Obito felt like he should explain himself to Rin or Kakashi or something as he attempted to break into whatever the hell this place was to talk to a teenager.

Obito felt like a real creep right now. He is at that point in his life where he starts seeing parallels between him and Orochimaru. Sneaking into someplace to talk to a teenager for his special powers.

Obito wasn 't here to put a life-altering seal and kidnap the boy, though, promise. He hadn 't sunk that low yet and hopefully never will.

(He had sunk low enough to murder teenagers for their beast friends inside their bodies, but at least that was him being an unhinged criminal rather than a creep. Obito takes that as a win.)

He didn 't feel like a creep back when he was adorning Madara 's name and sitting on Naruto 's shitty window. The wall barely held his weight, the walls were chipped in certain places, even after the village had been rebuilt. Sentiment was probably the only reason that Naruto stayed in the rotting apartment after becoming the hero of Konoha. The boy had a habit of clinging to things that rejected him, with Sasuke, the village, and the shitty apartment.

Obito felt a niggle of guilt that this shitty apartment was the only place that would house Naruto for most of the boy 's life. It was easier to not feel like a creep when all Obito felt was

'Holy shit, I fucked up this kid 's life

so

bad '

and then

'It 's for world peace, though. '

The latter thought not being as nearly reassuring as he had wanted it.

Point was, Obito felt less like a creep at the time and more like the shittiest adult in the world, and yeah, he probably was.

He wished he felt like half of that right now. Navigating through the forest he 'd found himself at before. Making his way towards the buildings as he followed the trace of cursed energy belonging to jujutsu sorcerers.

When he perched himself upon the tiled roof of one of the tallest trees, overlooking the complex, he wondered how he hadn 't found this place before. Emitting faint cursed energy and something else. His vision blurred slightly before focusing back on the buildings themselves.

In fact, he hadn 't seen or felt this place before. Not before he felt that spike in cursed energy from the plant spirit. And Obito certainly would 've investigated this place if it was radiating faint cursed energy as it was now.

It was as though a veil had lifted over his eyes. Allowing him to see and note all the details of this place once he 'd stepped foot within it.

A curse thing, probably. Would 've been real usual in the Elemental Nations.

It wasn 't hard to locate Itadori 's signature. Obito considered himself decent at it. Better than most shinobi, with Madara being his teacher and all. The man 's training was spartan, to say the least.

The man was the type that would toss a child into the sea to teach them how to swim. Learn or die, was the attitude. Obito wondered if that was how they did it back in the Warring States Era. If cruelty was the only answer because they had no time. Children were sent to the frontlines whenever they were needed and tossing them into the proverbial and literal fire to train them was the only way to teach.

Obito wondered, once, if Madara had wanted him to live beyond his role in the plan. If the man saw the spirit of his old clansmen in Obito.

(Obito and Madara had both used each other. The seal on his heart was telling enough. That Obito would be discarded easily if Madara willed it. Obito had planned for this in turn. Seeing the brief opportunity between Kakashi 's through in his heart and the Juubi.

There was no love lost between either of them.

But when Obito was still rearing from Rin 's death and all the steps in between how Obito 's life went from bad to worse, Madara was there. The man probably never intended to pull any kind of emotional family ploy, he already knew he had Obito in his hands, which made it all the more insulting that Obito fell for it anyway. Looked at their similarities, the barebones Uchiha features, and thought for a brief moment that it meant anything at all.

There was no love lost between the two of them, but it would be a lie if Obito hadn 't felt bitter when it played out exactly as he knew it would.)

He felt further like a creep when he snuck through the window because while tapping on it was a good idea there was no way the kid wouldn 't just

scream.

Obito slapped a silencing seal on the wall for good measure after entering and closing the window gently.

'I hope you 're not a heavy sleeper, ' Obito said, clapping his hands together loudly.

The boy did wake up, good, that meant that he wouldn 't have to use a suiton jutsu to blast the boy 's face.

There was a curse inside his room. Creepy eyes stared down at him and Yuuji couldn 't process

what was going on.

'What, ' Yuuji uttered. Bleary with sleep hanging onto his mind, but his thoughts were screaming that

there was a curse inside his room.

