The Butterfly Effect (Genin Exam)

[Chigokai Yuna]

It started at approximately nine o'clock at night. A letter was sent out to the four people who are to partake in this exam. Ziren has done a little bit of digging of research into each person's history. Finding who they are when they aren't putting on a show.

The letters would find their readers in due time. They would arrive by either a soft breeze in the wind that carried them, or someone who they never recognized as giving them the note before walking out.

On the letter, it said.

Spoiler

Due to your actions, there has been talk of what to do with you. As a result, one of your friends have died for following you around and making a mess of things. Though, one person has stuck up for you. Even when told the things you have done. Here is your one chance, of proving your worth, not just to your little group, but to the whole Leaf Village.

But one letter was different. This one, made its way to Saitou Reicheru. On it, was this message.

Spoiler

Reicheru,
You stuck up for your classmates even when we told you of the things that put them into this mess to start with. For that, I look forward to how you do in this exam. Now, let's see if you have that same motivation as before. Now that your exam has officially begun.

At the final words that each participant reads of their letters, they would smell a sweet fragrance fill the air, and then, they would black out.

Upon waking up, they will find themselves in an old hut, their hands bound by rope, easily enough for just about anyone to break out of. The hut in of itself was small, but large enough to have four kids in it, made of old wood, as each step one were to make made a creaking sound underneath their feet. There was a bed off to the side, four wooden walls and a door. If anyone would try to open the door, they would find it locked. They could all hear the soft pitter patter of rain hit the roof of their little house. A small fire was lit in the fireplace, as if to be warm and welcoming. and right next to the fireplace was a safe, the combination lock kind of safe. On the other side of the fireplace was all the gear that each of the academy students had. And finally, in the center, was a table. And on top of that table was a small portable cassette player, with a cassette right next to it that says "Play Me"

(Ooc: First of all, want to say good luck to you all. Secondly. Please send me all of your battle stuff. Don't worry, you won't be fighting me or each other, this is just for me to keep track of what justsus, actions and whatnot that you all do. And if you do use a justsu, or something of the like, please put it in ooc notes, with the link to the justsu or similar. Third thing, since there are a lot of people, would like to keep a good pace of this, so please post within 72 hours of the last post. If not, it will be counted as a strike, three strikes will be a failure. There are exceptions, as if something in your life is happening, in which case I understand, and if case does arise, please pm me so I know. Will go into more detail in next round of posts.)
(Summoning Katsu)
(Summoning Riku)
(Summoning Reicheru)
(Summoning Ryujou)

 

[Saitou Rei]

Reicheru let out a groan as she came to. What had happened? Last thing she remembered was… well, what was it, actually? A letter? Blinking away the fuzziness and taking in the unfamiliar sight of the shack and the three figures near her, things became clearer. 'Now that your exam has officially begun.' Looking quickly between Riku, Katsu and Ryujou, the three of them were still knocked but were beginning to stir. She had assumed that either Ziren or Kenshin had talked to them and made them aware of the situation, and now she deeply hoped they had been prepped because if she hadn't known, she likely would have assumed they had been taken in some sort of surprise Frost infiltration. She took in her surroundings from where she sat; a single door, a bed, a fireplace, a table. It was impossible for her to tell where they'd been taken, though from the pattern of the sound of the rain outside it seemed there were trees all around, so somewhere rural, not many people around she suspected.

As she moved to get up to confirm her suspicions, she was jarred by the sensation of her arms not moving as she wanted. They'd been tied up; oh well, that was simple enough. Quickly Reicheru focused some of her chakra into her fingertips, which then began to spark. After just a second, a small bolt of electrical energy shot out from her index finger which she pointed toward the rope, effectively cutting it in two. Now free, she moved to her classmates, identifying herself as they began to wake up. "Hey, it's me, it's Reicheru. Don't freak out, it's just our Genin exam. We were all tied up, I'm just going to cut you loose," She spoke clearly and moved slowly, holding up one open palm and retrieving a kunai with the other, not wanting to spook anyone that may still be getting their bearings or coming out of the effects of the substance that had knocked them out. Quickly cutting her now teammates bindings, she allowed them to take in their situation for themselves as she moved toward the door.

Before she could make it there, she noticed the cassette tape on the table she had previously thought to be empty. Eyeing it cautiously, she remembered the effects of last message they'd received. Cautiously pushing it with a dull side of her kunai to check for any physical traps, when all seemed clear she picked it up and placed it in the player. Before closing it to play, she called the boys attention. "Hey guys, check this out. I assume this will tell us how to get started. But… just to be safe…" Quickly snapping the player closed, she simultaneously released the chakra in her hand to create a dome-like wind vortex that enveloped the player and her hand. "That should insulate any toxins that may or may not be attached to this one. Is everyone comfortable with that?" Her thumb hovered over the 'play' button, and would press it assuming there were no objections from the others.

[OOC: Storm Bolt used; Barrier used; will play cassette barring any actions from the others to stop it]

 

[Kuru Naohiro]

You know what sucks about drugging messages? Some people are busy folk, they enjoy noodles while they open letters, they busily get ready for a new day. Now when ones busy shuffling their new deck of cards when suddenly a letter decides to drug you, you don’t really get much time to read it. Riku was in this situation. It didn’t take long before the inevitable wake up occurred, the white-haired rogue took a chance to look down at himself, noticing the ropes that bound him and then the unbound girl that was going on about ‘cutting us loose’ with a kunai. It sounded promising. He didn’t pay much more attention to the apparent psycho as he took in the surroundings. Door, safe, very clear trap and two of his friends.

