Summary: AU Pickpocketing and stealing are the only things Naruto knows to survive in the busy streets of Konoha. But what happens when she stole a wallet from the wrong guy, namely Uchiha Sasuke? What does fate have in stored for these two? SasuFemNaru

Pairings: SasuFemNaru, LeeSaku

Warnings: Language, Sexual terms, Violence

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Thieving Gets You Nowhere
by Aesura

Threatened

For the next few days, Naruto floated in and out of consciousness, staying awake for an hour or so at a time before the cold pills would kick in and make her fall asleep once more. But, her fever was steadily going down and her frequent headaches were gradually disappearing. And as she began to feel better, she would wander around the apartment, scaring Sasuke half the time as he was used to being alone in the apartment. It didn't help that, as a thief, Naruto had learned to walk silently and, thus, would unintentionally sneak up on her host.

Naruto stepped quietly into the living room, immediately seeing Sasuke standing in the kitchen with his back to her as he cut up some vegetables. On the stove, she could both smell and hear the sounds of a roast sizzling as he seared the outside before putting it into the oven. Her nose in the air, deeply breathing in the heavenly scent of the food he was preparing, the teenager crossed the living room and the kitchen, stopping just behind Sasuke as she stood on tiptoe to peer over his shoulder. "What're you cooking?" she piped up suddenly, jumping backwards when the man in front of her spun around, knife in his hands.

"Don't do that!" he hissed, sticking the bleeding thumb he had sliced when she just appeared behind him into his mouth. It never ceased to amaze him how many times she had done just that in only the five days she was there. Especially since for most of those five days she had stayed in bed.

"We need to get you a bell or something to wear around your neck," he muttered as he washed the blood off his thumb and the knife blade before turning back to cutting up the vegetables. "And I'm making a roast, by the way."

Naruto took another whiff of the roast, closing her eyes and smiling as she did so. "It smells delicious," she murmured, temporarily forgetting what she had come in here for.

"So, you you're a police officer, right?" She remembered him telling her one day that he was in charged of the Konoha Military Police Corps, now remembering why his name sounded so familiar. She saw him sometimes on the news in televistions when she passed by an electronics store, the reporter praising how he arrested another serial killer or rapist. But since Naruto had been staying at his apartment, he had only spent a few hours a day there, conducting most of his business over the phone or on his laptop.

His eyes on the task at hand, chopping up the carrots, potatoes, onions, and other various root vegetables, Sasuke answered her. "No, a detective. I used to be, when I first inherited the place. But, now, I worked undercover, to avoid suspicions," he explained.

His statement kind of confused Naruto. Wasn't he eighteen? He should be in college right now, not having a full-time job at a police station, even if he did own the place. "But, shouldn't you be in college?"

"I already graduated." Glancing at her shocked and puzzled look, he continued. "You only need a bachelor's degree in law enforcement to be in the police industry. I graduated from high school early so I could earn my degree and legally inherited the Konoha Military Police Corps," Sasuke explained, taking her 'oh' as an answer of understanding.

Taking the now seared roast off the burner and placing the vegetables around it, he covered it with a lid and carrying it towards the oven. "Can you open the oven?"

Nodding her head, Naruto opened the oven for Sasuke, her mouth already watering for the food. Never in her life had she been fed such delicious food on a daily basis. Which brought her back to her reason for coming out of her room to find Sasuke in the first place.

"Uh... So, Sasuke, I guess I'll be leaving tonight since I'm not sick any more," she tried to say cheerily, but failing miserably. But, she knew she didn't belong here. She would never be able to fit in and she couldn't impose any more on his hospitality.

"I suppose so," Sasuke muttered in reply, washing his hands as he silently wondered what would happen to this girl if she returned to the streets. He decided that she would probably return to pickpocketing and, when that 'job' stopped giving her enough cash, maybe even prostitution, leaving just a shell of the girl that she once was. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Uh.. okay," Naruto stammered as she watched him quickly dry his hands and walk to his room, nearly slamming it shut behind him. Shrugging, the former pickpocket plopped down on the sofa, flipping on the TV and channel surfing until she came across one of the cartoons she had grown to love in the past few days.

