A Hunter Chronicle – 15

"Tsk…"

Naruto muttered as he sat upright on the opened beach.

He was kicked off the ship by Lippo after the examiner's yelling and screaming.

When that didn't work, Lippo decided to reason with the boy and told him that he would fail if he wasn't on the island.

The rule of this round specifically stated that all candidates must spend a week of survival on the island.

That reason actually worked.

Naruto shook his head to clear off the sands in his hair before standing up.

'Weird, a lot of my clones just died…'

Naruto thought as several of the dead clone visions came into his mind.

They exploded when sharp flying pins crashed into them.

The deadly projectile was aiming directly at their head.

"Is there another crazed maniac on the island beside Hisoka?"

Naruto asked himself, trying to see in his memory where Hisoka was.

The half-insane clown was just sitting in a clearing, and not doing anything in particular while several Narutos running around nearby, chasing each other in a game of tags.

"Since I'm here, let's increase the challenge. A lot of these candidates shouldn't even be in this round."

Naruto said, putting his hand up in the air with a bowl of cookies on top of it before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

A scream could be heard on the ship as Lippo wondered where all of his biscuits had gone.

****

'How can I take Hisoka's card.'

Gon thought after washing his clothes in a small pond.

A few Narutos were scattered about nearby, discussing something with each other.

Kurama was lazily yawning near the edge of the ponds, wondering if he should go hunt down a few contestants or flatten the entire forest.

He was leaning toward the latter since he wanted some exercise and creates havoc.

Vaporizing the surrounding landscape would accomplish both.

"At your current level, fighting against Hisoka heads on would be suicide."

Naruto said as he walked across the pond toward Gon.

The black hair boy was amazed.

His friend was walking on water like it was on solid ground.

"Then what should I do?"

Gon asked after recovering.

Naruto told him to follow as Kurama jumped back on the black hair boy's head.

They walked toward a clearing and saw several people were moving through the bushes only to disappear from sight, as if they fell through the earth.

Gon about to ran there and help them but Naruto grabbed the boy before he could.

Naruto did that so Gon would not trigger the traps that were hidden in front of them.

"There are traps everywhere on the island. How I know? Because I was the one who set them up."

Naruto said with a devilish grin.

The clones had dug holes and set up traps all over the islands.

Many candidates had already fallen to the subterfuge when chasing after the blond, not checking where they were standing on.

They didn't know that they were the actual prey, not the blond.

The game had changed once the boss arrived on the island.

"Are you suggesting I use traps?"

Gon asked skeptically.

Naruto smiled and shook his head.

"Hisoka won't fall for any traps you can devise, but when people hunting their prey, they don't watch their surrounding…"

Naruto didn't finish his sentence as several Narutos jumped down from a tree next to them with a bounded afro-haired victim in their hand.

His heavy short-brimmed hat fell off its pot onto the floor as one of the clones search their captive and took his badge.

"This exam will be more difficult from now on, so I'm running a test to see who can pass."

Naruto commented as he displayed Gon's badge in his hand before dashing away.

Gon immediately threw his fishing rod and hit his friend's back with the sinker.

The clone exploded in a white puff, dropping the badge in the process.

'Naruto almost had me, when did he take it?'

Gon thought as he quickly picked up his badge and hid it once more.

"Good reflex and good aim."

Another Naruto said, falling off the nearby tree as Gon immediately got into his defensive stance.

Naruto chuckled.

"Don't worry, I only try to get it once, if you got it back, then I won't bother again. But I think you need some training before you could get Hisoka's badge."

Naruto said putting his hand up in a truce.

Gon still remains defensive.

He did not trust the blond's words.

"Why didn't you dodge before? I know you can dodge it."

Gon asked suspiciously.

Naruto dropped his hands and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, I have to give everyone a chance of winning after all. If I go all out, nobody would pass. Gon, I think you have what it takes to become a hunter, but you might die in trying to pass. Even if you survive this, you might die in the next."

Naruto said before heading off, leaving Gon behind contemplating about Naruto's words.

"He's right. You're currently weak. Want me to train you? Seven days, then you might have a chance of getting Hisoka's badge… a slim chance, but it would be better than now. If you asked me, the current you have zero chance."

Kurama offered as Gon looked up at it.

"Kurama, you can make me stronger?"

Gon asked as the fox nodded.

"Make me stronger. I want to get the badge with my own hands."

Gon requested humbly.

The fox grinned as it jumped off the boy's head and transformed into a tall male man with reddish and orange fur covered most of his body.

Nine long tails swishing side to side behind him as he looked at the boy with menacing eyes.

"Don't die on me."

Kurama stated flatly.

