A Hunter Chronicle – 18

The bald shinobi tried to open his bruised eyes slowly.

It was painful.

His vision was hazy at best as he tried to see what was in front of him.

The smell of cooked meat invaded his nostril as he inhaled deeply.

It took some effort to get his eyes completely opened.

His cheeks were swollen and there was deep cut in his attire.

His body was in agony from all the bruises.

He had been punched and kicked in various places.

Fortunately, nothing seemed to be permanent, and they will heal in time.

"Oh, he woken up, I told you guys to stop kicking him when he was down! It had been hours for him to wake up, nice one dumbass!"

A blond, near the outdoor flames, shouted and jabbed the air accusingly, pointing at several of his twins.

"SHUT UP! Who made you the boss!? Don't put all of this on us! You were the one who gave him those black eyes!"

The accused group retorted in unison.

Then they started arguing back and forth, debating on who did the worst injury.

One or two of them didn't argue but enjoyed the wild boar they had just capture.

All of them were waiting for the guy they beaten up to return back into the living world.

They wouldn't have roughed him up that badly, but the coward forced them to chase him across the whole island.

It was fun at first, but they wanted to vent out their anger and frustration a bit.

Hanzou ignored the noisy group and checked his body.

His badge was still in his pocket as he took it out to see it.

Hanzou was confused.

He had no idea why they were chasing him, and subsequently beat him up if it wasn't for his badge.

"Confused?"

One of the Narutos who was in the argument asked after seeing the look on Hanzou's face.

"A little, yes. Why go through all the trouble of chasing me if it wasn't for my badge."

Hanzou stated as blond smiled.

The Sage explained what they were actually doing with everyone on the island and pointed out that Hanzou had passed their little test from his speed alone.

However, because he kept running away from them, so they decided to teach him a lesson once they caught him.

It was only fair, to them at least.

"What's your prey's number?"

Naruto asked as Hanzou was laughing a little at the ordeal he had to go through.

"Why do you want to know?"

Hanzou asked skeptically.

"We engaged everyone and only a few of the candidates actually passed. Those that failed will lose their badges, and we have them a lot of badges. What is your prey, so I could give you it or you would fail this round of the exam since you will not be able to steal those badges off us."

Naruto grinned broadly as Hanzou understood the situation he was in.

If what the boy said were true, then there was no chance of him passing this round.

"197."

Hanzou said as Naruto quirked his eyes a bit.

"One of the idiot trio? They were awful and shouldn't even be made it this far."

Naruto chuckled a bit before stabbing his hand to the space beside him.

The limb disappeared as if it was bisected while Hanzou eyes bulged out.

All the clones share the same pocket space with the original.

As such, they can access whatever was stash into it.

There were a lot of stuffs in that pocket space, including countless weapons and scrolls from their original world.

Naruto pulled out his hand from the distorted space.

A small box was now accompanying it, and he opened the box.

Inside were dozens of badges with various numbers as he scanned through them to find the correct one.

"Here you go."

Naruto said and threw one at Hanzou.

The ninja from Jappon, an island country in this world, caught the piece and checked the number on it to make sure.

He pocketed it along with his own badge as the Naruto smacked a few others in the head to break off the stupid argument.

"See yas around."

They all said, and one by one they walked away into the forest or nearby dirt trail.

"Oh yeah, don't waste food, eat it."

One of them called out and pointed at the half carved up roasted boar.

Hanzou chuckled a bit and sat there to recover from the damage he had accumulated.

****

Killua cracked his neck and tried to remove the bandage.

He was wrapped in many layers overlapping each other to the point of absurdity.

The young assassin had healed completely a while ago but needed some good rest.

"Want some?"

Naruto offered the bowl, half-filled with biscuits.

Killua accepted the generosity and took a few before consuming them.

Naruto threw something at Killua who caught it lazily while chewing the cookie.

He opened his palm and saw the badge with the number 199 on it.

Killua shrugged and placed it in his pocket.

"Why is there a pin in your head? That was weird."

Naruto asked while Killua sighed.

Naruto shook his head slightly after gaining some more memories from the clones throughout the island. It seemed like Leorio had passed their test.

Naruto rubbed his head a little, feeling the phantom pain from getting bashed in by a briefcase.

"My brother was the one who did that."

Killua answered after Naruto returned back to normal, or as normal as he can be.

