Consequences May Come

[Willoria]

It'd been made very clear to Hikari, the moment she got home, that she was to wait for her father. She sat in her room, unsure what to expect. She'd cleaned her room, even put her pillows away and made her bed, while she waited. It had probably never been so clean. Her little desk had been cleared off. Scrolls that she had been studying for training were neatly put away in a basket on top, notebooks set aside for notes. Her new little fat lizard friend was sprawled out on the newly cleared space. He'd eaten quite a few snacks out of Iwamaru's pockets, and then more at the restaurant, he wasn't in much shape for moving around. Hikari had sat there poking at him for awhile as she waited for Tatsuo to get home, but she'd quickly grown bored. There was only so many times one could watch a fat little lizard burp before getting annoyed by the smell. She had finally quit poking the small fire critter and just carefully rolled him over so at least he wasn't facing her if he burped again.

As the girl sat there waiting she finally picked up one of the scrolls from the basket and started reading through it, trying to read through it, though she couldn't focus. She still didn't fully understand the issue, in spite of Maru's attempts to explain it. "They were just spiders." she muttered, sighing to herself. "I'm sure we would've been fine... I had my sword with me... I know how to bandage up wounds..." she frowned slightly as she thought about it more. "Though I didn't have a medkit..." she added under her breath, shaking her head. "It was just a cave and a couple giant spiders!" she looked at the fat lizard who let out a loud snore and rolled her eyes. "As if you're actually listening. Maho found a much cooler pet."

[Niro]

Well, today had NOT gone how he had expected it.

Hikari had asked if she could go explore the village and Tatsuo had said it was fine, just be careful. He had expected her to roam through the streets, maybe topple a food stall or two with some childish shenaningans. Maybe make a friend! The usual kind of things kids got up to. It seemed SOMEONE had a penchant for not doing the usual things.

It was NOT fine if the knock on the mansion door and the look on Iwamaru's face as he dropped Hikari back at home was enough indication according to Natsumi.

Natsumi had directed Hikari up to her room before steeling herself for the jounins tonguelashing about being a better parent and how irresponsible it was to allow her to explore the Catacombs. She'd gotten herself into something a bit too big for her britches, alright. Letting the jounin exhaust himself with words before thanking him, Natsumi sent Iwamaru off before closing the front door with a deep sigh and a hand coming up to massage her forehead. She'd let Tatsuo deal with this. A small channel of chakra and within moments the maroon haired man came through the door, his eyes a bit bewildered as he looked around.

Before he even got a word out, Natsumi held a hand up.

"Your daughter found herself in the Catacombs today. Maru was on patrol luckily and brought her back but someone has to deal with that. Enjoy, dear." She came up to him, placing a peck on his cheek and lightly slapping his chest before walking off to leave him to deal with the situation. Tatsuo wanted to run into the room and shake the girl. What was she thinking!? She could have really died; it wasn't uncommon for jounin to be ganged up on and overwhelmed with ease. Taking a deep breath, the Tsuchikage made his way up the stairs and to Hikari's room where he knocked thrice before entering with his arms crossed and a look, a combination of disappointment and bewilderment, painted on his face.

"So, I hear you got in some trouble today, little miss."

[Willoria]

Hikari bit her lip as she heard the knocks on her door, almost wincing as Tatsuo came through it. She looked up at him almost hesitantly, her eyes rather big as she stared at him and she was completely unsure how to respond to him. "Everything turned out fine." She managed to get out, blushing slightly as she realized her voice came out in a bit of a squeak. She had never really seen her father upset before and wasn't sure what to make of the look on his face. "I made a new friend in the market." she started hopefully, a smile on her face as she said it. "Her name is Maho! She gave me candy. And... and we got bored so I thought we'd go find your friend... you know, from the picture in your office..." Her voice trailed off as her happy expression faltered for a moment.

She had gotten into her father's office more than once and it suddenly occurred to her she wasn't sure if she was actually supposed to be in there. It was something Iwamaru had said when he was giving her an earful in the catacombs, she had never thought it was a problem before. But Maru had made it clear that her father's office might be off limits to her. She had never actually asked. In a desperate attempt to keep from upsetting him she suddenly grabbed the chubbly little lizard off her desk and held it up. "I found a pet!" she proclaimed as she held it up in front of her for Tatsuo to see. The lizard tried to struggle but he was still too full to protest much and instead simply let out a small belch again.

[Niro]

Inside his mind, two Tatsuos vied for what to do. One wanted to just pick her up, with her big round eyes, and hold her in a hug and tell her she was right and nothing had gone wrong. The other wanted to yell and scream at her, what was she thinking? The Catacombs!? He'd retrieved too many dead bodies of too many young shinobi to ever allow her to go in there on her own or even with a friend. Finally, the two sides came to a compromise. Be stern, forbid any further entry until she was strong enough, and put a real lock on his damn office door.