“Anyone manage to read that letter,” Riku questioned as he worked on his rope, trying to wiggle it loose, “Or did you guys get knocked out with a different kinda trap? Teapot, beehive … toilet?”

He gave a grin with that, still trying to wiggle out. Once the girl got close, he proceeded to start pushing his chair backwards away from her with a shake of his head.

“Oh no,” Riku exclaimed, “I am not getting ‘cut loose’ that easy!”

With that, he felt his own rope beginning to loosen, with a grunt he managed to wiggle himself free. He gave a grin and a casual glance towards the crazy with a kunai as he inched around her to the gear. As he did so, he took a few more chances to examine the area. It was raining, and they had a fireplace.

“What’s the bet we’re in the woods,” Riku commented as he began counting his cards from the table, “Whoever did this is apparently hopelessly into the clichés.”

As the girl was apparently busy threatening the others with the kunai, she went towards the mysterious blackbox, apparently trying to use voodoo magic or whatever to stop it from breathing toxins at them. That was fine, as Riku turned towards his crew members with a smile.

“Alright,” Riku said, giving a grin, “Guess we just break outta here. Buzz, you want to check out that safe over there. See if you can bust into it, might be some goodies before we go. Kats- Kat .. Cut. Yeah, Cut. Would you kindly see about getting that stupid door open? I’ll look around f-“

Before Riku could finish, his eyes had drifted towards the girl. Noticing she was going to set off the black box with the words ‘Play me’ written beside it. With a quick jump, the rogue moved to stop her from triggering the ominous box of doom.

“Lets … not set off the box,” Riku said, his eyes wide in concern as he grinned, “Might be a trigger for something in the safe, or outside. I don’t wanna get cut loose, you know?”

With that, he stood back, not wanting to be near the lady with the kunai for too long before looking towards his friends. He gave a confirming grin and a nod before walking off to scout the room.

[Topic joined]
[Preventing the cassette from playing!]

 

[Imaya Kuza]

Katsu had been walking around in town when a piece of paper flew at him aggressively. Naturally, he fought back, slicing the paper into many pieces. Unfortunately, it was not to be, as at the exact moment he had rid himself of the accursed paper, an old lady had accidentally struck a pot on her windowsill which dropped directly atop Katsu’s head, knocking him out.

Upon waking to the sweet, sweet sound of Reicheru’s voice, Katsu had assumed he was in one of those dreams again, but found himself quickly disappointed when he noticed Riku and Ryujou also tied up and not cheering him on. With a heavy sigh, he let himself loose effortlessly, using chakra to simply rip apart the knot.

“Letter…? Oh… um… nah, I didn’t get a letter,” Katsu lied, unwilling to acknowledge how he’d been got. “But this is a genin exam? Ha! Wow, we must really be hated if they’re going this far out of the way for a genin exam.” As Katsu had heard it, genin exams were typically just measuring basic competence. This was… elaborate, to say the least, but also seemed very unnecessarily roundabout. “I agree, this place is pretty edgy, .” He checked the door with a quick turn of the knob and shove, turning out to be firmly locked. He could probably open it, but he had other ideas in mind.

Seeing Riku interfere with Reicheru playing the cassette, Katsu gave the handsome leader of the crew a quick ‘bonk’ on the head with his sheathed sword, letting Reicheru continue to play the cassette. “Riku, if this is an exam, we should assume that it won’t do anything we’re not intended to face. Ryujou, can you check for hidden compartments or whatnot with your bees?”

On the surface, this all seemed quite reasonable and, by extension, Katsu seemed reasonable. But beneath the surface, hidden under the thin veil of skin, was a broiling rage that he’d been kidnapped, his friends were kidnapped, and that somebody had the audacity to confine them in a room like this. Of course, he could just leave this cabin with his Lock Break technique, but he had other plans.

‘Riku, Ryujou,’ Katsu thought, connecting the crew’s senses so to allow communication of the telepathic nature. ‘Don’t freak and play it cool. At some point, whoever is proctoring this exam will have to show themselves. And when they do...’ He let that idea sit with the crew, his thumb itching the guard of his sword, the urge to unsheathe nearly overwhelming.

[Stops Riku from stopping Reicheru from playing the cassette]

 

[Kuru Watashi]

Ryujou had been wandering around in the forest as he usually was at this time of night. Old dad man had said something about focusing more on Aburame techniques instead of looking for honey so as an act of rebellion, he was looking for even more honey that night. The letter found its way to Ryujou, floating in the wind, and Ryujou immediately knew what it was and who it was from.

This is definitely from the God of Honey. Stumbling upon a piece of paper coasting in the breeze while he was out in the forest looking for honey? It would take a fool to not realize that this was his Divine Majesty granting Ryujou a new task to undergo. Snatching the letter out of the air, Ryujou proceeded to smell the letter as much as possible in one enormous breath in. Unfortunately for Ryujou, his suspicions began to grow.

There was no smell of honey, the all powerful substance that the Lord of Honey used to send his tidings. Could it be that this was the work of some evil impostor!? Opening the letter, Ryujou refrained from reading it so that he wouldn't sully his precious eyes with blasphemy and had tried taking another large whiff. A cloying sweetness began to fill the air and as Ryujou blacked out, he had one thought. This had better not be some sort of lame prank.

Awakening in the shack, Ryujou glared groggily at his surroundings. The girl that was cutting his ropes seemed to be from that manners class that oldie Stone man had taught. Nearby was Katsu getting out of his own ropes and Riku in his natural environment ordering the other kids around.

