A/N: Hey guys! This is my first attempt at a multichapter story that didn't originally spawn off one of my oneshots! I hope you guys like it, but this'll probably only be like… I don't know, three chapters? (Does that count as multichapter?) So many people want me to write longer stories, but I really prefer oneshots or twoshots, so bear with me here! Have fun, yeah.

Other note: "Aishiteru No Justsu" means "I Love You Technique". Don't ask me why, okay? Oh they myth that I mention in here twice, I'm not sure if it is completely correct, but it should be the general idea!

---

"Nii-san!" They young boy raced down the wooden hallway, a small spool of red thread clutched in his right hand. His black hair was plastered to his forehead from the sweat as he turned the corner precariously.

The thread began to unwind and tie themselves around the boy's feet. Excited as he was, however, he didn't notice that at all. His mind was only concentrated on reaching his older brother, some few meters away.

"Hey! Watch it!" a concerned but otherwise gentle voice called out. Sasuke's feet became tangled as he started to fall down. Before he came into impact with the cool wood, Itachi was able to sprint over and catch him. There was a small chuckle from the older man as he walked back to where he was sitting at, with little Sasuke in his arms.

"Sorry, nii-san…" Sasuke looked down, ashamed of his actions. His hand tightened even more around the spool as he was set down.

"Just calm down a bit, Sasuke…" Itachi gazed at him with gentle eyes as he began to unravel the thread from his legs. "We'll never get your kite finished if you keep tripping over stuff." He wrapped the excessive thread back onto the spool.

His only response to that was a wide, innocent smile. "It's going to be so great, isn't it nii-san?" Sasuke rocked back and forth on the floor, holding his feet.

"It sure is," Itachi smiled and mussed up his hair. He pulled out some thread from the spool again and showed it to Sasuke. "You want to hear a story?"

Sasuke's eyes widened cheerfully. "Yeah!"

"Okay then…" Itachi picked up the nearly finished kite that they were working on and began tying up some loose ends with the bright red thread. "Well, it's a story that I've heard from a long time ago. People say… Hey, don't touch that!"

"Oops…" Sasuke dropped the sharp scissors and looked back into Itachi's slightly angry eyes.

"I don't want you to get hurt from those…" he picked up the scissors and set them next to him so that little Sasuke wouldn't mess with them again. "People say," he continued from where he was interrupted, "that everyone is bound by a red thread."

"Thread?" Sasuke lifted up his arm and looked around. He stood up momentarily and spun around, his head craning over his shoulder as if he was looking at something. The boy stopped looking when he heard a laugh.

"I wasn't done yet, Sasuke! We are all bound by a red thread, but we can't see it," he explained as Sasuke plopped back down, his face slightly red with embarrassment.

"Oh… Why are we all tied up with invisible red string, nii-san?" Sasuke peered over at Itachi's lap where the kite was sitting at.

"Well, the string is tied to us and someone else. They say that you are bound to the one that you are destined to love. Or your 'true love', anyway," Itachi picked up the kite and put it onto the floor.

"True love?" Sasuke watched as his older brother took up the spool of thread again and broke some off.

"Mm-hm. You are connected with the person that you really love. You're bound by destiny, did you know?" He took Sasuke's right hand and tied the red string onto his index finger.

Sasuke held his hand in front of his face and stared at the thread. "Nii-san, who do you think I'm bound to?"

"Someone that is very nice, I'm sure of it!" Itachi smiled at his little brother lovingly.

---

Sasuke woke up with a start. He opened his eyes but didn't sit up. Why had he dreamed of that evil man again? A turmoil of emotions churned in him. The dream had a strange feeling to it. It was a story that Itachi had told him long ago but there was something peculiar about it now. It left him feeling warm and fuzzy for just a split second.

He sat up abruptly in the dark, dry room. Love is the greatest bond that I must break… he said to himself, suddenly enraged. Sasuke's blank eyes looked at his lap, since there was something there. Red thread.

The Uchiha growled loudly and yanked the thread off his lap, breaking the thread into several pieces. The small 'snap' of the string gave him pleasure as he destroyed it. Why was there even thread on his lap?

"Sasuke-kun, did you have to break that thread with such a vengeance? Now I have to measure you all over again!" Kabuto said disappointedly as he suddenly entered the room.

Sasuke threw the thread onto the floor. "Why are you here?" he asked flatly, glaring at the man.

"Orochimaru said that he wished for you to receive some new clothes. You have been wearing them down at an incredible rate with your training," he explained, pushing his glasses up a bit. "I needed your measurements again since it has been a while since the last time we needed to make new clothes for you."

The dark haired boy pointed accusingly at the scattered thread on the floor. "Why are you using red thread to measure me?"

Kabuto shrugged. "I don't remember where I left the measuring string."

Sasuke stared at him. "And why are you measuring me while I'm sleeping? Could you not do that when I'm awake?"

The older man smiled apologetically. "You know how impatient Orochimaru-sama is. My apologies to you, Sasuke-kun…"

"Hn."

---

"Aah… That was good!" Naruto strolled down the street, patting his stomach. He had just left Ichiraku and now had nothing to do. "Hm?" he spotted someone familiar on a bench in a park that he was passing by.

Little pots of ink were lined up neatly next to the boy as he touched the surface of his scroll with some ink. He was rudely interrupted when an overly hyper boy leapfrogged over his back.

"Hey, Sai!" Naruto yelled at him and landed on the other side of the bench. He spun around and grinned at him.

"Naruto…" Sai greeted more quietly, checking over his work to see if it was messed up with the random attack. He sighed in relief when he saw that it was fine.

"What are you doing?" Naruto crouched down in front of him and peered at the scroll that was in his lap. Various shapes and lines danced across the scroll.

Sai raised an eyebrow at the completely oblivious boy. He just knocked him down and didn't even care that he just scared the heck out of him? "Drawing," he replied blandly.

"… Drawing…?" he trailed off to let Sai finish.

"A story that I heard a while ago…" his eyes went a bit misty as he held the scroll out to an arm's length. He looked like he was inspecting it but it was more like he was just thinking about the story. "Well, I suppose it's more of a myth than a story…"

"Tell me it!" Naruto grinned widely and looked at Sai with an expression that creeped him out a bit.

"Er… Okay…" he corked the ink bottles again and began cleaning out his brush. "I heard that everyone is tied with a red thread…"

"Wouldn't the world be in a hopeless tangle of thread then?" Naruto interrupted.

"Uh… I don't know? But anyway, we can't see them. Don't ask me why!" Sai glared at Naruto before he could say another word. The blonde shut his mouth again indignantly. "You're tied up with the one that you are destined to love! But… I don't really know what love is, so I'm trying to draw a picture to represent it…" He sighed and looked at Naruto.

"Tied…" He stood up and his eyes cleared up again as he grinned at Sai again. "Thanks for the story, but I've better get going, Sai!" And so, just as randomly and abruptly as he came, Naruto left. "Hey, yeah, you're a bad storyteller!" he yelled at him after running a distance off.

"Wha…?" Sai looked after him and shrugged.

"Thread, huh?" Naruto chuckled to himself. Down the street he went again, his arms swinging wildly at his sides, making people veer off to the sides of the street in order not to be whacked by him. That story, however short and not very detailed as it was, made Naruto feel strangely happy.

"Eek! Come back with that! No, don't drop it!" a shrill voice screamed from somewhere in the residential houses.

Naruto looked up curiously at the sudden exclamation. A small black item came falling down above his head and hit him. "Itai!" he squeaked, rubbing his head. He bent down to pick up the item. What is this doing here?