Naruto : A Fool's Errand.

Hiruzen's eyes lit up! As did everyone on Team Seven but the rest of the people standing around the now unstable mountain became puzzled.

And Tachibana knew this.

So he simply turned towards Hiruzen who he would use as a stepping stone for the next stage of his plan.

"Hokage-sama, you know clearly how accurate my divinations are, don't you!?"

Hiruzen who was already eager to jump on the bus nodded with vigour as he explained to everyone else present in the area.

"Tachibana-kun is a special person blessed by the revered god of knowledge and wisdom! He has the ability to divine anything with a hundred per cent accuracy! This has already been verified through various missions and experiments."

Tachibana nodded while everyone else in the area looked on at Loki with a soft untrusting frown.

'What's to say he's not associated with the Hokage and making a fool out of all of us?'

And so Tachibana spoke clearly, "To prove myself and my ability, why don't one of you come up with a lie or truth that I have to figure out? I'm sure you would believe me better with a test that is given to me by a person of your choosing!?"

Danzo remained silent for now since he didn't want to come off as standoffish, since stopping a 'solution' from being carried out without proper reason would come off as desperate and would stick him with a target on his forehead because the ANBU were the majority.

The shinobi around Danzo began to grow restless since they were all at a higher level in the ROOT and had some information bout Tachibana's abilities but seeing Danzo remain silent they didn't speak up.

It was the ANBU that had arrived with Hiruzen instead and quickly began to look for their sacrifice.

They quickly wanted to bell Shikaku for the role, but he declined for a simple reason, he was too predictable, if they didn't want questions to be raised about the authenticity of Tachibana's abilities they would have to make someone else do it.

And so they all voted for a random person close to them which led to a random shinobi that had a porcelain mask resembling a cat with three red stripes — one vertical stripe on the forehead and two horizontal stripes, one on each cheek, being chosen for testing Tachibana.

The girl nodded in acceptance upon being chosen before she turned towards Tachibana and spoke loudly, "I have a statement whose answer the ANBU behind me already know. I can ask you the question at any time."

Tachibana nodded calmly as he waited for her to begin.

"The person I love the most is currently sick."

A soft frown appeared on Tsunade's face when she heard that but no one noticed since everyone was looking at Tachibana.

And Tachibana almost broke character when he heard that, since after hearing the question and coupling it with the girl's purple hair, he immediately realised the identity of the person asking him the question.

'It's Yugao…and she's asking about Hayate Gekko, isn't she?'

'Well, I don't even need to perform a divination for this…but I guess I have to make them believe in something…'

Tachibana nodded while maintaining a solemn expression and let his Topaz pendulum hand freely from his hand as he repeated the statement he had been told with some modification.

"The person the girl asking the question loves the most is currently sick."

Tachibana said the statement seven times with closed eyes as he let his mind calm down with the help of cogitation.

Tachibana soon opened his eyes and like everyone, his focus shifted towards the pendulum that was swinging around while hanging from his wrist.

'It's spinning clockwise quickly.'

"The statement is true. And given how fast it is spinning, I think the person is pretty sick if I'm not wrong."

Tachibana looked at Yugao for confirmation but he needn't have since as soon as the words left his mouth, everyone in the ANBU group started whispering.

And their whispers only grew louder when Yugao finally nodded.

But Danzo wasn't satisfied and so he secretly signalled for his ROOT shinobi to take action.

"This doesn't say anything about your abilities! You could be using a summoned creature's abilities for all we know!?-"

"-What if your ability doesn't even work more than once a day!?-"

"-Surely you don't expect us to believe that anyone in the world can know what's the truth by simply closing their eyes now do you!?-"

Tachibana looked at Danzo and his ROOT shinobi but said nothing, instead it was Hiruzen who struck down with an iron fist.

"Panicking now that your lies are being exposed Danzo!? Why don't we do this! I will ask Tachibana-kun to divine about both of us instead of just you! Why don't we figure out if what you say about me is true or not!"

While everyone in the group flicked their heads towards Hiruzen so hard that most of them got whiplash, Tachibana looked at him slowly as he internally smiled.

'How naive…'

'Still sticking to the information he gleaned from looking into my mind…'

'He really thinks that since he has been nothing but good to me my subconscious would be moulded by it and think he wasn't implicit wouldn't he?'

And if someone could peer into Hiruzen's mind, he indeed was thinking along the same lines.

And so with the ROOT suddenly quiet without a valid point to retort with, Tachibana spoke clearly and loudly for everyone to hear his next words.

"As per the request of Hokage-sama, I will now divine to see if the two people, that old man Danzo-sama and Hokage-sama are involved in the situation regarding experimenting on children that were kidnapped from and around the village."

Tachibana let his pendulum still and then closed his eyes like before and dove into a relaxed state using cogitation again.

"Danzo-sama and Hokage-sama are involved in-"

"Wait." Tsunade suddenly stopped Tachibana causing tension to loosen a little.

"What happened Tsunade-sama?" Tachibana asked her politely while internally he was excited for seeing what addition she would make to his statement.

And Tsunade's words did not disappoint.

"Also add to your divination to check if they have been involved in experimenting with the bodies of the Senju and my grandfather Hashirama."

The tension that had relaxed slightly came back with full force as everyone grew stunned upon hearing Tsunade's accusation.

People on both sides wanted to rage but Tsunade although seemed calm was clearly anything but.

It was clear to everyone that her stillness came not from relaxation but from rage.

And so Tachibana nodded towards her and modified his divination statement to speak again.

"Danzo-sama and Hokage-sama were involved in experimenting with the bodies of Senju and the first Hokage and children that were kidnapped from inside and around the village."

Tachibana repeated the statement seven times clearly.

Each utterance upped the tension by pulling the strings of this scenario taut to their maximum pull distance.

Several people clenched their fists as they realised they had begun getting sweaty.

Danzo and Hiruzen booth looked at Tachibana with looks of shock.

Both had wanted to interrupt and protest against this by making Tsunade ask about this later preferably in private, but Tachibana had agreed too easily, without asking either of them for confirmation.

And they couldn't interrupt him now that he was already on it-

-not without a valid reason at least.

Tachibana was about to finish the seventh repetition and the gears in Danzo and Hiruzen's minds turned at full speed, trying to find a solution.

And-