[hirana kizumi]

Ishikawa Ren, Hiesen Mairusu, Daredemo, and Uzumaki Atagi were the genin assigned to group two. Kumogakure jounin shepherded them in their designated direction into the woods; different paths had been sectioned off for each of the groups to function independently from each other. OOC notes: Your proctor, Yamamoto Eri , will begin the round and your posting timer. Your 72 hours does not start until your proctor posts. Please wait for your proctor to post before entering the exam thread. - You have 72 hours to post. The timer begins after the proctor starts the rotation. - Each player may post once in each rotation. The proctor’s post demarcates the start of a new rotation. - You do not have to follow the same posting order in each rotation. I encourage you to utilize your Discord group chats within the CE server to strategize with your teammates, and to post whenever is most appropriate and accessible for you. - If you fail to post before the deadline, you will receive one strike. Receiving three strikes in total will disqualify you from the remainder of the exams. - The mission objective must be achieved within six rotations. After the conclusion of the sixth rotation, the exams will move on to round 2. - There is no disqualifier round. Just do your best and have fun!

Ishikawa Ren Hiesin Mairusu Uzumaki Atagi Daredemo

LAIKA OF THQ

[Yamamoto Eri]

Genbu-san

Group 2 would be led into the woods to their starting position, a gap in the earth that was just large enough for the average sized person to slip through, a moist air whistling out of the gaping maw that swallowed all light trying to enter it.

They had been given a single image of their target, and a clear indication that he had last been spotted entering the cave before them:

The cave would be pitch black as they entered it, their eyesight unable to see through the complete lack of light that seemed to come past the very entrance, but should they find some sort of way to light their path, they would discover themselves in a small cavern approximately twenty foot by twenty foot, to the right of the entrance a small tunnel... no, a corridor would disappear into the gloom. Approximately ten feet wide, and eight high, if they followed the corridor it would eventually turn sharply to the left, leading them to a small cavern with rushing water below them, the corridor abruptly broken open with stones clearly having fallen down into the small river. Across the other side a door could be seen, carved above it was the words 'This is not The Way'.

Should they decide to enter, the Genin would find themselves in a dimly lit room with some sort of dias of stone laid out before them, resembling a mausoleum. The lid would be impossible to move, though it was covered in carvings the only easily legible one was Shi, death, though oddly not in kanji. Arranged around the outside of the sarcophagus-like structure were five odd symbols, arrayed at the head, hands, and feet were a person inside, small holes resting within the signs. They would find a small rock resting near the symbol that laid over the right foot, a downwards triangle with a slash through it.

 ♀ 

🜁    🜂

 シ

🜃    🜄

SPOILER: Click to show

---

Word Count: 318
Tags: Ishikawa Ren , Hiesin Mairusu , Uzumaki Atagi , Daredemo

[Daredemo]

DAREDEMO Uzumaki Atagi   Hiesin Mairusu   Ishikawa Ren

    Daredemo examined the image of their target clsoely. As long as it was recent, and he had no reason to suspect it wasn't, than this should be a readily identifiable man. Large hair, large beard. Daredemo wondered how accomplished of a swordsman they were as well. Nothing truly said they needed to apprehend the shinobi, as long as they could get the scroll from them, that be enough. That was still a task easier said than done, but it was, very likely, simpler than actually restraining the type of shinobi they'd hire for a task like this. All these details mattered, at the end of the day. If this was going to be a successful endeavor, a lot of work had to be put into the pre-planning, as well as the plan itself.

    Before Daredemo would even step foot in the cave he'd analyze it's entrance, seeing the massive drop off in light inside. "I might have a way to light the place up, but no touching the lights. It's Katon, so the light will burn to the touch, won't be much light, but it should be enough to let us see where we're going at least. Unless anyone else as some light of their own?" Daredemo would wait a moment, and if no one offered an alternative he would weave a few hand signs together, and inside the tunnel would begin to appear small, floating wisps of burning ash. The light was low, but the glow of the burning embers would leave a rather dim light throughout the path to follow. Daredemo would ensure the wisps hung high in the air, so that anyone here would have to actually reach up to them to touch them at all. "We don't have much time, so I say we strategize while we move." Daredemo would then, hopefully, move with his makeshift squad through the corridor. 

