Hashirama certainly hadn't forgotten his assignment to watch the two of them. He had simply left a clone in place of his original body. After all, he would only be gone for a little while, so it probably, most likely, shouldn't be much of a problem.
Tobirama: Heh...
Meanwhile, elsewhere, Hashirama's wood clone yawned in boredom. Suddenly, a breeze swept past. At the figure that abruptly appeared before him, the clone's heart lurched, but he forced himself to look composed. "Tobirama, have you checked everything on your end? How did it go?"
Ignoring Hashirama's questions, Tobirama looked around. "Where are Uchiha Gen and Orochimaru?"
"Them? They went out to bask in the sun for a bit. They've already gone back to their quarters."
Tobirama took a deep breath and told himself to hold it in. Never mind whether he could win a fight against him—this man was his older brother, after all. Irritated, he said, "Brother, can't you think for a moment? Would people like them go out to sunbathe for no reason?"
Seeing Tobirama's exasperated expression, the clone swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue, which would very likely send Tobirama into a rage. But isn't having nothing to do exactly why someone would go sunbathe?
Feeling guilty, the clone still offered sheepishly, "Well, aren't they still there?"
"Are they?"
At that, the clone instinctively started to nod, but before he could, he suddenly hesitated. He had the nagging feeling that he had overlooked something.
As he thought it over, the clone suddenly recalled a few details he seemed to have ignored earlier. He looked at Tobirama, opened his mouth, and hesitantly said, "How about... we go take a look first?"
Tobirama said, "...Call your original body over."
The clone played dumb. "What original body?"
Tobirama said,