These stories are getting weirder and weirder, no kidding. I started this, forgot what I was writing about, and somehow ended it.

It's basically a representation of my confusion (hopefully it's readable) and how I don't know how to set a proper mood.

Um. Yes. (That, and I'm wallowing in ObiRin angst right now -the Obito feeelsss- and should be doing that dreaded homework -sigh-)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, because Rin is dead. OTL.

Note: Sorry this is such a confusing story (laughs), since it goes somewhat along the lines of "ghost", "Uchiha Swag", "Hyuuga being obnoxious", "ghost", "Hokage office", "creepy snake guy". . . and so on, and so forth. -sweat drop-

Note 2: I have nothing against Hyuuga (I love Hinata and Neji, yes?) but I found this to be sort of funny. Battle of the eyessss or something.

-what happened to Byakugan being a "cousin" of the Sharingan? Everyone's a Senju? An Uchiha? Whaaaat. Lol just kidding. Sorry Byakugan, you get no share in the credit of being part of the Sage of the Six Path's sons' bloodlines! lol...?-

Chapter 19: Ghost

Hiruzen swore he had seen it.

"What did you see?" asked Koharu, more out of obligation rather than curiosity. Someone had to ask, or the boy would keep harping on them with "I saw it. I know I did, you have to believe me!" just to poke at their interest. Homura had his nose buried in a book, quickly relieving himself from answering duties by making it seem as if he wasn't even present, leaving Koharu to suffer from Hiruzen's antics.

"I saw it," Hiruzen continued mumbling to himself, now staring at the ramen shop. He shuddered. "I think…it's back."

"What, Hiruzen?" snapped Koharu. Unless she asked, he wouldn't stop talking to himself about whatever it was that he had seen.

"Him."

"Who's him?" Kagami asked, sauntering up to them in his signature Uchiha swagger. The group swore he was copying Madara, but you could never really tell. There was a distinct difference from the way the regal clan head marched efficiently to Kagami's ego-filled way of promenading up to them, but just the essence of Uchiha he gave off matched that of Madara. Izuna, on the other hand, always walked rather calmly. For some reason, he showed his clan pride through his level-headedness, rather unlike his older brother. Though, that was back when the two brothers were alive. Izuna had died in battle, and after Madara died, it seemed like Kagami had inherited the swagger for himself.

"Him," Hiruzen repeated, eyes wide.

"Who's him?" Now a couple of the girls in their age group had gathered, curious. Koharu rolled her eyes at Biwako, who was part of the crowd, now. The girl sniggered, her ponytail swaying with her giggles.

"The ramen man? Yeah, I saw him," Torifu commented nonchalantly, popping a few chips into his mouth.

"We just had lunch," Kagami said.

"You just had lunch," Torifu corrected.

"No, not the ramen man," Hiruzen continued, completely ignoring the exchange. A Hyuuga sniggered; it was on the one that fought Kagami during the chuunin exams.

"Who did you see, Uchiha Madara?" he jeered. The group crowded next to him laughed, and Kagami seethed. He was about to snap back when Danzo touched his shoulder and shook his head, eyes narrowed. It seemed that the other boy's calm demeanor was quite influencing, because Kagami took a breath and kept his mouth shut.

"I saw…Hashirama-sama," Hiruzen breathed, staring at the Hokage Mountain.

"Shut up, Sarutobi. Don't make stupid jokes like that," the Hyuuga sneered. Mariko would've been devastated to see her best friend's young cousin act to uncouthly.

"I'm not kidding!" Hiruzen exclaimed. "I swear!"

Koharu wanted to slap her hand over her teammate's mouth, but remained tight-lipped and bathing in chagrin. How embarrassing could Hiruzen get?

"Let's go, guys." The Hyuuga tossed his long hair, the beautiful, silky hair of the Hyuuga clan that few Uchiha could obtain, and sauntered away. His walk was one of grace and style—he didn't need swagger to show his superiority. Kagami growled.

"He's right, Hiruzen. Don't fool around," Biwako told him, frowning.

"You guys really don't believe me?" Hiruzen's dejected face was rather endearing, like a wide-eyed little puppy, but none of them fell for it.

"No, Hiruzen," Danzo suddenly said. They all glanced at him; Danzo rarely said anything. "Ghosts don't exist."

"Oh, but they do," Hiruzen hissed, eyes going wide like Tenzou the cat's when he sensed a crazy Uchiha prowling on the Senju yard.

"Whatever floats your boat," Kagami replied, patting the other boy on the shoulder before taking off again, Torifu and Danzo in tow. The rest of the crowd dispersed, leaving Team Tobirama standing in the middle of the street, watching Hiruzen contemplate his ghost story.

