Knitting Fate

Second installment in Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren series

Forty-EighthThread

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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.

So, uh, this probably wasn't supposed to happen, but let's not say that my muse isn't a fickle bitch. A month of nothing, and I suddenly sit down and whip out a whole chapter in one sitting? That rarely happens. And I kinda posted previous one earlier today.

Hey, hi, hello, it's me again and if you haven't read chapter 47 I posted earlier today then do. I'm just leaving this here.

"Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans."
― Allen Saunders

0

It's still overwhelming sometimes, over two years in, the feeling of waking up in an apartment that she works hard to upkeep, and to not be alone, and not in just any way. Not with some random family member who visits only to sneer at her and criticize her everything, nor someone in her life as a brief love interest. Renee always had the worst of luck with those, especially when she got older – many younger people eyed her, a woman with a stable income and a nice living space, to possibly leech off of for the rest of their lives. Because women like pathetic strays, right? To take them home, care for them.

Other women, maybe. But Renee – Renee believed in hard work, and loafers had no place in her life. Nor did her old-fashioned family that she moved across half a country to get away from and constantly weaseled out of family meetings with work.

But to wake up in the morning, and to know that there are other people in her house, her people, who care for her, who love her – that, she still isn't used to. Most days it still overwhelms her, and it isn't rare for Ren to burst into silent tears every time she wakes in her bed, in her home, with her kids still sleeping soundly in another room in the wee hours of the morning.

She still can't believe just how lucky she is nowadays, with actual friends and people who genuinely care for her, who love her for who she is despite all her many, many downfalls. So far away from her old family who, no matter what she did, was always disappointed in her. They're worlds away, now. In a whole other life, which is not hers anymore. It makes her glad, being away. The only thing she even remotely liked back then was her job, and that... that probably wasn't healthy.

Renee Archer was thirty-one when she died, murdered on a desolate street. That was three years ago; she is Uchiha Ren now, almost fifteen but also almost thirty-four, living in a world that is now her own, that before she knew only as a drawn story, and she's so much better for it. Is it odd, that she not only doesn't mind having been killed, but is also actually glad for it? Because look where it brought her – into another, much more dangerous but also much better life, where she has people she cares for and who care for her back, where she can go out and kill people and it's a perfectly acceptable source of income, where nobody judges her for it or her scarred, muscled, masculine appearance that would send her mother and grandmother into a fit should they see her now.

She's fifteen, she's strong, she has friends and acquaintances in all the right places. When she's not on missions, she manages all the Uchiha businesses that haven't fallen with the clan's demise, and teaches Sasuke how to do so, keeping their income stable.

Maybe, soon, she'll be able to repurpose the compound into something, maybe another merchant district, or a luxury district with imported goods found rarely and in small quantities if ever-

Almost three years have passed since the massacre. It's perhaps high time to dig into the ghost town and turn it from an uninhibited wasteland to an income-generating business.

But that can wait a few more weeks. For now, Ren has to get up, go to the library, and find the brats books with detailed information about the Hokage that she'd promised them. And probably some of the Fourth's pictures and decorate the whole apartment with copies.

Lady Sparkle meows from the pile of cat on the in-built bed of the cat tower, and Awai chooses that moment to drop from the ceiling right onto Ren's face.

Yes, she would go to the library. But first, she would go to the kitchen, feed herself and the critters, and make some more breakfast in case the brats wake up before she gets back, which is likely. Yes, that sounds like a plan. She isn't going to wake them up now, it's their day off from school, and besides, it isn't even five in the morning yet, and the world behind the windows is still completely dark.

The shinobi library is open twenty-four hours a day, though, with the clerk rotation, so that is no issue.

Genma catches her outside their apartment building when she finally leaves at half past five in the morning, wearing simple untucked ninja pants, sandals, and a loose turtleneck. His hair is loose and his bandana is sticking out of his pocket. He has a thin jacket thrown across his shoulders due to the chill of the early morning. Ren herself wasn't really dressed up either, in similar loose ninja pants and black turtleneck, with a beige trench-coat on and a scarf hanging loosely around her shoulders. Compared to Iwa, it's almost warm here.

"Hey," Ren says, shouldering her khaki civilian backpack that's definitely magical for being able to fit in way more that it seems to be able, and Genma nods. They're alone on the street at an hour when most of the world is still asleep, the earliest risers only now starting to wake.

"Hey," Genma says back, easily falling into step with her when she doesn't stop to talk. Genma is definitely not an unwelcome tagalong, her first real contact upon waking up as Ren, and one of the best people she ever knew.

"So, Kotetsu and Izumo came back from their shift in T&I and told me something very interesting," the tokujō drawls. "Apparently, Ibiki decided that it would be for the best if I was the one to oversee the assimilation of a certain individual named Deidara, formerly of Iwa, into the village. Do you happen to know the details?" he cocks an eyebrow at her. Ren glances at him, Awai crawling out of her turtleneck and into her face, and laughs into her hand, mindful of still-sleeping people in the houses they pass with much more thoughtfulness than the occupants would ever care to show.

