After a lengthy visit in the Hidden Leaf village, the call for the Chuunin Exams had scuttled his twenty one year old self over to the Waterfall Country.  Of course, just as he had done before travelling from the Earth Country to the Fire Country, Motoichi had studied up on all the various routes one could take to the Village Hidden by the Waterfall.  The scenic route was one that he took and enjoyed.

The Land of Fire's countryside was quite beautiful with all the forestry and plants around the roads.  The hills and mountains that he passed along the way seemed like balls of giant broccoli sprouting above the rest of the forests.    Several nights he spent under the shelter of the dense forests and several nights he spent hiding in the cover of the leaves and branches as roving packs of bandits ran by underneath.  The Land of Fire was as lawless as the Land of Earth, which was saying quite a lot really.  Iwagakure had quite long held the village gates open to criminals and innocents alike.  In fact, Motoichi was sure that the policy still existed.  He couldn't do anything about such things, he was only a Genin and the policy was installed by a former Tsuchikage and kept by the existing one.

However, bandits were the least of Motoichi's troubles as he set up lodgings in Takigakure.  Within just a few short days of getting settled, the Chuunin Exams were to be underway, so he made all the necessary preparations to get ready for the Exams.  Signing all the documents and waivers that were required for him to have to fill out before entering the Exams, he didn't feel anything bad would really come of it.  As one of the oldest contestants entering the Chuunin Exams, he felt like whatever was thrown his way in the tests to come would be just what one must expect going into the ninja profession.  If he couldn't sign that waiver, he didn't deserve to the title of shinobi.

The night before the first stage would begin, Motoichi had trouble getting himself to sleep.  The shaky nerves and anxiousness that swelled within him made him laugh.  He was acting like a little kid on the eve of the Ninja Academy's Entrance Ceremony.  It was racking himself so much that he had to head out to find a pharmacist in the village.  Once he finally found one, he quickly bought some Melatonin to help him sleep, but he'd already lost two hours of good sleep time.

He did get some hours of sleep in, spending his hours asleep tortured by what seemed to be an endless loop of him running into Eichi Oshiro.  The boy stood before him, reaching out with his charred arms.  Eichi cried out in pain and agony, and every time Motoichi tried to heal him, the boy turned to ash upon the smallest touch.  It was only when the alarm clock rang and woke him up that he was released from the nightmare.

[rolling for First Scenario]

The member 'Motoichi' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Exam Scenario Dice' :

He woke up in a fervor, sweat pouring off his moist temples and hair.  Sitting upright and holding his head in his hands, Motoichi fought to regain his breath as his lungs heaved in pain from the sudden shock of his nightmare.  The night terrors involving Eichi had grown to be more repetitive in the days leading up to the Exams.  Why?  It had been over a decade since that day he had run into the boy and years since he had nightmares occur this frequently about the event.

With a kick, he got his feet out from under the bed sheets and got out of bed.  His alarm clock had yet to go off, the nightmare being enough to wake him up.  Regaining a calmer breathing pattern, Motoichi headed to the shower to wash off his night terror sweat.  The cold water woke the rest of his body that hadn’t yet sprung to life from the sudden morning start.  He climbed out of the shower with a whisk of refreshed life about him, drying his dark auburn hair, now even more shades darker due to their dampness.  Today, he would need to make sure everything was prepared and ready for him to wear into the Exams.  There was no telling what might be needed once they started!  He got dressed, putting on all of his normal, traditional attire as well as strapping all of his weapons for the big day.

Not far from the main village was the hosting of the Chuunin Exams’s first stage.  Motoichi, along with all the other Genin participants.  Following the proctors’s instructions they were all lead to a great, wide open field that was engulfed by the largest hedges Motoichi had ever seen.  There was a whole crowd gathered around the hedges that sprawled far down the open field which suggested that the giant hedges went far down the field.  The hedges had several openings and each proctor grabbed a Genin, leading each to their own specific opening.  As Motoichi was led to his own opening, he tried to chat with the proctor, hoping to get some extra information about what all was going on.

“So…” he said, trying to feign interest in the proctor, brushing one of his bangs behind his ear to view his proctor better.  “Exactly what’s up with all these hedges?  Not some maze, right?  That’d be like, too Tri-Wizardy, you know?  Like, Harry Potter…. you’ve heard about those books right?”

