A Hunter Chronicle – 20

"Hmm?"

Naruto muttered as he checked his cards.

He shuffled them around in his hand and tilted his head backward to look up, which followed by a quick glance at the other players' faces.

They were Killua, Hanzo and Leorio, sitting around him and forming a circle.

The last one had bruises all over his face; acquired from his recent victory against a few of Naruto's clones.

There was plenty of time left in the last day here, and they were just waiting for the boat to come back and pick them up, so they can move onto the next exam venue.

Naruto stared at his opponent's cards with chakra flowing through his eyes, trying to see through them from his position.

When that attempt failed, he tried to use his clones to cheat, but Killua stabbed one that was getting too close behind him.

Naruto sighed and placed his card down in front of them, showing that he had a full-house.

"You cheated somehow! How did you managed to win every game!?"

Leorio shouted angrily as he threw his cards down on the grass.

He had two high pairs while Hanzo shook his head a little and did the same, but gentler.

Hanzo's hand consisted of a triple.

Killua, on the other hand, smirked before folding the cards together and placed them face down in front of him.

"I give up, I'm going check what Gon is doing," Killua said as he got up from his spot and left the group behind while Hanzo tried to do pushup with his fingers, readying for the next phrase of the exam.

"Hey! What did you have?"

Naruto asked but Killua simply did a hand waving gesture without turning around.

Leorio quickly picked up Killua's cards, spreading it to see what the boy had.

His eyes widen and shown it to Naruto, who face-palmed.

"Damn it, Killua! The point of the game was to win, why you forfeit when you could have won!?"

Naruto shouted, chasing after the silver-haired boy.

Gon wasn't with the group.

He was training in an open field nearby, running back and forth while Kurama shouted verbal insults or orders on top of him.

Naruto and Killua entered the edge of the clearing, and he was about to move towards the spiky black-haired kid but noticed that Hisoka was watching the boy with interest closer to them.

Kurapika was also nearby.

In fact, he was in the opposite direction across the field, but currently leaning against tree with a deadly glare at the joker.

"What wrong with him? Did you do something perverted?"

Naruto asked Hisoka while pointing at Kurapika in the distance.

"Hmm… I'm only interested in you three."

Hisoka smirked as Killua stuck his tongue out in disgust.

Naruto formed a tick mark at the comment.

Hisoka leered at the duo for a bit before returning back to Gon's direction while spinning a card between his fingers, which was joker.

Naruto had 'stolen' his deck to play poker previously.

"Enough with the bullshit.'

Naruto called out and threw the deck of card at Hisoka, who caught it effortlessly.

"No fun at all, I just told him some information about he was seeking."

Hisoka said as Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"What he's talking about?"

Killua whispered into Naruto's ear as the blond shook his head a little.

"Probably something to do with Kurapika's revenge."

Naruto said in a low voice and paid attention towards Gon before sighing.

Kurapika was seeking any information on those that murdered his family/clan and destroyed his village, and Naruto had no reason to tell him otherwise.

It would be hypocritical for him to say that vengeance was not the path, considering he did exactly the same a long time ago.

Hisoka must had something to do with it, but Kurapika didn't attack the clown outright, implying that the clown didn't kill the villagers.

"Is it just me or Gon gotten faster?"

Naruto asked, seeing how Gon was moving much faster than before like during the time when he fought with Hisoka.

Good thing they were paying undivided attention to the battle then or the murderous clown would have killed Gon on reflex.

But the near-death experience did help the boy's growth as he was determined than ever before to become stronger.

Kurama probably had something to do with that as well.

"Yeah, how did he do that?"

Killua asked suspiciously.

The child assassin wondered if the demonic fox, Kurama, had taught Gon something unique.

Naruto decided to tell his friend that Kurama actually made Gon's body heavier for training so when those weights came off, Gon would naturally be faster.

However, Naruto have some doubt that was the only thing as he channeled chakra into his eyes and saw some sort of aura coated over the spiky black-haired boy.

