Leave A Light On

[Ace Trainer]

The sun was slowly setting on the horizon, leaving the temple that was designed to be illuminated by natural light slowly getting darker as the minutes etched on. From within Sunagakure, sunset always seemed earlier than it truly was due to the long shadow cast by the towering wall that encircled the establishment. For the temple, which was effectively a single room large enough for 50 or so people with a ceiling just as tall, it meant during the day it was easy for light to flood into the countless windows that filled the walls. Indra had already been spending much of his days here, praying and studying the light, so when he officially was asked to join the temple as a Prism...and then the Lucent of the temple became his guardian...the young chuunin began to spend even more time than before inside of it.

The temple was designed by Yuumegure's greatest architects, it was incredible the ingenuity that came with a millenia of appeasing a faceless Goddess. The windows were all canted and designed in a way that allowed small bits of light to be reflected down into the space people would actually be in. So even as sun set, the highest windows in the tower soaked in light and transposed it down into the slowly fading temple. Indra would use this fading light to his favor, walking around with two small burners and slowly lighting candles. At each candle he would stop,

"And even at night, Her Light Shines Through.", at the first.

"Reflected on the moon.", at the next,

"In the warmth of the sand.", at the next,

"And in the flames she has gifted us with.", he would murmur at the last.

Then he would begin again. From the outside observer, it would seem ritualistic and mundane. But for faithful, like Indra, this was how you channeled Her Light. And as a prism, it was his job to ensure Her Light filled this temple at all times. As the sun dimmed and the sky darkened, the temple would get brighter with each candle the young chuunin ignited.

[ayylmao]

Tozoku's found himself in front of a place he doesn't find himself often if at all. His father, a Suna native wasn't very devout and his mother's family was from the Land of Tea. By Tozoku's recollection, he must have been no older than 10 the last time he set foot inside the temple. He simply wasn't a very political and religious animal. His purpose here was a little more....' Practical.' he thought. He came armed with a notebook and pencil. Contained therein were buildings and structures throughout the village that he wanted to study.

It was the lowly Chunnin's understanding that a war was fast approaching. So in the event of a catastrophic invasion, Tozoku intended to learn the interiors or buildings that might have high strategic value. So he entered, quietly just in time to observe the sole occupant ceremonially lighting candles. Indra was correct, it did look mundane. He couldn't make out the words spoken from his distance but he guessed that they were repeating every few candles. Tozoku stood at the entrance for a moment, briefly taking in the room. 'The windows would have to be fortified.' was his first thought. The architectural beauty was, frankly, lost on him.

Tozoku would step to the side of the entrance and wait for the candle lighting to finish. It wasn't his intention to disrespect what appears to be the preacher of the establishment. Indra appeared to be younger than Tozoku, even from a distance the eyes caught his attention. They were unusual, but the world was full of unusual things. In the meantime, he opened his notebook and started counting windows.

[Ace Trainer]

Indra continued as he was, careful and intentional in his process. This was different from the Indra many of his peers would see, the rambunctious, loud-mouth class clown was being thoughtful and diligent, a good little prism. At Tozoku entered the temple, Indra could feel his fellow chuunin’s soul behind him. It was diligent, thumping against Indra’s own like a quiet, simple, almost like a…bongo. Indra smiled quietly to himself as the thought crossed his mind, lighting the last candle and then slowly approaching the altar at the front of the temple. He’d place the two burners he was holding on the altar, and then turn, holding his hands behind his back. He watched Tozoku for a moment as the man eyes peer into the high tower above them.

”Eighty eight.”

He gave a wide grin, inspecting Tozoku now more closely. Only a little taller than him, Tozoku was obviously much stockier than Indra, and clearly a bit older given his more mature appearance. ”This is a Temple of Yuumegure. Eight is a holy number, you know. So, the people who design the buildings like to be a bit on the nose about it.”, he gave another cheeky laugh, ”Doesn’t surprise most people though.”, teasing a bit that it should have been obvious.

”What you counting our windows for anyways? Just a hobby?”

[ayylmao]

"Eighty eight..", Tozoku said to himself, jotting down the number and putting his notepad away. The Chunnin didn't know even the basics of the religion and his ignorance had shown through. He looked up to address Idra, walking farther into the temple, and tried to curl his lips into a polite smile. Tozoku was a bit weak to friendly and personable people. He spoke as he approached. "I'm trying to learn about places in the village I'm not familiar with." Once he had gotten a bit closer to comfortably have a conversation he halted his advance. He stood in his usual lackadaisical fashion, feigning a certain level of indifference. Now that he was closer he noted Idra's fingertips. Tozoku wasn't positive if the younger man was a civilian or shinobi at this point.

