The Butterfly Effect (Genin Exam)

[Kuru Watashi]

As Ryujou stuck the "new" cassette tape into the jar of honey, he felt sleepy all of a sudden. Flipping a mental coin, he decided that this was definitely more cultist stuff going on. Since they couldn't get into his mind, they were going after making him sleepy now!? These cultists were definitely off of their game or something.

When Katsu started clapping, he realized that he stuck one of the old cassette tapes that he didn't already destroy into the jar of honey! Ryujou started waving the jar of honey in the air towards where the hole in the sky where the roof was, "You darn cultists will rue the day that you messed with Bee Man's cultist artifacts! You gave those to me fair and square!"

Looking around for the new cassette tape and not seeing it anywhere within arms reach, the Bee Man gave up all sad. Katsu had begun playing the cassette tape but the lack of exorcism wouldn't be too big of an issue. He just had to do the exact opposite of whatever the device said! Ryujou gave himself a pat on the back because he is so smart.

"Okay then, I'll uhh, have them do scouty stuff in the rain then." He jumped around and waved his arms, sending all of his bees out of the area while the cassette tape played before sending a telepathic message directed towards Riku, "Nerd, even the cool bees do your job better than you!"

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

"Congratulations on getting past the first puzzle. The next one should be simple enough." The voice said. Suddenly, the ground around them started to erupt around them. Crystals of all sorts of colors came from the ground, forming walls in random places. If one to really pay attention, they would realize that it is starting to look like a maze. Thankfully, none of the four examees are separated from each other.

"Your next task is to find the flag inside in this maze of crystals. I ask that you to not climb the walls, as they can cut your skin pretty easily. And to also not try to get above the walls as to try and find the flag that way. As for why this is the way it is, I want to see how well you all can perform under pressure, since at times of war, against the Frost, they will make sure that they will push you past your limits if you want to survive. This part of the exam, will see if you have the endurance and the will to carry out missions, especially with dangerous enemies such as the Frost about."

There are three open paths. One left of the cabin, one that is directly in front of the entrance of the cabin, and one to the right of the cabin. If Ryujou were to keep on trying to lug the safe around, he would find it seemingly more heavy than usual.

[You have three paths to choose from. The left, the middle, or the right. Choose which one to go through, alone, or as a group. Make sure to put the one you chose in OOC brackets so I can know.]

 

[Kuru Watashi]

The bees flew into the air and spread out around Ryujou before the heretic device summoned a big old crystal maze! A labyrinth like those cultists in books were so fond of! Ryujou considered having his bees just fly into the air and spot where the necklaces and flags were but he didn't know if the cultists would shoot his bees down or something like lame guys. Kind of sad and mopey, Ryujou had his bees come back because he just wasn't in the mood to play with them anymore.

"Okay, I guess let's just split up or something. Get this maze thing done faster, I wanna go home." Ryujou started dragging the safe behind him, "I don't have enough honey and now it's all ruined by these lame cult talky things." The safe seemed heavier too, it was not a good day. Maybe one of the cultists were hiding inside it now? He might not be able to open the safe again because the bees were sad but atleast he could bang on the safe really loudly!

"Hey Riku, gimme some of those chair legs!" Ryujou snatched the chair from the leader that isn't allowed to lead, and turned his makeshift umbrella into makeshift drumsticks. The bee leader started banging the safe as he dragged it along down the first path that he saw. "I'll go down the middle route," He yelled behind him as he wandered down, "If you get lost, uhh, just go towards the safe thing if you can still hear it."

 

[Saitou Rei]

'We're doomed.' Reicheru thought as she watched their 'fearless leader' march ahead quite literally to the beat of his own drum. What a roller coaster ride this group's dynamic was. At least he'd advised that they split up - they could certainly cover more ground that way, getting in each other's way less. Not a good look, she realized, that their actions and desires were in such stark conflict with one another. Still, what more of a testament it would be if they could beat this thing. Ryujou hadn't instructed them on which path to take, just to split up; so Reicheru started toward the path to the left.

Focusing her chakra into her hands to prep a light jutsu should her vision become impaired in the maze, she turned to the remaining members and paused to see which path they would take. "I can take this side, unless you have another idea Katsu." The thought that they weren't even half way through yet left Reicheru antsy, and so long as her second in command didn't give another instruction she would begin down the path with focused determination - to cover her area well, to make sure they could move on to the next piece.

