"Hisoka, I don't suppose you know who the culprit is?" Illumi glanced at his smiling partner as chaos continued. His attention went back to the various flocks of bird origami as they continued flying around without a destination in mind. Black pupil-less eyes shifted as a random contender appeared 200 meters above the Island and just as before. He proceeded to drop at least 170-180 meters before one of the groups flew towards him. As soon as they came into direct contact with the airborne man, he vanished without a trace. The group of birds quickly flew back down to a certain distance then proceeded to roam around as if waiting for the next victim.
Illumi watched the origami constructs as his mind pieced together what he learned so far. These paper animals were teleporting any and all contenders that came into contact to random locations whether it was the skies or right into the ocean. Based on what he's witnessed so far, no one had died from a teleport thus led him to believe that the culprit had taken a few measures to ensure that no one died in the process. The question that remain was what was that culprit's goal and how exactly was he doing this? He had never heard of a Nen user pulling off such a feat. Was that person a specialist? There was so much information he lacked at the moment but what he did know was that Hisoka knew who the culprit was or he at least managed to deduce who it was and he seemed tightlipped about it.
If anything, he seemed amused by all this which was new to him. He was under the impression that the only thing that amused the jester was blood and gore or that's what he learned from his observation of him. But now it would seem that he was wrong thus he needed to reevaluate everything he knew about him. The rustling of bushes caught the duo's attention. Seconds later, the man that appeared and disappeared from the skies came barreling through with a look of terror on his face. Illumi watched as paper airplanes flew directly behind him in pursuit.
The terrified contender immediately spotted the duo and ran towards them without an ounce of hesitation. He didn't care how scary these two individuals were or the fact that they could easily dispatch of him without a hint of remorse. No, the only thing he cared about right now was avoiding the origami from hell by any means necessary. Having firsthand experience with these hellish creations, he knew how they worked to an extent.
Hisoka watched as the man dashed between them in amusement. This was the first time someone had approached him willingly. He glanced back towards the direction he came from just as one of the paper planes collided with his face. Before he knew it, he found himself freefalling above the entire Island with Illumi in tow. He stared impassively as the forest view grew closer with each passing second. As soon as he was within 30 meters of the flocking constructs, they quickly reacted as if sensing his presence. Amber eyes scanned each contracts keenly as they collided with his form. In less than a second, Hisoka found himself falling from a 200 meter drop again but this time, Illumi was at least 20 feet from his current position.
Illumi released a small sigh when he realized why that contender ran pass them. He was using them as meat shields. He regretted not killing the man on the spot though he supposed Hisoka would have done the deed. As he freefell to the Island, his mind processed the new piece of information adding it with his growing collection of what he knew so far. The origami constructs in the sky were a lot faster and agile than the airplanes. Since they didn't actively target those in the forest, they were most likely a safety net for those who ended up in the sky like them. The ones on ground level on the other hand actively chased contenders that came within range. He had noticed that at one point during the contender's escape, two planes had crashed into a tree yet the tree remained in place. Based on that, it would seem that these constructs only affect humans.
Illumi blinked owlishly as he found himself freefalling once more along with Hisoka but at a different angle once again. He glanced up to see how Hisoka was handling this situation and he didn't seem bothered at all by the fact that they were still freefalling.
'Well it's a good thing I acquired my six points beforehand or this would have been a bit troublesome' He idly closed his eyes as his freefall continued. His mind drifted back to the airplane that crashed in his forehead which resulted in his current predicament. For some unknown reason he couldn't stop thinking about the airplane design. It wasn't the typical design most people used when creating a simple airplane. No, these planes were designed in a way that they made it impossible to fly without the aid of nen or exceptionally powerful winds. It didn't take long before he managed to recall where he had seen that particular design. It was his Killua's 5th birthday. Killua had exclaimed how boring paper planes were and how he was going to improve the design. After several days of trial and error, he did exactly that but it was simply too heavy. Each plane simply crashed into the floor without fail. Killua was highly disappointed that day.
Was this Killua's doing? Did he manage to unlock his nen? These were the questions that plagued his mind as he continued his fall. There was only one way to find out. As soon as he stopped falling, he would find Killua or wait until the end of the phase to question him. Wait, he couldn't approach him yet. That was definitely too early. Maybe he should watch him discreetly from a distance for clues instead. Yes, that was a better choice.
A warm drop of liquid brought Illumi out of his thoughts. He turned towards the direction it came from and spotted a corpse above them. Based on the wounds on the body, the cause of death was penetration to the brain via bullet or something akin to a bullet. The corpse soon vanished from his eyes and he found himself above the former contender. He watched in mild interest as the corpse bypass the origami construct and struck the unforgiven ground not without hitting various trees on its way down that is. So it would seem that these constructs only targeted living humans.
