Oh, the lab is glorious. He's half tempted to say he came for the lab more than he came for the kids. Unfortunately, the morals Hashirama pounded into his skull and his own awareness of his emotions stop him from going quite that far. Still, he missed his beloved lab. It's… a bit more charred than it was when he first left and a rather large amount of the utensils are in the wrong places but beyond that it's all in surprisingly good condition.

Since the kids are currently still in the hospital with Nobuyuki, he can't make them deep-clean the area so he heads over to a relatively untouched corner to claim as his own until they do arrive. Shukaku pokes around behind him, investigating all of the equipment. The dangerous materials are all sealed away- he checked -so it should be safe.

...Not that anything here could really harm a bijuu but, well. It's the thought that counts, right?

He hunts down a scroll and a brush, starting on his attempt to, if not remove, control the leech. He knows a lot less about the leech than he should after so long. He knows it's painful to remove, painful enough that he would probably black out long before it was actually removed, and that it likes this version of Madara even less than he liked his original universe's version of Madara. A high bar indeed. It's not that he had hated Madara, it's just that the man had hated him and it's hard to like someone who goes out of their way to make your life difficult.

It's only because he's looking for it that Tobirama catches the weird twitching of the leech when he begins to think about Madara, trying to latch on to and magnify his emotions. Annoying. How will he deal with that? He can't remove it yet and likely won't be able to until the source of it is thoroughly destroyed so he'll need to think of some way to suppress it instead.

It's not a physical leech, which would both be much easier to suppress and much easier to remove. It's completely chakric in nature and so far buried into his own life force that it's rather concerning. He could section off the affected part of his chakra but that leaves him without a significant chunk of his power. That would be dangerous, particularly with Madara after him. Although, he's heard no news of Madara coming after him since the debacle at Uzushio.

"Alright," Tobirama says pointedly, spinning around to nail the kids trying to sneak in with a glare. Michiko is holding Shukaku in a bid to keep the bijuu quiet and Nao is frozen where she had made a beeline towards the flammable substances. Kyo is still in the doorway, in the process of trying to edge the door closed without making any noise. She failed, of course.

"You kids are not to touch any equipment in this room until you've thoroughly cleaned the mess you've made."

"What?!" Nao complains, "but I'm in the middle of research!"

"Of what? The effects of fire on the ceiling?" He shoots back. She wilts, grumbling mutinously under her breath.

"Can't you help?" Kyo presses, giving him puppy dog eyes. They aren't as good as Shukaku's so he finds them fairly easy to shrug off.

"I'm currently dealing with a chakra leech," he informs. "Considering it affects my aggression levels, I'm going to put that first. Regardless, this is your mess."

"It's our lab," Nao huffs out. Tobirama narrows his eyes at her.

"It's important, for your safety, that you take care of your lab, or do I need to give you that lesson on contaminants again?" All three of them shiver at the reminder of that particular lesson. He had enjoyed that day—his kids had not. Nao and Kyo get to work immediately but Michiko hesitates.

"Err… What about Shukaku?" Tobirama waves her off.

"It's up to him what he wants to do." He then says to Shukaku, "keep the kids out of trouble, won't you?" Shukaku beams, chirping his agreement over top of the kids' spluttering and whining. Tobirama keeps his attention on the kids long enough to make sure they're actually doing as he said before he turns back to his more pressing issue.

He needs to suppress the leech, that much he knows. The question is how. A seal, of course, because that the only thing he can think of that can be made permanent, particularly when dealing with his own chakra core. However, he'll have to build the seal ground up, there's only so long he can go before the leech starts really twisting him to it's whims-

Tobirama emerges from his research, successful, two days full of experimenting and breaks for his kids later. He sucks in a grounding breath as Shukaku does him the favour of charging up the seal. Then, before he can even think about second guessing himself, he pastes the finished seal over his chakra core.

A section of his chakra, complete with the leech, completely vanishes from his senses.