42 - The Code

"Woah, don't panic yet," Tsuretsu interjected as the other two opened their mouths to argue. "I can still make educated guesses."

The paper consisted of various different symbols, lines, and letters, being six distinct different types. Tsuretsu pointed to the one with different crosses and lines. "Look, I recognize this. This is a type of cipher from Iwagakure. I can't decipher it, but I know what it is, so it's fair to assume the others are also similar. See the ones with numbers? This is a common type of code across all ninja villages. And the one with nonsensical letters with the little lines over them is a Kumogakure cipher."

Yozora gaped. "How do you know all that?"

"She's been glued to the library for the whole three days since we heard about the chunin exams," Tomo replied, shrugging.

Tsuretsu proceeded to produce a pen from her shuriken holster (why would she have a pen in a shuriken holster?) and rapidly made a few notes on the paper. "I can't fully decode it, but I can figure out a few things, and the type of code by hypothesis."

'Kumo, Iwa, Konoha, Kiri, Suna, number, Konoha, Kumo, number, Iwa,' the girl wrote under each word. "I think that's the type of code each word uses. I can figure out the Iwagakure ones with a little guesswork, the first one says 'the' and the second one starts with 'cl' and ends with 'se,' I think there's an 'o' and a 'ck' in there, so it's safe to assume it says 'clockwise.'"

Yozora blinked several times, having absolutely zero clue what the brown haired girl was talking about. He glanced at Tomo, who just shrugged. This was normal, apparently.

Tsuretsu coughed awkwardly at her teammates' flabbergasted expressions, but she kept writing and talking. "Okay, um, based on an educated guess, if it says 'clockwise' there might be a 'turn' in there. From my limited knowledge of the Kumo cipher, I think the first word is 'turn.' The third to last word looks like Kumo cipher as well, but it's a bit different and only has two letters. I'm assuming it's a number. I know from those squiggles the first number is a 9, so for now we'll assume it's 90."

"Uh," Yozora managed to get out. Well, he was lucky to have a brainy teammate, but she talked a lot, she talked fast and she talked smart, which combined was not something he understands.

He glanced at the piece of paper, which currently read 'Turn the Konoha Kiri Suna number Konoha 90 number clockwise.'

"Yozora, you're from Konoha, right? Do you know anything about Konoha codes?" Tsuretsu asked. Yozora shook his head in response. "Uh, sorry, I'm not actually from Konoha, and I never studied cryptography either."

Tsuretsu frowned at the sheet of heavily annotated paper for a few more minutes, before dramatically snapping her fingers. "Oh, of course, leaves! The Konoha cipher is based on leaves."

Yozora and Tomo exchanged another 'what the fuck?' glance.

The Iwagakure genin flipped the paper around and began writing. "From what I know, let's sort common Konoha leaves by alphabetical order. Then we cut each leaf into two parts, and sort them like this and then there's exactly 26. So then we simplify each drawing and the symbols in the code read 'third' and 'door,' so now the code says 'Turn the third Kiri Suna number door 90 number clockwise.'"

"What," Yozora replied intelligently.

"Just let her talk," Tomo advised.

"Okay, now the number cipher. I'm not completely sure about everything, but with what I know, I can figure out about half the alphabet. Based on context and patterns, then number ciphers say 'the' and 'degrees.' Well, the 'degrees' could also be 'chimpanzees,' but I think '90 degrees' make more sense than '90 chimpanzees.'"

"Kiri and Suna ciphers..." Tsuretsu frowned, glancing at her teammates, who returned utterly flabbergasted expressions.

"Okey dokey, hear me out," the brown haired girl said, scribbling illegible writing on the paper and talking so fast nobody really understood.

"....and so, I think this one says 'bar,' which could be those jail bars we can see through. And I think this one is 'beside.'" Tsuretsu snapped her fingers. "And kaboom. Cipher solved, with a whole 30 minutes to spare!"

"You are a genius," Yozora announced, still having no clue what any of the brown haired girl's words meant.

"So... we turn this bar?" Tomo asked, standing up and pointing to the third bar counting from the door.

"Yep. One quarter," Yozora replied. The other two crowded around the bronze haired boy as he turned the bar. It moved surprisingly smoothly- a hint of the accuracy of Tsuretsu's deciphering.

A click sounded from the door.

Yozora smiled. "It worked!"

Tsuretsu testingly turned the door handle, giving her teammates a thumbs up when it turned. She pushed the door open, dashing out. "Success! Let's go!"

"Congratulations, you passed the first stage," the proctor announced as the hour was up. About 50 candidates remained.

"The fastest passers were Kai, Modoru and Jimen of Kumogakure, via smashing the wall down, and Haikei, Itera and Hane of Sunagakure via explosives," the proctor said flatly. "The fastest paster via deciphering the code was Tsuretsu, Tomo and Yozora of Iwagakure and Konohagakure."

Tsuretsu cheered silently. Nearby, Kai nodded proudly at herself while her teammates sighed. Itera looked totally proud of herself, while Haikei glowered, rubbing what looked like a broken finger.

"And so, all of you pass. The next exam will be through this door." The proctor stepped sideways, gesturing at an open double door. "Good luck."

The next proctor met them in front of a small mountain. It was like the usual Kumogakure mountains, tall and mostly bare, dotted with only a few trees.

"Hello, candidates," he greeted. "For your next stage, each team will be given a scroll with limited information on one proctor. Your goal is to 'rescue' that proctor and bring them to the indicated location. Alliances are allowed. Fighting to sabotage other teams is allowed. You have a time limit of 48 hours. That's all."

Tsuretsu cracked her knuckles, gesturing to her teammates to hurry up. "Come on, we got this."