Hey everyone, I thought about it and decided to make a small change to this story; I've replaced the Friendship genre with Romance. I wasn't sure at first even though I wanted to have it like that the entire time so I'm going with it. Anyway hope you enjoy this chapter.

At last the three saw a solid structure through a grove of trees. A colossal wall made of brick, near the front of it were figures that grew to human size the closer they got and they knew they had finally arrived at their destination. Most of the applicants were sitting or on their backs exhausted from the run; but at least they had made it to the next phase. Kurapika, Gon and Sakura sped up; realizing that they needed to look for Leorio.

"Where's Hisoka?" Sakura asked, looking through the crowd "If we find him, we should find Leorio."

Gon and Kurapika looked around, before Gon spotted him on the opposite side further from the crowd. It seemed Hisoka knew they were there for a while, he pointed a finger to his left. Following, they saw Leorio. With his eyes were half-lidded and cheek looking like he was chewing a giant jawbreaker but other than that alive and well.

With one other problem…

Leorio touched the side of his injured and tender face wincing, "Man that stings, what happened?"

Realizing that Leorio had no recollection of the fight he had with Hisoka, Kurapika whispered that it was best they didn't tell him about it and they all agreed not to.

'If he sees his face in the mirror though, he'll definitely recall.' Sakura crouched down beside Leorio and put her hand on his injured cheek.

"What are you doing?" Leorio asked, flinching from the contact when pain shot through his face.

"Just stay still." Sakura ordered.

Pushing chakra to her hands, Sakura resumed to heal Leorio, she controlled her chakra so that it would only appear in her palm and not around her hand, emitting a very light glow.

Removing her hand, Gon and Kurapika gasped when they saw Leorio's face completely healed of his previous injury. The swelling was gone and the bruise barely a blotch on the skin.

"Sakura, how'd you do that?"

"Is it some kind of healing technique?" Kurapika asked

Leorio touched his cheek again, his eyes widened in surprised, "Huh, it doesn't sting?"

Sakura held out her arms in a shrug, playing coy "I just rubbed his cheek, I read somewhere that physical contact helps reduce pain."

There were some things she felt best kept to herself for now. For explaining it might cause more problems than she could handle. In situations where you weren't able to explain certain events, people often questioned it but weren't too persistent if they couldn't come up with a logical explanation themselves. Sakura was hoping on that because she realized after Gon and Killua's badgering during the First Phase and her encounter with Hisoka, that it might be best to keep her abilities a little more 'subtle'. The main idea, was to make sure they did not know she wasn't from this world or that they were only words on a page in hers.

"Sakura. Gon."

Heads turned to see Killua walking up to them, his skateboard tucked underneath his arm.

"Killua." Gon waved at him,

"I can't believe you guys made it, I thought you were done for."

Sakura's crossed her arms, glaring at the boy, "You ran off into the forest without us; thanks a lot."

"I thought you were both right behind me," Killua countered, it was obvious that he meant it but he didn't sound too concerned that they hadn't been behind him.

"How'd you find the place?"

"I just tracked Leorio's cologne," Gon explained to Killua, who seemed taken aback by his answer. It wasn't a surprise though, Sakura was skeptical herself when Gon said he could pick up Leorio's scent. However, she did read that he spent a lot of time in the wilderness so it must've helped sharpen his sense.

'Still; strange kid.'

Satotz's voice echoed, calling the applicants as he made the announcement. He stood in front of a large metal gate. He praised everyone who had made it and then continued, "Phase Two will appear here in the Biska Forest Park. So I shall take my leave. Best of luck to all of you."

With that Satotz 'walked' away in long strides; at the same time the gates began to open allowing the applicants to see what was beyond the walls. A straight path lead towards a huge house, on either side of this path were tables set on the grass along with some other equipment.

"Will all applicants who passed the First Phase please enter."

On the patio of the mansion near the steps, sitting in a soft sofa chair was a women. She had light turquoise colored hair tied into five top knots, light green eyes and wore a bikini top with a mesh skirt over and denim shorts.

