A Hunter Chronicle – 27

"Shiiiiiit!" was a determined curse accompanied by an exhausted breath.

Countless droplets of sweat were sliding down ripped muscular back and face while his whole body bopped up and down at a steady pace.

The tall spiky black-haired man continued his vigorous training as the invisible weight pressed down on his body from all angles, powered by the spiraling black mark on his back.

"I'm going to surpass those brats! I will show them…"

Hearing that, Kurapika sighed while remained in a mediated position.

'It's good that you want to be stronger, but I doubt you reach their level anytime soon, and pushing your body like this will be counterproductive,' the blond teen thought and pondered if he should teach Leorio about Nen anytime soon.

He only knew the basic of Aura training as it was relayed back to him from Kurama and the trio.

By using the water divination test, Kurapika had found out that he was a conjurer, so he was more than a bit curious to know what aura type did Leorio has.

A few more minutes went by before Kurapika spoke up.

"Leorio, there's something called overdoing it and put unnecessary burden on your body. I think you should take a rest for now, so you can adjust to the new weight. It's already incredible that you can do that much in such a short time, and they won't return any time soon."

Kurapika advised with a hint of concern.

With a huff and heeding the words of wisdom, Leorio stopped doing any further pushup and leaned his back against the closest wall.

His arms felt heavy like lead as they were enforced by the painted gravity seal, but he was strong enough to use them in order to brush away the sweats on his forehead.

"What are you doing?"

"Strengthening my aura."

Kurapika answered simply before elaborated further as Leorio had a confused expression on.

"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but you will find out soon enough. Officially, the Hunter exam is over, but we're only considered as true Hunter by our peers when we control and utilized the flow of our life energy called aura. Technically, it's called Nen, thus this is first step to Nen Training, and it allowed us to do some amazing feat."

Leorio was surprised that the exam wasn't over and displayed an interest on the subject.

"Hah? Nen? What exactly can a person do with it?"

"I can't answer that in detail since I'm just a beginner, but you can do a lot so it seems. I was only able to learn the four basic principles, which are Ten (Shroud), Zetsu (Suppress), Ren (Enhance) and Hatsu (Release)."

Kurapika answered truthfully and explained in detailed what each principle related to.

Ten allowed the user to regulate their aura once their aura nodes were opened – forcibly or not.

When enveloped with it, the aura acted like a dampening barrier, protecting the owner from external mental assault and malicious emotions.

Mastery of Ten through meditation essentially allowed the user to maintain youthful vigor and longevity by deterring aging.

Zetsu, in contrast, was stopping the emission of aura from one's body into the surrounding, boosting one's own stamina.

Since there was no leakage of their own energy interfering against foreign life force, a person was more sensitive to other's aura while remained concealed.

Ren and Hatsu was a direct application of Ten, which allowed a person to strengthen and manifest their energy respectively.

"Hang on…"

Leorio put his hand up as if he was in a classroom.

"You're not making this up, are you?"

Kurapika exhaled as he thought the same thing at first, but the evidence was irrefutable.

"It is better if I show it you so be prepared. I'm currently thinking of slitting your throat and I'm strengthening my intention with Ren."

"Stop kidd –"

Leorio couldn't finish his sentence as all his senses were alerted to the immediate danger nearby as if a powerful predator was waiting to ambush him.

He shivered a little once the feeling went away.

The future doctor stared at his friend in astonishment, blinking several times to clear his mind from all logical reasoning on how something like that was possible.

"That was… surreal!"

"Yes."

Kurapika asserted and wondered if killing intent was just an advance application of Ren.

If it was, the aura Kurama emitted was quite intense, so much so that it was able to overpower other Hunters' protective aura and filled them with dread.

"Not saying that it's completely meaningless, but Naruto forgot to mention that physical training can only go so far. Nen can enhance your speed and power to inhuman level and having a lot of muscles would not protect you from its assault. It seems that Gon and Killua had mastered Ten, Zetsu and Ren from what I could tell. They're moving onto the next step with Hatsu, but I'm not sure what it is."

That would explain why they could carry objects many times their own size without an apparent increase in muscle mass.

Leorio took a moment to take that in before cursing.

"Shit! What's the point of all this then?"

Kurapika's mind conjured up a super bulky person, blocking out the sun.

"Maybe for intimidation?"

Elsewhere, on another continent, a golden-haired girl sneezed as she looked up at the clear sky with a single fiery ball, showering warm rays upon the lands.

"What was that all about?"

