Danger Box [Tutor](Koizumi Haruna/Mayumi Ito)

[Funai Ikko]

Ikko had been a Chuunin for less than forty-eight hours before he was given some Raiden-awful chaperoning job. He still was a kid, why was Yuii sticking him with more children? This made next to no sense, of all the evil, wretched, dirty, rotten activities she could assign him, babysitting some genin ranked at the very bottom of his list. Of course, he had been a genin the aforementioned forty-eight hours ago, but Ikko certainly wasn't going to let a little thing like "reality" get in the way of his tantrum. Why did she hate him so much anyway? What did he ever do to her? Other than this...

Ikko tossed the the square box lightly into the air before catching it once again in his palm. It wasn't especially large, maybe a few dozen centimeters tall and wide, nor was it especially heavy, but to Ikko it carried a certain weight, an important one at that, as the contents shifted noisily inside as the box rose and fell and was accompanied with another longing look on Ikko's face. It was a marvel he wasn't drooling. There wasn't time for that though, his charges for the evening should be there soon. Yuii hadn't bothered to fill him in too too much on the two. Outside of the pair being Genin, female, and "interesting," Ikko hadn't been given much to go on. Consequently, he had absolutely no idea if his ploy was going to work, but he certainly wasn't going to try this himself. Who knew how dangerous this box was.

Which led him here, sitting on a punching post at the obstacle course of the academy building, silently musing that the place was used by Genin substantially more than the Academy Students who called the place home,and awaiting the arrival of his "interesting" students. He just hoped they were interesting in that sort of "blisteringly intelligent" fashion and less interesting in that "obstinate and obnoxious fashion." The irony that he fell into the latter category was again lost on him.

---

WC: 341
TWC: 341
PC: 1/5

 

[Mayumi Ito]

Mayumi's eyes skimmed through the summoning letter, her eyebrows slightly quirked. When she first received it, she had thought it would be related to her first mission but that was immediately dashed upon reading the content. She supposed it may be too early for a greenhorn like her to be thrown into a real mission quite yet. The letter basically told her to meet a chuunin at the obstacle course and there would be another student with her. Putting away the letter, she headed towards where the lesson would be held barely arriving in time.

"Good morning." Her greeting was short and lacking in formality, not that she was sure how to address this senior of hers upon setting eyes on him. Compared to her previous teachers in the academy, the one she was meeting was quite young...scratch that, she was pretty sure this guy is around her age, perhaps 3 years older at best. He certainly matched the feature given by the letter at least.

The boy was sitting nonchalantly on a punching post and from what she observed he did not look enthusiastic. The girl was unsure what put him in such a dour mood, well she had a hunch it had to do with their meeting but kept that to herself.

"I'm here for the lesson." the girl said in a matter-of-fact way, her amethyst eyes drawn immediately towards the box on the boy's hand. The way he handled it suggest it was quite light though there was no way she can find out more without holding it directly. She wondered if it had something to do with their upcoming lesson. Or perhaps naught at all and it was just a keepsake of sorts. In which case, her eyes would wander towards the obstacle course while keeping Ikko in her peripheral vision. Having practice here often everyday, the girl was quite familiar with the view.

(MFT)
WC: 318
TWC: 318
PC: 1/5

 

[Uchiha Masami]

Unrealistic may have been an appropriate means of describing her expectations when she initially received her summons. Dreams of heated battles where there would be no quarter and bloodbaths so gruesome crimson blotches deterred her from seeing even an inch of her fair skin filled her mind, only to be scattered once her scarlet eyes derived the truth from the letter. The macabre fantasy she yearned for dissipated, her expression bordering on a grimace, when she realized today’s expedition had little to do with fighting. However, orders were orders, and unbalanced as she may be, she didn’t intend to refuse them.

Arriving at the makeshift rendezvous, Haruna briefly took in her surroundings. As expected, they were based in an obstacle course she was less familiar with, despite her graduation. The one implement that was a source of familiarity was the punching post her supposed senior took the liberty of perching himself on before her arrival. The difference in age between herself and the male seemed miniscule. Though Haruna empathized with the shortage of zest, her attention was drawn to another fact: he had some seriously good looks. With her hands tucked in her pockets, she glanced towards the individual she knew was her fellow student in this event, Mayumi.

Two people easy on the eyes, not half bad. Well, she didn’t value it more than a good fight, but it was far more tolerable than it could have been. Lips woven into a small smirk, she decided she should oblige a brief introduction, as the amethyst-eyed friend of hers had but moments ago.

“Yo. Got summons to be here as well,” she started, a brief pause before resuming. “Koizumi Haruna.”

To be fair, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do. She wondered if the impromptu lesson was because people higher on the ladder than her deemed her current accomplishments less than adequate, but she had no evidence to support that theory. Oh well—she didn’t care, which was an outlook of hers she applied to almost all things in existence.

