Disclamer: I Do Not Own Hunter X Hunter

"blah" Talking

'blah' Thinking

(blah) memory's

Four hour's have passed since we began walking through the tunnel. Leorio had started to drag behind us as Kurapika and I played a game with my cards.

"The old granny mentioned a Navigator, do you think we'll have to pass another test?" I ask Kurapika. As he looks at me in confusion I explain, "So far we've been tested by everyone. The captain and the old granny, while there were many traps in between. I have a feeling this will be another test. Just keep your guard up at all times." He nodes his head as we continue our game.

"When are we going to reach the exit?" Leorio exclaims. I turn my head, at the same time as Kurapika, to see him putting his suitcase down and stop walking. "The old lady said we should reach it in two hours." He continues to complain like a child, "Those two hours passed by two hours ago. I'm hungry. I want to go to the bathroom."

Sighing we shake our heads while I mutter, "You shouldn't believe everything your told." Speaking up louder I say, "The exit is right ahead. If you're not coming we'll leave you behind!"

"What? You should have said that in the first place!" He yells at me.

"Hmm… Must have slipped my mind…" I drift off as Kurapika starts to laugh. 'Hmm… he's got a beautiful laugh.'

Walking out of the tunnel I could make out a lake covered by a thick fog.

"After going through the tunnel," He pauses, "there's a lake?" Leorio mutters. 'What a way to state the obvious.' I deadpan. "Does that mean we have to swim?"

As I roll my eyes at him I spot a small boat along the side of the lake. 'Two people will have to row but its better then nothing.'

"Found a boat." I yell to them.

As I sit next to Kurapika helping him to row the boat I accidentally brush my arm against his. Thinking nothing of it I continue rowing. As my arm brushes against his again I glance at him to see a faint pink tint to his cheeks.

Smirking I keep my eyes on him as I bump into him again and to my 'surprise' his face turns into a dark pink color. I keep looking at him to see him glance at me. While our eyes continued to stare at each other I mutter, "Sorry," as innocently as possible as our arms brush again.

"Oh man, this thing is leaking." Leorio's says interrupting our moment.

"Deal with it." I mutter darkly.

"Humph, don't tell me this is part of the Hunter Exam?" 'Does he ever shut up?'
A few seconds goes bye as we continue to row in silence until we row right next to a 'Magical Beast Warning' sign.

"That sign says to 'Beware of Magical Beasts'!" Leorio states the obvious.

"So it seems," Kurapika replies.

As the minutes go by in silence with me brushing my arm against Kurapika's with each row until Leorio asks, "How are we going to get approved by the Navigator?"

"Don't know… They've probably got a test for us to pass like the other had." I reply.

"Maybe…" Kurapika begins.

"It has something to do with appearance!" Leorio adds his thoughts in while laughing. "If so then unfortunately, Gon, you won't be approved."

"What are you blabbering about? My cloths help me to move around without restricting my movements unlike your suit." I snap back. I wore a simple black tight shirt underneath a loose black and red vest with black pants and shoe's.

"Kurapika will probably be disqualified too, because of his height." Leorio says ignoring me. 'Now you're just starting to get on my nerves…' "That means I'm the only one who will be approved by the Navigator." He continues. Turning my head towards Kurapika we look each other in the eye before laughing.

"That would never happen." Kurapika says in between breaths.

"What did you say?"

"It might be based solely on your strength." He continues ignoring Leorio, "Another factor will probably be needed. Like knowledge or intelligence. Gon, what are you good at?" He asks looking at me.

'Should I sum it up? Or tell the truth? Well I trust Kurapika but Leorio's a different story so I guess the sum up will do.' I think before replying, "I have a variety of things at which I'm a master at… I'm knowledgeable… I'm sure there are other things I'm good at."

"In my case, I have guts. I'll be fine with any monster that appears." Leorio says. I watch as he becomes still with his eyes wide looking at something behind us. Turning my head I see a monster come out of the lake then everything becomes slow around me. I watch as it turns its attention towards Kurapika while opening its mouth wide.

