Knitting Fate

Second installment in Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren series

Forty-Second Thread

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

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"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

0

Ren wakes up to Deidara snuggling to her side as if his life depended on it, the shared warmth making the icy chill of winter bearable. It's still dark outside, or so the small airway-gap they have indicates, nothing but gaping darkness beyond it. If Ren is to guesstimate, she hasn't slept much longer than four hours – just the amount of sleep her enhanced, physics- and logic-defying ninja body has learned to require. The bare minimum for optimal function, and as much as she's perfectly capable of doubling the amount at home in her warm, soft bed, this is neither her home nor her bed.

This isn't even Konoha.

No, she's in a god-forsaken hole in the Land of Earth, in the literal middle of nowhere, with a mini missing-nin tagalong, who also happens to have an unhealthy obsession with explosives, and a man to hunt down and put down like a rabid animal. One whom she is yet to locate.

Fuck, to put it eloquently.

Still, despite hating everything about her stay in this frozen hell, Ren can't help but be pleased with the outcome. Mainly because she had met up with Deidara, basically right after his defection. And no matter what he says, it wasn't just because people didn't appreciate his art – there was something much deeper to this, especially with the way he had leapt at any and all chances of comfort that were offered. Just like Sasuke after the massacre, or Naruto, more used to everyone hating and ostracizing him. Someone depraved of all affection.

But... no. It's entirely possible that Deidara is a pariah in his village. With his blonde hair and blue eyes alone, he looked a lot like the Yondaime Hokage, Naruto's father – Minato. And Iwa as a whole hates Konoha's Yellow Flash with a passion. Not to mention his face shape is actually pretty similar to what she'd seen in pictures-

Wait. What?

No. No, no, nonono-

She is so not going that direction, to think abou-

No. Definitely no. She'll worry about possibilities later. Once they're back in Konoha.

...

Wait.

Since when had she decided that they are going to Konoha?

Gods above, sans Kaguya, she's really turning into a mother hen. Genma 2.0. Wonderful, Aoba is going to have field day following her and clucking like he does with Genma. Ren thinks that Aoba's expert proficiency at evading attacks comes from running from Genma, actually. And his senbon.

The man has the patience of a saint, really – until Aoba starts clucking, that is.

Ren chuckles silently at that, but the motion is enough to stir Deidara awake. The boy sighs, then yawns, and finally blinks, moving slightly away from where he had been curled up, glued to her side. He looks around a bit, confused, before his eyes land on Ren sitting on the ground, and realization visibly flashes through his face. Deidara huffs like an annoyed kitten and rubs furiously at his eyes before looking around, much more awake, only to realize that yes, they're in the same cave-hole they were in yesterday, and yes, he's not in Iwa, and also yes, Ren is here.

"Did you take anything with you from Iwa?" Ren asks, genuinely curious. She couldn't be bothered to notice yesterday, too annoyed by having to walk in the freezing cold, but now she sees that all Deidara has on him are his clay pouches, put away by the wall close to his legs.

"Yeah, un," he says. "But I didn't have much, so I just brought a small storage scroll to carry it."

Ren can't blame his reasoning, really. Especially since her tantō that Kisame helped her choose and her katana, which she received from Sasuke on her first birthday as Ren, are receiving much the same treatment at the moment. While she trusts in their steel, she isn't particularly fond of having them out in the subzero temperatures at all times – especially since she just recently started to imbued her katana's blade with fire chakra, and would rather not test how long-term cold exposure would affect that.

"Good. I have some food. We can eat then move out. You have any food with you?" she asks, grabbing for the backpack she had discarded upon entering the cave yesterday and starts digging in it for the scroll she sealed her food in. Honestly, how ninja can create storage seals yet not utilize them for maximum effect, Ren doesn't know, but she's definitely not part of the masses. Especially since scrolls actually preserve the state of the object sealed inside – in the case of food, while it does lose its heat, it's still as fresh as if she just made it.

"A bit, but for no longer than three days," Deidara says, and Ren grimaces. The food she has would have lasted her a week, but since there are two of them now, they probably only have enough supplies combined for five more days. While it should last long enough for Ren to track down and kill her target, it won't be enough for the way back to Konoha.

"We're going to have to hunt something. Or hopefully my target will have supplies," Ren sighs. "Honestly, I hate processing animals. Their guts are slimy and disgusting."

"Un," Deidara agrees. "Besides, I doubt you carry spices around."

"Yeah. Okay, here's what we'll do – we eat, set out, and hopefully find the asshole by today, and then kill him."

"Fine by me, un."

It's the darkest hour before dawn when they finally scramble out of their hole in the rock they'd spent the night in, even darker than when they woke. Ren shamelessly activates her Sharingan, lest she risks falling over her own legs. It's not snowing, thankfully, because that would be the worst in their current predicament, and Ren will take any and all small mercies life serves and then some at the moment.

"It's too dark for me to do anything, un," Deidara decides, looking around, pointedly everywhere but Ren's glowing red eyes. "If I don't kill myself walking it'll be a success."

"It's fine," Ren sighs, looking around. Her sense of direction is decent, based on sensing the chakra in the ground, given that each side of the world has its specific flow, indistinguishable unless you look for it. A neat trick she roped Kakashi into teaching her. She kneels, pressing her hand to the ground through the snow, and focuses.

She detoured to the west when she went to get Deidara, but it's nothing that a few hours of trekking can't fix. She sighs, stands up, shaking snow off her glove and turns her eyes to the black sky, praying silently that her target is still within the area that he was said to have encamped himself. Otherwise, she's going to be really, really mad.

