Knitting Fate (Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren Part II)

Thirteenth Thread

"For fuck's sake, Hyūga!" she roars into his face, when his lips go purple, and loosens her grip only slightly. "You better have a good fucking reason for trying to sabotage our future, or else I really won't care that we must all pass and I swear, I will strangle you here and now!"

Hibiki looks at her briefly, clawing at her gloved wrists with a snarl, but one glance at her face – twisted with anger, sharningan spinning frantically and teeth clenched hard – he stops. Ren lets go of him some more, hoping she won't regret allowing him to talk.

"Why would you care? You're the perfect miss Uchiha," he snarls right back at her, the amount of spite almost enough to make Ren flinch. Almost. "One of the last of your clan, born in good position and that won't change- What do you know of failure?"

Oh-oh.

Ren snorts. She actually snorts- And then she starts laughing, hysterically almost. She even lets of Hibiki's throat, and Hana, being Hana, is both annoyed, amused and somewhat concerned, too.

"Seriously that's all that it's about?" Uchiha asks, borderline disbelieving. "Just because you're a branch Hyuga, basically a slave to the main family, and you, just like that, decided that I'm, what, a pampered princess? Is it really all about ridiculous clan rivalry and even more ridiculous jealousy? You're really going to forsake your future as a ninja, a chance to prove yourself to your family, over a petty revenge?"

Hibiki, wisely, doesn't answer. Even more wisely, he refuses to look Ren in the eye.

"All that idiocy, just because you feel need to give your life some worth," Hana sighs, holding an armful of dogs. "Petty reasons of petty, pitiful, pathetic bully."

"I'm not a bully!" Hibiki hisses.

"Oh? Then what are you?" Ren dares, and the Hyuga clenches his teeth, but refuses to answer. "Tell me, Hibiki," she says, and for the first time she really, actually gets his attention, because she calls him by his first name. Not surname, not any other name just to piss him off. His actual first name. "Are you so mediocre at everything only because your clanmates refused you training?"

"They say I'm a mistake," he answers, closing his eyes. "That I'm just a halfbreed-"

"Halfbreed?" Hana asks. "As in, only one parent of your is a Hyūga?"

"They think it makes me less," he confirms. "That my Byakugan isn't going to be as good as everyone else because of my blood."

"Oh my Jashin," Ren facepalms, and then looks at Hana. "In a case anybody wondered just how fucked up Hyūga are, here you have it. But I'm still mad. You're trying to sabotage us because of rivalry, jealousy and... Well, and because you think you won't do well as a ninja, am I right?"

"Yes," Hibiki hisses, still refusing to look at her.

"Sweet Sage. Okay, I don't believe I'm saying this, but let's have it like that; try. Try to pass the test with us, and in turn we'll train you," Ren sighs, and really she doesn't believe she just said that, because that's Hibiki, and she hates Hibiki so, so much- But she also wants to become a ninja. More so than she hates him, really. And she always considered herself as someone able of hiding their pride in their boots in favor of greater good.

"Y-you would?" he asks, and for the first time dares to look her in the eye. "But- I thought- I thought that you were a stuck-up, I-know-better Uchiha!"

"And you're an asshole and a bully, and are we judging?" Hana bites at him. "What do we do?"

"I was thinking on having Hibiki use his Byakugan to try to locate Shibi, since Hana's ninken are confused by clones, who have the same scent and now it lingers all around the forest, basically," Ren says, standing up. She even offers he boy a hand to hoist himself up. "But of course, the second I opened my mouth to him, he would already be throwing insults at me."

Hibiki at least has the grace to appear abashed.

"We good now?" Ren asks. "No more hissy fits from you?"

"But-"

"Notice that she never started with you," Hana notices, walking in between the two. "Whenever the conflict was, it was always because of you."

"But that time in the alley-"

"You were bullying first years," Ren quirks her eyebrow. "Her brother and my cousin included. You thought what, we'll just let that go?"

"Oh.," Hibiki lowers his head. "Well- I guess I don't have a choice, do I?"

"My offer on strangling you still stands," Ren says off-handedly, but serious enough for Hibiki to understand that she might actually mean it. His neck is sore from her iron grip already (how can other genin be so strong in the first place?) and it will surely bruise. All would it take for her was to hold a little bit longer, and Uchiha were known of their temper and acting on it.

(Her cousin did, after all, slaughter almost an entire clan and- And she actually survived being stabbed in the heart, did she not? Hibiki pales at the thought, as it dawns on him only now; Ren might as well be indestructible. The only other Massacre survivor wasn't even attacked to begin with.)

"What?" Ren asks, impatient.

"You- You were stabbed through the heart!" he gasps, wide-eyed.

"Yeah, and?" she asks, eyes narrowing in annoyance, and the Hibiki's eyes widen considerably. Did she just shrug off being almost killed? "Do me a favor, stop with dumb questions and on the creepy eyes. Make sure to look underground, too. Jōnin usually think they're so smart, hiding in the plain sight and stuff."

And so, Hibiki activates his Byakugan, and looks-

"Oh come on!" he cries finally, eyes wide. Both his teammates shot him a questioning looks. "He is underground!" Hibiki turns to them. "In the exact spot where we met before we started!"

Ren expected many things, but for her teacher to be a sassy shit? But then, they didn't say 'watch out for the silent ones' for nothing.

"That's..." Hana sighs, bringing her palm to her forehead. "Let's just- Let's just go and be mad about it, okay? Seriously, mom will be giddy if she learns I was outsmarted by her former teammate – the 'emotionally repressed' one! And she will know, for sure. I mean, they're meeting up for drinks today evening and- God, I won't see the end of it now."

...ooo~(x)~ooo...  

In the end, it turns out that the test was easy. Easier. And all about teamwork, too.

"It might've taken a death threat, but I see it worked," Shibi hums.

"The test was designed for a Hyūga," Hana huffs, offended. "Why?"

"Because Hibiki was resigned and ready to sabotage us," Ren shrugs. "We have to be a team until we advance in ranks, and it's Sensei's duty to make us into one. Or to point directions, anyway."

"You didn't have to strangle me, Uchiha!" Hibiki hisses, back to his usual cheek, red finger-marks slowly turning purple around his neck.

"Nothing else works on idiots, sorry," Uchiha shrugs. "But don't worry, now that we're ninja'd, we'll beat the idiocy out of you. Won't we, Hana?"

The Inuzuka only grins in answer. Hibiki looks at Shibi in exasperation, but the Aburame just shrugs. No solitary at all! He was going to be beaten by girls! But then, it's quite understandable, with all the effort he put into assholery instead of learning something useful.

"You might not be so hopeless," Shibi sums up. "Let's see what can we do with you from now on. Missions start tomorrow, of course."

"Oh fuck, the D-Ranks," Ren whines, suddenly remembering. Glorified chores, that's what they would be doing now. Respectable ninja, what a joke! "Just please, don't make us retrieve any pets for stuck up aristocrats-"

Surely it was too early for Tora, yes? Yes?!

"Well," Shibi coughs. "Daimyo's wife recently acquired a kitten. It has already made both a habit of running away and made a name for itself-"

Oh fuck.

Damn the fact her body was eleven. Her thirty-two years old mind really, really needed a drink. Vodka, preferably.