Thinking fast I grabbed my sword attached to my back, unsheathing it I wait till the Beast gets mere inches from a wide eyed Kurapika. Not waiting another second I manipulate wind around my sword while I cut the head straight off the beast. As time continues to move slowly around me I turn to see Leorio with closed eyes while Kurapika stares right at me. 'Screw it.' I think as I manipulate wind and water around the boat making it hit shore in less then a few seconds.

As I wipe the blood off my sword and re-sheath it I glance back at Kurapika to see him looking at me questioningly. Shaking my head I get out of the boat as time seems to start moving normally. "If you're going to stay in the boat I will leave you both." I say seriously. 'I'm so stupid… of course he's going to start asking questions now that he's seen some of what I can do.' I think to myself as I watch Kurapika climb out of the boat and Leorio open his eyes then look around with a confusion written all over his face.

"What happened to the Beast?" Leorio asks. As I shrug my shoulders he continues, "And how did we get to shore when I couldn't even see the shore a few seconds ago?"

Looking him straight in the eyes I raise my hand with my pointer finger out shaking it with each pause, "Se-c-ret."

I turn around while walking towards a weirdly shaped rock. As I get closer I feel the presence of Kurapika following after me.

"I'm not going to ask what that was about or how you did that…" He says. Raising my eyebrow he continues, "You will tell me when you're ready." With a nod of my head he changes the subject, "It looks like the sumi tribe built this a long time ago." Indicating towards the rock with markings on it. "It's been damaged in many places, I can't make out what it says though."

"It looks like a warning to whomever messes with this artifact." I tell him.

"Hey!" We both turn towards Leorio as he says, "Forget that, where's the Pathway?"

"Right in front of you." I tell him pointing along the side of the lake,"

"It doesn't look like a shortcut." He mutters. "The old lady said it was just a single path."

"Just because it is a single path, does not mean it goes straight to the destination. Am I right, Gon?" Kurapika states while turning to me.

"Yes, we still have a while before we get to the cedar so lets start walking." I tell them while unsheathing a sword at one time to sharpen it as we walk.

As I begin to sharpen the two I took from Matthew I watch as Kurapika glances at them every few minutes. Finally I decide what I'm going to do with them.

Taking out a couple carving tools I begin to inscribe, "Fight for survival," on one side while on the other side I inscribe, "Fight to protect." Putting the sword back in its sheath I unsheathe the other one.

After a few thoughts I decided to inscribe on one side, "Defend your comrades" while on the other side I inscribe, "Defend yourself from harm."

Smiling to myself as I sheath the sword I notice it start getting late. 'When we are in the forest I don't want to stop for rest, so I guess now should be a good time.'

Stopping I turn around to say, "We'll camp here for a few hours to relax and rest. I don't want to stop when we get in the forest." The nodded and went to lay down. When I noticed they were still on edge to sleep I say, "Get some sleep, I'll take first watch." When that doesn't work I continue, "I don't know when the next time we'll be able to sleep again so rest up now while you still can."

Sitting down I saw them both relax. Before long they were both asleep. As I knelt down beside Kurapika with the two finished swords and couldn't help but think of how beautiful and peaceful he looked as he slept. 'It would never work out. If I'm not being hunted now by the Spider than I will be sooner or later. I cant risk putting him in that kind of danger.'

'But he's going to be in that danger anyway! They may not be hunting him but he sure is going to hunt them down when he's a Hunter. There's not a chance that he would stay away from them and you know it!' I argue with myself.

'I'm too dangerous to be around!'

'Around you is where he will be the safest!'

'Maybe your right but if he gets killed or harmed because of me…'

'He won't.'

'And how do you know that?'

'Because you'd rather get yourself killed in order to save him!'

Sighing I look back down at Kurapika before thinking, 'Your right… but will he even want someone like me?' Setting the swords by his pack I walk back over to where I was sitting before. As I start to sit down I start to get the feeling that somebody was watching me. Slipping a card out of my deck I flick it into the trees towards the creature watching me. I heard as it imbedded itself in the tree next to the creature watching me. I watched as a giant magical creature race away through the trees and out of sight but not before I see what the creature looked like. It was taller than Leorio with brown fur along with some sort of wings attached to its arms. Racking my brain I think about what it could be. 'It looks like a Kiriko.'

Not thinking anything more about it, since all it did was watch us, I walked over to Leorio and wake him for his turn on watch. Laying down I close my eyes to rest but kept awake in case something else happened.