    Luckily having the lights in the cave was enough to let him see the cavern before he fell into it. Daredemo didn't see too much trouble in just using the wall walking technique to get himself into the ceiling of the corridor, walking across the broken bits of the corridor and dropping down at the other side. With that he would continue onwards and into the inner chamber, with all of its accompanying symbols. The message on the door was interesting to say the least. And the cavern was becoming far more... interesting, now that this message was visible. Why would their be a cavern here anyways? Sure it was nice to have obstacles for Genin to have to surmount, but the same effect could have been done without the stream and the entire cavern. It peaked his interest to say the least.

    Daredemo would take the warning on the door to heart. He himself wouldn't be stepping inside the room, instead, another version of him would. He hated to use more chakra at this time, but it seemed best to be safe, to avoid having any of them enter. "lets test this out with clone first, make sure there's no traps."

    Daredemo once again weaved a few hand seals together. His form would be copied over into a simple Ash clone. The Ashen Daredemo would kneel down next to the sarcophagus, and look at the small rock sitting next to one of the triangles. Seeing them right next to each other like that seemingly beaming a memory into Demo's head. The four symbols on the limbs should each represent an element. Upside down Triangle with the slash through it, the right foot, was rock. It's inverse, the right arm, was Air. Which meant the left leg was Water, and the left arm was fire. That didn't explain the final symbol, however. 

    "The elements!" Daredemo would exclaim out to his comrades in the cave. He would transfer the info he had gleamed about the limbs and their connections to different elements. "So, as you guys may have gathered, I can take care of the fire. There's plenty of rock around us, and we can get some water from the stream we crossed getting in here. But, that note on the door is making me wonder if we should just look in the cavern instead. What you guys wanna do? 

OWL

[Ishikawa Ren]

     Ren's usual smile had faded a little - this exam was incredibly important. He didn't want to disappoint Sanosuke, and missing the chance to become a Chuunin was unacceptable. As a result, he had been a little quieter than he might've been on their trek through the forest. He'd still managed to be cordial - introduce himself, ask basic questions, but he had an air of seriousness around him that he typically lacked.

     He'd managed to calm down a little by the time they'd reached the maw in the earth that their target had entered, and he looked cautiously over at Atagi, Daredamo, and Mairusu. Ren glanced around, wishing he had some way to gleam more information before they entered, but they were left with no choice but to venture inside with practically no knowledge at all.

     The darkness was softly pierced by Daredamo's Katon, which Ren thanked him for, noting all he had for the purpose were ill-suited flash bombs. Ren squinted into the darkness. He followed along beside as they made their way down the tunnel, before he spoke up. "I think it'd be best to be upfront about our capabilities, in case of a pinch." He went on to explain his own skills: mostly Kenjutsu, Doton, Fuinjutsu and Genjutsu, then asked the trio for a similar rundown.

     When they'd arrived at the room, he waited outside the threshold as Daredamo sent a clone in. From what they'd gathered, and what he could gleam through the gloom, Ren pointed out the sarcophagus and the 'Death' symbol. "I don't think we should open that. Daredamo, is there any sign our target might've even come through here? Any dust displaced?" The chances their target resided inside seemed low to him - unless he'd had an immense amount of time to prepare. More likely, a trap of some kind. So long as they weren't too slow, they head back to the cavern and check there, without losing much time, he explained.

     "Maybe we should check the stream back there? If I were trying to lose someone, that's the way I'd go - to drop the scent and any possible trail."

Yamamoto Eri Daredemo Uzumaki Atagi Hiesin Mairusu | 356 words

[Hiesin Mairusu]

TAKE ME TO VALHALLA WHERE MY BROTHERS WAIT FOR ME

Hot damn it was cold. And there was a layer of snow on the ground that while it looked nice didn't help but make Mairusu think they should have just had everything indoors. Surely they could have found enough stuff inside to keep a bunch of genin occupied, right? Well it was too late to cry about it now and he could just hear Yaki chastising him if he decided to speak up and complain about it. Speaking of the ill-tempered girl, she had decided not to participate in these exams which left the apprentice with no one that he really knew here. He had never been on a proper genin team and most of his missions had been taken with higher ranking shinobi in the village so even people wearing the same headband as him were strangers in a weird way; the price of wanting to be a sage, he guessed.