"Welcome, I'm Menchi, the Second Phase examiner," she greeted, her leg crossed over the other, arms thrown over the couch-she certainly appeared more lax than Satotz.

'Can't judge appearances though,' Sakura reminded herself, speaking of which sitting right behind Menchi was another figure-a large one. A man with dark hair and a large belly, he was big enough to outsize the sofa chair.

"And I'm Buhara, the other examiner," he introduced smiling at the candidates.

'Have to admit, he makes Chouji look small.' Sakura crossed her arms.

Suddenly there was a loud noise, rumbling of a sort that reached everyone's ears and they were all very familiar with it.

Menchi looked at Buhara, who was holding his stomach "You must be hungry."

"I'm starving."

Standing up, Menchi placed her hands on her hips, "There you have it; your next test is….cooking!"

Murmurs echoed through the crowd, mainly questions about the next phase, Sakura had a few herself. It seemed very unusual that this would be part of the test, a written exam may. It was the wrestler Todo who addressed the examiners about the next phase.

"You want us to cook? We're here to take the Hunter Exam!"

"That's right," Menchi said "Your challenge for the Second Phase is to produce a dish that will satisfy our palate."

"Why do we have to cook?"

"That's because," Menchi kept her smile as she spoke her next words. "We are Gourmet Hunters."

The reaction from the applicants was astounding, they all started laughing, pointing out their disappointment. Sakura knew better than to do something like that. After all these two people were examiners and if the others didn't stop it could seriously affect the results of the whole group. Menchi already looked annoyed with the group.

"This is stupid," Killua muttered, "I don't know how to cook."

If Sakura was honest, she didn't know much about cooking herself. She hardly enjoyed enduring the life of a domestic, but her mother would give her chores. It was then she discovered she hated cleaning, doing laundry and as far as cooking goes, she's tried to but the results were all the same-painfully disappointing. She almost burned down the kitchen at one point. Lacking the general skills needed to take care of a home.

'But I have to pass this phase,' she thought, glancing over at Gon and the others. If she fails and gets booted from the exam, that meant she wouldn't be able to follow along with the story anymore and then what would she do?

'I don't have anywhere else to go,'

The laughing died down and Todo asked what they were expected to cook. Menchi called on Buhara and the husky man stood up, towering over everyone.

"The required ingredient is pork. You're free to use meat from any species of Biska forest pigs. You must use the cooking facilities here to prepare the pork."

Sakura glanced out to the grass fields; that explained the cooking facilities with the tables and such.

"And you only pass the Second Phase if we both find it delicious."

"And we don't' just evaluate taste." Menchi said, all the cheerfulness she had before in her voice was lost. "Don't underestimate the intricacies of cooking. When we've both eaten our fill, the exam will end."

In other words, when they are both full the exam will be over. So if they failed on their first attempt, they would be able to go back and try again.

'It seems simple-too simple.' Sakura thought narrowing her eyes.

Hitting his belly, Buhara announced the beginning of the Second Phase, everyone rushed out of the estate and into the forest in search of their main ingredient. Little did they know of the consequence of having upset their examiner; even Sakura wouldn't know.

Killua, Gon, Kurapika, Sakura and Leorio joined together to search of a pig; the other applicants were mostly staying together in one area while the five wandered away in hope of getting more luck with less people. Biska Forest was far more pleasant that Swindlers Swamp that was a given, there wasn't any blinding mist, giant man-eating frogs or muddy grounds to run through. It seemed to relax the applicants.

"Find a pig and then cook it, this is way easier than the First Phase." Leorio said, his head darting around searching for a pig.

"I wouldn't be so quick to assume," Sakura told him, also looking around. "After all, the purpose for these phases is to weed out applicants, reducing them until there are only a few left. That's my experience at least."

"Experience? You mean you've taken the Hunter's exam before?" asked Kurapika,

Sakura shook her head, realizing that she might have mentioned something she shouldn't have. "No, I was just speaking in general context."

No one asked her anything after that and Sakura let out a silent sight of relief.

