Knitting Fate

Second installment in Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren series

Fortieth Thread

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

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"If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of."
― Bruce Lee

0

Ren got over her chakra exhaustion within a week, and basically right after that was put on active mission rooster. Because of that, soon next months have gotten pretty repetitive. It was a routine, but a quite pleasant one, to be frank. The kids were busy with school, Ren was busy with… Well, quite literally everything. She would go on missions of course, mostly boring C-Rank escorts and deliveries in the proximity, who eventually kept progressing in their difficulty and in fact that Ren was more often than not sent alone – and then, with time and experience, came B-Ranks. Which were basically C-Ranks that involved killing people who were either bandits or low-level ninja. Usually among bandits. And Ren, as a nice and well-trained, exemplary murderer for hire of a weaponized child didn't even bat an eye on spilling their blood.

Not to mention that her first kill (as Ren, Renee had her own luggage) was that ROOT woman trying to snatch Torune. Huh. It didn't even properly register, to be frank, what with Ren being much more interested in the fact that she unlocked one of her Mangekyo abilities and that Hana was angry, again, than the fact of the kill.

And who said she was alone? While she had to dodge going on missions with Danzo-planted ROOT-puppets – he was trying to cause her to have an 'accident' on mission, old asshole – which wasn't that difficult, considering her… Spy net. Spyder net, because Ren was a person for bad puns – but what mattered was that the things they had relied to her have been most disturbing, but allowed her to largely avoid trouble from Danzo – along with that one assassination attempt that he made when particularly aggravated, in-village. Ren unabashedly glued herself to Gai's side for entire week, and when her sent assassin actually finally ran out of patience and struck, he got taste of Takemikazuchi to the face, with witnesses.

Ren might or might not have gained an ANBU tail for her in-village stays because of that. Danzo wasn't pleased, but the same couldn't have been said about Ren.

Also, let it be said, spite and rage are amazing motivators. At least when it comes to Ren and Hana – because Ren is certain that the only reason Hana went and got the chūnin promotion instead of just remaining in the hospital was to go on field missions with Ren. Frankly, it caused Hana more exasperation than ever, but she never relented. Friends are such an amazing thing.

(Although Hana wasn't exactly happy when Ren took a blow for her and lost an arm because of it. At all. But hey, she re-attached it, so Ren didn't really know why she was still angry weeks later.)

If she wasn't on missions, she was training. Guy, who was the spawn from hell; when she wasn't on medical leave, and each session with him would make her ache in places that she's sure were not supposed to ache from physical activity. Hell, she was pretty sure that there were instances where the hurt itself was hurting – although, she could not deny the effects it was giving her. So she smiled and nodded at Guy's youthful screaming outbursts and ran fifty laps around the entire fucking village walls length. And then proceeded to be fed dirt by Guy in sparring – until she was more often than not able to hold her ground for a few short moments that seemed to lengthen every time they sparred. But she still ached to her very bones.

(Lee was well on his way of being indoctrinated into being the mini-Guy and, while couldn't put as much effort as they, still did what he could. Guy was crying profusely and Kakashi was giving Ren a stink eye for introducing one to another. Ren just shrugged – all she did was speed things up, after all. And show Lee's talent – because the brat was, by all means, a genius when it came to taijutsu. All he needed was a chance.)

But her physical form was not all she trained. As she wrote back and forth with Kisame (and Deidara, too) the shark man gave her many very useful pointers, and even sent some kenjutsu scroll copies straight from Kiri. And Ren didn't relent – when she wasn't on missions, running herself ragged happily with Guy or trying to set village on fire with new, more destructive fire techniques, she was training with both Sumire and Ryuuzakura – the sword Sasuke gave her on her first birthday in new world. Learning swordsmanship in Konoha was a tricky thing, because they had no true swordsmen to speak of. Yes, Genma did talk to Hayate and he sparred with her sometimes, but he was still sickly and Ren was honestly afraid to hurt the man.

And yes, she did remorselessly sic Hana on the poor kid. She was pleased to notice that after being thrown to her friend's tender mercies, he looked more like a human and less like a corpse.

Still, there were not much that she could learn except scrolls. Of course she did bitch to Kisame about it. And he laughed at her. Constantly. She could hear it when reading his letters. And then she found a Naginata in a weapon shop, fell in love and he stopped laughing. With that weapon, all she had were scrolls left by Senju Touka. She didn't mind. She didn't also mind the fear – formidable woman was from Warring Clan Era and Uchihas tended to piss themselves at sole mention of her.

So yes, Ren might or might not have had found a role model, even if she was technically an enemy from years past. But power was power, and that she could appreciate.

When she wasn't on missions or running herself ragged with taijutsu, swordsmanship and occasional bouts of ninjutsu that included usage of wind more and more often and more and more destructive fire, or fooling around with summons that accompanied her all the time – or at least Cobalt, Ren spent her time with the brats. She couldn't allow herself to grow distant with Sasuke and Naruto as her wards, so even if she was bleeding profusely, staggering on her feet, half-dead from fatigue, vomiting blood or any mixture of former and then some, she would still find time for them. No matter how her body hated her for that, she would sit down, ask for their day, and, if she wasn't completely half-dead, even help with their homework. Of course, when she was with Hana, or if the Inuzuka knew she was in village or coming back, her friend would track her and bodily drag to the hospital. Sasuke and Naruto, little traitors, would usually help her.

And then Ren would, of course, make her escape via window the very next day. Or even the same if she was feeling particularly stubborn. There was something with the idleness and sterility of hospital that felt wrong to her on too many levels.