But all she has is the hope that winter has grounded her target in his encampment and he's waiting for it to pass – that, and he's not expecting anyone to be sent after him.

"Now what, un?" Deidara says, and Ren sighs, rubbing her hands over her eyes. She loves her job, but she also hates it with passion.

"Now, we head that way," she answers, gesturing towards the northeast. "You can try making a mount for us when the sun rises. Okay?"

"Yeah, un, let's go. I feel like killing something. Or someone."

"Oh so do I, brat, so do I," she sighs, fixes her scroll-filled backpack, and walks forward in the direction of her target.

Ren loves Deidara, truly, honestly and platonically, from the very bottom of her heart. While the thing he had sculpted with his clay resembles neither a pony nor a dog, but something in-between with some rabbit and frog toes mashed in, it still trots diligently through the snow, carrying both Ren and Deidara on its back without an issue. It's not even as wobbly as Deidara insinuated it would be upon sculpting the thing, but its face still screams for a mercy kill.

Ren, for once, doesn't comment on it. Deidara's art is explosions, not sculptures per say, and there is, no matter what Ren thinks, some sort of aesthetic to the pathetic construct. It's just... definitely not within Ren's highly limited understanding of art. At all.

"Any more information on the guy you're tracking, un?" Deidara asks from where he's comfortably seated in front of Ren, his back nearly glued to her torso and shamelessly seeping the warmth her body generates.

"Well, he's a chūnin, has been for a while now, so there might be trouble," Ren sighs, placing her chin on top of Deidara's head. "But I have my spiders, and they're usually very proficient in a fight, depending on either the super creepy 'nope' factor or on being overlooked. He's originally from some backwater village in the Land of Lightning, but, oddly enough, has wind chakra. No overly flashy achievements or difficulties he's bested. Regular guy who bit off more than he could chew, really. I don't expect issues with him."

"With just him, un?"

"Ah, yes," Ren sighs, closing her eyes. "There's a high possibility that he has made... friends, let's call them. And those possible friends are a big, unknown."

"Well then, good thing you have me with you, un," Deidara says, fixing his scarf a bit higher and Ren chuckles.

"Yeah, if it all goes to shit I'll just have you blow it up."

"Why not start with blowing them up, un?"

"And if they have a Jōnin with them?" she asks, and Deidara huffs angrily. "Yeah, I know. Then we'd either run or die trying, most likely."

Deidara grumbles something under his breath, but doesn't answer otherwise.

The good news is, they manage to locate the target the very same day. The shit news is he's not alone and their encampment is much better made and guarded than Ren would like. Not to mention that aside from him there's actually half a dozen other people there. Or that's at least what Anri relays after returning from reconnaissance. During these last three years, Ren has learned that her assassin spiders are, while not chakra sensitive, hyperaware of their surroundings. If Anri says there are seven people in a well-made encampment, then that's exactly what they will find there. Fuck.

"Okay, so what do we do?" Deidara asks, rubbing his gloved hands together. Ren's eyes are closed, her breathing a bit harder than usual. She's angry, that much is easy to see. When she finally looks up at him, it's with her crimson red Sharingan painting her irises instead of her natural coal black.

"Well, we plot," she says a bit forcefully, visibly trying to restrain her disappointment and rage. Of course, things were expected to go south, but Ren is nevertheless very unhappy with this development. "Let's find somewhere nearby to make camp, and then... and then we'll figure out what to do."

"They don't have a sensor with them," Anri pipes in from where she's buried herself in the back of Ren's hood again. "Otherwise they would have found you already. And they are overly cocky and sure of themselves, and don't appear to be all that good at teamwork."

"And that is the flaw we can and will exploit the hell out of," Ren says, eyes narrowing.

"Indeed," Anri agrees, rubbing her two forelegs together. "They're disorganized, arrogant, and unused to working together. They make it work, surprisingly, but are not a unit at all, from what I gather."

"Just how long were you in there to get all that, un?" Deidara asks, looking at where the spider pokes grotesquely out of Ren's hood with wonder in his eyes.

"Long enough," Anri says. "I'm rather proficient at reading behavioral patterns, if I do say so myself. How they are not at each other's throats yet, I'm not certain, but perhaps the Jōnin is the case. They are aiming to form a bandit group, most likely, but are new to the idea. I will scout more tomorrow for their weapons and more information, but that's all I have for now."

"Damn, spider summons are useful, un," Deidara sighs. "Sneaky and easily overlooked, not to mention so creepy people just rather not see them at all."

"Indeed," Ren says, smiling a very, very nasty smile with way too many teeth. "Let's backtrack south a bit, there's a small canyon... ugh, rift? I don't know. But we can hide and strategize there."

"Okay, un."

"Also, Anri, do you think Niji and Kagami would agree to come out here? I'm shit at illusions myself, but with them only the Jōnin would pose a real threat."

"I'll ask around. Kagami will probably want to come for field training anyways."

Ren sighs once more when Anri crawls out of her hood and onto the horse-dog-rabbit-frog thing Deidara made, salutes, and then disappears in a soft puff of white smoke.

"The canyon thing then, un?" Deidara asks.

"Yeah, but first, a short detour," she answers, eyeing something in the distance. After looking at where Ren is focused on for a while, Deidara realizes that it's actually a white deer treading through the snow, that would usually be otherwise unnoticeable at such a distance, especially without a Sharingan.

"Yeah, I can deal with a detour for food, un," he says. "Do you at least have salt?"

"I think I have some with me. And herbs that should technically be medicinal but can be used as spices."

"Well, that's neat, un. Today's menu is fresh venison."

"Yup."