A/N: Yay done! I think this is the fastest I've updated in a while ^^


Chapter 5: Battle x of x Nen

All the hunters who had passed the first three phases were given lodgings for the night. It had been privately booked with all the passing hunters' names so the hunters who failed wouldn't be able to sneak in. The night had been pretty uneventful but they all knew that it was the morning they really had to worry about.

When the morning came, they were directed to the site of the fourth phase, which turned out to be an arena.

"Ok, is everyone here?" Beans asked through the microphone and when no one objected he continued to explain the fourth phase. "As you might have all guessed, the fourth phase will feature battles. The winner is decided when a person loses consciousness or if someone surrenders and the examiner for this phase will be-" He was stopped midsentence crashed down to the ground in front of him.

"Hohoho that would be me."

"Chairman!"

The mutterings and whispers began amongst the crowd but soon stopped as the answer to the question on everyone's minds was answered.

"To put it simply, I'm here to make sure there are no unnecessary deaths."

"In this phase each hunter will be paired with another hunter with the same nen type. You are allowed to use other weapons as well as your nen abilities." Beans grabbed the microphone back from Netero and continues with his explanation. "Each of you will only fight one battle so you will only have one chance to win." Beans proceeds to reveal six boxes. "I will decided the pairs by pulling out two names at a time from each of these boxes."

The first two names Beans pulled out were Gon and Leorio.

"What we have to fight each other?!"

"You're just bitter because you know Gon will kick your ass."

"Killua!"

"What, we're all thinking it."

Everyone goes silent and tries to avoid eye contact with Leorio.

"I'll remember this!"

A couple other pairs were pulled out before Beans pulled Killua and Chase.

Neither of them objected with the match up but a certain someone in the back did.

"Che, I wanted a chance at my little apple." They all knew whom that voice belonged to and a big shiver ran down Killua's spine.

"Good thing I don't have to fight him."

The next people in their group to be picked were Maya and Hanzo.

"So you're a conjurer." Kurapika comments on Hanzo's nen type, based on Maya's nen type.

"Oh yeah, you never told us you nen abilities did you." Gon and the others realize.

"Well ninjas are supposed to keep their techniques secret."

"Great so he knows my abilities but I don't know his." Maya glares at Sakura.

"Haha… at least I didn't tell him your wea-"

Maya stopped Sakura from saying anymore by pegging the closest object, which happened to be a small rock, at her. It hit her right on the forehead.

The last pair Beans picked out was Kurapika and Sakura.

"Are you okay?" Kurapika offers a hand to Sakura who was still on the ground, rubbing the red bump on her forehead.

"Ow… yeah." Sakura gladly accepts his hand.

"At least now you're both even." Killua refers to the physical handicap Maya has given Sakura in comparison to the knowledge handicap Sakura gave to Maya.

Gon and Leorio's battle was up first. They both stayed in the arena whilst the others and the rest of the hunters went up to the stands. Netero stayed in the arena as well whilst Beans went up to the announcer's box located in the middle of the stands.

"Hohoho you boys ready?"

"Yeah."

"Let's do this!"

"Hohoho alright then, on my signal ready, set… fight!" Netero jumps out of the way of Gon and Leorio.

"Just so you know Gon, I'm not going easy on you just because we're friends."

"Same here."

"Well then here I go!"

Leorio punches the ground beneath him and uses his nen to make it so his punch comes out from the ground underneath Gon. Gon easily dodges the punch by jumping back but Leorio had expected this and punches the ground with his other hand. This time his punch came out from one of the pieces of the floor that had been scattered around Gon from his first punch. His fist hit Gon straight across the face and sent him flying to the ground but Leorio didn't stopped there. He kept pummeling the ground beneath him and making them come out from the pieces of the floor around Gon.

"That was a smart move." Kurapika comments.

"What do you mean?"

"Instead of creating the first warp hole on the surface of the floor, Leorio created it under the floor so that when he punched up the floor would shatter."

"Oh, I see."

"Hmph, Gon won't let this do him in." Killua states with confidence in his best friend. "Come on Gon! Get out of that and beat his ass!"

