I'm not going to stop writing Sinners' Devotion, it's just on a break 'cause writing the fighting scene is really hard. No one can be left out, so gimmie some time kk? I'll try to get it up as soon as possible. Until then, here's another story that I will be doing.

Title: Unmei no Akai Ito

Chapter: It Connects

Words: 3,131

Summary: Ever since Naruto was little, he has been able to see the Red String of Fate that connects soul mates together. He has finally found his own soul mate, but there is just one problem, its a guy. Naruto doesn't like guys!

Updated: Feb. 17, 2010

Naruto smiled to himself as he walked in the room. Instinctively, he glanced down at the room's occupants' hands. Taking note, the blonde looked down at his own, noticing the difference. While the others strings were tied only around a single finger, his was wrapped loosely around his entire hand the end of the string hanging down, disappearing before it hit the floor. He brought his hand closer up to his face, smile disappearing into a contemplative look.

"Excuse me." A deep male voice interrupted his thought process.

He turned his head toward the voice finding a man at the front of the room. Said male had silver gravity defying hair, only mused up by the white square eye patch that covered (obviously) his left eye while his right eye was visible, making an upside down u as if he was smiling. Naruto cocked his head to the side when his eyes raked over the rest of the man's face only to find it obscured by a long black turtleneck sweater all the way up under his eyes. The turtleneck was fitting on the man, showing off his fit form and cutting off at his shoulders where long, strong arms extended out from. He wore loose, black jeans and black tennis shoes completing his laid-back look. Hooked onto his jeans was an ID, stating he was a 'Staff Member of Konoha High: Kakashi Hatake.'

"Do you need something?" The man's voice was cheery but somehow lazy at the same time, as if he really didn't care if he needed something or not.

Naruto blinked and upon realizing that he had been standing in front of the doorway for a few minutes doing nothing like some crazy person, blushed. "A-ah. Gomen-I mean sorry." Naruto bowed at the waist. A few students looked at him weirdly and he wondered why. Do they not bow to their elders here? "I'm Uzum-Naruto Uzumaki." He licked his lips, not liking the way his name sounded in English. Naruto took out a piece of paper and walked up to the teacher, handing him said paper.

Kakashi's eye opened from its upside-down u shape, revealing them to be an interested shade of gray-blue, and took the paper from his hand. His eyes quickly scanned the paper, crumpling and throwing it in the trash-can when he was done. He smiled, or at least we think he did since his eye did that upside-down u thingy again. "Welcome to Konoha High Naruto! Now, before I find you a place to sit, you have to tell the class your name, age, where you're from, your favorite hobby, your goal, your likes and dislikes, and a random fact about yourself."

"Oh. Ano..." Naruto turned towards his classmates, scratching the back of his neck - a nervous habit that he can't rid himself of. His eyes caught another's, clashing cerulean blue against ebony. He broke their gaze to look at the boy's hand. The string was loosely tied around it and the end disappearing just before it hit the floor, just like his was. He frowned, this was the first time he saw someone else's string tied around the entire hand, like his own, instead of a single finger. He put back on his smile, scanning the rest of his classmates faces. "My name is U-" -gah! English was weird!- "Naruto Uzumaki. I am 17 years-old and until recently, went to Hokkaido International School (HIS). I do not really have a hobby to speak of. I like Iruka-sensei and I love ramen but I dislike the three minutes it takes to make it. I do not really have a goal at the moment as I am still settling in." He turned towards the teacher. "Forgive me, but what was that last thing?" (1)

"A random fact about yourself." How that man can sound so cheery yet bored at the same time was a mystery to the blonde.

Naruto shrugged, shaking his head in a "i-don't-know-what-to-say" way.

Kakashi clapped his hands in front of him once, making Naruto jump. "Alrighty then! You heard him brats! Now say hello!" The was a muffled, unenthusiastic hello from the entire class making Naruto's eyebrows scrunch up at the "disrespectful" behavior.(2) "Does anyone have any questions for Naruto?" A few hands shot up. "Ah. Yes, Ashley."

A long haired red-head with glasses put her hand down. "You said you're from Hokkaido?" Naruto flinched at the way she said it in English but nodded. "So you're Japanese?" Naruto once again nodded. The girl -Ashley his mind supplied- looked skeptical. "You don't look or sound anything like it. You look like a typical American boy."

Naruto smiled. "Yes, I seem to get that a lot. I learned English from a young age, so I am able to speak it well. I am fully of Japanese heritage, even though I do look like a," he paused trying to remember how the girl phrased it, "'typical American boy'." Ashley nodded, satisfied with Naruto's answer.

A few hands went down, as Ashley stole their questions, but one hand remained in the air. Kakashi nodded at the boy allowing him to ask his question.

