Knitting Fate

Second installment in Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren series

Thirteenth 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

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It

0

Ren is a bit nervous, as she trots towards the Academy next day, but it's hard to blame her. The only test she knows is that of Team Seven, and it is very Kakashi-specific. About other teams of the rookie nine – there is absolutely no data, neither on Team Guy (were they even the only ones to pass their exams or not?). And Shibi? How on earth is she supposed to know what goes on in Shibi's head? He is the head of THE secretive clan of emotionally repressed people, goddamnit!

(Also, she, once again, has forgotten to cut her hair. It is now in a tight braid, hanging between her shoulder-blades, but she really should do something with it, soon, unless she wants to have it used against her, which she really does not. She really should keep in mind to cut her hair before ending up like Sakura during the chūnin exams. Besides, long hair is difficult to maintain.)

She makes it to the gates of the Academy just before eight, with Hana and Hibiki already waiting. The Hyūga is, apparently, throwing a hissy fit, and Hana is obviously not amused, giving him the best of 'the villain speech, seriously' face. Shibi is also there, hidden away on a treetop and not particularly bothering to hide his chakra signature. This, however, most likely slips right past Hana and Hibiki. With Ren, who is used to being around ANBU and still be more or less aware of their whereabouts, he could've, just as well, been screaming his location. Not that he would – a screaming Aburame would, most likely, fracture the pattern of the universe and it would go to hell altogether.

"I see you're all here on time," Shibi says, jumping down the second it ticks eight.

"We're ready for our first mission!" Hibiki promptly announces, and Hana rolls her eyes, while Ren just snorts. He glowers at her.

"To go on a mission, we have to be ninja," the Uchiha clarifies, and the Hyūga boy crosses his hands on his chest.

"We are ninja, we graduated the Academy-"

"Sixty or more percent of students returns to the academy today, you know," Hana says wistfully. "Because they'll fail the actual test."

Hibiki's eyes go wide, as he gawks at her, then at Ren, and then, finally, at Shibi. The man just shrugs.

"They are correct," he agrees finally. "Today I will test whether or not you're worthy of becoming full-fledged genin. If you are, missions will start tomorrow."

"WHAT?!" Hibiki shrieks, wide-eyed and all, and both his teammates roll their eyes in exasperation. Life seems so bright and colorful, indeed.

"Sensei, can we still have him switched for… well, anything else?" Hana asks unhappily, glaring at the pale-eyed boy, who growls in return.

"No," Shibi answers flatly. "Follow me."

And, just like that, he jumps up and onto the roof and, presented with no other options, the genin-(hopefully)-to-be just follow. Soon, they reach a forested area by the edge of the village. Definitely not a typical training ground – the open area is not nearly big enough. But then, ninja are reluctant to fight in the open to begin with – especially Konoha-nin, much preferring to play monkeys in the trees.

"Today's task is very simple, theoretically," Shibi says as they stop, and turns towards his genin team (hopefully) to be. Suddenly, there are four puffs of smoke around him, and instead of one, there are four of Shibi. Ren curses under her breath – she should learn the Shadow Clone as soon as possible, otherwise life would suck. "I will go into the forest, and you have to track me, while my clones interrupt you. Don't worry, they will do it only one at a time," he explains, and all three nod in agreement. One of Hana's ninken yips in confusion.

Shibi's clones bend their fingers together in a recognizable gesture, and the colors of their coats change to a mossy green. Henge is, indeed, quite a useful skill.

"Also," the Jōnin says, "shadow clones are specific in that they only take one hit and then disappear."

"Assuming a Genin can touch a Jōnin, let alone hit him," Hana rolls her eyes, and Ren nods in agreement. They're good, but are they really that good?

(Pfft, of course not!)

"Is that all?" Hibiki asks, and Ren bites down the urge to tell him to shut up. Or, better yet, punch him until he does. "That sounds like an easy task."

"Sounds, sure," Hana growls. "Let's see how you manage in practice."

"Children," the real Shibi cuts in, borderline exasperated. Hana glares at Hibiki, and then shrugs. Hibiki, however, is still glaring at her. "I'll have a one minute head start. I'll try to slow my tempo down to your level. You go once the alarm goes off," he points at the clock he places on the ground. "If you fail to track me down within two hours, you fail. If you get apprehended and slowed down by my clones, you fail. If you get offed by my clones, you fail. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" they all answer in union. Shibi nods, sets the clock off, and bolts, almost too fast to see.

"Well, this is going to be interesting," Ren raises her eyebrow.

"Pfft, please," Hibiki waves his hand. "With my Byakugan, we'll find him in no time!"

Ren and Hana just exchange knowing glances and sigh in union. Remaining a three-man-team and not killing Hibiki out of rage for his arrogance and uselessness might prove to be an even harder task than actually tracking Shibi down.

This is not exactly how Ren imagined her great ninja upbringing, but, well. Beggars can't be choosers.

God damn her life.

This is not good. This is so not good. Or it's bad. Many ways of wording one thing, really. The point is: they are forty minutes into their test, lost and ambushed by one of Shibi's clones. The chakra construct is, of course, giving them a lot of openings and isn't really going hard on them, but between a fully-trained Jōnin and Hibiki, who not only barely stands his ground, but also gets in Ren's way on purpose, well-

It isn't going well. And Ren isn't going to let Hibiki sabotage their test just because he feels offended by something she had said and done, and long since forgotten. It is getting absolutely ridiculous.

"We're never going to pass like this!" Hana roars in utter frustration, when Ren tries to attack only for Hibiki to get there before her and fuck up a perfect opening, trying to hit the clone.

Okay, maybe he isn't doing it on purpose, exactly, only wants to prove (to whom?) that he is actually better than Ren. Except, that put their test and passing under a big, fat question mark. At least Ren has no qualms against using him as a meat shield against Shibi's attacks. Hana's dogs try their best, but they're only dogs. Smarter than most, but still pretty dumb, and young, too. They're barely the size of Akamaru when Kiba was a genin – so, obviously, they really couldn't do much.

But exasperated Hana, apparently, can. Let's just say that Ren… isn't exactly happy with the solution, as the Inuzuka grabs her by the collar, sidesteps Hibiki and hurls her at a very shocked Shibi, but when the Uchiha's back collides with the clone and it goes poof out of existence, like magic, she finds it hard to complain. She's too busy trying to choke Hibiki a few seconds later, anyway.

"For fuck's sake, Hyūga!" she roars into his face, when his lips go purple, and loosens her grip only slightly. "You better have a good fucking reason for trying to sabotage our future, or else I really won't care that we must all pass and I swear, I will strangle you here and now!"

Hibiki looks at her briefly, clawing at her gloved wrists with a snarl, but one glance at her face – twisted with anger, sharingan spinning frantically and teeth clenched hard – he stops. Ren lets go of him a bit more, hoping she won't regret allowing him to talk.

"Why would you care? You're the perfect miss Uchiha," he snarls right back at her, the amount of spite almost enough to make Ren flinch. Almost. "One of the last of your clan, born in good position and that won't change! What do you know of failure?"

Oh-oh.

Ren snorts. She actually snorts- And then she starts laughing, hysterically almost. She even lets go of Hibiki's throat, and Hana, being Hana, is both annoyed, amused and somewhat concerned, too.

"Seriously that's all this is about?" the Uchiha asks, borderline disbelieving. "Just because you're a branch Hyūga, basically a slave to the main family, and you, just like that, decided that I'm, what, a pampered princess? Is it really all about some ridiculous clan rivalry and even more ridiculous jealousy? You're really going to forsake your future as a ninja, a chance to prove yourself to your family, over a petty revenge?"

Hibiki, wisely, doesn't answer. Even more wisely, he refuses to look Ren in the eye.

"All that idiocy, just because you feel the need to give your life some worth," Hana sighs, holding an armful of dogs. "Petty reasons of a petty, pitiful, pathetic bully."

"I'm not a bully!" Hibiki hisses.

"Oh? Then what are you?" Ren dares, and the Hyūga clenches his teeth, but refuses to answer. "Tell me, Hibiki," she says, and for the first time she really, actually gets his attention, because she calls him by his first name. Not surname, not any other name just to piss him off. His actual first name. "Are you so mediocre at everything only because your clanmates refused you training?"

"They say I'm a mistake," he answers, closing his eyes. "That I'm just a halfbreed-"

"Halfbreed?" Hana asks. "As in, only one of your parents is a Hyūga?"

"They think it makes me less," he confirms. "That my Byakugan isn't going to be as good as everyone else because of my blood."

"Oh my Jashin," Ren facepalms, and then looks at Hana. "In case anybody wondered just how fucked up Hyūga are, here you have it. But I'm still mad. You're trying to sabotage us because of rivalry, jealousy and… Well, and because you think you won't do well as a ninja, am I right?"

"Yes," Hibiki hisses, still refusing to look at her.

"Sweet Sage. Okay, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll put it this way: try. Try to pass the test with us, and in turn we'll train you," Ren sighs, and really she can't believe she just said that, because that's Hibiki, and she hates Hibiki so, so much- But she also wants to become a ninja. More so than she hates him, really. And she's always considered herself as someone capable of hiding their pride in their boots in favor of greater good.

"Y-you would?" he asks, and for the first time dares to look her in the eye. "But- I thought- I thought that you were a stuck-up, I-know-better Uchiha!"

"And you're an asshole and a bully, and are we judging?" Hana bites at him. "What do we do?"

"I was thinking of having Hibiki use his Byakugan to try to locate Shibi, since Hana's ninken are confused by the clones, who have the same scent and now it lingers all around the forest, basically," Ren says, standing up. She even offers the boy a hand to hoist himself up. "But of course, the second I open my mouth to him, he would already be throwing insults at me."

Hibiki at least has the grace to appear abashed.

"We good now?" Ren asks. "No more hissy fits from you?"

"But-"

"Notice that she never starts with you," Hana notes, walking in between the two. "Whenever there is a conflict, it is always because of you."

"But that time in the alley-"

"You were bullying first years," Ren quirks her eyebrow. "Her brother and my cousin included. You thought what, we'd just let that go?"

"Oh," Hibiki lowers his head. "Well- I guess I don't have a choice, do I?"

"My offer on strangling you still stands," Ren says off-handedly, but serious enough for Hibiki to understand that she might actually mean it. His neck is sore from her iron grip already (how can a genin be so strong in the first place?) and it will surely bruise. All it would take was for her to hold a little bit longer, and Uchiha are known for their temper.

(Her cousin did, after all, slaughter almost an entire clan and- And she actually survived being stabbed in the heart, did she not? Hibiki pales at the thought, as it dawns on him only now: Ren might as well be indestructible. The only other Massacre survivor wasn't even attacked to begin with.)

"What?" Ren asks, impatient.

"You- You were stabbed through the heart!" he gasps, wide-eyed.

"Yeah, and?" she asks, eyes narrowing in annoyance, and Hibiki's eyes widen considerably. Did she just shrug off being almost killed? "Do me a favor, stop with the dumb questions and get on with the creepy eyes. Make sure to look underground, too. Jōnin usually think they're so smart, hiding in plain sight and stuff."

And so, Hibiki activates his Byakugan, and looks-

"Oh come on!" he cries finally, eyes wide. Both his teammates shot him questioning looks. "He's underground!" Hibiki turns to them. "In the exact spot where we met before we started!"

Ren expected many things, but for her teacher to be a sassy shit? But then, they don't say 'watch out for the silent ones' for nothing.

"That's…" Hana sighs, bringing her palm to her forehead. "Let's just- Let's just go and be mad about it, okay? Seriously, mom will be giddy if she finds out I was outsmarted by her former teammate – the 'emotionally repressed' one! And she will find out, for sure. I mean, they're meeting up for drinks tonight and- God, I won't hear the end of it now."

In the end, it turns out that the test is easy. Easier. And all about teamwork, too.

"It might've taken a death threat, but I see it worked," Shibi hums.

"The test was designed for a Hyūga," Hana huffs, offended. "Why?"

"Because Hibiki was resigned and ready to sabotage us," Ren shrugs. "We have to be a team until we advance in ranks, and it's Sensei's duty to make us into one. Or to point us in the right direction, anyway."

"You didn't have to strangle me, Uchiha!" Hibiki hisses, back to his usual cheek, red finger-marks slowly turning purple around his neck.

"Nothing else works on idiots, sorry," Uchiha shrugs. "But don't worry, now that we're ninja'd, we'll beat the idiocy out of you. Won't we, Hana?"

The Inuzuka only grins in answer. Hibiki looks at Shibi in exasperation, but the Aburame just shrugs. No support at all! He is going to be beaten up by girls! But then, it's quite understandable, with all the effort he put into assholery instead of learning something useful.

"You might not be so hopeless," Shibi sums up. "Let's see what can we do with you from now on. Missions start tomorrow, of course."

"Oh fuck, D-Ranks," Ren whines, suddenly remembering. Glorified chores, that's what they would be doing now. Respectable ninja, what a joke! "Just please, don't make us retrieve any pets for stuck up aristocrats-"

Surely it's too early for Tora, right? Right?!

"Well," Shibi coughs. "The Daimyo's wife recently acquired a kitten. It has already made both a habit of running away and made a name for itself-"

Oh fuck.

Damn the fact her body is eleven. Her thirty-two years old mind really, really needs a drink. Vodka, preferably.