The group started tracking up a hill to the other side of the forest. Sakura was still thinking that something was going on; something they were missing. In the chunin exams the different parts of the exams only increased in difficulty to reduce the number of applicants, and hardly any of them were as straightforward as they seemed. The written exam for example, the questions were made hard to force applicants to cheat without getting caught-information gathering. There was a hidden motive behind the actual test.

'And cooking…' For Sakura, a situation like the chunin exams might be just what she needed. After all, Naruto had passed the written exam without filling in a single question. He just never gave up.

Sakura's eyes hardened with determination, that's what she was going to do.

When they reached the top of the hill, Gon immediately jumped down on the other side, sliding down. Followed by Killua, Leorio, Kurapika and Sakura. They had assumed, Gon slid down the hill for fun but when they all turned their heads, they found the reason. Gon had found the pigs and a lot of them.

'But,' Sakura thought looking at the humongous creatures, they were big enough to seat all of them on its back and their snouts-no; it was shape more like sharp horns were broad. 'That is not a pig, it's a pink rhinoceros!'

And their appearance wasn't what disturbed her the most; it was the fact that they were currently eating-bones. There were a few animal bones scattered on the floor around the pigs. Sakura watched as the pigs chewed on the bones, breaking through them with ease.

"Don't tell me…." Kurapika trailed, with wide eyes "They're carnivorous?"

"I don't I want to confirm it," Sakura said

The pig closest to the finally noticed the teenager's presence, its tiny eyes looked at them and it let out a loud squeal. For Gon and his friends; that was indication to get up and start running. However, the pig that spotted them apparently sounded an alarm with that squeal, in turn creating a stampede for the group to outrun.

The five ran through the forest, heading straight back from where they came but the stampede followed after them. The ground shook and it was possible to feel the vibrations a little ways because of their size.

"Wait, we're leading them to the other applicants!" Sakura exclaimed when she saw a few standing not too far from the direction they were running in. Upon seeing the huge pigs, they started to take off, unfortunately they were not able to run at a pace that would keep them from harm and were the first to get battered by the pig's huge noses. Throwing them up into the air.

…While they weren't aware of this; these pigs were known as the Great Stamp and were the world's most ferocious pigs. They use their large noses to send their enemies flying. What the applicants were also unaware of was that Buhara and Menchi knew that this was the only kind of pig that lived in Biska Forest. The situation for the exam applicants were therefore a challenge for survival.

'Those freaking….' Sakura slammed the book shut as she kept on running beside the four boys. She had thought the book would give her a clue as to how they got these pigs. While Sakura didn't know the end of this story, she had determined that Gon and his friends do in fact pass this exam. One way or another. The story revolved around the exam setting, so that had to be the case and the end of the story.

"How can you be reading at a time like this!?" Leorio asked, watching as the pinkette put the book away.

When they reached the other applicants, everyone split-including the five who lead the stampede to them. So they had in fact, brought the main ingredient to the others. The only problem was; how everyone was attempting to hunt the pigs. They hit the noses, but it turned out to be very durable.

Sakura ran further away from the group, with a single Great Stamp right behind her. When she was out of sight and sure that no one was going to appear from the shadows, Sakura turned around; keeping her feet planted firmly in place as the pig charged towards her. Drawing her fist back before charging forward, Sakura put enough power into her punch to shatter the pigs hose on contact; it bent over slightly and the pig collapsed.

"Well that's that," Sakura said wiping her hands.

Gathering the pig and hoisting it up, Sakura followed the commotion to find her way back to the others. However, she saw that the other applicants were capturing their own pigs now. Be it punches, kicks, throwing-stars, skateboards or fishing-poles; everyone was hitting the same spot on the pigs heads.

"Hey Sakura!" Gon waved at her a little ways from the others, his pig had a big red mark from where he had hit it just a few moments ago. "Their foreheads are their weak-spots."

"I can see that," Sakura said, walking over to Gon and dragging her pig along with it.

