A/N: EDIT: No more death threats and flames please. We're all here to get along, aren't we? There's no need for violence or threats. T_T

Guess folks like seeing me upset. Can't think of any other reason here...

I've deleted more than twenty now within the first five minutes, but I need to get to work. God, I hope I don't come back to more flames...I'm going to, aren't I? That makes me sad. I might rate this M later for reasons. Reasons that involve loooots of things.

This is a story request from the TheSlySage, albeit modified. I wrapped up a few more stories such as Angels and Demons a few days back, so as promised, here's one to fill the void it left behind. Now before anyone asks about this story itself, I wouldn't call this...villainous per se, more a chaotic neutral than anything else. For instance, this chapter's told from Roman's perspective, though that's not something I intend do often.

It also explores a different avenue, one I hope folks will like; the humor is sharp, the action sharper.

Every title will be a "Partner" related theme. I'm not sorry.

So with that said, we proudly present...

...Partners in Crime.

"They say crime makes monsters of men. But what if a man has no other recourse?

Keep your friends close. And your enemies closer.

"Maybe then you'll learn."

~?

Partners in Prologue

Roman Torchwick was a survivor.

He'd fought his way through gravel and grit alike, scratching and clawing his way to power through no means other than his own. He'd come from nothing. Been nothing. No one. Yet in the span of the last year all of his schemes had finally begun to pan out. He'd become something. Someone. What was the saying? Rags to riches? That summed up his meteoric rise through the ranks quite nicely. A year ago, he'd had next to nothing to his name beyond his weapon and the clothes on his back. Now?

Now he was the talk of the city, with a cozy little penthouse on the east side of Vale.

It wasn't his house, of course. Roman knew better than to own anything these days. Cops were clever like that. They found you if you owned too many things. The previous owner was...indisposed at the moment. Neo had seen to that.

The Gentleman Thief, they called him.

He had morals -grey though the be be- and standards that he adhered to. For one, he preferred to avoid killing. You couldn't rob a mark twice if said mark got murked. Nor did he work with animals...or terrorists as they were called these days. White Fang were bad for business, zealots morseo. Suicidal bastards. Why die for a cause? Dying didn't get you nothin' more than a dirt nap. But when opportunity came knocking, he seized it. Always had. Always would.

Today proved to be just such an opportunity.

Roman was a young man, but he wasn't stupid; he hadn't gotten to where he was now by taking risks. Oh, risk was all well and good mind you, but on his terms. No one else. Well, maybe Neo. That little hellion was risk personified, chaos incarnate. Their partnership -if one could call it that- was still relatively new, scarcely a year old.

Still, he trusted her. And for some reason, she trusted him. At least he liked to think she did. Hard to tell with that one. He hadn't found her. She'd found him. Trust wasn't good in this business. Trust got you killed. She was a risk, but she was his risk, so she stayed.

So when Neo woke him one blisteringly hot summer morning, Roman expected it had something to do with risk.

It began with a light prodding against the nape of his neck, one he ignored easily. Then she started stabbing him with her heels. That he couldn't ignore, even through the thick blankets. He still tried; it took her yanking said blankets away before he finally gave up and opened his eyes.

"Ugh, its five in the morning." he groaned, pawing at her in the dark as he reached for a lamp. "What the hell...?"

He didn't expect her to drop a dead man in his bed.

"Neo!"

No, not dead, he realized. He could clearly see the young man's chest rising and falling erratically. Poor bastard. He was still alive...barely. Shame the same couldn't be said for his outfit. Clad in the tattered scraps of what might have been an orange-and-black jacket once upon a time, he looked like he'd picked a fight with a blender and lost. Horribly. All in all the kid looked to be in a bad way. Really bad. The dying kind of bad. Even now he was all but bleeding out onto the bed. Blast it. He'd have to change the sheets.

"Where the hell did you find him?!"

Neo lazily jerked a thumb over her shoulder and signed at him. Roman stole another glance back at the boy, taking in blond hand and whiskered cheeks before his gaze snapped back to her. Neo pointed at the soon to be corpse again and her fingers flicked in a familiar gesture he knew all too well. "Back in the alley, huh?"

Her head bobbed.

"Why bring him here?" Roman scowled. "I'm no doctor."

The little minx mimed another gesture at him that could only have one meaning.

"Right, criminals. Hospitals are out...couldn't you just drop him off or something?" when she dithered, a seed of suspicion wormed its way into the thief's heart. "Whatever you're playing at, don't. If you don't wanna bring him to a hospital, just dump the brat in a ditch or something. We've got a heist coming up."

Neo stamped a heel and shook her head emphatically.

"Whaddya mean, no?!"

The head shaking intensified.

"I mean it! We don't need this kinda heat!"

She shook her head again and this time, her parasol came out to swat him on the head. Roman batted it away with a growl but it descended again, cracking him across the back of the head. Blast it. She was in one of her moods again. Maybe some ice cream would calm her down. Except when he tried to rise, she pushed him right back down to the bed.

"Neo, no." he realized what she intended immediately. "You can't adopt him. Remember what happened to the last one."