"Those blasphemers got you guys too huh?" Ryujou asked, getting up and patting his trench coat down before sadly realizing that his trench coat was not, infact, able to be patted down. Spotting it on a table, he jumped up and grabbed it before putting it on, finding some small source of comfort in the familiar garment. "I got a letter too but didn't read it for fear of reading the vile writings of heretics!" Looking around the room he saw the safe that Riku had been talking about, but more importantly, the enticing black device with the tag "Play Me."

Ryujou waved a finger at Reicheru and Riku as they stood around the black thing while he walked over to the safe that Riku had mentioned, "You'd better not mess around with that thing for your own good! I've seen this setup before, it's a cult! They knock us out then drag us to some isolated location so that they can use their voodoo to forcibly convert us to their nasty religion! Probably worshiping the dark arts and using blood rituals and stuff! The exam thing is definitely a fake-out! Everyone knows that exams have math."

The machine was definitely not to be messed with. If this really was an exam, they were supposed to be sneaky! Weed out the gullible weaklings and letter readers. That was the best case scenario. In the worst case, it really was some dark artifact meant to convert everyone! With that in mind, Ryujou shot off a stone bullet towards the direction of the cassette. The barrier that he was clueless towards would stop the thing from being damaged but at the same time stop anyone from trying to use the thing. When Katsu linked them all however, Ryujou made sure to express his doubt, "We sure that this is an actual examination and not some trap? Didn't they say that those Frost and cult guys were trying to infiltrate the village?" At the same time, he waved his sleeve, sending some bees to investigate the old walls and floors. Even if there weren't any hidden areas, checking out the stability of the place would clue them in on if the building was actually old or just disguised as such.

After doing that, Ryujou started staring at the safe facing the dilemma of how to open it. Pulling a few of his mopey little bees out of his collar, he started waving them towards the safe. Ryujou had tried them out before to open rudimentary padlocks and other combination locks. They used some voodoo holy magic named vibrations or something to know when the correct numbers came up. Ryujou didn't question it, his bugs had the divine will of the Lord of Honey inside of them after all and naturally were smarter than everything else.

[Exam Joined]
[Prevented the prevention of preventing the cassette from playing]
[Stone Bullet used]

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

As each kid woke up from their little nap, to do what they will want to do in a situation such as this, they will realize that the scent that took them, or at least all but poor Katsu and his bad luck, was non-existent in the area.

Somewhere, in the distance, their proctor smiled, mainly for Riku's comment about cliche's. Not exactly what he was going for, but now the exam will start, whether they want it to or not.

As Reicheru attempted to press the play button, then stopped, then allowed to play, only to stop again, her finger was nowhere close enough to press the play button, but likely, to her amazement, and probably Riku's and Ryujou's horror, the button clicked down on it's own.

The voice of Ziren came on to the cassette player, a voice that all but Ryujou has heard. "The Butterfly Effect. A butterfly flapping it's wings, in one land, sometime later a hurricane happens in another land. It may seem stupid, how something so small can cause something destructive. Especially since it seems impossible to even happen. On a more realistic standpoint, making decisions, though, may mean nothing to you at all, as they seem the most probable to do, may lead to misfortune. Maybe not to you, but to others around you."

As Ryujou's bees managed to buzz the safe open, and he were to peer in, he would only be greeted with another cassette player, one that immediately played once the safe was opened.

He would hear a sound, as if it were a tsk tsk tsk. "You should really follow instructions. What did you expect to be in this safe? A million yen? Honey? A badass weapon? Or maybe what was in this safe was your headbands once you pass your exams? All that is in here is this lonely cassette player, that and disappointment."

In Riku's pocket, he would hear a sound, if he were to pull the object out, he would find another cassette player. "You're a Chunin right? I did my homework on you all, and I was surprised that I stumbled upon new information such as this. You will be taking this exam along with your friends, seeing as you are one that dragged them all into a situation like this. Right, ringleader?" The voice said it very mockingly. "I have secured your headband in the safe, as long as it isn't opened just yet, not until the end of the exam. Once you prove yourself, along with the others, you can have it back."

Then all three of the same voices of the cassettes spoke up in unison. "This is your exam. It is an all pass or all fail exam. I'm sure Reicheru here can fill you all in as of why that's the case. But as you now know, the theme of this exam, is that your choices now matter. You will either go punished, or rewarded for the actions you do during this exam. Now let's get to what you all need to do. You will all need to find four pennants, flags. Each flag will have a number on it, and the order in which you get the flags are important, as to open up that safe, if you all haven't tried opening it up already. Now, this is a team effort, so I suspect everyone to act like a team. But here's the catch. Ryujou. You are team leader, Katsu, you are second in command. Riku, I know of you being able to lead the other students around, but I would like to see if they themselves can lead too. Reicheru, you have the markings of a leader too, but I want to see how well you can follow, even if you might not agree with how to handle some things."

Then, all but one cassette ended. The one that kept going was the one in the little barrier, "Now, here is the twist. Since this exam revolves around the choices and actions each and every one of you make. So here's what will happen. Riku, Katsu, Reicheru, if any of you do anything considered to be wrong, bad, in any way, shape or form, Ryujou will suffer the consequences. As leader, he will need to accept punishments of not being able to control his team. If not, it could lead to disaster. Ryujou. If you do anything considered wrong, or bad in anyway shape or form, your teammates will suffer the consequences. Having a terrible leader can lead to the deaths of everyone that has followed them. Katsu, if for some reason the team is split up, you are in charge and will accept full responsibility as Ryujou. Riku, sometimes a great leader must also learn to follow. So during this exam, you will not give out any kind of orders. Reicheru, you have a level head out of the four, try and keep it. Now, I have put in with all of your gear a pair of head sets, and a flare gun each. If, for some reason, you think something is too dangerous, tap into the head set or shoot a flare into the sky, I will be there as soon as I can to help out. Use them wisely. Another thing to keep in mind, we are currently at war with Frost, so in case of something really does happen, I will personally appear and take you all to safety, you have my word on it."

