Yarn of Time
Omake Series of Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren
Monmusu...?
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This chapter has been beta'd for you by hestia8693.
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The faint sound of something slithering on the floor and the carpet is enough to instantly get her awake and aware. She wouldn't be a good agent if she wasn't on her guard even when asleep now, would she? But aside from a slightly deeper, longer breath and the flexing of the fingers of her right hand on which her head currently rests, she doesn't move. Which may or may not be due the dull, pulsating pain in her tightly bandaged left hand. That, and she doesn't want to aggravate the injury that took a six-hour-long surgery to be righted.
But that might also be because the surgeons struggled to pull out all the shrapnel pieces, put her bone back together, and minimize the damage done to her nerves, muscles, veins, and tendons. And wasn't that a fun experience, seeing as she was on sedatives, but awake, for about half of it. It wasn't her fault that Hana is on holiday, Sakura buried under paperwork due day before, and Tsunade on a week-long date-trip, and that other medics aren't competent enough to produce acceptable results without her guidance!
She murmurs something incoherent, slipping back into a blissful state of half-consciousness upon realizing that it's her sheets on her bed, in her room that smells distinctly like strawberries and a bit of daisies and forget-me-nots thanks to a few strategically placed fragrance dispensers. The slithering gets closer, and judging by the sound, it's something big.
Ren opens her eyes, facing the wall, with her back to the door, and sighs heavily. The room is still dark, the curtains drawn. With the lack of light on the fabric, she concludes that it's probably dark outside too.
"Finally caved in?" she mutters, then yawns. "What fucking time is it?"
"It always amazed me how fast you can shift between sleep and awareness," her intruder muses, avoiding answering either question. Ren rolls her eyes, but otherwise doesn't move. There's a shift in the mattress as it caves under an additional weight, and Ren shivers when the covers shift, letting cold air in, before falling down again to accommodate a second body.
Well, part of it, at least.
Ren doesn't fight another shiver, when said body presses against her, cold hands around her waist and cold scales behind her legs. Praise be to whoever invented long, baggy pajama pants and shame on Ren for not wearing her thick, fluffy socks.
"Poor Oro can't generate enough warmth on his own?" Ren coos, and yelps when cold lips press to the bare skin of the back of her neck, where her hair ends but her oversized T-Shirt doesn't quite reach. "For crying out loud, Orochimaru, I will kick you out."
Orochimaru just chuckles, lips still pressed to the nape of her neck. The air he breathes out tickles, but doesn't make it any less cold.
"You're the one who took me in," he says softly, and Ren sighs, deep and theatrical.
"Yes, because you grew on me like a parasitic fungus," she groans. "And then I got hit in action, almost died, almost lost my entire arm when it became apparent that I'll pull through and now I'm on half a year of medical leave to recuperate. And I would have lost my arm if the medics didn't follow my instructions. Honestly, I've never valued spending time with Hana and Sakura more. How could I know that dude had turned himself into a human bomb?"
"I say you should be grateful that your arm is the only thing you were in danger of losing, with that stunt," the snake murmurs. "Next time, do take Deidara. He knows his way around explosives."
"Mhm, maybe," Ren says with a small, fond smile. "But will you deny that you refused to move away from the door to the surgery room I was in?"
"I was freezing. I can't move well when my body temperature drops."
"And why, pray tell, did it drop in the first place?"
He doesn't answer. Asshole.
Not like he has to, Ren could hear him yelling at people even over her own yelling at the incompetent child-surgeon over her open arm and fractured bone. She might've really freaked them out in the process, but Ren has suffered way too many injuries to bother caring for anything else but having them heal properly.
Orochimaru is a Naga of rather exotic appearance, with long black hair, golden eyes and nearly paper-white skin, with purple markings around his eyes and a 20-foot-long scaly tail of pure muscle, only a few shades darker. This, and his manner of holding himself gave him something of a... reputation. His vague and cryptic way of speaking tends to make people uneasy around him and- well, he can be plain creepy. Being a snake doesn't help.