As their proctor led them through the forest the boy made sure to exchange pleasantries with the rest of his assigned group and since they were on a time limit didn't feel the need to hold back about what he could add abilities wise which... was only raiton based stuff. He knew a few good techniques but compared to the guy from Ame it was a rather short list. Granted, Mairusu had chosen to omit his sage training as it was still very much in the works while also still technically supposed to be a secret, even to others in his home village. Given the dangers of trying to harness natural chakra the boy wasn't planning on trying to use it but if these exams were as daunting as people made them out to be then everything was on the table.

Arriving at a barely squeezable split in the earth they were told that their target was last located inside. Judging from the picture it wouldn't be hard to spot him once they did find him but the genin had a feeling this wouldn't be a simple game of hide and go seek. He'd shake his head 'no' upon Daredemo asking if anyone else had a way to light their path and was thankful that the boy had a means of his own. Mairusu did have a way but it was hardly consistent and would have hindered more than it helped. As the group entered the cave it was hardly a remarkable sight and minus a slight turn here and there rather straightforward. The gap caused by whatever bridge or whatever that was there that had now been washed away by the running stream underneath was easily cleared by wall walking on the ceiling leading to a door with a pretty straightforward sign. Was it a boon or meant to distract? Either way, Daredemo had decided to send a clone in first to investigate and upon there being nothing deadly they would enter afterwards.

Mairusu's eyes were immediately drawn to the sarcophagus in the room which was definitely kinda creepy and super out of place. The symbol on the lid that read 'death' was more than enough for the genin to not want to go anywhere near it and thankfully the others had agreed. What the boy couldn't make heads or tails of, however, were the weird stones that lay around the stone box and even with Daredemo's explanation it still didn't make a ton of sense but if he had a hunch it was better than nothing. If the elements were the key then between the four of them it wouldn't have been too hard to gather them all, what with the running stream a little ways back, but what would happen once they got all the elements? Would the lid open on that thing? Did they even want to deal with what was possibly inside it?

Ren would inquire about checking out the stream they had passed earlier to see if there were any clues regarding their target and his reasoning made sense considering the easiest way to avoid leaving tracks or anything like that was to travel by water. "Probably couldn't hurt to check, and we gotta go back that way to grab some water for these weird stones anyway." Mairusu would reply. Since Daredemo was their only source of light at the moment it would be up to him if they went to scour the stream for clues.

▲

WORDS ● Ishikawa Ren Uzumaki Atagi Daredemo Yamamoto Eri ● NOTES

deltra of gangnam style

[Uzumaki Atagi]

Flowing water will never grow stale

Atagi was the type to take to a new situation or fresh face like a fish to water, all too eager to get acquainted. En route to meet their proctor, he’s almost assuredly the first to pipe up, with a grandiose gesture and what was a decided excess of confidence. ”Atagi Uzumaki, yeah? Of the grass. Pleased to make your acquaintance!” In fact, he doesn’t need any prompting to start sharing with them, even, hardly even missing a step in their walk while giving an overly energetic high kick. ”Hero-to-be, n’ reliable as the gods laughing when you say something’ll "never” happen. Close combat specialist, taijutsu dynamo, n’ a veritable battery of energy, chakra and otherwise. Got a little fuuton, too.” Despite the absurdity of some of his claims, the crimson-haired genin from the grass appeared to fully, wholly, and utterly regard it as the truth. At least he wasn’t lacking in hubris confidence.

---

As the four of them proceed along, he’s got a spring in his step and a smile etched at his features every moment, though those aureate eyes of his were keened by just the right amount of paranoia. It seemed he had been assigned some reliable shinobi, as far as skill sets went– perhaps that was the theme of the group. Even though he’s probably supposed to, he also doesn’t side-eye Ren too much for being from a village whose interests weren’t aligned with his own. After all, in his book, a good person was a good person– that was all there really was to it. But he had to be at least a little wary, considering the last time he’d met a potential future enemy at the exams, it’d ended with him crippled.

