[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Five Fun Not in the Sun A slide which once was a standing stage would eject it's chosen participant into a dark room. At first both the slide end trip and the room would be quite dark, it'd be almost to the point of sightless vision. A mere shimmer of the arena they'd once stand in beckoning light from above, but the slide continued to steepen it'd angle until it'd eventually seal the path it'd given shut. A moment would pass and Asahi would be in a room of total darkness, a moment more than long enough to let fear and uncertainty settle. The room however as time grew disturbingly still would finally begin to light up, as torches upon the sides of the walls and before an estrange doorway would light up. The doorway appeared to be the only way out of the room, it however lead to another abyss of darkness. Could this of been the start to the maze? It had to be surely, but there was always room to doubt. Especially those lacking allegiance to that of Takigakure. If one didn't just sprint for the maze and hopefully escaping the creepy maze they'd entered, then they'd realize the room wasn't empty. A table would stick out first and foremost in the room, as it'd be mere feet from the place the contestant was ejected. This table seemed to be like a gaming table, as it'd have a square grid designed in it's center, as well as symbols drawn to each side of the grid. It was hard to make out anything from a glance, but that'd all be clear from that glance. In each corner of the room appeared to be pedestals, about chest high with a bust of someone's head. Each appeared a little different, but none were easy to make out from a distance or a glance. It'd appear the trim of the room, as well as the top trim to the doorway would all have images upon them, but nothing that stuck out with a glance. SPOILER: Click to show All of this definitely feeling like a brand new experience! And not something copied with a single detail changed or two.

[Kyokujitsu Asahi]

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Darkness began to envelop the room as the boy regained his wits. The platform transitioning to a slide out of nowhere had caught him by surprise and it was surely designed that way to prevent participants from trying to jump off at the last second. As the slide sealed itself into the ceiling Asahi found himself alone with nothing but his thoughts. He was here now, the exams had started and there was no backing out. Well, there was probably a way to quit should the need arise but that wasn't an option anyway so he'd just have to tough it out.

Visibility was a sharp zero which would surely make it difficult to try and escape the maze, but that was the entire point of the test, right? While he did have access to quite the amazing light source it wouldn't be smart to start using up chakra so early on, but thankfully that problem would be solved in mere moments. A series of torches would light up around the room providing enough light to see, and boy was it an unremarkable sight. There was an exit directly in front of him that led into more darkness which meant that was surely the entrance to the maze. Simple enough, right? No. While it was a test to see who could exit the maze first there was also a need for the contestants to use their 'wits' to achieve the goal, which meant that blindly charging in would do no good.

Instead Asahi would take the opportunity to look about the room. There were four busts in each corner, none of which the boy recognized, while a peculiar looking table sat next to him. It looked like... something used for strategy games complete with a grid for placing pieces, but there were none in sight. Maybe figuring out what type of game this was supposed to be would help him get out of the maze quicker, though such an out of place piece of equipment very well may have been a distraction meant to hold him up. Considering the only other option was to just book it into the dark abyss waiting just a few feet away perhaps it wouldn't hurt to take a couple minutes to check something out.

"If I were some game pieces where would I be?" The genin asked himself. There didn't seem to be any bags on the floor that may have held the components he was looking for, so perhaps there was a drawer built into the table itself. Asahi would look around the set piece hoping to see if his hunch was correct, and if it wasn't then that would solidify that the gaming table had been a distraction all along.

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Five Fun Not in the Sun Upon further examination of the table Asahi would be able to notice that the grid was twenty-three high, by twenty-three wide. Lightly carved onto the sides were the alphabet minus x, y and z as to give each point on the grid. However at the top and bottom of the grid would be numbers 1 to 23. It'd appear coming from the trap shoot that the numbers went up left to right, while the alphabet went up as one went up on the grid. At the walls of the grid there'd be an opening in one square per side. At Q on the right side and M on the left side of the grid pattern, as well as at 7 on the bottom and 7 at the top. Closer examination of the images at each side of the grid seems to provide little information. The top image appearing to be a tiger face, the left side image a bird, the right side image a fish and the bottom image a snake. Investigating around the whole table, it'd also come clear the table had one drawer on it. A normalcy on a gaming table as to store game pieces and other accessories or utensils with the table. It was something Asahi hoped for and went to immediately investigate. Upon opening the drawer Asahi would reveal a fortune cookie which appeared fresh, a deck of cards that appeared used multiple times and three bags of gaming pieces. Two bags filled with checkers of different variants one bag circle pieces to fit the grid and the other triangular pieces. A third bag held player pieces eight total, four being that of people and four being that of pigs. SPOILER: Click to show All of this definitely feeling like a brand new experience! And not something copied with a single detail changed or two.

