Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

A/N: I decided to give Sasunaru month a try in English this year, so here you have it. This is a collection of individual and mostly unrelated drabbles. Both Sasunaru and Narusasu tropes will be included and each chapter will have its own warnings, as well as a tag to specify if it's SN or NS.

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Prompt #19: Red string of fate (-)

Warnings: A bit of angst, pre-relationship, one-sided feelings, hopeful ending.

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In a world where everyone was born with a red string tied to their pinkie, one would think finding your other half would be easy.

The string was supposed to lead to you the person you were destined to be with, someone who would complete you and love you. Someone made for you. The only problem was, nobody could see the strings, so it had become a myth of sorts, a tale to tell children.

Except that, well, Naruto could see them. On every person he came across on the street, every man and woman in the bus, in the store, in the supermarket, at school… They all had a red string attached to them. Sometimes, he'd find couples whose strings were connected, sometimes it was the other way around.

Fated people who found each other were supposed to be happy, supposed to live their fullest from the moment they met.

Not everybody was so lucky, though. Some people's threads were full of knots, and Naruto had yet to find out what that meant. Other's strings were cut off, and he'd come to discover that that meant the person that used to be on the other side of the thread had died. On a few occasions, he'd encounter people whose string had turned black, but again, it's not like he knew how fate worked.

What Naruto did know, on the other hand, was that he'd been born without a soulmate. There was no red string around his pinkie finger, no direction to follow, no person to find.

He couldn't understand why he'd been cursed to watch everyone find their soulmate when he didn't have one, and he didn't understand why he was the only one who could see those damn strings. It all made no sense to him.

The worst part of it all, was that he'd managed to be stupid enough to fall in love with his best friend, who did have a glistening red string tied to him. And, to top it all, he knew the person that string led to, too.

The three of them had known each other since elementary school. They hadn't always been friends, but now they often hung out together. Naruto knew Sakura had feelings for Sasuke, and that, of course, made sense. It was natural for her to develop feelings for her soulmate, even though she didn't know he was. Sasuke, on the other hand, had never shown too much interest in her. Like, sure, they were friends, and Naruto could tell Sasuke cared for her, but after Sakura had gathered enough courage to finally confess one day, he had downright rejected her without a second thought, and that… that didn't make sense at all. They were soulmates, they were meant to be together, and yet Sasuke didn't seem to be interested in her that way.

When Naruto had asked him about it, once they were alone, the raven had just said something along the lines of: "I like Sakura, she's a good friend. But I don't see her that way."

"Bu-But why?!" Naruto had insisted, still incredulous at the situation that had arisen. He had been resigned to only be Sasuke's friend because he knew Sakura and him were meant for each other, and here Sasuke was, telling him that he didn't like Sakura in a romantic way?

"Because I just don't?" Sasuke had replied, a tad exasperated at the question. "Do I have to have a reason not to like someone that way?"

"Well…"

"I can't force myself to love her the way she wants me to, and that's just how it is."

Naruto spent a lot of time thinking about that conversation.

Sure, people used to say nobody could control one's heart and who it chose to love, but Naruto knew for a fact that soulmates existed, that people's hearts were designed to love that one specific person, so why was Sasuke different?

Months went by, turning into years, and Sakura's feelings for Sasuke didn't fade. Naruto thought Sasuke would learn to love her too, during that time, but when Sakura came back to him saying Sasuke had rejected her once again, she looked sad, resigned, and surprisingly, there was a spark of acceptance in her eyes.

"He told me he's already been in love with someone else for years, and that he couldn't force himself to forget those feelings," the pink haired woman told him. She was sad, Naruto could see it clearly, but there was also a smile on her face. A genuine one. "I guess I understand what he means, because it's the same for me."

Naruto wanted to offer some kind of comfort. He didn't know what to say, though. Especially when he noticed it. With wide eyes, he saw the thread that connected Sakura to Sasuke slowly but surely turn black. It didn't fade, nor did it vanish, but just turned dark and stopped glowing.

What… What did that mean?

It couldn't be rejection, since Sasuke had already rejected Sakura before. And the bond, though evidently affected, was still there, wasn't it?

Sakura said goodbye and took off, probably just wanting some alone time for herself, something Naruto could respect. So, instead of following her, he went out to look for Sasuke, and found him leaning against a tree in the school's backyard.

"Hey, bastard, what's got you all moody?" he asked, seeing as Sasuke was just staring at nothing, hands in his pockets.

"Sakura confessed to me… again," Sasuke said, eyes lost in the distance.

"Yeah, I know," Naruto murmured softly, noticing the weird tone in Sasuke's voice. "I just saw her in the hallway. But why do you look so down now?"

Sasuke took a deep breath. "There's a constant pressure in my chest. It's… uncomfortable, but strangely liberating at the same time."

"Liberating?" Naruto repeated, and his eyes looked down at Sasuke's hand, where the darkened string was.

Could it be that Sasuke felt his soulbond was actually constricting him, somehow? Was it really that easy to just… choose who you wanted, and not who fate tied you with?

He looked at his own hand, absent from any thread, and thought, maybe people do have a choice. Eyes rising back to Sasuke's face, Naruto couldn't help but think that perhaps, just perhaps, he could make his own choice, too.

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A/N: This is honestly not what I had planned at all for this prompt, but who cares XD Here you have it, now.