Already, he starts making assessments about them. Ren seemed to be the closest to Atagi in terms of general ‘vibrations’, he decides; not least of all because he was tall and svelte. His broad scope of techniques belies either a love of learning or paranoia, but both come in handy in their lifestyles. That being said, he certainly had a serious edge to him that the Uzumaki lacked, at least in this scenario. Mairusu seems like the sort of person who you could easily get along with, even though like most shinobi he could probably kill you in a handful of seconds. The fact that he’s mostly a single school jutsu user appeals to his own sensibilities; though Atagi hardly knew anything of the element most natural to him save for stuff to augment his taijutsu. Daredemo’s stature is the opposite of the way he carries himself– with a sense of knowing exactly what he was doing, and not being afraid to let others know it. One couldn’t be like that and also be insecure, that was for certain. ”...we’ve got almost every chakra nature covered between us then, yeah? How funny is that.”

When they squeeze through the entrance to the corridor, he directs his eyes upwards, then behind them, as they move further inside. ”We ought to be careful about making sure we’ve got a way out– considering the size of the entrance, all it would take is a poorly placed boulder or an unfortunate cave-in to lock us out.” Daredemo offering to light the way for them is much appreciated, and he’s got no complaints about allowing someone else to take the lead a little, even if it is typically his prerogative. Pathing down the corridor with them, neck cranes to peek at the wisps of floating ash, bemused by them somewhat, before directing attentions to the stream, peeking for anything glinting or glimmering– that seemed like it’d be thematically appropriate, for this sort of puzzle.

When the information about the sarcophagus is brought over and it’s relayed to the rest of the group, Atagi blinks once, twice, three times at their reactions. ”I don’t have a problem with checking the stream, either, yeah? Still, if we can open it, why not? Our proctor wouldn’t purposelessly setup some sort of ‘open the sarcophagus’ puzzle unless we were supposed to open it. Especially if it looks like we’re clearly supposed to not, just like how the door says this is not the way but it obviously is. And if there is some sorta enemy, I’m sure we can take them.” He nods a few times, grinning with a sly smile that belied a belief the four of them could improvise to achieve just about anything.”And what d’you suppose the ‘four’ symbol in the middle means?” Atagi remarks, straightforward as ever, taking the alternative interpretation of the character. He may not have known the answer to the questions himself, but priming his newfound compatriots with ideas ought to be of use. "Four of us? Forth time's the charm? Four inches? Four o' clock....mn."

(Hiesin Mairusu, Daredemo, Yamamoto Eri, Ishikawa Ren)

aeron at thq

[Yamamoto Eri]

Genbu-san

Daredemo's clone would find no danger as it stepped into the room with the Sarcophagus, though Ren's question would lead them to realise that there was no dust in this room, nothing particularly out of place... except that one rock placed at the bottom near the symbol that Daredemo had identified as representing 'Earth'. Looking around the room the Sarcophagus was situated in would reveal that the rock could not have fallen there by chance, not only was the stonework crisp and unbroken, but the rock itself was the wrong kind of stone entirely unlike anything in this room... or in the cave at all. It had come from somewhere else, that would be readily apparent to the four Genin.

While the four of them took their time discussing it, it would seem that they were not going to be given a chance to leisurely discuss their thoughts. A dull thudding sound echoed through the cavern, coming from the entrance to the cave, the sound of something heavy, and any sounds that might have been echoing down that path went silent all of a sudden. At the same time, a quiet hissing would become audible. If they looked upwards the Genin would see an unpleasantly yellow coloured smoke starting to gather in the upper portions of the room, swirling ominously as it was pumped into the room.

Since, to the best of their ability to tell, none of them had triggered anything, it was highly possible that their time limit was going to be enforced with more than just the arrival of a proctor. 

