Thanks to ThatOneGalWithTheShades, twilightfreak9075, Maerz147051, 93, and FoolYaFool for F/F!

ThatOneGalWithTheShades: Kill you? Nah, it happens! Bits and pieces of their personalities may be similar and their appearances too, but as the story expands, each character will have their own problems and differences between each other. (Considering that there's around 5K stories on here, my OC is probably strikingly similar to someone else's as well!) Thanks for reviewing!

Isella of the wolf tribe: Really? I split that chapter up and it ended up being mainly reactions to cannon stuff. Oh well, I'm glad you liked it :3 Thanks for reading!

Guest: Yes, you're right, thank you very much for pointing that out to me!

KiGaMin (chapter one): Aw, thank you so much! Yeah, the first chapter has a bit of humour, so I'm glad you liked it :3 BTW, your review made me giggle like an idiot when I got it, haha! Thanks for reviewing and I hope you like the rest of the story!

[A/n]: Sorry for being gone so long! Stuff's been happening and whatnot — I've also had killer writer's block, so sorry if the chapter isn't quite up to par. Well, here's some more cannon stuff with some other things mixed in :3

Chapter Eight,

I X Hate X Running— Part Three!

XXX

"Pay attention now! Be sure to stay close behind me!" I had left Kurapika, Leorio, and Hiroshi behind, moving up towards the two younger boys of our group. I still didn't know how strong they were, so I didn't want to leave them alone.

I could feel Hisoka eyeing me from behind us, only a few meters away from us, reminding me of my task. I'd have to find a way to knock out some of those guys midway through the phase. I'd stay with Gon and Killua just long enough to make sure that they didn't get into anything too bad, and then I'd go off on my own.

"Gon, Raze," Killua said quietly. "Let's move up."

"Okay, we don't want to lose sight of the examiner," Gon concluded cheerily, looking ahead.

"I'm more concerned with increasing the distance between us and Hisoka," Killua said. "Staying too close to him is dangerous. I can smell it in the air."

"Smell?" Gon sniffed the air cutely, giving Killua a puzzled look. "Hmmm… I don't think he smells." I chuckled, amused at him taking everything so literally. "LEORIO, KURAPIKA!" Gon called over his shoulder loudly, startling some of the nearby applicants. "KILLUA SAYS WE SHOULD MOVE UP!"

"Oi!" Killua growled as I chuckled again. "Can't you feel the tension surrounding us?"

"Apparently not," I said, grinning. I enjoyed how Gon had a tendency to completely ignore the mood of different situations. He said he'd been raised on Whale Island, which didn't seem to have that many residents, so it was understandable.

"Moron!" I heard Leorio shriek. "If I had the strength, I'd already be there!"

"Don't worry about us!" Kurapika shouted back.

"OI, HIROSHI, MAKE SURE YOU DON'T LET THOSE TWO DIE OR I'LL KICK YOUR BUTT!" There was a groan, then a 'yeah, yeah,'.

"Let's go, Gon, Raze," Killua started to speed up, leaving us behind.

"Wait for me!"

XXX

"Goddamn it, Raze, why am I always the babysitter," I complained under my breath. "If you want them to live, come make sure they don't die yourself." I could feel my scowl darken in aggravation as the fog thickened again.

"We can't even tell which way we're going," Kurapika said. No shit, Sherlock. Gods, does he have to point out every single thing? The grass is green! The sky is blue! It may be hard to tell, but I was in a little bit of a bad mood from being ditched.

Only a little bit.

"It's okay," Leorio huffed, getting tired already. Even for a human, he seemed weak. "As long as we don't lose sight of the guys ahead of us—"

"Stop!" I hissed, freezing in place, hearing the footsteps in front of us disappear. I saw a large shape emerge in the fog and jumped in front of the two. Some strawberries started floating around us, but I could see what was really happening.

A man started to walk past blondie but got snatched by what looked like a giant dinosaur, screaming and wailing all the way up.

"W-What?" Leorio stammered. I wasn't going to help him, that wasn't my problem. The black haired man gasped in surprise, seeing the turtle-dinosaur.

"Oh, so you two can finally see it, huh?" I placed a hand on my sword, preparing to fight off the creature. The rest of the applicants started running away screaming — without looking where they were going, I might add. They would just die faster that way. Idiots.

"This looks bad," Blondie breathed, the two of the going back to back against me.

"Just stay back," I ordered, watching the dinosaurs (?) carefully as they circled us. "As long as you don't do anything stupid like try to attack the- GODDAMNIT, LEORIO!"

XXX

"I can hear people screaming all around us," Gon shuddered, jogging alongside Killua.

"Just stay on your guard," Killua warned, not looking back at the black haired boy.

"I wonder if Leorio and Kurapika are okay…" Gon worried, then frowned. "Hey, wait a second, where's Raze?" They both stopped and scanned the area around them.

"I don't see him anywhe-" Killua was interrupted by the ground below them sinking and a giant "Frog-in-waiting" snapping its jaws shut around them.

