[center][h1][b][color=00746b]Keita Ryuukaze[/color][/b][/h1][/center]

Keita didn’t know what to do, or what was going on. 

What was their sensei expecting from them? What was this test really for? Was it to test their endurance? Was it to test their obedience? Was it to test their limits? 

Was it to question the man like he was doing now? 

Keita was confused and a little frustrated. He knew sooner or later the man would overcome the distance traveled and closed the gap that was made by the ten second start. In fact, why hasn't he yet? The man was more than likely faster than them. He could overcome the distance in a heartbeat. When he caught up with them would he pass by or attack? Was that mud wall a foreshadowing of a future assault? Would he keep pace with them? Encourage them to do their best? Impart some life long lessons? To look beneath the underneath (a proverb passed down from some ninja some generation ago; he didn’t remember the name, though)?

Keita tended to over think but couldn’t help it. It was one of those ‘bad habits’ he had. He would over analyze his opponent and before he knew it, he lost. Granted, his father was more experienced than he was so he was able to beat the habit from him when it came to combat. Literally. But left with his thoughts like this, while running wasn’t a problem, he became distracted and unaware of his surroundings.

The lake was coming up. Keita felt a brief apprehension at seeing the reflective surface but was soon relieved upon seeing that the falling trees had luckily thrown one across, providing an impromptu bridge to the other side. It cut diagonnally across the water, leaving a few meters of the shore from the tip of the tree to dry ground. Leaping over the shore shouldn't be much of a problem.

[color=00746b]“Hey, look!”[/color] he would point out to the others what he saw. He noticed that Tsukarei-san had managed to make it safely from the falling mud wall and was pleased. At least their sensei wasn’t trying to intentionally kill them anyway. He would run across the fallen tree as soon as he reached. Then another thought occurred to him. Was this some pursuit and destroy kind of test? Was that why they were given so many laps? Were they [i]supposed[/i] to take out their sensei, in a sense, so that they wouldn’t have to run so many laps? Was he their pursuer? Hmmm, the idea did have some merit. It was impossible to do all these laps. Especially as genin. So maybe...

Foolhardy though it was, there was no other way to find out. Once he reached the other side, he would whirl around to face the incoming jounin, allowing his teammates to bypass him to safety before expertly throwing two of his shuriken in the direction of the following man. Once that was done, he would follow after his teammates, ready for any protests that may come his way.

He doubt the two blades would hit their mark. He wasn’t aiming to maim, after all, but hopefully since the man was right behind them all he wouldn’t be expecting one of his genin to attack him out of the blue. That, or he [i]was[/i] and had been expecting all along, thus proving Keita’s theory. If not, wellll…..

He’d just sealed their coffin-shaped fates with rusty nails.