A chat with the Hokage (Tsunade, Yuudau, & Hae)

[;; HYUUGA KANETSU ?!]

Tsunade watched the two as they came into her office and sat down. Her face was calm as she observed the two young ninja. She almost immediately spotted the Hidden Star ninja, due to the Hidden Star headband around the kunoichi's neck. Rather than jumping right into any serious conversation, she looked at the both of them first. She didn't want to have to ask them any questions if they were not needed. After she looked at them, her eyes turned to Kai.
She didn't say anything to him either; she turned away after a few seconds of that and began to speak.
"Well, what do you two have to say for yourselves?" She questioned. It gave her a chance to know more about there side of the story. She really wanted that sake, but Tsunade forced herself to wait; the situation could have been of extreme importance.

[steeltouch]

Kai shifted his eyes in the direction of the girl when she glared at him, he didnt react to it because he frankly didnt care. He wasnt there to be liked, he was there to instruct and guide so that the youth could grow up to become effective shinobi. He casually blinked once then shifted his eyes to Tsunade once he felt her gaze shift. He locked eyes with her for a moment as if to ask what she though of the situation then glanced back at the two children.

Though he carried listening ears he was suddenly interrupted with a full body pulse of pain. He tried not to make it noticeable to the others in the room as to uphold his professional appearance. He knew well what it was, he had just come back from training before all of this went down and he was entering his second stage of fatigue...which meant that he needed to eat and sometime soon if at all possible. Though he was moving into a critical stage, he needed to see this through and attempted to prolong the pain with a pill.

He reached down into his belt and pulled out a red pill and slipped it under his mask without showing his face. A bitter and not too pleasant taste but he was pretty used to the taste by now. He mutely crunched the pill up between his teeth and let it dissolve into a light foam without the use of water and swallowed the mess down. That should nullify the pain in the next thirty seconds, now all he had to do was remain conscious while all this went down. He hadnt put much thought into it but now that he was able to sit still long enough without and adrenal rush he could feel his bone and muscle throbbing...it almost felt like his blood was on fire. Drawback of extended use of his Kekkei Genkai for sure.

It was quite funny to him, he knew that Tsunade wanted a drink and frankly so did he...along with a complete order of ramen, rice balls, pork slices, and other front line orders off of a menu. It couldnt be helped at this point, regardless of how he tried to uphold his professional appearance, his stomach spoke out in a very audible growl that could easily be heard within the silence of the room. He closed his eyes and grinned under that mask, this was very well the reason he was in such a crappy mood. Hunger. Plain and simple.

[Katsu Katakuzure]

"I deemed it more important to lie to Jounin-Sensei than to follow the rules," replied Yuudai, straightening up. He answered as honestly as he could, knowing that by lying now, he would force the two Chuunin into unfavorable circumstances once again. "I knew the rules, knew that I risked punishment, and broke them anyways," Yuudai continued, his blue eyes staring into the back of the Hokage's head, "I deserve punishment."

Yuudai knew it would be much better to end this here, taking all the blame himself. He figured if he could pass himself off as the ringleader, Hae would be spared. not only that, if the Hokage decided his fate now, maybe she wouldn't look further into the matter and punishment the guards who had let them in. He knew it would be better this way, to carry the weight of the punishment all by himself, because he knew he could take it.

That is when Yuudai heard Kai's stomache growl and almost without thinking turned to face him. "Jounin-sensei, when this is all over, would you like to stop by my place? I am sure my parents prepared food for my return, and though I am sure it will be cold, I would be more than glad to share some with you," he asked. Sure, between Kai and Hae he would be left with little to no food, but he was okay with that. It wasn't like he ate a lot as it was.

[Hae Kyohaku]

Hae bit his lip. Although she wasnt fully comfortable with that other guy in the room, she spoke anyway. Yuudai spoke and she stifled a small vocal complaint. Luckily it hadnt been loud enough to even be heard. She shifted her feet until Yuudai finish. However...she had to say she wasnt thrilled with the idea of dining with the undesirable guy, and she was worried about Yuudai having sufficient food as well. She flushed slightly as she felt rather embarrassed at eating while the host went hungry.

She cleared her throat and decided to take her turn answering the Hokage's questions. "I...I was unaware of this village's rules. I'm from Hoshigakure...and your villages customs and rules are different from mine, and I must come off as rather ignorant of those given my blunders tonight. I...I've been exploring the shinobi world, and I happened to meet Yuudai in the Valley of the End. I was on my way to see the Land of Fire, and I figured Konoha had to be a main place to go..." She swallowed before she continued "And he invited me to come with him...I wanted to see the village in its all...and I followed Yuudai's lead. My...unfamiliarity with other village's rules led to Yuudai getting in trouble...I feel responsible for his actions and...to relieve myself from guilt I want to take the same punishment as him...if not take his from him because this is my fault...."