The curse shifted in his position. Seemingly not knowing what to do with its body before deciding to stay creepily still. 'I 'm here to talk. '

'What, ' Yuuji repeated. Because this was

not

what he had imagined himself to be doing somewhere around 'what time is it this is creepy as fuck ' o 'clock in the morning.

'Don 't scream, nobody can hear you, ' the curse said casually before seeming to realize how

creepy

that sounded. 'I 'm not here to hurt you. ' It raised its hands into a gesture of peace. 'Really. ' Its face was anything but reassuring. It was a mix between cringing and something that was probably meant to be a reassuring smile but just came off as a scowl.

Yuuji planted his head down onto his pillow because just-

'You 're not very reassuring, ' Yuuji stated bluntly. Unable to work up much curse energy at all and the curse hadn 't attacked him yet so maybe it did really want to talk. He was still tired and sore from fighting the tree-like cursed spirit earlier and he doubted that he could take this one when it had escaped Nanami so easily.

The cursed spirit grimaced (creepily human, Yuuji noted). 'Yeah, I know. '

There was a strange moment of silence where neither of them said much. Because Yuuji 's brain was still processing like internet explorer.

'So, kid, ' the curse practically spat out. Trying to be friendly but missing the mark by a whole country. 'About the thing in your stomach- '

Yeah, Yuuji was pretty sure he knew why the curse came here now. That was infinitely better than trying to guess at why the curse was here at

two in the morning

trying to talk to Yuuji rather than murder him.

'I 'm going to shout if you kidnap me, ' Yuuji stated, even as nobody could hear him but he will do his best to imitate Inumaki and maybe rupture the curse 's eardrums (do curses have eardrums? What are the anatomy for human shaped curses anyways?). 'And I 'm going to punch you. ' That wasn 't a very good threat since he 'd seen the curse phase through Nanami 's attacks, but it was something.

The curse floundered for a moment. Well, as much floundering as something as still as a statue.

'I 'll call Gojo-sensei on you, too, ' Yuuji grabbed his phone. That was much more like a threat.

'No- no, I don 't do kidnappings, ' the curse interrupted. 'Not anymore. ' It added the last bit as though that was supposed to be a positive.

Yuuji wasn 't sure who the latter part was supposed to reassure.

'I know that sounds really bad. ' Yuuji lifted both his eyebrows just to convey the,

Really? You think?

'But I promise I 'm not here to kidnap you. ' A creepy vine thing grabbed his phone before Yuuji could think to call his teacher. 'So I 'll be confiscating ' this. ' The curse stared at his phone for a moment, staring at it with eyes like his grandma. An old man lost before technology and

no, Yuuji was not about to associate this curse with lost old grandpas.

'This looks really bad, ' Yuuji said instead.

'Yeah, ' the curse agreed. In what was probably the strangest conversation Yuuji has had with a curse. 'Sorry, kid. ' It didn 't sound sorry, but at least it wasn 't moving to commit the perfect murder on Yuuji who was now stranded in his own room.

'So, the thing in your stomach, ' the curse began again, eyes flickering down from Yuuji 's face. 'How many tails does it have? '

Just what was that supposed to mean? Sukuna was human shaped. Or at least that 's what Yuuji saw.

All that came out of Yuuji 's mouth was a garbled 'what? '

'I 'm saying like, ' the curse gestured at Yuuji 's stomach like Yuuji was dense. 'How many tails does it have. '

A blank stare.

'You know, the beast inside your stomach. ' Yuuji was really testing its patience here, he could tell. The wheels in Yuuji 's very sleepy and very weirded out head were not clicking together right now.

'You 're asking me if Sukuna 's a

furry? '

'Suku- what? '

'What the fuck is a furry? '

Yuuji and the cursed spirit stared at the mouth formed on Yuuji 's cheek. Yuuji in abject horror.

'Furry, is that how they say it now? ' the curse spirit mumbled the word. Twisting it around in his mouth like some strange old man who hadn 't caught up with the new-fangled slang.

Stop, Yuuji, stop comparing him to harmless old grandpas who need help crossing the road. Oh god, I 've started calling it a him-

'What the fuck is a furry, ' Sukuna repeated in a conversation that Yuuji

never

wants to have with two curse spirits, ever.

