Swapped Patterns (Canon Patchworking with Uchiha Ren Part I)

II - Acceptance

"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them."
― Ernest Hemingway

Genma stays a bit longer after that, and all Renee can think of is 'god bless your kind soul' in the prism of the man. He also became more relaxed, after seeing that, after her initial freakout, she took the news in... Well. Very well, even, but then, it was him seeing things through his experiences and thoughts. Renee was mostly relieved that Itachi – the idiot, however good-natured and genius, still completely, absolutely moronic for believing Danzo and Obito – was out of concern for now, and hopefully would be for next six or so years.

She had time. And, despite herself, she is already plotting. She likes to believe that she was given this chance for a reason, and she wasn't the one to let it slip through her fingers. Life taught her to grab on every occasion to reach her goal, or to regret it forever.

But right now, she finds pestering Genma much more appealing, and really, she adores the guy with every fiber of her being. Live he seems even cooler than he did onscreen, and Renee is more than happy of the fact.

"I'm Shiranui Genma, by the way," tokujo says finally when they're done discussing over the massacre, and she almost bites her tongue in order of not saying 'I know'. So, instead, she introduces herself, too;

"I'm Ren," is all she says, because this name both is and isn't hers. Besides, she bets that he knows, and does it only to be polite, because Genma is the one who deserves to be polite to.

"Well, it that's all, I'm gonna get going," Tokujo says after a while, and Renee can't help as her lips form into a horseshoe of pout.

"But..." she starts. "It's so boring in here. So boring I think I'm going to die out of boredom, and-"

Genma chuckles. "All right, kid, what do you want?"

Did she mention that she absolutely adores this guy?

"A book, or two, or three-" she starts, cocking her head. "But bring me something about princesses, or glitter, or girly by standards, and I will bite."

This time Genma laughs, and ruffles Renee's hair. Normally, if this was someone else, she would have punched them already, because she absolutely hated people touching her hair. But this was Genma, and his hands were far from sweaty, and it was nice, so she decided to allow it.

"Anything specific except for not-girly?" he asks, and Renee hums silently.

"Folklore, legends, folktales," she answers. "And something to write on and with, perhaps? I like doodling, too."

"Can do that," tokujo says, standing up with a smile.

"Hey, by the way, why did you come?" Renee asks before he makes his way to the window (because who can forbid a ninja to do that?), and he stops. He turns his head around slowly, and smiles at her, warm and friendly.

"Because Hokage said that I'm the most experienced with traumatized kids, and I was the one free at the moment," he says. "Besides, nurse ran straight to Hokage's Office and requested that it must be a ninja."

Renee snorts, and doesn't even bother to feel bad about it, or the woman.

"Come by some other time. It gets boring, and pestering you is fun."

"If I'm free," he clicks the senbon between his teeth and smiles. And then jumps out of the window, and Renee wonders if that's what ninja just do. And if she will also develop unhealthy love of invading people through their windows and not the door.

If you need to talk, he doesn't say as he vanishes, a blurred shape on the rooftops.

... ooo ~(x)~ ooo ...