"Let's go see if we have a mission. I think Team Toka mentioned something about going to the Grass Country," Koharu suggested. Homura nodded absently, still reading his book. The girl peered over to see what her bespectacled teammate was reading—History of the Kunai, apparently. Not interesting, so she diverted her attention back to Hiruzen.

"I saw him, Koharu!" Hiruzen told her, begging the hard-faced Koharu to believe him. "Seeing is believing!"

"Well, we didn't see him," Koharu deadpanned, before shoving him away from her. He had tried to grab her collar and "shake some sense" into her, but she threatened to kick him, and instead, they made their way to the Hokage Tower.

Papers. More papers. Tobirama was tiring quickly of all his paperwork, especially for that week. For some reason, there was an oddly large influx of new files for him to stamp and approve of, and Tobirama's hand was almost sore from gripping his pen for such a long time. That, and he kept dropping his stamp, and it was annoying him (nothing fit on his desk, really).

Meanwhile, Mariko was skipping out of the Senju complex, waving to Tenzou the yawning cat in the tree. She yelled to tell Mito that she was going out, and promptly exited the area. Just as she did, a figure brushed past her as she entered town. She didn't think much of it, really, until she noticed that the man had dropped his wallet, so she picked it up for him.

"Hey, you forgot your—" Mariko stared at the wallet. Old, worn, familiar leather, the symbol of Konoha painstakingly carved onto its cover so that it was perfectly centered and smoothed. She opened it slightly, and a weathered photo of Tsunade and Mito slipped out, floating gently to the ground. In another pocket, she found a picture that looked like it used to be Tobirama when he was younger, but the ink was so faded, it was hard to tell actual faces.

It was Hashirama's.

The man turned around, and smiled.

"Thanks, Mariko." He took his belongings gently from her hands, stooped to pick up the picture of his wife and granddaughter, and walked away. When the next gentle breeze picked up, he disappeared in the direction of town.

"…Hashi…rama?"

Toka listed off several things that Tobirama was behind on, to his dismay. Mito sat in the chair behind his cousin, diverting her attention to a few papers that caught her eye. Toka had just begun crossly scolding Tobirama when Mito saw something outside the window. She rose from her seat and casually meandered over behind Tobirama so that she could gaze over the city. She saw a man squint up at the Hokage building, shielding his eyes from the glaring sunlight. His long, brown hair billowed gently in the breeze, framing his kind face. Mito's eyes widened. The man waved.

Mito suddenly screamed, a short yell that startled both the Hokage and his peeved cousin. She stared at Hashirama, who brushed his hair back from his face and continued walking down the street. By then, Tobirama and Toka had crowded around her, and had also seen the phantom ambling down the street…

There was a knock at the door, and Team Tobirama entered.

"Hey, Toka-sensei, is there anything we can do to—what are you guys doing?" asked Hiruzen, his two teammates on either side of him.

"Unless you want to go catch a cat," Toka said, straightening and composing her appearance, "then no, there's nothing."

"What are you looking at?" Hiruzen completely ignored the Senju woman's comment, hopping over beside the Hokage to gaze out the window. There really wasn't much besides the usual village clamor and work, but both Tobirama and Mito were lingering by the window, eyes searching for something that obviously wasn't there. They hesitantly turned back to the group, reluctantly, almost.

"Nothing," Tobirama answered.

"You sure?"

"Stop it, Hiruzen," snapped Koharu, meeting them by the window. "You've been annoying everyone all day."

"I have not," Hiruzen claimed, sputtering. "I have told you all the truth!"

"What truth?" asked Homura, completely zoned out.

"The truth that I saw—"

"Tobirama!"

The door slammed open, and Mariko appeared, eyes wild. The Second demanded to know what had happened, but Mariko's mouth opened, and then closed, like a fish out of water. She seemed confused, as if she couldn't seem to get out what she wanted to say, and was inwardly having an argument with her throat.

"No, I didn't see Tobirama-sensei," Hiruzen said, completely ignoring her outburst. He was quite good at that. "I saw Hashirama-sama."

Everyone stared at him, then.

"You did too?!" they exclaimed, with the exception of a gaping Koharu and a bored Homura.

"So I'm not hallucinating, then," Mariko sighed.

"Have you all gone insane?!" Koharu shouted.

They all began to argue over what they had seen, Toka shook her head and pointed out the window, Mito and Tobirama turned to look outside again, and Hiruzen leapt about the room for some reason.

"Is this what happens when I leave?"

They all turned to the new voice. Koharu paled upon seeing the slightly transparent figure, his legs sort of shimmering and fading at the feet. She could see the door through his body, through his white Hokage robes and his brown hair.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Hashirama asked.

Everyone blacked out for a moment…

Orochimaru didn't believe her when she said that she'd seen her grandfather alive and well, walking the streets of Konoha.

