Archive of Our Own

In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves.

 ― Laurie Halse Anderson.

There was a ghost that haunted Sarutobi. A spirit he knew well.

Minato followed him, a pale shadow of the brilliant boy he had been in life, with vacant eyes and a dull complexion.

The sight should fill him with terror, but the hogake felt immense sadness instead. The dead shouldn't stay that long among the living.

“Konoha is safe. You have done your duty. Why are you still here? "

He never got a reply. Minato didn't speak. He looked at him as if he could see all of Sarutobi's sins. He was judging him.

And maybe he could. Maybe it was a punishment the Shinigami had sent him. He would never know. Minato didn’t want to talk to him.

*

There was a ghost that Jiraiya saw only out of the corner of his eye, his mind refusing to recognize its presence.

He had always been good at escaping: he was fleeing from his responsibilities, from Tsunade, from his mistakes, from those who had not been able to save, and from those who had instead helped to lead on the road to destruction.

He wasn't a good man. 

Perhaps that was why he was now being persecuted.

It was a reminder, a curse for what he hadn't been able to do.

Jiraiya ignored the shadow as only he could, chasing women and writing obscene books. He laughed, he drank, and he enjoyed a life that had lost its meaning.

It was useless, especially when he knew who was following him.

How not to do it?

The ghost always whispered the same name to him. The name of someone who should be taken care of, but couldn't, otherwise it would have ruined it.

Another regret, another child who would be better off without him.

Naruto.

*

Another ghost appeared to Kakashi. He had seen many since becoming an ANBU killer. All those he killed, men, women, and even a few children, came back to haunt him.

There was no Obito among them, and he didn't know whether to be happy or not.

He was able to ignore them all, repeating to himself that he had done his duty to the village. They were necessary sacrifices for peace.

(Sometimes, lying to yourself was easier than facing reality.)

This was different.

It wasn't someone he killed (although he may have, he wasn't there to protect him.)

She didn't hate him (she should have.)

His sensei looked at him sadly, as if he were sorry for him. He didn't understand it. Kakashi had chosen that path, it was not the fault of the former hogake.

“If you're here because of me, you shouldn't. I'm fine, "he repeated to the void, to a man who had been a father to him when he had put honor before his own son.

They were words in the wind, to someone who couldn't even hear them. The dead never listened to the living.

(Except they did. )

*

There was a ghost that Obito saw in the moments when he stopped during his journey, while the wounds were still fresh and his mind was looking for a sort of balance.

It was the ghost of the man he had killed.

(Once, the thought would have filled him with pain. Now there was only anger.)

Minato sensei was as he remembered him, and he judged him. He always had, and he kept doing it dead. He would have liked to mock him and ask him how it felt to be killed by failure. But it would be a waste of time, and he couldn't afford it.

(Or maybe, she didn't hate him as much as she thought.)

“You just slowed me down, sensei. I'll be the one to win in the end. "

It was foolish to talk to a dead man. Obito knew this. He had tried this with Rin countless times, and she never answered him.

Only this time it was different.

Minato sensei replied.

"We'll see."

*

There was a ghost in the nursery. The other nurses on the night shift didn't believe her, but Yuri knew what she was seeing.

It was a dark shadow, sunken eyes, near the cradles of babies.

Terror filled her every time she saw it, her legs trembling with fear. She should have asked for help.

And she had! But when her colleagues came, there was nothing. As if Yuri had imagined everything.

They had looked at her as if she were crazy.

Her boss told her the attack was difficult for everyone, and that maybe she should rest.

Bullshit. She was a civilian in a ninja village and had seen scary things. She survived a war! Her mind was alright!

(She had nightmares, but who didn't?)

The ghost existed and Yuri was intent on finding out who it was.

The next time she saw it appear, she felt her heart melt. She took courage and approached, keeping the right distance so as not to incur the wrath of the ghost.

Doing so, many things were clear to her. She had never noticed it, but the ghost always appeared near a specific cradle, where a blond child slept. An orphan.

The ghost had a look that Yuri had seen on other ninjas who had come to the hospital with their children.

Oh. That's why you are here.

The ghost was a parent.

It was the only way Minato could be with his son. Naruto won't remember. He sang for his baby.