...?" she tilted her head and flashed him a cherubic smile.

"I said no!" he shot back. "Don't give me that look!"

The smile darkened. Dangerously.

"Fine!" Roman threw his arms upward and ceded the field. There was no stopping Neo when she was like this. "But you're helping! Get me some bandages and I'll see what I can do. Needle and a thread, too. Don't expect a freakin' miracle! If he dies, you're burying the body!"

Neo beamed and vanished with a shattering of glass. Roman scowled at the space she'd vacated. Then, and only then, did he deign to roll the boy over onto his back.

Ugh. He'd liked him better when he couldn't see the tears in his chest.

"You'd better be a good investment, kid."

Not a heartbeat later his little helper returned with the bandages and together, they began to apply them as best they could. Which meant Roman wound up doing most of the work. Neo was many a things but a medic she most assuredly was not. Her entire fighting style revolved around not being hit; if an opponent started smacking her around, she wasn't doing her job. He was no doctor, but he knew how to bandage an injury and patch a wound to some degree. He'd been in his fair share of brawls.

And then Neo gasped.

She didn't speak, but the small intake of air was enough to claim the thief's attention all the same.

As he looked on, the boy's wounds -those they hadn't yet bandaged- began to close rapidly before their very eyes. Roman jerked back with a hiss and tumbled into Neo. Torn flesh wound itself back together, weaving shut where bloodied fingers. The hell kind of Semblance was this?! In a matter of moments the great gaping tears in the young man's body had closed altogether, leaving healthy and whole.

His eyes creaked open. "Where...?"

It was enough for Roman to reclaim some of his earlier bluster.

The first thing he noticed were those eerie orbs; although the left gleamed as blue and true as a clear afternoon sky, it was the right that held his attention. That one stood a sinister shade of scarlet, rimmed with a trio of strange black marks across the crimson iris. Heterochromia?

"Well, well, well." propping himself up, he leaned over the young man. "What do we have here? Good morning sleeping beauty-gack?!"

Those mismatching eyes burned with panic; that was the only warning Roman received before an iron vice locked around his throat with enough force to bruise. He slapped at the arms holding him to no avail; they hoisted him up off the floor as though he weighed no more than a child. Worse, they held him there without any sign of slackening.

"Who are you?!" firm fingers tightened around the thief's windpipe, already choking the life out of him with vicious intent. "Where am I?! How did I get here?!"

"A friend! I'm a friend!" He gasped the words out in a hiss, legs kicking weakly in the air. "You're in our house! And I don't know! "Neo! Little help here!"

His partner shook her head and made a curt gesture. Roman blanched. "Whaddya mean he's not gonna kill me?! Sure feels...like it!"

"I don't have friends. Not anymore." the young man growled as the thief continued to flailed helplessly in his grasp. "They all died. One after the other. The last of them betrayed me." A pause followed and he tilted his eyes, those eerie red-blue eyes boring into him like daggers. "Are you going to do the same?"

Nope nope nope! He'd die!

"Look, I patched you up!" he slapped at the rigid arms holding him aloft as his vision tunneled. "That's gotta count for something, right?!"

With those words, the blond faltered. "Who are you? Answer me. No tricks!"

"Roman Torchwick." he wheezed out a grin. "Master thief. You?"

...Naruto." those taut shoulders drooped.

Just like that, his grip loosened. Just a hair. Just a touch. It was enough for Roman to pry his fingers free from his throat and escape his unlikely guest made no attempt to capture him again. He could've. Of that the thief had no doubt. There was something wrong with this mook; he looked just the wrong side of cracked, as though something had broken deep inside him. He had that look in his eye, the look of a man who'd had it all and lost it, recently too. It was the look he never hoped to see staring back at him in the mirror.

Regardless, the blond suddenly seemed infinitely more interested in his bandaged chest than the bruises he'd left on Roman's throat.

"You did this?" a tan finger plucked at the crude stitching. Was the bastard actually critiquing his work? No, he looked more surprised than anything else.

"Yeah," the thief coughed, massaging his throat." Sheesh. He'd be coughing for days. "Well, Neo helped. She's the one who dragged you here."

The little devil sketched a shallow bow. He'd get her back for that. Naruto quirked a questioning eyebrow at said minx.

"She doesn't talk." Roman hastened to add. "She's also a little shit."

Neo whacked him with her parasol.

...she seems alright."

Neo lit up and all but slid to the stranger's side.

Whatever strength panic had lent his broken body abandoned him in the very next instant; his legs didn't so much bend as they did buckle. Neo didn't dare catch him, but she did give him a good nudge so he landed in the bed rather than on the floor. He toppled backward with a thankful eigh and made no effort to rise again. Even then Roman still hesitated to approach. He didn't want to go anywhere near those arms. Not again. Not ever if he had his way. Still, curiosity prodded him to speak:

"Look, I gotta ask. What's with the eye?"

"This?" a blink answered him, though the blond did little more than raise his head. "One of my friends took mine. I repaid the favor."

...did he have a name?" Gods above, why was he asking this?! Did he have a death wish or something?!

Naruto glared at him. For a moment he thought the man wasn't going to answer.