There was a pause, as if waiting for them to respond, but the voice spoke up again before anyone could say anything, still from the same cassette, "So for your first clue, as to where to find the first pennant, is to look down."

 

[Kuru Watashi]

Upon seeing the cassette tape inside the safe, Ryujou tried to plug his ears, screaming "LA LA LA LA LA LA LA" but to no avail. A butterfly, misfortune, a lack of honey and disappointment. Ryujou looked around but couldn't find his big boy pants in the convenient pile of gear but he decided to pretend to put them on anyways. This was something that was too big to pass up not taking charge for because this was definitely a cult.

"I've seen this play before!" Bee Man all but shouted, "Get all of the weird voo doo objects together and then Butterfly God is summoned and it's ten thousand years of darkness and no honey!" Hopping around the room and waving his arms everywhere, he did the best leadering he could. "How do we even know that we can trust this cult voice man!? Play the thing that says play me and he comes out and makes fun of us! I say we shoot this nerd with the flare guns when we spot him!"

Ryujou took a deep breath, this anti cult business was tough work. Lots of yelling and jumping. Starting to think over the information that the heretic had presented, Ryujou began making a plan. "So we've got these necklace pendant things and each one of them has a flag! And each flag has a number! So if we subtract all of these numbers up then we get the number of times to shoot the flare gun!"

Ryujou was only ten and hadn't learned many big boy words. Or much critical thinking at all for that matter. Looking around at the other three, he tried to make some sort of delegation. "So uh, Katsu you handle thinking up stuff I miss since you've got a cat and cats are clever and curious and furry and stuff. Riku you be handsome because cultist man will definitely think that you're secretly in charge." Pointing at Reicheru, he paused, trying to think of her name before just going with Riku's dumb nicknames, "Manners person, you stop any of us if we do stupid stuff! I'll have the bees coordinate or something - use a cool and fancy secret code!"

"So we can never take a bad guy's words at nose value so we'd better not be counting on any help if Frost shows up. For all we know, Frost could be the cult itself!" Ryujou had noticed as he was hopping around earlier all over the room that the floor was consistently creaky, never a good sign unless you're hoping that something is underneath. "Katsu and Manners Lady, since you guys have swords it'll probably be better for you to lead the way once we start getting into more dangerous seeming areas. Riku, you watch the back and roam around a bit to make sure we don't run into anything unexpected."

"I'll try to use my bugs as much as possible for scouting and stuff like that but with the rain it'll probably be pretty tough since most likely we'll be above ground for most of the journey if our methods of summoning the evil boss are flares and headsets." Ryujou wandered over to one of the walls of the room and readied a wind blade to fire at the center of the room. "Let's get this play started then, when everyone's ready we'll break through the floor so we can summon Butterfly God and Honey God can beat him up."

[Firing Wind Slash at the end if no one stops me.]

 

[Saitou Rei]

Reicheru had interacted with the crew on several occasions now, and so she wasn't too thrown by any of their behaviors or reactions. They were… an interesting crop for sure. She watched as they bickered, thankful that though a bit gruff Katsu seemed a bit more level-headed. Ryujou was, as always, something else. In their manners class she'd gotten a feeling of rebelliousness from him, but the more she interacted with him the more she began to think that he probably just didn't really know what was going on most of the time; it was endearing, and he did have talent to make up for it. This would be an interesting exam for sure.

As the tape played and explained their objective, Reicheru couldn't help but cock her head as Ziren's voice laid out the organization of the team. 'See if I can follow even when I don't agree…' her mouth flattened into a tight line as she remembered the circumstances that landed her in this joint exam. She'd disagreed, passionately, with her branch's Sennin and with Ziren. Yet, they'd granted her request, albeit with their own conditions - proof enough to her that they saw potential in her plan. Staying quiet would not have only made her a bad leader, but a bad follower as well. The way she saw it, a good leader would consider the perspective of their subordinate and a good teammate would voice their opinion if they thought the current course of action to be detrimental to the well-being of the team. That was fine, she could follow - so long as she wasn't expected to stay silent.

As Ziren mentioned her having knowledge on the conditions that surrounded their joint pass-fail, she shrugged with her hands out to her sides and palms up. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and tried to cut a deal, this was their condition, but I promise you it was better than the alternative." She kept her explanation short as the tape went on. They could talk about it later if they needed to, but she wasn't going to dwell on it - that information wasn't going to help them find these pennants.

Setting the tape down as it finished, she looked to Ryujou. As he went on about cults and voodoo, Reicheru bit her bottom lip with raised eyebrows, and as the arm flailing intensified she lifted one hand to rub her temple. Taking a deep breath, she gathered her composure - this was going to be fine. She chuckled as he gave her the job of stopping them if they did any "stupid stuff", a fine enough role, though his stumbling and eventual use of 'manners person' to address her admittedly caught her off guard. "We've met… he said my name in the tape like four ti-- nevermind, it's fine. My name's Reicheru," she introduced herself with a smile before examining the floor. She took note of some of Ryujou's bees floating between the boards from when he had sent them scouting earlier. Taking note of the wood's durability. Reicheru nodded, impressed that he had already though that far ahead. Yeah, they would totally be fine.

