It was the morning of the day of the third trial, The sun had only just risen from the sky but Mokuzai had woken up a hour before and begun to mentally prepare himself for his final trail that would be much later into the day before he must face his fellow shinobi in battle, to him it was very excited but yet he felt a gnawing feeling of nervousness that he would somehow lose. This was the first time in a long time his confidence was shaken by  the worry of what if his abilities weren't up to par, the last time he was this worried was when his  father had passed and he lost his motivation for training for a entire month.

Mokuzai lips formed a O-shape as he sucked in a breath of fresh air before slowly exhaling it back out as he sat on the floor with his legs criss-crossed and his hands molded a form of the bottom of a cup, now that his mind was clear Mokuzai slowly released the worry of losing through the art of meditation in his mind. It was clear to him now that the only thing he could really do is face the trial as best he could using every ounce of his abilities and that will make him a winner even if he doesn't become chunin. He then thought of his father and put his hands together in a prayer,

"Wish me Luck dad, Ill try my best for the sake of the Village"

Mokuzai then begun to pack up his kunai into the pouch on the side of his pants and then tied his shinobi head-band tightly around his head before looking at a mirror and crackling a half smile as he made his way out of the rented room he was given for the chunin exams, as he walked towards the area of the third trial he passed some genin who were talking among themselves about the one's still in the running while the one's who weren't talking looked as if the world was ending and Mokuzai took it as a sign of what would have happened if he let the pressure of the chunin exams get to him.

Mokuzai finally made it to the area of the third exam and made his way into front of the seats so he could have a clear view of what type of trial he was to participate in this time, when he looked down he saw  a very rocky covered arena within the perimeters of what seemed to be a cage. Mokuzai eye's then scanned around the caged arena for what was the purpose but suddenly his eye's were no longer needed as he heard the boyish screams of a shinobi from the cage, when his eye's caught up with the sound he located the boy who was slowly backing away looking forward and Mokuzai eye's followed the boys to see what he was looking at. As he glanced over he found his answer, the boy seemed to be staring into the eye's of a larger version of one of nature's apex predators a tiger.

Mokuzai was utterly shocked he remembered the animal encyclopedia  his mother read him as a child about tiger's, but that book did not obviously take into account the tiger's near the Kumogakure, as he watched it was clear to him that tiger's strength was now joke as the tiger in it's attempt to his the shinobi missed and caused a crack into one of the rocks in the caged arena.

He sat in his seat silent for the remainder of his wait time, he made sure to analyze the movements and strategy's of every person that went before him, It was clear that Mokuzai physically was at a huge disadvantage but the bright side was that he learned that he only had to survive one minute just one tiny minute he repeated in his head. If that was all it took he would display every ounce of his abilities and come out on top.

A couple of hours had passed and Mokuzai kept to his word and had watched every shinobi carefully to come up with a winning strategy of his own, he watched one kunoichi from Iwagakure used her small size to quickly dodge the large throws of the tiger. It was quite ingenious Mokuzai thought and he kept a mental not of it, there was another shinobi who hailed from Kiri who used the beast's own speed against it as every time it charged at him he would get low or move far enough to the side to make it slam it'self into the cave, another ingenious tactic and made another mental note to himself.

Mokuzai could hear the distant sound of someone calling his name but it was feint and he was too focused at the moment to be distracted easily, suddenly he felt something yank him by his shirt and his focus was finally disrupted as he turned to look at the person who was grappling his clothing and it was a Kumogakure shinobi who was proctoring the exam "Senju,Mokuzai. It's time for you to take your third trial follow me." this particular proctor seemed to be quite the tough one, but Mokuzai shrugged it off and followed them as instructed as taking the time to watch other's before his turn only proved to empower his self-confidence in his skills.

The Kumogakure proctor led him to a corridor and walked with him all the way to it's other side where a caged door was that lead to the inside of the arena where the larger version of Kumogakure tiger's was lurking waiting for it's next victim or enemy, the Kumogakure then patted Mokuzai's back roughly as if trying to be comforting "Dont die kid, it would be ashamed to see your blood splattered against the arena." a cold sweat-dropped down Mokuzai's left cheek as he thought in his head "His words dont match their meaning at all.." but he simply replied "Yeah ill be sure to win, just watch me!"


WC:1,058/2000

Mokuzai begun to walk through the small caged door leading into the caged beast's territory, once he entered the count down from one minute started. Mokuzai entered quietly but that seemed to be of no use as the loosened up dirt below his feet shook slightly to different directions as the sound of heavy foot steps quickly closed in on his location, he was suddenly meant face to face with the beast of the arena but now that he was up close he  saw the beasts majestic white fur, it almost looked like a giant white cat with a zig zag pattern and black stripes. The beast then looked down at Mokuzai before letting out a for as it let out a loud, earth shattering roar, as sparks flew off of its fur and it's teeth proudly bared towards  him as if it was trying
to scare him.


