If Misaki wasn't acting so strangely, Ibiki might have spent his break elsewhere with his own equivalent of 'playing' -- sparring with someone who could keep up. But as it was, he certainly wasn't about to ask any of the other pupils. Most would be unable to keep up and he wasn't about to demonstrate their family techniques that directly to some child prodigy of their biggest rival clan. Thus, practicing chakra molding would have to suffice.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Ibiki stepped out with the rest of the class, his expression guarded as always. It didn't really show on his face, but he was looking forward to this part - he had suffered through the earlier lessons by recalling and supplementing them with his own tutelage on the various subjects, but physical practice was always useful. Even if it wasn't enough to tire him out so that the previously untrained children wouldn't exhaust themselves, he could always increase the pace or give himself a handicap.<br/><br/>The white-eyed boy hadn't seen the track before, but once they arrived he carefully examined the area. They were supposed to run nine laps to start things off? Ibiki briefly gave a doubtful glance to their teacher, then let his gaze wander over the rest of the group trying to judge who might have problems -- the length was quite a bit, after all -- but ultimately didn't comment and lined up.<br/><br/>The strongest skills of the Hyuga Clan were surveillance and martial ability, making them excellent spies and assassins. Their prestige meant that they were rarely called upon for simple messenger duties, the main type of mission that required prolonged running. They trained in it, of course, to increase stamina, but their focus was elsewhere.<br/><br/>It was one of the reasons Ibiki had been made to run more than ever before in the preparatory training he had been put through. A generalized curriculum would put no less emphasis on training for messenger duties than any other. As a result, Ibiki had learned to pace himself properly even for longer runs and made the nine laps flawlessly, but was perhaps more out of breath than what might be expected of him by the end.<br/><br/>Rather than walk another lap like Midori did, he dropped into a low stance, running motions flowing smoothly into a couple of precise kicks, followed by a brief Taijutsu meditation exercise that was done after an intense training session to calm mind and body.<br/><br/>Misaki's run had been odd -- it was obvious at times that she wanted to speed up, as evidenced by the subtle strain in her jaw muscles whenever someone passed her, but she kept pace for the entire time, staying just a little behind her brother. When they finished she was winded, but seemed comfortable with dropping to the ground with her legs splayed out. She wiped the sweat from beneath her headband, crossed her arms in front of her chest and dropped back onto her back.<br/><br/>----<br/><br/>Ibiki's eyes snapped towards their instructor when he called for their attention again. His little exercise had served him well and his breathing had quickly returned to normal, but his eagerness when he heard that they would be doing target practice was quickly disappointed when Noboru added the stipulation that they would be using balls of some sort. Thinking again, the targets would probably not be that hard to hit, either.<br/><br/>The black-haired boy sighed and lined up, resigned to another simple task.<br/><br/>The reaction from his twin was eerily similar, though Misaki huffed when she noticed and quickly looked away. For all their differences in personality, there were some subtle movements and expressions in which they almost mirrored each other.<br/><br/>Both of them were well-practiced with throwing weapons, reflexes honed by hours upon hours of training. Neither of them expected anything but a perfect record -- unless, of course, their teacher added some sort of trick to vex them.<br/>