"When the hell did you get so polite?" Naruto and a few others blinked when the boy spoke in another language - Japanese. Something tugged at the back of Naruto's mind. His eyes raked over the brunette's body. He was of muscular build, but not too muscular, and had shaggy brown hair with eyes to match. Red, upside-down triangles were painted onto his face, and larger than normal canine's poked its way out from underneath his upper lip. Something clicked.

"Inuzuka Kiba!" A few people in the class jumped at the blonde's sudden outburst - who, until now, had been relatively quiet. Naruto grinned so wide his cheeks hurt. "Why are you here? I thought you were going to live in Australia? How's your mom? And your sister? How-" Naruto shot off question one after another.

"Woah, woah, woah. Slow down my man! You're goin' way too fast for me to answer. And I thought I was supposed to be the one asking the questions to the newbie." Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly muttering a small "gomen." "Meet me after class so we can catch up, ne?" Naruto nodded. "But seriously, I want my question answered. Back in elementary we were cussin' and all that shit in Japanese. But you come here and you have like... proper English." Kiba's face scrunched up in mild disgust.

Naruto's head cocked to the side. "Sou ka? Iruka-sensei taught me how to speak in English."

Kiba nodded gravely. "That explains it." His face broke into a grin. "Then that just means that I'mma hafta re-edjumacate you, newbie!"

Naruto's eyebrows scrunched up. "'Re-edjumacate'? What does that mean? Did you mean to say 're-educate'?"

Kiba's head banged down onto his desk face first, surprising and worrying Naruto. "No~!!" Kiba moaned as if in pain. "Iruka-sensei's getting to you Naruto!" His fist went up in the air as his head came up off the desk with a determined look - and a red forehead. "FIGHT THE POWER!"

"Well, well." Kiba and Naruto jumped. They had forgotten they were in the classroom. Naruto hurriedly bowed to the teacher, apologizing. "You don't have to be so formal Naruto." This caused Naruto to bite his lip in confusion. Formal? "Now that you have rediscovered your friend, I think it's time to rediscover your English class." Kakashi's tone was light and he was smiling but it still made Naruto blush slightly. His eyes trailed off to the side and he muttered an apology. "Now Naruto, you can sit..." He trailed off, scanning the room for an empty desk. He pointed at the only one in the room, which was behind the boy whom he had made eye-contact with earlier. "You can sit behind Sasuke."

Naruto nodded and made his way over to the seat. Putting his backpack down on the floor next to his chair, he settled down and waited for the class to continue what it was doing before he had walked in.

"Well class, since we have a new student today I'll give ya'll a break. You can do whatever you want for the rest of the period." Kakashi sat down behind his desk and pulled out a book, the cover reading 'Critical Theory 2: Structuralism and Existentialism.' Kakashi giggled.

Naruto, confused as to why the teacher was giggling at a Literary Critism Help book, rose an eyebrow but turned his attention to the boy in front of him. Always willing to make a new friend, he tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me."

The boy -Sasuke, wasn't it?- turned around to face Naruto with a blank look. "Hn?"

"May I inquire as to what your name is?"

"It's 'What's your name?' Naruto. Not that 'inquire' shit." Naruto looked over to Kiba who was walking towards his desk. He sat upon it. "He's a total bastard Naruto. Don't bother with him." Kiba completely disregarded the fact that Sasuke was not a foot away from him, surprising Naruto.

"Hn. Uchiha Sasuke. Yoroshiku." Sasuke held out his right hand to Naruto -Naruto couldn't help but notice it was the one with the red thread around it- ignoring Kiba just as the brunette had done to him.

Naruto was momentarily surprised to hear Sasuke speak in fluent Japanese but he quickly snapped out of it, smiling at Sasuke. "Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!" (3) He reached out his right hand -once again he couldn't help but notice it was his red thread hand- to shake hands with Sasuke. As their hands touched Naruto gasped feeling a slight shock go through his system. He froze, noticing that the end of Sasuke's and his threads were intertwining. Naruto's eyes widened and he blanched. He quickly pulled his hand away from Sasuke's bigger one, making him frown. "I- I have to go to the bathroom." He rushed out in a whisper.

The blonde hurriedly grabbed his bag, throwing it over his shoulder and quickly made his way out of the room. He called out his intention to the teacher as he opened the door, not waiting for him to reply.

Sasuke blinked and turned back to the front of the room, ignoring the stares he was getting from the class.

"Does anyone know what happened?" Kakashi's voice rang out.

"I don't know. He was fine just a second ago, but he froze all of a sudden and said he needed to go to the bathroom." Kiba frowned, glancing in Sasuke's direction.

"Well then, Sasuke. Why don't you go see what's the matter?" Sasuke frowned at the teacher. "Kiba obviously thinks that whatever is wrong with Naruto is your fault, judging by the glances he keeps giving you, so you should fix whatever you did." Sasuke's frown deepened -he didn't do anything after all- but he got up and went after Naruto anyways. There's no point in arguing with a teacher he knew he wasn't going to win against.