Motoichi’s proctor didn’t seem to acknowledge his words, as if Harry Potter and the Tri-Wizard Tournament references meant absolutely nothing to him.  Instead, the proctor just tucked its scarf over its shoulder and quickened her pace.  At first, she had seemed so put off by his question that he thought she might have thought he was doing a poor attempt to flirt with her.  At this thought, he couldn’t help but laugh a little out loud.

“What’s so funny?” the proctor asked, turning to Motoichi with a scowl upon her face, her Waterfall headband shining in the morning light.  Obviously his laughter had been enough to garner her attention.

“Oh, nothing,” he said, now smiling with the knowledge that she was somewhat interested in what he had to say.  “I guess the proctors of this village are more concerned about being hit on then answering questions obviously about the actual Exams.”

“I’m not supposed to say,” she said, looking forward again.  They were nearing a vacant opening in the giant hedge.  “But… if you must know, you’ll run into some challenge along the way.  So yes, in a way it is a maze like from Harry Potter.”

“Oh, okay, then… any tips on these challenges?”

“Just act like a true shinobi and you’ll be fine.  Now get ready, it’s about to start.”

He and the proctor had reached one of the openings to the massive hedge maze.  The opening parted wide, revealing a tall golden iron gate with intricate carvings and shapes.  With the last bit of advice from the proctor, she dispersed into a quick blur before his eyes until only he remained at the opening.

Body Flicker.

It only took a moment for all the contestants to get to their respective openings.  Once that happened, a booming voice yelled out for the Chuunin Exams to begin.  As soon as the voice thundered through the entire field, the golden gate opened before Motoichi just as the crowd around the maze erupted into loud cheers.  In the rush of excitement, Motoichi broke off into a run into the maze.  Instantly upon entering the maze, the deafening sound of the crowd was silenced, the cheers no longer discernible to him.

The maze was a little tricky.  He knew that all the contestants were to reach the middle, where there would be a fountain, but the large, thick hedges that made the maze walls were completely hiding any sound that would give him the hint as to which way to go.  At first his plan was to just take every left he came across, but the further he got the more he began to doubt his tactic.  Eventually he decided to make his first right turn.

Once he turned right around the hedge corner, he was faced with another large gate, although this one was not golden, but just as large, and adorned with two watchtowers on each side of the gate.  Plenty of men were hustling about on each side of the gate in their respective watchtowers.  Motoichi had hardly turned the corner when the men began yelling and moving about, the gate slamming closed.  Seeing the gate close so fast and the men get into position as if under attack, he quickly backtracked to behind the other side of the hedge corner.

While hiding, he heard the noise of the gate being lifted back open and the sound of the men calling out orders.  This was all rather interesting and so he took a moment to reflect on what had happened.  Seeing something within the maze hinted that he was on the right track now, especially since they closed the gate so quickly and in such a panic.  Although, if they intended to close the gate every time he showed his face around the corner, he’d never get through.

Unless…

Motoichi looked at the ground he was standing on.  There was a large shadow hanging over him from the looming hedge that he hid behind.  The shadow just barely went around the corner and trailed all the way to the guarded gate, which also had its own shadow.  Rolling with this idea, he whipped himself down to the ground and activated his Silhouette Technique.  His body molded with the hedge’s shadow, and using his technique, he traveled all the way down the maze’s corridor to the front of the gate, using it’s own shadow that connected with the hedge’s shadow to make his way to the other side.  Once he was past the gate and didn’t need to worry about it blocking his path anymore, he deactivated the juts.

Reforming on the other side, he continued on his way as several guards on the watchtowers continued their watch of the corner he had first appeared from.  As he gathered himself and made his way to another corner, Motoichi could only think things were going pretty well for him so far.

Chakra 135/150:

[rolling for Scenario 2]

The member 'Motoichi' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Exam Scenario Dice' :

When he turned the corner following the guarded watchtower gates, he half expected to see the end of the maze in sight and the other half of him expected to immediately spot another gate or something preventing his way down the hedge’s long corridor. Instead, both halves of his mind failed miserably for him and upon turning the corner, he was faced with a lonely, deserted corridor flanked by the same devastatingly tall and gloomy hedges.

