Knitting Fate

Second installment in Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren series

Eighth Thread

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

Official beta'd version posted 04.08.2017

"Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely."
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

0

Ren uses Sasuke to pass the hair accessories to Sakura, for various reasons. First is simply because it delays her being glomped by a grateful and amazed eight-year-old for about six to seven hours. Secondly, she realizes that Sasuke himself is very wary of and uneasy around many of his fangirls, Sakura included. And what's better for treating such uneasiness than placing him with the cause of it? Third, as Ren had noticed before, Sakura isn't exactly popular with the other kids in her class, especially ever since the row between her and Ino (yet Ren is starting to doubt that the close bond between them, which had been glorified in the show, had ever been there at all, given what she had learned and seen), and suddenly the most popular boy in school gives her a gift. Must have been quite a shocker.

Fourth, and perhaps most important reason for Ren was to see what Sakura would fawn over; that Sasuke is the one to bring it, or that Ren is the one behind it all.

And, much to Ren's surprise, Sakura actually cares more about who it's from, not who brings it to her. But that's not an unpleasant surprise – it means that Sakura doesn't 'love' Sasuke in a completely blind way, if at all (assuming eight-year-olds are even capable of romantic love, of which they aren't), but rather just wants someone to acknowledge her instead, and thus follows the crowd. And that needs to get rooted out, Ren decides. Even if she gains yet another shadow, she decides she can live with that. Sakura is, after all, one of the characters she had liked more as Renee.

"Thank youuuuuu!"

Ren only grunts when Sakura collides with her legs and waist with a kind of force even Naruto can't really muster, and the tiny pinkette nearly damages her hips with her bone-crushing hug. That kid is already frighteningly strong, she decides. Also, what doesn't slip past Ren's attention is that Sakura has her hair held firmly in the style she had managed yesterday, with the help of three black hairclips with a cherry blossom pattern, and a cherry-red headband.

"No problem, kid," Ren huffs, "but you don't really have to thank me by trying to kill or damage me, I'm okay with being uninjured, you know."

"Oh!" Sakura squeaks and lets her go with an embarrassed blush. "Sorry. But… but when Sasuke-kun brought me those hairclips from you, I was so happy! And they're so pretty! Thank you, thank you so much!" the girl beams at her, and Ren rolls her eyes, but with a small smile on her lips. It is, after all, (arguably) better than the scrap of fabric Ino had torn from the sheet she had with her, really. It's not just a scrap lying around without a purpose, but accessories that had been actively chosen and bought for her.

(As to why exactly, don't ask Ren. She was just walking by the business street, saw the store, and thought, well, why not.)

Hana joins them shortly after and Sakura is in awe again, because it's another older girl who wants to talk to her. It appears to be quite a big deal to the pinkette, in all honesty – bigger than Ren would think. But she and Hana let themselves indulge the girl, as Sasuke, Naruto and Kiba are apparently running late.

When they finally show up, fifteen minutes later than usual, Ren can't exactly keep her eyebrow from shooting up. Because there are a few additions to the trio in the form of none other than Shikamaru and Chōji. And Naruto seems a bit uneasy, even more so as they approach her. Enough for Ren to know that he had done something.

"Is there something you'd like to tell me?" she asks, crossing her arms in front of her chest as the boys approach, making Hana raise her eyebrow, too.

"Naruto slept during the lesson with the new guy, Iruka," Sasuke says, earning a choked shriek from the blond, that sounds suspiciously like 'traitor!'. "He made him, and those two," the boy motions to Shikamaru and Chōji, "stand outside the class, and then gave them a lecture, because they fell asleep again. Kiba made me wait for Naruto, and they just tagged along."

Wow. That's probably the longest Ren has heard Sasuke speak… ever, at once.

"Say what you want," Kiba huffs, "But I didn't even ask you to stay. I stayed and you could've gone, but you stayed, too."

Sasuke shoots him a murderous look, but the Inuzuka is unaffected by it, and Ren snorts, as a faint pink graces her little cousin's cheeks.

"Guilty as charged, huh, squirt?" she asks, ruffling his hair. "Can't deny you care now."