Tatsuo stared down at the young girl, the look still on his face, before releasing a large sigh and crouching down to her level where he placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye.

"He's cute but you can't go down there anymore. Even if everything turned out fine this time, I've pulled enough dead kids out of that pit to know it doesn't always go that way. I'd really rather you not be one of those, 'Maru won't always be there to save you and I've seen even adults die down there." Tatsuo didn't want to cause the girl to fly into a panic but hopefully by illustrating how often children did not come out, Hikari would have some sense of urgency in avoiding them entirely. "Hiken, my friend, is way too far away to reach on foot, even Maru would be hard pressed to find him. If you behave, I'll take you to meet him one day when you're older.

I'm glad you met a friend but you need to promise me you two won't go down there anymore. You're welcome to go her house, after your mother and I've met her parents, and she's welcome here but no Catacombs. Understood?" Tatsuo didn't want to cause the girl to fly into a panic but hopefully by illustrating how often children did not come out, Hikari would have some sense of urgency in avoiding the tunnels.

[Willoria]

Hikari was looking up at her father nervously, holding up the fat little lizard as she waited for him to say something. She wasn't sure what to make of the look on his face, or of his momentary silence. As he put his hands on her shoulders and got down to her level, she pulled the lizard in close to her and held him against her chest, looking down sheepishly as Tatsuo spoke to her. He spoke of dead kids and even adults, and again she was reminded of some things that Maru had said. "Iwamaru had said something about giving notice to families..." she said quietly. He went on to talk about his friend, it was the first time she'd heard the name but she nodded as he told her about how far away he really was. "I-I'd like that." Her voice was still quiet.

She couldn't help but cringe though as Tatsuo mentioned meeting Maho's parents. She blushed furiously as she quickly set the lizard on her desk again before shaking her head furiously. "N-no! She'll get so embarrassed!" she suddenly insisted. "Maru already made her cry a couple times, and now you're going to show up at her house?! Y-you're the Tsuchikage and I finally get what that means, daddy! You scare everyone and she'll never want to talk to me again and then I'll be back to having no friends and I don't know what I'll do..." Her breath started coming a bit more rapidly as she tried to calm down and failed, suddenly fearing she might lose the one friend she had managed to make. Somehow trying to calm down made her remember she still had some of the candy Maho had given her and she grabbed a piece from her own pocket to quiet herself, shoving the small piece of chocolate in her mouth, wrapper and all, and swallowing it. It did quiet her, but still left tears streaming down her face.

[Niro]

Tatsuo had no response for the girl as she pulled a small candy from nowhere and popped the sweet, wrapper included, into her mouth before swallowing it. He stared at her with a blank look on his face for a moment before blinking quite a few times. His mouth opened and shut a few times as he tried to think of something to say and failed as he replayed the scene in his head. Moving past it, the man shook his head softly at the girl.

"There is a part of my job that involves scaring people, yes. But that's not all I do. I protect the village and everyone in it to the best of my ability. If I have to be scary to protect you and your mother and Maho and her parents and Maru, I'll gladly be that. All I wanna do is make sure Maho's parents want to make sure you're protected too, not scare them. Got that?" Tatsuo asked her, his hand snaking around to her back and rubbing it in small circles as she cried lightly.

"Now, now, no tears. There's nothing to cry about. I'm sure Maho isn't going to stop being your friend because I stopped by. But I need you to understand, you can't be going into the Catacombs. They're waaaay too dangerous, even Maru shouldn't be down there alone. Got it?"

[Willoria]

As Tatsuo explained to her better what his role in the village was, Hikari still sniffled, rubbing her eyes as she tried to stop and to wipe the tears away. Slowly other thoughts started coming to mind as she thought about her father protecting the village, and she remembered the way Iwamaru had protected her and Maho in the catacombs. She wasn't entirely sure what had happened after he'd ordered them to go ahead of him and leave. But she did remember the way he was bleeding and wounded. She looked down at her hands for a moment as Tatsuo went on and mentioned that Maru shouldn't even go alone and the girl nodded slowly. "I got it, Daddy." she said quietly, her eyes still fixated on her hands.

After a moment of quiet the girl finally sighed. "Maru got hurt because of us." she said quietly. "He was stabbed in both shoulders by the spiders I think... I checked his wounds after we got out to make sure he was okay, Maho was freaking out. It didn't seem to bother him but I thought if I took a look I could calm her down at least." She lifted her head and looked up at Tatsuo finally. "He was bleeding a lot though. I never saw that before."

[Niro]

"Good girl." He gave her a peck on the top of her head as she admitted to understanding and it felt like a weight had lifted off his shoulders. Hopefully he wouldn't have to worry about finding her in the Catacombs fighting things for at least a few more years at this point.

