An ANBU Aptitude Assessment (C-Rank Modded Team Mission)

[Hashigaki Kauru]

Toumei wasn't really sure what to expect as he sat outside the Obsidian Palace, back leaned to the unforgiving wall. He had recently encountered a problem which needed a few more warm bodies, and had sent word to two young promising shinobi with some minor details of the situation at hand. He had been a bit vague, simply noting that he required aid in cracking a lock and some light reconnaissance work. He left out the part about the lock ultimately being under an organ harvesting ring's hideout, and that "reconnaissance" could very well end up as roughshod assassination, if things didn't pan out accordingly.

In any event, the team would never have reason to set foot into the Black Bazaar if the two young shinobi couldn't prove better thieves than he. The issue of the lock mounted into the wall of the subterranean vault beneath the storefront in the Bazaar had vexed him for nearly a week, and he was at his wits end.

Toumei sat and fiddled with his facsimiles of the locking mechanism. In attempting to understand it, he drew up schematics with as much detail as possible and took them to a less than reputable (but quiet) locksmith and had them replicated as near as he could surmise.

He fiddled with the lock and waited, scanning the horizon for his would-be pupils. Sighing softly, Toumei set the locks on a long table in front of him and paced.

 

[Tanaka Mori]

Mori had been waiting to hear from Toumei after his graduation from the academy. When he finally received word that Toumei could use some assistance on a mission, Mori was quick to send a message back and confirm that he was ready and willing to help. As he walked toward the Obsidian Palace Mori has a little bit of a spring in his step and thought to himself "This could be my chance to prove myself to the Anbu Corps and potentially join their ranks!" The closer he moved toward the Palace Mori noticed an Anbu pacing outside in front of some tables. Mori noticed that each table had one or two different looking mechanical mechanisms and wondered would they could be used for. As the Anbu that was pacing out front turned to acknowledge his presence, Mori was happy to note it was Toumei. Mori would recognize Toumei anywhere with his green eyes and the seemingly red tears down his Anbu mask. "Hello!" Mori greeted his friend.

 

[Hashigaki Kauru]

Toumei snapped from his daze as he was greeted by one of the shinobi he had been keeping tabs on. This one was a recent graduate of the Academy, and while he was generally still green by fighting strength alone, his mental facilities were impressive. He had an affinity for problem solving and a fierce wit - Mori was his name. More than anything, though, he was a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective, which was the biggest thing he needed at this juncture.

"Welcome, Mori. I'm glad to see you could come so quickly. I'd love to wait for our other party member, but I'm afraid we need to get to work sooner rather than later. Based on my surveillance of the organization in the Black Bazaar, I'm afraid I'm quickly running out of time to infiltrate their vault before they liquidate their product." Toumei paused for a moment and presented Mori with the mock locking system.

"Something you might not know about me is that I have an extremely advanced sense of hearing. I was able to discern quite a bit by eavesdropping on the goons outside the shop, and even more still by pressing the flesh, as it were, with that massive vault in the basement of the shop."

"I had one of these made for each of us," he continued, pulling out a second and third copy of the locking mechanism. It was a small, midnight black platform, no more than a foot long and four inches high. Each of them had exactly four slots carved out for a small, spherical object to be inserted.

"As you might be able to tell from the bottom here, this particular lock works through a series of differently weighted orbs. In our specific circumstances, the vault uses color coded orbs to denote different weights." Toumei sighed, and pulled out three boxes of six colored orbs. He held one aloft to show Mori.

"You seem like one for numbers, so let me explain how this gets tricky fast. Not only does the vault reset the correct combination every hour, but it also resets after eight combinations are attempted, in addition to tripping a rather noisy alarm. That last part I only managed to glean after the guards had spent a bit too much of their paychecks on Sake." He smiled coyly, brandishing the other orbs. "So... there are six colored orbs. Red,blue,yellow,green,orange,and purple."

Toumei frowned. "The bad news is that if we include the possibility of duplicate colors, there are...." His frown deepened and he spoke again, "1296 different possible combinations. So a lot."

"The good news is that their system has one very, very minute flaw. I can actually hear the lock clicking into place when the orbs are correct. In fact, the system in the vault seems to be able to distinguish between orbs which are entirely correct, as in the right color in the right slot, and those of the right color in the wrong slot. I suppose it must be a bit of a cushion to help tip the owners off if they ever get confused or locked out."