"I think you need some medicine."

"Shut up," Tsunade retorted, glaring. "I saw him."

Suddenly, Jiraiya came running up to them, a horrified expression on his face. He grabbed young Tsunade by the shoulders and shook her violently, screaming about how he'd seen her grandfather by the ramen shop. Orochimaru rolled his eyes, but the white-headed boy insisted that he had seen the First.

Tsunade felt a tingling at her neck, and fingered her grandfather's necklace. She was sure, now, that Hashirama had been here.

The sun had set quite a few hours ago, and after the Hashirama incident, everyone had quietly filed out of Tobirama's room and returned to their daily lives, hoping that they all had just been dreaming. Though, from the reports of a few villagers, his great-niece, his wife, his sister-in-law, his cousin, his students, among several others, he doubted that he was the only one who saw the ghost that day. Either he was seriously in a bad dream that he couldn't get out of, at the moment, or Hashirama was haunting the village.

Tobirama sighed.

"The paperwork's as bad as I told you, right?"

Tobirama spun around to see his older brother leaning against the windowsill rather casually, watching the evening activities of the village. The younger Senju's eyes widened.

"Wondering why I'm here?" the First asked, chuckling.

"You're scaring the hell out of us," Tobirama replied flatly.

"I know. Your expression is pretty amusing, Tobi."

"Shut up." He was having a conversation with a ghost. Tobirama wondered whether he was going insane. Thinking back, he had seen Tenzou the cat look rather appalled that morning, but he hadn't known why. (Explanation: Hashirama had been sitting alongside the tree, rather at peace with the morning sun filtering through the willow's leaves…)

"Just checking up on you," Hashirama smiled. He shrugged. Another figure materialized beside him, and to Tobirama's shock, he realized that it was Izuna. The Uchiha's image was slightly lighter than Hashirama's, as if he had a hard time casting his image in the world of the living, and it was difficult for him to stay. He also had his eyes, both of them, and was calmly watching the scenario with his Sharingan deactivated.

"It's about time to go," he said quietly, nodding at Hashirama, and then at the younger Senju. He faded quickly, a slight gust of wind signaling his leave.

"It's harder for him to appear," Hashirama murmured to himself. Perhaps it was the vigorous life force of the Senju that had allowed Hashirama to stay as long as he had. If he could, he would visit some other time…

"Nii-san?" Tobirama said suddenly. Hashirama was slightly surprised, seeing as Tobirama had stopped addressing him casually in a familial matter for a long time now. It was even before he killed Madara…maybe a bit before Mito appeared. It had always been "Hashirama" now, or a more formal version of "older brother". Well, that was to say, when Hashirama was alive, anyway.

Hashirama smiled, feeling that his spectral image was fading. He looked down, seeing that now, instead of his feet fading away, he was nearly invisible up to his waist. It was time to leave; a day home had been more than enough. Turning to his younger brother, who was looking a little alarmed now—a face he had not seen since they were little boys, and Tobirama would have died falling off that cliff if Hashirama hadn't been there to catch him with his Wood Style—Hashirama smiled again.

Placing his hand on Tobirama's head, he lightly patted the white hair so unlike his own. Tobirama's eyes flickered warily, watching as the hand began to drift away in wisps of mist and Hashirama's form disintegrated gradually.

"I'm proud of you, Tobirama."

"Somehow, I feel like I just had a terrible nightmare," Tsunade said, years later. On her left, lay Jiraiya, spread-eagled on his sleeping bag. It wasn't cold, really. On her right, was Orochimaru, tucked comfortably into his blankets and staring away from them, at nothing.

"A nightmare about what?" Jiraiya inquired, sitting up.

Tsunade touched her necklace.

"Ghosts."

"Ghosts?" Jiraiya laughed, mentioning the one time he'd seen one. Other than that, he claimed he didn't believe in them, besides the slight shiver that ran up his spine. Tsunade shook her head.

Her grandfather and great-uncle had been dead for a long time, now. Her great-aunt, too, had passed away several years ago. Grandmother Mito, with her unbelievable life force, had lasted until the newest Academy year. She had been sad to see her grandmother go, as well. Tsunade was almost always the last one at every funeral, staring at the memorial and the pictures of grim-faced shinobi and kunoichi that supposedly represented the loving memories of her family. Nawaki and Dan, too.

"Tsunade?" asked Jiraiya. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, shaking her head.

From his position facing away from them, Orochimaru smiled to himself. He pulled the small scroll from his pocket, and fingered the rough paper. By the dim firelight nearly obscured by his own shadow, he read the few words painted onto the wooden box that accompanied it:

EDO TENSEI.

-insert ominous music here-

Strange, eh? Thoughts, comments, burning concerns! DESIRES?!

ObiRin feels. lol.