Warning: Spoilers from the Kakashi Gaiden arc n.n;

Subconsciously, Kakashi found himself hanging around the memorial stone more and more as the days went by. There'd been no talk of the ghost, not from Naruto or Sakura and not from anyone else. In a way, Kakashi wished that this weren't the case, but he was sure that if things stayed silent as they were, it'd only be for the better.

Still, if he really believed that, why did he seem to find himself always standing in front of the stone?

Never mind that. With his one eye, he thoroughly read through all of the names inscribed onto the black surface. So many names that he'd never heard of. He wondered if one day, his name would be on there as well, a dead Hatake Kakashi amongst many others.

Someone has left flowers at the foot of the grave. He wasn't a flower expert, so he wouldn't know what type of flower they were. Nor did he care about the type. He'd never brought flowers for Obito. Obito just wasn't exactly a flowery person, not to Kakashi. Rin, when she'd been alive, left flowers.

Rin – when she'd been alive. There was a twinge of guilt within Kakashi – no, more than a twinge. After all, he'd promised Obito, kind of.

"…Take care…of Rin…"

"Right."

He hadn't actually used the word 'promise' but it'd been one, anyway. You didn't need to use the word to make one.

He'd failed that promise. Rin had died. She'd been sent out with some other medical nins to retrieve a group that had gone out on a mission and been badly injured. One of the group's ninjas had came to Konoha with the call for help. He'd died soon afterwards, so they'd set out quickly. No one told Kakashi that she left, but he found out and ran after her and her group.

A large group of enemy ninjas got there just as Rin's group arrived, and she'd been killed along with the rest of them as she'd been trying to heal one of the injured. By the time Kakashi caught up, she was dead and the murderers, gone. And, in the end, Konoha had never found the attackers.

Rin had brought Obito flowers. Now her name was on the memorial stone too.

Kakashi had brought him stories.

He talked to Obito, about everything and nothing, but only when no one else was around. There wasn't anyone else in Konoha who talked to dead people, not that he knew of. If Obito could hear him, then he knew Kakashi's team as well as Kakashi did. He'd also know about his nephew, Sasuke, and Kakashi sometimes thought that if Obito were alive, he'd get along with Sasuke just as well as he'd gotten along with Kakashi before the events that resulted in his death.

Obito had once described their relationship like 'oil and water'. That'd be his relationship with Sasuke.

A lot like Naruto's.

"Hey, Obito…" Kakashi started, staring down at the memorial stone. He sighed, and went on. "Naruto thinks he saw your ghost some days before…"

"Do you believe in ghosts?"

Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji were sitting at the same table at the all-you-can-eat barbecue. As always, Chouji was paying more attention to his food than to the conversation, but at least Ino was listening.

But Ino thought of it as a silly question, and it became obvious as soon as Shikamaru had finished asking. "Ha!" She smirked and closed her eyes, propping her head up on her arm. "No, of course not."

"Why?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well…" Ino frowned. "Because…because supernatural things like that just don't exist."

"You can possess people and control them," Shikamaru pointed out. "Isn't that a bit supernatural?"

Ino scowled at him. "Yeah, I guess. But that's not like a ghost. Ghosts just don't exist. The dead are dead, and they remain that way."

Shrugging, Shikamaru could see that he wasn't going to get anywhere if the conversation went on, so he dropped the subject, choosing instead to watch Chouji and Ino squabble over the last piece of meat again.

"I don't see anyone, Hinata."

"I…did see him, a few days ago…"

"Well, that doesn't mean that they're going to be here again. Just because they were here once doesn't mean they'll be here again. Unless you're like Naruto. Every single evening, you'll find him at Ichiraku."

Kiba and Hinata were standing in the same part of the forest where she'd seen the Uchiha. Akamaru was sniffing around the trees, but if he sensed something, he was hiding it, and that wasn't something that Akamaru would do. Hinata was nervously shifting from foot to foot, fingers pressed together. It'd taken her a lot of courage to tell someone about the Uchiha. Shino had been making himself scarce lately, and Kurenai probably wouldn't believe her story. She didn't know anyone else well enough to spend more than a few minutes around, except Neji, and Neji hated her. So Kiba was the one she'd confided in.

