Knitting Fate

Second installment in Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren series

Forty-Fifth Thread

•••

This chapter has been beta'd for you by hestia8693, who, just like me, is currently braving university exams, therefore if there are still mistakes present - blame the education.

I'd say sorry for the delay, but frankly, I'm so spent after chasing index signs, ironing out the kinks and waiting for 4h in line to take 10min oral exam. University is not fun. Who would've thought?

There's more blood and graphic descriptions of violence and gore than usual. You should probably get used to that, Ren is a quite gory person.

"Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough."
― Og Mandino

0

Fighting an ice user in the middle of a winter wasteland, Ren realizes, is not such a great idea after all – formal shinobi training or not. The woman might not be particularly well-trained in other shinobi fields, especially mental fortitude, but she has great reflexes – as evidenced by her avoiding the projectiles from before – and damn good control of her bloodline limit. Frankly, it doesn't surprise Ren – whether she needs it or not, she still fiddles with her Sharingan nearly constantly, and while the things she does with it are mostly inconsequential – like remembering recipes or walking around in the wee hours of the morning without having to turn on the lights – it still makes her grip on the bloodline limit better, more secure, and lessens its strain.

Ren curses and blocks a spear of ice with Ryuuzakura's bloodstained blade, nearly staggering when she shifts most of her body weight onto her wounded leg. She can feel the rapidly cooling blood still oozing from the wound, half-cauterized by the raw fire chakra thrumming underneath her skin, and the bite of cold seeping into her flesh. It impairs her movements greatly, as she can't lean on that leg too much, and definitely cannot support herself on it. It hurts, and since the kunai tore some muscle, it doesn't even work properly, no matter how much Ren clenches her teeth and wills it to.

A few small explosions shake the air around Ren and her opponent, and she can hear more cackling above the sound of the explosions. Well, at least Deidara is having fun.

Ren jumps over the icicle charging at her and shatters the next with the blunt of her blade. Wrapping explosive tags around a few kunai, she sends them with a zap of chakra after the Yuki woman, who shields herself from the explosion and sends more ice spikes after Ren. She moves to evade and-

She's too slow. A minute ago she definitely wasn't, what-

Ren gasps in pain when the ice slams into her side, though thankfully the armor-mesh shirt she wears underneath kept it from piercing skin, and falls to the ground, only able to propel herself up and away from the ground at the very last moment. Adrenaline is pulsing through her veins like crazy, but she somehow feels weaker now than she felt a minute ago. In fact, she can feel herself rapidly weakening. This- this isn't good.

"Fuck," she says, stealing a glance at her leg, only one answer floating in her head – the kunai she had gotten stabbed with must've been dipped in a slow-acting poison. And it was acting now.

The Yuki woman, apparently sensing her growing weakness, sends a barrage of ice spears her way, much more numerous than any before. There's no way for Ren to evade them all, so she clenches her teeth and wills herself to move, past the cold and the poison, bending her fingers together as fast as she could go and sending a massive fireball with a rush of chakra straight at the missiles. They all evaporate under the heat, and the Yuki woman manages to shield herself with a wall of ice. It half-evaporates from the onslaught of flames, but Ren pays it no mind, moving forward through the unpleasantly hot steam and right into the cold air behind it, slashing at the woman with Ryuuzakura. It's clumsy, Ren knows, and her opponent is able to evade as Ren forces herself to move past the kaleidoscope of specks dancing before her eyes. She spins and swings again and again, not nearly on par with what she is normally capable of but still somehow enough to keep the Yuki woman busy enough-

Ren hisses and lurches backwards when a cold, sharp pain erupts somewhere in her side – she hadn't noticed her opponent creating an ice blade and is now paying for it with a gash in her side that was non-lethal only thanks to her reflexes.

She hasn't heard any explosions for a while now. Should she be worried?

The Yuki woman suddenly makes a sound that's between a sob and a wail, which makes Ren realize that she had taken her attention off the woman. She rectifies that mistake as fast as she can, and-

Two pairs of bright-blue tarantula legs are wrapped around the woman's torso, efficiently keeping her in place. Cobalt's fangs, as long and thick as kunai, are embedded deep where the neck meets the shoulder on either side, her chelicera just big enough to wrap around the human's neck. The Yuki woman gurgles, mouth foaming as her eyes roll back from shock, caused by both Cobalt's venom and the blood rapidly leaving her body – Cobalt's fangs must have torn at least one of her arteries, judging by how quickly the patch of bright red is expanding down the woman's clothes.

"Ren!" she can hear Deidara scream as he bounds towards her. She still retains some attention span, which is good, but she can also literally feel the poison coursing through her veins, because her chakra is attacking the alien substance. All that she had accumulated under her skin to warm herself up was now up and running, trying to help her.

She's so cold without it.

"Ren, un, what's wrong? Did they get you?" Deidara asks worriedly, and Ren almost laughs, because he's an S-Class missing-nin hunting Jinchuuriki for fun-

She narrows her eyes. No, that's wrong – Deidara is a lost twelve-year-old boy with devastating power and an uncanny resemblance to Namikaze Minato from a village that hates the man with the burning passion of a thousand suns.

"Ren," Cobalt says hastily, having discarded the spasming Yuki woman and skittered to her summoner, and places worried legs on the Uchiha's shoulders and shaking gently. "Ren, you have been poisoned. Listen to me. You must summon Takuya-sensei. Can you do that? Ren, look at me. Summon Takuya-sensei before you're completely gone, okay?"

Breathing is becoming more and more difficult, Ren notes, but she mercilessly squashes the rising wave of panic, shaking her head and bringing her suddenly-heavy hands together, folding her fingers so clumsily she would probably be embarrassed if she had the energy to care. She forces her chakra through her coils and into her palms and slams her hands onto the snow, silently praying to anyone that is listening – Jashin, Sage, hell, even Kaguya – that Takuya answers her call.

