[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Four Into the Stone Maze Backtracking wasn't the hardest thing as there really was one path back, but it'd definitely not be a short trip unless he jogged, sprint or other fashion of quickly navigating the maze. The path he went down was one of the longest miss leading ways this maze. It'd likely help confuse him, but getting back onto the 'right path'. At least the direction he didn't choose last split, it'd be a very short path contrary to his miss direction. Four tiles and he'd be presented with a new decision, a straight or right decision. Granted splitting the decisions into a fork it could be viewed as a left or right option. SPOILER: Click to show You're now physically suffering from the cold water. Expect to be playing out a runny nose and shivers until noted otherwise. Sorry for not more detail, I'm just trying to get these moving now. Especially since I basically took a day off from posting. T~T Sorry-sorry...

[Nōhime Ouritsu]

i think you're slipping

i bring you pain, the kind you can't suffer quietly

The journey back to his last turn would be a simple yet extended one. A bunch of forced turns that he had already taken in reverse didn't prove much of a problem, and unless the maze was somehow shifting behind him then there shouldn't have been any surprises awaiting him; especially considering this wasn't his first time back tracking. However, the boy had just escaped being mauled by a wild pig so he couldn't be too lax. He did wonder, however, how the damn thing got there in the first place considering both the path it was on and the one next to it were dead ends, and since there was only a single snaking path to reach that part of the destination the two would have had to cross paths at some point, right? No matter, the creature would be knocked out for the next who knew how long and it wasn't like it could answer anyway. The boy did, however, hope for a chance to run into that oddly dressed woman again so he could give her a piece of his mind for goading him into that pool of freezing water.

Reaching the point of his last turn, Ouritsu would now be presented with a fork in the road. He could either continue onward or take a right. Obviously it would make sense to take the path that wasn't chosen last time, but to be honest the boy couldn't quite remember. There had been so many twists and turns from this point and distance covered that the genin believed he wouldn't have to come back this way. Meh, this was annoying. The young Iwa shinobi would turn himself right and start down that path. If it turned out to be the correct one then good, if not, then he'd just come back and walk the other direction. A simple strategy, but when playing against a stacked hand sometimes those were the best.

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PYXIS ★

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Four Into the Stone Maze Six tiles straight down the right path Ouritsu would hit a new fork in the road. It'd actually be a clear split of left or right. Which would the Iwagakure shinobi take this time around? SPOILER: Click to show You're now physically suffering from the cold water. Expect to be playing out a runny nose and shivers until noted otherwise. Again sorry for shortness, but at this point there's little to detail that hasn't all features of the maze basically remain the same.

[Nōhime Ouritsu]

i think you're slipping

i bring you pain, the kind you can't suffer quietly

Making his way down the path Ouritsu wondered for a moment how the other contests were faring in this annoyance of a maze. Were they struggling like him or had they found the exit? The camera attached to his shoulder seemed to be a one way street of sorts: the audience could see what he saw but not vice versa, though knowing how the others were faring would probably only add to the anxiety the genin were feeling to hurry up and get through. Not that they'd be able to tell what part of the maze they'd be in anyway, or if they were even in the same maze to begin with.

The young Iwa shinobi would come to a split in the road, left or right. There was nothing to give any kind of inclination one way or the other, just like with every other turn.. minus the one with the pig, so it didn't really matter which way Ouritsu chose. With a sigh the boy would take a left and begin down that path; at this point the genin was basically just getting in his cardio for the day.

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PYXIS ★

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Four Into the Stone Maze Choosing to go left Ouritsu would travel up four tiles, before making it to another choice. He could either go right or keep left and go up the straight path before him. Similarly little presented hints in wake of the present situation and deducing of the genin, but at least each decision was mostly rewarded with another. SPOILER: Click to show You're now physically suffering from the cold water. Expect to be playing out a runny nose and shivers until noted otherwise. Again sorry for shortness, but at this point there's little to detail that hasn't all features of the maze basically remain the same.

[Nōhime Ouritsu]

i think you're slipping

i bring you pain, the kind you can't suffer quietly

The boy wouldn't travel far before being faced with another decision: to continue straight or take a right. The maze seemed to be either a series of very quick choices one after the other or paths that only held a single option, Ouritsu had been able to discern that much. Maybe it was a balancing thing, perhaps it was intended to throw the participants off. Either way, it was an annoyance. As before there were no indications on which route was the better option so there was little harm in just randomly picking a direction.

"Hmm, tired of turning so let's get some momentum going." He'd mutter to himself before continuing forward. Constantly switching up his routes, while unique, was possibly diverting him from reaching the exit, so he'd try his hand at keeping a single direction for a bit.

