Knitting Fate (Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren Part II)

Twenty-Fourth Thread

"My best friend is a semi-suicidal imbecile."
― Inuzuka Hana, repeatedly

Chakra exhaustion sucks. A lot. Ren has been bedridden for three days already, and she is bored out of her mind – well, she isn't exactly bedridden, but the second she brought up the idea of 'walking it off', Hana promptly smacked her head, and Ren is one of those people who can understand a definitive no, underlined with the threat of pain and suffering. So, she endures, even if she can wobble her way around, and, instead of preparing for the finals (woo, she advanced, yay!) she just does nothing. It kind of does set her off.

More than just a little.

In all honesty, if the process of regenerating chakra hadn't been taking most of her energy, she probably wouldn't listen to Hana and just walk it off anyway. And submit herself to some major pain and suffering due to her best friend losing her temper over Ren's idiocy. Yeah, no, her lack of energy is a good thing right now. She isn't, however, surrender to it completely. Even if it is exhausting, she can still walk around.

Hana was initially absolutely livid, to the point she actually almost bit Ren. Like, really bit, like a dog. It was honestly quite frightening? And then, having regained consciousness for good and having just enough strength to sit upright, Ren was subjected to a two-hour-long tirade (just. How?) that she promptly named 'My best friend is an absolute, semi-suicidal imbecile of an Uchiha, and I don't like it so I will be mad for hours on end at her'. Ren was amused, too, but more scared, actually, because Hana had a lot of Inuzuka in her. What a surprise, wow.

So it's a lose-lose situation. Is that even a thing? Nevertheless, Ren is now bored out of her mind, and confined to her bed for the next few days under pain of death. Ah, Inuzuka best friends, aren't they amazing? Also, there is the matter of her leg, which... isn't so bad, honestly? They wrapped it in something that speeds up forming new tissue and numbs it – the sensation is quite annoying. She can't feel her leg from the knee up, if that even makes sense. Nevertheless, the scar tissue would actually be present on the edges of the wound, as far as Ren can understand, and from what she pictured, would perhaps be even uglier than just one big scar. Oh well, not that she cares, as long as she is up and running.

As for Hibiki, he is still deep in denial. It doesn't appear that he believes that he actually advanced, upon Jūken-ing his way through a very persistent Kumo-nin who could literally cover his arms with lightning. That is also how Hibiki got electrocuted, too. And it is quite amusing to watch him be literally flocked by every other Hyūga currently in Iwa – all older than him – who seem to want nothing more than to give him pointers and train with him to make sure he doesn't screw up. If he actually listens to them, instead of pretending nothing happened, he would definitely have a chance in the finals.

(Ren is still bored. Out. Of. Her. Mind.)

But they don't say that fate favors the foolish for no reason, do they now? Because her salvation comes in the evening. It's blue, almost two meters tall, and offering a smile that still manages to slip some of the shark teeth in. And honestly, Ren wants to pray to the heavens when he pulls up a chair and sits next to her.

"Hi, Blue," she chirps instead, sitting up slowly (because otherwise Hana would learn and magically teleport right there and just bite her head off, Ren is sure), and smiles right back at one of the most dangerous ninja Kiri will ever produce. "What's up?"

"That stunt you pulled in the preliminaries was pretty impressive," he says with a nod, still smiling, but Ren knows that's not all there's to it, "if absolutely dumb," he finishes.

"I know, my friend kinda presented an entire speech on my idiocy to me already," she chuckles, scratching back of her head sheepishly. "But seriously, I do. I rely on taijutsu quite a bit, too, but the leg-"