[PC: 1/5]
[WC/TWC: 341/341]
[MFT]

 

[Funai Ikko]

"Interesting" might have been a more apt description than his instructions might have intended. Not that either of them did anything particularly interesting yet, but the stark contrast between the outward personalities of the two students definitely intrigued Ikko. The first one to speak, the one who didn't bother to introduce herself, clearly didn't want to be there. Curt, short and to the point, a little gruff...all the qualities in a person that Ikko usually loved to torture. If she was always like this he would need to go find Eishi and stick them in a room together, the broody sparks that would fly would be glorious. Then again, Ikko's current posture atop the post was not especially broodless in and of itself, maybe he shouldn't judge. The second one, Haruna being courteous enough to introduce herself and not assume that Ikko could read minds, also didn't look like she really wanted to be here, but in a humorously different way. Whereas the first one, now revealed to be Mayumi, gave off an air like the whole thing was beneath her, Haruna just looked bored with her hands tucked away in her pockets. He supposed it was fair that he be sent people without any manners, but if he was going to have to be a Chuunin you'd think that would AT LEAST come with some extra perks, but no, just more work, damnit Kiri.

Ikko slid off the post and made his way toward the pair of them. Unfortunately for Haruna, unless she decided to tell the assignment to bugger off for the day and just start swinging at him, her violent fantasies were going to go...mostly...unsatisfied today. Their job was to open the box. With an introduction with barely more effort put in than their own, Ikko spoke, a small grin showing on his lips.

"Funai Ikko, we'll skip the rest of the pleasantries and the educational platitudes about wit, cleverness, preparedness, shinobiness, et cetera et cetera and just jump right on into it. This box was recovered from...let's call her a hostile entity and it contains valuable information to the Hidden Cloud. The box itself is locked and a riddle is inscribed across the top of it, because it'd be too easy otherwise I guess. We doubt it's the only locking mechanism or protection it has, but we haven't really gotten started on trying to get it open. Normally we'd just open it but it's not dangerous, probably, so getting past this lock seemed like a good test of your ingenuity and ability to problem solve. You have about an hour."

With that, Ikko reached out and dropped the box into Mayumi's arms, partially because Haruna's were in her pockets and partially because Mayumi seemed like the one most eager to get the task solved and go home, which meant she'd likely work faster, which in turn worked to Ikko's favor. He retreated from them before sitting himself down on the ground, resting against the post as he'd watch them work. If the pair inspected the box further, they'd find a four digit combination lock on the side of box facing up at them. Each digit had a wheel, each face containing one of the twenty-six (English) letters of the alphabet on it. How the device managed to have that detailed a wheel was going to be left up to the marvels of shinobi engineering, but above the combination itself read the accompanying riddle. Apparently it'd be too easy to just ask what street you grew up on. In ornate letters across the box face, it read:

'Written forward, backward or upside down and still read left to right'

---

WC: 612
TWC: 953
PC: 2/5

 

[Mayumi Ito]

The introduction caused Mayumi to turn her head slightly, nodding her head in turn. She recognized the girl, having attended similar taijutsu class with her. Her attention was directed back towards the Chuunin who decided to introduce himself there. He began by telling them he's sparing the pleasantries speeches about what makes a good shinobi and cast them straight into their first task.

Opening a box.

Mayumi took hold of the little cube give to them, the girl began to inspect the box. There's no way to open it...at least not without possibly destroying the content. Instead of Kanji written on the padlock, instead they have Roman alphabets. It was fortunate that she learn them from her mother as she began running her finger across the lock.

The only saving grace that kept her interest from dropping further was that the task given to them were not one that test their strength but their wits, as the girl verbally read the riddles written on it's surface. Just as workout is an exercise for muscles, the girl thought of riddles as exercise for her wits. The girl passed the box to Haruna for her to get a close look, should she decline she would keep holding onto it. Placing a hand under her chin, she began to explain her thought process.

"Judging by the description, it sounds like a palindrome. 4 letter word that can be read the same backward as forward, except this riddle include the phrase "upside down" which is not necessary for palindrome. Taking that into equation, it narrows down the letter choice to "H", "I", "N", "O", "S" "X" and "Z". With that in mind, one can safely assume it is a word consist of two different letters as the combination was restricted to four as opposed to five."

Mayumi paused for a bit, making sure she didn't overlook any of the details upon setting her eyes and her hands on the mysterious cube.

"Might the answer to this riddle be "NOON"?" the silver head asked Ikko. Certainly she could simply open it right there but there was always a possibility that they were graded based on their thought process. Either way, she would turn to Haruna so as to suggest her to try that combination should she accept the cube or do it herself should she decline her offer earlier.

WC: 392
TWC: 710
PC: 2/5.

 

[Uchiha Masami]

Issued to skip the pleasantries for the time being, which the blonde wasn’t opposed to, Haruna listened to the explanation and drank in the sight of the diminutive cube. Given a practical application to the situation, they were assigned a test of wits for their assignment, where they would have to open a vessel potentially containing crucial information to their village. She gathered that a situation like this could arise on a mission, and she valued the task more as preparation for what she deemed the worst situation for her. Her means of problem solving were notoriously simplistic and barbaric.