In his room, Sasuke leaned against his door, wondering why he felt compelled to do what he was about to do. What was it exactly with this girl that made him not want to let her go back to living on the streets? In his life, he had seen plenty of people living on the streets, and while he did pity them, he never felt the urge to help them anymore than giving them a little spare change.

Sighing, Sasuke pulled out his cell phone and dialed Sakura's number, hearing the continuous rings emitting from the device. The receiver finally picked up. "Moshi moshi?"

"Sakura."

"Oh, Sasuke-kun! I didn't expect you to call. So, what do you need?"

"I have a favor to ask, Sakura," Sasuke began, wondering why he was doing this again.

"Okay, what's the favor? Or should I ask, what's the chore?"

Sasuke cringed slightly, remembering it had just been a week ago that he had asked Sakura to do his laundry for him. Of course, he later regretted it when all his white clothes came back pink, which he promptly rewashed and bleached himself. "No, it's not a chore. It's about Naruto."

A few seconds passed by, neither one of them saying anything. Sasuke could hear her sigh in exasperation, verbally prompting him. "Well, are you going to tell me or not?"

"Can she live with you?" Sasuke asked bluntly, figuring it would be a lot easier and faster this way. He never was good at leading up to things.

"I... uh... huh?" He heard her stammered in confusion, trying to get a grasp on the situation.

Nervously running a hand through his coal black hair, Sasuke continued. "She's planning on leaving tonight and we can't let her go back to living on the streets. There's no telling what will eventually happen to her," he explained.

"Well, no. I knew that. What I want to know is why me? I mean, I'd gladly take her in except that she's already used to living with you and you need a little more light in your life. You've been living in the shadows for far too long," Sakura said firmly.

"But, Sakura... she's only seventeen. What would it look like for an eighteen year old bachelor to take in a seventeen year old teenager? People would talk," Sasuke argued, already knowing that he was going to lose the fight. Whenever Sakura set her mind to something, she always followed through, no matter what she had to do to get there.

"People will always talk, Sasuke-kun. You know that as much as I do," she pointed out, refusing to back down from her stand. "It's a sign, Sasuke-kun. Consider it fate."

"Enough with the fate crap, Sakura. You know I don't believe in fate," he said in frustration, rising from his seat and starting towards the door. He stopped and asked his longtime friend, "So, should I buy her a collar and license?"

"What?" Sasuke heard her asked in confusion.

He threw his head back, rubbing his forehead as he did so. "Never mind, Sakura, never mind," he muttered as he snapped his phone shut, exiting his room to hear Naruto laughing. He looked across the room to see her lounging on the couch, watching a cartoon with a smile on her face. Sasuke couldn't help but see how natural Naruto looked in the setting which slightly disturbed him for some reason. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he walked over and sat in the love seat opposite the couch.

"How do you watch that show?" he finally asked after Naruto spared a passing glance to him before going back to the cartoon.

"I like it. I mean, come on. It's hilarious," she began, pausing to laugh at the screen once again.

"Hn." Sasuke leaned his head back and closing his eyes to take a short nap. But with the thought of Naruto being his permanent guest running through his head, he was finding it hard to do so. What was he going to do with a teenage girl in his apartment?

And that didn't even bring into account the fact that Naruto might not want to stay. She had already expressed an urge to leave just that afternoon. For all he knew, she could take his offering of a roof over her head as a form of pity, which he had found out early on that she hated. Of course, he could always blackmail her into staying if it came down to it. After all, she was still a minor and a runaway from her last foster home, not to mention a pickpocket. All he had to do was turned her in and his coworkers would take matters from there.

Again, this brought him back to why he was doing this. Why would he go through all the trouble to keep her there with him? Why did he feel compelled to keep her around? But, it was one thing that both he and Sakura agreed on. They couldn't let Naruto go back to living on the streets, not after they had both seen the condition she was in when he had brought her here.

Mulling this all over in his mind, he opened his eyes and stared at the girl, who had quieted considerably when she noticed he was trying to take a nap. After only five days here, she was already gaining weight that she needed. The hollows that had been in her cheeks were filling out slightly and her eyes didn't have the dark rings around them anymore. Of course, part of that could have been due to her illness that she was now over, but the way her vertebrate jutted out of her skin wasn't. That had to have been from months of malnourishment.

