Red Thread
Callista Miralni
disclaimer: nothing.
For SasuSaku month.
Prompt: "What are you so desperate for?" And this kickass picture I saw on tumblr.
The thread of fate is as thin as spider's silk and colored red with blood.
The Spinner lived in a room spinning fate's thread. His hands bled from gathering the hopes, wishes, dreams, fears, nightmares, and despair of human beings to make this thread. Numbed with pain, he watched the spindle with half-lidded eyes, reaching out to spin it every time it slowed down.
The spindle could not stop. Fate will not stop.
He knew every thing. Of course he did. After all, he was the original author of their lives.
For example, the Hatake boy would grow up to become Japan's next Prime Minister, as dictated by the golden thread of power. He designated Maito Gai as his self-proclaimed rival through the looping of their threads. He knew Hatake Kakashi would fall in love, but never marry, and the girl who was his "soulmate" would be tied to another.
The human notion of soulmates made him scoff. There was only one, they believed, and finding that one meant a lifetime of happiness.
No... true soulmates were the people who he tied their strings together.
The knot was unyielding and unforgivable. The strength of the knot dictated the type of relationship a couple would have. A loose knot of only two strings meant perfect—but short-lived—love. A loose knot around multiple strings meant a relationship wrought with affairs. A small knot of two strings tied within a larger knot with a third was a conflicted love. A tight knot of two strings was the rarest one of all—it symbolized eternal and perfect love.
Nowadays, the Spinner spent more time gazing at a particular knot-within-a-knot in his tangled room.
O what a tangled web we weave!
Haruno Sakura giggled as she smiled at the back of her cell phone. Beside her, long-time boyfriend Uzumaki Naruto stuck his tongue out and made a peace sign with two fingers.
She viewed the picture on the screen and nodded in satisfaction. "Sasuke!" She cupped her hands around her mouth and waved to the teen a few yards away. "Come over here!"
Uchiha Sasuke looked at her from where he was standing with his vice captain of the Konoha Gakuen soccer team, Nara Shikamaru. He sighed, wrapped up his tactics discussion hastily, and walked over to his two best friends.
"You're so slow, Sasuke-kun," Sakura pouted before throwing an arm around his waist and snapping another picture with her cell phone.
Sasuke scowled. "I'll do whatever I want, Sakura."
She frowned before launching into a loud chastisement. He rebutted each of her arguments with a sarcastic comment. They failed to notice a frowning Naruto standing a few feet away.
"Hey guys!" The blond butted in. "I see a dango stand—let's get some!"
Distracted, Sakura eagerly looked for the vendor. "Dango sounds good."
Linking her arm with Naruto's, Sakura smiled sunnily at her boyfriend before skipping off. As he was being pulled away, Naruto glanced back at his best friend apologetically.
"I know you hate sweets-"
Sasuke stuck his hands in his pockets. "Tch. Forget it dobe, before you lose your arm."
They were too interesting to the Spinner. Both loved the same girl and both loved each other. She loved them both but could never choose.
Sakura and Naruto fought often.
Most people could never believe it. They were the perfect couple—sweet and affectionate.
But God when they fought, Sasuke felt a cold chill run down his spine.
He hated their fights. He was always stuck in the middle. Naruto would come to him first, complaining at the top of his lungs. Two hours later, Sakura would call to bitch. Sometimes, Sasuke offered them advice on how to approach each other afterwards but most of the time, he sat and listened.
He loved his two best friends but Sasuke wished more than anything in the world they didn't love each other beyond the boundaries of best friends. It would be so much better that way. Naruto and Sakura were too much alike: needy, affectionate, loud, selfless... the list could go on for miles.
No, Sakura needs someone to balance her brightness out, someone to ground her enthusiastic optimism.
Someone like me—his traitorous mind often whispered.
It was after another one of their fights—this time, in a semi-public setting—that Sasuke had Sakura sitting comfortably on his lap with her head buried into his shoulder.
He wrapped his arms around her loosely, thankful for the darkened and secluded corner. Naruto wouldn't be upset if he found them like this (after all, they had known each other forever and it wasn't unusual for Sakura to curl up on Sasuke's lap whenever she was upset) but other people might get the wrong idea.
"I don't get what his problem is," Sakura mumbled, loud enough for only Sasuke to hear. "I mean, it's not like we haven't spent every single day together since graduation. So what if I want to hang out with other people at a party for once? I don't have to spend all my time with him. Is it so bad that I want to see Ino and the others?"
"Sakura," Sasuke gently reprimanded her. "It's not like you've made much of an effort to hang out with Ino in the first place."
The teen sighed. "I know that's my fault and now that I have the opportunity, Naruto gets upset because I won't hang out with him. I always hang out with him. And you too, but more him."
"I know, babe."
Pulling out her cell phone, Sakura handed it to Sasuke. "Read these texts he sent me earlier, while we were in the same room. I mean, c'mon! Even if we all have unlimited, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
Scrolling through the conversation, Sasuke couldn't believe his best friend could be such a needy ass.
When are you going to talk to me?
Can we go somewhere and hang?
Stop ignoring me, Sakura.
You're such a bitch, you know that. I'm scared if you can't tell. I want to spend as much time together as possible.
"You know he's just being insecure because you're leaving," Sasuke remarked as he handed her phone back. "You were always destined for greater things and he knows it. Naruto's scared that when you're away in Kyoto studying, you're going to realize that he's not as amazing as you think he is."
She froze. "What do you mean?"
Sasuke shrugged. "I appreciate Naruto and I wouldn't trade him for anyone else in the world but when it comes down to it, he's a whiny, insistent, insecure ass with affection and optimism as a sugar topping."
Looking scandalized, Sakura punched him softly in the shoulder. "Why the fuck are we still friends then?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's because I actually don't mind that brightness so much. It's a nice change."
Sakura laughed before settling into a close hug. "I'm going to miss you the most," she murmured into his neck. "I don't know what I'm going to do without you."
Ignoring his racing heartbeat, Sasuke commented, "Shouldn't you be saying something like that to Naruto?"
"No," she smiled. "I love him, but you keep me focused on what really matters in life."
"Oh? What's that?"
Sakura gave him a secret smile before she leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. Untangling herself from him, the girl thanked Sasuke for listening before running off, presumably to apologize to Naruto.
"You know," Hyuuga Hinata took a seat beside him. "I couldn't help but watch you two."
He gave his cousin a puzzled look.
"You have it bad for her."
Snorting, Sasuke took a sip of his drink. "She's my best friend—I can't care?"
Hinata shook her head. "That's just it, Sasuke. You care too much."
Sometimes, when the Spinner was bored, he would trace the threads of their lives and peek into their futures. At whim, he would change the knots, depending on who he thought suit the girl best.
Yes, it was he who was responsible for Sakura's fickle heart.
He felt bad but he couldn't help it.
This was entertaining, at least.
"Have you ever heard of The Spinner?"
Sasuke looked up from his criminology book. "Are you on crack?"
Swatting him on the arm, Sakura huffed. "I'm serious here, Sasuke. Have you?"
He set his text aside. "Enlighten me," he drawled.
Launching into the story she learned in her philosophy class, Sakura explained the Thread of Fate, the Spinner, and soulmates by the Spinner theory. "Isn't that fascinating?" She gushed. "I wonder if it were possible to find the Spinner and change your destiny as you want it."
"It's a story, Sakura," Sasuke rolled his eyes and picked up his book. "Get real."
"That's what you think," her eyes twinkled in mischief. "I read a report that someone actually found him."
Sasuke's grip tightened on his textbook.
"It's not that easy," Sakura babbled on. "First, you have to enter a deep trance, the kind that puts you in a death-like state, before doing some complicated shit to find the location. The Spinner exists in a whole other plane altogether."
"Hn."
She pouted before leaning into his shoulder to read the text. "You're not even listening to me."
"As fascinating as that fairytale is, I have a test in twenty minutes."
