Knitting Fate

Second installment in Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren series

Thirty-Second Thread

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This chapter has been beta'd for you by hestia8693.

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"For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home."
― Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss

0

The apartment is nice. It's dark, and feels a bit cramped, but is decidedly homey. It's the first time Ren sets her foot inside, and she already feels something distinctly hers within these green walls and dark, wooden floors. This is so different from her first apartment – airy, bright and so unbearably cold – that her mother had oh so graciously bought for her. The one she'd raved so hard about after Renee almost immediately sold it and bought herself a new one, as far away as she could while still staying in the country.

This one is so new, shiny, and clean, and made her feel cozy nearly instantly, like a comfortable, warm, dry hole deep in the ground. A sanctuary of sorts.

At the entrance is a large space for placing shoes, big enough to fit a rather massive closet as well. There is a mini-hallway with a kitchen to the left, an open sitting room to the front, and some more hallway to the right, with two doors to the bedrooms and one to the bathroom, directly across from the kitchen. Ren is also pretty sure that the sitting room had a door once, but it definitely doesn't now. And the only thing that actually divides it from kitchen now is a pillar and a row of counters.

The kitchen itself is green and silver on plain brown linoleum. The sitting room is a brighter green than the kitchen, with much more silver and grey. The sitting-dining room hybrid is composed of deep brown furniture, plain rugs in various shades of gray, and dark-green walls. The green is the same as in the kitchen, except much darker, and it makes for a very nice transition. The rugs aren't fluffy, because that would be ridiculous to clean, and the couches are also covered in gray blankets. The wall in front of the entrance is all windows and balcony door, all with heavy brown curtains and pale green draperies.

Ren is glad her instructions had been kept, even if all she said to Genma was 'make it feel like I'm in a cozy hole underground'.

Still holding Naruto in her arms, Ren sighs, toes her knee-high boots off with a little difficulty, and walks into the sitting room, sitting heavily onto the couch. She sets the boy down onto the couch next to her and sighs wearily. Sasuke, after removing his own shoes, climbs up the couch on the other side and clings to her arm so hard it's almost painful.

"Go," she says to Genma hovering where the door should be and, Ren is sure, once actually was. "Take a shower. Calm down, okay? We'll talk in a while."

"Okay," Genma says with small, sad smile and exits through the door. But before he closes it again, he turns, motions to her vest, and says, "Congratulations, by the way."

"Thanks," Ren smiles weakly back.

And if Ren's voice is weak and on the verge of breaking, he doesn't comment.

Ren doesn't cry.

It's not that she doesn't want to, or that she wants to keep up a façade of being tough. No, she wants to cry. She wants to scream her lungs out. Scream until her throat is sore and bleeding and her body can't afford to waste any more liquid and the tears stop. Better yet, she wants to go out into the streets and burn the houses of each and every person who was a part of the mob that had attacked Naruto.

But she can't. She can't afford the luxury, not with Naruto still unconscious and half-lying on her. Sasuke is crying for two right now anyway, the spasms shaking his tiny body enough to jerk Ren's, too.

She can't cry. She has to stay strong for them. That's the only thought stopping the tears from seeping from her glassy eyes. Instead, she opts for anger. She knows both emotions, but out of the two, anger is easier. Sadness– it makes her feel hopeless. Like there's nothing she can do. Anger, though, is different. Anger makes her want to go and crush the skulls of the offenders with her bare hands. With that, she can deal much better, even if she won't do it. She wants them to hurt. To hurt as much, if not more, as Naruto had when they harmed him. When they neglected and abused him. When they turned and attacked him.

The world isn't fair, of course. Here, the strong eat the weak. They prey on them. And Ren has every intention of showing the civilians that nothing can save them from her wrath – and the wrath of all those who had ever cared for Naruto, but were never allowed to do so openly.

If she only had a way to get to Danzō, and enough power to end him.

Still, if she had jumped at the Hokage like she did at the hospital, with the backing he had to take into account, a change could be made. Forced through, to be honest, but Ren didn't care. As long as it meant the kids would be safe and happy, she would happily go out and turn Konoha's streets into rivers of blood-

Huh.

Was that the same mindset Itachi had, except for the village itself? Ren still hates him, though, because what he did was not for the betterment of anything at all, except perhaps Danzō's ego. It's different, because Ren knows that she is gradually becoming capable of anything and everything when it comes to protecting what she holds dear, and she knows that there are better ways than bloodshed. As much as she enjoys it, she also recognizes that there are better ways.

Itachi, apparently, was too stupid to do the same. Smart enough to become Hokage at seven? Yeah, right. He wouldn't have been smart enough had he been fifty, if he continues this way.

"Nee-san, what are you thinking about?" Sasuke sniffs, and Ren blinks before letting out a rattling breath. It takes her a while to get her emotions under control enough to not cry or lash out.

"Various things. Like how to creatively murder those civvies in a hundred and one ways," she smiles, and then sighs once more. "But I won't."

"Why?" Sasuke asks, resigned.

"Because," she taps his nose with her finger, "there are so many ways to make them suffer, to hurt them without even touching them that I'm not going to bother getting my hands dirty. Besides, if you kill a person you can't torment them any further, and those civvies deserve Hell and then some."

"Oh," Sasuke answers, looking at her with those huge, red, child-like eyes. They're still glossy and his cheeks are still wet.

"How is your Sharingan?" Ren asks instead, because that is important. A Sharingan going haywire, even its base form, can be particularly dangerous upon awakening, especially in young children who can't properly control their chakra yet. And Sasuke, at six, might be the youngest Sharingan user in the history of the Uchiha clan. In times like these, Ren is actually grateful they're all dead and can't put their sticky, oppressive fingers on who undoubtedly would be considered a prodigy.

"It's okay," Sasuke murmurs, "I felt it almost activating when the doctor was being mean, but it didn't."

"Good," Ren says, "At your age, keeping it on is very dangerous, because you don't have much chakra. It will drain you very fast and then you'll get very ill because of it. You will be able to use it easily in a few years, though, when you start to build up your chakra pool."

"Did you ever get ill when you ran out of chakra?" Sasuke asks, and Ren sighs.

"Up until the chūnin exams, no," she says. "But in past few weeks, twice. The second time was much more mild because I was more careful, but it still fucking sucked."

"Were they hard?" the boy asks, eyes gleaming as he digs his fingers into Ren's new jacket. "Did you meet someone cool? Did you bring us something?"

"Calm down, brat," Ren chuckles, ruffling his hair. "I will tell you everything when we meet up with everyone after it calms down, okay? And I did bring presents. But, just between the two of us, you won't believe it; I met a man with blue skin!"

"No way!" Sasuke squeals, nearly falling into her lap and, in the process, onto Naruto's head. Thankfully Ren catches him in time.

"Way," she chuckles. "His name is Kisame and he's a Jōnin from Mist. He's really cool and extremely skilled with a sword. He taught me some kenjutsu actually! Not much, but everyone starts somewhere, yeah?"

"He sounds awesome!"

"He really is."

Naruto comes to with the feeling of something being just.. off. He was attacked by villagers for once. Not a rare occurrence, but they were worse than usual. The worst part is that Sasuke, Kiba, and Sakura-chan were there with him. Were hurt, too. Surely, they're going to hate him now, for causing them so many problems. They'll hate him, and he'll be alone again.

He isn't hurt. He heals fast, but not so fast that he wouldn't be hurt. It's weird.

Also, there's something wrapped around him. It's about his size, and it's warm.

Naruto tries to move away from the heat, even if it pains him to do so. He needs to find out where he is. Maybe he will need to escape or something-

"Don't move, dobe," the warm mass behind him, now identified as Sasuke, mutters sleepily into his ear. Naruto, of course, freezes, because Sasuke only does that when he's sleeping over, but why would he want to sleep over now? Surely, he finally realized that Naruto is a monster and that he should hate him? And once Ren-oneechan gets back, she will hate him, too-

"Oi, brats, get the fuck up, breakfast is ready," Ren's voice sounds from somewhere across the room. "I know it's the weekend, but get up. If I can wake up at seven, you can wake up at eight. And help me get Kakashi off the couch. Bloody bastard, doesn't he have his own house?"

"Maa, Ren, are you truly going to refuse hospitality to a poor old man just back from a mission?" sounds the voice of the only ANBU who is actually able to catch Naruto – Hound, assigned to watch over Sasuke and Ren.

And then there's a squawk, the sound of something metallic hitting something that sounds kind of hollow, and a chain of curses no child should probably ever hear.

For a moment, Naruto just lays still, eyes wide, barely breathing. Then-

"You don't hate me?"

Sasuke snorts at first. And then, the bloody bastard has the gall to laugh at him! Into his shoulder!

"Bastard!"

"You really are a moron," Sasuke says, still giggling. "Of course we don't hate you. You're stupid, and loud, and annoying. But you're a friend, you know?"

"Really?"

Sasuke is silent for a while. Then, he takes a deep breath, burying his face in Naruto's shoulder, and murmurs:

"You're my first friend."

Naruto grins. It feels like something heavy – very, very heavy – has fallen off his shoulders. He feels like he could fly. It's amazing, honestly, and he loves it.

"Brats, breakfast!" Ren hollers from somewhere within the apartment as the front door opens and he can hear Genma saying hello as he walks in, and then laughs – probably at Kakashi, who gives a loud squawk – and for the first time ever, Naruto feels like he's home.

Being wanted is something he could definitely get used to.