This place was a wretched mess.

Candles were strewn everywhere... a hardened puddle of wax on the floor...

Zenchi could not believe how things had gotten out of hand. That guy--Karasu, was it?--had attempted an assault on him. It was unbelievable.... This temple was a place for respect. He didn't want to be that condescending guy, but what that Genin did was just despicable.

It was a simple enough task to replace the candles and such... but the walls, the ground, everything had scorch marks on it.

The Special Jounin sighed. It was a sad fate that had befallen this place.

This was Houjin's home; his clan's temple for generations beyond memory. They where apart of the place, and no one could deny that. So standing in plain sight met nothing; as he seemed to be nothing but a wash of color against the stone walls; a mural at most. His rare silence, even rarer stillness; it lent to the illusion. He recognized the intruder only because he had seen them flee the area previously; nothing more then that. Houjin preferred to stay within his clan's temple unless absolutely necessary; the village beyond held nothing for him in it's diminished state. He was... tempted... to put it nicely... to 'say' something to the other male. And given his mouth... well; it wouldn't be pleasant. While true, nothing of value was damaged; candles could easily be replaced, the scorching was simple enough to remove, murals and such where already in need of repair and touching up before the fighting had happened; so in the end there was nothing to be upset about.

That didn't stop him from being angry, in his own way. The lack of respect those ninja had shown this place this holy temple of the village; the last great bastion of the culture of their people... despicable.

"You. You remain here. Why? You've done enough damage to this place. Yet here you stand. What are your reasons."

"You. You remain here. Why? You've done enough damage to this place. Yet here you stand. What are your reasons."

Zenchi was irked by the presumptuousness of the stranger. Sighing, he gave a reply in a calm, composed tone. It hinted a bit of irritation at the accusation, but nevertheless he tried to be rational.

"You would do well to exchange formalities before throwing accusations at people; incidentally, I am Zenchi, of the Kyouga clan. I, myself, did not intend for this to happen. I actually came here to pay respects and meditate, as I renown this temple as a very calm place. However... Another was here. Indeed, he tried his best to ambush me. I managed to escape... but his incessant throwing of candles is what caused the fire. I may have had a lapse of thought in using Wind Style to try and counter him; and for that, I apologize. Is it also not true that I am here now, doing my part to repair the damage?"

And with that, he turned to pick up the last few candles that were on the floor. Still facing toward the monument, Zen said, I swear on my honor. If I ever see the one who caused this..... I will be sure to dole out his retribution."

The shinobi felt and exuded a bit of wistfulness at the damage to the temple; this should not have happened, and if it had to, it should not have been here.

"Intentional or not you contributed to violating my home. I don't know your clan, nor does that mean much when you stand in a room of my temple that no outsider should even have been allowed access. You may not realize, but this is one of the rooms that we house our younger clansmen in during training. Not an area for public meditation. For all intents and purposes, you are trespassing. The damage is negligible, in all honesty. This is a place of smoke and flame, so to scorch a wall means little. The candles are easily replaceable. If you wish to make amends you should have contacted a clan elder; instead of continuing to spit on our home." That a creature born of flames could have a tone so icy would scare most; but he recognized that the other way both powerful, and actually repentant. But Houjin's temper was not easily controlled; that he was still calm was a miracle in and of itself.

"You say you wish to pay respect to this place? Then leave and go back to the public halls and alcoves; allow us to fix this mess that you outsiders have caused." The Jun Chi youth moved closer to one of the walls covered in wax and scorch burns; placing a hand upon it and feeding his natural fire into the rock. That was all it took to set the entire wall ablaze. Because of the nature of the Jun Chi's fire in relation to their temple; this was all that was needed to burn the wax away entirely; as well as remove the scorching. The painting would need to be retouched no matter what; but it was a good show of how little he saw the need for help from the other male. "Now; unless you wish to have one of my uncles crack a whip across you back as your repaint the walls with single hair brushes; I would suggest you move along. If you need assistance... I will show you the way to the non-restricted areas. If you wish to speak to the Sages and apologize directly; well, might as well funnel through me. While I may only be the head of the Ninja aspect of our clan, I am a true Fire Sage as well. Jun Chi, Houjin; annoyed and mostly at your service."

"...excuse me? You would do well to respect your superiors. I may be younger than you--" Zenchi guessed this by appearance "--but I outrank you. Whether or not you are a Fire Sage, I refuse to tolerate this behavior. I spit on your clan? Hm. I then humbly concede apology for this."

Regardless of the so-said Fire Sage's 'orders', Zenchi thought that he needed to help in his own way. Besides, seniority had nothing to do with how people ought to be treated; just because their clan was supposedly ancient, they thought they deserved some kind of special treatment.

He continued restoring the temple to its previous state as best he could; realigning candles, straightening the unburnt rugs and tapestries.

"I much care? Remember where you are; sir. You may outrank me as a ninja; this is true; but there is nothing stopping me from triggering ANY of the half a dozen different traps and hidden mechanisms in the walls of this room. You would never know what happened, either. Our complex is one giant trap; a way we use to train our young clansmen." There was not a single hint of threat in his tone merely bored and almost conversational. Casual, if you will. He didn't see the reason to continue to be a dick; as the other was remaining clam and not feeding into the inner rage that Houjin was given to.

"If you feel the dire need to continue, then feel free. Just pray one of the... hotter members of my family do not find you. I am actually.... quite agreeable by comparison." Hell; just talking to him for that long was enough to have Houjin switch from passive aggressive dickmunch to a slightly more tolerable jackass. Or rather, have him act as he normally would around anyone. "I would also suggest not touching ANYTHING that has or resembles a dragon. That's a good way to loose a limb; without the right chakra signature."

Zen couldn't believe that this guy had pushed him to thinking such thoughts...