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PYXIS ★

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Four Into the Stone Maze Ouritsu would choose to go straight instead of right, he'd however only make it two tiles before a forced right. Two tiles before a forced left, then another two tiles before a left turn. Following that path would take him four tiles before yet another left. Six tiles down and he'd finally find a right turn, so the maze wasn't an illusion or trickery just annoying. Two more tiles and he'd hit a final right, it was final as reaching that right would reach something else. Sadly it wasn't an exit, but a dark corridor with the familiar sound of a pig snorting. ROUND 2! How would Ouritsu react to another boar, it'd squeal shortly after smelling the boy. It'd charge right after that detection and soon be upon the Nohime. SPOILER: Click to show You're now physically suffering from the cold water. Expect to be playing out a runny nose and shivers until noted otherwise. Again sorry for shortness, but at this point there's little to detail that hasn't all features of the maze basically remain the same.

[Nōhime Ouritsu]

i think you're slipping

i bring you pain, the kind you can't suffer quietly

Ouritsu's choice would take him down a series of turns that may have helped him get closer to an exit or would have led to yet another dead end, it was hard to tell. There was little rhyme or reason to anything in this damn place, at least as far as the boy could tell. He had more or less given up on trying to make sense of this place some time ago. The rule card couldn't help him and the only room he had found was nothing but a waste of time. Just a few minutes more in the beginning room would have changed everything and the Iwa shinobi was positive there was something he had missed in there but for the life of him couldn't think of what it could have been.

A familiar sound would resonate through the air breaking the young man from his thoughts. It'd be hard to miss the squeal of a pig when one had experienced it not too long ago, and it seemed that Ouritsu was about to have another fight on his hands. Whether it was the same animal from before didn't matter, but the boy was tired of seeing them and would do his best to make sure that at least this creature wouldn't bother him any further.

He'd perform a set of seals before creating a small cube in the palm of his hands, aiming it at the incoming animal before loosing it towards them; the shape expanding upon release. His plan was to encase the animal --or at least a good portion of it-- before expanding the orb of jinton chakra in the middle. It wasn't his strongest version of the technique but a significant hit would disintegrate layers of skin, muscle, and deep tissue from the animal. Depending on what part of the creature was hit it may have died from the injuries, but at the very least it'd be incapacitated.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Jinton: Genkai Hakuri: Shinbusoshiki [Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World: Deep Tissue]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: High
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu | Kekkei Tota
ELEMENT: Jinton
DESCRIPTION:
By increasing the containment chakra and limiting the Jinton chakra center the user of this jutsu can create a three dimensional shape (cube, cone, sphere, cylinder, etc) with a small Jinton chakra sphere within its center. Due to the lower than average Jinton chakra within the containment chakra this jutsu has the ability to disintegrate at the molecular level the affected area deep into the muscle tissue, because of the nature of Jinton this is done very cleanly and quickly because the Jinton cauterizes the wound there is not an excessive amount of blood within the wound. This jutsu is weaker and slower than the original jutsu making it less effective but the lower chakra cost makes it a jutsu worth having for young or inexperienced Jinton users though due to the increased difficulty of this jutsu it should only be used by intermediate skill level Jinton users.

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PYXIS ★

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Four Into the Stone Maze Charging into sight to gore the Nohime, the pig was too driven to be discerned by a strange light cube. It'd move on without hesitation, but be punished for it's brashness. A lucky blow by the Nohime with his Jinton technique and the animal would go down. It's momentum causing it flop and crash into the wall nearest Ouritsu, but it'd be of no threat to the boy anymore. If he proceeded down the path, like earlier he'd find a dead end. Search the pig would turn up another note. "There's as many rules, as forks in the road to your escape." If he based this note on the rule card that meant there was eight choices before escape. He'd found seven so far if he didn't include the broken paths he'd taken or if he could even remember the number of turns presented to him. If that was correct the path not taken would only have one decision left. Would Ouritsu trust the last decision or attempt to go back further? SPOILER: Click to show You're now physically suffering from the cold water. Expect to be playing out a runny nose and shivers until noted otherwise. Again sorry for shortness, but at this point there's little to detail that hasn't all features of the maze basically remain the same.

[Nōhime Ouritsu]

i think you're slipping

i bring you pain, the kind you can't suffer quietly

A normal opponent would have maybe tried to avoid the large, transparent cube racing at them out of pure preservation of life, but thankfully for Ouritsu that wasn't the case as the pig was so dead set on attacking him that it gave no mind to said cube, which would be its downfall. With the creature succumbing to its injuries the boy would watch as it crashed to the ground in a heap. He was getting better with jinton, stronger with it, but needed to get his shapes out faster if he wanted success against actual people.

