Disclaimer: Hunter x Hunter belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi. I just own my OC, Hitomi.

Chapter 9: Hunting x Talking x Walking Between Bullets!

Hitomi found Killua and Gon sitting next to each other. Sighing, she made her way to them and sat down next to Killua.

They kept silent for a couple of minutes or so.

"So, what number did you draw?" Killua asked after a while.

"Well..." she murmured, unsure of what to say.

Both of the boys looked at her,feeling a bit nervous at her answer. She stared at them for a little, before striking her tongue.

"Idiots!" she chuckled. "It's not any of you."

They sighed in relief, before grinning too.

"You are not my targets," Killua said.

"You're not mine either," Gon replied.

She felt a little relieved after knowing that.

"Then, how about we show each other our cards on three?" Hitomi suggested.

They both nodded. After three seconds, they showed their target each other.

Both Hitomi and Killua paled after seeing Gon's card.

"Seriously?" Killua murmured.

"Yeah," Gon smiled in nervousness.

"Hisoka..." Hitomi commented. "What a rotten luck..."

Gon looked at his friends' cards.

"Number 199 and 80, who are they?" Gon asked.

"You don't know either?" he said, letting himself fall backwards and stayed in a head-first position. "It's not like I remember everyone else's badge numbers. I tried to find out right after the rules were explained, but everyone had hidden their badges already by then."

"Idiot," Hitomi sighed. "You should have tried to find out that right when you got the badge."

He shot off and got into a sitting position, looking at her.

"You know who is it?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah, it's one of the Amori brothers," she replied. "I don't know which one of them, though."

Killua looked disappointed.

"Man, they are boring!" he complained, before looking at the card in Hitomi's hand. "And who is Number 80?"

"Siper, I think she is called like that," she said. "The woman with the rifle over there."

She looked towards the woman and the other two nodded.

"Even she is more interesting than my target!" Killua complained.

They laughed and stayed in silence once again.

"Well, good luck to the three of us," Killua said.

"Yeah," Gon said.

"The same for you all," Hitomi said. "And Gon, don't get yourself killed."

He just raised his thumb.

Hitomi was feeling a little irritated. Who knows how much days had passed since she had gotten inside the forest, but still couldn't find Siper.

Where the hell had she gotten into?

"Hey!" she heard.

Quickly, she turned around and slid into a fighting position. However, when she spotted the white head, she relaxed.

"Yo, Whitey!" she grinned, Killua's eyebrow twitched. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing really, Blondie-girl."

She glared at him. He smirked, with that cat-face of his.

"I'm not Blondie! Kurapika is," she said, annoyed.

"That's why you are Blondie-girl," he answered, teasing her. "You two should be the 'Blondie siblings'!

Hitomi sighed.

"That's stupid," she said.

"You are stupid, you were the one to call me Whitey in first place," Killua said. "Also, blond girls are always dumb!"

"At least I'm not old! I prefer blonde," she grinned.

They both laughed at their childish quarrel about hair. After a few minutes of talking, Hitomi changed the topic.

"You are well aware of the fool following you, don't you?" she murmured.

"Yeah," he sighed, irritated. "Since the first day he has been stalking me. I told him to got out, but nothing."

"And you didn't go to confront him?" she asked.

"I was just lazy," he replied. "He isn't worth of it."

She shook her head, before turning around. She started to walk to the tree in where he was. The Amori brother looked at her.

"Find you!" she smiled.

After a while, the other two arrived and glared at their brother.

"Yo," Killua waved his hand.

The other two raised their hands. When they realized what were they doing, used them to hit their brother.

"You idiot!" the older shouted. "You're too scared to fight a couple of kids like these without us?!"

After quarrelling a little more, the youngest one get closer to them and glared at Hitomi. She just raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, girl, you are the applicant 406, aren't you?" he asked.

"And?" she replied, with a blank expression.

"You see, you are my target. I'm so lucky that you come here," he continued. "If you don't give it to me, I... I..."

She raised an eyebrow at his lack of words.

"I will hurt your friend!" he pointed at Killua.

"Oh, really?" she asked. "Good luck then."

He kicked Killua far away, and he fell into the ground with his hands still in his pockets. He smirked at her. But she did too.

The boy got up in a jump, unscathed, and looked at the badge in his hand.

"So you are Number 198," he said.

Imori was surprised at this.

"And that one is the 197!" the other two heard from behind. They looked at their backs, there was Hitomi with the middle brother's badge.

