[criminal AU]

"You don't know how to handle a gun, do you?" 

"I learn quickly."

I chuckled nervously as I held the shotgun up and aimed. Upon pulling the trigger, I gasped and the bullet pierced through the target, "ha! Take that!"

Sakura looked at me, rolled her eyes, and studied my success, "you're aware the point is to shoot the center of the target, right? Not the white background..."

"I was aiming for the white, you know." This woman enjoys judging me, doesn't she? Hmph.

"Okay, I think that's enough for today." Sakura started off until I grabbed her wrist.

"Hey, I wanted to figure out a name."

"Hm? A name?"

"Yeah, for our squad."

She blinked a few times, "that sounds so dumb. We're Squad B. That's all we need."

"But... I think this whole thing is just so cool. We should come up with codenames, a team name, a mascot..."

"Listen." Sakura yanked her wrist back and shoved me into the concrete wall behind me, "if you think this is all just a game, why don't you try re-assessing your life and pulling yourself from the dream world? Life isn't a Disney movie, princess. Grow up."

Ouch. I rubbed my chest and watched as she walked further and further from me. Either way, I'm going to come up with a name whether she likes it or not, "oh, by the way."

She stopped.

"I received our first mission assignment." I waved the little notecard in the air as she walked back towards me and grabbed the card from my hand.

"How the heck did you get this before me?!" She muttered under her breath as her eyes rapidly scanned over the words, "alright. Just a regular old artifact robbery. No big."

"Uh, 'no big'?" Clearly, I haven't done anything big with this life of theft I have. I should've taken advantage of that, "a painting from Paris or something?"

"It's some sort of ancient book snatched from a museum." Sakura folded the card and slipped it into her pocket, "let's go."

I shrugged and followed her out of the shooting range, "so where exactly are we going?"

"It's actually here in Konoha."

"I see..." I snickered, "our first mission."

"Yes. Now let's go. I'm not going to waste my time on you."

Without hesitation, Sakura headed to her car and pulled up the received address on her phone.

"You're a pretty stubborn child, aren't you?"

I chuckled softly as she clenched the steering wheel tighter than she already was.

"How dare you have the audacity to call me a child. Not like you're one to talk."

"I know." I agreed with her on that point. I suppose I can call myself a child, but she's no more an adult than I am, "so what is this ancient book?"

"You don't do your research, do you?" Sakura groaned, "it's the Book of Galdur, a book supposedly used in sorcery and magic."

"And we're just going to believe that all that crap is true?"

She glared at me, "a mission's a mission. We're not here to criticize these artifacts, real or not."

"Okay. Whatever." I leaned back in my seat and stared at the car ceiling as our drive lasted fifteen more minutes. Fifteen minutes of awkward silence.

"Here we are." Sakura reached into her back pocket and pulled out a gun, "stay behind me at all times. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes and squinted out the dark window at a fancy hotel. I whistled at its extravagance and looked down at my own outfit, "I think something needs to change..."

"Here." Sakura shoved an expensive suit into my hands, "change back there."

"O-okay..." This whole 'legally stealing' business thing is going better than I thought.

_____________________

Sakura and I walked casually into the party gala as if we were really invited. We looked around at all the richly dressed persons and I barfed in my mouth a little at the sight of some and their cleavage hanging out so obviously. Disgusting...

"Stop staring." Sakura lowered her voice and pinched my hand.

"Someone jealous?" I rose a brow and studied her flushed face, "it's fine." I studied the room, "so do you see it anywhere?"

"They're putting it up for auction. So we need to get to it before anyone can buy it." Sakura tapped on her smartwatch, "bidding is in a few minutes."

"We can always let someone buy it and steal it from whoever buys it."

"Sure." Sakura actually approved of one of my ideas for once. Isn't that a treat?

We waited for about five minutes before the bald man stood at the front with a mic in one hand and an ancient book in the other, "the real Book of Galdur! Bidding starts at 5,000,000 Ryo!"

"Only 5,000,000 Ryo?" I sighed, "pitiful."

"10,000,000!"

"15,000,000!"

"25,000,000!"

"All for a stupid book?" I chuckled to myself, "not like they can do anything with it."

"Sold! To the man with bright yellow hair!"

"Yes!!" The young man pumped his fist in the air and ran to the front, "thank you, thank you!"

"Ah..." The man at the front waited expectantly for the boy to hand him some form of money.

"Oh, uh..." the boy slowly took the book and rummaged frantically through his pockets, "I'll have to pay you back later."

"You know..." The man cracked his knuckles, "that's not how we play here."

Something told me this wasn't your typical neighborhood charity bidding gala...

"Oops." The boy stuck his tongue out nonchalantly.

"Hand. The book. Over. Kid."

"I'd... Rather not."

I looked at Sakura, "things are about to get messy. Should we...?"

"We're only here for the book." Sakura replied without taking her eyes off the fought-over artifact, "we need to stop them."

"Yeah, uh, before someone dies, right?" I specified but she didn't reply as she walked up to the two men of the hour. Without another word, the two men looked at Sakura. I lowered my voice, "damn it, Sakura what the heck are you doing?!"

Before anyone could respond, Sakura grabbed the tie of the yellow-haired boy, yanked him forward, and kissed him.

"Gah!!" I lost my breath for about a minute at the sudden action. My heart pounded faster as I watched the scene unfold before me. I gritted my teeth, "S-Sakura..."

She pulled away and smirked, "sorry. I don't think this belongs to you."

"Oh yeah?" The blonde boy smirked, "wanna bet?"

She looked at the book in his hand, grabbed it while both men's grips were loosened, and threw it... In my direction.

"Sasuke!"