"So anyhow, you might as well get started. I'm sure there's a way to figure this out between the three of us, once our third arrives, that is. I'll explain again when he arrives, but for now, I think you and I ought to get started. There's a lot of work to do." Toumei motioned to the locking mechanism and then handed Mori his set of orbs."Give it a shot. I've programmed the combinations randomly, and can manually reset them if we exceed the number of attempts or manage to hit it correctly. I'll let you know the results as we progress. Make sense?" Toumei hoped that his rambling had added up to the young shinobi. He knew it was a lot to take in.


(MFT - WC: 652)

 

[Dono]

A bit late because he had gotten the word just moments ago, Dono rushed to the Anbu mission room. Placing his plain mask upon his face, as he looked up to the other two.

"Sorry I'm late guys, I was caught up in some.... Family things, forgive me. I promise not to let you down again. I've heard most of the mission and what we've learnt. Well actually I was here but I fell asleep in the rafters, Gomen..."

He bowed slightly as he awaited the other two acknowledge his entrance. He wasn't expecting them to go easy on him. His Snow White locks would be tied in a pony tail with a few ruffles from the rafters.

 

[Hashigaki Kauru]

Toumei looked up from his lock, which he had just finished placing a third orb into, just as his final guest arrived. "Welcome. Snow Devil. You're just in time. As you might guess from the mask, I am Toumei," and, waving to the new Genin, he continued,"this is Mori. We will all be working together on this mission."

Toumei listened as the young ANBU spoke. "I've heard most of the mission and what we've learnt. Well actually I was here but I fell asleep in the rafters, Gomen..." Toumei cracked a faint smile beneath his mask. To be young and hungry again...

"I'm glad you overheard the situation at hand. The sun is setting quickly, and I hope to make it over to the Bazaar tonight if we can manage to come up with a reliable system to crack these locks. I'm struggling to complete the task with any consistency, but I'm hoping you two might have a better mind for this sort of thing."

Toumei sat his lock down and perched himself on the table, towering over the two young shinobi, cocking his head to the side slightly. "I've been at this so long that I'm starting to count orbs instead of sheep. I'll tell you what... I'll take a break from the code cracking and leave it to the two of you. I'll listen for the clicks and tell you when you're on the right track, or if you're totally off. You might want to write down the combinations you've tried so you don't spend time using combinations you've already tried. Each of your locks is set to work similarly to the one in the vault. It resets every eight tries if you haven't managed to crack the combination."

Toumei listened intently for the nearly imperceptible clicks as the young boys began placing orbs into their locks.

 

[Tanaka Mori]

Mori was eager to prove himself to Toumei and to the Anbu Corps in general so he started work on the lock he had been given as soon as Toumei has finished speaking. His first thought was that perhaps the code would have something to do with the names of the colors. So carefully, Mori placed the blue orb in the first slot, followed by the green orb in the second slot, the orange orb in the third slot and lastly the purple orb in the last slot. The lock made no perceptible change at the code he had just entered and Mori took that as a sign of a failed code. He quickly removed the orbs he had just placed in the lock and chose to put them in the lock based on the order of a rainbow. First the red orb, followed by the orange orb, the yellow orb after that and lastly green orb. Again the lock gave no sign of change. Mori would not be deterred from his task that easily. He tried alphabetical again but for the last four in the sequence, orange, purple, red, yellow. No luck. He tried the alphabet backwards, yellow, red, purple, orange. Still the lock didn't move. Ever now and again Mori would look over to Toumei to see if he had heard anything of note in the flurry of different combinations Mori had tried. Toumei's observations didn't seem to lead to a system that would help figure this out in a timely manner once we tried to crack this code for real. Frustration was starting to set in. Mori was normally a quick learner. Maybe not the best student in his class but he always found a way to be the first to master any new techniques. Practicality and logical thinking were his strong suits, so Mori put his lock back down on the table and sat cross-legged on the ground. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate on developing a practical system the team could use to rapidly deduce the locks combination in a potentially hazardous situation.
MFT: 350 WC

 

[Hashigaki Kauru]

Mori began frantically placing orbs within his locking mechanism, taking little to no time to wait for Toumei to listen. It was impossible for the Hashigaki to delineate the sounds over the frantic shuffling of orbs and the reverberation created by Mori's rushed process. Toumei appreciated the Genin's zeal, but that wasn't quite the focus of the mission.