Noticing something off, Gon pointed at her catch, "Um Sakura, what happened to its nose?"

The nose was completely bent to the back, it looked like it was going to fall off.

"Oh eh-when it was chasing me-it-it eh-crashed into a huge boulder and broke its nose." Sakura said waving her hands around in a nervous gesture. Gon seemed so innocent and honest, it felt like a crime to lie to him in return.

'But if I give these guys the sense that I'm not normal, I don't know what will happen.' Sakura reminded herself. It was one thing to jump through tree's and run really fast, but there were certain things that Sakura knew would bring about more questions and suspicions.

Killua walked over to the two, he took was casually dragging a Great Stamp behind him like it weighed nothing. "I've got my pig let's get going."

"Us too," Kurapika said coming up with Leorio. Everyone stopped to look at Sakura.

"What happened to its nose?"

Sakura sighed.

When they returned back to the estate, everyone went to a cooking station and began by piercing a spike through the pig and setting it over a fire on the grill, rolling it around effortlessly. That was; all except for Sakura. She looked around the cooking facilities carefully, there a few vegies, seasonings, spices and other ingredients.

'What do they expect, a full course meal?' Sakura thought offhandedly. She wished that Chouji was here right now, when looking at him one might believe he didn't care what he ate. However, that was far from the case. Chouji was close to an expert when it came to the 'delicacies' of cooking. It was his passion and he knew a lot about how to make a meal taste even better. He was also a bit of a radical when it came to examining the flavor of food.

"Oi, shouldn't you be getting started?" Killua asked; he was already roasting his pig over the fire.

Whenever Sakura tried making food, she had a habit of trying to create medicinal qualities with every dish. Seeing as medicine was mostly bitter, it wasn't hard to imagine how that went. Sakura grumbled, there wasn't much she could do now but start cooking. Placing the whole pig over the fire, she started rotating it, watching as the pink skin began to turn darker, tanning to a light brown. While she was busy, a few applicants were already finished and heading to Menchi and Buhara.

The first one to go up, was the wrestler Todo who had also mouthed off to the examiners. He strolled up in full confidence of getting a clean grading and it seemed like he would since Buhara took one bite and passed him; however; Menchi extinguished the hot head when she assessed his dish without taking a nibble, saying it was overcooked. It wasn't some grudge grade though, because Menchi and Buhara fell into a pattern. Every applicant that came up, Buhara would take one bite and up goes the pass sign. Menchi would take one glance and up went the rejection sign; the applicants would complain and she would tell them what was wrong with their meal. It was either overcooked, undercooked, the fire was too weak, the fire was too strong, the position of the pig on the plate wasn't right-basically every kind of complain that could possibly come your way. Despite the fact that all they were serving was the pig so it didn't actually leave that much room for discrimination.

'Unless presentations also something to consider,' Sakura thought putting a finger on her chin.

"Hey, do you have any idea how long we're supposed to leave this thing over the fire?" Killua asked from behind her-as that's where his cooking station was.

"Honestly, I have no clue."

"That's what I thought." Killua said casually.

Sakura frowned, "What does that mean?"

"Well I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure you just burned half of your pig." Killua pointed, with a bit a mischievous gleam in his eyes as the pinkette started spinning the pig on the other side in a hurry.

"Crap," Sakura muttered turning it around a few times before taking it off the stick, the top half was completely burned, chard black "Oh this is bad."

How was she going to give this in now? After all Menchi had rejected an applicant's dish just because it slightly burned, what was she going to say when she took at Sakura's food and realized the entire top half had been turned to the color of charcoal?

"Great," Sakura scratched the back of her head, trying to figure out what move to make next. If she failed this phase and the other's passed-

"IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A KIDDIES MEAL?"

Quickly turning around, Sakura saw that Leorio had stepped up to the examiners to be judged. He had done something a little different with his whole pig though. He put a flag on top of it. Right now both it and the pig were flying through the air and into Buhara's hands.

'What was he thinking?'

Then Gon came up almost immediately after, what he did differently with the pig was decorate it with flowers around the plate, on its head and even tied a ribbon to its ear and tail.