[OOC: Taking the left path unless Katsu instructs otherwise. Will use Light Flare as a flashlight if needed.]

 

[Imaya Kuza]

Katsu watched as Ryujou started up his own little marching band and began to head off on his own down a path. He and Riku, no doubt, were two peas in a pot. That said, Katsu maintained the mental link so that it was easy enough to keep track of their location in relation to one another regardless, however he supposed it made sense for them to keep up the facade of not having such a thing. Also, he 'turned down the volume' on Riku's link so that Katsu could avoid having such trash thoughts poluting his brain. “Splitting up makes sense. Reicheru, take Riku with you, it never hurts to have company.”

“As for myself,” Katsu began making handseals then drew his sword, sliding his palm across the flat of the blade. As he moved, the edge seemed to glow with a greyish light, at which point the air seemed to crackle as he moved it. “I’ll head through the right side. If you find anything, just yell.”

And with that, Katsu would head off in his own path, using his sword to break through any dead end he’d find himself at. The crystal would seem to crack from the cuts he made, the glow spreading like a corruption and making it brittle, if only temporarily. This was Katsu’s Dust Element. While not something he was incredibly skilled in, he’d trained in it specifically to deal with annoying situations like this, it’s ability to destroy being unparalleled.

 

[Kuru Naohiro]

Riku looked at the maze with a look of confusion. Some people just must chase dogs or save a kitten from a tree to become a genin. Why did he wind up with the team with the worse luck imaginable? But worse yet, Ryujou said he wasn’t cool! Riku knew instantly he needed to change that situation before it spread. The white-haired rogue looked at his now two leg missing chair in thought for a moment before breaking off the remaining leg before abandoning the chair on the ground.

“I can deal with a little rain!” He declared with a smirk.

With the chair leg in his hand, he watched with a grin as Ryujou began playing the safe like a makeshift drum. He had an idea. He raised the chair leg to his mouth as he began to walk down the left path of the maze, deciding to listen to Katsu’s own suggestion for the time being. They needed a way to help recognise where the others were going to be inside the maze, and he needed a way to prove he was the coolest, and Buzz had a decent idea for both. Music!

“You ever listen to any of the music around the village, some decent stuff if you look around,” Riku brought up, listening to the rhythm of Ryujou’s makeshift drum, “I think I know a similar song.”

With a casual thought in his head back to the Asuka prank he tossed towards his crew, he decided to follow through with it. Bad singer or not, Riku began to sing aloud one of the first songs that came to mind to assist in forcing the joke even further. Using the chair leg as an imaginary microphone.

(Music of choice!)

As the rogue began to sing the song as loud as possible, with no regard for how he appeared, he had a glance towards Saitou. He gestured for Saitou to join in, holding out one of the chair leg microphones with a grin. Whether she joined in or not, Riku would of course attempt to do the secondary voices himself when possible.

[Choosing Left!]

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

The band leader, known as Ryujou, banged his makeshift drumsticks in the safe, as so, he would find it even more difficult to move it around as it got heavier and heavier, until he couldn't move it anymore.

Reicheru went down the left path, seeing as to try and make things easier to find the next pennant. She would recognize that she was being followed. But fret not! It was just a person that was on her team, Riku, who was trying his hand at music. But there was something else. It sounded like leaves cracking, or a twig snapping. Was she able to hear whatever it is that is there? On top of Riku's attempt to entertain her while the find the flag?

As for Katsu, going the right path, he would only find that some parts of the maze would break away, while other parts looked like he didn't even make a scratch. But even when he has made some damages to it, if he were to look back, of any holes of destruction he has made, he would find them mysteriously patched back together. If it wasn't for Ryujou banging on the safe, and Riku singing, there would be an erie silence.

Ziren was quietly watching this all unfold. Until, that is, a letter floated mysteriously down to where he was. Eyebrows raised, he made sure to check the letter, to make sure that it wasn't a paper bomb in disguise, or some kind of justsu sealed away to set off once he opened it. He figured it was safe, since he wasn't picking anything up, so he opened it.

Reading the contents, the Chigokai's eyes narrowed. Rereading again just to make sure the information that was presented to him said what it said. He let his chakra flow to the paper, crumbling it to dust with his earth chakra.

Handseals made, and a clone appeared by his side. The clone made haste to a specific person. Uchiha Asuka. It told her of Ziren's coordinates, and asked her to make haste and then poofed before she could even argue.