"Got it." I ran forward, grabbed the book, and ran out of the room. I figured Sakura's got some catching up to do.

I ran down the steps as chaos unfolded inside the building. Mostly between Sakura and those two men. Some gunshots were heard as Sakura stumbled out.

"Start the car." Sakura tossed me the keys as we headed that way, "this didn't go as planned..."

"You bet it didn't!" A voice called behind us. Before I could turn around, someone had tackled me to the concrete. I don't know whether it hurt or not having scraped my now-numb face across the rugged surface. The book flew out of my hand and landed flipped open to a random page, "get off me, idiot!"

"The book..."

"Huh?" I looked up at the book, and sure enough, it was glowing yellow, "this is all your fault!" I hadn't even been able to identify my attacker yet.

"Idiot!" Sakura clenched her fists until her eyes caught sight of the glowing book, "wait, Sasuke--!"

__________________

Everything was hazy as my consciousness returned. The last thing I remember is a bright light, Sakura yelling my name, and waking up in a hospital bed.

"Hey, you. You're Sasuke, right?"

I turned my head and just my luck. I'm sharing a hospital room with that yellow-haired, kissy-face, frat boy from the gala. I'm not jealous or anything, "yeah? So what? Who might you be?"

"Yeah, uh, I don't reveal my name that easily--"

"Sasuke Uchiha and... Naruto Uzumaki?"

Said boy turned and glared at the nurse that stood in the doorway, "shut it!! That's not my name!"

Uh-huh. Nice try.

"So, you're Naruto." My eye twitched with annoyance, "what's your connection with Sakura?"

"Thought you might ask. Heh..." Naruto wiped his mouth, "she's my girlfriend."

Tch! 'Girlfriend'?! I... Didn't think she was seeing anyone...

"I'm not." Sakura walked in just at the nick of... Wait, did she just answer my thought?!

"Oh. Sakura." Naruto avoided eye contact, "you technically left but never broke up."

"Idiot! That's exactly what breaking up is!" I balled my hands into fists, "you don't know anything do you?!"

"Relax." Sakura set her hand on my shoulder, "just ignore him."

How can I ignore him if he's treating Sakura like a piece of trash?

"He's not."

There she goes again. Things are getting freaky, like, really fast, "Sakura, are you reading my mind?!"

"Idiot. That's impossible." Naruto glared at me, "no one reads minds."

Sakura looked at me and stared for a few moments before bringing her hand up to her head, "w-wait..."

"Can you...?" I looked at her, "what am I thinking about right now?"

She watched me carefully as her lips started to move, "you... You really like tomatoes?"

"No freaking way!" I was too excited to respond to the major migraine that hit as I stood up, "Sakura, you can read minds?!"

"I-I can..." She looked down at her hands, "this is..."

"Insane." Naruto peered at us until suddenly, a metal scalpel fell to the tile floor in front of him... Strange.

"Naruto?" I looked down at the floor, "did you drop that?"

"Huh? I was never holding it." He looked down at the object and leaned over to pick it up. Apparently, he didn't need to. The scalpel shivered for a few milliseconds before flying into Naruto's hand. How unlucky that when it did, the blade stabbed his palm, "Gah!!" He clenched his wrist in pain and stared at the blade as it only dug deeper into his skin, "get it out!!" He grabbed the handle and yanked it out. When he attempted to throw it to the side, it stuck to his palm, "what's going on?!"

"Haha..." I watched, amused at his struggle, "so, you've got some magic ability? You can attract sharp things to fly at you and stab you. That's pretty cool."

"Shut up!" He threw the knife against the wall and held his hand, "someone get a doctor!"

Sakura ran forward and grabbed his hand with one hand as the other rummaged in a drawer for bandages, "I'll take care of it."

Hmph.

"Whoa, what the..." Naruto looked down at his bloody hand, "Sakura, it's feeling better."

"You don't have to say that."

"No, I'm serious. It feels... Whoa, look." Naruto pointed down at his gash as Sakura held his hand. Both their hands glowed green as she suddenly started healing his hand.

"What the heck is going on..." I raked my dark hair back and stared at the ceiling. This life honestly couldn't get any more confusing. But suddenly, I was wrong. A first.

"Sasuke?"

"Huh?"

Now they were both staring at me.

"Your eyes... They're bleeding."

I brought my hand up to my eyes. Sure enough, my fingertips were covered in blood, "wh-what the..." That's when the excruciating pain took place. I clenched my eyes shut and fell to my knees as the feeling of knives digging into my eye sockets pounded in my head.

"Sasuke!" Sakura fell to my side and held her hands over what was left of my eyes, "hang on!"

Her hands glowed green over my red face as she attempted to restore whatever vision I had. Man, did that hurt like hell, though. I bit my tongue so hard in pain that they had to stitch my tongue back together. But in the end, after a few days, we deducted that upon opening that ancient Book of Galdur, we gained supernatural abilities. Sakura gained the ability of mind-reading, speaking with her mind, and healing. Naruto gained the ability to attract metal and control metal objects. Me? Well, I can make my eyes bleed at random times. That's all we know for now. This all could've happened for the worst. I still don't know who the heck Naruto is or what he is to Sakura, but of course, Kakashi's going to take advantage of this 'golden opportunity', he calls it.

"Here we have the newest Theft Corps. Squad: Team 7. You get the lucky number 7 until you come up with an official team name. Good luck." 

Kakashi left us with that message after setting me up with Sakura and the guy that betrayed us for all I know. We'll see how he does... We'll see what becomes of my eyes and we'll see if I can prove Sakura wrong. Don't think I forgot about everything that went down between us. It's still there and let's just say I'm feeling pretty confident.  

~~~

Fan of the Day: user53766053

Written by xX_Fang_Xx