"Remember, we will only have eight attempts to do this thing once we get to the vault. We can't brute force our way in. We need to devise a system that can, at least somewhat, reliably find this code."

He spoke as Mori was finishing his last combination of orbs. Mori had placed them in a final sequence of yellow, red, purple,and orange. Toumei paused and, through some focus, could hear the lock react. He felt the vibrations of the device as the weight of the orbs fell upon it.

"Mori! We're on to something. One of those orbs is the right color in the right spot. Another orb is the right color, but the wrong spot."

As he spoke, he realized that this was going to get complicated fast, and so he scratched two long columns into the table with his metal talons, his weapon of choice.

The first column read "MORI" and the second "SNOW DEVIL".

Under the column labelled "MORI" Toumei etched a record of the attempt.

"#1. Xxoo" was now also scrawled under Mori's name.

"The large X indicates an orb of the right color in the right spot. A small x, the right color in the wrong spot. O's represent no reaction, or incorrect orbs." Toumei paused for a moment and then continued, hoping to ease the immense task as much as possible through clarity.

"But, it's worth mentioning that I still can't tell which orb is correct and which isn't. We'll have to develop a process to eliminate the solutions and produce the best results. Any ideas? Give them a shot, one combination at a time, and I'll try to fill you in as we go."

TABLE CONDITION:

MORI | SNOW DEVIL
#1.Xxoo |

 

[Dono]

Dono would simply watch as the other genin had attempted a few tries. Memorizing his code as he did them, understanding why they didn't work was a big equation to this problem. With the lock being not that of a normal origin. Maybe it was more to it than just a simple color code. Dono would tilt his head slightly as he scratched the back of his head with his index finger, how on earth would they get this open. Moving the orbs around, as he lifted up and started to examine them.

Getting a little bit bored with the idea of waiting, he began to juggle the orbs, and he decided the first four he dropped would be the ones he used, since logical thinking didn't seem to work. He had always been unexpectedly lucky when in tough situations. With a light sigh he figured the ones that would drop first are the heaviest. So juggling them slowly as he closed his eyes. The first one to fall was Orange, he kept juggling as the blue one fell next. After a few moments red fell, then purple.

Shrugging slightly at the random drop, he simply placed them in the lock, the First was orange, then blue, then red, and finally purple. Sitting there stubbornly as he waited to see if anything happen. Not able to notice any change. His head went downward as a small drop of embarrassment graced his face.

"Yare Yare daze, how do we figure this out, I mean if they didn't do this logically then maybe they pieced together random colors. Hm, maybe there's a way to bypass it? I'm sure you know some justu that could help, or atleast have like an Anbu Skelton key. Hm....... What a drag.."

His index finger would tap his mask slightly as he looked to both of the males, wishing he awakened his sharingan, if he had it he would just watch guards muscle movements as they put it in. Looking at the orbs, wondering about all the possible combination would give him a headache, as his hand began to rub his head as he thought.

 

[Hashigaki Kauru]

Toumei snapped upright in disbelief As The young ANBU in training seemed to slack off and juggle, haphazardly dropping four of the orbs.

Maybe I was wrong about this one... Kauru thought to himself.

As the fleeting doubt crept into his mind, so too did it pass." - upon hearing four distinct clicks from the ashen haired ANBU's lock.

Click. Click. Click. Click.

"Unbelievable! Unreal! On the first try?!?" The senior ANBU was clearly exhilarated with this turn of events. He rapidly turned to the table and etched in the record of Snow Devil's first try.

"xxxx"

He stood back, amazed, and implored the white haired wonder to continue.

TABLE CONDITION
Mori | Snow Devil
#1. Xxoo | xxxx

 

[Dono]

Upon hearing his ANBU senior stand up and marvel at his attempt. Dono couldn't help to feel a bit embarrassed even more now. Tilting his head abit as his luck had once again came in handy. He knew that it was a a low chance of luck but it was nice to have it. Looking at the lock as it opened, he couldn't help but feel a bit excited as well. He was of course still just a ten year old child. Giving a big smile from behind his mask as he felt like he did something extraordinary.

"Ah, Gomen Senpai.. I um just decided which one fell first would do, maybe the lock is set up with weight? Or maybe it is just randomly together? Any thoughts?

Tilting his head a bit as he was confused on how adults put this code together. He would think they were all drunk when they did this, knowing adults that seemed like something they could have done, but there was so much more he wondered. Like how to crack the code so he wouldn't have to rely on luck.

 

[Hashigaki Kauru]

Still a bit taken aback, Toumei listened to the young AiT.

"Ah, Gomen Senpai.. I um just decided which one fell first would do, maybe the lock is set up with weight? Or maybe it is just randomly together? Any thoughts?

Toumei narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow in contemplation before speaking. "It's an interesting thought, but... There are just too many variables right now. If we crack one lock, even on accident, it would give use some major insights as to how the real lock works. I doubt if we can surmise a way to reliable break these codes before actually breaking one of them."

Toumei smiled under his mask and stood upright a bit before walking over to Snow Devil. "But at this rate, we'll be done in the next hour. Keep trying! We know you have the right colors already. I can't imagine it'd take more than one or two more tries to get the lock fully cracked!"

Toumei turned about, not wanting his other apprentice to grow disinterested or disheartened. "And you too, Mori! Why don't we have you work on Snow Devil's lock as well. You're the analytical type. We have seven chances left to get this right. Let's work together to get this lock open, and we can retroactively devise a formula from there!"


TABLE CONDITION
Mori | Snow Devil
#1. Xxoo | xxxx

 

[Dono]

He would take head from his senior ANBU , as he looked at the the lock. Tilting his head a bit before removing the orbs. He looked at the scroll with both him and the other genins name on it. He placed the yellow orb in the first slot, then the purple one in the second a lot. He then slid the lock to the meditating genin.

"Since we are a team you should at least do SOME of the work, I think maybe it's red, blue or vice versa, so finish it, because we are a team."l

He hated the idea of someone being left out and feeling useless, he knew that feeling all to well. Though he could be a tad bit nicer when he said it, him still being a child of course he wouldn't understand how to convey this without his pride.

 

[Tanaka Mori]

Although to a casual observer it might have seemed that Mori had given in to frustration and sat down into a pouting fit he had, however, been paying attention to the exchanges between Toumei and Snow Devil as they both started the development of the system we would use to crack the safe and the luck of Snow Devil in ascertaining the colors that we would need to break the code on this specific lock. He felt as if the way to crack this lock system was just around the next corner in his mind when he heard Toumei turn and speak in his direction
"And you too, Mori! Why don't we have you work on Snow Devil's lock as well. You're the analytical type. We have seven chances left to get this right. Let's work together to get this lock open, and we can retroactively devise a formula from there!"
Mori appreciated the senior shinobi's actions to include him in their work. Sometimes Mori can get too caught up in the big picture and forget about doing the small details first.
"Since we are a team you should at least do SOME of the work, I think maybe it's red, blue or vice versa, so finish it, because we are a team." Snow Devil seemed to mock him but it sounded more like a light banter between people that could become good friends or fierce rivals. Mori took the lock from his Genin counterpart and put the blue in next followed by the red orb. "Given the first order you put the orbs in red can't be in the third spot because it was there last time and wasn't correct" Mori reasoned with Snow Devil. Mori turned to Toumei "I'm sorry if my meditation made it appear as if I had lost interest in this work. It is important to me that we are successful here and I will do my best to help with the solution."

 

[Hashigaki Kauru]

Toumei was pleased to see the progress his pupils were making. Not only were they working diligently to break the code of the lock, but they were developing a bit of a friendly rivalry as well, it seemed. Good! Competition always manages to bring out the best in people, and ANBU needs what it can get. The AiT has uncanny intuition, but the Genin shows a cool resolve even when faced with adversity. Very interesting complimentary pieces, potentially...

Toumei's focus became razor sharp after Mori placed the last orb into the lock. Again, there were four just barely audible clicks whispering to his Hashigaki sense of hearing. However, these clicks were no different than on the first attempt.

"Well, boys, I have good news to report. We still received four clicks for the colors, but it seems as though none of those orbs were in exactly the right spot."

