A/N This is cross-posted from AO3

In which there is red string that connects you and your soulmate; however, if it is cut, your bond will be broken.

Itachi/Sakura

He had first learnt about the existence of soulmates at the age of three. At first, he felt the disappointment crash into him when he saw the lack of a string on his wrist, but his mother had merely smiled and told him to wait.

At the age of five, he woke up with a shimmering red line tied to his wrist and that pooled on the ground at his feet, and he had never smiled so widely before.

Over the course of the next eight years, he woke up with his fingers threaded in the silky line that pulsed in time with his other's heart, and watched the red string glow along with the excitement of his soulmate and dim with their tears. It had yet to dull or fade, and Itachi hoped it would never have to do so.

But came the age of thirteen, and he had killed his clan—his family—and had fled the village he loved.

And at the age of fourteen, when his thoughts got darker and his heart learned apathy, he started to consider removing the string from it's position on his wrist.

He knew he would never be able to completely sever it; he could not bear to wake up every morning and see the remnants of a string and know that it was once colored in a beautiful, vibrant red and feel the empty ache in his chest, made worse by the knowledge of knowing he really had taken away everyone from himself this time, for the only ones he loved either hated him or were dead by his own hands.

(Though he told himself it was because he didn't want another to feel the pain of rejection even though a part of him knew the truth.)

So, Itachi would not do it. But slipping the thing away and leaving it to become a thing solely for him to admire in his spare time ensured that his soulmate could not ever follow theirs to his end and ensured that they would never have to bear the burden of being matched to a person like him.

But whenever his fingers slipped underneath the soft silk-like material he would hesitate. He would hesitate and think,perhaps it might be prove to be useful one day. Perhaps his soulmate might be an enemy shinobi he needed information from—which was likely, given his status—and revealing that he was their soulmate might make them more willing to part with the knowledge that he would, without a doubt, desperately need.

Or perhaps taking off the string would have negative effects on his abilities, after all, it was tied to the soul, and he knew, as everyone did, that each person's unique chakra was a representation of their soul. Who knew what would happen if he had really taken it off?

So he didn't. He kept telling himself he needed to, wanted to, but he didn't. Not when he killed the clan, not when he tortured his beloved sibling, not when he left the village that he gave his all to and never received anything back. He was a monster—he was well aware of the fact. But he could never bring himself to slip off the very thing connecting him to his other half.

At the age of seventeen when he first felt that warm chakra he had gotten so used to feeling on his wrist pulse with the faint feel of medical chakra, he knew he was doomed. For why would an accomplished medical ninja—for he was sure that was what his soulmate would come to be—ever love a murderer like him?

It was ironic, how one saved lives and the other took them.

His felt his hopes—the last vestiges of them, the remnants of ones he had harboured since before leaving Konoha—shatter. The hopes he never realised he had, the ones he didn't know he'd been living on until they were gone.

And it was less than a year later when he finally stored the string in a pouch kept in a pocket in his cloak.

And at a hospital in Konoha in Fire Country, Haruno Sakura's sparkling string dulled into a dead shade of grey that spoke of rejection.

It was actually years later when they first met. In the midst of battle, fierce green eyes clashed with his red and while a part of him could not help but think how reckless it was of her, and didn't she know how dangerous it was to meet an enemy Uchiha's eyes? The rest of him was shouting, shouting out all the emotions he'd kept repressed since he was thirteen.

Pink hair and vibrant green eyes, she was all brightness to his dark. He watched as she charged Kisame without fear and he stood there and could not help but think that it was really her, and that she washere, right in front of him. He just watched as blades clashed and the ground broke with the sheerpower of her strength, and Itachi could not help but feel his heart beat a little faster, because what most people didn't know was that Uchiha never did anything by halves, and when they loved, they loved—with everything they had.

And gods, Itachi was in love.

He was in love with the one whose presence kept him company as he grew up in the loneliness of a clan that cared but never showed it. He was in love with the one whose presence he had grown achingly familiar with, the one whose heartbeat he reached out to feel pulsing right before he commited the act that ensured the rest of the world would only ever see him as a murderer. He was in love with the one whose emotions changed every day, all compassion and ferocity and determination, and those emotions were shared with him through his soul thread. And Itachi was in love with the one whose heartbeat he would fall asleep to on the days when his memories—of his brother, father, mother, cousin, clan, family—the memories that were marred by blood, andoh gods all the blood—became to much and he had to take the little string from his pouch and hold her heartbeat and press it against his own. He was in love with the person who gave him everything, but received nothing, the person who was his soulmate.

But Itachi would never let her know. She didn't deserve it, for half of her soul to reside in a murderer and a traitor and a monster.

Itachi had met his finally soulmate, and he couldn't do a damn thing about it.

He caught sight of the grey string that sat on her wrist, dead and gone, gone as in it was there but she could never follow it, and for a moment, Itachi thought he saw it flash red. But then the battle ensued and the moment was gone.

He had met his soulmate, and he would ensure she would never know hers.

Because in that instant they met, he knew all they would ever be were shinobi on the opposite sides of the battlefield.

A/N Requests are welcome. Comment for a pairing you want, or au, or storyline. I promise to try and fulfil your requests to the best of my ability. Fair warning: I will attempt to complete your requests during my free time, however, I make no promises on when that will be. That being said, I'm fairly open-minded to whatever ideas you may have.