After what felt like two hours of listening to Leorio trying to find something to entertain himself with I hear Leorio walk in the direction of Kurapika before hearing him say, "Come on! It's your turn for the shift." Then walk away.

I could hear the sound of Kurapika sitting up before asking, "Why are these here?" Listening as the familiar sound of a sword leaving its sheath reaches my ears. I smirk as I hear him gasp then mutter, "Fight for survival… Fight to protect…" I hear the other sword being unsheathed then another gasp before he says, "Defend your comrades… Defend yourself from harm… Why would he give these to me?" the sound of swords being sheathed was the last sound I heard before silence crept into the camp.

An hour passes in silence until I hear movement in the trees. Sitting up I look in the direction the sound came from to see what looked like another Kiriko, yet this one looked a little shorter than Leorio.

Narrowing my eyes I hear a female voice in the same direction mutter, "Dad wasn't kidding. This guy is looking straight at me… I have to get out of here! He looks like he's going to kill me!" Flicking a card in her direction making it imbed itself in the tree she was hiding behind. "Crap!" is the last thing I hear before she runs through the trees away from the camp. Manipulating the wind I bring my card flying back to me. Catching it in between my index and middle finger I glance at Kurapika to see him looking at me with surprised eyes then glance over at Leorio to see him still asleep.

"How do you keep doing things like that? What were you throwing your card at anyway?"

Shrugging my shoulders I reply, "It's one of the many things I was born with and a master at doing. And I threw it at a Kiriko. It had just started to watch us so I spooked it away thinking I was going to kill it."

"That doesn't really answer my first question." He mutters to himself then asks, "Why were your swords next to my pack when I woke up?"

Shrugging my shoulders again I reply, "Who say's there mine?" As he looks at me questioningly I add, "I've already got a sword so I don't need them. I noticed you glancing at them while we were walking and thought you would have a better use for them than I would… if you don't want them then I'm sure Leorio…" I trail off looking towards a sleeping Leorio before saying, "Never mind him but I'm sure I can find someone who wants them."

"I already have my own swords."

Shrugging my shoulders I repeat, "If you don't want them then I'll find someone else to be there owner."

He was silent for a few moments before replying, "I will keep them. Thank you." 'For a moment I thought he was going to return them to me.' "Gon?"

"Yes."

"The inscriptions that are on the swords… what do they mean?"

"Bring them over here." As he sits down next to me with both swords in his hands I take one and unsheathe it. "The meaning for this one is… Fight for survival while also to protect…" Unsheathing the other one I say, "Defend your comrades while also defending yourself from harm." Sheathing them again I hand them back to him with a smile on my face before I say, "Everyone has to fight for there own survival but while doing so you should also protect those who cant protect themselves… While most people defend there comrades they forget about defending themselves from harm… I thought they were fitting words for you."

"Why?" He stutters out questioningly.

"When fighting the Spider you will be in life and death situations so you'll have to fight for your own survival but you should also try and protect those who cant protect themselves… You will be defending your comrades who have died when facing the Spider but you also have to remember to defend yourself from the harm they will cause you."

"I… I… Thank you!" He stutters out.

He gets up and starts to turn to walk away. I look off into the lake until I feel arms wrap around my waist. Looking at him in the eyes I wrap my own around his waist. We both started leaning in towards each other but just before our lips would have met he diverts his head to the side to whisper in my ear, "Thank you again for the gifts." As he starts to pull back I feel his tender lips meet my cheek. As he starts slipping out of my arms I tighten them making him stop above me. We look each other in the eyes, him with confusion written in them, as I start to lean forward I see his eyes widen before I watch them close as our lips get closer and closer. Just as our lips brushed against one another I divert my head to whisper in his ear, "Your welcome." I then remove my arms from around him. I watch with a smirk on my face as he tries to figure out what just happened. As his mouth keeps opening and closing like a fish I lean back in and kiss him on his cheek before he gets up and walks away still confused about what happened. 'I can play that game too.'

Another hour passes till I feel like we've rested enough and can continue. Standing up I walk towards Leorio to try to wake him up.