He didn't know how long he had sat there, musing over the situation at hand, until the timer on the oven went off to tell him that the roast he had put in there earlier was done. Rising from his seat, Sasuke stretched his arms over his head and yawned before going into the kitchen to retrieve their dinner from the oven before it burnt. He noticed that Naruto was following closely behind him, eyes already on the oven door. "I still have to carve it, you know," he said over his shoulder, chuckling silently when he saw the look of disappointment on her face.

"How long will that take?" Naruto asked, her voice sounding just slightly whiny but she couldn't help it. That smell had been taunting her senses for the last hour or so, begging her to just come and take a bite. Besides, this would be the last good meal she would have since she'd be leaving tonight.

"Not long," Sasuke answered, pulling the roast out of the oven and setting it on the stove. "But it has to rest for fifteen minutes or it'll dry out." The look of horror on her face was priceless. He pointed towards the cabinets while he pulled a knife out of the butcher's block. "Make yourself useful and set the table or something."

Complying, Naruto reached into the cabinet and pulled out two of the blue and white plates, lingering as she passed by the roast. "Are you sure you have to wait fifteen minutes? I mean, what if I just took a small bite right now?" she pleaded, looking back and forth between him and the roast.

Reaching into the pan, Sasuke pulled out a small piece of potato with a fork and handed it to her. "Will that satisfy you until it's actually ready to eat?" he asked, nearly laughing at how fast she grabbed the fork and stuffed the potato into her mouth. He had to admit, he had never seen anyone eat as much or as often as her since she got over her nausea while sick.

The fifteen minutes Sasuke insisted upon finally passed and he carved the roast, much to Naruto's relief. As far as she knew, this was her last real meal. Their dinner passed in silence with Naruto shoveling the food into her mouth like there was no tomorrow and Sasuke watching her out of the corner of her eye.

Dropping her fork as she took her last bite, Naruto looked up at Sasuke. "Well, I guess it's time for me to be going," she announced, rising from the table and going back to the spare room for her stuff. She stopped in the hallway and looked down at her clothes. She was still wearing the stuff Sakura had loaned her. "Uh... do you think Sakura-chan wants her clothes back?"

"Nope. She won't mind," Sasuke called back to her, taking the plates to the kitchen and placing them in the dishwasher. He watched as she came back into the living room, a plastic bag in one hand with her clothes and stuffed fox. Before she reached the door, though, he had beaten her to it and stood in front of it, blocking her path.

"Uh... is there anything else?" Naruto wondered aloud, confused by his actions and trying to sidle past him. "I really do need to leave and find some place before it gets dark."

"I want you to stay here a little longer," Sasuke told her, his voice coming out a little colder than planned.

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she tried to figure out what he was up to. Her thoughts flew back to what she had offered him her first day here and she took an involuntary step backwards. "I thought you said you didn't want that!"

"What?" Sasuke asked, now his turn to be confused until he realized what she was talking about. "No, no, no! Why do you keep thinking that? What I meant was that I think there's a lot more you can do with yourself. If you stay with me I can at least help you stand on your own two feet–without committing misdemeanors on a daily basis to survive."

"Like what?" she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Look, if you stay here, I can help you find a job at a café so you'll be earning your money honestly," he explained calmly.

Naruto rolled her eyes and tried to get past him once more. "I've told you before, I don't need or want your pity. Now let me leave."

Sasuke stood his ground, still blocking the doorway. "If you don't stay here, I have no other option than to turn you in. You are still a minor and, therefore, you would have to return to a foster family until you turn eighteen. Not to mention, you were a pickpocket," he told her coldly, his voice leaving no room for argument.

"Are you threatening me?" Naruto asked just as coldly as him.

"Yes, I am," he replied, eyes narrowing slightly as he began to wonder what he was getting himself into. "It's your choice." He stepped away from the doorway, opening the door so she could leave if she wanted.

Naruto glared at him, her cerulean eyes ablaze with anger. "Fine. You win. I'll stay here until I turn eighteen and then I'm out of here. Got it?"

"Fine, then," Sasuke muttered, shutting the door and watching as she stomped off down the hallway to what he now considered to be her room. "Sakura, you owe me for this," he mumbled, going back into the kitchen to finish cleaning up.