[Kyokujitsu Asahi]

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The table definitely had something to do with the maze, but for the life of him Asahi couldn't quite make out the connection. There were an equal number of numbers and letters lining each side of the grid, and it seemed the object of whatever game was played on here was to match coordinates; though that was a semi-educated guess at best. There were also four images of animals on each side of the table, respectively, but they didn't really match up to anything else on the grid and seemed out of place.

With the drawer now open the genin would pull out all of the contents and place them on the table. There were a few bags of game pieces that were definitely used for the grid, a fortune cookie, and a deck of cards. Asahi's eyes were immediately drawn to the game pieces: circles, triangles, player pieces... and pigs. Strange. While they surely had something to do with the grid standing before him, it wasn't immediately clear and without anything to explain the rules to said game they were all pretty useless. Well that was unfortunate. Asahi was banking on the grid to help him figure out his way through the maze seeing as how just blindly running around would cost him precious time, energy, and nerves.

With the game pieces seemingly of no use now, there were only a fortune cookie and the deck of cards left. Well that wasn't too inspiring. The least he could do was give everything a thorough looking through before moving on, though the boy didn't have high hopes of finding anything of use in the last two items. He'd start by breaking open the fortune cookie on the off chance that the paper held within --if there even was one-- would hold some kind of information for him. The young Kyokujitsu would then open up the deck of cards which honestly looked like they had seen better days, and would look through each one to see if they offered any aid. Hopefully something of use came out of one of the two items, otherwise Asahi would end up just running around blindly in the maze, something he truly wanted to avoid.

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Five Fun Not in the Sun Finding multiple game pieces without any rules Asahi would move on to the deck of cards. Within the deck would be the cards in their natural order and not shuffled, but atop of the cards like many good deck was a rule card. A means to explain to anyone the simple games one could attempt with the deck. It'd however not be the rules of any game of cards, instead it'd be quite clear this card was added. It's rules would read as follows: You're being timed as a measure of skill, but you're also limited on time. You're beginning at the snake of this maze. You're in one of four rooms attached to the maze. You're the controller of the light, but little else. You're not alone, BEWARE. You're provided everything you need. You're limited to one escape route. You're allowed to cause harm to living objects. This list of rules didn't really tell the tale of what to do, but it would make it clear this wasn't a safe exam. There were both things to beware as well as the potential need to cause harm to another living creature and somehow time was limited. A mention to a start was made, it'd even seem to correspond to the grid upon the table. At least the image at the bottom side of it. Upon opening the fortune cookie Asahi would be in fact greeted to a fortune. "Your entrance way is also your best guide." Whether this would mean anything to Asahi was uncertain. It was also just a fortune, so maybe it was meaning nothing but to cause more confusion. Merely interested in the fortune the fractured cookie would be left uneaten whether for safety or a dislike of fortune cookies was unclear. SPOILER: Click to show All of this definitely feeling like a brand new experience! And not something copied with a single detail changed or two.

[Kyokujitsu Asahi]

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Looking through the deck of cards would reveal one that wasn't like the others, which at first the boy believed to just be rules for a card game, but upon further inspection revealed itself to be instructions for the maze, more or less. There weren't any cut and dry strategies on how to progress through the obstacle, but it did offer a bit of insight to things. This wasn't just going to be a walk through the park as there were living opponents that Asahi had a chance of running into.. just great. The card also reiterated that all the contestants were being timed, so the genin really didn't have too much time to spend in this room.

The young Suna shinobi noticed that one of the symbols on the grid mirrored a sentence from the rule card: snake. Could it have been coincidence? Sure, but judging from where the slide had spit him out at it looked to be that this was where he currently was on the grid. So the board did have a use! Taking one of the pieces from the bag Asahi would place it into the square right above the snake; now he had somewhere to direct his movements from. While he hadn't really gone through a maze before, he knew that they were designed to confuse and twist people around. Focusing once more on the board it'd make more sense to head to try and head to one of the other "rooms", but which one was the correct option? The closest room seemed to be the least nerve wracking option, but that also could have very well been a trap.

Asahi would play around with making paths to each of the four rooms on the grid trying to figure out the best route, but he knew that a decision would have to be made soon.

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Five Fun Not in the Sun Investigating the grid further with the thought process, this is the maze and the desire was to get to the closest room first. Then it'd be the left room or the bird image that was the room definer. As the entrance from the snake was at the bottom of the grid where it was labelled seven and the left room was at M, meaning it was six over and twelve up from the start. The next closest room would be the top room, as it was 23 three spaces up from the bottom entrance. The right entrance was farthest at sixteen over and seventeen up. The grid had no definition of where the bends and turns of the maze would be, it'd be a blank grid with openings only at the four designated spots. Though there were enough checker pieces to fill out all the grid spots, as to maybe draw where paths were and walls happened to be as well. All this knowledge was helpful, maybe? The grid didn't have to be the maze and the clues didn't have to be helpful. It'd be odd a challenge of wits didn't have one thinking over the tools provided.

