon and Killua have been training constantly for the last few weeks. It's expected that they were that strong."

"Eh? They were training? What training!? All I saw is those three kept playing and messing around?"

Kurapika sweat dropped and nodded in agreement.

To the outside world, it would appear so, but it was more complicate than that as those games were laborious on the body.

"Yes, but they were also training during that time. I will tell you more when Zebro-san finished informing intendants of what happened here. For now, have a drink. It's good and shouldn't be wasted."

"Yes! I understand. Thank you. Good bye."

Zebro, the gate keeper, cleaned off his sweat with a forearm and placed the phone back onto the holder.

He let out a breath of relief, knowing that he still had his job since it was not his fault to begin with.

Master Killua vouched for him as well so there wasn't any problem, at least for now. Zerbo sat down on his seat as Leorio finally joined the two.

"What the…!?"

Leorio tried to pick up the strange stone tea cup and found it weight far more than it should.

"It's about 20kg I believed."

Kurapika estimated it in his hand before putting his cup down without any trouble at all.

Zerbo nodded to confirm its weight.

The long-time guardsman of the Zoldyck's family was amazed that the blond teenager had no problem of handling them first time.

"I have to constantly keep up my training or I will not able to open those doors anymore."

Zerbo revealed.

"It just gets harder and harder each day. I might look for another job soon."

The last survivor of the Kurpa clan analyzed the old man's posture a little before sighing.

He'd clearly remembered the fox's words when he requested some help with his own training.

"That is because it's ununiformed weight distribution. It was a given when you need to use thing like this."

"What do you mean, Kurapika-kun?"

Zerbo asked, seeing how the blond teenager knew about weight training.

"It might not look like it, but I'm currently weight down heavily just like Killua-kun and Gon-kun. I'm not sure about Naruto, but he might also be."

Kurapika divulged.

"What?"

Leorio called out from the side as Kurapika chuckled.

"I'm sorry I can't show you the Seal since it was placed at my center of gravity."

Kurapika said reluctantly as the very embarrassed memory resurfaced in his mind again.

"Can you help me train as well?"

Kurapika asked Kurama as the fox yawned a little on the comfortable couch that everyone vacated. They don't want to upset it for whatever reason after the threat it made to one of the examiners.

Gon and Killua were running around on the airship deck in their exploration while Naruto was elsewhere, looking for something to steal most likely.

"Alright, there's no harm in training you as well. First off, strip and let me have a look."

Kurama requested with all serious tone while there a few people whispered to each other and tried their best not to stare.

"W-what?"

Kurapika buried the memory again as he leered at Leorio, who obviously wondered what were these things called 'Seal'.

"Fuuinjutsu… or Sealing Techniques allowed a number of things to be done. I don't know further than that as that was all Kurama-kun revealed. There are two seals on my lower back at the moment. One is Gravity Seal that made my body feel like it was much heavier than normally, and the other is Restriction Seal which basically opposed everything little action I took. Combining together, it was a perfect form of physical training that I can switch on and off anytime in case I run into troubles."

Kurapika explained.

"So Gon and Killua have this Seals on their body?"

Leorio asked after a moment of thought.

"In that case, I want one."

"Yes, but at what levels. I don't know. Gravity Seal have no upper limit as it multiplies your weight endlessly. Restriction Seal on the other hand maxed out at certain factor. At maximum, I cannot move an inch of my body as all my actions are opposed with the exact amount of force. That is including breathing as Restriction Seal appeared to be a binding technique originally."

Kurapika said, remembering that his bodily function froze immediately when he tested last level since Kurama simply told him to figure it out himself.

Learn through the body as so it was seemed.

"Actually, I've changed my mind."

Leorio said with some dread at the knowledge about the Seal that they had on.

"I want the Gravity Seal only. It would make me stronger wouldn't it? Where did he go?"

"I think Naruto-kun could place one on you, but Kurama stated he was better at Sealing Techniques, so you might want to have Kurama checked it up when he returned."

Kurapika advised.

"I've been meaning to ask, who is Kurama-san?"

Zebro enquired after taking in the information about these strange Sealing techniques.

"Him? No body! Just a shape shifting annoying bastard."

Leorio snorted.

"But I guess he's good for something."

In contrast, Kurapika sweat-dropped at the declaration, but didn't say anything further. Kurama wasn't someone who could resent such name calling.

In fact, the fox and Leorio had insulted each other on many occasions, but never led to anything more serious.