With a sigh the boy would make his way to the fallen animal in search of clues. The last pig he fought had a message attached to it so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe that this one would, too. After a bit of looking Ouritsu would indeed find something attached that talked about how there were as many forks in the road as there were rules. Rules? Wait it didn't mean... Grabbing the rule card from his pocket the young Nohime would count the number printed: 8. So there were eight choices he had to make before presumably finding the exit which meant Ouritsu had... he had no idea how many left. At least five, maybe six, but probably not eight. The boy had found something to focus his efforts on, though the message didn't say which direction in these forks in the road would lead to the exit. Fair enough, it was still a test of course.

Ouritsu was now faced with a decision: to check out the path that the boar had come from or retrace his steps back to the split and take the other direction. If that was indeed one of the forks that the message described then the boy could have very well been on his way to finding the exit, but if this encounter was anything like the last then there was a dead end waiting for him in just a few steps; and since he had quite a distance to cover it was best not to waste any time. So he'd turn back and begin heading down back down the winding trail until reaching the split before taking the right that he had forgone earlier. Hopefully this would put him closer to the exit.

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PYXIS ★

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Four Into the Stone Maze Retracing his steps and taking the path not taken last, he'd find himself only travelling four tiles before hitting a new fork in the road. He could either go left or continue going straight. If looking at the fork it'd be a left or right decision, but that information meant little to the Nohime. He hadn't noted the guide at the start, but maybe luck had prevailed and put him at the maze's end. SPOILER: Click to show You're now physically suffering from the cold water. Expect to be playing out a runny nose and shivers until noted otherwise. Again sorry for shortness, but at this point there's little to detail that hasn't all features of the maze basically remain the same.

[Nōhime Ouritsu]

i think you're slipping

i bring you pain, the kind you can't suffer quietly

Retracing his steps wouldn't take long, but each step in his soggy clothing felt like an eternity. He didn't know what the rest of the exam held but hoped that there'd be at least a bit of time for his clothes to dry out. This was assuming that the boy made it out of the maze in the first place, which he definitely was going to do... right? Of course he was! Maybe? Only when Ouritsu exhausted all options would he even begin to contemplate not escaping this place and he still had a couple tricks up his sleeve, though using a couple techniques and being chilly for the last... however long, were beginning to temper his enthusiasm.

Having taken the turn once forgone, the young Iwa shinobi made it only a few paces before reaching yet another fork in the road. He could keep going straight or take a right. If the message on the boar were to be believed then this would be the final split he'd have to deal with in the maze; though there was plenty of proof that not everything in this place could be trusted. Trying to make up time would be a fools errand at this point considering the amount of backtracking that had gone on, so it'd be a miracle if the boy wasn't dead last at the moment; not a great thought but finishing was finishing at this point.

Continuing forward had put him face to face with another boar previously and if there was anything Ouritsu wanted to do it was fight another rogue farm animal, so this time he'd opt to take a right and see where that led him. If he was lucky then the exit would soon be in his grasp, if not, then that meant there was only one direction left to go.

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PYXIS ★

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Four Into the Stone Maze Ouritsu would find himself at another impasse, he'd been wrong going straight last. So he'd choose not to go that direction again, instead he'd opt to go down the turned path. Heading left he'd travel five tiles, then find himself arriving at another room. This one would be brightly lit with a massive chandelier on it's roof. In the center of the room was a short pillar with a tanto on top of it, as well as map attached to it. On the other side of the pillar would be a massive set of doors, they'd stand almost three stories tall and appear to be solid metal. Instead of a lock in the center there'd be a strange gem seeming to bind them, it was a ruby red and had line leading down the crease of the doors. It'd hit the floor and then trail to a mat. Upon each door would be an image of a samurai performing hara-kiri or seppuku, both were facing each other, as well as facing the gem in performing their act. It'd seem as though the door was hinting that one needed to do the same to open it. Though it'd be an extremely odd manner to open a door. Especially as there was supposed to be exams after this and there definitely wasn't any readily available bandages. SPOILER: Click to show You're now physically suffering from the cold water. Expect to be playing out a runny nose and shivers until noted otherwise. As a genjutsu specialist, I'll allow you to note that genjutsu are broken through pain. The odd door seeming unrealistic to you might trigger a firm belief it could be a genjutus. Due to the options being left or straight and you specifying not wanting to go straight. I'm going to assume you meant left instead of right. Again sorry for shortness, but at this point there's little to detail that hasn't all features of the maze basically remain the same.

