This chapter certainly did not want to be written. Thankfully I was able to wrangle it down and punch something out. I tried something different this time—all the other chapters have had Obito's perspective. This one does not—let me know which you prefer (if you have a preference).

Is it just me or did anyone else think Naomasa had a lie-detector quirk? I know his sister does but I was almost certain he did. Oh well.

As always, thanks for the positive response (reading your reviews is always a pleasure!) and if you have any thoughts or critiques feel free to PM me or to leave a review.

Chapter 4: A Curious Stalker

Shota Aizawa—also known as Eraserhead—was not a superstitious fellow. Yet, simultaneously running out of instant coffee as well as coffee beans was a bad omen. Combined with the patrol gone wrong from last night, it was enough to make even the most logical person falter.

Thirty minutes and one completely torn apart kitchen later, Aizawa knew he was in for a bad day. Sighing in disappointment, he left for U.A. as he rubbed a bandaged hand.

"What is it?" Aizawa drawled, half asleep as he sucked on the last of his juice. His luck had not improved; not only was he out of coffee in his apartment, but someone had taken his backup coffee from his staff room. On top of that, Principal Nezu was not a fan of coffee—which left the UA kitchen completely devoid of the life-giving, caffeinated substance. Half asleep inside of his sleeping bag, on his couch, he was beginning to regret letting the more popular hero in.

All Might shuffled his feet awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head. Truthfully, he didn't know how to handle Aizawa. As the Number One Hero in all of Japan, he was used to people fanboying over him—over his over-the-top persona of an all powerful hero—not to Aizawa's casual pessimism. It wasn't even directed at him on a personal level, it was simply a pessimism that was seemingly angled at everything around the man, an impermeable and essential part of his very being.

"W-well…" All Might began, slowly gaining confidence as he began to speak, recalling the rather strange man he had met.

"It all began at the Takoba Municipal Beach…"

All Might's morning had gone swimmingly; Midoriya Izuku, his new protégé, had been performing spectacularly, tackling challenge after challenge with sheer grit and willpower, slowly and surely moulding both his body and mind into a vessel worthy of One For All. Midoriya's tenacity was not like the fanciful fits of passion many teenagers often achieve before quickly losing all of their drive; no, Midoriya's passion rang true, and it showed. He woke at 4 in the morning, every day, eager and ready to train. Jump rope, meditation, push or pull, legs; you name it, Midoriya did it, and gave it his all. He kept up with his schoolwork, finishing all of his assignments on time, performing fantastically in all of his exams. He even came to train on the weekends.

This was Midoriya's one shot at becoming a hero, and so he threw himself into his work, improving by leaps and bounds as the days went by.

After their very productive morning, All Might relegated himself to simple heroics. After stopping a few minor villains—they were hardly a nuisance—All Might took some time off to get some lunch. Quickly grabbing some fast food and escaping with his takeout before he could be swarmed by adoring fans, he leapt up on top of one of the many buildings that stood over his new city.

Unbeknownst to him, a masked madman sat on the water tank behind him, observing his every movement. He was wearing -

"An orange mask with one eye-hole, red-and-black robes, and he refers to himself in the third person?" Aizawa interrupted, slightly more awake.

"He startled you, did a little dance, hopping around as he begged for an autograph?"

"Y-yes. How did you know?"

All Might had left out the fact that he had an apprentice. He didn't want any of the faculty to be biassed in their judgement of Midoriya—and he knew that Midoriya would feel the same.

Aizawa sighed as he stepped out of his sleeping bag, dropping his now empty and nearly inside-out apple juice into the bin as he did.

"Yeah. He's been causing minor trouble for a lot of the heroes in town—mostly asking for autographs and the like," he said as he stretched, not unlike a cat.

Slouching, he dragged himself off of his couch and to his desk. Shoving his desk to the side, he revealed a locked hatch, palm scanner, iris scanner, and a keyboard on the floor underneath it. Crouching on the floor, Aizawa deftly put his palm on the now revealed pad, allowing his hand to be scanned, before putting his face right up to the safe. After scanning his iris, he quickly inputted a thirty-four digit code into the alphanumeric keyboard. An LED on the safe turned from red to green as a small hiss—indicating a hydraulic lock—came from the machine. Aizawa pulled a rather mundane looking laptop from the safe before closing it—the same hydraulic hiss indicating the safe was now locked—as the LED turned red. Handing the laptop to a rather perturbed All Might, he pushed the desk back over the closed safe.

