Knitting Fate

Second installment in Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren series

Seventh Thread

•••

This chapter has been beta'd for you by hestia8639. Thanks a lot!

Official beta'd version posted 04.08.2017

"There is an innocence in admiration: it occurs in one who has not yet realized that they might one day be admired."
― Friedrich Nietzsche

0

The next three weeks are mostly uneventful, except for the fact that somewhere in the middle of it Ren suddenly realizes that, hey, it's winter out there. But then, she is in the Fire Country and it is usually mild climate-wise. Meaning it's rather cold, but never below zero this time of year. So imagine Ren's surprise when she wakes up one day to a world coated in pure white outside her window. Only then does she bother to check that it is, in fact, the middle of February, and also, her birthday is in two weeks or so.

(Maybe it's strange that Renee's birthday had also been on the second of March, like Ren, but she doesn't even bother freaking out over it anymore, really.)

Also, another very notable thing is that Sasuke had invited Naruto and Kiba over. Actually invited – not Ren, not the Hokage, not Naruto inviting himself. Sasuke, in his full, mighty, and broody, eight-year-old self. It basically happened because he had finally taken pity on the boy and decided (quite angrily) that they're going to study together from now on, every single Tuesday, and Kiba just happened to be around so he told him that the Inuzuka boy is free to join if he wants.

So, it isn't just any invitation. Sasuke actually has Naruto coming over every single week because of him. He doesn't seem to count it as a friendly interaction, but Ren knows her fair share and Naruto is overjoyed, so she lets her little cousin's awkwardness slide. And also, of course, Konohamaru instantly takes a liking to Naruto more than to Sasuke. But then, Naruto is (quite literally, mind you) a ball of overactive sunshine, with his charisma and slightly bratty attitude, so, of course, Konohamaru would tag along in delight.

(They actually manage to lure Tenzō into a trap, and would've caught Kakashi, too, if he were just a tad slower. Those children are frightening when they want to be, and Ren is so damn glad they are growing from her ducklings into faithful underlings/minions. So very glad.

In the end, Tenzō had to walk around with his hair dyed a glittery blue. Ren bets that the other ANBU are going to have a field day – the secretive secret that they are just a bunch of very well paid gossips is somehow known to the majority of shinobi and a small part of the civilian population who actually pays attention.)

Ren's wound, thankfully, gradually stops being such a nuisance as well. At four weeks after the massacre she is finally, finally greenlit to kick Hyūga Hibiki's ass. And she does exactly that. Every. Single. Time. It isn't difficult, though, as Ren places near the top in the class ranking, and he is near the bottom. The teachers still mostly pair them up against each other, as things can actually get hairy if Hibiki decides to use his Byakugan for once. And he does – and gods bless her Sharingan, because even with it Ren isn't able to block all the Gentle Fist hits the first time he surprises her with it. Well, at least he gets detention afterwards, for 'endangering other students'.

Also, meetings with Hana and Kiba have become a sort of regular way to spend their Monday evenings. They usually gather in front of the Academy after school and then spend some time together until the sky gets dark. They don't exclusively go out to eat; in fact, one day they decide to go to the park and have a giant snowball battle. It's actually good training for accuracy, stealthy, and dodging. And if Ren and Hana put extra strength and precision into throwing extra hardened snowballs at people who eye Naruto wrong, well. Accidents happen and so do stray snowballs.

Then, Genma magically appears and they decide to build a giant snowman, trying their best to make it look like the tokujō. There was also that other Jōnin who stumbled by – Aoba, if Ren remembers correctly – who starts making clucking noises upon seeing Genma dogpiled by the kids in the snow. Eventually, Genma gets so fed up with it (Goddamn Aoba, don't you have work to do?!) that he tries to strangle the other man. Maybe, just maybe, Aoba would stand a chance against Genma alone – but against Genma and five kids? Not so much.

Things begin to change during the fourth week, though. Around evening that Friday, Naruto somehow manages to drag Sasuke and Kiba away somewhere. To go pranking, she's goddamn certain, which gives Ren some free time all for herself. So, she randomly decides to just take a stroll through the woods. And somehow in the middle of her walk, when she is pretty certain she's alone, she starts to sing.

In the past few weeks she also discovers that she doesn't sound like a dying chicken anymore. Of all things, it is the voice that differs between Renee and Ren, with Ren's voice resembling more that of Sawashiro Miyuki, Renee's second favorite seiyu ever. First had been Paku Romi, but that was Temari's voice, so… she apparently wasn't going to sound like a yowling cat or retarded donkey, thank the Sage. Actually, Miyuki could sing much better than Renee had ever dreamed, but- but, well, she is technically an anime character now, and she can have her own seiyu, yes?

And so, that day, she starts to sing. Not at first, of course, first she thoroughly checks for people around. She still isn't taking chances in scarring minds for life, not really. But then, she likes to hum – which can turn into full-out singing when she lets herself forget the world. And, of course, she does.

"There are three things I do when my life falls apart
Number one I cry my eyes out and I dry up my heart
Not until I do this will my new life start
So that's the first thing that I do when my life falls apart."

She intones slowly, taking deep breaths of frosty, February air. Snow croaks underneath her feet as she walks.

"Oh the second thing I do is I close both of my eyes
And say my thank-you's to each and every moment of my life.
I go where I know the love is and let it fill me up inside
Gathering new strength from sorrow,
I'm glad to be alive."

The birds have apparently all run away from her. She kind of expects that to happen, so it's no big deal, really.

"The third thing that I do now when my world caves in,
is I pause I take a breath, and bow, and I let that chapter end.
I design my future bright, not by where my life has been.
And I try, try, try, try, try again.
Yes I try, try, try, try, try again."

She doesn't particularly feel like yowling the refrain, so she feels justified in not doing so. And if she messes up the number of 'try's', well, singing and counting at the same time is difficult. Well, at least no one is here to hear her poor cover of Jason Mraz's '3 Things'–

"That was very pretty, miss."

Fuck.

Ren's head snaps around instantly, and then just stops when she finds herself staring at a head full of the most ludicrous pastel-pink hair and giant, mint-green eyes so full of wonder she is amazed they haven't popped out yet. So, yes, Ren basically just faces tiny-Sakura, who apparently heard her singing.

"How long were you listening?" she narrows her eyes at the miniature version of a person that, in ten years or so, will become the very frightening and talented second coming of Tsunade. Who, currently, is just another good-for-nothing Sasuke fan girl, really.

"Uh," mini-Sakura blushes, "from the second thing. You were so caught up in it that you didn't notice me, so I followed you, because the song was so pretty, and your voice is kind of pretty, too…" she smiles sheepishly and looks down at the snow, as Ren brings her eyebrows together.

"Why are you here alone?" she asks then, and Sakura bites her lip and sighs. Suddenly she seems as if she's about to cry.

"Because…" she croaks. "Because Ino-chan was my friend, and now she's not- or I thought she was, but she was friends with those mean girls who bullied me all along too, and I don't know anymore!" she wails, and Ren's waist is suddenly attacked by a mini-kunoichi and used as a crying pillow, and honestly, what's a girl to do? Wrong time, wrong place, and now she is paying for it.

But… wait. Hadn't Sakura and Ino been best friends for forever before they start fighting over Sasuke? But then, the only post-war filler Renee had ever watched was the one where Kakashi pretends to be Sukea and amuses himself in watching Team Seven's attempts to get a look at his face when it was there all along. Well then, it's kind of obvious she had missed a thing or two. Or many. (Or are fillers even a thing?)

"There, there," she sighs, patting the girl's back. "Then she apparently wasn't your friend, you know."

"But I want to be friends with Ino-chan! Because she's so pretty, and smart, and, and–" Sakura sobs and Ren grows more and more exasperated by the second. Sweet Jashin, why her?

"Look, kid," Ren sighs and somehow manages to pry the girl off of her, so she can kneel down. "If she can't get over the fact that you like the same boy and still be your friend, then she doesn't deserve you."

"But I was the one to say we're rivals now!" Sakura wails, and Ren fights the urge to roll her eyes. To think that at this age all she had cared about were dolls and cartoons, really. "I said that if we both like Sasuke-kun then we are rivals now!"

"And if she didn't just laugh it off, then she was never your true friend!" Ren says louder, and the girl finally silences. "And, by the way, what exactly do you like in my little cousin, huh?" she cocks her eyebrows, and Sakura stills for a second.

