Knitting Fate

Second installment in Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren series

Forty-Fourth Thread

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This chapter has been beta'd for you by hestia8693. Thanks a lot!

I'm very sorry for the delay, but my beta's internet was acting up and because of it I had to wait two days to get the chapter back, and I didn't feel like posting unbeta'd version for you D:

Nevertheless, for all of you who complained about lack of action - behold! My crappy fight scene writing skills.

"Surprises are all part of life's journey."
― Steven Redhead, Life Is A Cocktail

0

Dusk finds Ren calm, surrounded by snow, cold, and fading light, waiting for an opportunity, for an acceptable opening. The quality of the nukenin encampment is surprisingly high. However, the quality of their awareness is… not. Which, considering that at least two of them are jōnin, is alarming. Right next to her, so close that their shoulders press together, Deidara is laying surprisingly patiently on the snow, newly resized white uniform fitting nicely and not hindering his movements, golden hair braided and tucked tightly under a white cap. Ren gently tugs her tube scarf upwards, almost high enough to touch her lower eyelids, and sighs silently, eerie red eyes taking in the scenery. They're currently laying on a higher slope under a tree, not far from where the encampment is. A chakra-enhanced dash will take them there within just a few seconds.

"Okay, let's go over it again," Ren says, voice muffled by the scarf. "We go for the jōnin while keeping an eye on the unknowns, and after the jōnin are down, we go for either the chūnin or the unknowns. Depends who proves to be more of an issue. Jashin, I hope this works out."

"What does it matter even if it doesn't go according to plan?" Deidara scoffs quietly. "We are shinobi! Flexibility and coming up with solutions on the fly comes with the job description, un."

"I know, but it really doesn't change the fact that I hate doing that. With a passion," Ren grumbles under her breath, eyes not leaving the encampment for a second. "Jashin, it's ridiculous how unprepared for an attack they seem. Makes every danger alarm go off in my head."

"Yeah, but didn't Anri say that they were just that, un? Unprepared, overly-cocky assholes?" Deidara asks, and Ren huffs in irritation.

"Yes, but it doesn't help my shinobi paranoia," she grumbles. Deidara sighs, but nods – he can understand it. If shinobi are not careful enough, they are basically signing their death warrant. It's always better to be over-prepared than underprepared. To overestimate than underestimate. It's the difference between literal life and death in their line of work after all. But that's to be expected, when said line of work includes getting paid for bringing in severed heads, among other things.

Ren shakes her head, takes a deep breath and moves.

It's going to be ugly. Uglier than normal, at the very least - Ren knows from the second they reach the perimeter of the camp, pass the makeshift palisade meant to keep wild animals at bay. Of course they don't go unnoticed – they'd known they wouldn't the second they decided to study the encampment better upon settling on the hilltop, which, in turn, left a bitter taste in Ren's mouth. She would very much prefer to take her opponents out with the element of surprise, rather than openly fighting – she is aggressive, sure, and likes fighting, but seven-on-two? Yeah, no.

And the nuke-nin in the encampment, for all their vices, are pretty aware of their surroundings, despite not having any truly set guard rotation and the constant arguing.

Ren goes in first, leaving Deidara behind and hoping he will prove to be good firepower support.

One of the jōnin – with a slashed Iwa hitai-ate - throws himself at her, hurling a barrage of kunai, half of which she evades, half of which she deflects, as she leaps close and makes a move to punch him in the face. He evades, reaching for more kunai, but it doesn't matter. Anri launches herself from Ren's open sleeve right onto his uncovered face and digs her fangs straight into his artery. The jōnin makes a surprised sound as he falls to his knees, and Ren can hear a shriek. She spares a glance to the side to see a girl – a Suna nuke-nin – run towards her.

Ren narrows her eyes, glowing an eerie red in the dark, and launches herself at the girl. She reaches for some flasks, but Ren is faster, better. It's obvious that the girl hasn't been chūnin for long. Ren kicks the girl square in the chest, chakra-enhanced and all and the crunch of bones and a surprised gasp are a truly pleasing sound in that moment. She sends the chūnin flying towards the palisade and doesn't bother watching as the girl collides with the wooden construction, ruining it. There's a sharp stab in her calf and Ren hisses, glaring down. The jōnin whom Anri had bitten is, obviously, still alive, although the poison is already visibly at work. He still has enough sense and speed to use Ren's moment of distraction and dig a kunai in her calf.

Hana is going to kill her.

In the few seconds of this exchange the others manage to shake off their stupor and charge at her, weapons in hands, and Ren removes the kunai from her leg and hurls it at them along with a few others. With a whistle of wind they are joined by tiny clay birds, which explode once they get into range of the enemy shinobi, pushing the kunai off their trajectory and to where they weren't expected. The second jōnin fends them off without a problem, so does one of the unknowns – a woman with long, black hair and piercing blue eyes – while the remaining chūnin and the second unknown get grazed by them. This answers Ren's question as to the priority levels of their targets.

She uses the split second the barrage buys her and folds her fingers together quickly in well-practiced motions, slamming her palm onto the snow. There's a tell-tale explosion of smoke, and a familiar, gigantic blue shape hurls itself at the shinobi with a loud hiss. One of the chūnin – her target – actually screams and freezes for a second as Cobalt engages them, and Ren jumps back, throwing some shuriken. The jōnin and the woman, once again, evade both the spider and the projectiles, and instead focus on pursuing Ren.