At the very least hospital staff seemed used to ninja shenanigans.

(Kakashi and Genma trained them well and, to be frank, Ren knew she was being a bloody hypocrite, because she developed tendency to, in turn, bodily drag the two to hospital if they were hurt.)

Also, Ren was apparently in the Bingo Book. Of course it didn't happen overnight, no, but she did make a name for herself upon venturing farther on harder missions – usually low-level bounties. So, yes, she made herself a name enough to be put in Bingo Book - at least in its version from the Water Country that Kisame sent her in one letter that was basically dripping with pride. Apparently she made herself a name – and earned a C-Rank and even a 'Approach with Caution' order – by her habit of flinging spiders at people's faces. Legitimately. She wore long open sleeves littered with summoning seals on the inside, only to fling spiders at people's faces. And while, sure, she did sniff at being a C-Rank, she figured she had time to raise through the danger ratings. She was, after all, a crazed, spider-throwing teen at the time. Fourteen is still young, even for a shinobi, especially to make a name for themselves, so she had time and space to grow and terrify the hell out of people.

Funny how even her bingo book mentioned 'Curses Profusely' in her trivia. Well. it wasn't like she complained, not really. And it was true! Ren never held her tongue when it came to the more colorful aspects of the spoken word.

Also, let it be said, repeated and remembered; Uchiha Ren is a spiteful, petty, angry person. Also foul-mouthed, but that is hard to miss. Nevertheless, Ren was only nearing entering her fourteenth year of life when her period started. It had coincidentally collided with council calling her before them to propose her, as on behalf of Clan Restoration Arc, that she was to marry and bare as many children to pass Sharingan on as humanly possible.

Of course, they threatened her with removal of her status as a ninja, but could only imply things in the end – didn't remove them as a threat, because she knew better than most that they weren't above pulling not really legal strings to get their way. Ren was a chūnin, and she was a recognized clan head, but, on behalf of the clan counting only three members (four, but she wasn't going to tell them about Obito), the council – with Danzo on the lead – could pry. There were only three things that could get her out of the program completely – her eighteenth birthday, and therefore formal maturity in every aspect of law, attaining status of Jonin and therefore also formal maturity in every aspect of law, shinobi or civilian, and becoming permanently barren in unfixable way, that would rule her out of being a breeding stock for the village forever.

Let it be repeated again; Uchiha Ren is a spiteful, petty, angry person with little to no concern over the wants of others if they aren't people she very clearly adores or is closely tied to. Councilmen are not and will never be people she adores or is closely tied to.

At all.

And while she was content waiting and treating herself with hysterectomy as her fifteenth birthday gift from herself – which she knew was possible and safe with usage of ninja magic to perform on women before the age of twenty-five, she has done her research, thank you – she basically went under the knife the very next week after being summoned before the council. Money opened many doors, it would seem, and the surgeon – retired shinobi – didn't bat an eyelash at her age or her odd requests.

With the reign of Danzo, Ren was really not going to let doctors discard her removed tissue, because who knew if the depraved asshole wouldn't just recover it and use to, possibly, clone himself some Uchiha. Which was so very not happening. And thus Ren, rather morbidly, requested her surgeon to, instead of burning it, seal the removed tissue into a scroll that would keep them preserved and contaminated, and she would keep it. It was a seal-and-chakra activation combo keyed to Ren and Ren alone. She promptly gave it to Cobalt to stash in Jōren Falls (spider summons dimension) for extra safety, because there was no such thing as too many precautions.

Not against a cockroach of Danzo's tier.

Also, the council promptly fucked off and left her to her own devices. And if civilians were somehow informed by a certain old meddling coot by the private surgery, well. Let it be repeated for the third time; Uchiha Ren is a spiteful, petty, angry person who hated most civilian population with passion. And, as a Clan Head, had much of a leeway. So she sued people for slander left, right and center, ran some nearly completely bankrupt, increased the already massive amounts of Uchiha wealth with this, and they eventually stopped – purely out of fear of getting sued next.

Ren was kind of sad, honestly. Having civilians pay her money for their stupidity was more profitable than missions on the long run! She had even seen Sasuke and Naruto with a stash of some books and scrolls about law. Well, talk about inspiring children to learn useful skills in life.

Other than that, she became some sort of crazy cat lady – she would rescue strays felines and then keep them. It happened thrice already – first, with Potato. Then came Minerva (yes, seriously she named her cat Minerva), a most ordinary Tabby cat who certainly did not morph into elderly witch to scold her, who got Ren's attention by dropping onto her shoulders from the roof. Lastly came Lady Sparkle who, after thorough washing, turned out to be Turkish Angora – assuming ninja world had Turkish Angoras.

As for her summons – just as Ren feared, Cobalt grew. And grew. And didn't seem to feel like stopping. Standing tall, the Gooty Tarantula already reached Ren's hips, and said she wasn't even halfway done. Given that Ren shot up like a bloody bamboo enough for Genma to joke she might outgrow him – and he was six feet tall – it wasn't reassuring thought. Ren also firmly decided that she needed to visit Jōren Falls to get acquainted with her more prominent summons. And maybe ask for Sage Mode.

All in all, life was good – and then interesting things started happening again. Well, interesting things that caused Ren a lot of exasperation. It all went down in February, a month before Ren's fifteenth birthday, when she was sent on a solo bounty hunt B-Rank in Iwa and meet a certain blonde she's been pen pals with again.

Shit, predictably, went down fast from there.