---

OOC notes:
- You have 72 hours to post.
- Each player may post once in each rotation. The proctor’s post demarcates the start of a new rotation.
- You do not have to follow the same posting order in each rotation. I encourage you to utilize your Discord group chats within the CE server to strategize with your teammates, and to post whenever is most appropriate and accessible for you.
- If you fail to post before the deadline, you will receive one strike. Receiving three strikes in total will disqualify you from the remainder of the exams.
- The mission objective must be achieved within six rotations. After the conclusion of the sixth rotation, the exams will move on to round 2.
- There is no disqualifier round. Just do your best and have fun!

Posts are due by:

SPOILER: Click to show

---

Word Count: 264
Tags: Ishikawa Ren , Hiesin Mairusu , Uzumaki Atagi , Daredemo

[Daredemo]

DAREDEMO Uzumaki Atagi   Hiesin Mairusu   Ishikawa Ren

    There was a moment where Daredemo contemplated sharing with his makeshift squad as they had shared with him. Divulging his abilities to them in case they needed a quick run down of what they needed. However, no one seemed to ask him to directly, and no one seemed to necessarily expect him to do so. And, so, Daredemo let the conversation pass, and only vocally divulged his katon nature. He had his sword strapped to his waist, so it was likely some could make guesses as to his skills with the blade, but his other abilities would remain his secret for the time being. 

    The discoveries in the room would be slow for now, but the realization of how... unsettlingly clean this place was found Daredemo feeling unease. "We should activate the sarcophagus, quickly too judging by the gas above us," Daredemo, for his part, didn't seem all that concerned about the gas, he had actually waited to comment on it until he figured out more about its nature. The fact that it was still filling the room actually filled him with relief. If it was a jutsu meant to delay them, he was under the impression that it would be activating rather quickly. Quite the contrary, the gas continued to fill the air slowly, implying to Daredemo that it was their timer.

    Which meant it wasn't dangerous. Likely some type of sleeping gas. Still a reason to clear this area quickly, but not to fright. "I think either way forward is a possible end point. And honestly I'm far too interested in puzzle solving to let the opportunity pass by. But, If someone else has shadow clones then they should be able to join me in the room without consequence. So we can activate the puzzle while everyone is safely out of the room. Both options available."

    For his part it didn't seem that Daredemo was interested in waiting. If people didn't want to follow along, they'd vocalize it, but he was going to get moving. And after bluffing that he had shadow clones, rather than his ashen variants, he felt happy about the future ahead. The real Daredemo would quickly go back to the stream, using the wall climbing technique to dip down and get some water, bringing it to himself (the clone). Fire, Water, Earth, all in the room. Well, Daredemo assumed that his clone, being Katon, could fill the position for the flames, hopefully. He just needed air. 

OWL

[Hiesin Mairusu]

TAKE ME TO VALHALLA WHERE MY BROTHERS WAIT FOR ME

There were a couple of options on the groups plate and dawdling on making a decision was going to cost them precious time. Atagi and Daredemo seemed content on figuring out this 'puzzle' while the guy from Ame wanted to circle back to the stream but either way they still had to find their target and then try to get the scroll from him all within the time limit. While the sarcophagus sitting in the room could have very well been an elaborate red herring meant to throw them off Mairusu figured that since these stones and symbols actually had a meaning that the group could reasonably accomplish there was merit to seeing it through. Granted, opening that thing may have come with its own set of problems but at least they'd be getting somewhere.

Just then a hollow thud --no, multiple-- would echo from the path they had came followed by a strange hissing sound that to the apprentice reminded him all too much of the scaly creatures he was linked to. Eyes shifted from side to side until finally locating the source of the sound: some kind of gas entering the room from the ceiling. "Ayo!" Mairusu exclaimed as his initial instinct to dart out of the room kicked in, but with it not moving all that quickly and at least for the moment no adverse affects taking their toll on them he was able to curtail the feeling.

"I don't have clones, but if it's the elements were needing then instead of circling back to the stream we can use one of these." From his munitions pouch the boy would produce a flask of what looked to be plain water and for all intents and purposes that was exactly what it was. "We should have everything we need between the four of us. I'd say if we're gonna give it a shot let's do it now before that gas gets any closer." The genin would speak. He was prepared to empty his flask at the appropriate stone or hand it to someone's clone if they chose to go that route, but either way they needed to get a move on.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Charged Water Flask
RANK: C
CLASSIFICATION: Supplementary
ELEMENT: Suiton
OWNER: Yuie Shōko
DESCRIPTION:
Small glass flasks that can be poured out. Contain a small quantity of water. The glass is particularly fragile and susceptible to impacts. It is functionally a water grenade, if thrown.