[Nōhime Ouritsu]

i think you're slipping

i bring you pain, the kind you can't suffer quietly

The boy hoped that his decision would be the correct one. He had more or less resigned himself to not finishing the maze first but still wanted to make it through for his own confidence's sake. Waiting however many years for the opportunity to take the exams and then failing to figure out a life sized puzzle would be the worst, and Ouritsu had no plans of returning to Iwa without at least a decent showing.

No more than a handful of steps into his new path would a light beckon to him, a bright one at that. It was a room! Could it have been the exit? Entering said room would not really give him an answer, though he was happy to be away from the twists and turns if even for a few moments. Looking around would reveal an interesting choice of decor: a large chandelier that lit the room, a pillar with something dangling off the top, and a pair of huge metal doors that stood behind said pillar. Thankfully the woman from the first room was nowhere to be seen as it would have been a clear sign that this entire room was a waste of time.

Making his way over to the pillar Ouritsu would notice that a map was pinned to the top by a short sword, and he'd pluck the weapon from the pillar before picking up the piece of paper. Rubbing a couple brain cells together would let him realize that this was probably the layout of the maze, a most welcomed sight! But did that mean he was at the end and they were letting him see what paths led where, or that this was one final hint to help him finish? The answer probably laid on the other side of those doors. Walking up to them, the young shinobi thought about trying to use his jinton to just obliterate it into dust, or at least a teenager sized chunk of it; but the doors looked to be thick and would probably an amount of chakra that the boy didn't have readily available at the moment.

Very well, time for plan B. There were no locks or combination pad, so the numbers he had found in the other room would be of no use here, but just a huge crystal that had a red line stretching from either end of it. An interesting way to keep a door locked. Two figures would be facing the crystal while performing what looked to be... no, it couldn't be. Ouritsu looked down at the tanto he had picked up from the pillar before shooting a glance at the door. Did they want them to kill themselves?! Fat chance! The Iwa shinobi had no plans to die today. Ok, time for plan C.

With no locks, keys, handles, or knobs there seemed to be no way to open the doors, and that could have very well meant that this was another distraction set up by the proctors. After all, the first room he had visited held promise of an escape, but even after diving into the chilly waters and finding the numbers there was no place to input them; perhaps this was the same. Being given a map also gave merit to the theory as one would need it if they were supposed to venture back into the maze, though there was no telling if it could be trusted, either. A conundrum indeed.

Looking back at the two images Ouritsu wondered what good would stabbing yourself to open a door be if you wouldn't be alive to go walk through it? And with no other alternative to open it things just weren't adding up. Maybe it was meant to convey self-sacrifice as was often a possibility being a shinobi, though perhaps not in its entirety. Taking the tanto, the genin would stand on the mat before making a small cut along his left forearm, not deep enough to hit a vein or anything, but more than enough for it to hurt. While perhaps not the smartest move to cut oneself with a strange blade, the boy kept a couple medical kits on him so he'd be able to bandage himself up. Hopefully this would suffice on a couple fronts, either to open the door or to dispel it altogether seeing as how something so insurmountable might not have really been there to begin with.

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PYXIS ★

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Four Into the Stone Maze Ouritsu would see through the ploy of this room. It was an unrealistic circumstance to have the shinobi kill themselves. It was implying they'd have to use self pain, it'd likely be those darng enough to try anyways that'd be rewarded with the doors vanish. Though Kai could equally solved the problem of this jutsu, it'd be a low ranking technique. As Ouritsu would break it with a mere cut across his flesh. The chandelier disappearing, as well as much of the finish to the room. Instead it'd suddenly turn to be the same dull stone as the most of the maze. The room itself was lit by a multitude of torches, the door would vanish to be a massive opening to a very large staircase. Standing upon them waiting was a man in elegant robes, a chunnin vest over his robe and a fancy hat baring the symbol of Takigakure upon it. He'd look almost surprised at Ouritsu before putting on a cheeky smile. "Ah, someone with a little genjutsu knowledge, it's my pleasure to tell you this is the way to the next part of the exam. Follow me." He'd state before turning to the path ahead of them, then leading the Iwagakure shinobi up the stairs and out of this maze finally. SPOILER: Click to show You're now physically suffering from the cold water. Expect to be playing out a runny nose and shivers until noted otherwise. Again sorry for shortness, but at this point there's little to detail that hasn't all features of the maze basically remain the same.