"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign."
― Robert Louis Stevenson
0
Time flies after Ren's talk with Genma. She spends time with Sasuke and Naruto, along with any of their friends that they drag in on a given day, packs her things for Jōren Falls, meets up with Hibiki again, and bullies Hana into taking an actual day off to hang out together. She even manages to catch a brief glimpse of Anko and talk to her before they're inevitably pulled back to their respective duties. She writes to Kisame and Kakuzu. With Deidara, she can just catch in the corridor if she wants to talk these days, and Torune can be seen tailing him more often than not.
In a way, Ren supposes, Deidara slotted himself nicely in place of Yamanaka Fū, who would've been Torune's partner had he been dragged into ROOT.
(She hoped Fū was there, and that he and the other stolen children would be successfully extracted during the raid.)
She makes the final arrangements to have Sasuke and Naruto stay with Tsume under the guise of her training trip taking longer than a regular mission. While the kids are responsible enough to be left to their own devices for a week or two, a month is a bit of a stretch. It's really not far from the truth, in any case—Ren is a proponent of self-sufficiency, and Naruto swears up and down that he and Sasuke are fine, but regardless of Danzō's threat, Ren would always leave them with someone if she were to be away for more than two weeks. At least until they become genin.
Even the last mission's surprise extension had been a stretch that invaded Ren's comfort zone, despite her reassurances that the kids and cats would be alright in the apartment with a full fridge, money, and Genma right next door.
Speaking of cats, though, Tsume flat out refuses to take them, due to the compound being full of dogs, and the vet clinic not being able to keep them for that long. Thankfully, Sakura got permission from her parents to keep them for the month as a trial for if she ever wants a pet.
The evening before her departure, she encounters Kakashi on the roof of her apartment when she's out for some fresh air. He's out of his ANBU gear and in regular Konoha blues, with his trademark Icha Icha book in one hand. Ren had read one of those out of curiosity, and while the smut was written fairly well, the rest of it was a bit lacking.
The two had drifted apart after a while, but then again, Ren has her life, and Kakashi has his. They're not in the same age group, have different friends, and really had never really been friends to begin with. The only reason she had interacted with him before was because he was in the same ANBU squad as Itachi, had helped with the clean-up after the Massacre and with her Sharingan, and because of Naruto. He still leaves small gifts for Naruto here and there and was obviously grateful to Ren for taking him in, but that was it. Even after Naruto learned about his family, Kakashi hadn't approached him, though he seemed happy for him.
Likely he had felt guilty for leaving Naruto—but what could he have done, at fourteen, with an infant and a gag order prohibiting anyone close to Kushina and the Fourth from interacting with the kid in the first place?
There are many things Ren disagrees with in terms of the handling of issues within the village, but Naruto's situation was hands down the worst of them. With Danzō, the old fart had at least attempted to fix once upon a time, even if he had failed miserably.
Was Hiruzen a metaphor for people having power for too long or was she giving Kishimoto too much credit?
"Hi," Ren says, moving to sit next to Kakashi, but still leaving some distance between the two. She curls her legs under her on the concrete surface of the roof, and breathes in. Konoha is in an overgrown forest made with Mokuton, and there is little to no pollution. Even in the middle of the village, the air feels fresh. It's nice.
"Hi," Kakashi parrots back, putting down his book and looking at Ren in a way that makes her question if her running into him here is truly coincidental. "I hear you're dealing with a certain weed problem."
Definitely not a coincidence then, if only for Kakashi's personal interest in said weed problem.
"I am. I didn't think it was my place to remove the weeds, but then they got into my garden and—well. You know how it goes. They need to be properly rooted out."
"So you wouldn't have done anything if they hadn't?" he asks, eye narrowing, and Ren looks at him like he's stupid.
"I'm not saying that. It's that—I don't have the tools to get rid of them myself right now. Still, I have to do it before they become an actual threat to my flowers, and I need to borrow others' tools for that," she sighs, looking at the slowly setting sun over the horizon. It's beautiful. "Getting rid of those weeds completely was always the plan, I just never—hell I still don't have the tools."
"Hmm," is Kakashi's only answer, and Ren supposes it's fair. Her reasoning is good enough—she is by no means strong enough to deal with Danzō yet. Between cherishing a new life, becoming responsible for literal children, and her job, she has been in a sort of daze and hasn't truly pushed herself to her limits as much or as often as she should.
This daze, this lull, this complacency—today is the last day she lets herself indulge in it. She is an Uchiha, the potential to become impossibly strong is in her blood. It's the genetic starter pack she got just for being related to Madara and, further back in the family tree, Indra. It is time for her to start exploiting the hell out of it, like she should have been doing for the past four years.
It kind of woke her up, in a way, telling Kisame and Kurama the truth about herself. The fact that she had had a life before this one. It made her realize that this was not just some fever dream.
She knows that this is real life now, of course, but she is still realizing, and processing, certain things in stages. Like the fact that she now has people who care about her without expecting her to conform to their idea of who she should be. It is such an unrealistic type of relationship for Ren that it had taken her a while to accept it even exists, let alone that she has them now.
Being loved for who you are. It's certainly a first, for her. And it feels so good, she never wants to let it go.
On top of that, she finally found a weapon that truly, genuinely suited her. When she wields her Guandao, it feels like it slots itself into her fighting style, better than any sword. It's as if it was always meant to be there, and Ren intends to capitalize on her discovery as much as she can.
She had known she would never be a swordsman. That was Sasuke's thing. Even now, he has a better grasp of fighting with a sword than she did. The only reason she got relatively good at it was because of Kisame's pointers. (And her bullying of Hayate, who, by the way, is actually doing better after she sicced Hana on him. The look of betrayal in his eyes was priceless but he looked much less like he was about to keel over and die on the spot these days, so Ren was very proud of her handiwork.)
"What are you up to?" Ren asks, breaking out of her haze before she can get a little too sappy for the situation with her thoughts.
"Nothing much, just getting up to date with some gardening projects, you know how it is."
Ren hums in response, and just nods. It makes sense for Kakashi to be part of the main strike force—he has history with Danzō, and so does Yamato. But then again, is there any pie Danzō hasn't stuck his knobby fingers into? Ren honestly couldn't think of any. Naruto's situation, Sasuke's, Ren is even willing to bet that Akatsuki can somehow be traced back to Danzō—that man is absolutely the type to aid that salamander guy from Rain, Hanzo.
Why would she fear Zetsu, Kaguya, or even Madara's walking corpse, when she has a very real, homegrown threat right on her doorstep?
One thing at a time. She'll kill a god yet, but for now, she has to swallow the bitterness of having to rely on others to bring Danzō down, and focus on getting much stronger than she is now.
She is an Uchiha, dammit, and if she wants to be ridiculously overpowered, she will be. Hopefully.
"Can't you find better porn?" Ren asks out of nowhere, eyeing Kakashi's ugly orange book, and he freezes for a moment with a choking sound. He looks at her with a clearly affronted expression despite his mask covering most of his face.
"I'll have you know, this is quality literature—"
"Kakashi that is literally eighty-percent straight up porn, a dash of power-tripping, and topped off with revenge porn," she tells him, judgmental in a way only a sixteen-year-old girl could be. "I've read them. All of them."
And she has. The experience was similar to what she felt when she read Fifty Shades of Grey, which was decidedly Not Good.
"Are you sure you should be reading things like this?" Kakashi asks, and Ren shrugs.
"I was bored, and they seem popular enough. Granted, the porn is actually quite decently written, but everything else is frankly ridiculous," she says. "I can lend you some of my books. I guarantee they're better than this. You might even find something you like?"
"Will it get you off my case if I try?"
"Yeah? Yeah."
"Fine. I'll probably have more free time soon anyways."
"Oh?"
"Lord Hokage has… 'suggested' I take a break from ANBU."
So he basically got fired, then.
Ren hadn't even realized Kakashi is still in ANBU—he had to have been discharged at some point before the series began to fail several teams before Team 7. Given that Naruto's class is due to graduate in a little over two years, it definitely seems like high time for him to be added to the genin instructor roster. Fail at least two teams before Team 7, and the scene is set.
"I mean, you definitely can use a break," Ren shrugs. "I dunno, take some easier missions, start a garden, pick up a hobby. Ooh, you could learn to knit!"
This time it's Kakashi who gives her the judgmental stare, but because he's not a teenage girl, it doesn't have nearly as much power.
"I'm serious. Take some time off, find more terrible books to read, read them until dawn and sleep until dinner. Or something. If you want I can recommend some less crappy books, too."
Kakashi puts his book down and sighs. "Easy for you to say."
"Maybe. You could still use a break."
"Hn."
"And since you're on a break, drop by and check up on the brats for me while I'm out, how about that?"
Another sigh. "I'll try."
The rest of the evening passes without much fanfare. Sakura takes the cats home, Genma promises to feed the spider colony under Ren's windowsill every once in a while, Naruto and Sasuke trod happily to the Inuzuka compound for their extended sleepover, and Ren prays that Hana and Tsume won't go insane from dealing with three feral brats instead of the usual one for a month.
"Be nice," she warns both of them as they are wrapped around her hips, which is about as high as they can reach, with grips so tight she feels like they might crack her pelvis. They're so strong, even now. "If I find anything to bring back for you, I will."
"Yay!" Naruto cheers.
"I'm happier because you're gonna stay after you get back," Sasuke says, and Ren chuckles, ruffling his hair.
"I will definitely be staying home more, yes. I will still have to take missions, you know?"
"But you can take them in the village."
"Fair."
After she comes back, she has to take care of the Uchiha district, turn it into an investment that would generate profit so she wouldn't have to take as many of the higher-paying, long-term missions.