They sound human- like a grandpa and said grandpa 's sailor mouthed sidekick- and no, Yuuji was not about to have this philosophical debate on the nature of curses at fuck around o 'clock in the morning today.

Yuuji wasn 't sure what words exactly left his lips but they sounded something like, 'whatisgoingonwhyisthishappening. '

'You broke him, ' Sukuna accused.

'No, I 'm pretty sure that was you, ' the curse spirit replied, much less mild and more like suicidal.

There was a small staredown between both curses. Sukuna only had a mouth but he had a way of doing that. Some ancient art, Yuuji was sure.

'For your information, ' Sukuna started. 'I don 't have any tails, why? '

Oh great, now Sukuna was up and at it because he was bored. Who knew the way to draw out the great King of Curses was via boredom and new human slang. Yuuji certainly didn 't and he never wanted to know but now he was burdened with knowledge that he didn 't know what to do with.

'Not even one? ' The cursed spirit was digging for something, Yuuji could tell that much. But he didn 't know

what.

'Do you not know who I am? ' Sukuna said. Sounding remarkably like Gojo at that moment. They were kind of similar, in that arrogant king-like demeanor of theirs. But Yuuji supposed when you get to a certain point of strength that was warranted.

The curse took one look at the mouth and said, 'I think I 've heard of you. ' The curse 's face became inscrutable again. Like some veil pulled over its expression, making it hard to decipher what it was thinking at all.

It did that a lot, Yuuji thought. Shifting between animated and statue-like. Changing between scowling to nothing at all. A casualness that didn 't suit its features.

At least they stopped asking him about what a furry was, Yuuji took that as a win any day.

It mulled over its own answer for a moment.

'Do you know the Kyuubi jinchuuriki? ' it asked casually. It 's face shutting down any expression entirely.

'The Kyuubi? That old timer? '

'Yeah. ' The curse shifted slightly. 'That old timer. '

Sukuna scoffed. 'Why should I tell you? ' Ah, there it was. Sukuna was back to being the dastardly King of Curses Yuuji knew and hated. Great, Yuuji was getting a bit concerned that Sukuna was being

helpful

for a moment there.

Sukuna, boredom satisfied and frankly being the elusive curse that it was, disappeared from Yuuji 's cheek.

The curse, realizing that Sukuna wasn 't going to answer shit now, turned its attention to Yuuji instead. 'Does the word jinchuuriki mean anything to you? '

The curse received a blank stare. It was an odd term, odd even for jujutsu sorcerer standards.

'But you are his jailer, ' it noted. Something running through its expression. Jailer, an odd term, Yuuij noted. Its brain (do curses have brains? Anatomically?) seemingly doing several complicated formulas at once before deciding it didn 't like the answer.

'I suppose, ' Yuuji replied. 'He 's just sort of. ' Yuuji shrugged. 'There. ' There, stuck inside me and both of us hated it, one more than the other. But he 's stuck with me until the day I 'm dead and bringing him with me because he 's the King of Curses and I 'm the vessel.

The curse snorted, amused and sharp. 'I know. '

That didn 't sound like

I know Sukuna 's living it up inside your body

and more

Yeah, I know that feeling.

The curse sounded wistful, almost sad and bitter and its curse energy kept under wraps and wraps. Coiling around its body like a thin veil. It was hard to imagine that it could do much damage. If Yuuji didn 't look closely, he couldn 't see the tightly controlled cursed energy surrounding the curse. That was why it was hard to tell what it was thinking. Whether it was pleased or not. Its cursed energy didn 't show anything besides forced neutrality.

'You know? ' Yuuji didn 't know when his mouth ran its course, but it did. The words coming out slightly rushed.

The curse hummed and assessed him for a moment. Yuuji wondered what it was looking for in him. Its creepy eyes standing out in the dark room, piercing and unnatural.

'How 'd you end up with that curse? Had it since birth? ' the cursed asked. Gaze still assessing. Yuuji felt like an ant under a microscope. Under threat of being burnt if he answered wrong.

'I thought everybody and their mom knew, ' Yuuji replied.

