Naruto : A Fool's Errand.

"It is. Everyone can become one if they have a heart that beats with the desire to protect." Mauboshi said jovially.

But Tachibana unsatisfied with the generic response reiterated his question, "Is it possible I become a shinobi that belongs to the village of Konoha?"

Instantly, Maruboshi became stunned since this wasn't a request he'd estimated to get from the young prince, so he did the first thing he could think of to distance Tachibana from this idea.

"But Tachibana-san it requires quite a lot of hard work to become a full-fledged ninja."

Tachibana appeared to think for a few moments and then closed his eyes as he let his pendulum fall before him.

Soon, after mumbling for a bit, he opened his eyes, only to find the pendulum spinning clockwise.

"See that Maruboshi-san? Fate tells me I should become a shinobi. And I'm trusting enough of fate not to make the mistake of avoiding it."

To the out-of-the-world argument, Tachibana presented to him as a spinning pendulum, the man with the wok on his back could formulate no response.

'This…'

'Is he asking me to believe a spinning chain told him to become a shinobi?'

'...What do I do?'

Eventually after giving up any thoughts of counter-arguments, Maruboshi replied with, "I will need to speak with the Hokage-sama about this. I'm sorry but it is beyond my ability to respond to your question."

Tachibana with a smile on his face nodded as he spoke, "Alright then, I shall wait for your and the Hokage-sama's response. Thank you for entertaining me for today."

Maruboshi nodded and left the remote Senju house turned into a hotel and quickly walked towards the Hokage tower.

"Hokage-sama.", Maruboshi said as he kneeled in front of Hiruzen.

"Speak Kouske. I hope there was no trouble today?"

"No Hokage-sama, I fulfilled my task perfectly."

"I see. Good job. As expected of you. If only you'd allow me to promote you to a Jounin-"

"Hokage-sama, Tachibana-san asked me a question at the end of the trip to which I had no response." Maruboshi cut off Hiruzen since he didn't want to get into another argument with him about his duties and the prince of the Land of Fire had asked him a question too.

Maruboshi's words caught Hiruzen's interest and he nodded, "What did he ask you about?"

"He asked if he could become a shinobi of Konoha."

"...Huh?" Hiruzen's eyes widened. "What?"

Maruboshi remained silent, confirming what Hiruzen had just heard was not wrong.

Hiruzen immediately picked up his smoking stick and inhaled a puff of smoke.

"A royal wanting to become a shinobi…"

The silence between them broke when Hiruzen opened his mouth again, "Did he give you a reason why he wants to become one?"

"Yes Hokage-sama, he mumbled something and when his pendulum was spinning clockwise, told me that it was what fate wanted of him."

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed at this piece of information as he thought about it a little more but then he asked Maruboshi something else, "Did he use chakra? Was it a jutsu he performed?"

"No Hokage-sama, I felt no chakra fluctuations coming from the boy. I'm sure if he had any chakra in his body the sensors would've picked it up by now."

"Hm…troublesome."

"I have another mission for you Kosuke."

"But-"

"It doesn't involve other shinobi. You will be alone on this mission." Hiruzen pacified the stern old man in front of him. "All you have to do is send a letter to the Daimyo and bring his response. You may pick up the letter tomorrow from the receptionist."

Maruboshi nodded and after Hiruzen's permission left the Hokage office to prepare for his short mission tomorrow.

Hiruzen stood up from his seat and walked over to the window, looking over the entire village.

'This could be very good for Konoha if done right.'

'We could use Tachibana's connections to the Daimyo to gain more money for the village when he's given a pseudo-important position.'

'He seems like a crackpot, so it should be possible to satisfy him by simply giving him a position where he can remain a salted fish.'

The next morning Maruboshi picked up the letter from the receptionist and left for the capital. 

"Greetings.", Maruboshi said to the guards who stood at the entrance of the royal castle.

The guards looked at him but did not speak. Used to such attitude from the guards after the various missions he had taken as a genin, Maruboshi immediately explained his purpose.

"Hokage-sama has tasked me with bringing an important letter to the Daimyo. I also have to wait for his response."

The guards looked at each other and pulled away their spears to allow Maruboshi to enter the castle.

Inside the castle, Maruboshi was guided by a well-dressed servant who took him to a reception hall where he was asked to wait for his turn to meet the Daimyo.

Not long after Maruboshi was kneeling in front of the Daimyo.

Skipping past the general greetings the Daimyo immediately came to the main issue of the letter. And as soon as he saw the name Tachibana Rei his eyes became hyper-focused.

'Did Rei-chan do something to anger the Hoka-'

'HE WANTS TO BECOME A SHINOBI!!!!!!??????'

But true to his experience as the leader of a nation the Daimyo immediately calmed down.

'Rei-kun wouldn't have walked into a dangerous situation given his divination abilities, so I can rule out this letter being written after Rei-kun was forced.'

'So it is Rei's wish to become a shinobi.'

'....*sigh*, and here I thought by working hard I'd be able to pass off my seat to Rei-kun and the cheeky little fella wouldn't have to work another day in his life and he'd just enjoy everything given to him.'

'Everything about Rei changed the day he peed his bed.'

'*sigh* there has been no convincing him recently. I guess I listen to him again or he'll try to do it sneakily.'

'Like when he performed divinations for all the servants in the castle. Or when he tried to disguise himself as an old man and perform divinations for the populace.'

'Shijimi will be angry with me once again…'

Only after three days and nights of *arguing* with his wife, was the Daimyo able to send back a letter with Maruboshi to the Hokage.

"Hokage-sama I have brought back a response." Maruboshi gladly held the scroll the Daimyo had given him while he was in the royal capital of the Fire nation.

Hiruzen picked up the extravagant scroll and unfolded it to read what was inside it.

A smile formed on his face and he folded the letter and handed it back to Maruboshi, "Give this to Tachibana-san and ask him if he's still willing to become a shinobi."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Maruboshi nodded and was about to leave when Hiruzen added, "If he agrees, you'll teach him to become a Shinobi, Kosuke."

Maruboshi froze in his steps but Hiruzen anticipated his rejection and placed a counter-argument, "It has to be you Maruboshi. No one else in the current Jounin roster is unaffiliated with a minor or major clan in the village. It can only be you."

Maruboshi frowned but couldn't find a reason to fight back the order of the Hokage as he'd always done earlier. He understood the significance of the matter and thus nodded calmly before leaving to give Tachibana an answer to his question.

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A/N : How good should Tachibana's talent be? How much chakra should Tachibana have? (Low is good chakra control, high is poor chakra control.) Should he use any weapons or just go pure hand to hand combat?

My default response currently is he should be as talented as an average shinobi, but he is very tricky to fight against because of his clever usage of what he knows. I want him to have low chakra for now, but as he develops his body further I want his chakra to increase. I want him to use a sword, but hand to hand combat is also acceptable.

Thank you for reading.