"Y-yeah…" she stammered, looking around. She felt a little bad, dragging Kiba and Akamaru all the way through the forest to look for someone that either didn't exist or wasn't going to be there again.

Kiba frowned at Hinata. He hadn't really understood the reason why she'd lead him out here, though he had heard something about a Uchiha. Sasuke? No, she would've referred to Sasuke by his name. And, well, the rest of the Uchihas were dead. And other than that, she didn't seem delusional. Being in her team, Kiba knew that Hinata also wasn't the type to lie or make things up.

"So what's this about a Uchiha? I thought they all got killed, didn't they?" Akamaru barked his agreement a few trees away.

"Y-yeah…" she said again, looking down at the ground. "But I did see him…"

"See who?"

"I don't know…another Uchiha."

"That's impossible," Kiba stated bluntly. "You know that, right? They're all dead, Hinata, except for Sasuke. Are you sure you didn't see Sasuke?"

"I…I saw Sasuke yesterday…He didn't look anything like…um…the boy I saw…"

"Boy?" Kiba echoed. "So, what was he? A genin? Chuunin? Jounin, maybe?" Kiba snickered. He didn't know anyone his age that was a jounin, though probably quite a few people he knew could make it to that rank.

"I don't know…" Hinata said again, even more nervous.

"He wasn't an Academy student, was he?"

Hinata shook her head. "He had a headband."

Kiba scanned the area again. Ahead of him, Akamaru barked a few times. No, Kiba didn't see him, and Akamaru didn't see him, and neither of them smelled anyone or anything else. "Well, I don't think he'll be coming back today," he said. "Akamaru wants to go for a walk, wanna come with us?"

"Sure..."

Kakashi left the memorial stone, and was now walking through the busy streets of Konoha. He'd given Team 7 the day off again, and it seemed that a lot of teams had been let off as well, as he saw the other genins running back and forth crazily. He did notice, however, that Naruto and Sakura were absent. Still, that wasn't that unusual. Sakura was probably following Sasuke, who didn't usually immerse himself in the crowds, and Naruto could be training.

He quickly went through the bookstore, but didn't spend much time there after he found out that no, the newest Icha Icha Paradise hadn't been released yet. Ah, Jiraiya always took his time writing…but then again, it meant he put a lot of effort into it. Either that, or he was simply slacking.

Kakashi didn't usually immerse himself in the crowds either, but he didn't feel like leaving the streets today. It wasn't something he understood, but he just didn't feel like making himself disappear that day.

He recalled, in his past, when he'd been ten and out of the watching groups of friends rush down the streets after the Academy let them out. He'd graduated four years ago, when he'd been six, but he'd been the only one so the teachers had yet to find two other students whom could join together with him to make a team. So he'd had a lot of free time in those days, though he usually trained by himself, or maybe, if he was lucky, with a chuunin or jounin.

Everyone had their own little groups of friends, except for a few. 'A few' had consisted of him, a boy – apparently the class clown – named Iruka, and Obito. Kakashi had never understood why Iruka didn't have any friends. He was funny, and friendly enough, but he didn't make friends anyway. Obito, no one had liked. He was loud-mouthed, always made pathetic excuses, and was the worst in every class. Even his own family sometimes ignored him. The Uchihas were known for being the best, and the fact that Obito carried the Uchiha name obviously shamed them.

The two hadn't known each other too well then, and they had no clue that later on, when they became a team, they'd hate each other's guts. So Kakashi had encountered Obito one day, standing at the bridge alone like he always did, and they'd started to talk.

"Why're you always here?" Kakashi had asked.

"There's nowhere else to go," had been his response.

"You could go home."

"My family hates me."

"What about the shops?"

"I'd look stupid all by myself."

"Do you want to go?"

"Yeah. But have you ever seen anyone down there all by themselves, without friends?"

"No…"

"Exactly. They'd all laugh at me. Besides, what is there to do down there when there's no one with you?"

During that conversation, Kakashi had considered asking if Obito wanted to go with him. But he'd never asked.

He wished that he had now.