Backing up as Ryujou prepared to tear through the floor, she spun her kunai on one finger. "Don't let loose too much, don't want to blow the pennant away if it's down there, though I doubt Ziren made it that easy. These boards are creaky enough I'm sure they'll come up easy, we can just pry up any we need to if the hole isn't big enough for us to get down there. Let's do it."

[OOC: Will use kunai to pry up floorboards if Ryujou's wind slash fails for any reason]

 

[Kuru Naohiro]

Oh

Riku thought to himself, glancing about at the cassettes. The white-haired rogue wasn’t particularly fond of doing much jutsu, never do stuff you aren’t good at and all, but he felt inclined to perform one now. As he watched the cassettes playing off, including one in his own pocket after he pulled it out to inspect it, he felt as though whoever organised this was dreadfully skilled in syncing their tools and vibes to effect or things weren’t right. Riku felt as though he likely hasn’t made any grudges against any local actors recently, so he suspected the latter. As the boy went to make the hand signs in curiosity, he decided to stop. He noticed that the bee guy, one of his friends, was giving orders. He wasn’t sure if his hunch was right, but there wasn’t a point risking it when he could see what became of this.

“Nicejob, Buzz.” Riku praised, giving a grin.

The rogue moved to talk more but held his own tongue. He was about to request they check out the fireplace. He crossed his arms for a moment in discomfort, he didn’t particularly like not giving orders. Atleast he didn’t have to follow many either. The rogue let the others continue with their impromptu demolition of the ground.

“Look handsome,” He said with a smirk, “Easy enough. Some say I was born with the talent honestly.”

He walked over to the table and with a yawn decided to sit atop it, casually counting his own cards as he took glances around the room. The place still felt cliché to the extreme, and the cassettes sync in playing didn’t exactly help the mood. He was still waiting to hear that this was the end of scene one. The thought made the scoundrel feel inclined to try to make his own, prepare a team of four or so, take down a tree or two in the forest, set a lookout to keep an eye for the inevitable adult that ruins the fun …

“I need to get a hobby,” Riku mumbled to himself under his breath, “Maybe a book. People talk about books. Where do I get books?”

 

[Imaya Kuza]

“Ah...” Of course this was Ziren. Katsu only met the chuunin a few times, but based on those talks, Katsu found him to be… annoying. The guy had threatened Katsu and the crew without knowing it. That said, it also seemed that Reicheru wasn’t any sort of spy, given her instructions in all this. That was just an assumption, of course, and he had to be sure. Indeed, along with all this smoke and mirrors, the crew still didn’t know what circumstances triggered this somewhat drastic exam.

Making a number of handseals quietly, Katsu prepped a jutsu he’d borrowed from the ANBU scrolls, a supposed interrogation technique called ‘Mental Infiltration’, which forces one to relive a memory. Of course, he’d use Amnesia and properly cover his psychic tracks to properly remove the memory of his little invasion into Reicheru’s mind.

“The most obvious place would be under the floor, given a hint like that,” Katsu agreed, walking to the spotlight of the group, a role that Ziren was forcing him to play… for now. As he spoke, long needles of invisible Yin chakra would procure themselves from his fingertips and palm, an unpleasant-looking yet ultimately harmless medium for the technique he’d readied. He also caught Riku, their fallen leadership, glance at the fireplace meaningfully through his sensory link, not an appreciative look but rather an inquisitive study, to which Katsu would steal the credit for. “Riku, why don’t you check the fireplace and any other suspicious-looking things? Just ‘cause Ziren wants to lead us on a scavenger hunt doesn’t mean we have to play by his rules, see about getting ahead of this little game he’s playing.”

“I agree that me and Rei here can handle anything that creep can send our way,” Katsu said, standing beside the kunoichi as he would attempt to give her a head-pat, a guise for him initiating the genjutsu technique which would give him access to Reicheru’s recent memories.

And suddenly, Katsu would visibly stiffen up, his breathing halting, and felt his limbs go weak, though he forced himself to continue standing. Within him, a coldness which consumed his limbs and began to crawl into his chest like icicle teeth, yet fought off by a warmth… no, not just warmth. Burning. A flame in his heart raged forth, the pain it brought him turning the coldness to ash. Despair conquered by anger, and yet he knew there was no vengeance he could seek now. Ziren’s threat, despite his little act in the Hokage’s office, was coming to fruition. The difference in strength was apparent, they could not win right now. And so, Katsu held his tongue, and regained his composure, as little as it may be.

For now, he simply let tears flow down his cheeks, wiping them up quickly with a quick “When was the last time this place was cleaned? It’s got so much dust, I’m tearing up here!” He had to let the crew know, but Ziren was watching. He could telepathically tell them, but that... didn't seem right, to force them to burden both mourning their friend and go through this stupid exam. It was cruel. Damn them...

[WC: 528]

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

Ziren watched from afar as how this would play out. Ryujou, seemed a bit drastic, talking about Butterfly and Honey gods, and thinking that a cult took them in. Even with that said, he took up the responsibility and is leading. Kind of, even started to get to work right away on the very boards beneath them.

Reicheru, it looks, like she is doing her best to work with the group that she finds herself with. Riku, surprisingly, has actually followed something someone has told him, in regards of Ziren on the cassette tape telling him to not be the leader for this time, but a follower. And then there was Katsu. When he did his own homework on the group that he will be proctoring today, he found the boy to be skilled in Genjustu, something to watch for. Especially since he has made some subtle hand seals and made some physical contact with Reicheru. Whatever it was, something happened, he seen the kid cry. If his suspicions were right, then...