"I don't care!" he hisses, but it's not… well, strong. As if he doesn't mean it in the first place.

"And you two?" Hana asks the newcomers, and Ren has a feeling they will end up seeing the Nara and Akimichi heirs with greater frequency from now on.

"Iruka-sensei made us stand outside the class, too," Chōji admits from above his bag of chips. "And then he asked if we wanted to come, so we did."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru rolls his eyes and yawns, but otherwise doesn't seem to be upset about being dragged around by the blond. And, well, Naruto just does that to people.

"A Nara, huh?" Ren asks. "And Akimichi, I assume. Well, I'm Uchiha Ren. It's nice to meet you, and even better that Sasuke is finally making friends."

Sasuke may have mumbled something like he's not making friends at all, but nobody bothers to notice.

"I'm Inuzuka Hana," Hana smiles. "And you two are?"

"Akimichi Chōji!" the boy offers with a smile. "Want some chips?"

"Troublesome," the other huffs. "I'm Shikamaru."

"So…" Hana starts. "What do we do now?"

"Hm…" Ren pats her chin, and then snaps her fingers. "Hound!"

There's a crash, a snap, and maybe a cat's yowl, before someone very quickly and loudly answers with a very firm "NO!".

"Aw come on, don't you have a heart?" Ren smiles sweetly and everyone except for Sasuke appears to be very, very confused. "Be a good ANBU babysitter."

"I quit!" Kakashi calls at her. "I quit right now, what on Earth was the Third even thinking assigning me to you, you monster?" he shunshins suddenly, appearing before Ren, clad in ANBU gear and all. The girl, however, seems completely unfazed by his appearance.

"Why not?" she asks, and poor Kakashi (oh how she loves tormenting the man, it shouldn't be allowed) facepalms his mask.

"Kid, no. It's not even about how many of you there are, or that I'm an ANBU – but him, and him?" he points at Naruto and Chōji respectively. "And you added to that?! You're going to eat me out of my wallet!"

"Pfft, as if," Ren waves her hand. "I know very well that with all the S-Rank pays you've gotten you could've built yourself a palace by now, so don't you use that against me. I know perfectly well that what you fear is, in fact, all the gossips," she wiggles her eyebrows, and Kakashi stiffens, mortified. Then, he looks around in a slightly panicked manner before sighing, apparently not having spotted anyone anywhere near them. It helps that they are in a rather secluded portion of the Academy's courtyard.

"You," he points at her, "are a monster. And a manipulator." He then puts his hands together in a hand seal and whispers something. Suddenly, instead of a crazy-haired, dog-masked ANBU, there is a tall man looking like an average Konoha citizen, with short, brown hair and gray eyes, and a dog-mask in his hand, except it's all black. "And I hate you. And your minions. And now I understand what you meant by creating your own minion army. You may call me Ryōken while we're at it."

"Still a Hound, huh?" Ren raises her eyebrows.

"Maybe he's secretly an Inuzuka?" Hana proposes, making Kakashi – Ryōken – wince.

"And I think he's old," Sasuke butts in, making Kakashi suck in his breath. Way to go, squirt, Ren thinks. Offending your future teacher like that, he'll surely love you. "How else do you explain his gray hair?"

This time there's a choked, muffled sound of laughter coming from somewhere, and Kakashi groans.

"How about you actually help me handle this bunch of… one, two, three… eight monsters, Tenzō?" he calls. "See how fun it is?"

Tenzō shunshins before them gracefully. At least as gracefully as he can while his body is still shaking with poorly-covered laughter.

"It's just…" he manages. "You hate children, Senpai, and here you are, being ordered around by one like she owns you."

"Because I do!" Ren throws her long braid back and crosses her hands over her chest. "Someone has to be in charge of this dysfunctional family, no?"

Especially if this someone is, in fact, mentally the oldest of everyone present, she adds in her mind. Kakashi will be her age by the end of Shippuuden, which is about… ten years from now, actually. Wow, he's twenty-one. And she had called Jeremy, who was twenty-six, a kid. That fact gives her some sort of odd satisfaction, honestly.

