This is heavily inspired by shows like Alice in Borderland and Squid Games. It will have that type of premise. If you never watched it, it has this type of game where you "fight" to live. I guess you can say it like that. I recommend both shows a lot, Alice in Borderland even more lol. I love the concept of soulmates so I decided to smash it all in one fic.

The main characters in this story are mainly Shikamaru, Naruto and Ino so other ships and characters are mostly side characters. I am highly biased of some characters so be careful if you want to read more of this.

Relationships in this fic:

SasuNaru, plationic and romantic (will be explained later in the story.)

ShikaTema, romantic

Sakura and Ino, platonic

There will be some side relationships witch i wont mention because this note is already long enough.

English is not my first language so you can point the mistakes out if there are any, sorry if there are.

Enojoy the reading and have a lovely day or night!

Iruka truly loved those kids.

But it was the time, they were twelve and they would be thrown into the reality of the cruel world of soulmates. The world that eats you alive and if you dare to dive deeper kills you without mercy.

He would still be their homeroom teacher of course. He would try to teach them how to walk through this new world unscattered as well as he could. But from now on their life would change for better or worse. It was a dangerous gamble to participate in, far too dangerous for innocent children. If he was the one deciding, he wouldn't throw them into this until they were adults. But it is unfortunately necessary. People need a true connection with their soulmates and that means exposing them to each other's memories from quite a young age.

The profession he for so long thought was centered around love for children was disappointingly dark. And he hated it. How sad.

He looked at the slightly crumbled paper in his hands, fumbling with it, bathing in sweat from anxiety. It was the list of students in the classical alphabetical order, it was kind of careless to let the simple alphabet decide something so important but he couldn't do anything about it.

Steps took more than enough in his head, it was like counting to ten with every single one. After false intensity, he stood in front of a door of one of the biggest classrooms in the school. The air around him was hot and his throat was dry. He needed to do this, it was his job, a painful one but a job nonetheless, he thought as he opened the path of hell.

The room sat the parents of the victims in this soulmate disaster. People's faces were understandably concerned. The room felt gloomy. He wasn't surprised.

"Hello, nice seeing you again your kids are waiting in the room beside this one, as you know I am Umino Iruka and I will stay with you to monitor the children's reactions as their homeroom teacher." He repeated the practiced words with a smile, wishing to ease the mood. It didn't work. But what could he expect? It wasn't his child being pushed into adulthood all of a sudden. Even though he loved them as his own.

He pointed to the big screen suddenly lighting up.

"On this screen, you will be able to see each of them one by one, they will be put into a hypnotic state with the help of our Yamanaka agents. Each kid will watch the good memories first, then the worst ones. I dearly hope that all of them will be lucky." In reality, this wasn't about luck, it was about fate and fate is already decided so the only thing everyone could do is hope. Hope that decided destiny was forgiving enough.

"After the trial, anyone is welcome to have a consultation with me. I'm not forcing anyone though." He looked away from dreadful glances and observed the crowded room, the one in the shape of the amphitheater, The walls were painted in calm green, he always liked them. He liked the false security it provided to small beings he held dear.

That's when he closed his tired eyes. The chatter can be heard in the neighboring room. The walls in this place were pretty thin, you could never be too careful to agonizing screams. He hoped they weren't too scared, that they would be excited before the moment would come, to use up the last speckle of innocence they possessed.

He opened his eyes while asking the crowd. "Are there any questions?" Silence, nothing. Iruka knew there would be none, but the awful sense of politeness he wouldn't let him pass such questions.

How ironic, to congratulate the parents for their kid's misfortune.

The soulmates need to complete one another to make a perfect balance, that's why the people with the most careless life and clueless thinking were unluckiest. They get stuck with broken souls and beat-up lives. That was just Iruka's experience though, so it wasn't completely true. But in the end, when it came to his job, Iruka was rarely wrong.

In short, the more traumatized your soulmate is, the more traumatized you will be. Their memories get embroidered on their brain, and you will feel the same sadness they felt at their worst, it was a dangerous thing.

And Iruka was scared for his kids.

Naruto Uzumaki adored the concept of soulmates, the idea of someone who would love you unconditionally was far from anything he ever dreamt of. Whoever his soulmate was he would hold them close and never lose the grip. The daydreams of soulmate life came to him quite often. Now too as he watched two of his classmates argue again, their voices shifting their shapes from yelling to noticeable sarcasm. It was getting annoying.

What was so good about Sasuke? Why can't so many people look at him as they did at Sasuke? Why couldn't Sakura look at him like that?

"He will be my soulmate, it's obvious enough," Ino said, her voice sly. "I mean anyone like Sasuke could be your soulmate, get over yourself."

"Please, don't be a fool Ino, you're probably gonna be the one crying without the soulmate in the end!" A winner was never decided in their staring contests. It was pointless, really. Like blind leading the blind.

Not having a soulmate was a rare occasion, almost nonexistent one. It would be a miracle if something of sorts happened today. Most people never wished for the curse of not having a soulmate. But some are unusual enough to try.

One of those was Shikamaru Nara. He too noticed the eager girls' argument. This whole concept of soulmates didn't bother him all that much or change how he looked at the world he deemed simple. To him having a platonic soulmate was the best of the fates. Having a friend for life didn't sound that bad. But he couldn't decide, it was up to apparent destiny. What a drag.

He glanced at Ino and Sakura and smiled. "Wouldn't it be ironic if they were each other's soulmates? Shikamaru mused, mildly entertained.