XXX

"Leorio!" Kurapika seemed to be concerned when Leorio was snatched up by one of the dinosaurs, but he managed not to get eaten thanks to the log he grabbed to attack it with. Dumbass. They're all dumbasses. Why do I have to deal with these stupid people?

The dinosaur swung its head from left to right, trying to get rid of the tiny human in its jaws. I drew my katana and jumped, noticing blondie had followed suit, each of us stabbing an eye. He didn't do too much damage since he had wooden weapons but I completely ripped the iris, making it roar in agony and drop Leorio, who would probably live.

Leorio landed on the ground with a thunk — there was a loud moaning sound, so I guessed he was alive.

I hit the ground, landing on my feet.

"You two, run, now!" I barked, slowly backing up with my weapon still poised to attack. "I'll cover you!"

"Thanks!" Leorio ran off first, leaving a hesitant Kurapika behind.

"GO!" I snapped, my eyes flicking over to him. He nodded and ran after Leorio, letting me take over and deflect the mouth of one who tried to grab him. I slashed one of their strawberries off, making it roar again. They'll be far enough now that I can go, I continued stepping backward before jumping in the air and pushing off one of them, sending me flying off into the direction the two had went.

Hopefully, Raze was okay.

XXX

let out a long sigh, looking down disappointedly at the men lying on the ground in front of me. All I had to do to defeat them was release some of the Alliah pollen and they were down for the count. Due to growing up with it always floating around, I was immune to small amounts of it so I didn't really have to worry about being paralysed. Although, I was feeling kind of dizzy for some reason… Maybe I had released too much.

"Ah~ah, how boring," I whined, nudging the body of a fallen man, spit dribbling out of his mouth. "I thought you guys would put up a bit more of a fight, but I suppose not many people have paralysis resistance." He made a series of pathetic whimpering noises and his eyes rolled around in their sockets, most likely cussing me out in his brain. Or maybe he was just in pain.

I supposed that I should've been a bit more careful so that I didn't actually cause major damage to the nine of them, but I honestly couldn't bring myself to care. They were stupid enough to fall for my trap, so it was their own fault. I was one of the weakest people in my village, so if they couldn't handle me there was no way they would pass the exam.

Rolling my eyes, I turned and jumped, grabbing onto the trunk of a tree with my hands, using my bare feet to propel myself upwards and look for the final man Hisoka had told me to get.

Let's see… I scanned the area, a grin stretching across my face as I sniffed the air, looking for a nearby human to mess with. Einnie, minnie, miney, mo, I hummed internally, itching to find someone to fight. I could tell someone was tailing me, but they were trying to be discrete. Unfortunately for them, they smelled exactly like my lunch.

I shook the thought out of my head, knowing that I had to get the last man before the end of the phase. I didn't want to see what happened when Hisoka deemed you worthless. Catch a tiger by the toe… And if he hollers, there's no way in hell I'm lettin' him go.

I leapt from tree branch to tree branch, using my tail as a balance rod. The wood felt nice against my bare feet and it made it far easier to navigate than when I was wearing shoes.

Ah, there's my prey, I slowed to a stop, eyeing the man who was running around in a panic — understandably so, since I'd just picked off the last of his buddies.

I crouched down low on the branch as he drew near, the hilt of my knives gently sliding forward in my palms case I needed them. I don't even need to use the proper way to get rid of him. I can just use regular basic combat.

I dropped down behind him, swiftly wrapping my arms around his neck. The man let out a choked gurgle of surprise and started struggling, making me tighten my grip on him. I wasn't that strong, so if he managed to get out of my chokehold (well, it was more like I just cut off their air supply— I didn't actually know how to do it properly. Sucks to be him!) I would actually have to fight, which could go either way.

I hung on tight and stood my ground as he grabbed at my arms desperately as he started to weaken. In a flash of... I'm not sure exactly what came over him, he had the idea to actually use his weapon to stab me in the gut. I jerked away, narrowly missing a lethal injury to my internal organs, getting an awkward gash in my stomach. I could only hope that he hadn't poisoned his blade since that would mean the end of me.

"Son of a bitch," The man faced me warily, rubbing his throat with his free hand, his other still grasping his weapon. "For such a small boy, you're pretty strong." He scanned me up and down, taking in my physique. "Or are you a girl?" He shrugged to himself, shaking it off. "Whichever you are, I'm going to get you back for that, little one. I can't have my boys thinking that I got taken down like the rest of them." Well, crap.

I shifted into a fighting stance as the man started to circle me, waiting for a chance to attack, hoping that whoever the hell was following me wasn't going to gang up on me. I tucked my chin in, shifting my weight to the balls of my feet and moving one forward, bending my knees slowly to not aggravate him. One thing I'd been taught at the very beginning of my training was that you should never be too eager to rush your opponent. Oh, Susano, give me strength, I prayed, flicking my wrists to get my knives to shift into my palms.

My target must've interpreted that as his cue to attack, as he lunged forward, his leading hand blocking any chance of me knocking the knife out of his hand. I side-stepped to throw him off and grabbed his leading hand with my own, slicing part of his arm before he darted back, opening up the distance between us. I didn't let him get too far, stepping forward and slashing open the area just above his elbow, rendering his weapon arm useless. "Wha-?"