"His name was Sasuke. What does it matter?"

Well there was a morbid tale Roman had no desire to ever learn more of. Stealing someone's eye and implanting it into your skull? Blech. Who did something like that?! By that tone just now, he'd more than implied that the former owner of said eye was no longer among the living. Roman didn't like looking at the damn thing; he were staring into the abyss and it gazed back at him. For a moment it almost seemed to change color before his very eyes altogether, turning to a ghastly shade of rimmed violet, only to vanished when he blinked. Had he imagined it?

His partner landed on the bed and patted the blond's head in what might have been sympathy.

"I'm going to trust you, Roman." the young man continued slowly, eyes drooping as he laid his head back down. "Don't try anything. I'll know if you do."

Neo snapped off a salute that actually made the young man laugh. Roman glowered at her. "Brat."

Then, more softly, he heard the boy speak again. "Thanks. I owe you."

"Eh?"

When next he turned to look, however, Naruto had passed out again altogether.

Adrenaline finally fled, leaving the thief shaking as he collapsed into a chair. He'd nearly died just now. The kid had marched him right up to death's door and nearly shoved him through. Who was to say he wouldn't try it again? He was a risk. Roman didn't like risks, certainly not ones he could control. His fingers twitched for his cane, itching to bring Melodic Cudgel about and blast the boy's head from his shoulders. Surely the little snot was bluffing; he wouldn't be able to stop him while he was asleep...right?

"Whaddya think?" he twirled his cane once, considering the matter. "We're not going to get a chance like this again."

Neo glanced at him askance and shook her head.

He should kill him.

It would be smart thing to do.

And yet Opportunity knocked on his door.

This kid was different; strong to be sure, but there was something...more. He couldn't put his finger on it and in truth, it didn't matter. Roman's mind saw potential where his heart could not, and it was his keen mind that stilled his hand. He owed them. He'd said it. Was it wrong to capitalize on that debt? Just a little? Perhaps so. A Huntsman would've balked at it. Roman wasn't a Huntsman. A small smile crept across his face. He was a thief, and any thief worth their salt knew how to work people.

Opportunity knocked again.

This time? Roman Torchwick was all too happy to answer.

His decision would forever change the shape of Vale's underworld.

A/N: Congrats, Naruto. You've just been struck by a smooth criminal. That is a reference and I regret nooooooothing.

So there we have it. Lets explain, quickly, because I'm sure the inquisitive minds among you have questions and questions here aplenty!

This IS a pure Naruto. None of that rebirth memory stuff that we've got going on "Just A Bit of Bread." This one landed in Remnant due to means that'll be explained next chapter.

Next off! Roman and Neo are still up and coming thieves by this point. They're not quite criminal kingpins we see in Volumes One through Three, but they're getting there. Cinder clearly hasn't gotten her claws into them at this point; after all, she's not yet the menace we've all come to love/hate in the show. At this point, she hasn't gotten her claws into Roman and Neo yet. She'll be in for a nasty surprise if she tries.

Will she be recruited? Maybe. Maybe not. We're not sure if Salem has her claws into her by this point. Emerald could still be a viable option; we all know for a fact that Cinder didn't find her until her teenage years. Ah, but therein lie the problem. I already have a NarutoxEmerald story; I don't want to rehash plot lines. I want to write something fresh. Something new.

Folks tend to think I have a soft spot for 'ol Cindy. I don't, not really. She just tends to feature in my stories. Just like Neo. And Raven.

...I'm sensing a patter here.

As ever, reviews are the wind beneath my wings.

Without them...well. I'll just cry in a corner.

So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly?

And one last thing:

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Read if you dare!

(Previews!)

"How did I get here?"

Roman shrugged. "You tell me, kid."


"We all have our monsters, Junior." Roman hummed as he lit his cigar. "I've got one of my own, now. He's something of a partner."

"Thought Neo was that."

"Oh, she is, she is!" the young man laughed and slapped him on the back. "But this kid...he's going places. He fights like a demon and runs like the wind; enough to outrun a trained huntress. Did you know he can change his face? His face!" Roman flailed his arms in euphoric glee, which was a rare thing indeed, Junior thought. "Just...poof! A little bit of smoke or something, and he can make himself look completely different! Its the perfect crime, I tell you! This kid's gonna make me rich! Don't even get started on that eye of his. Its complete bullshit! You wouldn't believe me if I told you!"

"That so?" Junior paused, then continued cleaning his glass as he leaned against the bar. "Maybe introduce him to the twins, sometime. I'm sure they'd get on well with each other."

"Oh, no you don't!" Roman laughed and thrust a good-natured finger in his face. "I know that look! He's my brat! I saw him first!"

"Yours, eh?" Junior grinned.

"Urk."


"What, training?" Naruto twitched. "Can we not do this? I'm fine-

Neo flew at him and he easily blocked her parasol, swept her legs and knocked her down.

She blinked up at him, astounded. Then she smiled. It was not a pleasant smile, Naruto thought. Not at all. She flew at him.


"Give up! You're surrounded!"

"All I'm surrounded by is fear. And dead men."

R&R~!