"Wake up." I tell him. When I see no change I lean down to his ear whispering. "You see a smoking hot woman at a club so you invite her to your house for some fun." I see him get a dreamy smile on his face so continue, "As your ripping each others clothes off you see her in nothing but panties." Some drool starts coming out of his mouth. Rolling my eyes I continue, "As you go to take her panties off you notice something odd." His eyebrows furrow, "You slide down to lick her pussy when you come face to face with a dick." Moving away from him I watch as his face turns to horror then he sits up looking around wildly before I say, "About time you wake up. We've been waiting half an hour! You looked like you were in a great dream," I tell him smirking, "But your face turned to horror a few minutes ago… What were you dreaming about?" I question him.

I see him shiver before saying, "Just a nightmare… A horrible... Horrible nightmare!"

Shrugging my shoulders with a smirk on my face I tell them, "I want to leave soon so get your things packed." Walking over to Kurapika I see him raising an eyebrow questioningly so I explained what I said to Leorio. As I finished telling him what I said we both laughed quietly so as not to make Leorio suspicious.

"If your done making fun of me lets get going." Leorio says making me smirk.

Following the path through the forest I noticed another Kiriko watching us. As we made our way towards the lone cedar we came across another 'Magical Beast Warning' sign.

As I see the house in the distance I hear a deep voice say, "I will take you with me as they burst through the door while you will stay here with those fake wounds. Just stick with the plan and we will be fine."

"But father what about that one guy that saw us while we were watching them in the trees?" Asked the same female voice from before.

"I'm sure that as long as we don't attack him, he wont attack us."

"How can you be so sure?"

"He would have killed us already if we had…" There was a pause before, "All we were doing was watching them, we never attacked. All he did was scare us away from the camp making us think twice about attacking. If we don't attack him or his friends we wont be attacked."

"Then how are we supposed to test them?"

"I told you… don't attack them but they need to use knowledge or observational skills in order to pass we aren't going to attack them."

"Yes father!" Says two voices at the same time.

"Hey Gon! You look confident. Are you sure we're not walking into a place with magical Beasts?" Leorio questioned.

"They haven't attacked, they've only been watching us." I reply.

"What do you mean?" Kurapika questions.

"While we were camping there were two incidents were a Kiriko was watching us. One when I was on watch and another when Kurapika was on watch." Turning my head towards a tree I continued, "There's been one watching us as we've made our way through the forest."

"Then why haven't you killed them?" Kurapika asks.

Shrugging my shoulders I say, "They haven't attacked us all they've been doing is watching us as we've been walking… Plus…" I drift off while thinking, 'It's part of the Exam. There probably the Navigators which means this is there test for us.'

"Plus… WHAT? Stop holding important information from us!" Leorio yells at me.

"If you haven't figured it out yet then what's the point of me telling you? You're a grown man you shouldn't need me to tell you something you should have figured out by now! Lets continue to the house if your done trying to waist our time." I tell him seriously. "The house is just ahead of us past the tree lines… It will take us about half an hour at this pace to get there."

"How can you see in this darkness? I can barley see anything in front of me." Kurapika asks.

"My eye sight doesn't change in the darkness. I've gotten used to it and since Whale Island gets darker than this… this is nothing." I tell him only to see him nod.

As we stand in front of the door to the house I hear, "It's time." Leorio reaches his hand forward in order to knock when we hear a crash coming from inside the house. As he barges in the door I look over his shoulder to see a Kiriko holding a woman, 'it's daughter probably.' While a man could be seen lying on the ground with many wounds all over his body, 'probably the son.'

Leorio and Kurapika start to race inside only for the Kiriko to race out of the door with the woman. As I follow it I notice Kurapika following me while Leorio stayed at the house. Keeping the lead I follow them as the Kiriko keeps running towards the forest.

"Where did it go?" He asks me while I stop. Following the Kiriko's movement through the trees I chase after it.

A few minutes pass with me chasing it when I start to get bored. Taking a card out of my pocket I flick it towards the Kiriko making sure to dull the edge as it hits the arm holding the women making it drop her from the hard impact. As it was going to grab her again I send another one just missing it but it gets the job done as it starts running away.