He stood in front of the beast wide eyed but standing tall none the less, but then suddenly Mokuzai started running and screaming as if he was a small child running away from a giant monster. Mokuzai screamed out

"NO GET AWAY!! DONT EAT ME??!!"

He continued to run towards a large rock formation on the ground but the beast was literally right behind him but not attacking as if to prove it's dominance over him. The beast seemingly had enough as it used it's legs to jump into the air leaping towards Mokuzai, but he then smiled as he darted to his right rolling away as the beast who was now mid-air hit the rock formation of the arena cracking the rocks with it's head.

"That's what you get for underestimating me!? I hope you learned your lesson you stupid over-sized feline!!"

Despite Mokuzai's taunt's he wasn't crazy thought watching other's he learned not only a couple of strategy's but the beast's weakness and it was such a clear weakness that it would have been oblivious to him had he not taken the time to watch the others. It was simple, the beast was just a beast. The others treated the beast as if it was a god or something that can't be beat due to it's overwhelming physical combat skills, but a beast is just a beast Mokuzai learned and if he could make the beast angry enough that it's reasoning is flawed then he figured he could last through the remaining forty-three seconds that remained in the trial.

Mokuzai quickly casted the hand signs for Water Release: Water Clone Jutsu making six copies of himself before they quickly looked at each other then nodding to each other before scattering to different side's of the arena, two clone's yelled out towards the beast making stink face's and stupid noise's

"Hey ugly! your fur stinks like rat piss!!"

The beast now recovered from the hit to it's head rose up menacingly with it's teeth sharply barred and letting out the low growl of a wild beast, it looked around and saw multiple Mokuzai's but heard the taunts of two of them and took off sprinting to their location. The speed of the beast still surprised Mokuzai as it went so fast it managed to hit itself against the bars of the cage once and once again in the process of destroying his clone's, Mokuzai made note of that as to use it's own speed and strength against it.

The clock now read thirty four seconds and another two of Mokuzai's clone's starting taunting the beast with more insult's,

"I bet your father left you at the water hole and never came back!"

His insults made no sense, but just the sound of his voice now proved to be enough reason to enforce the beast's anger as it let out a intense roar that made sparks of lightning fly around the arena that took out one of Mokuzai's clone's that was too close to the beast leaving only three clone's left.

Mokuzai and his clone's started to run around the arena making loud obnoxious noises as the beast stood in place looking back and forth between the remaining clone's and the original Mokuzai, it then open it's mouth and a ball of electrical energy formed before it was shot out of it's mouth two of Mokuzai's clone's had been standing in the way of it's mighty attack but the clone on the left pushed the one on the right away from them as the electrical energy blast destroyed the clone utterly continuing until it hit the bars of the cage as they became electrified as the other one survived. The clone that was saved quietly grunted to themselves before regrouping.

There was now sixteen seconds left for the trial, Mokuzai talking to himself and his clone's spoke

"Alright, lets end this."

As if a final attempt to achieve victory Mokuzai and his clone's started running around the beast aiming to go even faster then they did before running around it in a large circle as one of Mokuzai's clone's ended up in front of the beast and another to it's side while Mokuzai himself was behind the beast, the clone to the beast's side weaved hand signs as fast as they could before twelve globe like bubbles begin to float around near the beast and the clone the clone then releases the technique causing the globe like bubbles to explode into sea foam as the substance got into the tiger's eyes causing it to roar from the pain and step back.

The clone in front now weaved the hand signs for another jutsu before putting their hand up to their mouth and a jet of water spewed at the beast, due to it's pained eye's and the force of the water hitting it the beast took even more steps backwards. The real Mokuzai now seeing what may be his only chance ran to the blinded beast and begun to slide under it while forming the ox hand seal and touches the ground as he slide's under the beast turning it's footing into mud, due to it being blinded the beast quickly loses balance as the mud pushes it back further and further.

Mokuzai clone's disappear after performing their jutsu's and the beast that finally opened it's eyes while being dragged by the mud it's back touched the electrocuted cage, it's fur being wet only made the electrify even more stronger as the beast roared in pain loudly as the tip's of it's fur starting to blacken as smoke emanated from it's body before it collapsed on the ground exhausted from it's own attacks.

The time buzzer had went off and the door Mokuzai entered through now opened back up, he didn't waste a second to running back to the door and quickly closing it behind him as he meant the face of the Kumogakure proctor before slumping his back against the war as cold sweat ran down his body. The shinobi then patted Mokuzai's back as he said

"Congratulations you live to see another day, for now"

WC:2,311/2000


Chakra Used: 125/150

Jutsu used:

Jutsu's used by clone's: