Knitting Fate (Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren Part II)

Nineteenth Thread

"Some are born weird, some achieve it, others have weirdness thrust upon them."
― Dick Francis, To the Hilt

It's not like Ren has anything against the drunkard, no. She doesn't even know him. But Deidara, mini-Deidara, with hair like the sun and eyes as clear as the sky is disturbingly similar to Naruto. Maybe not with the shape of his face, but definitely with his sad, blue eyes. And Naruto, Ren realized a while back, she cares for unconditionally – almost as much as or Sasuke, actually. So, it's not like she holds a grudge against the drunk hobo, no. It's just that Deidara reminds her of Naruto, and whenever Naruto is even merely insulted, Ren strikes. Very, very viciously. As in 'you insulted him? Wait, hold up, let me just punch you very hard in the face, and, oh, did I just break your nose? I'm so not sorry' kind of vicious.

And the drunkard is on the ground and wailing, his nose a bloody mess, before Ren even fully registers that she decided to throw a punch. And her knuckles are aching. She might've over-done it, but, meh. She doesn't care. Neither does Hana, when man tries to scramble to his feet. When he plants his arms on the ground near the Inuzuka, she simply stomps on his hand. Thankfully for the man the ninja shoes are, if durable, rather soft. If she wore heels or combat boots, he might not even have hand anymore. It still crunched under her heel, and he would perhaps howl, if he didn't nearly choke on that sound. And then he crawled away.

(It was a bit weird that nobody paid any mind to that happening.)

"You okay there, brat?" Ren asks, looking at, quite shocked, mini-Deidara, who just stares at both of them, mouth agape and eyes wide. Actually, the sight is quite adorable. Very, even. And that's maybe exactly why, this time, it's Hana's brakes that fail. Spectacularly, like most fails that happen in or around Ren's life.

"You are so adorable!" Hana squeals, wraps her hands around stupefied child and twirls around with him. "Oh my gosh, look at you!"

"Put me down!" Deidara chokes, digging his nails into her shoulders and kicking his legs wildly the second he regains control over his body. Hana doesn't even seem to notice his flailing, the thick-hided as she is.

"Doesn't she look a bit like Naruto?" Hana keeps cooing, and Ren almost chokes on a snort. Deidara's face redden, he shrieks and starts kicking harder.

"I'm a boy!" he informs older girl furiously. "And let me down! Hm!"

"He does look a bit like Naruto," Ren agrees. "He's absolutely adorable."

Deidara reddens more, and very visibly regrets hiding behind the Inuzuka when he had a chance to dart past and maybe loose the man himself.

"I'm not adorable, hm!" Deidara argues. "I'm a ninja! And I'm not Naruto or whatever, I'm Deidara!"

(Hana makes a sound that is definitely an 'aaaaaw'.)

"We're ninja, too, obviously," Ren snorts, and finally takes pity on the kid, gently freeing him from Inuzuka's grip. Mini-Deidara only folds his arms on his chest, holds his nose up high and scoffs. The brat.

"Why were you running from that guy, if you're a ninja?" Hana asks then, quirking her eyebrow, and Deidara stills. He looks up at them, and then, his eyes actually gloss, and he bites his lower lip. He's very much fighting the tears. Ren also notices that he's wearing gloves- Well, glove. One, on left hand. His right hand is bare, and he very much tries to hide it with the glowed one.

"My clay," he whines pathetically, and he might be a brat, but spending her time with Sasuke and Naruto, basically every single while she has free had honed her 'protective older sister' streak to ridiculous levels. (Sasuke still sleeps with her. As in, in the same bed, under the same blanket. He's quite a cuddler, really, and Ren finds herself she doesn't mind – at least she is not woken by his screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night. That happened. Every fucking time Konohamaru's mom tried to make him sleep alone. Twice or thrice a night. Ren really thinks that woman has no brains whatsoever sometimes.)