"Is that…"

"Nen."

Hisoka answered without hearing the rest.

"He had consciously awakened his Nen."

Hisoka added as the smiled broaden showing some razor-sharp teeth to the side.

Naruto swore he felt the intense murderous aura rising as he blinked at the clown.

Killua immediately moved away from Hisoka as he felt something familiar.

"Nen?"

Killua asked loudly as he was further away.

Naruto sighed, seeing that.

"Stop that!"

Naruto scolded so Hisoka stop emitting bloodlust.

Naruto didn't know much about Nen, but Hisoka had explained something about it during the free hours in the trick tower.

"Nen is... life energy produced by all living bodies for survival."

Naruto said with a sweat dropped.

It sounded exactly like chakra, but he cleared the thought from his mind before continuing explaining all he knew about it.

"So that was what I felt when my brother…"

Killua shivered slightly, remembering his Illumi's presence.

Naruto understood what Killua was going to say since he felt it as well, especially when his clones faced Illumi in battle.

Hisoka smirked at the comment about his associate, who was waking up from his nap in the wood somewhere.

"I think it's the next step to become stronger for you guys because natural strength can only go so far."

Naruto hinted.

"Can I learn it? Gon is getting stronger every day and I don't want to fall behind."

Killua said with a frown.

Currently, he was still faster and deadlier than Gon, but at the rate his friend was growing, Killua would fall behind if he didn't further his own skill set.

Plus, he wanted to defeat his brother for manipulating him, and learning Nen would help him in that endeavor.

"I don't know how Gon learn it. It seemed he just unlocked it…maybe it happened on its own?"

Naruto questioned.

He had no clue how to activate Nen since accessing to chakra was always possible for his kind.

They had complete access to it at the moment they were born.

And only needed to control and mold it afterward. Nen, on other hand, didn't at all, which baffled the Sage somewhat.

He wanted to help Killua grows stronger as well, but not sure how since he lacked the in-depth knowledge of its working.

Naruto turned to look at Hisoka and his eyes narrowed a little.

"You know how to use Nen right? Teach him."

Naruto practically ordered as Hisoka smirked at the command.

Hisoka decided to humor the boy a little.

"Hmmm… there are three ways for someone to initiate, and Nen is mostly tied to emotion and mental state."

Hisoka said but didn't elaborate further.

He hinted that Gon must have used the proper path, but he didn't know that Kurama had helped the boy along by stimulating his muscles with chakra.

It wouldn't have been possible otherwise for Gon, who was too young to awaken it normally.

After a few seconds of silence, Naruto spoke up.

"And? Why did you stop there?"

Naruto asked as Killua nodded in agreement.

He wanted to know more.

"I don't want to teach you Nen. It dangerous if you didn't learn it properly, and the chance of you dying while attempting it is high."

Hisoka refused flatly.

He didn't want them to die before they could reach the peak of their ability, by which he meant Gon and Killua since Naruto was already at his.

He was itching to fight the blond, but Naruto had refused him since there was no incentive to do so.

Killua frowned at the refusal as Naruto sighed.

"Okay, you said that Nen is dangerous if not trained correctly? But Gon is actually practicing it without any one guiding him."

Naruto pointed out.

Hisoka smirked at the hidden meaning.

If he didn't teach Gon and Killua, they would be dying when learning it themselves through trial and error or crippled at best.

Hence, their growth would stop, and he would lose some potentially preys.

"Well done."

Hisoka said before dashing into the woods.

He didn't know the exact process either, but someone who currently spying on them will.

Killua was confused but Naruto shuddered at the retreating sight of the clown.

He didn't want to stop Hisoka since those guys hiding in the woods gave off an aura of a veteran.

A while later, Hisoka returned back to the open field, dragging along with a man in a black suit behind like a sack of potatoes.

The man was groaning in pain as the maniac dropped him down in front of trio kids and one animal.

Gon had stopped training and joined the two when he was called over to have some chat.

"Who is he?"

Gon asked with concern, pointing at the battered man.