She jumps to the side, between the tents, and the jōnin and woman follow her, while Deidara aids Cobalt in fighting the remaining three with his shrapnel-filled explosive clay. Ren grits her teeth and flings Atsushi and Akihiro at her pursuers, all the while dutifully ignoring the pulsating pain in her leg.

To Ren's absolute and utter horror, the woman slashes at the spider with a blade made of ice, and only Akihiro's quick-thinking allows him to avoid getting cut in half – he disperses, instead of taking the hit. Not good, but preferable to losing a summon. The jōnin roars as Atsushi digs his fangs into the man's shoulder, and he swats at the spider, who has no choice but to also disperse. She curses as the man folds his fingers and mutters something, and evades the volley of kunai coated in a genjutsu only thanks to her Sharingan and its ability to see through it.

If only she could call on one of her illusionist spiders. But no – she had tried, only to learn that both of them are injured after some skirmishes when their realm briefly connected with the realm of praying mantis summons. Ren didn't know that summon realms actually exist elsewhere or that they circulate and interact with one another, but that doesn't matter now. She technically could summon her spiders, but for their safety, she would not. The ice user's slash at Akihiro only grounded her in this. Niji is currently in medically-induced coma to heal internal damage, and Kagami is not nearly trained enough to fend for herself when her illusions are broken.

(They were ambushed, Ren learned yesterday. Didn't notice, because mantises don't use illusions. they just blend in with the environment.)

She curses and jumps on a tree branch before she has to relocate a second after to avoid the creeping ice. Atsushi is an Atrax, therefore his venom should work faster than Anri's, but Ren knows better than to underestimate him because of the toxin now in his blood. An instant of inattention had left her with a gash in her leg only a minute ago with the other jōnin.

She isn't sure of the passage of time anymore, to be honest – she's hyperaware of everything now, Sharingan zooming over her surroundings, taking in everything and more, as she barely evades the onslaught of the jōnin's attack and the advancing ice. If not for the spider venom working nearly instantly, she'd probably be dead now – but instead her opponent's movements are increasingly compromised, and he knows it too. There's something akin to desperation in his eyes.

Ren throws some more projectiles at them both, gaining herself a few precious seconds to reach for her belt and unstrap a maroon-tinted scroll. A surge of chakra later, she's holding Ryuuzakura, the blade glistening wickedly in the moonlight. She slashes at the ice spikes threatening to impale her and twirls, reflecting projectiles thrown back at her, before focusing chakra in the tenketsu in her forearms, a technique that had taken her a long time and practice to get down, and then a poof of smoke bursts out of her left sleeve. She takes a breath, pounces towards the woman, bends back, and hurls a sleeve-full of spiders right at her face. The scream that follows is not even human anymore, but Ren is already in mid-leap back at the jōnin, Ryuuzakura held tightly in both hands. The kunai whistling right by her ear doesn't stop her, and performs a thrust Kisame would be proud of. Her opponent dodges, but thanks to the venom, not fast enough, and Ren still manages to put the blade through his side, but misses the kidney she was going for, most likely grazing his hipbone instead.

He grunts, and grabs the blade with one hand, most likely instinctively, and raises the other, a kunai gripped tight, with every intention of digging it into Ren's head. She catches his hand, however, gripping his wrist and pushing chakra to her fingers, clenching them until she hears the delicate bones crunch, and her opponent lets out an anguished noise in the back of his throat. She fixes her grip on Ryuuzakura's handle, and yanks the sword out forcefully – and the blade is sharp, she knows, as this sword is probably the best the Uchiha had stashed, and Sasuke wouldn't have settled until he found the absolute best he could as a gift for her.

Ryuuzakura's blade is sharp, chakra-conductive, wicked steel. And it cuts through Ren's opponent's gloves and fingers like they are made of butter, just as it had severed the deer's head, skin, muscle, bone and all, with no issue at all. He makes a pained noise again, but she can see his eyes clouding and can't help and marvel at how ridiculously fast her summon's venom works. She doesn't bother stopping for a moment, though, as every second counts – she moves forward and slashes with her katana, easily separating the head from the shoulders of the sluggish, poisoned jōnin.

She spins around, just at the right moment to slash at ice spikes headed her way, shattering them on impact. The woman – undeniably a Yuki Clan survivior, and boy, is Ren sad to actually be forced to kill one of Haku's kin, even if she's some three years from meeting him if at all – has finally thrown all the spiders off, and she does look even paler than she did before, and shaken on top of that.

Someone's afraid of spiders, huh.

There's an explosion just to her right behind the tents, more to the center of the camp than the outskirts they're in now, that is much bigger than any of the ones before, and a loud, manic cackle that sounds too much like Deidara to not be Deidara. Well, at least he's having fun.

Ren only hopes that he will leave the bodies intact enough to be recognized and collected for money. Shit, she's starting to think like Kakuzu.

Oh well. Cobalt is supervising him, they'll be fine.

She heaves a sigh, gripping Ryuuzakura in one hand and looks at the Yuki woman with determination. The other woman gulps and takes a defensive stance – it's obvious for Ren that she did not receive any formal shinobi training, but she seems very much in control of her bloodline limit, and that in itself will be a massive obstacle to brave.

Good. Ren likes challenges.

A breath of air, a blur of hands, and a fire dragon charges with a roar straight at a dragon made purely out of ice.