Ziren sighed, for right now, he won't make himself known until they all know for sure. The death of a friend is something to be taken seriously.

Just as he has came to this conclusion, Ryujou has broke through the boards easily. Though, what they'd find there was not a flag, but a little sticky note layed on top of some mud, easily could be read as, "Too far down, place the boards back and look down again."

Once they do what the sticky note said, they would realize that some of the wood seemed to be a different color, as if made to be looked at from above. There was a rectangle, at the edge was what looked like a line that is connected to the rectangle, and in the center of the rectangle was another single line.

Once they realize what the number is, the lock on the door will unlock and open. The fire from the fireplace seemed unchanged with the wind blowing in, from if Riku had chosen to inspect it further.

Whoever makes the first step outside of their little hut would find that the rain was still coming down, soft, calmly. Trees were all around and everything seemed relatively nice. They would then find another cassette, in a plastic bag, and on the bag were words taped on there that says, "press play."

 

[Kuru Watashi]

“Nice to meet you, Reicheru!” Ryujou fired his weird wind knife through the floor. Somehow missing the hitting the sticky note, he jumped down onto the mud and picked it up. Waving it around and trying to read it when it was waved close to his head, he proudly announced his findings for all of the other team members to hear: “The note thing says that we went too far down! I think we have to replace the floor and try blowing it up again!” Passing the note over to the nearest person, he started climbing onto the table to begin what he thought was the more likely solution. “If the floor is too far down then naturally the flag is in the roof or something! The pendant has to be on someone after all so it’s most likely that there’s a cultist in the attic wearing it!”

Standing on top of the table, Ryujou felt like he was super tall and liked it. He decided that he would make sure to grow up big and tall or something like that. “Katsu go try the door or something. If we aren’t going underground then the other twelve pendants probably won’t be in this small little hut thing. We’ll have to go out to look for them or something and if we run around outside then it should make it harder for the cultists to keep an eye on us anyways if they’re monitoring us to collect our eyeballs. I’ll uh, hold onto all of the cultist devices in case they start talking again!” Hopping back down from the table, he went around collecting all of the cassette players.

Happily smothering each of them in a honey jar that he had rigged with explosives, he continued trying to make a plan, “So since this will purify unholy devices, if they start talking to us again then we can believe them for real!” Ryujou now had his feet on the ground and he felt like this made him a lot more sensible because people always used that as a saying. “Riku, look around the room and see if there’s anything else useful or interesting. It might be kind of hard to get back here if we do have to leave. Reicheru, put the planks back down and blow it up again but not so far down so we can get the pendant. I’ll go into the roof and see if there’s anything cool there or the pendant or a cultist there.”

Finishing his master plan, Ryujou jumped in place a few times to see if he could jump back onto the table all cool-like but then gave up since he liked keeping his knees unbroken. After climbing back on top of the table, he would shoot another wind knife into the ceiling to open it up since it seemed suspicious. No leaking in a lame old hut on a rainy day? It was definitely really convenient dark magic. After opening up a hole, he would try to jump up and hoist himself up before stacking stuff on the table to climb up when no one was looking and pretending like he jumped.

[Firing Wind Slash]

 

[Saitou Rei]

"There's a library right next to the academy; your teachers never made you check one out for class?" Reicheru asked Riku with knitted brows before raising them with realization that it didn't matter if they had. "Anyway, lots of books there; not just books for class either, they've got a ton of stories about great shinobi heroes and… scoundrels," she commented with a grin.

She was caught off-guard by Katsu patting her head, and given that as quickly as she felt the doors of her mind being kicked down she would forget it entirely, she simply raised an eyebrow at the boy. Her questioning face dropped, however, when she saw the tears streaming down his face. "Are you alr--" she wasn't able to finish before Katsu blamed the dust and Ryujou moved the whole ordeal along by finally blasting through the floor.

Her eyes narrowed after reading the note; too far? Through the floor was step one, what could possibly be closer and still beneath them? Reicheru continued struggling to maintain her composure as Ryujou immediately redirected his attention to the roof, while also telling her to blast through the floor again. Her lips pursed and nose scrunched, Reicheru glanced around at the floor they stood on. 'Maybe under the table?' she thought, though she was uncertain how to go about suggesting this without making it look like she was refusing Ryujou's instruction. Thankfully, before she had to make that decision, she noticed a section of flooring that was slightly… off.

Spoiler: (How I'm envisioning this floor carving)

Looking around quickly at the others, she nodded at Ryujou. Well, she could still follow orders and communicate information, couldn't she? "You got it, boss." With that she would use a technique similar to the one their fearless honey-loving leader had used before to slice through the boards in a circle around the pattern, so that the whole chunk of floor fell together. "Huh, look at that… looks like an… eight? But it's not on a flag, so what's it for?" Speaking the word aloud, the young kunoichi heard the door behind her click open. Spooky. 'Maybe there are cultists involved after all… no, get a grip Reicheru, this is real life, not a genjutsu.'

She moved toward the door with Katsu. Since Ryujou had put him on door duty and because he was their second in command, when she looked out and saw the tape she would gesture for him to take the lead on how to proceed with it. As he did, Reicheru peered out into the drizzling rain. She'd been correct earlier, identifying that they were in a wooden area - but truthfully she'd guessed outer Oak District, not the Forest of Death. Though she was no stranger to the forest's perimeter, she currently saw no sign of the edge of the tree line nor any hint of the traveler's path. "Well, they really went all out for our Genin exam. Careful, you guys, looks like we're in the Forest of Death. I know you're not strangers to it, but it's impossible to say how deep we're in. Just keep an eye out, and guard up," she called to Riku and Ryujou as the latter made his way onto the roof.