Toumei laughed, and it sounded unfamiliar and muffled beneath his mask - hollow, in a way. Before getting too carried away with excitement, he looked again toward the young shinobi before him.

"Mori, you seem to have a knack for the logical part of this. My mind is a bit frazzled, but you're saying that if we track which orbs have given us undesired results, we can know which orbs will produce the correct ones? That's incredible... I don't know how I didn't see that sooner. Oh well, no time to get down on ourselves. Come on boys, keep trying! We have six attempts left before the lock resets!"

 

[Dono]

"Tch, what a pain.. But we don't have a choice I guess. Well if we have the right colors we just have to figure out the order right? Or is it... Like... Hm... Candy .. Different flavors... Hm.

His index finger would tap his Anbu mask, thinking would make him kind of irritated. With a light sigh. Maybe, just maybe he could figure out a non logical way? Maybe like a game to pick orbs. Bleh, all this thinking. Was making him more and more hungry. Taking out a stick of sweet dumpling. Quickly moving his mask to eat the whole stick. Putting his mask back on quickly almost in the blink of an eye.

"Mmmm~, ok I have an idea what if the orbs represent the color of Justus,like lighting, fire, water, Darkness or void... Hm, don't know."

 

[Tanaka Mori]

"Mori, you seem to have a knack for the logical part of this. My mind is a bit frazzled, but you're saying that if we track which orbs have given us undesired results, we can know which orbs will produce the correct ones? That's incredible... I don't know how I didn't see that sooner. Oh well, no time to get down on ourselves. Come on boys, keep trying! We have six attempts left before the lock resets!" The senior Anbu's praise lifted Mori's spirits after having kind of a slow start on this mission.
"Tch, what a pain.. But we don't have a choice I guess. Well if we have the right colors we just have to figure out the order right? Or is it... Like... Hm... Candy .. Different flavors... Hm." "Mmmm~, ok I have an idea what if the orbs represent the color of Justus,like lighting, fire, water, Darkness or void... Hm, don't know." The younger Anbu seemed to struggle with some with the advanced forms of logic and that gave Mori a surge of pride as he calculated the last few possible lock combinations in his head.
"I don't think there is any sort of correlation between the colors and anything else really. They're just there to help distinguish the different weights of the orbs. This is one of the last few combinations that are possible on this lock" Mori locked in the Blue orb, then the Red orb, followed by the Purple orb and lastly the Yellow orb.

 

[Hashigaki Kauru]

Mori, after some playful banter, approached the lock for the group's third attempt. He lifted each orb, seeming to be guided by unwavering faith in his logic. He carefully placed each orb: blue,red,purple,yellow.

The emerald glow behind Toumei's mask blazed brighter as his eyes widened. There was no need for his keen hearing any longer - the lock popped open, sending the orbs scattering to the ground.

"No way! W-We did it! boys, you did it!" Toumei was exuberant over his pupils' successes. "Well, we exceeded expectations. There's still time to prepare for this evening. Finish up here, and we will meet in the Black Bazaar tonight at dusk. Amazing work, but it will be a different beast with guards and patrols. Don't get cocky, but feel free to enjoy this first victory. With any luck, you'll feel a much larger one tonight."


MISSON TIER 1 COMPLETE


(OOC: We're done here! Finish up and we'll get a new topic up in the Bazaar later on. Great work!)

 

[Tanaka Mori]

After the lock popped open and the orbs scattered to the ground Mori let a triumphant smirk cross his face.
"No way! W-We did it! boys, you did it!" Mori could tell Toumei was pleased. "Well, we exceeded expectations. There's still time to prepare for this evening. Finish up here, and we will meet in the Black Bazaar tonight at dusk. Amazing work, but it will be a different beast with guards and patrols. Don't get cocky, but feel free to enjoy this first victory. With any luck, you'll feel a much larger one tonight."
Mori was pleased with the help he had provided so far on this mission and looked forward to proving himself again after arriving at their destination later tonight. He turned to the young Anbu and said "Chin up Snow Devil. We may still need your uncanny luck later this evening." Mori was feeling a bit cocky after solving the lock but he wanted to include his peer as well. Mori turned to walk away and prepare for the upcoming mission later that night.