ABILITIES:
The water inside the flask is ‘charged’ with various minerals and such to be a superior conductor of electricity. If someone is doused in water from the flask it serves to reduce their resistance to electricity, effectively boosting the damage slightly. It can also be used as a source of water for other purposes and techniques if necessary.

▲

WORDS ● Ishikawa Ren Uzumaki Atagi Daredemo Yamamoto Eri ● NOTES

deltra of gangnam style

[Ishikawa Ren]

     Ren nodded quickly. The appearance of the gas'd been a shock, but they should be alright as long as they worked fast. If the sarcophagus was truly irrelevant, there'd be no reason to protect it with the gas - probably.

     Moving over to the nearest outcropping of earth, he harvested a small amount with his hand before returning to the entrance. The gas hadn't fully descended anyway, but Ren figured the earlier caution was perhaps a tad too much. Even someone in a good shape, untrained in it, could still hold their breath for about a minute and a half.

     With 3 deep breaths, Ren held on the third and quickly headed over to the sarcophagus. Handful of dirt in hand, he either shoved it in the hole to activate it, or listened for feedback from his teammates. Once he'd done his part with the 'Earth' section, he headed back towards Hiesin and refreshed his breath.

     Just in case, Ren kneeled in front of the entrance with a palm on the ground. Should anything happen such as an explosion or an immediate attack, he could throw an earthern wall up to section them off from any clone(s) left in the room - just in case. In most likelihood it'd be unnecessary, but Ren wanted to be ready in case it was.

Yamamoto Eri Daredemo Uzumaki Atagi Hiesin Mairusu | 219 words

[Uzumaki Atagi]

Flowing water will never grow stale

The four of them seem to be on the same page as far as what to do, or at least what to try. The Uzumaki beams, then gets ready to get a move on...but then that dull noise sounds out in the cave, and Atagi’s smile dampens, even if not disappearing completely. A hitch-less plan was no plan at all, as the saying went, and his pride swells a little at having called the fact that they’d end up blocked off from the entrance. At least, that was the assumption. The smoke being pumped into the room makes the hair on his neck stand and a prickling at the skin called nervousness start, priming for action. ”Ah, shit. We ought to get a move on– and quick. Worst comes to worst, I’m sure we can just ignite it to stop us from getting poisoned or what have you.” he remarks, terrible presumptuously. Part of him wonders if they’re on the completely wrong page, if maybe Daredemo’s remarkably quick deduction was off. It seemed almost too convenient, that the four of them had nearly all the right tools to solve the problem, and that’s what drives throws the brunt of the coal into his engin of suspicion; but then again, people always wanted to believe that there was no such thing as a coincidence and whatever their mind’s eye produced was real; that’s what caused pareidolia, wasn’t it?

At the notion of using a clone to enter the room, Atagi flashes his squad a look that could’ve been any combination of triumphant, prideful, unsettling, or reassuring. ”Whatever danger’s in there, I’m sure I can handle myself on the fly, yeah?” He didn’t exactly have the choice of using a shadow clone, to be fair, but to mention that would diminish a valuable opportunity to say something superlatively self-assured. He uses the tree-climbing technique, much like his compatriot D-D to cross, and makes his way on into the room. Then, he works through three handseals as he’s making his way through the door and into the chamber– wind starts to whirl and move around his hands and feet, almost ‘stuck’ there.

Jogging on over, first he sticks the coated hand– or finger, whatever he could– into the hole assigned to ‘wind’ or ‘air’ (according to Daredemo’s earlier assessment) seeing if that does it– or does anything, for that matter. If that doesn’t work, he withdraws and just starts blowing into the hole like he’s trying to play an instrument. If that ends up not working, he tries messing around with the rock with the symbol on it, instead, and if that fails, he throws a Sonic Hurricane at the hole, hoping maybe a fuuton-touched jutsu is the key. And if that fell flat? Well, they clearly had to come up with a new idea.