"Oooh, that's gold," she says with a shit-eating grin, and Genma just gives her a deadpanned look. Ren stifles some more giggles before answering. "Deidara is a former Iwa nin, obviously. He's an explosives specialist with a sweet bloodline limit that allows him to make his own bombs, stronger and more effectively than anyone else. He's not even thirteen yet, and already a tokujō, but his village hates him. Like, a lot. I met him during my chūnin exams in Iwa three years back, and might've jokingly told him that if he's sick of his village, he's welcome here? In my defense, I didn't think he'd take me up on it!"

Genma gives her an unreadable look, but she knows him well enough, and knows how people usually react to her stunts, to decipher it as him trying to decide whether he's surprised, resigned, annoyed, or amused.

He settles for, "Really, Ren."

It's not even a question, with how flatly he says it, and Ren giggles again.

"But, if he's good enough to become a tokujō at thirteen, why would the village hate him?" he asks, and Ren sighs. Genma made tokujō at sixteen, and Ren, albeit recognized as a strong chūnin, is still a chūnin, while older than Deidara, and undoubtedly physically stronger.

"Uhh, well..." she sighs, scratching the back of her head. "He kinda looks like Namikaze Minato. A lot," she says finally, deciding not to sugarcoat it. She knows Genma was in the Fourth's guard platoon, and that he constantly beats himself over not being able to properly care for his son. Ren could physically feel how relieved he was when she took Naruto in.

It goes unsaid how ostracized Minato's lookalike would be in Iwa, where the population was raised and taught to hate Konoha's Yellow Flash as part of their heritage.

"What do you mean?" he asks, stopping in his tracks.

"Well," she stops as well, looking for words. "I've seen Namikaze's pictures. Deidara has nearly the exact same coloring, if his skin was just a tad darker. And before you rebuff me – save for the eye shape, their facial structure is very similar as well. So-"

"So you concluded that there's a high possibility that there's a familiar relation," Genma finishes the thought for her, and Ren nods. "This... this is not a stupid notion. How old did you say Deidara is?"

"Almost thirteen," she answers, resuming her walk, and Genma follows. "Which means he was born shortly after the third shinobi war ended. And he definitely was conceived during- say, wasn't Namikaze a clanless orphan for all his genius?"

"He was," Genma nods. "Nobody knows where his parents came from, but his mother died giving birth on the steps of the orphanage, or so I've heard. It's entirely plausible he had family elsewhere, so... um, let's- let's not jump to conclusions, though, shall we?"

Genma looks uncomfortable with the other possibility – that Minato would've actually gone and knocked up an Iwa woman, no matter how plausible it sounds. Stress relief and all that. Ren remembers when Kushina, who was Mikoto's teammate and best friend after all, came to the Uchiha matriarch to brag about getting engaged to Minato at last. Ren was almost three, which means it was a bit over eleven years ago.

"Test results come in this evening, so I guess," she shrugs, "just a heads up in case... you know."

"Yeah. But no matter what, he probably is- you know. Naruto's family to some degree. And Naruto has no idea who- Ren, I don't like that look in your eyes."

Ren grins, and it's not a nice grin.

"Whatever you're planning-"

"The brats have an assignment to write an essay about a Hokage of their choice," she explains easily, still wearing that unbearably smug look. "I'm going to the library right now, if you haven't noticed. I'm going to check out some detailed books on Konoha history. For research, you know. Preferably with detailed, full-color pictures. Purely for academic purposes, of course. We have a study group set for the afternoon, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Shino, Shikamaru-"

Genma looks at her, eyes wide and shining, and suddenly she's yanked up and spinning, ribs nearly crushed in a tight embrace.

Awai, wisely, relocates to her back, between her shoulder blades, where he's safe from humans' sudden bouts of physical affection.

"Uchiha Ren, you evil, evil mastermind," he breathes into her hair almost giddily, and doesn't let her go, and so she stays, locked in the embrace, face pressed to his shoulder. God knows he ranted for hours on end about how dumb it is that Naruto be left unaware of his parentage. Of how hurtful it is to the deceased, to his mentor and friend, and to one of Konoha's greatest kunoichi, to remain forgotten in such an ugly way.

"I have no idea what you could possibly be insinuating, Genma," she manages to say somehow, with her face pressed into his shoulder. He smells like mint and iron, wind and soap. It's comforting. "I'm just going to a library to check out some books on Konoha history, for research."

"Yes, yes, of course," he laughs, finally letting her go and patting her rat's nest of a hairstyle that she didn't even bother brushing when she left the house. "Say, how about I see if I can't find anything in the jōnin section for your research, hm?"

Ren's eyes actually glow at that, and it is definitely not because of the Sharingan.

"You're my favorite person, ever, Genma," she says honestly. "Don't tell Hana I said that, she'll get all huffy, but really. You're the best."

"I aim to please," he laughs, throwing his arm across her shoulders. They walk like that to the library, chatting about everything they can think of – Ren's mission, Genma's mission, Deidara, how the brats behaved when she was away, how Kotetsu and Izumo behaved in the meantime, how Iruka is faring as the brats' teacher, how Hayate's health is improving thanks to him being Hana's second favorite target of Hana's tender mercies because of Ren.

They get books, detailed ones, and even manage to find some obscure, tucked-away tome in the chūnin section that actually mentions Minato being married to Uzumaki Kushina that they grab without a second thought.

Ren treats Genma to coffee and then makes him her own pack mule to carry groceries back home. It's nice.