Clouds and Incense [P-NK]

Kumogakure was a village Akira himself was new to. The young man seeked refuge there after Iwagakure perished. An unfortunate demise perhaps but this was the place for him to start a new life and to rekindle his career as a ninja, which seemed to go dead while sitting around in the Rock Village.

But today, after a spot of exploring he managed to find an abandoned temple along the mountain path. In truth it wasn't too shabby, most of the paint was still intact. There were however a lot of bloodstains, the bulk of them dried onto the stone floor of the courtyard, and the shrine seemed to be bathed in blood. But that didn't seem to stop Akira from busting out a match and lighting the shrine's incense sticks. It was a good idea to honor whoever actually died here.

In truth, as sad as it looked Akira felt fine here. Distanced enough from all the hustle and bustle. An area where he could practice in complete privacy. 

The temple had mostly red accents throughout with white walls, a large staircase lead to a red and black Torii gate, which was also. Amusingly enough, bloodstained. Through the gate was a large stone courtyard which preceded the temple's large structure itself. 

A few of the shoji screens within the temple were torn down and bloodstained from whatever combat was held here, although not as messy as it could've been since all the corpses were removed before he had gotten here.

In truth, since this place was abandoned, he figured he'd make it his own. The young dark haired man took a further look around the temple interior. Turns out there was just about everything in here. A dojo, most notably as well. Still with a few swords sheathed on a rack. Yet the dojo also had a few streaks of blood along the floor and walls.

Seems if he had plans of staying here he'd have to actually give the place a scrub, but this place was massive and featured multiple buildings. He was unsure how exactly he was going to get around to doing that. Honestly just paying a cleaner would be so much easier.

"What a mess..." Akira mumbled to himself as he wandered out of the dojo and back into the courtyard.

Coco crinkled her nose as she tip toed, around the Temple. Her restless soul simply couldn't wait around the city while She waited for the Raikage's decision. She wandered around the outskirts of the city seeing what they had to offer. When she saw the Temple appear over a hill she just had to check it out. In Amegakure the only buildings outside of the city were farms, and barns. And one mysterious placed Salamander sanctuary. Never something this large.

She'd never expected something like this. Old dried blood littered the temple. Not even just one room, but the entirety of it. Walls, floors, screens, ceilings. Goodness. Without knowing any of the history or dynamics of the cloud village she had no way of knowing what happened in this place. She could only let her mind fill the bloodied halls with wild fantasies. None of them were likely, but she couldn't help herself. The mind couldn't stand there not being a narrative here. Coco didn't like the idea that something like this happened within the borders of those she was seeking help from.

Foot steeps from further in! Coco gripped her umbrella. The blood was too old for this to be the culprit, but that didn't mean it was a friendly presence.

She made her own way into the court yard. She still wasn't fully used to the new heat in this country. She was down to only three layers of clothing. A blouse, a sweater, and jacket. Her scarf was still wrapped around her neck. Though now it was damp not from the Rain, but from Coco's sweat. This counties, heat made her feel gross.

When she caught a glimpse of the man exiting the building she held her umbrella tightly. Ready to use it should worse come to worse. But first she was going to take the diplomatic route. "A fellow explorer eh?" She would shout from across the courtyard. She flashed a bright and genuine smile. "What do you think happened?"

This temple probably would've been considered a big tourist attraction if it wasn't in the state it was in. And also if it wasn't quite such a trek to reach. He also couldn't seem to find much of a history of this temple. Suggesting that perhaps this temple wasn't here just for religious reasons. Perhaps, infact. This place had something to hide. Otherwise there'd be all sorts of boards depicting the place's history. Seems as if the temple could be more than met the eye.

He could hear footsteps, his battlefield experience could easily allow him to tell that he wasn't the only person wandering around this place. He kept an eye out, but still unarmed. Akira wore pretty much all black, from the trenchcoat to his pants. Looking more like a black ops officer than anything else.

Obviously he could tell that whoever made those footsteps probably wasn't the person responsible for this bloodbath, but he kept his guard up nonetheless. Until he heard a voice, turning his head in the direction it came from. To see...A girl!

She was pretty cute, black hair very similar to his and also sporting an ungodly amount of layers for someone in Kumogakure. He almost winced at the sight of that, she must have been incredibly hot. He wouldn't enjoy being in her shoes at this point, that was for sure.