Just like Killua said, Gon was able to stop Leorio's rain of attacks by focusing his aura into his hand and catching one of Leorio's punches just before it hit him. He then grabbed hold of Leorio's wrist and pulled him through the warp hole. Once Leorio was all the way though, Gon went on to gather his aura in his leg and kick him straight in the gut and send him flying across the arena and into the wall.

"Gah." The kick was so hard that Leorio was now stuck in the wall. When he was finally able to crack open one of his eyes, he saw Gon preparing for his signature attack.

"First is rock… Janken…Pa!

Aura was projected from the palm of Gon's hand; Leorio covered his body with aura for protection but it wasn't enough and he was smashed further into the wall behind him. The wall had been smashed so hard that it shatters to the point where it was unable to support Leorio anymore and he was sent falling down to the ground unconscious.

"Gon is the winner as Leorio is unable to fight."

Gon goes over to Leorio to wake him up "Are you okay?"

"Ugh…yeah." Leorio slowly starts to come around.

"Sorry Leorio, I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

"What, that was nothing! Don't worry about it!" Leorio reassures Gon even though his legs were still shaking.


It was time for Killua and Chase's battle.

"Don't worry I'll end this quickly."

"Better not get your hopes up."

"Ready, set… fight!"

Killua immediately snuck up behind Chase and went in for a chop but Chase notices him and turns around to smacks his hand away before jumping back to put some distance between them. Seeing Chase trying to distance himself, Killua gathered his aura, which he transmuted into electricity, to his hands then slams his palms down on the ground to release the electricity through the floor. The electricity coursed through the floor, destroying a path directly to Chase. He jumps up in the air to avoid getting electrocuted and gathers his own aura to his hands, which he transmuted into fire and formed into the shape of a ball. He combined the two and threw it down at Killua. Killua dodges the fireball by side stepping to the side then he threw thunderbolts at Chase and since Chase was still in mid air, he wasn't able to move out of the way and got hit dead on.

"Agh!" Chase fell down from the sky with smoke trailing behind him and crashed into the floor. He laid on the ground, still twitching at times from the leftover electricity still coursing through his body.

Seeing this Killua turned around to leave the arena as he thought he had won the battle already, but he was soon proven wrong when he steps on the spot where Chase's previous fireball had hit and was immediately engulfed in flames.

"Killua!" Gon shouted from the stands.

Killua tried moving away from the spot where the fire first appeared but that didn't stop the fire from burning him.

"It's pointless to run." Chase tells Killua as he pushes himself off the ground. "The fire will continue to burn you where ever you go."

"What does he mean by that?" Kurapika asks Sakura.

"Use gyo and you'll see."

Kurapika did as Sakura told and gathered his aura to his eyes. He looked over to Killua and saw a barrier type thing surrounding him and the fire.

"He's using his aura to trap the fire and Killua together."

"Ping pong. When Killua stepped on that spot, Chase released the aura he stored in that spot and transmuted half into fire to cover Killua then the rest to trap him inside with the fire."

"Is there any way for him to get out?"

"Well, he could've released a stronger aura than Chase's from his entire body but I don't think that's possible now."

Kurapika confirms Sakura's assumption by looking over to Killua who was now on his knees, struggling for air.

"Hmph, that's what the kid gets for being cocky." Maya remarks.

Not long after, Killua wasn't able to stand being burned any longer and collapsed on the ground. Chase released his nen and falls flat on his back, Killua had made him use a lot more nen than he thought.

Chase was deemed the winner as Killua lost consciousness first.


Maya and Hanzo entered the arena.

"I'm telling you now I'm not going to go easy on you just because Sakura-chan's friend."

"And I'm not going easy on you just because I feel sorry for your baldness."

"Wha-this was a choice!"

Sparks were flying before the starting signal was even given and when it was, all hell broke loose. "Ready, set… start!"

Hanzo immediately revealed his hidden blade on his arm whilst Maya took out her scythe. They both charged at each other and clashed in the middle. Hanzo was superior in strength and so he was able to push Maya's scythe out of the way and kick her in the side. Maya blocked the kick with her arm but the blow still sent her sliding across the ground. She was able to stand her ground and throw her scythe at Hanzo, who easily dodged her attack but that was what she was aiming for. When Hanzo sidestepped to the side she was right there to give him a kick to the face. Hanzo was able to block her kick with his arm but that didn't stop her from continuing her barrage of attacks. After her kick was blocked, she followed with a punch but once again Hanzo blocked her attack by grabbing her fist before it reached his face.