"Spectator, examiner, whatever you want to call them, they basically stalked us to make sure we didn't cheat or something along that line."

Naruto deadpanned, thinking the whole point of the round was pretty much 'you have to cheat'.

His clones obviously ran into them while hunting down other people, but they chose to ignore those guys as they weren't candidates.

"Isn't attacking examiner mean disqualification?"

Killua asked everyone around him.

"Yes, but think of them as collateral damage in crossfire, and if any examiner couldn't defend himself from a candidate then they need to find a new job."

Kurama answered sarcastically.

Hisoka grinned at the fox as it hinted what he said before during the first round with Satotz.

"The real question is why brought him here?"

"Hmm… you said you want to learn Nen?"

Hisoka said as the trio nodded. Kurama somewhat didn't care much about the Nen's process, but still wanted to know as well as it was critical information.

"I didn't learn it from anyone, so my methods might not for you, and you might die if trying to copy me. You need a proper teacher, I got you one… this guy lasts the longest when I went to have fun with them."

Hisoka pointed as the battered man in suit.

He killed a few as well since they were weakling, but he didn't reveal that.

"I can't teach you about Nen yet, you need to be a Hunter first."

The brown-haired man with a nice clean cut said after the three kids looked at him.

"Is that all?"

Naruto moved his face closer to the man who gulped and sweated a little.

He and other examiners already knew who this was.

The blond was the only person who managed to steal the ball of Netero and was promoted to a Hunter shortly afterwards.

Both tasks were now a legend of sort as no one had done both before.

"I need to ask for confirmation first."

The man said after suppressing his fear and admiration, or maybe mixture of both.

Naruto nodded, allowing him to do that as he heard Netero's voice over the radio when ear-dropping in.

"Hohoho… is that so, so teach them then, they will have to learn it later anyway."

The radio relayed the old-man's voice.

The communication device also asked the man what was going on with the exam and even chuckled loudly at the end before cutting off.

"Netero-sama had given me an order to go ahead… Gon-kun had already gained access to his, although it's constantly leaking uncontrollably right now, I'm not sure why he hasn't fainted from exhaustion yet…"

The examiner questioned with a frown.

Naruto rolled his eyes a bit and had a quick glance at Kurama, who was supplying Gon with chakra to boost the boy's vitality.

It was to supplement whatever energy Gon lost.

Kurama was a bit shocked, now realizing why it had to constantly supply Gon.

If he left Gon for too long, the boy might die as the result.

The fox scratched his face a little in shame.

Hisoka was shuffling his deck of card around, uncaring much about the conversation.

He had done his task, so he was just waiting for the ship now.

"As for Naruto-kun, Netero-sama said it wasn't possible for him as he tried it before."

The examiner pointed out as Naruto blinked.

'When did he do that?'

Naruto thought and tried to remember their fight.

He noticed that Netero did place his palm on Naruto occasionally at the start of their fight when they were just warming up.

'Was that all he needs to awaken Nen? What the fuck…'

"Killua-kun, please come here."

The examiner said as Killua stepped forward. He placed his hand on Killua's head and channeled his Nen through the boy's body, gentling jolting the aura's nodes and opening it.

The grass around them swayed outward from the silver-haired boy as he releases his energy.

Soon enough, the assassin's body was coated in some aura.

Naruto watched it with interest.

"Now, Killua-kun and Gon-kun, do you feel the energy around you? They are being released from your body in mass from various pores. You will need to sense which pore and close them mentally. This is the first step of learning Nen, and how to control your energy flows."

The examiner lectured and explained further what they needed to do step by step.

The spiky black-haired and silver-haired closed their eyes and stood silently as they sense where the energy was coming from.

They succeeded quickly and felt their body strengthening after doing so.

They were both excited afterwards, jumping in the air when accomplishing the task.

Before long, the boat came by again and picked up the candidates along with all the prisoners in the cave.

The ones who passed the exam round were sent up to an airship that was heading toward Hunter headquarter.