A raging fire dragon burst from Hyūga Akira's mouth.
But at that very moment, Hisoka moved.
Nen had already adhered to the collapsing structures around the arena. With sharp tugs, Hisoka slingshotted himself through the air at extreme speed, darting from point to point.
Akira's fire dragon couldn't keep up at all.
Even with chakra-enhanced Byakugan granting him exceptional dynamic vision, allowing him to see Hisoka's movements clearly, his body simply couldn't react fast enough.
He had no choice but to stop controlling the Great Fire Dragon Technique.
Shhk.
Hisoka flashed past him, a card slicing across Akira's shoulder and leaving a thin line of blood.
"Tch… what a pain in the ass," Akira muttered through clenched teeth.
Even on a stage this small, Hisoka could still turn the battlefield into a playground.
If Akira couldn't keep up with Hisoka's movement, he'd be worn down and killed sooner or later.
That meant only one option left—
Clear the field.
The problem was, his chakra reserves were nearly empty.
Akira leapt straight up from the arena, taking a deep breath.
"Fire Release: Great Blaze Technique."
In terms of sheer area coverage, nothing beat this jutsu.
A massive wave of fire swept across the entire arena.
To avoid being reduced to ashes, Hisoka was forced to leap into the air.
"Got you."
Akira grinned savagely.
Hisoka was airborne.
To escape the arena floor earlier, he'd released his Nen bindings—
which meant that, for the moment, he had no anchor.
If he wanted to move like before, he'd have to reattach his Nen first.
Akira raised both hands.
Every last drop of chakra gathered in his palms.
If this failed, he'd have no choice but to force a level-up to recover.
"Twin Air Fire Cannon!"
A blazing fireball shot toward Hisoka—
and then another followed right behind it.
Unknown Fire + Shadow Clone amplification.
Facing the incoming attack, Hisoka didn't show fear.
Instead, his face twisted into an expression of near-orgasmic delight.
"This is just… TOO GOOD!!!"
He poured all of his Nen into his arms.
The two fireballs merged midair and slammed directly into Hisoka's forearms.
BOOM!
An explosion rivaling a paper bomb detonated in the sky.
Black smoke billowed as Hisoka's body was blasted backward, crashing heavily into the spectator stands.
[Experience +19,998]
Damn… that's a lot of EXP.
Akira landed back on the arena floor, completely drained of chakra.
In the distance, Hisoka lay motionless—but not dead.
Akira didn't rush to level up.
Hisoka had blocked the final attack, but the cost was severe:
extensive burns across his body, unconsciousness, and critical injuries.
Without treatment, he really would die.
"The winner—Hyūga Akira!!!"
The entire arena erupted in cheers.
In the stands, Gon clenched his fists.
The Hisoka he wanted to defeat… had fallen like this.
"So strong…" Killua muttered beside him.
"When he fought me, he wasn't even serious."
Akira didn't bother basking in the applause.
He turned and walked straight off the arena.
Medical staff rushed to evacuate the severely injured Hisoka.
This victory had been opportunistic.
The arena environment limited Hisoka too much—
if this fight had happened elsewhere, Akira wasn't sure he could've won.
After defeating Hisoka, Akira's fame skyrocketed.
But he had no intention of continuing to fight here.
It was time to go hunt spiders.
What he didn't expect was for Hisoka—supposedly critically injured—to appear again.
Akira opened his room door.
Standing outside was Hisoka.
"Yo."
Hisoka looked completely fine.
"What do you want?" Akira asked flatly.
He knew full well Hisoka's burns shouldn't have healed this fast.
That flawless appearance was nothing more than Texture Surprise hiding the damage.
"Just here to see you off," Hisoka said lightly. "What? Not happy to see me?"
"I'm not interested in you right now."
Akira shrugged, then stepped aside to let him in.
As Hisoka walked in, a thought surfaced in Akira's mind.
What would happen if I threw this guy into the Naruto world?
There were character-summoning cards in the game.
The one he'd gotten from killing Shōzō was proof of that.
Those cards could even be combined with other items to create designated summons—
basically raising a character like a pet.
As long as affection was high enough, control wasn't an issue.
But this wasn't the game anymore.
Would cross-server summoning even work?
"Hey, Hisoka," Akira said suddenly.
"Get stronger. Maybe I'll take you somewhere interesting one day."
Didn't Hisoka love fighting?
Naruto's world was nothing but war.
Second Ninja War.
Third Ninja War.
Even Naruto's era was nonstop chaos—
and then came the Fourth Ninja War.
If Hisoka wanted battle, there was no shortage.
Hisoka's eyes gleamed with interest.
"That does sound… intriguing."
Akira closed the door and turned back to him.
"So. What's your real goal?"
He didn't believe for a second that Hisoka came just to say goodbye.
"Don't be so cold," Hisoka chuckled.
"Tell me—are you interested in the Phantom Troupe?"
Akira rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"I was planning to hunt the Phantom Troupe next. What—want in?"
"Hunt the spiders?"
Hisoka's grin widened. He casually stripped off his shirt, revealing the spider tattoo on his back.
"Am I part of your prey too?"
Akira rolled his eyes.
"Do you really count as one of them?"
Hisoka peeled off the tattoo disguise.
"So you really do know me well."
From the beginning, he'd felt that Akira understood him far better than expected.
This just confirmed it.
"We can cooperate," Hisoka said smoothly.
"You hunt the spiders—but their leader belongs to me."
His smile sharpened with killing intent.
"Otherwise… I'll kill you~"
"You already lost to me," Akira shot back. "With what, exactly?"
Sure, in another environment, the outcome wasn't guaranteed—
but a loss was still a loss.
"That's true," Hisoka admitted, tapping his chin.
"Then I suppose I'll just tell them someone's coming for them."
"Deal."
Akira answered instantly.
Chrollo was only worth about ten thousand EXP anyway—
losing that was painful, but manageable.
What really mattered was not alerting the Troupe.
If they became cautious, hunting them would become exponentially harder.
Akira had zero interest in playing on hard mode.
"You really know how to exploit a gap," Akira said darkly.
Hisoka laughed.
"No, you're just too eager to take shortcuts. A little difficulty makes things fun."
Akira only wanted the easiest path possible.
Hisoka extended a hand.
"Then—happy cooperation."
Akira slapped the hand aside.
"Happy cooperation."
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