Once she has made her way there, Ziren would say, "Sorry to just dump this on you, but something bad just came up. Something I'll need to get to the bottom of right now. Just so you are aware, it'd be best to use sorts of spying justsus to keep track of them." He then told her of the plan he has for the exam, and then said, "It's not Frost. But a person from my history who is just as bad as them. He just decided to show up at the worst of times, in the middle of a war with Frost, and he sent me a letter saying that he knows who I am, and where I live. For proof, he talked about killing my parents, and how my brother paid him to do it. It's unknown if he is working with them. But if he isn't, he is a dangerous third party to come right now that I must deal with immediately."

With that said, he turned and ran with swiftness to where he will need to be.

[Switching proctors from me to Asuka, talked about it oocly]
[Topic left]
(Mft)
(533)

 

[Kuru Watashi]

What was this if not for the vile dark magicks of a demonic cultist at work? As the safe grew heavier and heavier, Ryujou slapped it with the sticks harder and harder! Until the weight grew to the point that safe was no longer able to be carried or pulled, Ryujou labored away at bringing his solitary cultist companion deeper into the maze that they had made. He chattered about anything and everything to the fatty that inhabited the safe since there wasn’t anyone else that he could talk to. From the weather that sadly wasn’t raining honey to the flowers which sadly weren’t generating enough pollen for lots of honey, Ryujou tried to distract the lame guy inside from binge eating what felt like about a billion sandwiches.

“You cultists really need to stop eating so much!” The boy cried as he kicked the darn thing once it was no longer able to be moved. He really needed a refreshment after those lame cultist speaky devices had ruined all of his remaining jars of honey. He wasn’t about to drink honey that had been filled with demon nonsense and butterfly jeebies. Putting down the sticks to take a break, he starting pelting the tainted honey jars at the safe to the rhythm of Riku’s song. “This is laaaame!” He shouted, “Why’d these cultists even grab us anyways if they were just going to be putting us in a maze like this.” Looking around and down at the broken jars of honey, he waved his arms in the air, “And what’s a fellow gotta do around here to get some honey!?”

Shaking his head from all of the sadness and bad feelings, Ryujou kicked at the safe a bit more before getting fed up with all the fatties that were hiding in safes and necklaces and bushes in this danged forest. If they weren’t going to let Ryujou pull them with his muscles of honey, he was going to pull them with the magic of honey! Kicking a few of the intact jars into place and pulling some round rocks out of the ground with Stone Bullet, Ryujou used his cool telekinetics jutsu to fling the safe into the air. “This’ll teach you to lay off the butterfly nectar!” He said to the cultist as the safe landed ontop of the jars and rounded rocks. Humming and continuing to hit it with the chair legs, Ryujou started rolling the safe down the branch of the maze, kicking rocks and jars back into place whenever necessary.

If the cultist continued to eat burgers inside of the safe Ryujou would give up and just continue flinging the safe down the path of the maze that he had chosen with psionic assault. Heck, he would even fling the chair legs at it to keep up the drumming. Ryujou didn’t care all too much - he was tired and hungry and didn’t have honey and just wanted to go home. The bee boy absentmindedly daydreamed about whatever the heck his mind would wander off to while the rain continued to pitter-patter downwards. His bees didn’t want to be out in the rain; he didn’t want to be out in the forest, and Ryujou had no idea who benefited at all from these arrangements. All the cultists seemed to want to do was give them necklaces, eat burgers and make mazes and boy was it boring.

 

[Saitou Rei]

Though Reicheru probably came off as more serious when around this particular group of students, the truth was that she enjoyed a good time as much as the next person. So when Riku began his performance, though she initially shook her head with a grin and a sigh and tried to focus on the task at hand, it wouldn't take long for her to fall prey to the beat. First her head would start to bob, then she would clap her hands, and finally she would lean into the fake mic and sing the back up "oohs" and "aahs" and "uptown girls" where appropriate. She wasn't usually one to put herself out there, so it might come as a surprise that the young girl actually had a decent voice for one that was untrained. 'This has been a mess already anyway, might as well enjoy the ride…'

Then, in the off-beat, there was a sound. Due to the commotion Reicheru hadn't been able to pinpoint where it had come from, but could distinguish that it wasn't from their immediate area. In half a moment, the chakra she'd gathered in her hands released in the form of two bright lights emanating from her palms. She shot one beam into the treetops above them and the other on the ground below, sweeping between the path in front of them and then behind. "Something is around… keep an eye out…" she nodded to Riku, the hand closer to the ground hovering near her tool pouch, ready to retrieve her weapon in a flash if necessary.