She paused and took an audible breath followed by a sigh before she spoke again "But I also wanted to visit you, Hokage-sama. I have a letter from the Hoshikage for you. He presented it to me to give you...his inner circle of advisors and many in the village have been acting uneasy. He told me to give you an outline of the message before you read it: Our shinobi are not coming back from missions and a few of his top followers have begun to prove untrustworthy. He's beginning to fear a coup may be awaiting, with the assistance of other minor villages...he...I guess eventually wants me to act as a liaison between our villages if the time comes, and he requests for you to send backup if and when he needs it..."

She pulled the letter out of her pocket and quickly walked forward to place the letter on her desk before scuffling backwards to stand beside Yuudai, her breath held. She didnt want to know his reaction to her offer to take the same punishment or take his entirely.

[;; HYUUGA KANETSU ?!]

Tsunade listened carefully as both young shinobi presented their cases, with Yuudai speaking first. Although there were other things that she wanted to do--among them was having some alone time with her bottle of sake--she focused anyway. It was something that came with being Hokage; you would have to listen to people talk, report, and sometimes just whine about something. And all three of those things happened on a daily basis.
She was honestly not just looking for an explanation; she was looking for how each person explained their explanation. If they automatically jumped in and began begging for forgiveness instead of giving her the flat out truth of the situation, she knew that they would be a person who had no spine. And a shinobi without a spine wasn't one that would survive long.
After she heard them both say their part, Tsunade inhaled and exhaled deeply. They had both told nothing but the truth, and as Hokage, she could easily tell. Although, once she heard of the situation with the Hoshikage, she listened in a bit more. As the letter was placed on her desk, she opened it to read it for a full understanding of the short explanation. When Tsunade finished, she told Hae;
"That's fine, as long as your village is willing to do the same if we need it." With her hands folded underneath her chin, she then began to once again discuss the original reason why they were all there. "As for you two..." Tsunade paused for a moment. "I'll let you off the hook this time, but only this time." She told them all, her eyes shutting to symbolize that their would be no change of decision.

[steeltouch]

Kai listened to both of them give their par, really he was glad that truth finally came from their mouths. His brows narrowed in contemplation of the letter and passed a curious glance toward the lady Hokage, quite curious if there would be any need for a dispatch. If there were, there would be no doubt in the world that he would want to go. Kai was here to serve and his skills would be of great use. In fact, that would be a very opportune issue to prove he was ready to become an ANBU as well.

When Tsunade gave the final verdict he would stand up off of leaning on that wall and turn toward the two children. "Alright you two, you heard her. Thank her for her time and lets be on, she has important issues to attend. And let this be a lesson learned, here in the Leaf Village we have structure and rules for a reason...now lets eat and put this all aside.", he said with a smile near the end of his words.

By important issues, he meant get to her bottle of sake. Of course the two wouldnt know that though. Its a real shame they got off the hook, Kai had a real punishment lined up for Yuudai but if they really learned a lesson he had no problem moving on. His whole body turned toward Tsunade and gave a respectful nod, trained eye would notice that he was having trouble giving even that small gesture. His muscles flinched weakly, almost as if he had been stabbed in an important muscle. He needed nutrients very soon or it could get ugly. Of course Kai continued to play it off as to prevent the appearance of weakness in front of Yuudai and the girl.

[Katsu Katakuzure]

Yuudai bit his lips as Hae offered to take his punishment, trying his best to not rudely interrupt her in front of the Hokage. Though he appreciated her willingness to stick up for him, it wasn’t needed. Yuudai was more concerned about protecting her from punishment than his own well being. After all, he was the one who knew the rules, she had been blindly led by him… well, semi-blindly, as there were situations he would have handled differently if she had revealed him information beforehand. But that was in the past, and Yuudai knew they would have likely still been caught no matter what.

Yuudai didn’t know whether to be happy with the Hokage’s decision or not. He was getting off scot-free, but he wanted to at least see the punishment that would have been laid out for him. Oh well, this was for the better. He gave the Hokage another deep bow, signaling his departure. “Hokage-sama,” he added as the deepest part of his bow. He stood as straight as his body would allow as he exited the room, choosing not to answer Kai in the Hokage’s presence. After all, it wouldn’t have been things that hadn’t been said already, so he would rather save his breath.

Yuudai hoped Hae didn’t mind the Jounin joining them for their meal. After all, Yuudai was willing to be giving and he doubted the Jounin would be spending the night like she was. He figured Kai would only stay for the food, maybe a little after to make sure the Chuunin stayed out of trouble. He figured the little gesture of kindness he gave the man who had sought to punish them was a good thing. He held no resentment towards the man, who in the end, was only doing his job.