The curse gave a wry smile again, as though amused by his attempt to dodge the question or to fish for information.

'I 'm a newborn, haven 't you heard? ' The curse sounded amused. Yuuji supposed it was, Nanami had said so himself. 'Indulge me. '

Yuuji shrugged. Something inside him telling him not to tell. To keep his mouth shut and not reveal a thing to a curse in front of him. Information was valuable, he 'd learn. And curses were wretched.

'I 'll find out either way, I suppose, ' the curse said, a promise, a surety. 'And you 'll never get your answer. '

Oh, right. Yuuji had asked it for an answer and it had asked one back. He debated with himself for a moment. Wondering if Gojo-sensei would be disappointed that Yuuji would even have this debate in the first place. Then he remembered that he was giving up widely known information for another piece of information that

wasn 't

so widely known.

'I ate one of twenty fingers. Not that long ago. ' Yuuji felt his stomach rolling in upset at that reminder. 'To help. And now he 's, yeah. There. '

If the curse was surprised by the new information it didn 't show it. Not that Yuuji expected it to. He half wondered if the emotions it showed previously were to get his guard down. Copied from humans and pasted onto a face that wasn 't meant to feel.

The curse nodded after a moment.

'I know, ' the curse said.

'You do? ' Yuuji fists curled around the sheets. A steady thrum of his heart was blasting in his ears.

Are you like me? Were you like me?

The curse stared for a moment. 'I know of many like you. ' The curse nodded, as though satisfied by its own answer. 'You aren 't like any of them. ' It sounded so confident in that statement and Yuuji wished that he had half of that.

'Different how? ' Yuuji asked, the words flowing from his mouth quick and hot. He was faintly sure that the curse wouldn 't hurt him for his questions. Not when the curse viewed him as something of nostalgia. Like an old weathered photograph that got retouched.

The curse seemed faintly amused by Yuuji 's question. Its lips raised up in an imitation of a smile. Pleased as a cat. 'Does it matter? '

'It does, ' Yuuji answered at last. 'To me. '

The curse was looking through Yuuji again. Seeing someone else 's shadow overlaid on Yuuji 's own. Its expression conflicted and pained.

'You 're worried about something, ' the curse said instead. 'There 's something about me that unsettles you and you want answers. '

Yuuji couldn 't deny that. Couldn 't deny the worry that bubbled within him when he saw the curse. So human and yet not. So like the curse that killed Junpei and yet so

human.

The way it said,

'I know '

as though it truly did know what it was like to have a monster stuck inside its gut and a time limit tied to it. The way it saw something in Yuuji 's shadow as though searching for a past long dead.

Jujutsu sorcerers can become curses, Yuuji had heard. He 'd be exorcised so he didn 't worry about that. Didn 't need to worry about that because he 'd be exorcised along Sukuna and that was a good guarantee as any.

But the curse in front of him now- it made Yuuji think.

What if it went wrong?

He looked at the curse and he thinks he knows the answer to that question.

Yuuji isn 't the smartest or brightest, but he thinks he can connect the dots.

'Will I become you? ' Yuuji asked bluntly.

The curse looked surprised and bemused. Tilting its head in a motion that was human (too human-).

'No, ' the curse said at last. Portraying a faint confusion at being asked that at all. 'I 'm a curse, you 're a jailer and jujutsu sorcerer. There 's no way for you to end up like me. Why would you even ask that? ' It sounded really confused but maybe that was subterfuge, or something.

Jailer, that word again. It was strangely fitting but it wasn 't the term that anyone used now. Yuuji could guess that it was used long ago, in an age long past. Or perhaps he was overthinking this and the curse was just odd and peculiar.

Yuuji sincerely hoped that it was the latter. That maybe this curse was just insane and mad and just mad enough to sneak into Jujutsu Tech to talk to Yuuji because it was insane.

Yuuji shrugged, stared at the curse to see it staring back in confusion. It could be an act, or not. It was hard to tell what was real with this curse. Between its switches in emotions being there and suddenly

not.

The nostalgia was real, though, Yuuji thinks. Its gaze and voice gone a bit too soft for that. Or it could be another act, and Yuuji hopes that maybe it was.