(Truth be told, she does take more and better paying missions than necessary, but she had never had much as a child other than the basic necessities—a combination of having an old-fashioned, religious family living in a rural area and money being used on things 'more important' than children—and she would be damned if she let Sasuke and Naruto experience the same thing she had.)
She checks her luggage one more time—all sealed into three scrolls. She had decided not to take much, mainly her weapons, clothes, some medicine, and some spices. Jōren Falls has food, after all. She just has to make sure it stops moving first.
She is also hoping to train with her naginata between sessions, that would be very nice. And sage mode. The goal of this trip is to make some headway on sage mode. Preferably she would learn how to use it, but she'll settle for learning the basics if it turns out to be more difficult than it seemed in the show.
And the mystery person the spiders were training that even she couldn't be told about. That is definitely something she would be looking into, if only for her own peace of mind.
She summons Elder Kana in an empty training ground after she says her goodbyes to everyone, and still recounts everything on her fingers before agreeing to go, just to be sure.
The brats are taken care of, the stove is off, the cats are with Sakura, Genma is helping with the colony, Hana has been bullied into taking a day off, Hibiki is sort-of broken up with despite them never having been a couple, and Awai is tucked in her vest—he had expressed a desire to visit Jōren Falls. Regular spider though he may be, he has been exhibiting the characteristics of a budding ninken and both he and Ren are hoping he, too, can train and learn there.
Ren slaps her cheeks several times to get her shit together. It's not like she's going away forever or anything like that, but she's still nervous. Places where summons live exist in a different reality that only sometimes phases through the world they're currently in. Dimensional travel—again. This time without dying and with a way back.
"Let's go," she tells Kana, who nods, as much as a spider can, and slams her forelegs into the ground around Ren. A circle of seals blossoms under their feet, and Ren is falling weightlessly in a void—and then she's suddenly sitting on grass again, but her surroundings have changed. She finds herself on a rocky and sandy shore by a waterfall instead of the clearing in the training ground. The trees around them are definitely not the Mokuton-infused, ridiculously large trees made by Hashirama. Rather, the trees are a normal size, the temperate forest is a lush green, and the crashing of falling water is the loudest thing Ren hears.
But she can still hear all the clicking and tapping.
And she can definitely see a multitude of spiders of all shapes and sizes slowly emerging from under the foliage and coming down from the tops of trees.
Ren stands up just as a large form moves to stand next to her, and she turns to see Cobalt looking probably the most excited Ren has ever seen her.
There's a soft murmur of voices as the spiders talk amongst themselves—many of them had only heard in passing that there's been a summoner. Most of them aren't even summons, just regular spiders living around the Falls. Hell, a lot of them have never even seen a human before, Ren would bet, mystery person or no.
Smaller spiders, barely the size of a house cat, run between Ren's feet, looking up at her in wonder and chattering away with child-like voices. They're the newest slings, Ren realizes, smaller than Cobalt had been when Ren summoned her the first time.
Ren thinks she should feel odd for likening them to kittens and puppies, but she doesn't. They are adorable. She picks one up, a small, brown jumping spider that looks an awful lot like a real-life version of Lucas the Spider, and looks around. At this point, she is practically surrounded by spiders, a scene not unlike what one might find in an action horror flick featuring giant spiders.
They're all friendly, though, or at least passively curious. Here, Ren feels, there's little to no threat to her life. At least until she begins her training, anyway.
"Welcome, summoner," a voice says, quiet but somehow still loud enough to be heard over the sound of the waterfall. The spiders fall quiet, turning towards the source of the voice.
For a moment, Ren has to stop and blink, because there's a woman standing at the top of the waterfall. She strikes an elegant figure, with long, flowing white hair and dressed in a pristine, white kimono, almost like a susohiki.
She then notices the spindly white spider legs poking out from under the skirt of the kimono, among the foliage. Even from this distance, if she strains enough, she can see that the woman's face is hardly human at all, with several eyes and a segmented jaw.
"I am Inoue no Himemiko," the Jorogumo says, effortlessly walking down the cliffside until she reaches the sandy shore. "It is my hope that you should find your stay here beneficial and enlightening. I have been awaiting your arrival."
Inoue is massive and stunning, especially up close. Even with the monstrous facial features, her beauty is alluring. Her kimono is well-made, likely woven with spider silk, and her hair is half up, held up by golden hairpins embedded with gems. She reaches a hand out, all white segmented chitin.
Inoue, one of three spiders who reign supreme over Jōren Falls—its strongest and oldest residents. Kana had mentioned Inoue wanting to meet Ren, she remembers.
She smiles, and takes the outstretched hand. It feels deceptively fragile.
"Uchiha Ren. But, you probably already knew that. I'm happy to be here, and I hope to learn a lot from you."
"You will."
Ren doesn't know if it's a promise, or a threat. Probably both.
She can't wait.