Watching I see Kurapika grab her while hanging onto a branch before setting her down on the ground. As I listen to the sounds of the Kiriko moving towards running water I hear another movement heading towards the same source of water. Turning towards Kurapika I state, "Not everything is as it always appear." Before running to catch up to the Kiriko. As we continue running towards the source of water I hear a plop, like something agitating water. We make it to the source of water in a few seconds. I watch as it stands on a rock my a waterfall then vanish. As I hear the disturbance in the water more clearer it sounded like someone was laying just under the waters surface. "You know… the other one was fast… if you're here to fight me then fight don't just lay in the water. Next time you want to switch places with the other Kiriko be more quiet." I say as I look at the water, "I know this is a test and that all four of you are the Navigators so why don't we just wait for everyone else to figure it out?"

As I finish speaking a Kiriko's head then body comes out of the body of water before saying, "How did you know we switched places? And how did you know I was in the water?"

"Well you weren't that silent. As I was with your daughter listening for where the other Kiriko was heading I heard it making its way to this source of water then I heard you as you made your way here just in the opposite direction. I also heard you as you went into the water. Hmm… I also heard about the "Plan" as we were getting near the house so I just drew my own conclusions that this was a test made by the Navigators which makes you four the Navigators." I say while shrugging my shoulders.

The Kiriko nodded its head with its mouth hanging open before it laughed then said, "Hey! Dear! Come out! You'll see something you don't see often." The Kiriko that I was chasing before came out of the trees.

"How long has it been… Since someone could tell us apart? I'm so happy."

"Lets head to the clearing where we're going to meet the kids."

Nodding my head I followed them as they lead me to an open field surrounded by trees. Taking out my cards from my pocket I ask, "Do you want to play?" When they shook there heads I shrug my shoulders then sit down to start making a pyramid out of my cards.

Half an hour passes till Kurapika walks out of the forest with the woman from earlier. "How long have you been here?" He asks as he walks up to me.

"Uh… About half an hour." I reply, "You want to play while we wait for Leorio?" I ask nodding my head towards my cards. He nods his head as he sits down in front of me.

Another half hour passes of us playing Blackjack waiting for Leorio to come when I see him walking out of the forest with the guy from the house. "Took you long enough." I tell him as he gets closer.

"Oh yeah! How long have you been waiting? Five minutes?" He yells at me.

Looking at him seriously I say, "No, I've been waiting for an hour… Kurapika's been waiting half an hour. We were waiting on you to figure out about to test."

Picking up my cards as Kurapika stands by Leorio I hear as he says, "He predicted when the storm would arrive on the ship… Now, he found out about the test before we did. He's got special skills. Anyone around him wants to be his friend."

Ignoring the rest of there conversation I turn to the Kiriko in front of me as they say, "Now, as you already know we are the Navigators."

"I'm the daughter." The girl says.

"I'm the son." Says the guy.

"My son and daughter were acting as a married couple at the house."

"As Mr. Kurapika said," Pointing at her wrist the daughter continues, "this tattoo is a vow to be wedded to God. It's impossible to know, if you have no knowledge of ancient history. Having the knowledge with your observational skills, you that determined that we weren't married, its worthy of admiration." They all bowed to him.

"As for Mr. Leorio. Although you didn't realize the treatments were fake your emergency treatments were excellent. But above that, you kept giving me strong, encouraging words when I was acting like I was worried about my wife. I was moved by your kindness. Also, your excellent observation discovered my true form from a tiny needle wound. It's praise worthy." The son says.

"And Mr. Gon, your kind shows up once in ten years…" The almost identical ones begin, "The kind who can distinguish us apart. The kind who has super human abilities as you found out about this test before it started and new where I was just by the sound of our movements… Truly amazing."

"You three pass." They say together.

I smirk while watching Kurapika and Leorio smile. The four Kiriko's began to get us to the Hunter Exam Center by using there wings attached to there arms to fly with us holding onto there ankles.

"I'm afraid of heights!" Leorio shouts, "Don't Drop Me!"

"Wasn't courage one of your traits?" Kurapika questions while I laugh at them both.

'Soon, I can take the main Hunter Exam… I'm one step closer to finding my father and becoming a Blacklist Hunter.' Is my last thought as we continue our way to the Exam Center.

A/N: All of the characters remain the same age as they were in the anime/manga except for Gon.