 

[Imaya Kuza]

Katsu heard Reicheru singing in the distance, and through Riku’s senses, and smiled. He was glad she was enjoying herself, given what she’d just been through. Still, her trauma was a fresh wound for Katsu and he needed to let his anger out some way, and that “way” just happened to be through Ziren. Conveniently, Ziren had made certain walls more reinforced such that Katsu’s enhanced blade couldn’t break them down so easily. While some might find this discouraging, Katsu simply found it telling. There was a direction which Ziren didn’t want him heading no matter what… which just made it all the more worth it.

The question now was how to overcome these tougher walls. Unfortunately he was off on his own, so he couldn’t really on the others. The tops were barbed such that it would be a bit too costly to try scaling them directly, as well. However, perhaps he could vault them.

Creating a series of handseals while holding his blade in his mouth, Katsu formed a fist surrounded by earthen chakra, and in a single movement slammed it into the ground. At that exact instant, the earth gathered beneath him and rose up with great speed, an alteration of Sinkhole Fist which used the spike it formed as a launch pad of sorts, providing his jump with a largely increased upward acceleration. Into this, he used the mid-air movement skills adapted from Flight Aerial Strike to maintain his momentum even further, allowing him to overcome the wall’s height in a single leap. However, he had no horizontal momentum to speak of. To this end, he began to channel earth chakra through his blade as he reached the peak of his jump, and through such performed Riku’s favorite jutsu: Stone Bullet. Aimed at nothing, it served mostly to propel Katsu toward the wall, allowing him to spin and strike the top with his blade and thus gain the leverage to throw himself fully onto the other side, unless something else prevented such.

“Now, where are you, esteemed proctor?” Katsu growled.

 

[Kuru Naohiro]

Riku sung to the beat for a time, even giving an impressed nod to the girl when she began to join in. He didn’t think the girl had it in her, he had personally chalked the girl out as the dull type, one to dismiss quickly enough. Seeing her join in brought a warmer grin to the rogue’s face as he continued forward. The white-haired rogue took the chance to examine the maze as they journeyed and sung, an ear always listening out for the location of Ryujou. With those thoughts at the back of his mind, nothing else particularly mattered, he simply did as he wanted, and he wanted to sing. It of course ended quickly enough when the girl began emitting light from her hands and staring at trees. With the interruption, Riku took the chance to stop the song for a moment and look at Reicheru.

“Seriously?” Riku questioned, looking at the bright lights with a sceptical eyebrow raise, “Did a bird get you that shaky?”

The scoundrel shook his head with a grin on his face. It always seemed like the shinobi that train too much react in the oddest ways. The rogue casually thought on that for a moment before beginning to continue his walk before eventually beginning to speak aloud.

“You need to learn to relax, Jumpy,” Riku commented, his upbeat tone staying around, “Its reactions like those that make people think we aren’t normal.”

Riku glanced at the girl for a moment, before giving another grin and shrugging, any indicators to his annoyance vanishing. With that, the rogue begun his song again, the smile on his face remaining as he returned the stick microphone to his mouth. Only this time, as the white-haired boy continued his walk he kept a notable distance from Reicheru.

 

[Uchiha Asuka]

Asuka was having a great day, in her home, sipping some tea reading quite a nice book about a ninja that never gave up. She wondered what the white haired author had been thinking when writing the book because it was certainly an interesting read. An interesting view of the world. But unfortunatley that was interrupted by Ziren... or rather a clone.

"You want me to do wha?" She asked sarcastically, but of course that was the only piece of information she was going to get. Of course she got the general idea and decided to follow through. "Don't worry, I'll follow through. My way though."

It did take her a bit to find the place where the exam was taking place, but once she did she immediately made clones, she viewed each individual and their actions on what choice of where to go would they make. I was quite interesting to see the so called leader go off on his own, in some instances it's not wrong to split up but giving the teammates dirrections on what the general idea was. She sighed. At this pace, it was going to take forever.

She thought about what to do and realized that things had to change a bit. Although they're doing wonderfully. It was time to change thing up a bit.

