The Spirit of Fire

Being dead, Ace decided, was fun. Being a corporal ghost was even more fun. That's why when the chance to mess with people came around he always jumped at the chance. He would have to thank Hagoroma one day. It was all thanks to him that deceased devil fruit users could gain a solid form from time to time. Under normal circumstances, it was a bad thing; however, a good majority of fruit users went straight to the afterlife.

Not Ace though. He chose to stick around and watch his brother become Pirate King. By the time he finally decided to pass on, a little accident had resulted in his soul being sealed for thousands of years. Whenever he found the stupid idiot that did that, he was going to rip him into tiny pieces.

Ace sighed as leaned against a nearby clan compound's wall. They were called the Senju, if he remembered correctly. The little forest reminded him of the mountains back in Goa. He let out a sigh as he relaxed in the gentle sun. The pattering of feet caught his attention and Ace peeked open an eye. There was a young boy running his way.

"Hey mister!" Ace sat up in shock. He hadn't chosen to make himself visible yet. This kid was one of those people with a natural talent for skills as a sage.

"Huh?"

"What are you doing out here? I've never seen you around before so you're not a Senju." The child squinted his eyes and poked Ace's freckles. "I don't know of any clans that wear strange clothes like you do either."

"I'm not from a clan."

"You're not? What are you then? You don't look like a shinobi…" Ace grinned as a devilish idea popped into his mind.

"I'm a spirit."

"A spirit? Oh, like one of those friendly spirits that helps people!" Well…that wasn't the reaction he expected.

"Yeah, sure kid." He ruffled the boy's hair playfully. "You got a problem?" The boy shook his head.

"Not right now." He hummed in thought. "Are you going to protect our clan?"

"W-wait! Hold on there!" Ace held his hands up to stop the boy before he got any big ideas. "I'm just a wandering spirit!"

"So you got no home?"

Ace averted his gaze. This boy didn't seem to get it. "Something like that."

"I know! I'll build you a shrine! That way when you feel tired, you can come back and rest whenever you need to! There aren't many people who want to talk to me, so can I talk to you instead?" The boy gave him the puppy dog eyes and Ace felt like Luffy was staring at him all over again. He sighed and shook the boy's hand.

"Fine. But there better be lots of food and sake!"

…

Hashirama Senju. The boy who built his shrine was a loyal follower. Each day he brought food and sake while Ace listened to the boy spin tales about his training with his father or the skirmishes they had with the Uchiha.

"I forgot to ask, but what kind of spirit are you?" Ace swallowed the chunk of meat he had been eating and gave the boy a blank stare. What kind of spirit was he? He always seemed to be protecting Luffy, so a spirit of protection? He was always sitting here listening to a lonely child. Nah. He would just go with the obvious.

"I'm a fire spirit."

"But you don't look like fire."

"Throw a kunai at me." The boy shuffled around in his bags and withdrew a fresh kunai. He glanced back and forth between the kunai and Ace. Gathering the nerve, he whipped the blade out. It sailed through the air and hit Ace in the chest before passing through leaving a gaping hole. Fire erupted and the hole closed up leaving no trace of the kunai's touch.

"How did you do that?!"

"I told you kid, I'm made of fire."

…

"Hashirama, you've grown into quite the man." Ace congratulated as the man took the office of Hokage. No one else could see him, but he stood right beside him at the coronation. Like hell if he was going to let Madara become hokage. Madara was strong, but is mindset was unstable. Ace recognized a snake when he saw one, and Madara was about as slithery as you could get, minus Teach. Ace still held a grudge against that man.

"You helped me."

"What're you going to do now?"

"Hmm. I'm going to use your ideals."

"Huh? What the heck are you talking about?"

Hashirama waved at the crowd below. With a flourish he spread his arms and said, "Thank you for this great honor! I promise to lead this village to glory, but you must never forget the will to protect our loved ones. To protect our family, our homes, and our pride! We all hold the Will of Fire. As long as we believe in Fire's Will, our future generations will protect and uphold this ideal! You are all proud citizens of Konoha!" Hashirama spouted off several more pretty sentences before returning to his seat.

"You really believe me don't you?"

"I look forward to you taking care of the village, Ace."

"You…" Hashirama smirked knowing he had successfully pinned the fire spirit down to a home territory for the time being.

…

Hashirama soon passed on and his brother came into power. Ace didn't get along with the brother well despite the numerous offerings he gave, and Ace eventually found himself wandering the world once more. His brother died and Sarutobi took over the village leadership.

Over the years, he had grown a strange attachment to the shrines around the Fire country. It was some strange effect of being dead he supposed. To his surprise, he actually answered a strong pulse this time. For the past generations, he had ignored the cries of help in all but the direst situations.

"So kid, who're you?"

"Minato Namikaze. I never thought the Spirit of Fire actually existed!"

"It's the truth." Minato's excitement quickly vanished and he grasped Ace's shoulders in panic.

"I need help! Kushina's been kidnapped!"

"Listen, Minato, I'm only allowed to inspire people or give pointers! I can't just help people out of thin air! Rules of the spirit world have to be followed even if I hate them!"

"So you can't help?"

"Here's a hint: follow the red hair. That's your bond isn't it?"

"Red…she pulled out her own hair?" Minato took off. "Thank you! I've got to rescue Kushina now!"

"HEY! YOU'RE FORGETTING THE FOOD! YOU BETTER BRING SOME NEXT TIME OR IM NOT HELPING YOU AGAIN!"

…

When the Kyuubi came around, he could only respond with one thing:

"That is one bigass fox."

…

By the time the children of Minato's generation had grown up, they no longer needed his help. He had become especially grumpy as of late. People had stopped giving him food! He had been long overdue to move on to a different place anyway. Being a spirit was boring as heck.

So what better to do than to wreak havoc by taking advantage of his corporal form to scare the hell out of people?

He had gotten scolded several times by Sarutobi on the etiquettes of ghosts. He kept doing it anyway.

…

The most disturbing thing to happen had to be when someone had found his old remains. They shouldn't even exist, but it seemed like the bones were preserved. It's creepy as hell thinking about your body like that. The worst thing about it was that they were found by Orchimaru. Lucky for him, he knew the original jutsu and how to break the contract. You don't hang around shinobi for a hundred years and learn nothing.

"Who are you?" Orochimaru stalked around the newly resurrected specimen. It was an unusual human, but he held great power in his body.

Ace grinned and pulled on his cowboy hat. "The name's Portgas D. Ace. Nice of you to resurrect me after thousands of years."

"So you know."

"Haha! If only you knew."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." Ace smirked and dispersed into flames. "See ya!"

Orochimaru decided he had to find more fossilized remains since his newest specimen had an unknown jutsu. He also discovered shortly after that the commands never seemed to work on them.

…

Wars really got on his nerves. Why did these people have to squabble over territory and start wars? This is why they needed a force like Whitebeard to keep the peace! Needless to say, he was forced to join in on the festivities when the when Obito decided to unleash hell on the allied nations.

"Hashirama! It's been awhile! How's the afterlife been treating you!"

"Oh Ace! It's really has been too long! So you were originally a pirate!" Hashirama's face shifted when he finally realized Ace was in the same situation as them. "You were resurrected?"

"I'm still questioning it myself."

…

"You managed to get the girl?"

"Yep." Minato pushed his son into Ace's face. "Naruto! Meet the son of the Pirate King!"

"Get out of my face," Ace pushed the father son pair away. "I'm sure my younger brother would love to meet you."

…

"You're leaving?" Naruto whined as all the hokages and Ace assembled together after the battle. Ace smiled and tossed Naruto his cowboy hat.

"Kid, we aren't supposed to be here any longer. I've over stayed my welcome by a hundred years to help out Konoha." He pointed to the hat in Naruto's hands. "I'm passing the Will of Fire on to you. I know you can keep it alive."

"Ace," Minato placed a hand on his shoulder, "We have to go." He turned to Naruto. "I'm glad I was finally able to spend some time with my son."

A bright light enveloped the group as they waved goodbye. "Everyone!" Naruto shouted to the allied shinobi behind him. "Salute!"

Ace's eyes widened in surprise and his face softened as he continued waving goodbye. He didn't know it before, but the village had become his family. "Take good care of my hat Naruto! Be sure to drop by when it's your turn! You and Luffy would get along real well!"

"Farewell!"

And with a burst of light, the legends departed from the world once more.

…

"Ace!" Tears streaming down his face, he was confronted with all brothers and parents. "Welcome home!"

Wiping his face, he dashed towards them and screamed to the skies, "I'm back everyone!"

…

A/N: Yep. It's one of those. I thought it was a cool idea seeing how Konoha practically worships the idea of a Will of Fire. I knew I couldn't write a full length so I just wrote a bunch drabbles a strung them together. Laziness as its peak.

Anyone else who wants to expand on this is free to do so.