Hisoka chuckled at the morbid display that occurred before him. This was the most interesting thing he's witnessed so far. His thought soon went back to a certain devious blonde elder. He was positively sure this was his doing despite the different aura types emitting from the various constructs. In fact, he had personally identified a few birds carrying his aura. The other auras came from Gon, Killua, Leorio, and Kurapika. They were probably assisting Naruto in this magnificent prank.
'Naruto-san, I can't wait until our next fight' Hisoka trembled in excitement as he thought about his next match with the blonde and unlike his first match; it would be a true match between nen users. During his initial fight against the short blonde, he had limited his aura usage under the pretense that Naruto didn't possess any knowledge on Nen. But it would seem that wasn't the case. Naruto did know about nen and he seemed quite skilled at using it. Hisoka chuckled in delight as his bloodlust spiked to unmanageable levels. As soon as he saw him again, he would request a glorious fight to the death.
All across the Island, majority of the contenders shivered as Hisoka's killing intent bathed over the island. Their immediate reaction was to scan the immediate area for the crazy jester while silently praying he wasn't targeting them. None of the contenders minus a select few looked to the skies. Had they bothered looking up, they would have surely noticed the silent jester silently falling from the skies.
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"Killua, your paper planes are awesome?" Killua blushed at Gon's blunt comment. He still wasn't use to such praise from someone that wasn't his family. Even the praises from his family paled in comparison to the ones he received from Gon. Then again who the hell in their right state of mind would praise their soon to be killer? Before he left his home and joined the hunter exam, he was an assassin, a fact that didn't seem to bother Gon when he revealed that he and his entire family were elite assassins. And it wasn't just Gon that didn't seem to care. Naruto told him that he didn't care what he did in the past while Kurapika and Leorio shrugged it off as if was nothing to be concerned about.
They had both accepted him with open arms despite his past; something he never imagined was possible. His family had always preached how he was destined for great things as long as he remained in the underworld but Naruto said otherwise. It left a strange warm feeling within his chest and it felt pleasant.
"It's not all that special Gon. Now let's go release this baby" Killua ran towards the semi-transparent barrier surrounding the entire camp area. Based on what Naruto said, this barrier would keep the other paper construct from attacking them as they are programmed to attack every human being indiscriminately. Once he was at the barrier, he stuck his hand through it and applied magic to his paper construct activating the symbols within. Upon activation, he released the plane and retrieved his had within the confines of the barrier immediately. Both Gon and Killua watched in fascination as the paper plane float away from them without a set destination.
Kurapika and Leorio brought their unfolded piece of paper closer to examine the strange symbols decorating the piece of paper. As Kurapika stared keenly at the symbols, his mind was in the process of combing through the collective knowledge he had gained over his lifetime so far for anything that would help him understand what the hell he was looking at in the first place. He had learned about the various languages found around the world but he had couldn't recall seeing anything like this. His eyebrow knitted together as he continued diving deep within the confines of his mind. Leorio on the other hand placed the paper down and proceeded to fold it into another origami piece. He didn't understand a single thing and he doubt he would anytime soon. What he did understand was that whatever origami he created would chase and terrorize the other contenders. It was moments like this in which Leorio was grateful that Naruto was his friend instead of an enemy.
And it wasn't just Leorio that was grateful. Rock was once again thanking the gods that Naruto was his temporary companion. He didn't have to deal with whatever terror the other examinees were experiencing right now. He was safe within the confines of this barrier and would remain so until the end of the phase.
Naruto chuckled as soon as he saw Kurapika's look of concentration. The object of his concentration stemmed from the fuinjutsu drawn on the sheets of paper. "Don't bother trying to read it." Kurapika's head snapped towards him as he continued. "Fuinjutsu is a shinobi art from my old world. It's the only skill I'm able perform as of now since it doesn't rely on the usage of chakra which is an energy that is also native to my world." Kurapika glanced at the piece of paper then back at Naruto in curiosity.
"What exactly is fuinjutsu and what are its capabilities?" Leorio perked up after hearing this. He wanted to know a little more about the mysterious squiggly lines. Between the two of them, the only thing they knew was that fuinjutsu allowed them to animate origami to an extent and that it was capable of seeking other contenders using their magic as a target. None of them were aware of what occurred when the airplane found its target. Then again, none of them asked Naruto the question. They were all preoccupied with the task of creating as many origamis as they could as fast as humanly possible right after Naruto told them it was for the sake of pranking. Kurapika was sure that whatever the constructs did, couldn't be anything fatal. It didn't seem like Naruto to do something sinister. If anything it was something childish and annoying.
Kurapika watched as Naruto's eyes widened to comical proportions and tearful. Before he or anyone had the chance to respond, Naruto's eyes unleashed a torrent of tears. By now, he had the full attention of Killua, and Gon, Rock who looked over in concern.