As he meandered down the streets, he eventually found himself passing the Ichiraku. The Ichiraku hadn't been around when Obito had been alive, but he had liked ramen. Unlike Naruto, he hadn't lived off ramen, but he had loved to eat it. He had eaten much like Naruto – quickly, as if someone would snatch it away from them at any moment. No one else Kakashi knew always ate like that, though, maybe Chouji did. He didn't know Chouji all that well though.

A pang of hunger made itself known, and Kakashi briefly considered sitting down and ordering a bowl of ramen. But he ignored that thought. If he was going to eat, he'd have to take off his mask, and that wasn't something he felt like doing today. So he passed the Ichiraku and went on.

There was a blonde-haired, orange-clad figure standing in front of the memorial stone. One look at his face made it obvious that he was reading through all the names. Which wasn't exactly an easy feat, with all the names on there.

Naruto scowled. Today, he wasn't here to pay his respects. Who did he have to pay his respects to, other than the Third Hokage, maybe? He didn't recognize any names on that stone, aside from the Hokages and the third examiner of the Chuunin Exam…Hayate? Eh. The only Hokage he'd known well was the Third, and he knew nothing about Hayate. Aside from the fact that he was sick. Well, he looked sick and coughed a lot.

He hadn't given up the idea of figuring out whose ghost was haunting Konoha, though he hadn't seen the ghost again. The first time he saw him, he'd been standing with his back facing Naruto, so Naruto had spotted the Uchiha symbol immediately. At first, he'd thought that it was Sasuke, and yelled out his name, but then he'd turned around and Naruto had realized his mistake. At that, he'd apologized…

…And then realized that Yes, the Uchihas were supposed to be dead.

So he asked the ghost, "Who are you?"

He hadn't received a response, since the ghost had walked away soon afterwards. Naruto had followed, but it seemed that the Uchiha had suddenly disappeared.

But, he had been first seen at the memorial stone.

Naruto was attempting to put two and two together again. This time, he was getting an answer much closer to four.

The ghost had been at the memorial stone…that probably meant…

…that his name was engraved on the stone.

He'd been a Uchiha, so 'Uchiha' would obviously be in his name somewhere. But there were so many names! Oddly enough, he hadn't seen any Uchihas yet. Weren't they all great ninjas? And they'd all died…but the memorial stone was for those who'd died for Konoha.

How had they died? Yeah…Itachi had killed them all, hadn't he?

In any case, Naruto hoped that every single Uchiha name hadn't been inscribed into the memorial stone. That'd cause a hell of a lot of complications for him.

Naruto stopped thinking about the Uchiha family's extinction when he traced his finger over a certain name. He stopped, and squinted hard, re-reading it.

Wait.

Was this it?

Yes…it had to be. Right?

Naruto kept his finger on that name and quickly scanned through the rest of the names…

"No!" he shrieked. "Dammit!"

There were a whole bunch of Uchiha names. All over the stone.

Ugh. Was he going to need that damn Sasuke's help after all?

o.O; Kinda long chapter.

In my version of the anime, it said the names on the memorial stone were the names of those ninja who died 'fighting for their country' or something like that. I'm not sure if the Uchiha clan defending themselves against Itachi counts as 'fighting for their country', so I'm going to be a little vague on that.

Anyway, yeah…all you really need to know is that yes, there are a lot of Uchihas on that stone. In this fanfic, anyway. ;

Finally got around to looking back at the manga…Again, to clear things up more for myself than for you guys, this should be taking place around Chapter 172-ish. I saw the scene where Sasuke's flashing back on his recent encounter Chap. 176 with Itachi. And I remember that when Sasuke got his ass kicked by Itachi, Naruto was there. So, yeah, by the time all this in the fanfic happens Naruto does know who Itachi is. XD;;

…It kinda diverts from the manga though. Here, in this manga, Naruto and Sasuke never fought on top of the hospital, and the Sound Four haven't come. But, Sasuke is out of the hospital and their life is kinda returning to 'normal' training under Kakashi, D-rank-ish missions. If the Sound Four appear at all, they won't appear until much later probably.

And, I'm still not sure on if Naruto knows that Itachi killed of the Uchiha clan, but if he doesn't, please assume that someone Kakashi, or Jiraiya, maybe told him ;; I really need to review. X.x;