Therefore, nobody really wanted to host Orochimaru. Many tried, for that must be said, but he was always ultimately returned after less than a month. Jiraiya, one of their best agents – everyone still wonders how that happened, the man is a train wreck – went so far as to call Orochimaru a devil's spawn. But that, everybody concluded, was because Orochimaru foiled any and all of his temporary host's lecherous tendencies.
Ren had been abroad when he first came in, solving a case of illegal mermaid trafficking with her two cousins, Shisui and Obito – which, long story short, ended with Obito choosing to permanently host one of mermen, which in turn had Ren and Shisui betting their jobs it was not at all a platonic relationship – and they met only after Orochimaru was past the first few failed host tries. And, for some reason, Ren – who is described as overly temperamental and even borderline aggressive, completely unfit to work with people she doesn't know and like – and Orochimaru, the aloof Naga who seems to either creep everyone out, or annoy them with his somewhat smug, patronizing way of speaking and tendency to treat everyone as idiots, struck up a rather easy friendship. Disliking the atmosphere at the temporary lodging quarters and the uneasy looks of other monsters, Orochimaru would remain in Ren's office for most of the day, which she didn't mind, even if she was out saving people from other people, and breaking said other people's noses. Ren never let anyone stay in her office unsupervised if that someone isn't Hana or Genma, whom she's known for more than half her life. Which speaks volumes of their relationship.
Orochimaru's wannabe-hosts come and go during that time, too, but these periods were much shorter, some not even lasting past the initial interview – solely by Orochimaru's 'initiative'. He would, however, vehemently deny any kind of attachment to one Uchiha Ren, even under threat of torture.
His actions, though, speak for him instead. Loudly.
Like when he stays by the door to the surgery room she was in for the entirety of the time she was there, first yelling at the surgeons to direct them in fixing her arm properly, and then, after the surgeons were left at a point they were at least semi-competent in, finally allowing herself a dose of soporific.
Her injury meant she would be taken off any kind of duty for at least three months, and off active duty for about six, but most likely longer. And any kind of fighting for about a year. Which made Ren, being Ren, very unhappy.
("You shouldn't have covered Kakashi with your body, you goof," Hana said once she came back from holidays. "You could've just pushed him away from the line of fire. But no, you had to go and be dramatic.")
While she recuperated after surgery that nearly ended with her losing her left arm, Orochimaru found himself moping. There's no denying that he enjoys her company, and cuts his host stays short in order to bother her. The leave, however, would see her away from the Headquarters for months.
But it turns out he'd worried for nothing. The first thing she does upon waking up is file the paperwork to host him. No hesitation.
And Orochimaru soon discovers that, while her house is usually chilly, she herself is very warm and a good source of heat, especially in the morning. And if he presses his body a bit too close to hers, she never says anything. And if she doesn't like it, he would be back in the cold, unwelcoming waiting rooms of Headquarters faster than he could blink.
"Gods know you need someone sensible to take care of you even when you're at home, otherwise you wouldn't bother going for real groceries and get fast food instead – and I know you can cook, and do it well!" Hana huffs, annoyed but still re-wrapping Ren's shoulder with single-minded skill that only someone who had done that enough times for it to become completely mechanical can achieve. Ren is not sure if the fact that she was on the receiving end of this treatment most of those times is actually a positive thing. "Good thing you took in Orochimaru. At least one person in this household thinks now."
Ren loves Hana. She really does, with her whole heart. It doesn't change the fact that the medic's remarks still bite. But then, Ren supposes, it's fair. In all honesty, the fact that she's known Ren for most of her life and been her voice of reason for all that time, because Ren's own is on permanent vacation, and her hair hasn't gone as grey as Kakashi's yet is an accomplishment in itself.
Orochimaru, sitting right next to them with his massive tail laid loosely around the couch, smiles smugly, and Ren huffs, rolling her eyes.
But she leans into him while the wraps are replaced with a contented sigh, much to Hana's amusement. Ren lets it slide.