Stepping towards the slightly concerned Number One Hero, Aizawa held his hand out expectantly, grunting as he was given back his precious laptop. Casually typing a few things into it, Aizawa opened a tab and turned the computer to show All Might. All Might leaned his massive frame down slightly as he took a closer look.

Sure enough, they had both encountered the same man. There was a blurry photo of the man, mask and all as he was speaking to Kamui Woods and Mount Lady. There were also a few videos of him interacting with other members of the public as they admired his costume.

In each instance, he was clearly uncomfortable.

"Do we have any idea who he is?" All Might asked as he went through the available information, gently scrolling through with the trackpad.

"No, not a clue. He calls himself Tobi. These are the only instances he's been photographed or videoed. It's as though he doesn't exist."

"How do you know about him?"

It was Aizawa's turn to tell All Might his story.

Aizawa narrowed his eyes as he began his nightly patrol. As the moon rose, it did little to illuminate the city, which was a mixture of bright lights and deep darkness caused by the unnatural lighting. Creeping between the patches of darkness, Aizawa slunk along as gracefully as a cat and as quiet as a mouse.

It was a standard patrol—due to All Might's recent and more frequent sightings, crime in general had gone down. His mere presence was enough to deter most would-be villains.

Key word being most. While All Might was a powerful hero, he couldn't be everywhere, and under the darkness of a new moon, some villains became bolder. And so, Aizawa leapt between buildings and alleyways, positioning himself as a spider—ready to ambush any would-be villains. There had been a few tips that this alleyway in particular was being used to ambush civilians for a mugging.

The alley in question was dark—the light of the street not quite able to reach it—and it was in a populated enough area that an unlucky passerby might try to cut through it in an attempt to avoid the busy intersection up ahead. In position, Aizawa entrenched himself, waiting for any suspicious person to pass underneath him.

The night grew long. Hours passed without a soul in sight—it was quiet, too quiet. He leaned back a bit as he lowered his guard ever so slightly, taking a sip out of his thermos.

Perhaps the muggers were spooked and have changed their place of ambush?

"What are we looking for, senpai?" a voice suddenly asked, whisper-shouting excitedly and directly into his right ear.

What the f -

Aizawa spat out his coffee. He had been lulled into a state of relaxation, and so, leapt up in surprise, spilling his still very hot coffee onto his hand and leg. Nearly falling from his perch, he barely caught himself by pinwheeling his arms backwards. Turning and activating his quirk, he quickly glared at the probable-villain as he cast his scarf towards him.

His Erasure quirk and binding technique made quick work of the intruder, binding him completely, sending him down to the floor with a solid 'oof'. A tight frown accompanied his glowing red eyes, his long hair now floating above him, giving him quite the menacing look.

Aizawa calmly regarded the man that had ambushed him. Without taking his eyes off of the man, he pulled a flashlight out from his pocket and shined it directly at his prisoner. A swirly, orange mask and black robes were all that he could make out of his captive who recoiled back.

"Tobi can explain?" the man squeaked.

"Good. I always like a rational villain. Explain."

"I saw you on the roof and you looked so lonely and I'm lonely so I thought I would come and say hi because I wanted to be friends but then you almost fell and I was so surprised and then you did something to me and now I'm stuck please don't hurt me!" Tobi squealed in one single incoherent breath as he lay on the floor, bound by carbon-fibre.

What?

The man doesn't fit the profile of the suspected muggers—he's too tall, and his hair is the wrong colour. Not to mention he only has one eye.

Still, he could be connected to the case—his timing is too suspicious. I'll have to take him in for further questioning.

At the very least, Tsukauchi will be able to figure out what's true and what isn't.

"So, is he a villain of some sort?" All Might interrupted.

"He was carrying a few knives and some shuriken, but he never used them during the incident. It was very strange. Hardly rational if he meant to ambush me." Aizawa said as All Might found a picture of the knife in question. It was long and wide, with no proper handle—only some cloth bound around the metal core—and there was a ring the circumference of a man's finger at the end. The blade itself was in the shape of a diamond. Next to it were some four-pointed shuriken.

"So, a small-time villain? Was he there to distract you, maybe?" All Might speculated as he rubbed his chin in thought.

Aizawa shook his head.

"No. Tsukauchi questioned him for a few hours, but we got nothing from him. He didn't even have money or an ID."

Aizawa continued his story.

Aizawa received no strange looks as he waltzed into the Police Station looking mildly irritated, the source of his irritation tied up and slung over his shoulders.