[Kyokujitsu Asahi]

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Making paths to the various rooms wouldn't take all that long, and in a minute or two he'd have everything laid out. The bird room was the closest from the starting position, and the less time spent wandering the maze would probably be the best option, though a problem would arise: the grid didn't cover where any walls and turns were. All it took was for a rogue wall to pop up before Asahi felt he had moved sufficiently in a direction to throw off his plan. Damn. Perhaps the board wasn't designed to lay out a path for the maze but instead give the contestants some sense of direction in heading for one of the exits. Ok, he could work with that.

Asahi would decide that the bird room would be his destination and to get there he'd need to go a distance forward before making any turns, though he'd be lucky to have things go his way. Tucking the rule card in his pocket, the boy would think over his plan again. Once he left the room there would probably be no coming back, so he needed to be mostly sure that no stone was left unturned. He had spent considerable time at the gaming table and looked through its various contents which had helped to varying degrees. The only thing Asahi hadn't really inspected too much were the statues that stood in each corner of the room. He had looked at them when circling the room initially, but hadn't really given them a good look. Making his way over to one the boy still had no idea who the person was, but surely the exam proctors wouldn't have done all this work to bring them in here as just decoration.

Since they were busts sitting on a pedestal perhaps they could be lifted, and as such Asahi would attempt to bring one off the pedestal in hopes that there'd be something underneath. He hoped that the alternative (something being inside them) wasn't the case as breaking them may have been seen as disrespectful; and the last thing the boy wanted to do was cause an international incident.

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Five Fun Not in the Sun Defining goals were good and having a plan was better than not having one. Following through would be necessary to be first, but rushing wasn't usually the smartest move. Asahi seemed to know this well enough as he'd go to investigate the busts in the room. They were the detail he decided he didn't give enough attention earlier, which was certainly true. Though the boy had also ignored the image trim of the room too, it was quite a lot more information to try to decipher. There had to be at least twenty images per wall after all. The busts were simple and accounted for as many fingers as on a hand, if we don't include the thumb of course. The busts upon closer examination might not of been recognizable, but they'd actually be labelled with a small metal plaque. Two busts were late Lords of the land and two were past Daiymo. The right side of the room had a daiymo in each corner and the left side had a lord in each corner. The thing which Asahi questioned the most was whether or not these objects hid more! Attempting to move a single bust and pedestal, it'd be realized by the boy this was a problem. At least attempting to lift both at once and straight up, the sunagakure shinobi would find himself struggling. The pedestal and bust were both quite heavy, but it would indeed budge and the boy would be able to move it given enough struggle. There'd however be nothing underneath it and nothing behind it. The metal bust based on weight very well could of been a great improvise weapon though.

[Kyokujitsu Asahi]

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Past leaders of the village and country were who the busts depicted, but where as most statues were carved out of stone these were made out of metal, and a heavy one at that. Moving them required a fair bit of elbow grease but the boy would manage, unfortunately to middling results. There was no special surprise hiding under them and it probably would do no good to try and carve them open. So that idea had turned out to be a bust. It seemed there was little else the room could offer the boy in terms of hints to get through the maze and his only option left was to begin walking.

One last look around revealed only various images that lined the walls, but they didn't seem to be in any particular pattern and were little more than decoration at this point. The boy would head back to the gaming table, looking back over the grid that he had filled with pieces to the various outlets. Bird was the closest room and probably a good marker to hit. Spending too much time wandering the maze would only serve to increase his paranoia and nervousness, so finding a bit of respite would do wonders. Of course, that was assuming the rooms didn't have their own tricks and obstacles. The rule card had made it very clear that there were going to be living beings roaming around the maze and it was a possibility that they would try and attack. Battle came with the territory of being a shinobi and Asahi would have to be prepared to fight at a moments notice in any kind of environment.

With a deep breath the boy would take his first steps into the maze, it was dark and the light from the room didn't reach far, but if it acted anything like the beginning room then hopefully a source of light would soon appear; if not then the genin had a method to give himself some light. As for his plan to traverse the maze, he'd try to walk straight for as long as possible before making any turns. Hopefully he'd be able to stick to the path he created on the grid as closely as possible, but fate probably wouldn't be that kind to him.