She jumped back, before they could do anything else.

"Hey, that means that the badge 199..." Killua said, looking at the older one.

Hitomi smirked, putting the badge she won in her pocket. The brothers tried to attack them all together. They both dodged the attack.

And Killua managed to put his claws on the middle brother's neck.

"You better not move," Killua said. "My claws are sharper than blades."

Hitomi got closer and stretched her hand to the man. He had no option but give it to her. Hitomi smirked, after throwing it to the boy.

"Thank you!" he received it, with his feline expression.

And after that, Killua threw the badge 198 far away from them. Then, they walked away.

Finally, they had the fire done. And the fishes were cooked. Hitomi was really hungry and took a huge bite at her fish.

Killua laughed and she glared at him.

"You sure are different from Kurapika," he noticed, taking the fish from the fire.

"In which way?" she asked, slightly annoyed.

"Firstly, he looks more a girl than you," he teased.

She growled, biting the fish once again.

"Also, you dress really different from him," he said. "Anyway, his clothes are... a little strange."

He was about to eat, when she said.

"They are traditional clothes from the Kuruta Clan." she explained, his gaze softened. "I used to wear clothes like it."

"But you stopped," he said. "Why?"

"Well... I find it like a form to move on," she explained. "Once my clan was massacred, I decided to build a new life, changing even my traditions and... forgetting the past. However, Kurapika..."

"He is still tied at it," he said.

Hitomi nodded.

"He still wants revenge, and I can't convince him to not to do it. He will just end up dying in vain," she confessed. "Yeah, I hate the Spiders. But... What if I managed to kill them? What would I get from it? Blood in my hands. Neither my clan's eyes nor their lives. Just the blood."

Killua stared at her for a while.

"All of this causes changing clothes?" he joked. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah, it doesn't..." she murmured. "One day I was happy in my home and on the other... Nothing makes sense."

Killua sighed and put a hand on her shoulder making the girl look at him. Then, a small smile appeared in her features.

Next morning Hitomi woke up and saw Killua sitting on the other side of the tree she was leaning on. She knew that Killua, probably hadn't sleep in all night. Assassins' stuff.

"I'm getting water," she declared. "It won't be long."

And then she started to walk. She got through the trees but she suddenly stopped when she heard the sound of bushes moving. Hitomi quickly hid.

Her eyes flew open when she saw who it was. Siper was walking around with her rifle over her shoulder.

"There she is..." Hitomi thought.

The girl took a step back, but the woman's eyes moved towards her her direction and pointed at her with her weapon.

"Who is there?!" she shouted. "Come out or I'll shoot!"

Hitomi froze and didn't come out.

"If I come out, she will shoot, even if she says that she won't do it," she reasoned. "If I don't, she will do it anyway... So, what?"

She didn't have any time to think further because a wave of pain hit her right arm, but managed to put a hand over her mouth to keep herself silent.

Despite of the pain she was feeling, she managed to slowly back off and hid further in the woods. Sniper walked cautiously and reached the spot where she had been.

Hitomi then flinched and stared at the few drops on the ground of her own blood. She looked beside her and noticed she didn't have where to run away.

She was at the border of the cliff and there was a river behind her backs, running furiously. She looked again at Siper.

"Please," she pleaded. "Don't notice it..."

Fortunately for her, something else caught Siper's attention. In the river, there were two people and Hitomi's eyes opened slightly at the sight of the guy with needles - Gittarackur - and another man whose name she didn't care to remember.

The woman aimed at them and Hitomi narrowed her eyes.

"When a person shoots somebody, for less than a second, their main focus is the person they had just hit," she thought, getting serious. "It's my only chance."

Slowly, she took her dagger out of her pocket.

Just in the time when the man tackled Gittarackur, Siper shot. However, she got surprised once she saw something flying towards her and taking her plate off, before sticking in a tree.

In a flash, Hitomi got out her hiding spot, jumped at the tree and grabbed the plate. Siper turned around and aimed at her.

"You there!" she shouted.

All of it happened too fast to the kid. Gittarackur jumped really high, stood in front of Siper and, when Hitomi realized what was happening, her target was dead in the floor, with needles sticked in her face.

Gittarackur looked at her.

"I'm so dead," that was her only thought.

Hitomi started to run away, just thinking how to escape from that place. Her arm was hurting like hell, but forced her legs to run faster. That guy creeped the hell out of her.

