Curses and Curiosity
6
The tree's here wasn't as big or tall like the one's in the elemental nation, it weren't as sturdy nor as old either.
Kakashi could scale a tree with no chakra, just his natural strength and speed and he'd be immediately up on a branch. He doesn't even need a shunshin or use chakra to jump from one tree to another like when they'd travel, the distance and size close enough for him to cover with a chakra less leap.
Speaks of how normal (read:boring) and average this world had been.
Or so he thought.
Kakashi doesn't know when it started, but a few weeks after he'd settled with the Yoshino's, shadow like blobs dance around his peripheral vision, keeping him wary and paranoid because whenever he looked, it was gone.
He could sense it, the weird energy swirling negatively. It varies with emotions, like anger, hate, disdain, resentment and fear. It was negative, it was dark and it reminded him of Anko and Sasuke's curse marks, corrupting and slimey like how Orochimaru had been.
When Kakashi sees 'it' for the first time, he's out on a grocery run. He sees a greenish mutated creature with one eye and blob body, stick like hands and legs with white wings on its back. There was a wide grin on its face, showing off its yellowish teeth.
It sounded horrible to the ears just as how it smelled awful, like rot and letting out high pitched distorting sounds.
It was attached to a business man's shoulder, the man looking like he hadn't had a good rest and like he was ready to just fall right then and there and sleep.
Kakashi realises that the creature was affecting the man negatively, sucking of his life force little by little. The man doesn't notice the creature but Kakashi does and he's a bemused of that fact.
With the subtleties his Shinobi training gave him, his hand flicked and hit the tiny creature and sent it flying away, disappearing into a pile ash as a tiny amount of his chakra hit it.
The businesses man sighs, something like relief in it and rotates his shoulder where the creature had perched itself on.
Kakashi tilts his head curiously at that, his mind working in creating conclusions and connecting the dots.
Negative energy. Negative emotions. Negative effects and cause. Grotesque and mutated forms.
A curse.
Kakashi wasn't a reader of folkores and mythology but he has heard if curses, like how he had heard of yokai and deities.
Creatures created from people's hate and scorn, from their fear and anger, from their negativity with the sole purpose of cursing and hurting their very creators.
A quick search in the internet shows hoax and theories, shows a short explanation of what they were confirming his theory and how they were a mere folklore.
A fairytale and nothing else. How suspicious.
Kakashi wonders what made him special to see these creatures, was it chakra, that was slowly turning like the weird energy or was it because he was stronger than all of these people?
He's curious, that this world he'd thought of peaceful and normal had something like curses in it, prancing around and mingling with humans.
It was his first encounter with the curses and it wasn't his last.
Slowly, as time past and he spends more here, he sees more curses instead of feeling it. Much more malicious and grotesque, sizes varying from mouse size to bear size, walking around the city and terrorising people in their own ways.
Kakashi sees some who was playful, who played prank to mess with people. He sees those who latched onto people to suck their energies. He sees bigger and stronger curses who had the intent of hurting people.
No one can see them, no one can hear them. They can merely feel and experience the curses effect.
Kakashi finds the curses interesting and naturally gets curious which leads him to experimenting.
And now he's here, in a forest far away from civilization.
Okay, not very far away because 100 or so kilometers to his left was a mountain pass where cars often drive but he's deep enough in the forest where no one will notice him.
For the first time in 4 months, Kakashi feels home. Like he could breathe and relax, hidden in the canopy of leaves. The air wasn't polluted and the only noise were animals and leaves being rustled by the wind, not honking cars or the chatter of people.
He feels at peace but relaxing wasn't what he came here for.
In front of him laid five curses of sizes and energy. Their power and size depended on how much life forced they'd sucked and how much negativity they'd fed off.
Talismans wrapped around them like snakes, constricting their mutated bodies and any type of movement causes burns.
Kakashi doesn't understand why but the usage of Fire always left him giddy like how he'd use lightning back then.