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Five Fun Not in the Sun Asahi not noticing a pattern between the monkey's and dragon's on the walls would discern them unimportant. Returning to the gaming table he'd look to his given route once more, but as before there still was no clear path without proceeding forward. Steeling himself for the challenge ahead Asahi would proceed into the maze, he'd be functioning off more than simply guess work. He had a plan and it was pretty straight forward, literally. Though with himself looking to get to the room on the left, there'd be an obstacle to his logic. Entering the maze thankfully wouldn't need any light provided by the contestant. There'd be torches at either side, but this meant that there'd be no way the sunagakure shinobi could simply charge straight to the other opening either. Though it'd appear there was a line to both the entrance and the next space unlit over. Proceeding straight another set of torches would lit, but with it the rooms torches would go out. With each new step only the present tile and last tile stayed lit. The maze would go five tiles in before presenting an option, it'd be a left turn. Taking him still technically in the right direction, but with his mind set on straight first. He'd still have that option before him. Though he'd only make it four more tiles, before he'd be forced to go right. Which wasn't the direction he wanted to head, if he was aiming to quickly get left. This might stir him back to the left turn or maybe and move in the right direction would work?

[Kyokujitsu Asahi]

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Asahi would only take a step or two into the maze before it began to light up, or rather only the torches directly next to him and a step behind him. So not only would he not know when turns would show up in the maze, but being able to barely see in front of him was going to be a problem as well. Time was of the essence in this part of the exam and the boy wanted to move at a quicker pace but he feared running face first into a wall and knocking himself out. Instead the genin would just move at a slightly quickened pace; more than walking but not an all out sprint.

Not long into his journey a choice would come about, an option to either turn left or continue moving forward. This was a sooner turn than the path he had made on the grid predicted, but Asahi knew that this was a possibility. At some point he was going to take a turn but this seemed too soon. But what where the odds that another turn like this would come up down the line before an opposite turn approached? A game of probability was not what Asahi wanted to play right now, but alas he was a participant in these exams and not the rule maker. Would he jump at a chance to move in a new direction or remain steadfast?

Left, the boy would choose left. He'd have to go in this direction eventually so it was best to get it out of the way now than not have the chance to later on down the line, or at least that's how Asahi hoped things would go for him.

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Five Fun Not in the Sun Asahi would at his quickened pace move two tiles before finding another choice before him. It was an awfully short distance to provide more options, but more options were better than no options. It'd this time be a very clear left or right situation. Right would take him further up towards his destination and left would move him farther away, but again there was that chance that the maze made turns loops and bends. Contemplating the grid, one could assume a tile was a space and a wall was another space. Reasonably speaking if the grid was correctly designed, then he'd only go so far left before the path had to bend. As moving four tiles would put him at the bottom of the grid design, it could of been evidence though to his theory of the grid being the maze. If he moved more than four tiles he wasn't accurately given the maze, but if he was to go right he would be going the right direction towards his exit, but if the left path looped around it very well might cut off the way to the left room, as space only dictated so much room for the other route to run off.

[Kyokujitsu Asahi]

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Asahi didn't get very far before being met with a split in the road. There were paths to his left and right, respectively, and aside from going in completely opposite directions looked exactly the same. Well shit. He still felt that there was a a need to keep going forward for a bit longer before making any major course corrections, but that wasn't an option. Thinking back to the grid, a pretty decent mental image would pop up in the boys mind as he contemplated which direction to follow. Going right would keep him on the path that he had constructed in the starting room, whereas left would bring him to the edge of the maze. Of course, this was all dependent on the board being an accurate representation of the maze to begin with, and it was very possible that either path could twist and turn putting the genin who knew where?

Alas, Asahi had taken the time to go through and construct a path to a certain room and it'd do him no good to abandon it so early on, but he couldn't just ignore the fact that they were just running around in a giant puzzle that was meant to confuse. No matter, he had a plan and would stick to it until the situation warranted otherwise. With that said, the young shinobi would turn himself right and begin down that path hoping to get closer to an exit but preparing himself for whatever obstacles lay ahead.

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Five Fun Not in the Sun Asahi would travel right instead of left, it'd be a decision to drive him to the left room. A decision he'd be confronted with again only six tiles down this new path. Instead of a wall breaking into two directions though, it'd be instead a break away right with a straight direction as well. Looking at the divide between the two it could be broken down to another left or right decision. There seemed to never be a three way option, which made for probability being quite nice. Another decision was at least better than a dead end, as a dead end assured back tracking. Another choice meant that maybe the Kumogakure shinobi was in fact down the right path. Now the question came, did he continue forward to the straight path. He was only two tiles from the entrance to the left room. Well two up and four over. Though there was no presented left route, so there'd be no clear option to the room. Though the option to go straight did bring Asahi closer than the choice to go right presented.