However, she froze. Gittarackur was standing before her. He laughed in that strange way with needles in his hand.

Her mind was running for a solution.

"I'm not your target, you know that," she said in a flash.

"How come you are that sure?" he talked for the first time.

"Because I already defeated him," she replied.

Gittarackur put his hands down and she gulped. She was well aware, though, that he could kill her in any moment if he wanted to.

Hitomi had to be cautious with her words.

The strange guy lifted his card and she stared at it.

"You know who is this?" he asked.

She sighed in relief. That was Number 197. She showed him the plate she had in her pocket and smirked.

"This one?" she asked. "If you let me alone, I'll give it to you."

Gittarackur laughed again, gritting his teeth.

Hitomi put the plate in a tree and, slowly, started to walk backwards. Once she was sure that he couldn't see her anymore, she started to run again.

"I'm lucky," she thought. "I can't believe he let me live..."

Hitomi leaned in a wall and looked at her wound. She winced at the sight of it, but wrapped it with a piece of the lower part of her pants.

"Hitomi!"

She looked around and found Killua walking towards her. He looked at her arm and flinched too.

"How did you find me?" she asked.

"The blood," he pointed at her arm. "I followed its trail."

Hitomi just looked at the tiny drops of it and sighed. She still couldn't get how he noticed that little detail, but didn't say anything about it.

"What happened?" he asked, putting his hands on his pockets.

"I didn't get water," she grinned, before showing Number 80 plate. "But I got Siper's plate."

Killua smirked.

"I think I will have to see your face around for a little more time, Dummy," he teased.

"What?" she furrowed her eyebrows.

"You didn't like Blondie," he explained. "Also, blonde girls are dumb."

"This is stupid," she sighed.

"You are. That's why I'm calling you like that."

Killua stared at her wound for a few seconds, before sighing.

"You have to get Leorio to treat that wound," he said.

"No way, I'm fine," she said, stubbornly.

"I didn't ask for your opinion."

Killua dragged Hitomi all the way.

However, they got surprised at the sight of Kurapika and Leorio sleeping, leaning in a tree. On other, was Ponzu with a plate in her hand.

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

Hitomi stared at them, cluelessly.

She kneeled down, next to Kurapika who was sound asleep. Playfully, she poked his cheek and he shot up, coming to himself.

He stared at his sister, confused.

"Oh, damn it," she joked. "I thought you two were dead already."

"Hitomi?" he said still stunned, before glancing at Killua. "Killua is here too?"

"Yo," he raised his hand in greeting.

Leorio woke up just to see the kids.

"Huh?!" he shouted, pointing at the kids. "What are these brats doing here?!"

"Good way for waking up, old man," Killua said, blankly.

"Where's Gon?" Kurapika asked all of sudden.

Killua and Hitomi raised their eyebrows.

"Gon?" they asked.

"He must have gone now. Maybe his head has cleared up now." Leorio replied. "He's been unusually tense."

They got worried all of sudden. Being tense wasn't like him at all.

"Anyway, what's that girl doing here?" Hitomi asked, pointing at Ponzu.

"She is Leorio's target," Kurapika glared at Leorio for a while, before lightly elbowing his arm.

"Yeah, I know," he replied.

Leorio got closer to Ponzu and took her plate. With that, he had now six points to pass that test.

"By the way, can you take a closer look to this?" Killua grabbed Hitomi's arm. "I had to drag her all the way here."

Hitomi's eyebrow twitched. Kurapika ran at her and looked at her wound, in worry.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Don't be such a worrywart!" she shouted, embarrassed. "Siper was my target, that's all!"

Leorio brought his wallet and looked at the wound, making her wince in pain when he touched it. He sighed and shook his head.

"It was to be expected..." he murmured.

"What?" she inquired.

"You have not idea about bandaging someone," he chuckled. "I still can't understand how your blood still flows through it... It's too tight."

"Shut up!"she pouted.

Leorio took off the piece of cloth she had wrapped in her arm and replaced it with clean bandages. Once he finished doing that, a voice echoed in all the forest.

"That marks the end of the Fourth Phase! All applicants, please make their way to the starting point as soon as possible. You have one hour from now to get back to the starting point. Anyone who cannot make it back before then will be deemed disqualified, so please bear that in mind."

Finally, they had gotten to the last Exam.

Hitomi felt nervous, but started to walk anyway.

There was no way she turned back right now.

Thanks to Shira4 and SoulXHunter for reviewing! They made me really happy :) I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

See you all later!