"I'll pass herding them," Tenzō snickers. "I'll make sure no one mistakes your Henge for hostility or anything weird, though, okay?"

"Fair enough," Kakashi agrees, and they shake hands, before Tenzō shunshins away. Ren makes a mental note to learn this 'ninja teleport' as soon as she can.

"Ren-onee-chan, you're so awesome!" Naruto, previously silent, cries out of the blue. Ren doesn't miss the way Sasuke's face morphs with jealousy at the honorific. "You can tell ANBU-san what to do! That is so awesome, even awesomer than awesome!"

"No, I'm just a mean kid who will throw a fuss if a polite adult won't heed my orders," she rolls her eyes. "You see, kids, the key to being a kid is making adults do what we want. It's a natural ability most people lose with time."

"With you, it's all too prominent," Kakashi muses, earning a grin in return. "Okay, kids, since I've already stooped as low as to agree to take you somewhere, where do you want to go?"

"Ramen!"

"Barbecue!"

"Sushi Bar!"

"Curry Stand!"

"Uh…" Kakahi looks at the kids, a bit horrified, and Ren chuckles.

"Yakiniku," she says. "I got the nice ANBU-san to buy us food, so I get to decide where we go. And I feel like quality meat."

"But you always eat meat," Sasuke huffs.

"I'm a carnivore, what else can I do?"

"Eat tomatoes!"

"I'm not you, squirt, I can't live off of tomatoes alone."

All in all, it goes exactly as Kakashi had feared it would go. And Ren? Ren almost manages to outeat an Akimichi. And that is not the order those two words usually appear in the same sentence, ever, even if said Akimichi is all of eight and barely reaches her hips. The only ones who don't eat an inhuman amount of meat that day are Sasuke and Shikamaru, who eat a moderate amount. But then, the Nara heir appears to be too lazy to move his hands so much, and Sasuke had eaten about half of his share in salad. The Inuzukas also eat a lot and, what he doesn't expect is that the little pinkette trailing behind Ren isn't too far behind. Reluctant at first (her parents are most likely civilians or long-retired shinobi and have adopted the civilians' dumb dieting habits), once she realizes just how much Ren herself eats, the girl apparently decides to make it her point to eat at least half that.

And Uzumaki. The son of his beloved sensei. Kakashi grieves at how the kid is treated, but he himself can't take him in. And it isn't only his ANBU job, no – it's the fact that, for some reason, people with the closest connection to his parents are forbidden from directly approaching the boy. If that weren't the case, Kakashi might have even gotten over his hate for children and adopted the kid right away.

At least the Uchihas have seemed to take him under their wings now.

But the amount he eats makes the wallet in his pocket hurt, no matter how he feels about the boy.

"Why so gloomy, Ryōken?" Ren asks with a sly, borderline malicious smile, looking at him from across the table. He eyes her with his henge-concealed Sharingan and winces.

"I hate you," the man hisses, but there's hardly any venom in his words. "I hate you all so much."

"Of course," Inuzuka Hana chuckles, wiping her brother's chin with a tissue. "You hate us so much you're buying us all dinner. What's next? You'll clean our rooms? So much hate, I can't even stand it!"

"You," he hisses, "spend way too much time around her," he motions his head at Ren, who apparently can't help herself and bursts into malicious, villain-ish cackles. It's fitting for her as of now.

"Oh, Ryōken, we're just beginning," the Uchiha manages through the cackles, and she's doing it so hard that the pale spider decides to relocate itself from under the folds of her kimono and onto Kakashi's shoulder.

"Oh, Awai," Sasuke notices. "Haven't seen him in a while. Guess he's just been hiding in nee-san's clothes all that time."

The pinkette – Sakura – visibly winces at the creature, but manages to force herself to relax, and Kakashi just sighs in exasperation. ANBU headquarters will be buzzing with gossip by the time the sun sets properly, he's certain.

Damn his life. Damn those kids. He should quit the business as soon as he can. He really should.

(And he knows he won't. He still really, really hates kids, but this bunch… this bunch he can stand. Yes.

His wallet still hurts.)