Tozoku continued. "There's talk of a war between us and Iwa, and if the fight comes into the village I wanna learn about the inside of certain places." He answered honestly. Unlike Idra, it was pretty clear from Tozoku's dress what his day job was. His headband was worn in the standard fashion, sword over his back, and weapons pouches unconcealed. Tozoku followed up with his own question. "Does this place have a cellar?"

[Ace Trainer]

As the man opposite of him scribbled down some notes and tucked away the little pad, Indra would take a few steps to sit on a small seat off the side of the altar. The room was mostly empty, while some temples to Yuumegure had a row of pews good for sitting in sermons; this temple only had two long pews near the front of where the altar was and then had an open space with small seats, which seemed to be a more open design better for smaller, quieter conversations. The walls were lined with small bookcases, with the many candles Indra had just lit. "Not many in our village admit they're unfamiliar with places like a temple.", he said with another cheeky grin. "Though in your defense, this temple is not one intended to get a lot of traffic I guess...but when it does, theres usually a reason.", he thought back to his own path that led to this very same temple.

"A cellar. You really aren't familiar with Yuumegure, are you?", this time he didn't laugh, instead a perplexed look forming on his face. He left this moment between them, silently standing up and walking over to a book case and pulling a book of the shelf. He'd flip through the pages until he landed on one, holding the book open as he approach Tozoku and handing him the book.

"And in the caverns, the dungeons, the basements and jails. Where Her light can not reach, you shall not tread. Allow Her Light to illuminate the land, your peace comes from the Light of the sky.", he recited. Yuumegure believed The Sun was a goddess, so places that inherently did not receive like, caverns and dungeons, basements and jails for example, were viewed as impure, sinful, or most plainly: bad. So the notion of a temple of Yuumegure having a cellar seemed quite silly, "It might not say it exactly, but I expect a cellar is no different from a basement. I doubt there is a single temple in the village that has a cellar or basement. That's a good reason to be asking, though.", this wasn't the first Indra had heard of this, but it was the first he'd seen anyone actually concerned about it. "You been doing this all day?"

[ayylmao]

Tozoku's followed the young man's lead and took a seat, feeling instant relief in his sore muscles. He followed the young man with his eyes as he got up to find a book among hundreds, return, and hand him the old tome. Sure enough, the same passage written in the old text, Idra could recite word for word. Tozoku's eyes left the page when Idra finished and gingerly closed the book. Keeping it in his hands as he listened. ' So no basements or underground structures...here or at any Yuumegure grounds.' He noted internally. Tozoku was a little impressed but tried not to show it. The man was knowledgeable and took this whole thing seriously. Tozoku privately hoped his lack of piety wasn't offensive to his host.

"Just the second half." He answered. The beginning of his day he spent getting rag-dolled in that training center that sprung from seemingly thin air. He looked no worse for wear on the outside, but he was quite fatigued. After a brief pause Tozoku realized the answer might have been a little...curt? Friendly people were indeed his weakness, his manners and tone tended to come off a little too standoffish. The Chunnin attempted to elaborate. "This is my first day starting, I'll try to do a little at a time until I cover the entire village." He attempted another smile and continued. "Shinobi at my level don't survive wars like these unless you're prepared." Indeed, he heard the stories from older ninja. The mile-wide chasm in skill between a foot soldier and those that inhabit the upper echelons of power. To fight some shinobi, would be akin to fighting a natural disaster.

"What makes you such a believer anyway?" He asked, a little more bluntly than he intended. It was getting darker by the minute, the candlelight was dazzling, and the positioning appeared to prevent the casting of shadows. Darkness had no place here. His hands still held the book absently, awaiting an answer.

[Ace Trainer]

Leaving the book in Tozoku's hands, Indra would settle back down onto the pew they were beside, looking up at the man before him with his black eyes. "The second half of the day is still a lot of the day. Learn anything interesting at least?", he asked. Indra wasn't unfamiliar with talking with people who didn't know Yuumegure as well as he did, after all his parents were devout followers his entire life, he'd been raised in the Light so-to-speak, so he knew more than the average villager. But for someone to be as oblivious as Tozoku seemed to be was interesting. Though, he seemed like a busy guy, perhaps he'd just never had a chance to familiarize himself with it? Lots of people had lots of reasons, far be it from Indra to judge him for him.