"Finally, someone other than me is interested in the intricate art of fuinjutsu. I can't believe this day is finally happening." He quickly brought the blonde effeminate teen into a tight hug confusing him. "And to think, all I had to do was die to find someone like you. Kurapika, you have made my day."
"You're welcome I think" was Kurapika's awkward response. He wasn't sure how to respond to this situation right now. As if sensing this, Naruto stopped his act right away and laughed it off.
"Sorry about that, I got a little excited. You see, where I'm from, fuinjutsu isn't popular when compared to the other shinobi arts. I could count the amount of fuinjutsu master on one hand and still have fingers left over." Naruto's thoughts drifted back to the world he came from.
Fuinjutsu was a delicate art that took a great deal of time and patience before one saw the fruits of labor. It was an art that at one point in time had been considered useless until the rise of a certain redheaded clan that is. Using the once useless art, the Uzumaki clan had become one of the most powerful clans comparable to that of the Uchiha and Senju clan. They had shown the world what fuinjutsu was capable if one were to sit down and master it. But despite this, the number of fuinjutsu users remained low. No one had the time or patience.
After the fall of the Uzumaki clan, only a handful of individuals bothered learning the art and even less than that mastered the art one of those individuals being Jiraiya. Naruto had chosen to learn and master the art out of respect to his fellow clansmen before him and more importantly his parents. Both of his parents were fuinjutsu masters in their own way so it was only natural that he followed in their footsteps.
Everyone else dedicated themselves to the other, much popular shinobi arts such as ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu and even kenjutsu in that corresponding order. Ninjutsu considered the most popular for obvious reasons. It was flashy as hell, destructive, and simply to learn when compared to the other arts. Taijutsu came next after Might Guy's battle with Madara Uchiha and almost killing said man using taijutsu only. Genjutsu came before kenjutsu due to how subtle and effective it was and kenjutsu came next because how flashy or awesome it looked.
Naruto sulked a bit as he thought of the unfair judgement fuinjutsu received by the younger generation. They all called it the old man's art and that it wasn't cool enough. What wasn't cool about bending the very fabric or reality to an extent? Those kids simply didn't know any better. Oh well, it was their loss. Naruto snapped out of his sulking state and turned returned his attention towards Kurapika to answer his question.
"Fuinjutsu is the art of…" Naruto then proceeded to launch into an explanation as to what fuinjutsu was, how it worked, the limitation for such an art which stemmed from the limitation of the user's skill level and imagination, the types of fuinjutsu he encountered personally, and the previous fuinjutsu users of his world. Both Leorio and Kurapika listen intently hanging on to every single word. Gon on the other hand zoned in and out as a means to avoid overwhelming his brain. Fuinjutsu seemed way too complicated for him. Rock was in a similar situation as Gon. This was definitely beyond his comprehension skills. It sounded like a whole lot of gibberish to him. Killua merely focused on the effects of the each seal Naruto mentioned. He had no intention of learning it as it didn't suite his current style and he wasn't that interested in putting that much time and effort into such a complicated art.
Once Naruto finished his long explanation, he turned towards his two hopeful students, Leorio and Kurapika. They were the only ones that seemed the least confused after his explanation. He could tell that he had lost the interest of the others if their facial expressions were anything to go by.
"So, are you two still interested in the magnificent arts known as fuinjutsu? Is so, I will be more than willing to teach you some things."
"Of course" Both Kurapika and Leorio turned towards each other in surprise. Naruto slapped his hand together and rubbed them in anticipation.
"That's excellent news guys. From this day forth, you are my pupils. You don't have to refer to me as sensei by the way. I was never one for formalities." Kurapika and Leorio merely nodded their heads in acceptance.
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"Hisoka, how long have we been freefalling?" Illumi stared impassively as the forest came into view again. As soon as he was close to the flock of birds, they quickly swarmed him and just like what happened several times, he found himself 200 meters above the island again. Hisoka yawned in boredom as he reappeared right next to Illumi.
"I believe we've been up here for the past 4 hours give or take. It would seem that we're very unfortunate."
Illumi released a small sigh. As soon as he got out of this mess, he was going to hunt down the contender that got him into this mess while avoiding Killua's paper planes. After reviewing everything he knew about the constructs for the past 4 hours, he managed to create a solid plan to counter them and he was confident that it would work.
"Well, I guess the only thing we can do right now is waiting patiently until we're lucky enough to return back to the island" Illumi closed his eyes as he prepared his continuous freefalling. He had a feeling that this was going to be a long day.
"Look out" Hisoka's casual warning caused Illumi to reopen his eyes just in time to see a large body of ocean several feet below them. The two dropped in the ocean soaking them to the bone. As the two surfaced, Illumi quickly scanned the area to see how far they were from the island. Fortunately for the duo, the island was just 50 meters away.
"Now I do believe I have a contender to kill" commented Illumi as he swam ashore.
