Knitting Fate (Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren Part II)

Seventy-Fourth Thread

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

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*slithers out of the void*

Hello.

*slithers back into the darkness*

WARNING: body horror, specifically mutations.

***

"Reality continues to ruin my life."
― Bill Watterson, The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

0

"You're ready," Inoue says in lieu of a greeting as she walks calmly along a vertical wall to reach where Ren is sitting and enjoying the morning sun.

"What for?" Ren asks from above the roasted fish she's inhaling for breakfast.

"To begin learning the Sage Arts," Inoue says as if it should be obvious. "You've greatly improved your sensing ability—or, rather, you have managed to get it under control enough that you won't immediately die when you try siphoning in nature chakra."

"Great!"

"But first, I will show you exactly why it is that we're not all that keen on teaching you this power. And then I will explain why we also desperately need you to learn it."

"...okay?" Ren says in confusion. She had known that the spiders didn't want her to learn Sage Mode, that much they have made abundantly clear, but what was that about them actually needing her to do it all of a sudden?

"Meet me on the cliff where you first met Chiyo-Kakka when the sun is at its highest. Others know you are to be busy, they shall not bother you," Inoue commands, and then she's gone, wisps of white legs vanishing between the foliage. Ren just sits there on that small ledge with nothing but a half-eaten breakfast and a lot more questions than she had when she was first accosted by the demon five minutes ago.

***

When Ren goes back to her little cave, she finds Cobalt perched by the entrance, the blue tarantula standing out in the brown-gray-green scenery like a sore thumb. Other spiders at least attempted to blend with their coloring, but not the Gooty Ornamentals.

It makes Ren happy, though. For the past week she simply had no time to seek out her main summon, and now she has a moment to breathe and Cobalt is conveniently here. She'd probably heard that Ren has a moment off—Inoue is quick like that.

The second Ren gets down on the ground Cobalt just rushes at her, pressing her head against Ren's chest with enough momentum to almost knock Ren over, and wraps her forelegs around Ren's body.

"Hello to you too," Ren says, a little out of breath from being knocked around like that.

"Is it true?" Cobalt asks in lieu of greeting, looking up at Ren with her beady, black eyes. "You're going to learn sage arts, is it true?"

"Yeah," Ren says, and it's a bit hard. Cobalt's eyes are very expressive, and they shine with worry. "I'll be fine."

"It can kill you."

"Most things worth doing can."

"You don't—whatever. Inoue-hime will show you, and then you will understand."

Cobalt sounds worried and a tad petulant and maybe almost angry, and Ren sighs and pats her back.

"I realized something," Ren says. "I think I've known it for a while now. There's a problem... And it's with me. Because, you know, I died, before. I've lived over thirty years elsewhere, and now I'm here and I think I'm on a mission but it still doesn't feel fucking real. Even though I almost die often, even though my carelessness costs me something every time, it's... It's as if this isn't real."