A man possessed by an idea, Sasuke researched for almost a year. Finally, he gathered enough information to attempt the trip.
They graduated college during that time and went on to work in their respective fields. Naruto finally saved enough money to move to Kyoto, having graduated at Tokyo University in politics and international relations. Sasuke transferred to the same university as Sakura when they were sophomores and majored in criminal psychology and criminology. Sakura was in the last year of her residency.
It didn't seem like much changed since high school. Sasuke and Naruto shared an apartment together and Sakura lived with some girl named Shizune a block away. Sakura and Naruto were still dating, after five dozen breaks and six breakups. Sasuke took up a job as a detective with local police force.
When he was alone, Sasuke would practice the technique he learned to induce a near-death state. Breathing in deep, his mind shut down piece by piece, heartbeat slowing down. Detaching himself from his physical shell, Sasuke let himself be pulled away.
He had never gotten this far before someone shook him awake. The corridors of purgatory were lined with thousands of doors but the one with the red door was the only one that mattered.
According to his research, several people throughout history have successfully undertaken the journey to change their destiny. Every one reached The Spinner but all attempts to change their lives were complete failures.
Sasuke gritted his teeth. He wouldn't fail. His pride wouldn't allow for it.
Besides, he smirked as he lightly palmed the object at his side, he has some thing the others didn't have.
A plan.
The Spinner remembers the day the man burst in through his door.
Tall and striking, his dark gaze flickered to the hunched man at the opposite side. A web of red thread lay between them, crossing in places so think it was impossible to see through.
"This is not the first time this room has been graced with a guest."
The man—one Uchiha Sasuke with thread as dark as pomegranate blood—scowled. "And you're the bastard who keeps toying with Sakura's heart."
Clapping his hands, the Spinner's gaze turned to ice. "And you're another haughty git who thinks he can change the world. What are you so desperate for? Accept your fate—you are destined to love from afar and to be alone for eternity."
The frayed remnants of the room floated through the air as Sasuke slashed it down with the katana he brought.
"No one controls me," Sasuke hissed. "I make my own fucking destiny."
"You're a fool," the Spinner wheezed. "You can't choose who you love, you can't choose who she loves either. This adventure of yours is a figment of your imagination."
"I choose her," he answered quietly. "And if she chooses me too, then that's all that matters."
When he came to his senses, he was lying in a hospital bed.
"What were you thinking?" Sakura shrieked at his bedside, still dressed in her uniform scrubs. "Daydreaming while on a stakeout? You were lucky you were only shot!"
She continued to berate him but Sasuke tuned her out. He was too focused on her.
Her usually soft pink lips were chapped from dehydration and her bright eyes red from staying up most of the night. Unruly pink locks were clipped away from her face with a set of barrettes Sasuke had given her when they were sixteen.
If he remembered correctly, yesterday Sakura was working the graveyard shift in the ER. She had requested it, Sasuke remembered her telling him, to avoid Naruto after their last fight and during their recent hiatus.
"Sakura," he said hoarsely. "Shut up."
And he kissed her.
The Spinner gazed at his destroyed room with an ironic smile.
After a thousand years, someone finally had the guts to take charge of himself.
The Uchiha boy's rampage left nothing unscathed. His spindle was held together by a few splinters and every single thread was severed in two or more places. These people wouldn't die—life ended at the point he cut the thread from the spindle.
He hummed a nameless tune as he began picking up the mess. Sweeping away the frayed threads into the garbage can, he untacked the remnants from the walls. He tossed the spindle into the trash and slapped a couple band-aids on where he was cut. The Spinner was down to the last few strings when he noticed the only remaining knot in the room.
A string of maraschino cherry pink and pomegranate red were tied together, the blood orange string barely hanging off of its former place around the two. It was their knot and the Spinner took satisfaction in knowing that Sasuke hadn't succeeded after all.
He moved to fix the blood orange thread around its original place, but a single touch severed the last few fibers holding it in place and the thread fluttered to the ground. Staring at it in shock, the Spinner's quiet laugh echoed off the ruined walls.