The double star Hunter queried nobody before returning back to the battered person tied up in front of her.

"What were you saying about a gem that looked like the planet?"

****

"Someone's spying on us."

Naruto finally announced while still strolling leisurely down the uneven earthen forest path along with his two minions by each side.

"It has been for a while… I thought it was an animal at first, but now, I'm sure it was a person."

"I don't see anything."

Gon said, scanning the dense foliage on either side of the path with sharpened eyes.

There was nothing out of place as far as he could tell.

"Baka! It wouldn't be spying if they are standing out in the open for you to find!"

Naruto scolded Gon.

"Remember your training! To find someone that is completely out of view, you'll need to use… what was it?"

"You mean Zetsu?"

Killua asked.

Zetsu was used for tracking other by suppressing one's own aura and immersing in other's energy, if there were any.

However, it was quite dangerous as the user would be defenseless.

A small Nen enhanced strike would inflict massive damage if connected.

Naruto snapped his fingers and gave a single nod.

"Yea, that's it."

"Are you sure, Naruto? I can't sense anyone around us."

Gon asserted after his aura retreated into his body in order for him to feel his surroundings.

Killua followed suit to see if that was the case.

Naruto looked around the wood once more before nodding.

"Yes, faintly, but it's nearby. If you can't sense them then they must be able to conceal themselves better than your ability to find them, so you need to train more on it."

'I didn't think he was able to hide this well… from Nen as well?'

Killua questioned mentally as he realized who it was.

There was only one person who hanged around the woods, spying on passing guests.

"Want me to capture and interrogate them?"

"No… it's no one, let's just go."

Killua insisted and continued ahead of the group.

Naruto wondered what was that all about but decided to comply nonetheless since Killua didn't want to talk about it.

Gon looked around the area a few more times before running off after the other two.

The young spy continued to follow them out of interest, but the traditional Japanese attire he had on slowed down his progress somewhat.

"Hey! Do we have a plan?"

Gon asked.

"Ah… I forgot."

Killua muttered, admitting his mistake.

"We should discuss of one."

"Huh? I thought we're just going to walk in, beat up Illumi and anyone that got in the way and take your sister with us."

Naruto answered with all honesty. Gon blinked while Killua face-palmed.

"You can't do that!"

Killua shouted.

"Eh? Why not? It's simple and easy to remember."

Naruto retorted with great determination while the silver-haired assassin sighed. Not wanting to argue pointlessly with his friend, Killua crouched down and picked up a twig.

He started to draw up a proper plan on the dirt instead of following Naruto's one, which most likely result widespread destruction and a lot of pissed off people.

"Why is your sister locked up?"

Gon asked after joining Killua and looking over the devised plan upon the earth.

"Yea, I wonder about that too. Is she dangerous? It's not like she's more dangerous than you or your emotionless brother, is she?"

Naruto asked before Killua could answer the previous question.

"No, my sister is not dangerous. It because she was born with unexplainable ability."

Killua answered sorrowfully.

"Illumi wants that power by any means, and if I don't stop him, no one will."

"Huh? What about your dad and mum? And barring Illumi because the guy is a dick, what about the three other brothers you have?"

Naruto enquired.

"Three brothers?"

Gon repeated the last part.

"Hey! How much siblings do you have, Killua?"

"I have five…"

Killua began.

"Wait! How you know I have four brothers in total?"

"Nothing hard, it's all from this pamphlet here."

Naruto answered, producing the tour pamphlets in his hands, one for each.

"It was free, so I thought 'why not?', and I didn't see you take one from the stand so here. I got plenty of copies too."

'Why you need more than one?'

Killua thought.

Naruto handed them to the other two boys, so they could have a quick read through it. The Zoldyck Family was the first part of the tour, but none of the members of the elusive family was named or photographed.

"See, it said that the Zoldyck have five… HANG ON A MINUTE!? You only have five siblings!? But if they're all males then who the hell is Alluka-chan?"

"She could be adopted."

Gon pointed out a logical answer, putting the pamphlet down.

"Or they could have got the information wrong? It's a secret family of assassins!"

"Oh yeah…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"No, Alluka isn't adopted and they got it right, or at least it was right when she was born. She is my biological sister."

Killua revealed as the other two froze up.

"Ummm… You don't mean to say that…"

Gon had a hard time putting it into words.

"What the hell does that mean?"

Naruto interrupted Gon, pointing at Killua with slight disgust.

"Are you saying your sister was a dude?"