First Encounter

Tamero heard Renji's voice, but it was on the other side of the path and he wouldn't dare try crossing. "I can't get to the other side," he told them with mild panic. He didn't have a plan for them to escape, so he did what any other person in this situation would do. "You guys have to keep moving forward. I'll meet you on your side when I know it's safe. Don't worry, I'll be moving forward with you." Tamero then dropped to the ground and reached out to grab a few shuriken and kunai. Pulling away from the onslaught of weapons, he counted his inventory. Three kunai, six shuriken, and a single demon wind shuriken. Okay, he could manage with that.

Felix gave a slight grin when he saw the three were split up, this time leaving Tamero to fend for himself. Okay, time to change up the game. "Oujinshu, you're allowed three explosive tags, if you have any on you that is." Tamero was thoroughly relieved. Three spare kunai, and three explosive tags. He quickly tied a tag to a kunai and threw it into the branched above him. When it exploded, Tamero moved without a second thought. He still couldn't see because of the smoke, but whoever was firing weapons at them would soon be found and taken out. It was only a matter of time.

Renji didn't like being separated anymore. For something like this, they needed all of them together. To watch each others backs. "Alright, be careful." But that didn't mean he didn't know how serious the situation was. "Come on Kana, we have to get out of the smoke," he said, helping her along. He didn't know how else she'd been injured, but he knew she had. It was like she was even having trouble standing up now.

"Wait, we can use these weapons," Kana mentioned, then pulled Renji lower. "Get some, and stay low," she told him. Renji seemed compliant enough. Once they each gathered a few weapons, they started forward and Kana noticed something. "Weren't there a lot more that flew at us...? How come there's so few on the ground?"

Renji shook his head. "Don't know. Maybe some were illusions," he said, watching around them. This wasn't working. They had to think of a way to flush the enemy out, instead of just moving forward like this. "Any ideas..?" he muttered to the blond girl.

Tamero wasn't happy when the weapons didn't cease fire. He continued to run. Two bomb tags left. He had to use them wisely. Clearing the smoke, Tamero could see that the path ahead was very much clear, which meant whoever was attacking them, couldn't cover the entire trail. "Renji, Kana, I'm out of the smoke." It was partly to alert his teammates that there was a way out, and partly to get whoever was attacking them attention. Tamero rolled out of the way when several kunai came flying in his direction. It was like the entire smoke cloud had moved his way. He wondered if Kana and Renji could pinpoint their assailant.

Kana looked around. "Is it just me, or does the smoke look like it's moving...?" she asked, looking to Renji. If it was, maybe that explained all the shimmering. Maybe this was a jutsu! "Maybe this is ninjutsu," she said quietly, her eyes brightening a bit when Tamero said he was out, then nudged Renji along a bit.

"Yeah, it does look like it, doesn't it..." He stayed put when Kana tried to pull him. "Wait. If this is a jutsu...well, if we find the middle of the cloud, maybe we can find the enemy," he said. When Kana blinked, Renji grinned. It was clear she hadn't thought of that.

"But that would mean heading further into the smoke," she protested. She didn't like not seeing. Wasn't fun. Kana looked around. Wait. If the shimmering was moving with the cloud, it had to mean it was coming from somewhere, right? "Hey...over there," she said quietly, pointing.

"How do you know? I don't see or hear anything," he said.

"Just trust me, okay?" Kana hissed lightly, pulling one of the spike senbon out. She was in no mood for games. It looked like their attacker was in a tree. Made sense, after all, a lot of the weapons came from higher up. Grasping the senbon a second, Kana threw it as close to the center of chakra as she could. If she couldn't hit them, maybe she could startle them. At least, that was the game plan.

The girl in the tree was not too thrilled when Kana's makeshift senbon nearly hit her. "Little punk, just who do you think you are? You could have hit me," she snapped. Her red eyes narrowed as she dropped down from the tree, a blade in her hand as she swiped down at Kana. Spinning in a circle, she allowed her scarf to blind the genin before aiming a punch to Kana's gut. This girl was clearly not playing any games.

Tamero was surprised when the rain of weapons suddenly stopped. He looked up as he heard a female voice that sounded older and didn't belong to Kana. When he saw the red haired girl jump down and attack Kana, Tamero quickly headed over, attacking an explosive tag to the kunai,but not throwing it. He wasn't sure if Kana and Renji could get out of range.

Kana gave a small grin when she heard that their attacker was a woman. Big improvement on the amount they knew before. "Yeah, that was kinda the point," Kana snidely replied. As soon as the senbon had left her hand, Kana had one of the kunai in her hand that she'd gotten from the ground. She only had two, not including the one she'd picked up at the beginning. She blocked the woman's blade as it came down on her, but when she was blinded by the scarf, couldn't block the punch that came, and doubled over with a cough.

Renji wasn't too sure about letting Kana just waste her weapons, but when the smoke cleared, he was surprised to say the least. And relieved too. Now they could see their attacker, and that there was only one. But the woman looked fast, and older...This wouldn't be easy. When the woman descended upon Kana, Renji moved fast, throwing one of the make-shift senbon at the woman's dominant shoulder, or what appeared to be her dominant shoulder. He hadn't yet seen that Tamero was coming towards them, he was too occupied with the fact that Kana was getting attacked. Running towards the woman, he aimed a kick at her side. Yeah, taijutsu wasn't his strong suit.

The girl moved away from Kana as she felt the younger girl double over. "Not so tough now are you pipsqueak." She then looked to Renji who had thrown one of the makeshift senbon's at her. She gave a short laugh when the kid aimed a kick at her side. She took Kana by the shoulders and pulled her in Renji's line of fire. Kicking Kana to Renji, she turned to Tamero and flipped over his shoulder, knocking him into his teammates. "You kids have nothing on me," she said rather rudely. "I mean honestly, who trained you?"

Tamero crashed into Renji and Kana. "I don't like her," he mumbled as he stood up. This girlw as tough and clearly she was stronger than them. The odd thing was, Tamero couldn't spot her headband, so was she really from the Crested? Had their sensei asked her to fight them? Tamero didn't understand why they couldn't have just one fair fight. "We need a plan," he spoke with a sigh.

Felix had moved closer to the fight. It looked like Mio had the upper hand on his students. The girl was amazingly skilled, too bad she was a rogue. She would have made an excellent shinobi. Felix leaned back on his branch. He wondered how this would turn out, for Mio was not the only person in this forest. His students, were not alone.

Kana stumbled into Renji, not being able to hold herself from doing so as the older woman kicked her. Turning, the blond glared at the woman, watching as she threw Tamero into them. Okay, this woman was strong, Kana would give her that. "She's an enemy, we're not supposed to like her," she told Tamero, none too kindly. Straightening up, Kana cracked her knuckles. "Yeah. The plan is, we beat the hell out of her," she said angrily, starting forward with a kunai in hand. Only to be pulled back a moment later. "What?" she snapped at the person who'd grabbed her arm.

"We can't go rushing in like that," Renji said, keeping a hold of her arm. "Pull it together." He then lowered his voice. "We need a distraction. She knows there's three of us, but what if we make her think there's more than that?" Renji knew they didn't have time to be discussing at such a slow pace, because the red haired woman probably wouldn't give them the time they needed. They had to think on the run. "If we can manage, we have to move forward while we fight, but not make it obvious we're doing it. It'll save us some time in the long run," Renji said quietly.

Kana rolled her eyes and pulled her arm away. "And if she finds out what we're doing, then what? We don't have time for this," she said, throwing two shuriken at the woman who'd attacked them. She wasn't about to wait around and plan against someone who wouldn't wait to kill them. She wasn't nearly that patient.

Tamero sighed when Kana snapped at him. There she was again, being unreasonable, because while they were talking, he saw that their red haired enemy was waiting for them. Any other ninja would have killed them for sitting in the open discussing a plan. "Why doesn't she ever listen?" Tamero asked in a somber voice. He looked to Renji. "We have to save her before she gets killed." With that he handed his teammate his last explosive tag, hoping that their sensei wouldn't go all crazy about it. Tamero then hurried off after Kana.

Mio was being nice about letting the kids talk out a plan. Would have been easier had they hid first. It didn't really matter, because the blonde one was clearly eager to fight. Mio yawned when the two shuriken came towards her. She jumped back, blocked them, and then started on a jutsu. "Ninja Art: Twisted Forest." Two trees came swinging down behind the red haired girl, and she quickly dunked down to avoid being hit, the target was Kana.

Renji sighed as Kana went forward. She was going to get herself killed. "Because she's hardheaded," he answered bluntly. He was getting sick of Kana. If she didn't pull her act together, he was gonna be the one knocking her around! "Thanks," he said, pocketing the tag. He didn't need it yet. He'd wait for the opportune moment. For now they had to save Kana's stupid self. Since Tamero started off after Kana, Renji ducked behind a tree, and made his way silently as he could towards the red haired woman. The plan was to get her from behind. While he was out of sight, Renji decided now was a good time to try a trick he'd learned from his brother. Throwing a kunai out in front of him into the air, another one followed soon after, knocking the first kunai down at the red haired woman, making it seem as if the first kunai had actually come from someone who was on a tree branch opposite where Renji was. He hoped it would work...

Kana was really started to get pissed off at this woman, who could block everything she threw. The blond girl's eyes widened as two trees came swooshing forward, and she didn't have much time to dodge, so she ended up getting knocked back into Tamero. "I...hate this woman," she coughed lightly, getting up slowly before stopping to try and help Tamero up. This was ridiculous.

"Tch. You're fighting a bunch of kids Mio? Just how low are you planning on falling?" On a tree branch sat a man seemingly of about thirty years old, leaning back as if there was something behind him supporting his weight. "If you're really that bored, I know a couple rogues who'd be more than willing to kick your sorry butt," he joked with a grin.

Tamero was not happy when Kana was knocked back into him. When she said she hated the woman, Tamero had a quick response, "We're not supposed to like her, remember, she's the enemy," he said as he stood up. When he heard a second person, he looked up. "Oh no, there's another one." Where had Renji gone? Tamero pulled a kunai and sent it at the red haired girl who was dodging another kunai.

Mio smiled when the older rogue spoke. "Hey, I have things to do aside from playing with this kids, this is just business." She sent a kunai in the direction of the kunai that had been thrown at her, unaware that it was coming from the opposite side. She then side stepped Tamero's kunai. "You're a distraction, go find that other pipsqueak," she said. "He's over there."

Kana shot a glare at Tamero's smart remark. Her gaze then shot to the new arrival as she heard the man's voice. What the hell was going on?! Just how many people lived in this forest! "Where did Renji go?" she asked, looking around. She didn't think the boy was the type to chicken out, so where was he? She nearly sighed in relief when she saw a kunai coming from one of the trees. So that's where he was! "We gotta do something to help him. A distraction, he said earlier, right?" Yes, she was suddenly in the mood for a plan. How swiftly her moods changed.

Seto chuckled at Mio's response. "Ah, that guy, huh? He had me doing this a couple years back too," he said with a shrug. "I got bored with it after a while though. Same thing every time." Sliding off the tree branch, he looked at Mio as she told him to go find the other one. "You let one of them out of your sight?" He grinned. "Very smart," he said sarcastically. Shrugging, Seto started in the direction Mio indicated.

Renji was glad to see his plan had worked. The red haired woman didn't have a clue. The only problem now was...well, he didn't want to kill her. Taking out the only two shuriken he had, he threw them at the woman's legs, now that he was behind her. Then he took out the explosive tag Tamero had given him and threw it at the ground attached to one of the spikes, right next to the woman. He was at the very least going to hinder her movement.

"Listen, he wouldn't have gotten out of my sight, had it not been for you showing up," she said. "And if you didn't want to be here, then you shouldn't have come." She looked to the other two kids. "Jeez, you act like you're so high and mighty Seto." She looked down when she felt a shuriken hit her leg. It made her stumble forward, drawing several curses from her as she saw the explosive tag. When the thing exploded, she was knocked against a tree.

Tamero frowned when Kana started talking about making plans. "Too late now," he told her as he pulled her back, out of the range of the explosive tag. Tamero then rolled across the ground, pulling a shuriken out, attacking the bomb to it, and throwing it at a tree next to the rogue, but it was deflected by another shuriken. Tamero looked in the direction it had come from. A green haired guy sat in a tree with a kunai spinning around his fingers. "Hey their kiddies, wanna play?"


Felix watched Mio and Seto converse as if they didn't have a job to do. Served them right when Mio got blasted by the tag. Felix sighed and looked at his watch. Time was moving way quicker than he thought it was. When Roy showed up, Felix grinned. "Impatient as always."

Okay, now Kana was getting worried. There were two new enemies in addition to the redhead. She flinched when Tamero pulled her away from the blast. "How are we going to get out of this?" She was starting to feel hopeless. It wouldn't be much of a problem if she could run, but right now she felt like nothing more than a target... Swallowing, Kana looked around. These guys wouldn't actually kill them...would they? Kana took out a kunai. This would be so much easier if she could use a genjutsu. Any jutsu! The only one that wouldn't do much good would be dance of shadows, considering it was day time. She was glad that the redhead ended up getting hurt though. Suddenly Kana was glad Renji was on their team. But where had he got the explosive tag from?

Renji gave a small "yes!" when his shuriken hit, as well as the bomb tag. Taking out one of the makeshift senbon, he threw it at the woman's shoulder while she was down, to try and immobilize her in terms of attacking. One leg and one arm down was more than enough. His eyes widened though, when after he threw it, he found that a man was in front of him, seemingly out of nowhere.

When Seto figured out where the kid really was, he made his way over, almost at a lazy pace. He wasn't really in the mood for fighting kids. Hadn't been for a while now, actually. It never posed much of a challenge. Grinning, he looked down at the black haired kid. He didn't mind allowing the boy to throw something at Mio first. Her own fault for not paying attention. "Hello there kiddo. Sorry bout this," he said, sending the kid crashing into a tree with a roundhouse kick.

Felix raised a brow. "Why did he apologize?" Felix shrugged. "Then again, if they want to be soft, then so be it." Felix rocked back and forth, careful not to lose his balance. These kids were falling apart. It was to be expected though. Felix shook his head and continued to watch.

Roy blocked the attack against Mio. Jumping down, he walked over to her. "Don't blame Seto for your short comings," he told her as he helped her up. He looked at the kids. "Let me take them while you rest up. I'd hate to see you killed by runts." He then walked towards Kana and Tamero. "Give me your best shot," he told them.

Tamero looked at the guy as he came down. He looked weird. He looked at Kana when the guy said that he should give them their best shot. "Okay, let's work together, please."

Kana looked at Tamero. Looked like the only way they were gonna get out of this was together. "Alright," she said with a nod, taking a deep breath. She wasn't much use right now and she knew it. She couldn't even dodge properly, Tamero had to keep pulling her out of the way. This was severely depressing. She wished she could use ninjutsu, then at least she'd be useful. Genjutsu wouldn't do all that much in this situation. The genjutsu she had were few. Then she remembered. She had Shadowshifter. Summonings counted as ninjutsu, didn't they? She glanced at their sensei. But it didn't seem he would be giving them any breaks. "But how are we supposed to take him on together if I can't even move," she asked quietly. She truly seemed at a loss. Her whole left leg was useless by this point. Those shards of rock were still embedded just above her knee. And she was pretty sure she was the only one that knew it. Her hand gripped her kunai tightly. Hell if she was gonna go down without a fight though.

Renji scrambled to his feet, cringing a bit. That had really hurt. But this guy in front of him didn't look like he was being too serious about the fight. Wouldn't most enemies have rushed in to finish him by now? Pulling his gloves on tighter, Renji took out a kunai, and hid a shuriken in his opposite hand. Strategizing was something he was good at, hopefully it worked. Running at the guy, he went to slash at him with his right hand, only to shove the shuriken into his side when the man went to dodge.

Seto blinked in surprise when he felt something sharp pierce his side. Jumping back when the kid went to kick him, he gave a small grin. "Nice hit." His praise didn't last long before he grabbed the boy's leg, throwing him towards his other two teammates who seemed to be about to face off with Roy. He put his hand open palmed on the side of his mouth. "Incoming," he called casually.

Tamero didn't know what to do, but suddenly he heard someone yell incoming. Tamero gave a low groan when he saw Renji flying at them. Tamero knew it would be wrong to move out the way, so he prepared himself for the impact, hoping to lessen Renji's fall. "This just keeps getting more and more complicated," he told the other two. "We're not going to win against them. They're too strong and we're limited on what we can use."

Roy looked up as well. "Seto, throwing children across the forest is not very humane you know." He gave a dismissive wave. "Does this mean I have to take all three?" He asked. The answer he received came from Mio. "No, I'm not out of the game yet," she responded. "My leg is damaged, but I'll live." She stood up and looked at the three children. "Bunch of brats think they can take us down, please, give me a break. I've had rogue children half their size pose a bigger threat."

Seto gave a shrug at Roy's little remark. "Yes, well neither is shoving a throwing star into my side," he said nonchalantly, turning so that he could look at his side before slowly pulling the shuriken out. It wasn't in too deep. He'd moved away before it could do too much damage. He looked to the redhead as she got up, only shaking his head and tossing the star to the side. "You're too damn stubborn Mio. Take a break, relax. Let the big kids have a turn," he said, walking over to the grouping of fighters.

Kana looked towards where she heard the call come from, only to see Renji coming at them. Great. Like Tamero, she helped catch their teammate. Then she saw the blond guy pull a shuriken from his side without so much as flinching. What the hell were these people?? "I...agree," she said with a sigh. "But maybe we don't have to win. We just need to get to the end, right?" she said lightly.

Renji flinched when he crashed into his teammates. This crashing thing was becoming too common. "Sorry guys," he said with a sigh, getting up as the two of them started sounding like they were about to give up. When the red headed woman got up though, Renji looked around at the three people. They were strong, but he didn't know anything about the green haired one. Or was his hair blue? He couldn't really tell. Not that it actually mattered. "We keep moving. No matter what they do, we make sure we keep moving. Come on, get up," he told the other two. "We didn't become ninja just to give up when things get tough." Though his body was aching a bit, he wasn't just about to throw in the towel. But he knew the other two were way more injured than he was. He had to take most of the heat while they all moved. He had few projectiles left, so that was out of the question. What could they possibly do in a situation like this?

Tamero up until this point had been doing his best to ignore the searing pain in his arm. Although it had been wrapped, it was now bleeding through the bandages. The young shinobi looked at Renji as he said they needed to keep pushing forward. Tamero nodded and stood up. "Understood," he said. He looked at all three rogues, his purple eyes scanning over each one of them. He was attempting to come up with a battle plan, but there was just too little he could do with the lack of resources they had.

Mio frowned when Seto told her to let him and Roy take over. "Fine," she said as she jumped onto the nearest branch. "Have at it," she told him with a shrug. "Big kids love picking on little kids."

Roy gave a chuckle at Seto and Mio's exchange of words. "We've all got the same goal people, let's act like it." He spun his kunai on his finger. "Come on little children, show us what you've got." Roy stopped spinning the kunai and pointed to the genin. "Be warned, I don't plan on going easy on you though."

Seto gave a small grin at Mio's reaction. That woman was seriously amusing. At least she didn't try to attack him for his rudeness. He then looked to Roy with a shrug. "Nah. It's no fun without a little group conflict every now and then." Then to the children with that same small grin. "Look at them. Poor kids are frozen in fear." He chuckled. "Let's warm'em up a little," he said, starting a jutsu. He'd start simple. "Fire Style: Fireball Shot." As the single fireball raced towards them, the blond rogue blinked at what happened next.

Renji swallowed when he heard the name of the jutsu. A good thing his brother had gotten him the jacket he was wearing, which was made of the same material as his boots and gloves. Instead of moving out of the way, Renji quickly slipped his jacket off and held it open in the way of the fireball, cringing as the fire seemed to be absorbed into the jacket, keeping the black jacket ablaze several seconds before the fire extinguished itself, a wave of heat washing over the area. By the end, Renji was shaking slightly. He'd never had to do that before, and he'd been terrified it wouldn't have worked. Lowering his jacket, Renji looked at the rogues. He needed his jutsu to fight. They had no weapons, no chakra, and nothing to make traps out of. One out of three of their team couldn't move, and the other one had an injured arm. But somehow without any of that, Renji had deflected a fireball. So yeah. He was feeling confident.

Kana went to move out of the way of the fireball when she saw that Renji stood right in it's path. Was he insane?! But when she saw what happened, her mouth dropped lightly. "How, how did...?" Okay, now she was thoroughly confused. What had just happened!

Tamero blinked. "How...that was awesome!" He then looked to the two rogues, a shuriken slipping into his hands, because Roy and Seto both looked surprised. Throwing the shuriken past Renji, the genin moved quickly. He had to take advantage of this brief delay. He had one shuriken, and one kunai which was his only kunai. He threw the kunai at Roy and then went for a straight shot at Seto, but he was planning on turning that attack on Roy. However, he stopped when his weapon was deflected and someone appeared in front of him.

"That's enough," Felix said as he stepped in front of Tamero. "It's over, time is up. Mio, Seto, Roy, thank you all for coming out here. The guards have been alerted that you're leaving the village, so there should be no problem at the gate." He looked at his three students. "As for you three, go back to the clearing, and wait for me to show up."

Roy was not sure what he'd just seen. Did the jacket just stop a fire style? Seto's firestyle at that. "Impossible." He then blinked and looked at the shuriken coming his way, but smiled when Felix stepped in. "Ah, it was a good fight kids, hope you're not in too much trouble." He looked at Mio and Seto. "Let's go home."

Mio dropped from the tree. She'd never seen that happen before. "That kid...he used his jacket...." She looked at Felix and walked to him. "Thanks for letting us come help your team." She gave him a kind smile and then looked to the little ones. "You all will make brilliant ninja if you have this guy as your sensei. He's taught me a bit of stuff and my skills obviously show it. Imagine, you get to be trained with him until you become Chuunin, you'll be so much greater than me." She looked at Renji. "Nice jacket," she said and then turned and headed after Roy.

Renji knew that what his jacket had done was enough to cause a distraction in itself, and was glad that Tamero immediately took advantage of it. The black haired boy had moved to attack to, but stopped when their sensei showed up and said time was up. Renji's shoulders dropped. No...we didn't make it...does that mean we're not on the team anymore...? Renji nodded at their sensei when they were told to meet him at the clearing. This was depressing. Even thinking that, he couldn't help but give a small grin as the redhead said nice jacket. He'd have to remember to thank his big brother later.

Kana had the same thoughts as Renji when their silver haired mentor jumped in, stopping Tamero's attacks. So their sensei had put them up to attacking the three of them. That wasn't cool.

Seto looked at Felix as the guy came down, though had been ready to block whatever the kid was planning on throwing at them. "No problem. It was nice to come around these parts again. We'll catch ya later," he told Felix, then looked to the kids. "Good luck you three. Train hard," he said with a small wave, walking behind Roy and Mio. As much as he was getting bored with fighting kids, Mio and Roy were as close to a team as he had, and he was gonna stick with it. He was getting old, but that really didn't mean much, since he looked so much younger than he was.

Renji blinked as the three older ninja walked away, then shook his head lightly, going over to Kana in case she needed help walking. He gave a light sigh, then looked between Tamero and Kana. "Let's go."

Felix met the three in the clearing. He looked at each one. "I told you that if you failed to make it through this obstacle course, I would remove you from this team. I have decided to let your failure slid and allow you a chance to prove yourself that you have what it takes to be on this team. Tomorrow, the real training begins. Go home, get some rest, meet me here at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Dismissed."

Tamero had waited nervously until their sensei showed up. When he did, Tamero stood beside his teammates, his entire demeanor looking rather fragile when Felix reminded them that they were about to be kicked off the team. However, when their sensei said differently, Tamero let out a sigh of relief. He looked to Renji and Kana with a smile. "We did it," he cheered when Felix said tomorrow the real training would begin. "I can't believe it, we actually did it." Tamero wanted to cry tears of joy, but he was too exhausted. "See you guys tomorrow. I can't wait to go home and tell everyone."

Kana and Renji too waited nervously for their sensei to arrive. Renji had put his jacket back on and was fidgeting with his gloves, while Kana was just standing against a tree looking down. Both of them joined Tamero when Felix finally showed up. Both of them smiled as well, looking among their hopefully permanent teammates. When Tamero went to leave, Kana looked at him. "Hey! Forgetting something?" she asked, her head tilted a little. They still had to make that pact. It was only then she remembered. They'd never told Renji about it. So it was clear why the black haired boy looked confused.

"Oh yeah, our pact." Tamero gave a chuckle. "I forgot." He looked at Renji. "We're going to make a pact. To stick together through thick and thin. To never give up no matter how high the odds are stacked up against us, we keep pushing forward. We are a team and we will always be a team." He looked to Renji and Kana. "Sound good?"

Felix went to start taking down the obstacle course, diffusing the parts by withdrawing the chakra stored within it. He'd used quite a bit to hold all this together. As it collapsed into dust, he turned and looked at his students. What were they doing over there? Had he not told them to go home. He shrugged. Their loss of sleep, not his.