"...I would suggest you give up," I used my leading hand to punch him in the chin, sending him to the ground, ignoring the slight stinging in my hand. I'd accidentally punched him using my second and third knuckle instead of the first two. I might've just screwed up my hand. "I just cut your tendons and hit you hard enough to shake your brain. You're not going to be able to get up for a while, let alone fight anyone."

He gave no response, only gaping at me and his arm in horror.

"W-What the hell are you?"

"Huh?" A breeze fluttered through my hair, making me curse. My hood had fallen off during the fight, making my ears and pupils visible. Even if I didn't have whiskers or paws like the rest of my clan, I was still easily recognizable by my face.

I gave him a forced smile (though it probably looked more like a grimace) and lightly hit the man on the back of the neck where the spine, the skull, and the ear all attached, knocking him out. I checked his body for anything useful, then stood up with a sigh.

"Now…" I purred, tilting my head to the side as I spoke. "What do you want from me, Furrel?"

XXX

Raze waited patiently for the boy in white to step out from behind a tree, his grey hair and yellow eyes a startling contrast to the rest of the forest. His wide, round eyes glared at her, still cautiously standing a good few feet away from her. Unlike Raze, his ears weren't round and smooth on the outside, but long and pointed, like an elf.

They stood quietly for a few moments, sizing each other up.

"So," Raze said, breaking the cool, tension-filled silence. "Do you have anything to say to me, or did you just follow me so I could give you an excuse to give up?" Furrel let out a low growl, flashing his long, sharp teeth at her.

"As if," He said, raising his chin arrogantly. "I came to keep an eye on you." Raze looked distinctly unimpressed and promptly turned around, stalking off into the forest. "Oi!"

"Our villages aren't on good enough terms to have someone from your clan watch over me," She scoffed, not waiting for Furrel to catch up. "You probably just noticed me by my scent during the first half of the First Phase and decided to come up with some stupid reason to hinder me." I doubt he even knows that I ran away from the village without permission.

"I know you're up to something,"

"Bingo, Einstein. I'm trying to get a Hunter licence," Furrel let out another annoyed huff, attempting to keep up with the fast pace she was walking at. Furrel was a good foot shorter than her, so it was difficult for him.

"Why did you just knock out those applicants?"

"Why do you have to be so annoying?"

"Answer me!"

"Nah," Furrel lunged at Raze, drawing his sword in frustration. She leapt upwards, leaving Furrel to cut up the ground. "Well, that wasn't very nice."

"Shut it, Kikuchi!" Raze sighed, shaking her head mockingly.

"Two years younger than me and you still can't even remember my first name. How sad," She taunted, dodging another swing. "Really, you've only had maybe two years of warrior training in the Sun, so you can't be that great with a sword yet — learning how to properly duel with weapons starts in your third year."

"It's been three years!"

"Ah, so you've had about a year of training with that butter knife, possibly less,"

"Why you—!" Raze easily ducked away from Furrel's enraged swinging and continued on her way, not even bothering to try and shake him off.

After around twenty minutes of dodging ravines, Furrel, and various scary looking animals (AKA, gigantic strawberry monsters and some purple wolves), Raze reached a clearing that had a paved path and a gigantic fortress, utterly baffling her. I was pretty sure nobody would want to live in a place like this, but to each their own, I guess?

Still ignoring Furrel's constant barrage of interrogation — he'd given up on using his sword because he kept hitting trees with it—, Raze noticed a group of loud footsteps coming from their left, both of them stopping to glance over where the sound was coming from.

"I can see it!"

"There's a building up ahead, we must be close!"

Raze gaped at the gaggle of people dashing toward them, Satoz in the lead and starting to slow down to reach the clearing. Her black eyes wide, she now noticed that there was a bit of a path leading up to the wall.

Satoz - as expected - reached the clearing first and raised an eyebrow at Raze. He eyed her up and down as if she were some type of dangerous specimen.

"Do you know… It?" Satoz emphasized the last word, still staring at her oddly. He then switched over to Furrel before shaking his head slightly. "Hm. Appears not."

"Uh," Raze raised her hand to speak, leaning to the side to look at the considerably smaller group of applicants and deciding to ignore his last comment. "Where are we?" Satoz tilted his head in what she interpreted as confusion.

"We're at Phase two," He answered, looking at me oddly as most of the applicants collapsed to their knees in exhaustion. "Do you mean to say that you were not aware of this fact?" Over to her left, near the wall, she heard a small chuckle from Hisoka.

…Did I seriously just manage to get lost and find the next exam site?

XXX

[A/n]: Raze has a horrible sense of direction but it seems like O Fortuna (Lady Luck) was on her side.

[Raze]: That doesn't make any sense at all!

[Furrel]: You're just stupidly lucky to make up for your lack of intelligence.

[Raze]: Whatever, Furry. Thanks for reading!

[Killua]: Feel free to F/F or drop in a review! Both are always appreciated!