Maya continued throwing punches and kicks, which were continually blocked but that didn't faze her as this was going exactly according to plan. As Hanzo was concentrating on blocking her attacks, he completely forgot about the scythe she had thrown at the start, which had boomeranged itself around and was set on a direct course at him. By the time he noticed the scythe was already really close to him and Maya wasn't about to let him get away. She grabbed his arms and held him in place and waited for her scythe to hit.

"Looks like this is the end."

The scythe finally seemed to have connected with Hanzo but one thing was off, there was no blood coming out from him at all.

'How?' Maya peeked from behind Hanzo and found out the reason why there was no blood. Hanzo had conjured up a chain from his back and circled it around her scythe 'This can't be-'

Hanzo ended the battle by hitting the back of Maya's neck, which caused her eyes to go blank and collapse on the ground.

"Maya!" Sakura yelled up from the stands at the sight of her friend lying face down on the ground.

"What! No! I just knocked her out-" Hanzo flailed his arms around when he sees Sakura's distressed state.

Kurapika immediately hugs Sakura before Hanzo could even finish his explanation. Sakura's eyes widened at Kurapika's actions but she quickly recovered from the shock.

"Uh…yeah, I just don't like the sight of my friend like that is all." She gave him a smile to show him she was fine. "Anyway… how long do you think you're going to keep hugging me?"

"Eh? Oh, sorry!" He quickly let go and stepped back from her.

"Pff, why're you apologizing?"

He really couldn't think of a response back to her, in fact he didn't even know why he hugged her in the first place. Why he felt like he needed to comfort her and acted on reflex.

Wait, could it be… love?


'No no no' He doesn't have the time or the need for love in his life right now, and besides he was too old to fall in love at first sight. It was probably because he didn't like seeing people upset, especially if he knew them.

The final battle for the fourth phase was Kurapika against Sakura.

"Is something wrong?" Sakura asks as she had noticed Kurapika had been trying his best to avoid eye contact with her ever since he hugged her.

'It can't be that he finally found out, could it?!' Was the first thought that popped into her mind. But if he really did, he would've done something by now so that probably wasn't it. But then again it has been a quite a long time, maybe he was that kind of person now. On the other hand, she was a pretty good judge of character and he didn't seem like-

"Sakura!" Kurapika snapped her out of her reverie.

"Huh, what?" She looked over to the source of the sound, which was Kurapika and for some reason when their eyes met, he grew red and immediately looked away.

"Eh?"

"Hohoho. While I understand the two of you are at the peak of your youth, we have to start the battle." Netero cuts in "Will you guys be able to fight?"

Whilst Sakura got even more confused with the addition of Netero's words, Kurapika grew a darker shade of red.

"…Yes?" Sakura answers hesitantly as she didn't know why he would think she couldn't fight.

Netero looks over to Kurapika who had managed to calm down and nod. 'Ugh! Okay, let's just focus on the battle right now.' He cleared his thoughts and readied himself for the upcoming battle.

"Hohoho then let the battle commence. Ready, set… fight!"

Neither of them moved from their spot when the starting signal was given. They were both not one to make the first move in a battle but Sakura had less patience than Kurapika and cracked first.

"Fine, if you're not gonna come I will." Sakura declares and conjured up her cherry blossoms petals to form a pistol, which she then proceeded to shoot Kurapika with.

Kurapika easily blocked the bullets by lodging them in between the chain he swung in front of himself. He dropped them all on the floor in front of Sakura.

"It's going to take more than that to hit me."

"Then how about this."

Sakura conjured up bullets, to reload her first pistol, along with another pistol. She shot a bullet each at Kurapika who easily blocks them again with his chain but as soon as he blocks those bullets another two immediately came his way.

'How?' He blocks one with his chain and dodges the other one. In the midst of his dodge, he looks over to Sakura who was completely unarmed. At least that's what he thought until two pistols fell into her hands not even a second later.

'Crap!' He jumps back evade the bullets and create some distance between them. This action also allowed him to get a clearer view of Sakura and that's when he sees that she was shooting at him with four guns.

"Ahahaha not so easy blocking these is it?"