"You're that mean lady who keeps Sasuke-kun away!" Sakura says, and suddenly the only trace of her having been crying are the slowly-freezing tears on her cheeks, and Ren can't help but laugh.

"Oh dear Sage," she snickers. "It doesn't matter now. What do you like in Sasuke?"

"Well, I- I think he's very smart, and cute," the girl says with a small smile, and Ren actually rolls her eyes this time.

"And…?"

"And what?" Sakura cocks her head.

"Is that all?" Ren questions, because surely, that can't be all, can it?

"Uh, yes?"

Ren stops for a moment, groans, and then facepalms so hard that the sound of the desperate slap of her palm against her forehead causes the remainder of the birds to rise up and scatter away in fear.

"I had no idea your 'love' for Sasuke was so shallow. Like, what?" she whines, hiding her face in her hands. "Sweet Jashin, Lord of Carnage…"

"Is this wrong?" Sakura asks, cocking her head, as Ren sighs again.

"Yes, yes it is!" she whines. "Except for the fact that you're eight and not supposed to be interested in boys at all for at least the next six years? Yes! All you like in the boy is the fact that he's cute? Dear lord, that's a reason for a one-night-stand, not pursuing a long-term relationship!"

"What's a one-night-stand?" Sakura asks, and Ren facepalms again, this time at her own stupidity.

"It's when two people meet, have sex, and then part ways. Like in a relationship, just… without the relationship," she explains, scratching the back of her head.

"And what's sex?" she asks again.

"You're going to learn that in class in a few years. Maybe," Ren sighs. "If not, and if your parents don't tell you, then come to me, okay? That's not the kind of thing you should learn from a total stranger, really. And not at the age of eight, either. What I can tell you right now, though, is that it's how the ugly, good-for-nothing, shrieking larvae called newborns are made, so they can maybe, just maybe, evolve into proper humans one day."

"Whoa, you know a lot!" the pinkette smiles.

Duh, of course I do, Ren thinks. I'm thirty-one, for crying out loud.

"Yeah, I kinda do," she shrugs, because knowing things is what she does. What her former job had been all about, in fact. And as for the matter of one-night-stands… for someone unable to love, it's the closest thing to a relationship she's ever had, really. "What are you doing?" Ren asks, as Sakura unties her headband and allows her fringe to fall freely into her face, making her look even more miserable.

"Ino gave me this, I don't want it anymore," she says, puffing her cheeks. Well that's new, Ren thinks, as she sighs and kneels by the girl again, extending her hand.

"Give me that," she says, and the girl obediently places the material in her hand. She motions at Sakura to come closer, and so the girl does. Ren starts working at taming her fringe, slowly and without a proper comb, but somehow managing to part the hair into something akin to what she would wear during The Last Movie and after. Different from what she wears in the actual Naruto series, but Ren had always found that the other hairstyle worked with her aesthetics much better.

"Uhm, what are you doing?" Sakura questions.

"Something so you wouldn't look like such a scarecrow… okay, done. Can't show you, but it looks better than what you had before," Ren smiles. "It would look better if you get hairclips for it, though. Or I'm just shit at doing hair. Or both."

"Bad words!" Sakura giggles, and Ren just rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, you're not the only one to complain," she sighs. "And you know what? I couldn't care less."

"I'm Haruno Sakura, by the way!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm Ren. Uchiha Ren."

"Oh, Uchiha! Like Sasuke-kun!" the girl squeaks in surprise.

"Well, duh, I'm his cousin, I've said that before. A few times, actually," Ren rolls her eyes. "Third…? Yeah, third cousin. So we're pretty closely related still. But then, who isn't… wasn't, related in our clan?" she sighs, running her hand through her hair.

"Can you…" Sakura starts, digging in the snow with her shoe. "Can we meet here tomorrow?"

"Why not just after school, in front of the Academy building instead? I go there too, you know," Ren asks before she can bite her tongue, and Sakura's eyes light up.

"Yes!" she chirps, and just runs away.

And so, that is how it starts.

(And if, when coming back home, Ren stops by an accessory store and buys black hairclips with pink cherry blossoms and a proper red headband, well. She just doesn't have better things to waste her money on, okay?)