Seeing as she sported a nice, gentle smile. He returned one back. "Haha...More of a lost soul than an explorer." He replied with a light chuckle. "No clue. But we must be one of the first people here since considering the area's not sealed off. But something seems really odd about this place so I checked it out."
In a way, despite all the blood, he felt more nostalgic instead of disgusted. Shinkou shrines and temples were one of the few things he remembered seeing as a child. "Wanna investigate with me?" He asked charmingly, his midnight blue eyes looking into hers.

Coco didn't make much of a girl, however she felt her womb quiver at that Lost soul comment. Coco didn't have any idea about what she liked, but that line seemed to be in line with it. She looked him over, he seemed fit, dangerous even. Like he had the potential to be. However at the moment he seemed calm. Not too murderous. Though Coco usually lived her life assuming everyone else was just a few steps from being a threat.

"Only if you promise not to leave by body for another group of explorers, and lost souls to stumble upon." She freshened her smile, padded over to him. Her yellow rain boots traveled silently, as she approached the man.

Instead of stopping as she reached him, she simply walked on past him in a direction that neither of them had been to. She trusted that he'd be close behind. "So Mister Lost Soul, do you have a name?"

Fit would probably be a good description for Akira's appearance. Quite tall, lean and athletic. They still were not his best assets however. But dangerous was something he definitely was. Fortunately he meant no harm.

"Ya jacket's gonna kill you long before I will." He simply smirked, standing still waiting for her to catch up. He was still wondering why the hell she was dressed in those clothes on such a day out. Was it an identity thing? He wasn't gonna ask though, instead he merely followed the layered girl to where she wanted to go. He had time to burn so why not meet people?

"I'm not that lost. My name's Akira Shinkou. Jounin." He chuckled. Well, he was technically A-ranked Missing Nin of Iwagakure, but she didn't need to know that. Like, at all. He was here to start a new life and not get executed.

"What's yours?" He asked. He said his name, he asked for hers in return. That was how it worked right? He was unsure.

He looked around the unexplored area for a bit. Seemed as if they were heading into a garden, crossing a bridge which looked over a koi pond. Which was unfortunately again crimson red and full of dead fish. "Guess they didn't spare anyone here huh? Even the fish got it." He couldn't help but grin at that. Granted, he'd probably vow to slaughter everyone who took part if he found a dead cat here, but these were just fish. As far as he was concerned he could just eat 'em.

This place was creeping Coco out at a hearty rate. who kills fish? It's a shame. The garden was a beauteous sight to behold, on a normal occasion. Bright flowers sprouted up from around the grassy knoll. And as with every garden ever there was a cherry blossom tree that seemed to be constantly shedding flowers as the wind blew to carry them away.

The cherry blossom filled whipped around Coco's braid sending her dark hair, swinging over her shoulder. From beneath the Layers of Scarfs her bright green eyes looked kindly to this Akira fellow.

"My name is Coco Wei. I'm a Ninja from The Land of Rain. Though now I suppose I'm a permanent Fixture in the village now. Payment of services rendered you see."

She squatted down and inspected a bloodstain that lingered upon the petals of a tulip. "How long ago do you think this all happened? " Coco came from a long, long line of nurses and doctors, and somehow she managed to not pick up any of her families accumulated knowledge.

Contrary to the lady accompanying him Akira didn't seem to be freaked out by any of this at all. Probably due to the lack of corpses. But even the thought that there was once what appeared to be a massacre in this place was somewhat unnerving.

This place, even with all the bloodstains still looked rather beautiful. The garden was completely untouched. Cherry blossom trees shed their leaves, cicada's chirped and flowers of all colors littered the sides of the garden path.

"Oh. So you just moved in as well? I used to live in the Hidden Rock before I came here, seems we're both a bunch of lost souls then." He turned his head with a smile, his midnight blue eyes peered into her viridian gaze. She was cute. "Nice name by the way. Is it short for something?"

"There's only bloodstains. It's hard to tell without any corpses. Perhaps two or three days." He figured, stepping towards the cherry blossom tree to pick off a small branch, bright pink leaves were covered in blood. Seems even here there was a fight. 