Killua didn't know what it was but felt something was inhibiting his ability when he fought against Naruto's clone.

"You know, this pin looked like the one that Gittarackur use to attack me. He's not your brother, is he?"

"Gittarackur?"

Killua questioned.

He hadn't really taken the time to remember the candidates name beside his friends.

"Hmm… hang on."

Naruto created a clone and dispelled it.

"Why did you do that?"

"It was to send my command to all the clones on the island, so they know what I wanted them to do. If I create a new clone, it will copy all that I know and once I dispelled it, that information is shared to all others."

Naruto explained his duplication ability a bit.

"So, it's like broadcasting?"

Killua asked after a while.

Naruto thought for a bit and nodded.

It was close enough.

The duo chat some more before the bush nearby rattled.

Killua jumped up in defensive stance but Naruto told him to relax.

There wasn't anything in the wood that could defeat them so there was no need to be jumpy.

Killua relaxed a little but then returned to full combat mode once half a dozen of clones walked out the bush with a captive in tow.

The prisoner wasn't bounded, but he looked like he had seen better days from the tattered cloth.

They threw the jet-black hair man in front of the duo before waving good bye.

The duplicates left the area to do their own things elsewhere.

"Illumi….?"

Killua sweated, and fear started to invade his heart.

As if the Killua's voice was a wake-up call, Illumi's pitch black eyes snapped open, and he flipped up.

He cracked his body a little before facing Naruto and Killua, especially the latter with unflinching eyes.

"Seem like you found it, well done."

Illumi narrowed his eyes at the small object in the blond's body fingers.

"Hmmm… thanks I guess?"

Naruto said sarcastically as Illumi remained expressionless.

Illumi wasn't talking to Naruto.

Killua didn't say anything and remained defensive with his guard up.

Naruto sighed and interrupted the little sibling bonding.

"Why you put this into his head?"

Illumi turned toward the blond who questioned his method of keeping his younger brother alive.

After a few moments of debating with himself, he finally answered.

"Because I needed him to stay alive, there's no point of him dying on this exam. It was designed to force him to retreat if there was a chance he could die while facing someone stronger… like you."

Illumi said in a monotonous voice.

There was lack of human emotion in that voice.

It was cold like a natural born killer.

However, the Sage remained unfazed.

He had seen plenty of those kinds of people before in his previous world.

"That's kind of foolish, if Killua never fight against someone stronger than him with his all, how will he get better? Fighting against weaker opponent doesn't make you stronger, it only makes you overestimate your own ability and believed everyone is weaker than you."

Naruto retorted with a smile as Illumi narrowed his eyes.

There was some logic in that as Illumi rubbed the badge pinned to his chest.

"The distance between you and him is large right now, but he will surpass you soon."

Naruto hinted as Illumi eyes returned to emptiness.

Killua still a bit edgy at seeing his oldest brother.

"He will."

Illumi stated flatly before turning around and walking toward the forest.

"Hey! If you are looking for candidates to get their badges… don't bother, there aren't any left."

Naruto called out as Illumi stopped.

He returned back to facing the two kids.

"#371, give it here."

Illumi demanded. He needed to be a qualified Hunter for his next assassination job.

"Say please."

Naruto smirked as he pulled out a small box from his pocket space.

"Please."

Illumi said impassively which caused Naruto to sweat a little.

'What with this guy? He had shown no emotion whatsoever… talk about creepy.'

Naruto thought as he threw the requested badge at Illumi.

There wasn't any reason not to since Illumi was powerful, as strong as Hisoka.

Naruto wasn't here to judge who could be Hunter or not, but he didn't want people to waste their lives pointless in the next round.

Naruto assumed that round would be much more difficult.

Illumi caught the spinning badge in the air before giving it a quick glance.

He turned away and walked into the forest to find a secluded spot to sleep until for the end of the exam.

"Is your brother alright?"

Naruto asked after Illumi left the area.

Killua sat back down with the blond and took another biscuit from the bowl.

"I don't know the answer to that."

Killua laughed as Naruto shrugged.

The duo continued their conversation since there wasn't anything else to do.

Killua told Naruto about his home and his family after the Sage queried more about the Zodiack's family, and whether all Killua's family members was like Illumi.

"It sounds like a nice place. Can I visit it after all of this?!"

Naruto asked excitedly while Killua grinned.

He would need to return home after this since he had run off after injuring his mother.