A Hunter Chronicle – 26

Soon enough, Naruto was called into the small outpost for a request.

"What you want?"

The blond asked as the ground behind him was littered with destroyed boulder's remains while Gon and Killua playing snowball fight with fist size stones.

"I want to get back to the game… I mean… ummm…. Oh right, checking up on Killua's cute little sister."

Naruto added impatiently, seemingly forgot why they were here in the first place.

Kurapika simply shook his head while Leorio was speechless.

Zebro thought they were simply escort his young Master home and didn't make any more of it, but there was more to it, so it seemed.

"You want Gravity Seal only?"

Naruto questioned after Leorio requested humbly. The blond boy rubbed his chin a little and shrugged.

"Okay. I don't mind, but I don't think it would last for a long time since you don't have the same energy to keep it going..."

"What do you mean –"

Kurapika was interrupted by one of the trios.

"Hey, Naruto. Kurama said ours would last forever because he used our own energy to power it instead."

A battered Gon called out while peeking through the opened window after the victor was clear in their snowball fight.

Naruto blinked at the information.

That was new for him since for fuuinjutsu to function correctly, he would have to syphon off some energies from the host to keep it constantly powered.

If the host did not have any, he would have to empower the seal with his own power and it would deplete in time.

"Yes, mine is the same."

Kurapika said.

"Same here."

Killua added, brushing his hair for stone dust.

"Hmmm… maybe he put a lot of energy into it, so it would last a long time? Can I see the Seal?"

Naruto asked as Kurapika and Killua looked at each other.

A few second of silent went by.

"Well?"

"You can look at mine."

Gon volunteered, taking his shirt off to show the spiraling black mark on his muscular back.

Naruto looked as chakra flowed into his eyes to see the flow of energy on the onyx patterns.

There wasn't any foreign energy powering the seal like he'd expected it to.

Only pure Gon could be examine.

"Damn that furball! He figured out something like this and didn't tell me!?"

"Actually, Kurama-kun had to modify after we went to train on Nen."

Gon revealed while putting back his shirt to cover his visible abs.

The kid implied that Kurama must have talked to the chairman of the Hunters Association, Isaac Netero, in private during their airship's ride.

Naruto wondered what all that was about but didn't make anything of it since even if he and Kurama were stuck together, it didn't mean they don't have their own individual goals.

"Hey, did Kurama order you to strip again?"

Killua whispered, but only confusion was on Gon's face.

"Why would he do that?"

"Just first time then?"

"No? He never asked me to…?"

Killua had a stunned expression on his face before it was boiling with rage as he realized that he didn't really need to do something that embarrassing.

"That bastard fox. I'm going to kill him!"

"Okay, but he's pretty hard to kill."

Naruto deadpanned, pondering what that was all about.

He then faced Leorio and pointed at the tall man.

"I can put a standard one on you until Kurama fixed it up like Gon's when he returns."

"That's fine. Thanks a lot, Naruto. What do I do?"

"Just lift up your shirt so I put slab one on."

Naruto answered while taking out a paint brush seemingly out of nowhere.

A few drops of black ink landed on the ground before Leorio did as order.

It only took a fraction of a second to apply the Seal before Naruto vanquished the brush again.

"All done, just play around with it and see how you feel."

"That was all?" Both Leorio and Kurapika shouted, but the latter was more vocal.

"I mean, was that all needed?"

Kurapika clarified after regaining his composure.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the question since the expression was oddly familiar.

His mind remembered all the pranks they pulled together long ago on pretty much everyone.

"Don't tell me the furball asked you to strip naked. Lay down on the floor with your eyes shut so he could take some blackmailed pictures in secret?"

Naruto asked with a weird face.

"No, of course not. It wasn't as… complicated when I acquired mine."

Kurapika said, coughing a little as Naruto narrowed his eyes before snickering.

"I'm going to kill that bastard!"

"I can't believe you guys fall for that! Glad something like that still works here."

Naruto called out in a cracking and unrestrained voice.

"Don't… worry… you're not the first… and you won't be the last…"

"Stop laughing you asshole."

Killua shouted, thrashing Naruto to make him stop.

"Where the damn fox, I going to pay him back for that!"

"Hehe… calm down. I'm sure he has his reason... Phfff… hahahahahha! I wonder how much I could get with those pictures. Now I want to where he went!"

Regardless of how much Killua tried to snap Naruto out of it, it took a girly scream from one of their friends to do it.

"KAHHHH!"

Leorio shouted as his body slammed into the ground.

The stone floor of the building cracked under his newly weight before it shattered, uplifting jagged rocks around the outline of his body and he began to sink deeper into it.

"What are you doing you idiot?"

Naruto scolded, disabling the Seal manually as Leorio huffed tiredly, feeling his whole body ached badly from being crushed by a powerful invisible force.

"It's like I was being pressed like a pancake."