[OOC: Wind Scythe used on floor]

 

[Imaya Kuza]

Katsu noted a few things at once: the fire wasn’t affected by the wind, the cassettes continue to say “play me” when it doesn’t matter, and Ziren had apparently not understood the concept of precise instruction. All the same, he threw the cassette aside to let it play on its own, refusing to be a part of Ziren’s games of redundancy.

“Riku, why don’t you figure out how to put out that fireplace you’re staring at? It’s a hazard, afterall.”

Reicheru noted that the planks seemed to take the shape of an eight, which was likely some piece of the greater puzzle here, though Katsu was more about breaking through puzzles at this point than solving them. Looking about, Katsu quickly unsheathed his sword, and began to slash the walls and ceiling in short order, a seemingly random rampage from calculated precision. First, he used his blade to see if there were any other hidden compartments or rooms in this cabin, violently albeit. However, there was another rationale.

“Esteemed leader,” Katsu stated, referring to Ryujou. “Why don’t you send your bees out, scout the area? See if there are any flags about.” ‘Or Ziren. He can’t be monitoring us from too far. Radio surveillance wouldn’t work over large distances in this rain, and if he has it wired up then I'll have likely cut it. He’s monitoring nearby through some unknown means, but I doubt it’s any further than a thousand meters in any direction.’

 

[Kuru Naohiro]

The rogue just watched the fire dully for a few moments, the white-haired boy simply staring at the unaffected fire for a few moments before giving his standard smirk, so his suspicion was right. All he needed was some rocks to stare at and an angry sennin to lecture him and he’d be enjoying the memories. The boy gloated to himself internally for a few moments before receiving the conflicting orders from Katsu and Ryujou. With another examine of the fire the rogue raised to his feet with a small shrug to Katsu.

“Sorry, Cut,” Riku said to Katsu with a grin, “No can do. Whatever’s wrong with fire, I don’t think it wants to be put out.”

With that, the rogue began to scout out the room as Ryujou requested. He did a simple review of the area, crouching to examine underneath the tables, checking the corners and the roof. As he moved between corners, he took the chance to drag his hand noisily on the wall, trying to listen for any differences. With the simple work being done, the boy went back to his own thinking. Maybe he needed to try taking orders a bit more? Nah, horrible idea. Perhaps more invites to go to lunch? Bleh, that’s the way of those high ranks. The book idea wasn’t bad though, he did come up with it so that was a given after all.

“So,” Riku brought up as he checked the walls, “Anyone remember those tournaments over in Tea? Was rooting for Yasha myself, how about you lot?”

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

Everything seemed to be normal, or as normal as one would expect out of this hut of mysteries. Once Ryujou sent out a windslash to the cieling, breaking apart the roof, to his disappointment, there was no attic. Rain came down through the hole that was made. The fire, after being hit with wind, and finally the amount of rain that is coming down on the inside of the hut, put the fire out.

That is when the four examees will feel a difference in the air, first off, it is a tad but colder than it once was before, as the fire was put out. Secondly, it has seemed as if their senses heightened, as if something before had turned them off.

The area in which Reicheru was once looking at now had something occupying that space. Laying on the floor was a pendant, a white background, with the number eight, painted in black.

The cassette that Katsu had thrown into the mud, didn't play, still in its little plastic bag. And as he went back to hack and slash the inside of the hut, he would find no small wires or anything of the like, leaving the inside of the hut look like some clawed madman was blowing off steam. Of course, in some parts in which Katsu had swung his sword, it has stuck in the wood, before him being able to dislodge his weapon from the walls. If he were to take more inspections on the walls, there wasn't really anything to look at except the damages he has made to the hut.

As Riku went around the room, listening for any real differences, he wouldn't find anything really except for the new cuts that Katsu has made into the hut, and the sound of rain more prominent, as it came out if the hole in the ceiling.

 

[Kuru Watashi]

Blasting through the roof, Ryujou climbed onto the top of the hut anyways. There was no disappointment in the slightest, for that just meant that the hunt for those dastardly cultists would continue. Letting the rain pour softly onto him relying on his trench coat to stay warm, the holy bee man looked around at the surroundings of the hut and the trees that were all around.

"Forest of Death sounds like it might be right; I always suspected that there would be a cult lurking in these woods. With an ominous name like the Forest of Death, it's like they're trying to get cultists!" Shaking his head at the thought of the bad village-keepers that had let an infestation of dark magickers into their good village, Ryujou kept looking around for a bit longer before jumping back down onto the table.

As his senses went all wacky, Ryujou stuck his pinky finger into his ear and wiggled it around. He never liked swimming, the water got into his ears and his nose and his eyes and everything went all weird. Jumping around trying to get the water out of his ears, if their senses stayed heightened, he would give up. "See that! Definitely some sort of black magic! By destroying the hut we destroy the focus point for all of their witchery and everything goes all wacko!"

Staring down at the pendant, Ryujou pointed at it then pointed at everyone. "See! Break the roof, the cultists escape and the necklace comes out!" Running over to the pendant, Ryujou put it on because he was the only one that wouldn't be affected by these sorts of lame dark magicks. "The rain isn't too bad but if it gets any worse, it'll be waay harder for me to get the bees out. They're already getting sleepy and stuff but I'll see what I can do. I still think it's black magic that he's using to watch us, probably those weird speaky voice devices or the necklace."