Asuka moved to appear right in front of each of the separated groups. With a big smile on her face she streched her arms out. "Helllooooo pipsqueaks!" She said holding her hands together. "Allright. So, I'm going to change things up a bit to move things a bit faster."

From nowhere, her hands produced 4 small metal keys. Each with a different emblem representing each one element. Asuka threw the fire key at Riku, Wind to Katsu, Earth to Ryujou and Water to Reicheru. "Those keys will be useful later. You loose them, you automatically fail the test. So keep them safe!"

Asuka giggled "So, you're all going to be placed into three tests. One of each is simple, find the center of the maze." Asuka sighed "But it would take foreeeveeerrr to do. So, thankfully, y'all can get to the desitnation the same way. So here your dirrections!"

Clearing her throat she tried placing the most serious voice possible. "Continue forward. Then walk east, when hitting the wall go north, On the four way interesection gonna take the second exit to your right, east then south and north once again. If you do those correctly, you'll find a big metal door. Open it before everyone is present and doom will fall on you." Once more her cheerfull happy smile returned to her face. "hint, cause I'm nice! Grass country is on your left!" With that she giggled, the the clones dissapeared.

The real Asuka stayed with the leader for a bit. "Don't leave your team without directions pipsqueak." She told him with a smile on her face "Without proper dirrection you are doomed to fail. Haaavveee fuuunnn!"

[So, gonna change things up a bit. 1st Test. Find your way to the center. Do note a few things, one= Every time you hit a wall there are two choices (except once, which is the intersection). Left, or right. TWO= There's a very specific way to answer this riddle. Three= You got 6 choices to go left or right, 1 choice to go left, right or forward. If you get lost, the teammates that did make it will simply have to post "waiting for the other guy". FOUR= Going above the walls or through them isn't acceptable.

Please please please please, if you got any questions about how this whole thing works. Please message me OOC or send me a PM, I will happily explain it as many times as possible]


[Forgot, when I say "east, west bla bla." I don't mean left or right, I mean the actual cardinal direction. You gonna need to find out where you are facing atm. To make this easier, EVERYONE is facing the same way]

 

[Kuru Naohiro]

[Topic left cause dead!]

 

[Saitou Rei]

Reicheru relaxed and straightened a bit as Riku poked fun at her reactions. "I know you lot spend a bit of time in this forest, but this far off the path I wouldn't be surprised if any 'bird' we'd find could swallow us whole." She lowered her lights after a moment, not wanting to admit that her gut response probably wasn't the most strategic after she took a moment to think it through. Especially not to Riku.

It was only a second later that a strange form appeared. Grabbing Riku, Reicheru used that channeled chakra in her palm and slammed it against the ground [Pressure Burst], increasing the distance they could put between them and the probable assailant. In the air the girl gripped the sword in her tool pouch and locked her eyes on the mystery maiden… only to recognize her as a teacher from the academy. Leaving her weapon where it was and letting go of Riku as they landed, Reicheru gave a small bow. "Apologies. I didn't think it outside the realm of possibility that we would have to fight in this exam, though it does seem a bit excessive for a simple genin rank…" She listened as Asuka explained the change of pace, and began drudging up memories of history class and the maps they'd studied to figure out what direction they must be facing…

…only to watch in disappointment as the boys took their leave. She knew they weren't fans of certain teachers at the academy, but to straight fail the exam because of it? Reicheru sighed, thinking of Kenshin. He'd trusted her judgment enough to give them this opportunity, it would be awhile before she could live this one down. Still, she couldn't help but feel that these boys had great potential that wasn't being tapped into yet. Looking at Asuka, Reicheru gave a short, apologetic bow. "I'm sorry about them sensei. I'm sure Ziren-san informed you this was a joint pass-fail exam. I'm sorry I couldn't get them to take it more seriously… but I think they'll come around soon enough," she noted with a small smile before taking her own leave behind the others.

[Topic Left]
[OOC: The boys who haven't posted have expressed to me their intent to leave, hence my IC choices. This was intended as a joint exam based on this thread, and with them leaving and how long this exam has been going it makes more sense to me to request the auto rank up based on PL. Thanks to everyone who worked on this, sorry it ended this way.]

 

[Uchiha Asuka]

[Allright, for those of you who can (and want) please post a Rank up request in the leave administration section. Exam is over, everyone fails]