"Eh? Oh, you must be a chuunin like me then? You look strong! I definitely thought you would at least be a Toku! You seem real worried about this huh?", Indra was reading into it a little, but again, no one had really seemed concerned about it in his experience. The 'impending war' seemed to be something for the upper echeleons to worry about and hash out over a big dinner table or something, nothing that required counting windows in a temple or anything like that. At least, not from Indra's perspective. Tozoku being concerned about it made Indra question this, though. Perhaps Tozoku knew more about it than Indra did, though Indra suspected Ikinari would tell him more if there was more to it...or would he?

The next question surprised him, though, causing him to plant a palm on his cheek somewhat dramatically to think, "Mmmm..", he hummed, apparently thinking about the answer. "I was trying to think of a cool response.", another cheeky grin, "Something like, what makes you breath after a run? Or yawn when you're tired? But those all sound silly. You know, I just am. The Sun is above us, we bask in Her Light. You know it all! It just is. Never thought about what made me this way, I guess the Sun did.", in truth, it was a little more complex than that. Sure, Indra had always been a believer, but in recent months he'd become much more devout that he had ever been. The struggle and challenge he'd faced with the genma had brought him much deeper into his faith, it what lead him to this temple after all. His non-answer surely left something to be desire, but it was the truth to an extent.

[ayylmao]

"Well.." He started, pulling out of notepad of shorthand notes. "The outer perimeter is about as well guarded as you'd expect. I'm not an expert but I think things would have to go very wrong for the fighting to get into the village." Setting the tome gently on the pew beside him, he flipped through his pad reading his chicken scratch to jog his memory. He'd share it with Idra, but he was afraid it wouldn't make much sense given the poor quality of his handwriting. "Our village does have a good amount of basements and underground spaces, to keep food stuffs out of the heat, but they are shallow. Most structures aren't built tall outside of a few exceptions, your temple included." Tozoku was far from a brilliant strategist, but so far the conclusion he's reached would be that "I think if Iwa gets inside, we can put up a pretty good fight, but there aren't enough places to stow away our non-combatants."

The Chunnin wasn't sure how to react to being called strong, Tozoku never considered his build to be very imposing after all. More importantly, it was revealed that his host was also a Shinobi. He studied the young man anew, put nothing outward about his appearance made his specialization obvious. Which was admittedly for the best. It didn't take much thinking to clock what Tozoku could and couldn't do. His question about being worried caught him off guard. "I just thought I was being prepared, but worried is probably right...maybe I'm too worried about something I can't do anything about."

His explanation of his faith just being a state of being gave him pause. In Tozoku's mind things needed to be rationalized. The answer was compelling and felt good. He folded his arms and leaned back in his chair before firing back with his skepticism. He picked his words carefully, it wasn't his intention to disrespect him. "If your faith is just your natural state of being, is my unfaith also natural to me?" Tozoku might not have been able to express himself correctly. The crux of it might be the following question. So why change?

[Ace Trainer]

Cellars for food. That made sense. Indra had never really thought about it before, but his surprise at the notion there was a 'good amount' of basements and such was quickly abated by Tozoku's follow up commentary on it. For a moment Indra wondered if Tozoku had figured that out on his own, or if someone had told him. This guy seemed smart! Typically Indra was a little....indignant about random people coming around and talking like they knew what was going on, but in the temple Indra tried to be more intentional about being open to people's strengths and seeing their value. It was something Ikinari had been very intentional about having Indra focus on improving about himself. Not an easy task but one he was working on.

"Well its not my temple.", Indra interrupted, "Its the Suns. But, if thats not good enough for you, its the Lucent's, Hizashi, Ikinari! I'm just a lowly Prism here to do some of the daily work around this place.", he laughed, scratching the back of his head. "Those bullies from Iwa aren't getting anywhere close to inside. The Kazekage will send them back to their rocky little hole in the ground no problem.", he said confidently, his eyes shining with determination. "But everyone can do something. She chooses us for many tasks and many reasons, but all for good ones. I'm sure your count of everything will be handy to someone.", he insisted.

The follow up question caught Indra off guard though, causing him to scratch his chin while twisting his lips, taking a moment to scan Tozoku up and down, "Perhaps. But we bathe in Her Light every day. I don't think my faith is a natural state. People work hard to be holy and good and nice and all that, you know. That's why even on our best days some of us can still be grumpy or rude or whatever. I suppose its more like, Her Light is all around us, y'know? So, I believe, and I never had any reason not to believe. I'm not always the best Child of Light. But, She is all around us. I don't know man, I'm not the best at this. Its easy not to believer. Faith is hard...and thats not bragging!", he quickly tagged onto the end, trying not to make it sound like he thought he was better or anything like that.

"Do you know why you don't believe?", he asked curiously.