I'm going to kill him. No other way. He has to go.

These were just the object of his subconscious' pent-up irritation with this Houjin. And the attitudes of everyone else he encountered going to this room.

EVERYTHING IN THE ROOM WAS A DRAGON.

Which, of course, meant that he could not safely touch anything but candles and tapestries. And that was already done. The only way he could stay here and help without killing himself--if he was to take the word of the Fire Sage in close proximity-- was to use ninjutsu.

Weaving hand seals--Dragon, Ox, Boar, Horse, Dog--resulted in his clan's Kekkei Genkai mirrors coming out of nowhere. Small things, they were. Little hexagonal things, no bigger than the width of a hand, fingers spread. Using the last hand seal, though, any number of them could grow and become solid, at Zen's whim. Chakra, naturally, was able to be molded; as such, the Kyouga made the chakra mirrors envelop him, mainly his arms. Several mid-sized statues were knocked over; that would need fixing. It would not take very much force to lift, but if what he heard from Houjin was correct, he would endure quite a bit of heat. As long as the flames would not have been stronger than him if they were a jutsu... he would be fine. Zenchi hunched over and began to right the statue.

140/160:

The Jun Chi's lip curled into a smirk. The attempt was... smart, if not useless. The flames where not of chakra origin; pure fire of natural design and heat. However... some of them where blue and white hot; similar to a forger's kiln or the fires of the stars themselves. Those flames where reserved for the deepest areas of the temple; where no one but a high sage could survive for any significant periods of time. The places where lava flowed as freely as water and the air itself was hot enough to boil lead. He'd only been to the far edges of those areas himself; years and possibly even decades from the levels needed to survive there.

"I would... grab those by the necks or wings only. Most breath fire through their mouths, or slash out with claws tipped with razor sharp obsidian glass." Houjin cared little; the dragons would not respond in a hostile way to him; so he was at least... generous, enough to move the largest statues and such. He didn't want to deal with the outsider being killed because he was too noble (stupid maybe?) to listen to friendly enough warning. "Glass, eh? I would hope that is tempered to not transmit heat; or else you've got little on the way of protection from it."

She needed some place to hide, some place the rest of her clan wouldn't find her. A place where she could get a little head-space without everybody and their mother bitching at her about their hundred and one problems with her and her position as clan head. It was bad enough she had conformed to their dress code, all white, which made her stick out like a friggin' sore thumb; not that her white choppy hair didn't do that enough, but still. She needed some place where they'd never figure she'd go... the Fire Temple? Yeah, that'd work as well as anything.

So, barefoot as she always ways given that the swirl like pattern on her feet did more then just act as weird tattooed decorations, she entered. Footsteps mostly quiet as her bright blue gaze roved over the many aspects of the temple. Curiosity alive within the depths of the blue pools.

"You are correct in that. These mirrors, however, are made of chakra and thin air. Not much can easily get past them." As he lifted the dragon, it seemed to breathe out a continuous stream of flame at Zenchi. If it was not for his Light Screen, his face would have been roasted. He received discomfort from the heat that leaked out of his mirrors, but the initial force behind the flames did not get through to the other side.

After he put the statue in its rightful place, he noticed.... a girl. Very stealthy; if it was not for his good eyes, he might have missed her. She looked quite different from the others in the Fire Temple; though, could he really say that being an outsider as well?
Zenchi walked over to her, waving as he approached.

[Light Screen is still active.]

"It's the heat you must worry about. Some of these statues are tied to fires so deep in the temple that they would burn even we sages." Or rather, the low ranked, and only moderately trained sages like Houjin. He was very low rank for his age; but he was also too hot headed (sadly) to spend the time needed to train his sage arts. He liked the faster pace world of the ninja; what little of the world existed in the village most of the time.

The outsider; she stood out like a sore thumb in this place of earth tones and fiery colors. Maybe further down in the depths of the flaming heart of the temple; where the air was hot enough to turn rock into ceramic on contact... she would make more sense there; where the higher sages wore robes of red and white and blue and all those different hues and colors of the flames. This close to the surface and the outside word? Blacks and reds and yellows and oranges; the softer and cooler colors of the fire sage life. The acolytes and young sages wore black trimmed red to show their low status; any even as the leader of the ninja aspect of the clan; Houjin was still forced to show his lack of status. "May I help you, outsider? Seems to me that our acolytes are failing to keep your kind in the approved areas."

Her light colored gaze snapped instantly to the first male as he moved closer and waved, eyes taking in every movement possible. Yeah, paranoid didn't begin to cut it with Marquetta. She still half expected a knife in her back from her own clan at any moment; so trusting a perfect stranger? Not happening, 'least not yet.

Her gaze however quickly snapped over to the other male, who seemed more at home here? Like he belonged here at least. Yeah so, he was going to be the one she was going to speak to first, his house, his rules, right? "Sorry." She scratched the back of her head, only furthering to scatter her already spikey hair into a more crazier fashion than it already was. "Got a little lost."

It was true and all, she had gotten lost... lost trying to hide. 'Way to go, Mar.. trying to avoid people and you stumble across two of them. Way. To. Go.', she mentally scolded herself. She scratched at her newest facial marking, the tattoo that marked her as leader of her own clan; the Yanagi, pure earth users, every one of 'em, and the current bane of her existence. "My apologies.", she added, snapping herself out of her never ending train of thoughts; throwing another glance towards the other male

Zen had finished righting the statues in this area of the Fire Temple.... seems like he did all he could do to atone for something that really he was not at fault for. "Well... I'll be on my way. I just remembered that the Tsuchikage needed to see me. Have a nice day, the both of you."

And with that, he promptly rid himself of that place he once thought sacred.

[Zen aus! Unless you have parting words. Terribly sorry for uber lateness, only to leave like this...]