Talisman's are often used by monks and those who are in religion. They were a weaker and modified version of seals, their purpose to ward off and create barriers.
In Kakashi's opinion, Seals were better and safer though he doesn't know how it would affect curses so he sticked to talisman's since it was a common thing.
Seeing how it affected the curse currently shrieking in front of him, he could say it was pretty effective. Seals are still better however.
He wasn't a seals master but he knows enough, with him shadowing his late Sensei and his wife, to pass of the average.
"All right shut up," He growls, chakra quickly working to dull his sensitive hearing. Kami, they were loud. Letting out high pitched and shrill gibberish sounds.
He sighs when it only made the curses shriek even louder, like someone would hear them and come to their aid.
Well, no one would because Kakashi made sure that the small clearing they are in are littered with silencing and privacy seals coupled with barriers.
Kakashi stares at the curses at his feet blandly, eyeing their grotesque forms.
One of them catches his eyes and intelligent greenish eyes stares at him.
Curses intelligence and power comes with how much life forced they'd sucked and how much negativity they'd fed off. Some could talk and think, could copy humans and act like them, could pretend to have emotions by imitation.
It was easy to spot them, just like how easy it was spot newly born curses. Curses that doesn't know how the world works. They were weak, no matter how strong the negativity they were born from. It takes time for them to create a consciousness and think, to discover what they could do.
There are special curse out there, created by anger and hate so strong that they immediately grow into something strong and terrifying. No morals but with intelligence.
Curses can't die unless they're 'Exorcised', much like how evil spirits are.
They live for years and years and accumulating power and Kakashi wonders, if the humans had been alive for millenniums now, are there curses who are more than a decades old?
If so where are they? How strong were they? How had they not taken over the world yet with their powers? Is there a secret organisation fighting the curses away from civilian eyes?
So many question and so little answers.
Kakashi is curious and he wants to know.
He's in a world where war had finished decades ago, where 'Peace' is achieve. He is a Shinobi, Violence and death is in his blood and he needs something to do or he might snap.
In a world of peace, a person like who'd gone through wars and battle doesn't fit. Kakashi isn't made for peace even if he wanted it, to broken and rough around the edges. To skittish and paranoid. He wanted to move and do something, training and routines not doing enough for him anymore.
He immediately exhausted the glee and amazement he'd felt at his discovery with his new abilities and its connection with cursed energy.
He had cursed energy, could feel it in him but it worked differently than Chakra. His white chakra mixed with it, making it harder to control and always leaves him mentally exhausted, though it made his attacks stronger and firmer.
Cursed energy, he discovered, reacts to emotions, could be manipulated through emotions. Kakashi was a Shinobi and they are taught to not let emotions get in the way.
Not to mention that cursed energy is made up with negative emotions, making it harder for him to manipulate because Kakashi was unstable, has always been unstable. For him to fully function, he locks his emotions away, becomes a shell of nothing but violence and death.
It was hard to keep himself from going into a panic attack whenever he touches his grief and regrets to use his cursed energy and abilities.
He could use all of Obito's abilities, including his chakra rods that allowed Kakashi to absorb curses to power his own abilities. His intangible ability worked a bit different, with the fact that he can control which part he'd want to make intangible. He's also far more versatile in both flames and lightning, the manipulation of both elements far more easier.
Kakashi is astonished with how strong he would've been if Obito's eye wasn't sapping his chakra away, wasn't stopping him from his real potential.
He was curious as to how his abilities and techniques would affect these creatures who were clearly wasn't humans.
Curses were interesting and there was something more to them, there was so many mystery surrounding curses, created from Humanity's hate and anger.
So many questions and so little answers.
Kakashi is curious and he wants to know.
His grey eyes looks away from the curses' and he walks to his duffle bag, taking out inks and papers.
He'll start with seals, how it'll affect them and what it would cause. If it would be able to keep them in and out then he'll go from there.
He has all the time in the world and patience after all.