The garden was certainly impressive, and on the far end there was a wooden structure, a bath house behind another set of shoji screens. And to the east was another temple entrance. The temple itself was rather large, about 4 stories high. Perhaps the answer to what happened here laid inside. 

He was already thinking of what could've gone on here. This was quite likely a clan temple and not just a religious one. Otherwise there would not be this much bloodshed.

Coco smiled as the two of them, moved about the rest of the temple. "The new kids on the block eh?" He let out a little chuckle from underneath her scarf. "We better stick together otherwise the other kids may decide to pick on us." By now Coco was getting a pretty good feel for the temple. She came from a city of nothing but large abandoned buildings. She was in her element. It was just room after room of beautiful architecture acting as a backdrop to the horrid butchery of it all. Though there were less cats than she usually saw around her hometown. After Akira had pointed it our Coco began to notice several reappearing Crests that popped up around the temple. The crest of a clan perhaps, though which one she couldn't tell. They must have been rather powerful to have a temple like this.

"It's from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms." She blushed. The red upon her incredibly pale skin shone like a beacon in the snow. "I'm still pretty sore they named me after a boy though. My parents were just two big nerds."

She grew far too embarrassed to continue. Why was she being this way? Okay she'll admit it he was cute, fit, charming even. Not that any of that had ever mattered to Coco. He was still a stranger, a stranger who was stronger than her. She couldn't let her hormones put her in danger. No matter how deeply blue his eyes were.

Since entering this land Coco had quickly found herself falling in love with the color blue. It was the color of this new beautiful sky, the sky for some reason seemed so much friendlier when it was blue. Like for once it was her friend, and not a tyrant. Now blue was also the color of this man's eyes. It was darker still, but blue all the same.

She was staring! She swung her head in the other direction. Confident that her entire face was ablaze with blushes. She found her eyes making contact with another of the clan symbols. She hoped he hadn't noticed her noticing him. Desperate to cover herself she motioned to the sigil. "Who does this symbol belong to? It looks a little out of place for a temple. But I'll be the first to admit that I know nothing about temples!"

Akira walked through the temple's garden with the heavily-clothed lady beside him. He didn't want to examine her too much even though she was a stranger but something - curiosity found a way to give him a bit of a nudge. This woman was concealed beneath so many layers, yet her jet black hair and piercing green eyes suggested that she was probably incredibly beautiful. 

He wasn't a rookie at the whole "checking out" game however. And his eyes were kept straight ahead of him, focusing on figuring out exactly what the hell this temple was for. And while the exterior was pretty much intact apart from the bloodstains. The interior was still unexplored. And to figure out exactly who owned it or what had happened here, he figured the answer was there.

"Seems like we'd better or I'll end up reliving my academy days." He snickered, oh those days were so long ago. In any case he was actually enjoying this walk. He got to make what he figured could be a friend and plus he got to explore the village he had only just commited himself to. Two birds with one stone he figured.

He listened to her explain the origins of her name. Turns out she was named after one of the characters in the Romance of Three Kingdoms. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms huh? Were your parents into history?" He asked. He didn't really have anything interesting to say about the origins of his name. Apart from the fact that his name was the last memory that he had of them. That and the strange shortsword he had holstered on the left side of his ribcage.

She then went on about how dorky her parents were and he couldn't blame them for taking inspiration from one of their interests. Akira's name simply meant "bright" or "clear". And his clan name, Shinkou merely meant "deep crimson"

"It suits you." He smiled warmly, a genuine smile. His cheeks ever so slightly dusted with pink. He then ran out of things to say, but that didn't seem to matter considering that the woman next to him seemed to be lost in thought, and he seemed to be lost in the green gaze. Such a vibrant color.

Green was the color of the trees and leaves. The color of life basically, green represented vitality and nature itself. He also ended up finding himself staring, and quickly turned his gaze around with a slight pink blush.

"I-I don't know...But I think I've seen them before." He spoke as if something unnerved him. He made his way towards one of the temple doors. "So, Miss Wei. Should we take a look inside?" He offered, Preparing to open the door to see what exactly the inside had to offer for them.

Coco nodded and held her Umbrellas like a shotgun. "Cha-Chow." She announced, as she pantomimed pumping the gun. "Let's do it."

Coco didn't know if Akira actually had a plot going on in his mind. So she is hesitant to advance forth. Thus leaving him with those few words.