(Hiesin Mairusu, Daredemo, Yamamoto Eri, Ishikawa Ren)

aeron at thq

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Rasshusutansu [Rush Stance]

RANK: C

CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low [Very Low to maintain]

CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu

ELEMENT: Fuuton

HANDSEALS: 3

DESCRIPTION:
This stance requires the user to use fuuton to generate a small current of wind around the body that is condensed into a visible form around the hands and feet. Activating this stance allows the user to increase the speed of their strikes and attacks, specifically for this style.

NAME: Sonikku Harikēn [Sonic Hurricane]

RANK: B

CHAKRA USAGE: Medium

CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu

ELEMENT: Fuuton

HANDSEALS: 0

REQUIREMENT: Wind Rush Stance

DESCRIPTION:
Whilst in the Wind Rush Stance the user will use the chakra located at their hands to throw a series of 5 rapid punches releasing some of the wind from their fist into a small wind projectile that can cut the opponent with razor wind however the range of this is roughly 2 to 3 meters [6 to 9 feet] and is used to keep an opponent at bay whilst retreating on the balls of one's foot.

[Yamamoto Eri]

Genbu-san

Between the four of them they made to put four elements into four spots on the sarcophagus. Earth and water seemed to do nothing for the moment, but the touch of Atagi's Rasshusutansu coated finger had the first stroke of the 'shi' character light up in the gloom, and the heat from Dare's clone would cause the second stroke to also ignite. For a moment it seemed like nothing more would happen, had they miscalculated something? Then the remaining portion of the character also lit up, the lid of the sarcophagus lifting up with a 'pop' before sliding towards the end of the room revealing... a hole and ladder, leading into further darkness. At the same time that the sarcophagus opened, the sound of metal against rock would come from the underground creek, but nothing else appears to happen. 

At the same moment the hissing of the gas vents got louder, the billowing mustard yellow substance swirling at higher speeds as it was clearly pumped at higher speeds into the cavern. It would be at this point that they would realise it hadn't just been coming into the room with the sarcophagus, but was also starting to gather along the top of the corridor and cave they had come from.

Assuming the Genin followed the path that was laid before them, they would find themselves climbing down about twenty feet before reaching a small tunnel that would open out into a familiar looking style of corridor. Travelling down the corridor, they would come to a branching point, leading to what was clearly three different routes to travel. Engraved in clear view was a new 'hint' for them.

The light protects from shadows, but darkness can lead to paths some might consider unnatural.

---

OOC notes:
- You have 72 hours to post.
- Each player may post once in each rotation. The proctor’s post demarcates the start of a new rotation.
- You do not have to follow the same posting order in each rotation. I encourage you to utilize your Discord group chats within the CE server to strategize with your teammates, and to post whenever is most appropriate and accessible for you.
- If you fail to post before the deadline, you will receive one strike. Receiving three strikes in total will disqualify you from the remainder of the exams.
- The mission objective must be achieved within six rotations. After the conclusion of the sixth rotation, the exams will move on to round 2.
- There is no disqualifier round. Just do your best and have fun!

Posts are due by:

---

Word Count: 292
Tags: Ishikawa Ren , Hiesin Mairusu , Uzumaki Atagi , Daredemo

[Daredemo]

DAREDEMO Uzumaki Atagi   Hiesin Mairusu   Ishikawa Ren

    Daredemo watched the entrance in the chamber open up. This was getting tedious. He knew that being a chuunin was supposed to be challenging, but with the limited time frame, having the group have to travel such distances before even interacting with their target was frustrating. He didn't even feel like he was tracking anything. It was a straight hallway with a riddle. Fleeing shinobi don't often leave riddles for you to follow. They leave footprints, chakra signatures. The room they were in didn't even have evidence that someone had ever been inside, and yet the group was just supposed to trust it. It made no sense to the boy. 

