trail briefing:

It was quite a surprise to Iliya that she had managed to pass the first of her required three trials to even be able to get into the real part of the chuunin exams. She actually thought that she was far from good enough to join the chuunin exams, but as she had been choosen by her tutors, she couldn't resist the opportunity to at the very least try her very best and see how far she'd get.

The Uzumaki kunoichi was fairly certain that she was far from the best her village had to offer, worse yet, with the sudden influx of genin participating under kirigakure's crest and emblem while actually hailing from sunagakure made her look even less applicable. Thus when she was approached by the proctor of the second trial and told to get prepared for it, she let out a deep sigh, knowing very well that it would be only a few people watching her trials again, most likely her own folks and their employees and maybe a few uzumaki from konohagakure if she was lucky.

She doubted Master Sero or the Mizukage would even notice her at these exams, after all, she had only recently graduated and had yet to leave an impact on Kirigakure, both in combat and in social graces.  

Checking her gear, making sure neither of the two rapiers she was now wearing was loose or otherwise not attached to the belt she wore, Ilya tied the typical Kirigakure foreheadprotector around her left arm and looked at the clock in the waiting room to make a note of the time, it seemed an eternity, but she had only two minutes left before her second trial would start. "Dear sage of old, watch over my every action and guide me where my mind cannot." A soft and swift prayer to the legendary sage of the six paths was all she could muster now.

"Uzumaki Ilya?" The proctor opened the door and entered the waiting room. "It's time for your second trial."

Nodding, Ilya stood up and followed the man to some sort of cube, or at least it looked like that from the outside. As soon as she entered the room, she could hear the door slam shut behind her and the proctor calmly tapped her shoulder to wish her good luck, before suddenly to Ilya's surprise, he started to chain her, place her in a straight jacket and even locked the chains, before vanishing into thin air. "Ok...I guess I'm supposed to get out of here within some sort of time limit?" As if the room itself had heard her muttered words, a digital clock appeared, displaying a time frame in which she no doubt had to escape the place. "Oh goodie, half an hour to escape this number of chains and locks...this won't be easy, damn it."

With the clock counting down her time, the Uzumaki genin from Kirigakure calmed down and started to think, even with a limited timeframe like this, she knew that any similar situation in the shinobi world would need a clear head and a decent assessment of the situation. "Let's see...pulling the chains won't work and the straight jacket's a perfect fit, not really an option to squirm out of this one."

The clock was ticking...

536/1500

She tried, Ilya really tried, but just using brute force on the chains and locks amounted to practically nothing for the Uzumaki girl. Somehow she just wasn't strong enough to actually be able to break the chains. She had thought about that, given her lack of actual physical strength, but still she had hoped she'd be able to at least bend or shift something, but to no avail, all she ended up doing was hurt herself a bit and frustrate herself even more.

Despite the fact that she had used ample time to think the situation through, she simply just couldn't figure out how to get rid of the chains and locks binding her and keeping her down within the alotted time. It was as if the proctors and thus those controlling the entire chuunin exams simply wanted to weed out systematically, but in hindsight, the kiri genin had to let out a sigh in disbelief of her own stupidity and ignorance. Of course that wasthe point, to weed out the weak to resume the rest of the trials and the chuunin exam in a whole with only those fit, strong and smart enough to prove their worth to their respective villages and communities. "Still, despite everything I thought about, something still seems to feel off about all of this, something just isn't right with this trial," The uzumaki girl thought about everything that had transpired, but couldn't figure it out just yet, but in the meantime, the clock was ticking and her time was running out. As she looked up towards the digital clock counting down the seconds, Ilya realized that already half the time of the trial had passed, all the while her struggling and her thinking had yet to prove their use and she simply couldn't thing of a way to get out of this whole situation. "Oh man...the mizukage will most likely have my head if I fail so soon in the exams, the others have probably already passed their second trial, damn it!!"