Sakura giggled, 'That's kinda cute,'

However Menchi did not think so and threw the plate aside. Sakura frowned, weren't they supposed to pass? How were they going to get to the next phase? Wasn't that what this story was all about?

"What the heck are they doing?" Killua asked.

"I don't know."

Kurapika then came up, his dish appeared a lot differently than Gon's, Leorio's or any of the other candidates.

"I'm next," he said "Please judge my creation."

When you looked at it, you could tell that it was a large amount of meat but you couldn't tell it was a pig, the head, legs tail and such had been cut taking on a round shape, the meat had been cut into large strips and in between these strips were lettuce, tomatoes and perhaps pineapple?

'That's new, but maybe Kurapika has the right idea.'

….Kurapika, having watched the two Gourmet Hunters for a while, observing carefully for any hints of preference; came to a conclusion. The real point of this phase, was to use the provided facilities and ingredients to highlight the main feature-the pork. He therefore believed that the taste did not matter however…

Sakura pulled her face when she read the rest, before closing it and turning back to the present.

"Finally, something that resembles an actual dish," Menchi said, she took a fork and took a decent amount off the pig for the first time since the exam started. She took a bite and started chewing and after about five bites….

"THIS IS GROSS." Menchi exclaimed, flipping the rest of the food into the air. Kurapika was very taken aback as Menchi spoke.

"Appearance is important but only if it tastes good. You're no better than 403!"

With that Kurapika returned to his station with Gon and Leorio, completely depressed not as much about his dish being poorly rated, but more about the fact that he was 'no better than 403'-although it certainly lifted Leorio's spirits.

Buhara finished Kurapika's dish, before rubbing his belly in satisfaction and Sakura knew that usually meant one thing after a meal. "I'm so full!"

Menchi, in a careless tone spoke "Yes so am I." standing up she looked over at all of the applicants "Therefore no one passes. We're done here!"

Sakura gasped, while everyone else started voicing their disbelief. All of them had just been disqualified from the Hunter Exam, in the Second Phase. No, this couldn't be happening. Had they all really just failed; Sakura also realized that she had just failed without even serving her dish!

'Was this supposed to happen?' Sakura thought in disbelief, she was going to check the book again but there was a loud noise that caught her attention; along with everyone else's. It was Todo, he had destroyed his cooking facility with one punch and then turned to the examiners with a furious face.

"I won't accept it….I absolutely refuse to accept this!" Todo yelled

Menchi stared at him, speaking in a bored tone, "In the end you've still failed."

"Stop screwing around! You asked for pork, so we risked out lives to-

Cutting him off, Menchi glared at Todo "I said to prepare the pork in a manner that we both found delicious. None of you made anything remotely delicious. You all did almost the same thing. You all made no effort. Just when I thought someone actually tried, they only change the appearance. No one attempted to emphasize the flavor. I'm positive that none of you took cooking seriously!"

Then one of the other applicants made a side comment about how pork was the same no matter how it was served and that set Menchi off. She grabbed him by his shirt and threatened to shove her arm straight up his ass and knock out his teeth.

'She's more ferocious than Chouji when it comes to food.' Sakura thought,

Looking at Buhara who was behind Menchi, Sakura guessed that by his expression this reaction wasn't exactly unexpected. If that was the case then why was she assigned as an examiner? Putting together the fact that the women was a Gourmet Hunter and a rather picky eater, the test hardly seemed fair in her perspective.

After Menchi finished her rant, she returned to her chair, crossing her legs in a relaxed manner. "In other words you guys, don't have the guts to try anything new."

Todo didn't seem to know when to give up, he started his own rant. "Shut up! I'm not trying to become a cook or Gourmet. I want to be a Hunter!"

Most of the other applicants joined in, as if banning together in this manner would make a difference. But Sakura could tell from the expression on Menchi's face that she was far from impressed. In fact, she only appeared more irritated and when Tonpa continued to taunt the women, saying how he would not allow a mere Gourmet Hunter to decide his fate. She simply responded with her own snide remark, about how it was too bad he had a 'mere' Gourmet Hunter as his examiner and then wished him good luck for next year. That was what pushed him over the edge, Tonpa's face turned red before he charged towards Menchi. He was going to attack when Buhara threw his hand out and sent Tonpa across the estate in the air, knocking into one of the pillars of the wall.

"That's probably really painful." Sakura commented.

"Yeah well he should've kept his mouth shut," Killua shrugged.

Menchi stood up, walking down the stairs. "Let me clarify this. We often venture into the dens of ferocious beasts searching for ingredients," drawing her hands behind her, Menchi produced four blades. With two in each hand, she threw them into the air. They spun around like silver fans as Menchi juggled them, her eyes closed.

"Every Hunter knows some form of martial art. You lack focus and the willingness to experiment." Letting the knives fall together in perfect sync, she caught them with one hand and pointed them out in front of her. "That alone disqualifies you from becoming Hunters!"

Sakura frowned, something had to have gone wrong. Apparently there was a purpose behind this test, but it hardly seemed fair; given that Menchi proved to be a particular kind of person to please when it came to cooking. Therefore they were already at a disadvantage, because she would've wanted the dishes in a very particular way, yet she contradicts by saying that they were unwilling to experiment and try new things. It would be nearly impossible with someone like her examining them.

"That said, it would be excessive to fail every single applicant."

Everyone's heads craned up to the sky, attempting to detect the source of the voice that had echoed through the area. An airship hovered right above the mansion, with an oval shaped body and wings, it was painted to resemble perhaps a shark? Sakura wasn't sure, but it had two large X's standing next to each other, XX with red colored in the middle of the two making a diamond.

"That's the symbol of the Hunters Association!" someone said

"Is it someone from the selection committee?"

From the bottom of the airship, something started falling from the sky, zipping down fast and landing right in the middle of the applicants and examiners circle. Everyone covered their eyes on impact when a huge cloud of dust spread. There was a clicking sound heard on the ground, like wood hitting stone. As the dust cleared, they saw an old man, he was bald aside from the long white ponytail on his head, his earlobes were unusually large and sported two pairs of earrings in each, he had a beard with a patch of brown at the bottom and wore nearly and all white full body suit.

"Who is that geezer?"

Menchi stepped forward, "The Chairmen of the Selection Committee. He's in charge of the Hunter exam…Chairman Netero."

The old man then spoke, "Well I work behind the scenes. I only take action when there's an issue like now." He then looked up at the young examiner "So Menchi-kun,"

Standing up straight, Menchi nodded her head "Yes sir"

"You failed all of the applicants because you disapproved of their reluctance to try new things?" he asked her, though Sakura swore she saw his eyes trail downward.

"No sir," Menchi replied, she seemed to straighten herself, "I lost my cool when one of the candidates insulted Gourmet Hunters. And I made the exam harder than necessary."

"In other words you're aware that this exam is unacceptable?"

After Netero asked that question, Sakura felt a breath of relief leave her mouth. If that really was the case then they still had hope.

"Yes sir," Menchi replied without hesitance, although she had the appearance similar to that of a child being caught doing something wrong. "When cooking is involved I lose control. I'm unqualified to be an examiner. I will resign as examiner, so please redo the Second Phase!"

Everyone watched silently, hoping that there was a sliver of a chance for them to redo this phase.

"But it would be difficult to find another examiner on such short notice," Netero said as he bowed his head in thought,

"I apologize."

Holding up his hand, Netero suggested, "How about this, I'd like you to continue as an examiner but you must also participate in the new test you propose. Is that acceptable?"

Menchi smiled, an idea came to her immediately "Very well, then the new challenge will be…boiled eggs!"

It seemed like a simpler task at first and because of that, none of the applicants were complaining this time, not even Todo. Menchi then asked the chairman to take them to Mt. Split-in-Half. Just like that, Sakura got the feeling that this test wasn't going to be as simple as it appeared. However, this was a second chance and no one wanted to risk losing it. And with the change in dishes; she might actually be able to pass the phase this time.

When the applicants arrived at their destination, they finally understood where the name 'Split-in-Half' came from for this specific mountain. The upper base was practically flat on top, but right in the middle of the mountain there was a line running through, giving it a split appearance and when they actually landed. The applicants saw that the mountain was in fact split in half. In an abnormally straight cut line.

Menchi lead them to the edge of one of the split sides, the drop was a far one, so far that you weren't able to seen the bottom. She told them to look down; when the mist around the bottom cleared, they saw that in between the crack there were lines of thick, white threads connecting both sides, in a strange pattern. There was a first layer and then a second at the bottom, where several large white sacks hung from the strands.

"What are those?" Sakura asked,

"A Spider eagles web."

The way Menchi said it, was obviously in a way that implied Sakura would know what she was talking about. However this was where being from another world was a handicap; the knowledge of the other world, from its history, to its people, to its different civilizations and cultures, to its flora and fauna. A wind blew across up towards them, rustling Sakura, Killua and Gon's hair as the three were literally leaning over the edge with little worry of falling.

"Look below the web," Menchi instructed.

They saw the second layer where the large sacks hung, inside were oval shaped objects clumped together.

"Those are Spider Eagle Eggs."

Netero then spoke, "Spider Eagles build their webs in deep ravines, to protect their eggs from predators. This makes their eggs one of the most difficult ingredients to obtain. The eggs are also known as dream eggs."

Immediately everyone seemed to figure out what the next challenge was going to be; and it seemed that some would've preferred going back into the forest to search for another Great Stamp because they backed away from the edge in fear.

Menchi then leapt off the edge with no hesitance, she grasped one of the thick Eagle Spider web threads and then just hung on for a little while. Leorio asked how she was going to get back up. Sakura was honestly wondering the same thing, give that they wouldn't be able to climb up the walls like she could-especially if she intended to get an egg.

Then Menchi let go of the web, from the way she held her body, limbs spread out and still it was easy to see that she wasn't panicking. When she came to a nest, she reached out and grabbed a single egg before falling deeper into the ravine, disappearing into the white mist.

"Is she trying to kill herself?" Leorio asked, his hand on his head.

"No," Kurapika said never taking his eyes off the ravine.

A large gust of wind blew upwards and along with it came Menchi, she reached the top with the egg before jumping back onto the ground. Unharmed.

"Updrafts," Sakura realized, that was what had kept Menchi up in the air like that. Killua commented on how much fun it looked and Gon just stared in awe, though he seemed quite impressed.

Netero then explained that the updrafts were what helped the young chicks fly up to the web.

"There, now I just need to boil the egg." Menchi said with a big smile on her face.

Todo backed away in shock and fear, shaking his head "Y-You must be joking. No reasonable person would jump down there…."

Sakura scoffed softly, it wasn't of arrogance. She just thought back to everything that had happened and reasonable was kind of an ironic term in her situation right now.

"I've been waiting for this!" Gon said, before taking the plunge. Shortly followed by Sakura, Killua, Leorio and Kurapika. Then the other applicants who weren't terrified of heights or had the courage to overcome the fear joined them. Ignoring Menchi's calls who claimed she still had a few things to explain. However by the time she got the words out of her mouth, all of the applicants determined to pass this phase were already hanging onto the web.

It was surpisingly soft, despite its thickness, though it was also firm in terms of strength. Although no one had counted for what might happened if there was too much weight holding onto one section of the web.

"Let's go!" said Leorio

"Not yet," Gon replied.

"Why not?"

"There's no wind," Killua stated, as if Leorio would understand by those three words.

A few applicants, who were brave enough to jump down, did it with little consideration for the updrafts, almost immediately letting go of the web to grab an egg. Expecting to rise up with the heavy winds but disappeared down into the fog instead, their screams growing silent.

"We have to wait for an updraft." Sakura stated.

"Well how are we supposed to know when the next one's coming?" Leorio asked.

"Wait." Gon told him, closing his eyes, everyone looked in Gon's direction. They realized that they were waiting for the boy to give them the go. Dangling by the threads of a web, all had unknowingly left their end results for this phase, in the hands of a twelve year old.

The webs structure started to grow slack, everyone gasped when they shifted down with their weight. It was then that everyone realized it wasn't such a great idea to jump down all at once, because the web wasn't going to support all of them for much longer.

Sakura's eyes followed the thread to where the webs ended and saw that it was becoming thin. "That's not good."

"What's happening?" asked Leorio in a panicked voice.

"The web won't hold us all!" Kurapika said.

Killua looked at Gon, who was remaining still and calm. "Gon, not yet?"

The boy didn't respond, he seemed in deep meditation from the neck up while the rest of his body dangled over the canyon.

At the noise of the web stretching further, straining; a few other applicants who had allowed their current fear to cloud their judgment and forget about the updraft, they let go. Falling with a nest of eggs. The corner of the webs grew thinner, like a loose thread on a piece of clothing, unable to hold with the shape of the design.

"It's gonna snap!" Leorio cried.

'We let go now, we fall and if an updraft takes any longer to arrive we'll fall.' Sakura thought. She could always just swing to the wall before that happened and climb up. 'But what about the rest of them?'

Gon then called "NOW"

Sakura, ironically felt relieved when she let go of the web, falling alongside everyone else who followed Gon. The other applicants around the web did the same and everyone dropped. Their aim, now to fall in the direction of a nest and grab an egg.

Sakura kept her eyes wide open as she came into view of a nest, with both of her arms extended, she waited until she was near the center of the nest before grabbing an egg; she may be used to falling from high places. She then fell down into the unknown with everyone else.

White had surrounded her for a few seconds, she could fell herself falling. Before a cool breeze blew onto her skin, causing goose bumps. The wind grew strong, some particles hit her face before she felt herself being lifted up by the updraft.

Gon, Sakura, Killua, Leorio and Kurapika were the first to emerge from the drop, all of them holding the eggs in their hands as they cheered happily when the sun hit them.

"I can't believe I enjoyed that." Sakura untied her headband, attempting to sooth her hair that the updraft had styled into standing up in a gravity defying manner. It didn't help with her hair being so choppy already.

"It was fun!" Gon said, throwing his arms up.

"Yeah!" Killua nodded. "A lot better than having to roast a pig; good news for you huh Sakura?"

"Shut up!"

"It was better than running through that swamp," Leorio nodded.

"I'll say." Kurapika added, smiling.

The sunset painted the sky in a light orange and purple tinge, signaling the end of a tiring day. After building a big fire and placing a large pot of water over, the applicants only had to wait a few minutes for their eggs to be boiled and now they were ready to eat.

Sakura eyed the egg carefully, she hasn't ever eaten an egg this big before and that wasn't even her main concern. She turned to the others in their little circle of five. They had taken the shells off and waiting for the other to take a bite.

"Well?" Leorio asked, "Anyone going to eat?"

"How about you go first?" Killua offered,

"I'll go." Gon said taking a bit bite of the top half. He chewed for a little white, his cheeks puffed before he swallowed. "It's good!"

Everyone followed the boy's example and took a bite; Sakura took a tiny nibble of the top because she was still a little cautious-this was the egg of a creature she hasn't seen or heard of before. However after the first bite, Sakura took an even bigger one, forgetting whatever table manners she had. The egg had a rich and creamy texture, unlike anything she had ever eaten before. There was no comparison between a spider eagle egg and a normal chicken egg.

"I can see why they're called dream eggs." Kurapika said taking another bite out of his egg.

Scanning the faces of the other applicants, Sakura saw the grins on their faces. Not just because of the egg but because they knew, they had just passed the Second Phase of the Hunter exam.

'I wonder how many more chapter's I have to go; before I get to the end?'

That's all for now; hopefully I'll be able to update soon sometime next week maybe if university work doesn't pile up too much. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Don't forget to review!