Knitting Fate (Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren Part II)

Forty-Third Thread

Hello, it is I, your Author-Sama, battling through University and family Christmas diners to deliver you a filler chapter. Action starts in next, I promise.

*****

"Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them."
― Dr. Seuss

0

Ren pounces at the deer – or elk? She doesn't know, it's a Cervid, okay – without it even noticing her. Bless chakra enabling ninja to move around on knee-deep snow like bloody Legolas, without falling in or having it even creak under their steps. She jumps at it by the tree line, and the animal doesn't even see her coming until it's too late. She jumps on its back, making the fragile cervid cave under her weigh, and knocks it out with a surge of foreign chakra right into its spine. The attack cripples the animal, the rush of energy ruining its nervous system. It'll probably die in an hour – not like Ren is going to allow it to, not really. Meat has to be drained, because bloody meat... ew. Not good for preparing due to the mess, and Ren would prefer to not to deal with blood stains on white, winter-geared outfits.

"Find me two trees to hang the deer between and dig a hole in the snow, okay?"

"Well, that was clean," Deidara comments with a nod, but otherwise doesn't really stop as he marches between the trees. He slides his backpack off his shoulders, setting it down by a fallen log, and starts digging a hole in the snow between two fairly large trees. Ren, in the meanwhile, slings the deer over her shoulder as though it weighed nothing and flashes through a few hand seals before pressing her hand to the snow. There's a telling poof of smoke, and a pale brown spider with a large, round abdomen crawls hastily up her leg.

"Reeeeeen," the spider whines, and Deidara can hear Anri scoff. "Must you summon me in this cold? You know I hate cold! Couldn't you have summoned Aki or Kyo instead?"

"Hello to you, too, Jun. I need you to help me suspend this deer between those two trees," Ren says, completely ignoring his whiny outburst. "Let's hurry, I want to drain it before it dies on its own accord."

"Oooh, you blew up its nervous system," Jun says, and, using Ren's shoulder as a springboard, jumps at a tree. "Okay then."

From there, hanging the deer between the trees and above the hole Deidara had dug in the snow is a matter of a few minutes. Spider silk, equally as sturdy, if not sturdier, than ninja wire, but much more delicate, is more than enough to have the animal hanging like laundry without fear of it snapping and falling down. Ren frees one of the scrolls from her utility belt when Jun finishes up, and with a poof of smoke, Ryuuzakura – the katana Sasuke gave her on her first birthday here – appears in her hand. With a nod towards Deidara, who moves to grab the deer by its antlers, she unsheathes the blade and cleanly cuts off the head in one fluid motion. As Deidara drags the head to the side, the fresh, warm arterial blood spurts right into the hole, steaming in the sub-zero temperature like boiling water. Soon, the white turns red and pink, as the carcass bleeds its life-force out. With it hanging upside down, gravity does all the work for them.

They wait a while to make sure all the blood is drained, and then Ren frees the carcass, slinging it over her shoulder, and helps Deidara cover the red pool with the previously moved snow. It will seep through, sure, but hopefully it's in a secluded enough location that nobody will really notice it. And with that, they turn to their original destination – the canyon-like rift in the rock.

But this hunt for the deer had unintentionally brought back Ren's memories. Memories of Back Then, that she had grown to associate with the disaster that was half of the second and whole third decade of her life. Enough for her to forget that the first decade wasn't that bad – quite enjoyable, even.