'I 'll be back, ' it said, turning its back to remove a piece of paper from the walls of Yuuji 's room. 'You can scream now, I suppose. ' Yuuji noted an odd uchiwa fan on its back. Emblazoned on its clothes as if sewn onto it. It was half red, half white. And it didn 't match the purple color scheme of the robes on the curse at all.

'What 's with the uchiwa fan? ' Yuuji asked. The curse tensed.

'Nothing, ' the curse replied, too quick for it to not be a lie. With that it hopped spryly onto Yuuji 's window before leaving. The uchiwa fan on its back was further defined by the moonlight.

Yuuji placed his head back down on his pillow. Soft and cold. His mind still reeling from the visit.

You aren 't like any of them,

spoken so confidently.

What stuck with Yuuji, though was the way it had asked-

'How 'd you end up with that curse? Had it since birth? '

Yuuji tucked the blankets over his face. Determined to not think until the next day.

He should probably call his teacher.

'Sensei, ' Yuuji greeted casually. 'A curse snuck in yesterday inside my room. '

Nobara and Megumi went quiet around him.

'And you didn 't call your dear teacher to tell him earlier? ' Gojo-sensei said, a faint tenseness to him. 'I 'm hurt, Yuuji-kun. '

'Sorry, it used its creepy vine thing to take my phone, ' Yuuji explained. Grimacing at how easily it had snuck up the plant life on him. 'And I didn 't want to touch my phone unless it did something to it. ' Yuuji cannot possibly imagine that the curse could do something to his phone with the way it was looking at it like an alien, like a grandpa. But he digresses. He refused to admit that he slept instead of calling his teacher.

'Did that curse want to see Sukuna? ' Gojo-sensei tilted his head slightly, a smile still on his lips so maybe Yuuji wasn 't in trouble. But what would he be in trouble for anyways? Having a curse hold him hostage in his own room?

'No, it wanted to talk to me, I think, ' Yuuji answered.

'That 's even more concerning, ' Gojo-sensei noted. And Yuuji nodded, that was probably true.

'It just asked questions. ' Yuuji shrugged. The weirdness of it having dissipated after he got a good sleep.

'Just ' ask questions? ' Nobara repeated, her eyebrows raising and Yuuji answered her with a shrug.

'You can 't keep us in suspense like this. ' Gojo-sensei smiled teasingly. 'So what did it ask? '

'About- '

Sukuna being a furry-

'Something about the Kyuubi and ' the Kyuubi 's jinchuuriki? ' Yuuji mumbled the last word. Not quite sure how to pronounce it. 'And it asked whether I had Sukuna since birth. '

'I thought everyone and their mom knew about Sukuna and you, ' Nobara said. Megumi nodded with her and Yuuji did, too.

'Jinchuuriki, ' Gojo-sensei seemed to mull over the words, too. And it made Yuuji feel slightly less out of depth. 'Power of human sacrifice. '

The words made Yuuji 's throat go strangely dry again.

'That 's an odd term, ' Megumi noted, bumping his shoulder against Yuuji when noticing Yuuji 's descent into panic.

'It is odd, nobody uses it, ' Gojo-sensei answered. 'It 's just one of those words that people used way back when they believed sacrificing a human to a fictional deity was the answer. It 's kinda grim and old and dusty and nobody really uses it nowadays. '

'Kyuubi 's jinchuuriki, ' Nobara mused. 'So the sacrifice to the Kyuubi? Way back when? '

Yuuji doesn 't think that the curse was used in that way. Not when it was asking if Yuuji knew that person. And why was it asking if Yuuji knew what that term meant.

'Yuuji-kun seems to have an answer, ' Gojo-sensei said, turning his head towards Yuuji. Yuuji has no idea how the man was able to read his expression so well. 'Won 't you share it with the class? '

'I think it meant vessel, ' Yuuji answered. 'Maybe. '

'No, I 'm a curse, you 're a jailer and jujutsu sorcerer. There 's no way for you to end up like me. Why would you even ask that? '

It had said, confusion on its face. Yet now when Yuuji understood the term jinchuuriki and what it could possibly mean-

What a liar.