Name: Shrine Detail
Difficulty: D
Location: Heiwagakure
Reward: 5,000 Ryo
Experience: 25 Experience
Objective: Obtain information about why the village became visible while cleaning.
Description: You are requested to help the little shrine maiden girl to clean Heiwagakure's many statues inside their temples and around the edges of the village. Use this time to ask her about her village and try to find out why their village suddenly appeared.

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It was great that Hozuki Saizo had allowed him to leave the village. Of course he still had to go with Amagi, his personal ANBU escort, but that was better than not being allowed to go at all. Sometimes Koten Tekishijin had thought that this entire shinobi thing was a weird play off of the game House. Where one shinobi or kunoichi would start as the son or daughter and then eventually grow into the parent, watching their own son or daughter follow in their foot steps and do the same thing. The cycle of Gennin, Chuunin, Jounin or rank higher than Jounin continued to flow like the rivers of the world; a silent incessency.

{This is going to be great, don’t you think Nibi?} Tekishi asked the sleeping demon within him, albeit the demon never sleeped. [Just fantastic,] he responded, obviously with more than just a sprinkle of sarcasm. {Have you ever heard of the village of Heiwagakure no Sato?} he questioned. Amagi was his new found shadow. He was never that far off. In relation to Tekishi’s analogy of the shinobi world being like playing the game house, Tekishi was still a teenage son and Amagi was Saizo’s newly found babysitter. Before he had been allowed to leave Shippugakure no Sato they had done a few things in regards to training and preparing for what may be found out here. Tekishi didn’t think any of that would help him as of right now. He knew that the entire purpose of being here in this village, just like the messenger had said, was to figure out the mysteries that this place held.

He had been assigned, rather, he had agreed to go and detail a Shrine in the village. When he had entered he was finally able to take in just how magnificent it was! It was in the country of the Hidden Blossoms, so his and Amagi’s travels to the village was filled with breathtaking scenary fit for newlyweds. Fortunately Tekishi was not in that boat and had no plans in being in that boat for any portion of the foreseeable future. For that part that was unforeseeable, much had remained to be determined. At the village gates he had been met by a nice young maiden who had introduced herself as Lafa. “Interesting name, I’ve never heard it used before,” he complimented her with a smile. [Sometimes your grin can be more telling than you think it,] informed the bijuu.

Tekishi slipped inside following behind Lafa as she turned and led. The village was beautiful in the sense that it was always a changing light show as the sun passed overhead and crept down into the village only where the cracks of the canopy would allow. It was still dense forestry that they were surrounded by being inside the Cherry Blossom Country, trees, and a lot of trees, was a given. “This way, will take us straight to the shrine so that we can detail it and be done,” said Lafa.

Her voice was pretty curt and direct. Tekishi didn’t suspect that she was trying to keep conversation to a minimal, he had just expected a grand tour with as much detail about the history like you get when visiting most other places in the form of a tourist. He wasn’t a tourist here, and there was no readily available tour or tour guide who would be so willing to pass over information about this secret village. Secrets were one of their strong points and they have been masterful at keeping them for centuries. It would be ridiculous to break that chain of discipline now. Especially for Tekishi’s sake. “This shrine, what is it of?” he asked Lafa.

“There are a lot of shrines and statues around the village that honor the generations of villagers before us, who have done so much in helping our village remain hidden for so long, help us continue to stay in peace and not let the darkness consume us,” she answered.

Koten Tekishijin had to let the answer marinate for a little while. There was a lot of different things he could do with this response, but for now he had just kept silent, taking his duster as it was given to him upon the first statue that they had come across. Lafa had directed him in how the statues were to be cleaned and dusted and he made certain to follow her direction to the letter. Her smile was soft and held a curiosity of its own. “There have been a lot of visitors here lately, from the outside. Most of you have been very… oh, what is the word I’m looking for…”

“Inquisitive?” asked Tekishi.
“I was thinking more along the lines of meddlesome, but that could just be because I’m being defensive over my home land.”
“Which you have every right to be, and please if I ask too much, don’t hesitate to let me know and shut me up. I am easy to get along with like that, and wouldn’t want to garner any unnecessary confrontation.”

Lafa smiled. The problem was that Tekishi couldn’t tell if this was a genuine, ‘thank you for understanding,’ smile or if this was a sly grin like he too employs. A smile can be the vanguard of a thousand bright, shimmering “Hello’s,” or it could be a deceptive means of coercion from one to another. Feining friendship was always a devastating way to lead someone right to where you wanted them. Hopefully Lafa wasn’t doing this to him!

They continued to move on, dusting and cleaning shrine after statute, after statue after shrine, until they had eventually finished. Tekishi didn’t think that it would take all day long, but he was glad that he had acquired some solid foundational information from Lafa in their time spent together, and that was what he had come for. He found out that there had been a demon sealed away into a ‘tome,’ which was just a fancy word for book that had been antagonizing the village before it’s first disappearance. He found out that most of the shinobi in this hidden village had a chakra affinity that was referred to as Yoton, or Light Release. Lafa had pointed out to him a bit of the cartography of the village, informing Tekishijin of Shinko-jo, the eldest castle of the village where the Hikarikage and his clergy presided over the village together. She pointed out the Seichi, the chapel where all prayer would be received and heard by no matter who the prayer was, or so the villagers earnestly believed. Lastly she pointed out the plains Sodai Ryoki which still held the ancient battle scars of the wars she had not wished to mention.

Her family was one of the most peaceful in the village so she said she would have to learn about the wars from someone else. It wasn’t as if she was forbidden from speaking about them, which of course Tekishi had asked to find out if she was or not, but it was the fact that Lafa and her family had followed a more religious or spiritual, rather, understanding of the Law of attraction, and didn’t mention war because they didn’t want war. They didn’t think war because they didn’t want it, so on and so forth. Tekishi was familiar with the law of attraction and was pleased that his first mission here had served as a reminder of the teachings he had received from his father.

Words: 1,255 / 600

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