Grabbing the safe, Ryujou ran out of the door and started shaking it to get all of his lazy bees off of the thing and to start scouting. Having them look for anything out of the ordinary that he hasn't seen from his previous trips in the Forest of Death, he walked back into the hut poking his newfound necklace while offhandedly grabbing the cassette in its plastic bag from where Katsu had thrown it.

"I didn't actually get to watch any of the tournaments," Ryujou said rather grumpily as he put the safe down where the fire was and sat down on it. "They seemed cool but some guy on the street told me that there wasn't anyone in the tournament fighting for honey so I didn't bother! Thinking back, he was definitely lying to me! I knew I couldn't trust those lame non-Leaf guys. Tea guys, rock guys, coffee guys, they're all just a bunch of lying dweebs!" Kicking around with his feet at the ashes in the fireplace and feeling reminded of the time where he blew up a desk and chair for old man Kenshin's class, Ryujou looked up the chimney to see if there was a beehive or something there.

"I really should get a rain coat instead of this dumb trench coat if cultists keep dragging me off to places with rain," He remarked, poking at his rather old trench coat, "They might have done something to it too. It just doesn't feel the same anymore." Looking out the door then at his other team members, Ryujou felt a bit at a loss. "So what do you guys think then? Do we start wandering around the forest looking for more necklaces? I mean, there's eighteen necklaces and the same number of us so there should be one for each." Opening the plastic bag and pocketing it after realizing how useful it would be for holding knickknacks, Ryujou started picking at the cassette tape and dunking it into one of his unadulterated honey jars. "So how does this cult thing work anyways?"

 

[Saitou Rei]

"Y'know, I haven't really followed the tournament. With all of the delays and how long it’s been going on, kind of lost inter---" Reicheru stopped suddenly as Ryujou finally bust through the roof at which moment she was almost thrown off balance by the sudden clarity of all of her senses. She blinked hard a few times, and popped her jaw in an attempt to clear her ears. Though restoring what she now recognized as her normal sensibilities, it was a jarring rush, causing her to lose her train of thought and forget what they had been talking about.

As Ryujou picked up the tape Katsu had abandoned, she nodded as she assumed the boy intended to play the tape and get the next clue. Examining the hut and seeing that nothing seemed to be left here for them to find, she address Ryujou while walking back toward the door to peer outside again. "Clearly we're meant to head outside next. Once we play that, we'll have a better idea of where exactly to start heading…" the young girl's voice trailed off in disappointment as she turned back to their appointed leader to find him dipping their next piece of the puzzle in honey. The geek in her shrieked internally as the technology was likely beyond any use now, but she maintained her composure. "…though maybe we could search the immediate area and see if we come across anything fishy that could lead to another tape or number? Either way I think we're done here, but I'll follow your lead."

 

[Imaya Kuza]

Katsu twitched a finger, sending a wave of drowsiness unto their resident honey man, at which point he’d simply replace the cassette with one they’d already heard, and cancelled the genjutsu. Done swiftly, Ryujou shouldn’t have noticed the difference until too late. “As expected of our esteemed leader, destroying past messages is an important procedure for all shinobi too follow.” With that, Katsu began his applause, the sarcasm not obvious unless you knew him well.

Hearing, then, of Ryujou’s complaint about the rain, Katsu grimaced. He thought of it before, but was hoping it wouldn’t be too bad for the Aburame. Nonetheless, it was important to adapt to such developments. Katsu played the cassette, for lack of a better option. As per Ryujou’s thought, Katsu checked the cassettes, recorder, necklace, and the general area for any sort of seals that could be used to observe them, a partial use for his Lock Break technique which could dismantle such things.

“I think Rei’s right, we should start scouting around the area. As for the rain issue-” Damn. Katsu cursed internally. Ryujou hadn’t complained about the rain out loud, but luckily Katsu had caught himself before he blundered. “It wouldn’t do if we all got wet and end up weakened for it. Does anybody have any fire jutsu? Times like these I miss Maikeru.”

‘Ryujou, I’ll sensory link the bees to myself. With that, they should be better able to evade the rain drops in the area.’ He sent through their telepathic connection. ‘It will be a strain, but I should be able to hold it together if I disconnect Riku for the moment.’ Katsu had initially viewed his mental abilities as an advantage for covert communication like this, but it could easily be an issue if he wasn’t careful.

 

[Kuru Naohiro]

The white-haired rogue glanced about before giving a small shrug to the others before walking towards them. He continuously had to bite his own lips when he moved to talk, incase he went back to giving another order. He thought on his words for a moment before coming up with a route to hint at things.

“Couldn’t find anything,” Riku said, giving a smirk, “Guess this spooky story takes us through the scary rainy woods. I’m starting to think the cliché kidnapper is just copying a book at this point.”

Riku looked outside at the rain with a partial sigh before decidedly grabbing one of the nearby chairs and raising it above his head before walking outside. It was a lousy umbrella, but it was something! As he walked out, he heard the mental link, they were going to cut him out! With a devious smirk, the rogue glanced behind himself as the others before thinking something down the line, hoping to hit before the link severed.

“You know, I think Asuka is into books herself, she supposedly knows math …” Riku hinted down the line, giving a clear grin to them, “Some people think book nerds are kinda cute I hear.”

The rogue casually thought about the subject to himself, creating a quick image to send down the line.

"I'm going to go scouting!" Riku exclaimed aloud.

With that thought sent down the line, the rogue gave a wink to the others before jogging out to the woods to explore it some more, decidedly avoiding the retribution he could receive. Riku kept his eyes open as he glanced about, looking for any signs on the trees, the chair above his head remaining as a makeshift umbrella.