As her frustration was rising, so too was her temper flaring up, something that rarely if ever actually happened, but desperation could turn a simple, friendly girl into a furious hurricane. So with that all in mind, the Uzumaki girl simply started fidgeting with the straight jacket, convinced that she might perhaps loosen up the restraints a bit, just enough for her to gain some room to move her arms and perhaps with a bit of room, she could try and break out of the straight jacket at the very least, there were still the chains to worry about though and they didn't look like they'd just be some easy manner of just prying oneself loose.

Finally, after fidgeting for long enough, Ilya noticed that she could move her arms, even if it was just a bit, it seemed to be enough, as her slender hands finally slid through the restraints, the red haired girl quickly slid her arms through the sleeves and pulled off the straight jacked and the leather straps bound to her feet. Alas now she still had to content with the chains though and as she looked at them, she realized they hadn't budged even a bit during her earlier struggling and pulling at them, but now she at least had some freedom and she could finally reach her gear. "Maybe if I use my best rapier, I could cut them off?" It was a risky idea, given that her rapier wasn't exactly made for actually cutting something with brute force, not to mention prying open the chains with it was probably not exactly a smart idea either, given the rapier's weakness and the fact that it could snap under too much pressure. "Oh man, this really is getting tough for me."

As the Uzumaki girl from kirigakure no sato complained and contemplated her next step, the clock was ticking...

664/1200

"In the name of the sage of the six paths, I will not be beaten so easily by a mere trial," It seemed Ilya was quite determined to get through her second trial and show her village that she was not to be trifled with or to be underestimated by her peers, no matter the difference in strength and power, the Uzumaki girl was not going to give up just yet, not when she was so close to getting her desire to be recognized by not only her village, but possibly the entire world granted in these chuunin exams. "Think Ilya damn it, think this through...how can I escape these chains and locks without needing to cut them or break them with some sort of key or leverage?" It was obvious that Ilya was now getting seriously desperate, especially after she had noticed that nothing but a quarter of the alotted time was remaining.

To make things worse, for some odd reason, she was finding it hard to exert her strength and her breathing was becoming surprisingly shallow. "Have I truly expended all my strength and chakra, that's impossible, I hardly did anything...strange," Calming herself down by slapping her cheeks, Ilya chuckled when feeling the stinging sensation, but her eyes widened when she noticed something. It was almost invisible, very hard to notice, but the uzumaki girl was sure she had seen it right when she felt the stinging sensation of her slap to the cheeks, a shimmer seemed to go through the chains as she did so, making her wonder why that even happened. "This is strange, odd even...let's see...I'm certain that I experienced everything,
the straight jacket, the leather straps...wait, the leather straps, why did they put leather straps on my feet when they were already bound?"

She couldn't believe it, there was no way that it was this simple, right?

Recalling everything from when the proctor called her for her second trial up until the point where she noticed the clock an started thinking about what to do, Ilya suddenly slammed her fist upon her other hand's open palm. "That's it,
no genin would normally be able to just break steel chains and the locks, even an experienced locksmith wouldn't be able to open all those within the time they gave us. This wasn't a trial of strength, but of observing, a trial of intelligence. They really did make a good trial with this, I almost got fooled."

Placing her hands together, the uzumaki genin started gathering her chakra, finding it oddly hard to do so, but she persevered nonetheless, deciding to better be safe than sorry, by going for the largest amount of chakra she could gather in regards to the genjutsu she was most likely under. "Genjutsu...kai!!"

The chains dissipated when she unleashed her chakra, but it also made something else visible, some sort of smoke was being pumped into the room and it explained why she was having a hard time breathing and gathering chakra. However, now that she was no longer bound to the chains, the girl ran up to the door and while she was coughing, she managed to get outside within the alotted time.

"Uzumaki Ilya, you've passed your second trial," The proctor from before smiled gently at the girl and patted her back a bit when she was obviously still coughing. "Congratulations, go rest a bit and prepare yourself for your final trial, good luck."

590/1790/1500

Trial 2 1500/1500 complete
Endurance E-2 to E-3 225/225 complete

discard 65 wc