He would've gotten mad at her taunting him if not for him really struggling a lot just not to get hit. All her shots seemed to be aimed at his vital points, which was really annoying… and scary.

'I have to stop that crazy accurate aim of hers.'

With that thought in mind, he jumps up in the air then slams his dowsing chain down on the ground. He had powered it up further with his aura so the chain was able to shatter the ground and send big chunks flying everywhere. 'This should take away some of her sight and decrease her accuracy.'

Unluckily for him, his plan proved completely useless and actually ended helping Sakura instead.

As soon as Kurapika smashed the floor to bits, Sakura reverted all her pistols back to petals then reformed them into rifle. Due to the pieces of the ground in her way she wasn't able to aim for a vital spot, not she would if she could in this situation where Kurapika was completely unaware that he was a sitting duck. She opted for his right arm, which had his chains instead. When she had a clear shot to her desired target, she immediately pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Kurapika was only able to catch a glimpse of Sakura smirking with a rifle aimed right at him before a bullet lodged itself in his arm.

"Gah!" Kurapika gripped his bleeding arm but he wasn't given time anytime to rest as another bullet was coming his way. He was able to redirect this bullet with his chain but it still managed to nick his cheek.

He continued to redirect the following bullets, keeping the damage he received to that of shallow cuts. He waited for the moment when she needed to reload and when that moment came he swiftly extended his dowsing chain towards Sakura. At this point all the pieces of the ground had all fallen back to the ground and he was easily able to maneuver his chain all the way to her. Plus she was distracted with reloading her gun that she only noticed his chain around her arm when he tightened his grip and pulled her towards him.

"Yes! You got her now Kurapika! There's no way she can beat you at close range!" Leorio yells out, taking into account the events that happened so far.

"Hah, what are you talking about? Sakura is way better at close combat than long range combat." Chase informs him.

"Eh?"

Leorio looks back down at the fight and sees Kurapika tumbling across the floor.

"What happened?!"

"While you weren't looking, Sakura grabbed the chain pulling her towards Kurapika and pulled on it so that Kurapika would come flying towards her. Then she kicked him across the face and sent him tumbling across the ground."

"Hmph, I don't get why she didn't just conjure up a sword and end it there." Maya remarks.

"She can use a sword?"

"Yeah, I personally think that she's better with a sword than a gun."

"Eh, did she stop using it?"

"Yeah, she stopped when she learned how to control her nen and conjure things up at will."

"Why did she stop?"

"Who knows, one day she told us that 'guns were awesome' and I haven't seen her use a sword since."

"She's a very… special person isn't she." Leorio comments only to receive a punch on the head from Hanzo and Maya.

Meanwhile back in the arena, Sakura was walking up to Kurapika, who was still on the ground, to deliver the finishing blow. She bent down and went to pull him up but before she could, Kurapika's hand shot up and grabbed her arm. She wasn't that surprised by this action, it was only when her eyes landed on his eyes that made her freeze. It was faint due to the black contacts but she could still see it, the red in his eyes.

Kurapika felt Sakura approaching him and waited for her to get close enough for him to attack. Luckily for him, Sakura took it upon herself to extend her arm towards him and he gladly took the opportunity. He grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her down to his level. Their eyes met and what he saw wasn't the little shock he expected in her eyes. For some reason her eyes had contracted in what looked like fear as soon as they met with his. He didn't think much of it and took advantage of her frozen state and slammed her on the ground, reversing their roles. He held his chain at her neck as a sign of his win, it didn't technically mean it was his win but Sakura didn't seem like the type who wouldn't accept this method of loss.

"…I give up."


Phase four was now officially over and the hunters who had lost their battles started filing out of the arena.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Beans yelled out from the speakers to stop the hunters from leaving. "There is still the final phase!"

"So that has nothing to do with us."

"Hohoho but it does." Netero takes over for Beans "None of you were eliminated from the exam."

Netero's announcement caused everyone caused a lot of bewildered expressions.

"What do you mean?" Leorio was the first to ask.

"Just what I said."

"Then what was the point of this phase?" Killua asked, still annoyed at his loss.

"Well, for one it was for you to test out your nen abilities against similar opponents but it's main purpose was to set up the final phase." Netero explained to them but they were still looking at him with puzzled looks.

