Red Thread Of Fate

3: Let the Games Begin

The sun was two-thirds of the way through its daily trek in the sky by the time everyone was out of the plane with as much luggage as they could salvage. As they sat on the beach resting their wounded bodies, they watched the plane finish getting dragged out to the depths of the ocean while each of the unconscious survivors woke up starting with the blonde sister of the redhead. She immediately sat up, her eyes searching desperately until they landed on her brother sitting within arm's reach to her left. With a sigh of relief, she turned her attention to what he and everyone else was staring at and saw a half-swallowed plane inching its way under the water. Her aching muscles, various wounds and the disaster in front of her caused the pieces to fall into place and she stayed silent, realizing that if these nine people were the only survivors then quite a few dead were getting a burial at sea right now. The thought set off a dull throbbing in her chest.

Hanabi was the next to wake up, silent tears sliding down her cheeks when she didn't see her sister amongst the survivors. Her head whirled as regrets, pain, and an overwhelming loneliness overtook her. Then a warm hand rested over hers and she ripped her gaze from the sinking wreckage to see kind cerulean gazing back at her.

"Are you Hanabi Hyūga?" The blonde man sitting next to her asked and she nodded slowly, not trusting herself enough to speak. He smiled gently. "Your sister- Hinata, is looking for help. She's just fine." Relief flooded through the twelve-year-old and she couldn't stop herself from wrapping her arms around the odd stranger, burying her face into the side of his chest. The tears didn't stop, on the contrary, they started falling faster, but these new tears were of happiness and she squeezed him tighter. He hesitated for only an instant before curling his right arm around her and leaning slightly back on his left as his eyes returned to the plane. His hand rubbed gentle soothing circles on her back.

Sasuke had been slowly returning to consciousness, his aches and pains gently pulling him from his slumber, when a screech of, "What the hell!?" ripped him to awareness and immediately turned his mood sour. He sat up in irritation, his various injuries making themselves known while his eyes turned crimson with three black tomoes swirling in the scarlet pools. His mind immediately processed the situation and came to terms with his predicament, his eyes making the matter far simpler than it seemed to be for the pink-haired banshee whom he realized was the one who'd woken him. Now aware of the basic situation, his eyes returned to their original onyx and he directed an absolutely livid glare at the girl.

"Shut up." His order was monotone but still came out sounding somehow irritated. The girl whipped around to glare at him, ignoring how everyone else was staring incredulously at her (excluding Hanabi who'd exhausted herself and had tiredly gone back to snuggling into Naruto's side after ascertaining that some girl was just being stupid and there was no danger).

The pinkette's angry gaze landed on the perpetrator, only to discover he was an angel. Perfect pale skin, soft pink lips, slightly shaggy and unkempt damp obsidian hair that framed his face and went a little past the nape of his neck in the back. Was he a god? He looked thin but strong, even if his midnight blue button-up sweater was soaked and his white shorts were, on top of also being wet, stained in various places. This guy just exuded an aura of mystery and beauty. A diamond in the rough if she ever saw one. A moment later she recognized him as Sasuke Uchiha, a man often seen on TV with his older brother... Izumi? Itami? Whatever. The important part of this revelation was that he was not only handsome but also rich and notoriously single.

She immediately turned her expression into that of shy curiosity. "O-Oh, sorry." She threw in a little stutter. "Would you mind telling me what happened? How did we get here?" Her attention turned to the sand surrounding her... Ew. Her light pink sundress was ripped at the hems and covered in sand, which was just a really dry form of dirt, which was just... Ew, times two. There went any good first impressions she might have made with her body. She may have looked like a Neanderthal, but she had to believe her beauty could shine through.