He does.

"What on earth did you get yourself into this time, stupid girl!" he hisses at her. Like any ogre-faced spider, he looks like a cartoonish caricature, with a slim abdomen and long spindly legs, large mandibles, currently rubbing together in agitation, and two huge, round eyes. By all means, he looks more like an alien than a spider.

"I got poisoned," she says eloquently before her hands give up, and her upper body falls face-first onto the snow. She doesn't even remember her legs caving under her weight, but looking back it seems very plausible.

"Outside symptoms look like a type of Curare," Takuya says without prompting, mandibles clicking. One of his legs sweep the hair from Ren's sweaty forehead. "Your temperature is lower than usual, which means your chakra is working on the poison. Good, otherwise you'd probably be suffocating right about now. Fire chakra sure is handy in taking the brunt of the toxin, huh? Ah, there it is," he sighs, jumping as elegantly as his gangly body would allow past Ren's vision and nudging her injured leg, trying to turn it. With what seems like herculean effort, Ren twists it slowly, sluggishly, so that the open wound is facing the cold, winter air. Her breathing is becoming increasingly labored, but that doesn't stop it from hitching when she feels Takuya put his legs into her fucking open wound.

"Okay, that's disgusting," Deidara says in disturbed awe, and Ren finds the strength to curse, fighting against her reflexes to keep the muscles in her leg from clenching. It's painful, yes, but Ren is sure she will have difficulty finding something that could possibly top the ultra-weird feel of spider legs inside her wound. When the legs retract, Deidara makes a noise in the back of his throat that is more disgustedly horrified than anything else.

And then Takuya bites into the edge of the wound which, frankly, Ren realizes only because she was already focusing what's left of her attention into that area. She miraculously finds the strength to curse even more. She can feel Cobalt and Deidara wince at the language.

"Yes, yes, it's disgusting, we know," Takuya says, probably fiddling with his customary linen backpack if the rustle of fabric is anything to go by, before something audibly pops and then something cold, slimy, and gluey is pushed none too gently into her poisoned wound. "You're lucky this is one of the simplest Curares there are, and I always have antidote for those. Hey, boy, come here," the spider says, and Deidara blinks, before uncertainly moving closer.

"Un?"

"Give her this vial of antidote to drink now. This particular Curare paralyzes the airway, and it's already taking effect," Takuya instructs. "Ren, I know it tastes absolutely disgusting, but don't you dare spit it out, you hear?"

Ren mutters a short affirmation, focusing on her breathing instead.

Deidara grabs her by the shoulders and hauls her up easily, and she can see his ruffled clothes and loose hair now. He seems to have had fun fighting the lower-level missing-nin. He puts one palm on her forehead, somehow keeping her upright that way, and she obligingly parts her lips as he uncorks the vial with his thumb and pours the cold liquid into Ren's mouth.

It is, in fact, absolutely, horrifyingly disgusting, and Ren battles hard against the urge to gag. She has no idea what's in it, but it tastes like bitter, fake lemon and honey that tastes more like a strange sweetener – all of it topped with mint. So, yeah, disgusting. Very, very disgusting. But, Ren is willing to bet, also apparently fucking magical, because she can suddenly breathe again, and it feels truly amazing.

She swallows down the bitter bile forming in the back of her throat and accepts a bottle of water from Deidara, who got it from Cobalt. Honestly, the Gooty Tarantula was the most precious, thoughtful little fluffy murder machine. Ren loves her.

She downs the whole bottle in one go, her body still sluggish and uncooperative, but still much more functional than a few minutes ago, when it was basically shutting down.

"Thanks, Takuya-sensei," she says weakly, and the giant-eyed spider sighs in what can only be exasperation. Yeah, Ren has that effect on most, and she knows it.

"What do we do now, un?" Deidara asks, and she can't help but notice the boy's nervous fidgeting, but doesn't call him out on it. She would probably fidget, too, if something like this happened to him. She likes the kid.

"Ugh, I can move but I doubt I can walk just yet," Ren sighs and rubs her arms from her seat on the snow as she assesses the aftermath of the battle, her wounded leg stretched out before her. Without adrenaline or burning-hot fire chakra underneath her skin to warm her body from the inside, she can already feel the cold settling into her bones. "Okay, this is what we'll do; Deidara, you need to get me to their tents so I can warm myself up. Then you'll gather the bodies – I really hope your opponents are at least vaguely recognizable still? – and stash them somewhere for the night. Sound good?"

"Yeah, un," he nods, and stands up slowly. "What about our camp?"

"You can pack it up tomorrow. For now, we both need rest, and it would be a good idea to look through the missing-nins' supplies. I'd like some new pants, and it's not like they'll need them anymore."

"Uchiha Ren and good, logical ideas. Color me astonished," Takuya-sensei snarks, but before Ren can snap back at him, he dispels himself. The girl blinks at the space he had vacated and narrows her eyes with a grimace.

"Didn't even tell me what side effects I'll be experiencing," she grumbles. "Asshole."

"At least he's consistent," Cobalt chuckles. "Besides, you can always re-summon him. But, for now, I'll have to say goodbye. I don't really do well in sub-zero temperatures."

"Thanks Cobalt, see you," Ren makes a tired salute, and the giant blue tarantula dispels herself with an audible poof of white smoke. For a moment after that, silence reigns. Then:

"Ren, you're an absolute fucking moron, un."

"I know."

"Don't do that again."

"Can't promise anything. I'm a danger-magnet."

"No, you're just stupid and reckless, un."

"...Fair."