"He'll be fine, Maru is a tough cookie. He'll be all healed up by the next time you see him, promise. Mom makes sure to train the doctors and nurses at the hospitals to be their very best when it comes to making sure we're all patched up at the end of the day." Tatsuo explained to her, trying his best to assuage her worries. To a shinobi with a bit of combat under their belt, Tatsuo wouldn't have hesitated to tell them the man would be okay even if his arm was ripped off but decided it would be best not to use such imagery with such a young child.

"Now, this pet you brought home...are you doing to take care of it or is it going to be something mom and I get stuck with?"

[Willoria]

Hikari nodded slowly as Tatsuo explained that Maru would be alright. She knew he was right too, she knew her mother was among the best and that she trained many others to be just as good as she was. The young girl sighed at the thought and smiled slightly. "I need to be better." she said suddenly. "I need to learn more than just the medical arts... I want to learn Iijutsu just like Mommy too. Next time I see someone hurt like that, I want to be able to do more than just tell them what's wrong... I want to be able to fix them." she proclaimed, trying to smile. It was hard to hide the fact that she was still worried about the fact that she'd had to leave Maru in that shape.

Though she couldn't think about it long as her father moved on to the subject of the chubby little lizard on her desk. Hikari turned her head to look at him a moment. "No he's mine." she said simply. She stared at the little guy who was currently sprawled out on his back. "I don't have a name for him yet though... and he keeps eating all my stuff..." she added with a sigh. "All he does so far is eat and burp..." The girl frowned. She couldn't help a twinge of jealousy again as she thought about the cat-like creature that had gone home with Maho. She had talked and seemed far more interesting. But it left her wondering if her new friend could grow into something more.

[Niro]

"I'll talk with mommy about getting you some actual iijutsu training then when she gets home, how about that?" Tatsuo conceded, the idea probably good in the first place. This way, even if she got in trouble, she'd be able to at least heal herself. His gaze turned to the chubby little creature on the table and he let loose a small sigh with a twinge of a smile playing at his lips.

"Well, then you're responsible for him. If he's been eating so much, he's probably got to poop. And I really don't want him pooping on the floor so make sure to take him out, got it?" Tatsuo told the girl, the thought of flaming poops now haunting him as he thought of the small pet terrorizing the house staff.

[Willoria]

Hikari smiled, nodding as Tatsuo mentioned Natsumi teaching her some Iijutsu. "That sounds perfect." she said quietly, the girl feeling less energetic than usual suddenly. The events of the day were finally wearing on her and she felt like a wave of exhaustion was suddenly hitting her. But her father reminded her of her new friend and the girl turned to look at the fat little lizard for a moment before nodding again. "Okay." she said simply. As she looked at the lizard the chubby little thing suddenly rolled over onto its belly again and let out a small belch again, smoke curling up in the air from his mouth before he waddled over happily to her.

Hikari smiled a bit as she reached over and picked him up again. He curled up in her arms and seemed to go right back to sleep before she looked back to her father and frowned slightly. "So... how much trouble am I in?"

[Niro]

"Oh you're grounded for a week, missy. No playing with friends, no exploring the village, no sweets. Just chores and lessons and training." Tatsuo said with a smile as he patted her head before standing up. It was weird; he hasn't expected to be ground a children anytime within the last 3 years. Now here he was doling it out as if it was second nature. His eyes found the small, fat lizard who liked to burp and eat and had a feeling he'd be taking care of it more than expected.

As the sun began to settle over the mountain ridge and the last rays of sunlight trickled into her window, Tatsuo stretched and made his way to the door. "I've got some work to do and some locks to install on my office door and you had one hell of a day. Make sure you take him out before you doze off!" He called out as he left the room and wandered down the hall to his office.

[Willoria]

Hikari frowned visibly as Tatsuo explained to her what her punishment would be. Of course she didn't realize her punishment could be so much worse, and probably should have been. As he patted her head the frown only deepened as she looked up at him and he stood up. Part of her really hoped he'd change his mind, she was only just learning what freedom outside the house meant. She was just starting to enjoy it, and now she had to forego it for a week. She'd have to go back to pre-approved books only too. Suddenly the girl found herself silently reminding herself not to look too closely at her desk or else Tatsuo might notice she had a couple of books she had hastily shoved under her scrolls that definitely weren't part of her approved reading. If he didn't see them, maybe she could at least keep those during her grounding.

She sighed as he left the room and got up, closing her door in a quiet huff before looking around her room and looking at the small lizard. "...you'll be fine tonight right?" she asked him before moving to set him on her bed and walking back over to her bookself.

A few minutes later a single word, laced with her uncle's brief influence, echoed down the hallway.

"FUCK!"