"I can see that you are all confused so allow me explain properly. The final phase is to obtain a valuable item and will be completed in the pairs you were in for the fourth phase. The winner decides what the item is and is allowed to keep the item once the exam is over. There are no restrictions to what you can choose except that it has to be worth over one billion jenny."

None of the hunters were fazed by the price the item needed to be, but many were displeased by the fact that they had to work in their previous pairs, mainly the losers.

"This is stupid, I don't want to look for what he wants." Maya refers to Hanzo.

"You haven't even heard what I want yet."

"What do you want?" Gon asks with genuine curiosity.

"Sakura-chan's very first demo!"

"I love how you say that with no shame at all…"

"Wait, wouldn't you have that?" Leorio questions Sakura.

"No, I wasn't the one who even made it." Sakura looks over to Chase.

"Well, I recorded her singing one time and sent it to a random record studio. I didn't actually think it would get accepted but it did and I've never gotten it back. No idea where it is now." Chase sheepishly scratches the back of his head.

"I don't think it matters, there's no way it's worth one billion yen."

"I've got every Sakura-chan merchandise there is except for her demo since it was marketed at 700,000 jenny the last time I checked. I'm certain it's gone up to a billion jenny by now. I will finally have it!" Hanzo was so excited he didn't notice he was drooling at the thought.

Maya stood in front of Sakura and backed her away from Hanzo.

"Anyway, I'm guessing you're aiming for the scarlet eyes." Chase turns to Kurapika.

"Of course, I was looking for them before this exam anyway. What are you going to aim for?"

"Me? Uh… I don't know, I can't really think of anything."

"Me either. I don't really want anything over a billion jenny." Gon agrees.

"Then why don't you just hunt someone with a bounty over a billion jenny." Hisoka chimes in from behind Gon.

Although all of them knew he would pass, his presence still made them jump, especially Gon who he was right behind.

"H-Hisoka!"

"Hello Gon." Hisoka greets him with a creepy grin.

"Where's your partner?" Kurapika asks as he doesn't see anyone close to him.

"I killed him."

"What, but don't you need him?!"

"Since I won no. I can easily obtain an item on my own."

"I suppose that's true."

"By the way… you." Hisoka turns to Sakura and questions her. "Why were you using guns in your fight?"

"Eh?"

"You're a swordsman aren't you?"

"Oi oi oi, how the hell does this bastard know, did you guys tell him?!" Maya yelled in a whisper voice.

"Of course not! He just has some crazy weird sense thing!"

"I think it's called perception…"

"Well I prefer guns now." Sakura answers Hisoka confidently, though she was dying from the pressure inside.

"Go back to swords."

"Don't want to."

Everyone unconsciously held their breath when Sakura defied against Hisoka but Hisoka didn't do anything. People who don't cower in fear and stand up to him gave him a thrill but he decided to let it slide and ask another question.

"Also, why did you freeze up in the end?"

"I was actually wondering about that too." Kurapika joins in.

"Oh that… that was because… of your eyes." Sakura answers slowly.

Kurapika thought about what she meant by that and finally realizes what most likely happened. "Are you… afraid of my scarlet eyes?" He questions her hesitantly.

"What, no. They just remind me of some really bad things…"

"Pff, like anything that horrible ever happened that you would freeze up at a mere reminder."

"Leorio!" Gon yelled at him for his insensitivity.

"It's fine, I'm not one to dwell on the past. There's nothing left for me there anyways." Sakura says the last part with a little sad smile.

Although Kurapika wasn't exactly happy with Sakura's answers, her words did clear up his confused feelings towards her. There's no way he could love someone who couldn't even stand the sight of his scarlet eyes and moreover, someone who tries to abandon their past. He had to wonder was there really nothing left for her in her past.

There must've of been something, there must be at least one person who was still waiting for her.


A/N: I swear if there was machine to turn the images in my mind straight into words, my life would be so much easier! Haah... anyway i tried and I hope the fight scenes weren't too bad. Sorry if I got any of the nen information wrong... it's been a while since I've seen Hunter x Hunter. Also you may have seen stuff in here that seems pointless but don't worry I actually have a plan so sometimes I'll insert stuff that will make sense later :)

Anyway I hoped you guys liked it and yeah ^^

PS: Sorry if Hanzo seems too much of a crazy fan... my mind just sorta went there and now it's stuck...