Chương 15: Test.
Walking back with groceries in his hand, Tachibana navigated the dense streets of Konoha which were chock-full of people running around to purchase various items.
Most were civilians or retired shinobi. But there were also a few active shinobi visiting their favourable stores.
As Tachibana walked the street with his ingredients slung in a bag around his shoulder he suddenly heard a rather strange conversation over the crowd of people walking around.
"-are you ready for it?"
"Yes. The plan's been set. All we have to do now is wait for sundown to steal the item."
Tachibana's feet came to crawl so that he could listen to more of the conversation.
'What are they doing?'
'Planning a heist in broad daylight?'
Tachibana traced the voice to the balcony of a dine-and-eat restaurant where two people sat across each other with a table between them.
"The bribes have been given. The shinobi in charge of patrol tonight will leave his post for fifteen minutes."
"Only fifteen? Didn't we agree it would be thirty?"
"I'm sorry. This is the best I can do. Any more and we'll be attracting a lot of suspicion."
There was a soft *sigh* before the man spoke once again, "Alright. I'll steal the scroll of seals within fifteen minutes."
"Good. Remember, as long as you bring out the scroll of seals you'll be compensated appropriately."
"Hm~m."
Their conversation ended with that so Loki moved towards a nearby stall that was selling ice cream. He sat down on a bench facing the entrance of the restaurant. He wanted to see what the two shinobi who dared to plan a theft in broad daylight looked like.
'Aren't they afraid of someone eavesdropping on them?'
Not long after, a person dressed in casual clothes walked out of the restaurant. Activating his spirit vision by tapping his glabella twice Tachibana clearly saw the man possessed a substantial amount of chakra.
With the man leaving, and the other man still in the restaurant Tachibana pulled out his pendulum to assess his odds of survival.
"Following the first man who left the restaurant is dangerous for me."
With the pendulum rotating clockwise rapidly Tachibana chose not to follow the man. He didn't wait for the second man either since divining about him also revealed a similar result.
'They're at least a Chunin or Jonin if they pose such a threat to me.'
He wouldn't follow them, but instead of leaving Tachibana entered the restaurant the two shinobi were in and moved to the balcony of the upper floor.
There he came across a dustbin filled with tissues.
Tachibana used a spoon to sort through the trash quickly noticing a tissue on which were several details written.
'So they're going to execute the plan at seven-thirty?' Loki assumed since he saw the number seven thirty written on it.
A few other tissues also have things like the layout of the Hokage tower and the location of the scroll of seals in it, so Tachibana collected them all and placed them in his pocket.
'Better inform Maruboshi-san about this.'
'I'm sure he knows how to handle situations like this better.'
Tachibana dropped off his vegetables at his house and walked to Training Ground Seven to wait for Maruboshi to arrive before he noticed the white paper stuck to the tree stump he always sat on.
"There will be no training today. Since we're taking a mission tomorrow, today is a holiday for resting your mind and body."
Tachibana looked at the short letter and frowned.
'This seems a little obvious no?'
'Is this a test for me?'
'To see what I'd do in such a situation?'
'Seeing how they don't want me to contact any authorities, it means they want me to solve this mess somehow. The Hokage is also probably using his telescopic crystal ball jutsu to spy on me.'
Tachibana closed his eyes and thought about the situation for a second.
'How can I catch two elite Chunin or Jonin shinobi?'
With no direct answer popping up, Tachibana walked back home. Once there he lay down on his bed and used cogitation to fall asleep after he muttered something seven times.
"When will the shinobi from earlier attempt their plan to steal the seal of scrolls?"
A flash of scenes passed by before Tachibana was granted with a scene of one of the thieves looking at his watch.
Tachibana looked at the watch and noted the time.
'Seven-thirty.'
The dream shattered and Tachibana woke up but remained in the bed to pretend to be sleeping so that Hiruzen who was probably looking at him through the telescope jutsu wouldn't be suspicious of his abilities.
'So I have to be prepared for seven-thirty today.'
Tachibana lay in the bed, thinking of a plan.
Meanwhile, Hiruzen looking through his telescope jutsu was a little confused.
'How is he so relaxed about the shinobi trying to infiltrate the Hokage office?'
'How can he sleep in such a situation?'
'But he hasn't done anything terribly wrong yet.'
'He properly eavesdropped on the shinobi making a plan in public to gather intelligence, did not follow them since he is much weaker than them, and also gathered evidence by visiting the place they were last at. He even looked for a higher-up when he realised this was out of his hand.'
'But why did he suddenly choose to sleep?'
'He might've realised this is a test but why sleep instead of focusing on making a plan?'
Tachibana woke up after a few hours feeling refreshed.
He'd thought about the plan to capture the two shinobi for a few minutes but genuinely fell asleep after a while.
'I have a nice plan now. Let's see if this helps me pass their test or not.'
Walking out of the bedroom Tachibana selected all the ingredients he needed to cook a meal. He finished it all in a few minutes and then had a lavish lunch.
Afterwards, he spent time practising the three academy ninjutsu to make himself even more proficient in making clones and transfigurations indistinguishable from reality to the naked eye.
Time passed swiftly and Tachibana put on make-up to make himself look like a clown.
Hiruzen started monitoring Tachibana again and was startled by his appearance. "Why the make-up? Why does he want to look like a clown?"
With his make-up ready along with his weapons to take down the shinobi, Tachibana stepped out of his house and used parkour to climb the houses and find a suitable spot to mount an attack when it was time to capture the shinobi.
Tachibana used spirit vision to hide from any patrolling teams as he hid on one of the roofs near the Hokage tower.
Not long after that one of the shinobi he'd seen earlier arrived.
The area around them was empty, without a single soul present anywhere around them in close to a hundred metres, except the Hokage.
With a flick of his hand, Tachibana threw a bunch of shuriken at the shinobi right as he entered the Hokage tower.
Normally he wouldn't have waited for the shinobi to enter the tower to attack, but he'd attached something special to the shuriken he'd thrown and it worked best in spots without wind.
The Hokage tower where the shinobi would retreat was a fantastic place for his attack to explode.
*TING* *TING* *TING* *TING*
The shinobi immediately protected himself by knocking the shuriken away but unfortunately for him, as he entered the Hokage tower to take cover, the shuriken exploded one by one.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
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