I first discovered a temple.
It has been 10 years since I have been reborn in this world, and I can say that it hasn't been easy.
War is ever present, Clans destroy each other everyday. Daimyo's doesn't do anything to curb the greed of shinobi clans. Instead they uses them and enables them for their own profit. Well it's a real pain in the ass.
So I got the hell out of dodge the fastest I could and found myself a vagabond. And honestly ? I love the life. No pressure, a bit of peace, really... paradise on earth.
Today mark my tenth birthday. I'm somewhere in the Land of Demon, hiking.
And I see somewhere up in the mountains, a roof. That's fairly strange, I'm in the middle of nowhere. With no civilization around, as was my intention, and I find a roof ? Who would live around here ?
These questions ring inside my head as I try to find a way around it. I don't really want to socialize, which is a big part of my reasons behind being a vagabond.
So I try to slowly bypass the mountain by going on the other side. Yes, it takes around 7 hours before I can even see that I'm in fact in a Mountains chain. And I realize that the world I find myself in is way bigger than I thought.
So I go on. I walk and walk for the next 5 hours before I finally find a pass where I can traverse.
There, small shrines littered the side road. I walk and walk again and finally arrives before a temple.
In dirsepair and with skeletons around I quickly realize that I'm alone and that I don't really risk anything. Well except for possible ghosts and poltergeists. But I think I should be alright.
Well I hope so, I'm after all in the Land of Demons... We shall see...
I climbed up the stairs while slaloming between corpses way past the decomposition stage. They seemed that they used to wear robes in a strange fiber. It was decomposed too, but you could see that quality wasn't a concern before the fall of the temple...
Above the massive stairs stood grand doors that where completely smashed through. I could almost see the fist imprint from the invaders.
Well anyway, all these details painted a really striking image...
I slipped inside, careful to not make any sounds before confirming that I was alone in these grounds. Inside several rooms adjacent to the main corridor lead to smaller rooms that used to stock materials. I could see flask and gourds and poteries and barrels and means to store different ingredients. With everything expired of course. I continued my search.
I arrived before a courtyard. There, a small stele stood where some kind of japanese script was writen, Kanji I think. Sad for me, I couldn't read japanese...
I went around the stele and went on. For 2 hours I went and searched the whole temple while dodging corpses.
News flash, I'm alone.
I found a library and an armory that where completely destroyed. Books riped apart and pages burnt, almost nothing was left. And what was left wasn't complete. It didn't really matter as I couldn't read, but with my love of books in general, I was weeping inside.
The armory had plains swords, Bo and spears. They were rusted and didn't amount to much.
But the real discovery was on the top of the mountain. There I found a simple Sakura tree, surviving the glacial winds. I just stood there and I was transfixed. The atmosphere, the sense of peace... What I have been in search of since my death and rebirth in the Naruto world. This simple Sakura just gave me so much strenght. To endure so much, to stand so proud, alone against the world, I stood there for easily 2 hours before sniezing and realizing I would catch a cold if I stayed here. With this discovery, I took a simple decision.
I wouldn't leave. My journey end now. I would settle here and make it my home.