It wasn't a threat, but Gon held his fishing rod tighter, readying.

****

"Having fun?"

Hisoka asked the blonds in front of him.

They all shrugged as they carried their bounded captives across the field to stash them somewhere safe for the remainder of the week.

All of prisoners were knocked out and had their badges taken.

"Aren't you going to test me? I wouldn't mind being bound up."

Hisoka said as they all stopped and looked at him with disgust.

"SHUT UP, YOU DISGUSTING PERVERT! GET A GIRL FRIEND ALREADY YOU SHOTACON!"

All the clones shouted in unison before continuing carrying off their captives.

They knew Hisoka joked sometimes, but it was really hard to tell.

Maybe the guy was really into young boys.

Who really know, and none of the Narutos really wanted to know the truth.

"What's your number?"

One of the clones behind the rest asked.

Hisoka smirked a bit.

"384."

Hisoka said as one of the clones threw a badge at him.

Hisoka grabbed it without checking if it was the prey he wanted.

He already knew before hand as most of the Narutos moved away.

They didn't feel like letting Hisoka roamed around and murdering other candidates just to get their badges.

What they are doing now were saving all the idiots' life while testing them.

Naruto will tell them to train harder when they wake up and try again next exam, at least then, a murderous and probably insane clown wouldn't be around.

'Tsk… why save them? I was about to hunt down three random guys.'

Hisoka thought and shuffling his deck of cards.

One of the Narutos stayed behind and started explaining things to Hisoka before leaving the joker alone once more in his spot.

"What with these guys, they keep attacking me, no matter how much I killed, they just keep coming."

The voice on the radio said as Hisoka chuckled.

The joker decided to not reply to his associate.

Naruto did tell him that he was testing everyone according to their level so Hisoka shouldn't interfere.

Naruto didn't bother to test Hisoka again since he already knew Hisoka's level and the clown was obviously a Hunter material.

But they weren't sure how strong Gittarackur was, so they kept assaulting him in an ever increasing numbers.

So far, he had put up a good fight against the waves of clones.

****

"Naruto, you bastard, give me back my badge!"

Leorio angrily shouted while chasing after the blond.

He had fell through several traps along the way but managed to get out of it just in time.

The clone exploded in white smoke when struck with something hard, as the badge fell onto Kurapika's palm.

"I think we need to team up, Naruto is taking out everyone."

Kurapika suggested, throwing the badge back to Leorio.

It hadn't been more than a few hours since they arrived at the island, but Kurapika was assaulted by several Narutos already.

He managed to defend himself in time, and they hadn't harassed him anymore.

"Team work huh."

One the blond in the tree whispered, watching the duo below.

"We have test Kurapika already, but Leorio is such an idiot. Their grouping up is incredibly mismatched, should we test them again?"

Another one whispered back.

Several of them started whispering back and forth, devising new plans to test the duo.

****

"Shit! Shit! I wasn't going to attack them, but these things are relentless."

The hunter candidate #294, Hanzo called out as he dashed along the tree line.

He was being chased by several Narutos who was after his badge.

He was a shinobi, trained to perfection, but these kids were catching up to him with no problem at all.

If anything, they were enjoying the chase as some of them were flipping around in the air.

"I know he's strong, but this is insane, LEAVE ME ALONE YOU ASSHOLES!"

Hanzo shouted back as he continued to run through the endless trees while Narutos did the same.

"Hey, he's really good."

One of them said as the other nodded.

A few was chatting to each other leisurely as they jumped from tree to tree.

"Who's left? How many have passed?"

"Only Leorio, Killua and this guy are left. The candidates that passed the boss test are Kurapika… the pervert clown… Gon, who is currently training with Kurama and that guy with who badly need surgery to remove all those pins."

One of the Naruto said, counting his fingers.

"I really hate that snake guy and bee girl, creepy pair."

One of the Naruto shivered, his body remembered the phantom bites and stings.

Unfortunately, neither of the candidates had passed as they were knocked out fairly early in the game.

They weren't paying attention to the surrounding and relied on their pet way too much.

Once you got passed the creatures, their owner wasn't strong at all.

"So… should this guy pass?"

"Yes, his speed is really high, but we should see how his strength fare, I think he would make a good hunter, but I still want to bash him up for making us chase him, talk about cowardice!"

One of them said while the rest grinned.

They also wanted to beat Hanzo up for being a coward.

"Damn straight dattebayo!"

All the clones roared and raised their agility to the next level.

They were moving even faster than before as they chased after coward, who was trying his best to get away.

"What are these things? Are they zombies? Shit I'm getting tired."

Hanzo told himself, but for some reason he felt that if he gives up now, he would not get out of this unscathed.