    "I swear to god, if this dude is back down that creek and not down the strange ladder protected by an actual puzzle I am killing one of the proctors." Daredemo's statement was made flatly, as if the boy was barely even aware of the ramifications it had while traveling with a group of people. But regardless, even with the noise in the creek, the idea that their pursuit wouldn't follow the actual puzzles would just be rude design in his mind, needlessly pointing them in the wrong direction for little more than fun. So Daredemo wasted no time in dropping down the ladder. His eyes going over the riddle put in front of him. "Really! Another riddle. I swear when we get to this guy he better just hand us that scroll with all this work we're putting in." 

    The wording seemed obvious enough. Unnatural paths in darkness was clearly encouraging them to keep going into the darkness. And so as he continued to stumble through the dark tunnels he'd simply trying and go to whichever tunnel seemed to trap the least amount of light. The farthest from where they had entered. 

OWL

[Hiesin Mairusu]

TAKE ME TO VALHALLA WHERE MY BROTHERS WAIT FOR ME

The group's gambit had paid off as Mairusu watched the lid of the sarcarphogus slide open to reveal... a ladder. "Well at least it's not a mummy." The genin spoke before the intensity of the gas kicked up a notch and began to fill the room at a faster pace. Going even further down into this cave wasn't ideal but judging from the different angles that this gas was being pushed at them it was essentially their only option and whatever lay at the bottom of the ladder was surely better than dealing with the effects of this unknown substance. Following suit, the boy would make his way down the ladder which led to yet another corridor for them to travel, a weird sense of deja vu washing over him as the familiar pattern on the walls and floor made him think of the space above.

In time they would come across yet another message, this one talking about light protecting from shadows but darkness leading to different paths. Hmmm, what the hell did that mean? There were 3 paths laid before them and none gave any indication that one was better than the other or had anything to do with their 'hint'. Mairusu would hear Daredemo's frustration about the situation and while his village mate was justified in being tired of the tricky sayings and puzzles the fact that they had managed to make it to an even more ridiculous one probably meant they were close to their target; however that would matter little if they couldn't figure out which path was the correct one.

Thinking back on the riddle it seemed like darkness was the key. Assuming these corridors were the same as the ones above then the only way the group had been able to see was because of Daredemo, but if the 'true' path could only be found with the absence of light then that meant they needed to follow the darkest looking one which normally would be the one people would want to avoid and a perfect place for someone not wanting to be found to hide.

"I guess we follow the darkest path even though... they're all pretty dark." Mairusu spoke in a puzzled tone. From the looks of it Daredemo had decided that the furthest path was the one to go, how he got to that conclusion was a mystery but time was of the essence so dawdling about over decisions wasn't too wise; he only hoped that the paths weren't too long so that if they needed to double back and try another it wouldn't be too much of a hassle.

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WORDS ● Yamamoto Eri Daredemo Uzumaki Atagi Ishikawa Ren ● NOTES

deltra of gangnam style

[Ishikawa Ren]

     Ren mulled for a moment in the darkness. Ideally, he'd like to create shadow clones and split the party up in such a way that the dispersed clones could be used to pinpoint the correct path - but making two or three and risking losing that chakra to some unforeseen circumstance wasn't viable.

     Time was still of the essence, but he didn't think they were in such a rush that risking that was worth it. So he nodded along to Daredamo's suggestion. "Darkest path seems like the best, furthest away from the light. I don't think we should try to split up." That said, he set off down the tunnel to the furthest path.

     Hand on the wall, he plodded down the dark passageway while squinting. There didn't seem to be much to see at the moment, but he tried to be observant in case of an ambush. Back at the crossroads, he'd tried to look around for any sign of their target's path, but hadn't seen anything remarkable. This guy seemed inscrutable, but Ren figured there were plenty of ways he could've bypassed the route - a back entrance, maybe, or travelling through the ground or something.

     As they made their way down the dark passage, Ren snuck his Fuinjutsu brush out of his pouch and - in the darkness - quietly marked the seal for Genjutsu Intolerance on his forehead, hidden underneath his bangs. Best to be safe, both here in the tunnels and - if it wasn't used - he could save it for later in the Exams. Stowing his stuff, he paused to weave the three handseals before they reached the entrance.

Used Genjutsu Intolerance Seal, low cost.
Yamamoto Eri Daredemo Hiesin Mairusu Uzumaki Atagi | 270 words