"You got them?" one of the officers asked.

"No. But he was nearby acting suspiciously. I need Tsukauchi to question him."

The officer nodded as he opened a room that could be used for questioning suspects.

"I'll go get him."

Aizawa nodded as he carried his prisoner into the cell—setting him down into the metal chair opposite of him, a small table between the two. In addition to his bindings, Aizawa had also handcuffed the stranger—Tobi, if he was to be believed.

The man fidgeted nervously as he answered every question to the best of his abilities.

"Why were you armed? Who are you? Why did you assault my colleague? Where's your ID?"

"Tobi's name is Tobi!" Tobi declared jovially in spite of his handcuffs, "I have a kunai because I am a shinobi! But Tobi is a good boy, so I carry that kunai with me to protect me!"

His shoulders dropped as he continued, Aizawa and Tsukauchi content to let the man talk without interruption.

"Tobi is a good boy, but he is very lonely. Nobody likes Tobi, nobody except for senpai," he crooned softly as he spoke before suddenly raising his head again.

"But you! Senpai, you're a hero, right? I'm sorry. But Tobi would like your autograph! Tobi is a big fan of heroes!"

Aizawa and Tsukauchi wearily glanced at each other before stepping out of the room, leaving the almost-certainly schizophrenic man to himself.

"Did he lie?" Aizawa murmured to the detective. Tsukauchi shook his head as they both looked through the one-way glass. Even alone, the man still rambled to himself.

"No—everything he said was true. I think he may be mentally ill—it interferes with my quirk. If he believes that he's a ninja, then—"

"Then your quirk would report it as being true. Damn it," Aizawa finished for the detective. They resigned themselves to a few more hours of questioning before giving up completely.

"In the end, we had no justifiable reason to hold him—so he was let go with a warning," Aizawa concluded.

"Were you at least able to find out his identity? Surely all you'd have to do is take his mask off?" All Might questioned.

Aizawa mumbled something incoherently into his scarf.

"What?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know."

Omake—To Unmask a Villain

Aizawa and Tsukauchi slowly but surely felt themselves begin to lose their minds to Tobi's ramblings.

Eventually, after they exhausted every possible question, asking the man everything they could think of, they opted for the only thing left—unmasking the masked man.

"Ok, we're almost done. I just need you to take your mask off," Tsukauchi said. It was now five'o'clock in the morning, and the sun was due to rise soon.

"Hehe, Tobi can't take Tobi's mask off. See?" Tobi said as he desperately pulled at the mask on his face.

"See! Tobi's face is stuck in Tobi's mask!"

As nonsensical as it seemed, it was true. It was as though someone had slathered his face in gorilla glue before planting the mask on his face.

In reality, Obito had simply placed an even number seal on his mask, leaving the odd numbered seal in his Kamui dimension—thus sealing his face to his mask. Nothing except for the proper seal could remove it, and with both the seal and his sealing supplies in his dimension, it was safe to say that his mask would not come off anytime soon.

This did not deter either Aizawa or Tsukauchi. Tsukauchi approached Tobi, before pinning him to the wall and reaching for the man's mask.

"Woah! This is too soon! And Tobi doesn't like guys!"

Ignoring Tobi, Aizawa activated his quirk in an attempt to shut off any potential quirk usage from their suspect, while Tsukauchi pulled and pulled with all his might to no avail. He pulled so hard that his fingers quickly slipped, and he promptly flew across the room, smashing into the wall on the other side.

"Can I have an autograph? Please?"

They decided to let him go after that.

Aizawa, for his part, did his best to banish the entire incident from his mind. Exhausted by the time he eventually reached his apartment, he forgot that he had used up the last of his coffee as he promptly fell asleep as the rest of the world began to wake.

Chapter End

Catrinet: Just another thing to add to the PTSD pile, I suppose.

Saif Omar: Yeah, Kakashi probably would have needed to be physically dragged from the screen after discovering infinite online porn.

pikapikachu4291: Good for us, not so good for poor, poor Obito.

Hyperman15: Thank you for your kind words! Hopefully I will continue to deliver an enjoyable story.

rntobi: There are a few crossovers with Obito (Nasha Rei-kun is an author that has quite a few, and there are a few that crossover with RWBY that are quite nice) but I only found one or two on AO3 that had the persona of Tobi be a major part of it. Then I remembered I write stuff now, so I can just make a story featuring Obito and Tobi like I've always wanted as a reader.