He moaned a bit, tired already of walking through the maze but still trekked on. The world seemed so suffocating while walking in between giant walls of hedges. When looking up at the sky, it seemed the two walls were curling inwards at the top, as if the two sides were reaching across to touch each other and close the final hole that the hedges had yet to grown over. Though intimidating, Motoichi knew that he had a good sign to have been so close to the finish. After all, he had just gotten past a monument of sorts within the maze, which had to mean he was nearer to his final destination of the fountain at the middle of the maze.

He continued down the various corridors, turning this way and that. Eventually, when he started again to doubt if he would ever get to the middle of the maze, he ran across a rather large wolf. The wolf stood tall and domineering to Motoichi, before curling up its mouth into a giant smile. This sudden appearance made him take a few steps back in shock, before quickly grabbing his kunai. Seeing the wolf brightened his spirits a little bit, as he knew that it was another sign that he had gotten on track again towards the center of the maze.

“Well, well, well,” said the wolf. “Look who has finally come my way.”

The sudden speech from an animal made Motoichi do a double take. A wolf, an animal, was talking to him! He had heard there were some animals of this caliber, but he had never met any of this caliber. There was that time he ran into a deer-like creature named Tony, but that seemed to be some odd sort of creature that wasn’t really a pure animal and so Motoichi never really considered it his first encounter with a talking animal. Besides, that animal had been one of another ninja’s partners — Suutei was the fellow’s name, as he recalled. That encounter had been quite crazy, and this was just as wild though much different at the same time.

“You’ve been expecting me?” he replied.

“Oh yes,” answered the wolf. “You see, me and my little ones have been waiting for you to come by ever since the Exams started. I was afraid dinner would go could until you showed up.”

“Dinner? I… I don’t understand.”

“Oh don’t worry dear, just follow me.” The wolf turned its head, motioning for Motoichi to follow it further down the maze. Reluctantly, he did so and put his weapons away.

The wolf led him down the corridor, making a few twists and turns before coming to the house.

The house was more of a hut, tucked into one side of the corridor and part of it leaning up to the hedge wall.  The wolf approached the front door and then, to add to Motoichi’s shock and amazement, stood up on its hind feet to open the door.  The wolf beckoned for him to enter first, welcoming him to its home.

“Ah, here we are, dearies.  We have a visitor!” The wolf exclaimed after shutting the front door.

Looking about him, the hut was warm and cozy.  Lots of trinkets sat about the room, it was large and spacey, with one corner obviously being the kitchen as it had a large fireplace and a large pot.  There was a table on the opposite side of it, where five little wolf cubs howled at the presence of their mother returning.  All of them had long, shaggy gray fur just as the mother.

“Would you like to come to see the pot, young one?  See what I’ve had prepared for you?”

Motoichi nodded to the wolf mother, knowing the motherly tone when it spoke.  She led him forward with her paw.  The claws feeling unusually close to the touch, almost tearing at his clothes with an odd strength.  He looked down to see the muscles flexing beneath the mounds of fur.  Her breath was growing ragged, her tongue hanging out of her mouth in a slight pant.  He glanced over to the wolf cubs and all of them were gripping tightly to the table, making scratch marks with their young, nubile claws.  Finally, just as he reached the edge of the pot, he realized, with a bit of help of seeing an empty pot only full of water, that he was to be the meal, the dinner.

It explained the shady talk, which he had not questioned really until now, thinking before that it was only a side effect of being how an animal, or wolf for this matter, talked and behaved.  In a quick motion, the mother’s paw lifted up and off him in a backswing prepping for a swift knocking hit to get him in the pot.  Just as she pulled that paw off him, he bent down and rolled out of the way, summoning four other images in his likeness.  Clones, but yet not the best in manner.  He had them all run around each other, confusing all the wolves as he jumped to the front door and ran out of the house.  Motoichi had the clones follow him, two running down the way he had come and two running further up the way he needed to go.

Upon reaching the first bend, he sent the two clones that were with him to the right, while he went left.  Sprinting now as he heard the sounds of howling, barking, and padded feet chasing after him, he came up to a direct left turn.  Turning on his heels, he was greeted with the large visage of the fountain, along with all the other Genin participants that had just made it to the finish.  Running with all the gusto in his heart, he made it to the end.  Looking back after he reached the middle, he only just realized that the wolves had followed the wrong clones.

Chakra 130/150: