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Rush was too good natured to use sass or sarcasm, so he never responded immediately, lest he say something deemed mean that his conscience would later make him regret. So he instead, as always, hesitated briefly before responding to Hikaru's comment,

"While, tests of skill can take priority of certain excersizes, at the moment, the skill level of us four i believe are quite skewed.Given they are both recen academy graduates, it seems the only two who could muster a fair fight would be Leon and Mika. You and I have been at this in longer yet different intervals of time. It really seems that instead of exploiting each other's weaknesses so early in our relationship, team building of Lokail's calibur would allow us to play off each other's strengths."

Then a thought was brought upon Rush and he sighed and smiled,

"Although, if you really wish to spar, I will offer you a match."

Rush smiled sincerely. He understood the stress Hikaru spoke of. Running away from your home is something people shouldn't have to suffer, yet they do, Rush had, and Hikaru might be in danger of doing so. Surely Lokail wouldn't allow some hostile takeover, but there was always some impending danger with an unknown target and an even more mysterious assailant.

"Yeah, well don't think there's anything wrong with friendly competition either. Sparing is one of my favorite things to do."

That was a half truth really. Rush did like sparing, but he was much too passive to condone fighting. His first spar escalated to hateful measures. Ever since that fight, Rush has not allowed anger to encapsulate him, and let sparring remain nothing more than what it is. So now in a fight where inlaying Senbon in the opponent's flesh would be so simple an option, Rush challenged himself to incapacitate without filling the other with countless tiny needle wounds.

Mika turned her attention back to Lokail Sensei as Leon stoped talking. "So it's decided. We would like to try the team exercise." This would most deffinatly be interesting. In she short time Mika had known Lokail, she knew of his.. methods, any type of training he proposed would most definatly be difficult and probubly life threatening. But through all of his "activities" she would become a powerful shinobi, and proudly carry the Sunagakure headband. Mika looked behind herself to look for signs of approval from her fellow genin.

Rush drew on Lokail's every word, considering each of them gravely. He did remeber the bell challenge. A test he had excelled in. Once the conditions and severity of each were made clear. He knew exactally what needed to happen. Rush wasn't on anyone's side, not even his own. He was on the side of the team. A seperate entity from the individual, and its own well being required delicacy towards the situation. He took a few steps out, turned to face the other three with a suddenly stern look upon his face. He gestured at Leon and Mika,

"You two can go get the bell, hopefully a nonviolent conclusion will be reached."

His gaze then rapidly shifted to Hikaru,

"I'm sorry Hikaru, you can not get that bell. Neither can I. You are welcome to ignore this truth and proceed, but I will make sure you don't get it reguardless."

Rush readied his palm, opening his fingers wide. He then raised his arm to the sky with a morbidly serious gaze. With simple focus attainable only by acute chakra control, the flow of energy was prepared for any sudden movement of Hikaru's.

((Yeah Rush is a pacifist, so I'm trying to make him sound as badass as possible for being a goody-two-shoes. He dont want to fight neither. . .]

Rush lowered his arm. It was a bittersweet feeling to hear Hikaru’s claim. Rush was simply a pacifist, and even to use his defensive jutsu would be best avoided in Rush’s mind. He looked around to see where Hikaru darted off to. After a few moments, his vision caught the rustling tree where surely Hikaru took refuge. With the handsign, Rush used shunshin to appear next to Hikaru, not trying to provoke him, but He felt explanation in order for justification.

“Hikaru, I don’t know what bond or duty you have due to Mika, but we all have our roles in this test. Mine is to facilitate the best logical outcome which I intend on doing. Your role is to allow Mika to fill her role without obstruction. Protecting her is fine and commendable, but given that in this case, independence and allowing her to make her own choice will help her grow.

“You have to also consider why. Considering Lokail has made it clear the danger of punishment, one of the two with the least survivability chance should not be forced to potentially die, lest we lose a team member so early. Lokail does not speak idly. If I had better analytical skills, I could pinpoint specifically between the two who has the lowest chance of surviving whatever task failure brings, but I’m not that good.”

Rush let out a deep sigh. He prayed he was doing the right thing. He was a good fighter, but would rather be a good annalist. He could only assume his whim was a correct one and he wouldn’t let the team down. He looked up to Hikaru, put a hand on his shoulder and spoke,

“Mika needs to do one of two things. Either learn to come to a rational conclusion that benefits the team most, with diplomatic methods, rather than violent. Or, she needs to learn to fight. Either way it’s not our battle. But I’m not a genius, I’m barely older that you. If you have a suggestion, or if you know which of them has a better chance of surviving whatever punishment failure constitutes, please help me. This can be a team exercise in more than one aspect. While they settle this, if we could come to a rational conclusion together . . . That would help most.”

Rush was living by the thought that the needs of the many overcome the needs of the few. That’s how heroes think, and Rush wanted t be of equal caliber someday. If the someone did perish or be taken by something close to that severe , than they would only have three on the team rather than four, ultimately the team would suffer somewhere down the line, where they could have prevailed. If only the difference between the other two weren’t so close in skill.

The decision to make was impossible difficult. Technically, Rush didn’t have to make a decision about who gets the bell between the two. But really it would be smarter. Rather it would only be smarter if he made the right decision, hence the difficulty of the risk. Rush kept looking over at Hikaru who did not seem horribly comfortable either. He kept comparing Leon and Mika. Mika seemed like such a sweet innocent girl, whereas Leon had that smirk in the very corner of his smile that suggested ulterior motive of a crueler nature, but that was just assumption, and even if that were so, judging and biasing towards one teammate or the other destroys he foundation of what teambuilding is. Logic ran Rush’s choices up till now, but now any decision he made would be a judgment call rather than analysis. So either Rush sits back or makes a really informed decision. All he could do now was hesitate.

((Hehe, ummmm . . . Read bloodweb's post fully, you'll see at the end leon does leave. Then you posted, giving him another post to get closer . . .))

((Hehe, it happens. If you desire you could always blame bloodweb's smaller than average post size. Just sayin. Bloodweb, we've been talking about it for awhile, and unanimously feel that your print size is the achilies heel of our team. Now I dont know who I'm taunting. I'll just be quiet now. . . ))