Naruto went into the biggest stall, locking it behind him. He leaned against the wall and slid down it, not caring about the numerous germs that were there. He brought his hand up to his face, looking at the red string entangling it. His eyes followed the string which was going through the stall's wall and further. No longer did it end at the floor. He lifted his left hand and tried to grab at the thread with his fingers, only for them to go straight through it. He tried again and again, struggling in vain to touch it, to break it, something! He pursed his lips and covered his eyes with the hand, giving up.

By no means was Naruto homophobic -I mean his best friend at HIS was gay for Christ's sake!- but by no means was Uzumaki Naruto gay himself! He liked girls! Boobs, curves, vaginas, and all that jazz! Not- not dicks and flats chests! He sighed to himself. Sometimes he wished he was never born with this power.

A young boy, maybe seven or eight years old, sat in the living room of his apartment. Light shone through a window, making his blonde hair and blue eyes seem brighter. The boys eyebrows were scrunched in concentration as his left hand pulled at something just over the skin of his right hand, sometimes even accidentally pulling the skin.

This was how Umino Iruka, guardian and teacher of Uzumaki Naruto, found him. He walked into the living room and sat down next to Naruto, startling him. He glanced up at Iruka, only to go back to his work. Iruka looked over the boys hand, trying to see what he was grabbing at. "What are you doing Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked up at his guardian, momentarily pausing in his quest. "I'm tryin' to get this string off my hand, but it won't come off. I can't even touch it!"

Iruka's eyebrows scrunched up. "But Naruto-kun, there's nothing there."

"Yes there is! Why does everyone keep sayin' that! I can see the string! Everyone has one! Even you Iruka-sensei!" He abandoned his quest and picked up Iruka's left hand. Grabbing the end of the pinky with one hand, he pointed at the base of it, right above the knuckle, with the other. "Right there! See it? The red string?"

Iruka's eyebrows shot up? Red? But that's just a myth. Iruka frowned. But Naruto hasn't lied to me before, at least not on something like this. I haven't even told his that tale, so he can't possibly be faking it... "You said everyone has it?" Naruto nodded. "When you see two people holding hands, are the string connected?"

Naruto thought about it for a second, trying to remember the couples he has seen. "Sometimes... Not all the time though. Like, when Ayame-nee-san was going out with that jerk Hiiro, their strings weren't together. But her best friend, Kenji and her strings are tied together." ((Sure enough, a few years later they started to go out and soon afterwards got married and had a baby girl -Rei.))

Iruka nodded. "Naruto, listen to me ok?" Telling that Iruka was being completely serious, he nodded. "What you're seeing is called Unmei no Akai Ito. (4) When two people are destined or fated to be with each other, this string ties them together. The string can become tangled or stretched, but it will never break. So if you ever find the person who is connected with you by that string, be good to them, okay?" Naruto nodded vehemently. "You are the only person that can see this string, so you can't tell anybody ok? People will take advantage of you. Promise me Naruto. Say you'll never tell anyone unless you absolutely have to."

"I promise."

Iruka smiled and hugged Naruto before getting off the couch. "Now who's up for some ramen?"

Naruto held his breath as he heard the boys restroom door open. Feet silently padded towards his stall, coming to a stop right in front of it. A single knock rapped against the door.

"S-someone's in here." Naruto called out, hoping the person would leave him alone. When the feet didn't move after a few seconds, he sighed and got up from the floor, picking up his backpack. Unlocking the door he came face to face with the very man he was hoping to avoid.

(1) "My name is U-" -gah! English was weird!- "Naruto Uzumaki. I am 17 years-old and until recently, went to Hokkaido International School (HIS). I do not really have a hobby to speak of. I like Iruka-sensei and I love ramen but I dislike the three minutes it takes to make it. I do not really have a goal at the moment as I am still settling in." He turned towards the teacher. "Forgive me, but what was that last thing?"

-Naruto is speaking politely and properly because that's the way Iruka taught him to speak English. (Sneaky little thing, making Naruto learn proper manners without him even knowing.)

(2) The was a muffled, unenthusiastic hello from the entire class making Naruto's eyebrows scrunch up at the "disrespectful" behavior.

-In Japan, people are overly polite (usually) especially to their elders. They usually bow to the teacher in greeting and farewell. Hence the reason why Naruto thinks it's rude.

(3) "Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!"

-Yoroshiku-Nice to meet you/Please take care of me --- Onegai shimasu is just added onto the end for the person replying like "Nice to meet you, too" (polite Japanese)

(4) Unmei no Akai Ito

-Red String of Fate/Destiny (something along those lines)