Leorio muttered weakly while sweat began to form on his brow.

"Must have been several hundred tons…"

"Not 'must have', it is several hundred tons! It was set at 4853 times your weight and climbing before I stopped the energy flow. A few more seconds, you would be nothing but a pool of blood."

Naruto corrected, slapping the idiot a few times.

"It's like me when I started. I went right to 100 times and couldn't move a finger."

Gon claimed, sitting next to Leorio's form.

"But don't worry, Leorio-san. It's all about control so you will get it eventually."

"The more energy you used, the greater the weight multiplication. To jump right into the thousands, range on your first try, you're a moron. Even Kurama and me get flattened when we did that, and we made of stronger stuff than you."

Naruto berated, continuing to slap Leorio's head without pause.

The matured people in the room sweat dropped at the blond towering over the injured.

If he did something like that before, he was in no position to lecture Leorio.

"Good thing Kurama modified it so it goes up incrementally in order to prevent something like that from happening."

Killua said, respecting the fox a bit more.

But he was still pissed at the prank though and looking for a way to pay back.

"Yep."

Gon added cheerfully.

"I upped another level whenever I feel it was getting to easy to move around. I'm at level 6 right now and it is getting easier. I might go up one more by the end of the day, but Kurama said too high would stunt my height so I'm not sure."

Killua stared at Gon for a fraction of a second.

"Wait a second! You didn't remove it when you tried to open the gate?"

"Nope. Did we have to?"

"No."

Killua lied and reactivated his own one again since he forgot about it.

He felt his body heavier as his weight multiple rapidly to the level he comfortable with.

"Say, what's the percentage of the second one?"

"Almost 9%, why?"

"Just wanted to know."

Killua said as he placed almost double that on himself.

His breathing became harder as his blood flow as constricted by internal friction.

Everything around him seemed to move faster like his senses dulled, but it would return to normal again once he got used to it.

If Gravity Seal trained his body externally, Restriction Seal trained his body internally, making his mind worked faster and his perception far more adept.

His bodily requirement to produce the same amount of power would drop significantly.

"Want to arm wrestle?"

Killua challenged.

"Sure."

Gon accepted as Naruto continued slapping Leorio, who was sulking somewhat.

Zebro felt like he was out of place at the moment since they'd completely forgotten about him.

"So Kurama went in first?"

Killua asked, walking along side with the other two.

Kurapika and Leorio weren't here with the gang as the latter wanted to train stronger and open the gate himself once it was repaired. It shouldn't take too long.

And Kurapika wanted to make sure Leorio didn't do anything stupid during that time so he stayed behind as well as helping Zebro on a few things since the trio wasn't going to help.

"Yeah, Kurama passed through here."

Gon said, sniffing the ground a little.

"What are you? A dog?"

Naruto asked mockingly.

"Hehehe... sorry, habits when I'm tracking ani…"

Gon replied before trailing off.

"It's fine to call the furball that. He doesn't really care, and it's not like he's human to begin with."

Naruto assured, but didn't elaborate further on that.

"A dog… oh yeah, I have a dog too. Where is he?"

Killua questioned before shouting: "MIKE! COME HERE!"

It took dozens of seconds before the bush rattled, spatting out an enormous hound with white fur.

"Not as big as Kurama, but he's awesome right?"

Gon sweated a little, gazing into the emptiness that was the beast's eyes, but Naruto's eyes widened a little at the creature he never seen before. It wasn't a wolf or a dog. It was something else entirely its paw.

"Cool! That's one hell of a dog. Does it do any tricks?"

"Ummm… no, he's only trained to guard the area and attack any intruders."

Killua answered with a shrug.

"Not even sit?"

Hear the last word, Mike sweated profusely as if it was a trigger word.

Its small mind replayed the countless possible gruesome death etched into its memory.

A creature with a single bloody eye staring down at a worm with ten tendrils swayed menacing behind the nightmare's back that could tear the world apart effortlessly.

The killing aura given form was so intense that it brought back a single emotion in the hollowed shell of the hound.

Fear. Absolute terror.

"Sit!"

The small fox ordered darkly and directly.

Mike obeyed immediately and dropped its hind legs to form a sitting position as if its button was pushed.

"Huh…"

Naruto noticed the hound's posture from the corner of his eyes and pointed at it while facing Killua.

"See, it can sit! Why you lie for? What else can it do?"

"That's not possible!"

Killua shouted at Naruto, who shouted back. Gon wasn't sure why everyone was raising their voices.

Meanwhile, in a small hole with the entrance to the side of the mountain, a small fox was digging deep into it.

"Insect blocking me and wasting my time. You can't kill the instinct to survive no matter what."

Kurama muttered with annoyance as his paw ripped out chunk of earth and stones.

He really wanted to hound to ignore the focused killing intent and attack him.

That way, he would able to claim self-defense for the carnage he unleashed.