Punch it open. That was Haruna’s first line of thought, but she knew it wasn’t the answer. After all, Cloud’s academy was gruelling in all ways, and it made it difficult to breed complete idiots to be soaked into the militant body. That was just the simple resolution she wished was possible, because while she could think deeply into matters, she didn’t enjoy doing it. Still, she wasn’t dissatisfied. The lesson proved to be a greater exercise of wits than she imagined, but with little basics left to cover when it came to the fundamentals of being a shinobi, she should have expected something, well-

Outside of the box.

When Haruna was passed the box, she looked at it. Examining it, she noted the sophisticated details of the contraption, how it was labelled, and started to think about it. While she started to think about it, she handed it to Mayumi, and apparently that was her biggest mistake. Within moments, her fellow student broke down and articulated the features of the cube, which letters followed the riddle’s principle, and then proceeded to spell out what the answer was. Haruna blinked, narrowed her eyes, and then looked up as though sifting her brain for more possible answers. Lo and behold, that really was the only conclusion.

“Uh –“ she started, rubbing her neck once finally provided a moment to speak. “Yeah. Other candidates can be read upside down but not backwards in the same way.” There wasn’t a great deal more for the blonde-brunette hybrid to add, as that seemed to be the gist of it. They would be eating their shoes if they were wrong. The other girl turned to her, as if inquiring if they should open it using that combination, but she felt she already adequately answered that question in her own reply to the equation.

[PC: 2/5]
[WC/TWC: 408/749]

 

[Funai Ikko]

It was a good start, the girls embraced the challenge with little back talk or complaining, that was good. Well, good that they didn't complain, not good that they didn't once question "why" they were being asked to handle supposedly sensitive information or why the information was held in a ridiculous puzzle box, which wasn't ideal. He was sure they would eventually learn to question why their world was the ridiculous mess it was instead of just accepting that it was a mess. Then the colder one, Mayumi, made a mistake. Not with the puzzle, they had the answer well and truly right and even solved it with a bit of deductive reasoning instead of Ikko's typical method of just pulling answers out of his head, no, the mistake was that she bothered to ask him. As soon as she asked him if her answer was right, Ikko's facial features slowly shifted from passive boredom to something rather akin to irritation. A sigh escaped him a few moments later.

"Looks like you're going to make a liar out of me and force one of those irritating platitudes. Genin are students in so far as the powers that be don't make a habit of putting you in situations where you're likely to die. You're shinobi. The real world doesn't care how you found the answer. The real world doesn't check your work. The real world doesn't have remedial shuriken throwing. You either solve that box or you don't. You accomplish your missions or you don't. The answer to this riddle very well might be "NOON" but you're not going to know until you put it into the damn box."

As the last word Ikko spoke left his lips, the boy's attention seemed to become urgently and overpoweringly fixated on a nearby meandering butterfly and making it clear he wasn't interested in whatever angry rebuttal they had. When they put in the answer they found, they'd hear what sounded like a pressurized 'pop' as the outer layer of the box seemed to come right off, leaving another box immediately below it, with its own little puzzle. Similarly to the previous puzzle, this smaller box had four rotating digits, however on these digits were the numbers zero through nine and, conspicuously, between the second and third digit was a large colon. Beneath combination was another riddle.

'At 12:00 PM the med-sennin placed and individual, chakra infused pathogen into a container. The pathogen reproduces by splitting into two every minute. If at exactly 1:00 PM the container was full, at what time was it half-full?'

---

WC: 434
TWC: 1387
PC: 3/5

 

[Mayumi Ito]

Mayumi raised her eyebrow slightly at Ikko's spiel, even as she began to move the combination of the lock. While she agree that one should not be too fixated on one method to accomplish certain task or mission, she also believe there is merit in knowing the method, should a similar situation arise in the future. Yet instead of facing them and address any rebuttal they had, this gentleman turned away to face a flying butterfly. Wonderful.

"Ludicrous."Mayumi muttered, turning her head slightly to Haruna's direction wondering if the girl feel the same way on the matter. Not too soon after she said that the cube lock was opened....only to reveal yet another box underneath it, like some sort of Matryoshka dolls. This time the puzzle was mathematical based, with numbers instead of alphabets on the lock for them to put their answer into. Instead of deducing the problem to it straight away like she did earlier, she gave the box to Haruna.

"So then what is the purpose of this simulation? Are we being sorted according to our aptitude?" Mayumi asked as she step forward. She highly doubted the box given to her contain any sort of secret information. As Ikko stated earlier, they were just genin and therefore unlikely to be given such highly classified task this early in this journey.

This time Mayumi would let Haruna handle the box riddle, keeping an eye on her in her peripheral vision. Of course should the blonde choose to turn towards her for an answer, she will use her fingers to signal the combination necessary to answer the riddle.

WC: 270
TWC: 980
PC: 3/5