"Naruto sweetie, how is the cake? Is it good?" Naruto watched as Sasuke's mother who introduced herself as Mikoto ramble on. He was sweating bullets while she talked about cake, it was delicious but shouldn't he be eating this after dinner...not before.

"Stop stuffing the boy Mikoto. He won't have any room for the actual meal if you keep this up." Fugaku said chuckling, chuckling! Like what the hell did he step into...the stoic faced head of Uchiha Corporations laughing and joking around, what exactly was the world coming to?

"...Ummm it's fine, I actually like sweets and this is amazingly good Mrs. Mikoto." He said smiling at the older woman. "Oh if you like that than you'll love dessert!" She said beaming at him. Naruto was starting to think that she was on a sugar high, she was just too chipper. How did she live with Sasuke, he wasn't exactly known for smiling and being happy.

Not knowing what else to say he went back to his strawberry cake, god he loved strawberries. Smiling he looked at the time, it's been a half an hour since he got to the Uchiha estate. What was taking Sasuke so long, well he knew but how long does it take to get someone to agree to what you have to say? If it was him and he was getting the crap kicked out of him he'd agree after the second, no third...naw maybe the tenth ass whipping he'd say yes to whatever they wanted but maybe Kabuto couldn't speak because they jacked his face up so bad that he couldn't speak...hmmm that is a possibility but not likely.

"I'm home." Came from down the corridor followed by the slam of the door. Yay, Sasuke was finally home. That meant no more chatting with him...wrong!

Sasuke being home brought more discussion and topics about him...fuck his life at the moment. He never had to deal with parents and he didn't know how to act. Teme, save me!

"So Naruto, what do you want to do when you graduate high school?" Fugaku asked putting his wine glass down on the dining room table, waiting for Naruto's response.

Naruto wiped his mouth, he wanted to be so many things but he guessed that he'd tell them his main two careers that he wanted to do, "I want to go to college, I've worked hard to keep up my grades and do AP classes and college courses when they are offered at our school. In order to go to college I will need a full ride, so that's what I've been working at getting, right now my GPA is a 3.5...not bad but I think I can do better."

"But what I want to study in college is...well I have two things that I really love but I can't pick which one. The first is my love, Art. I know a lot of people say that doing art for a living isn't a real job but I don't agree, people...artistes painted those painting that are hanging on your walls but that isn't the kind of art I want to do, I want to do graphic design it's just something about creating something that people put so much thought into, their band, books, websites. If I can make my clients happy with what I can do for them then I'm happy." Naruto stated as he took a sip of his juice, he had to smile, he just loved what he does...he already did a couple of freelance jobs but with those he had to be careful because some people didn't want to pay him in the end.

"What is the other career that you would like to do?" Fugaku asked seeming intrigued by him, well that's a good thing he guessed. He'd rather have interested than bored any day.

"The other is criminal justice, more specifically criminal profiling or offender profiling. I would love to figure out what make others tick, but why I want to do this sort of job is because I would be helping people find loved ones or the people who was behind whatever tragic thing that happened to bring in the FBI. It's a tough and cruel world out here, someone has to do the job of bringing in the bad guys and trying to right the wrongs but sometimes those wrongs can't be undone. With criminal profiling there's so much wrapped into that one job title, you have to provide law enforcement with a social and psychological assessment of the offender; give suggestions and strategies for the interviewing process; patterns are analyzed in regard to timing and location of the crime scene, to determine where the offender lives and works; Investigative psychology, this approach focuses on the use of psychological theories of analysis to determine the characteristics of the offender by looking at the presented offending behavior and style of offense; The typological approach looks at the specific characteristics of the crime scene to then categorize the offender according to the various 'typical' characteristics. You also have to do a clinical approach to offender profiling in which the understanding of psychiatry and clinical psychology is used to decide whether the offender is suffering from mental illness of various psychological abnormalities."

"That's not all that you have to do, I'll just spare you the rest but you have to take this job seriously and do beyond your best. It's just something about helping people and figuring out what makes a person do the things they do." Naruto finished and looked around the table at the three people who was sitting there as they took in all his words. Did he say too much or did they think that he was a psycho for wanting to do this line of work? He didn't know.

"Well, I for one think that you'd do either of those occupations good Naruto." Came from the door, turning Naruto noticed the raven standing there, grinning at him. He must be Itachi, Sasuke's brother...they did look-alike but Itachi had the bags under his eyes like his dad while Sasuke didn't, plus he had longer hair as well.

"Thank you..." Naruto said embarrassed he wasn't expecting a compliment.

"He is correct Naruto, you know what you want and it seems like you have a passion for both. Either will do you good and you them. It's not often that you see a teen who knows what they want to do much less know the dept of what has to go into the job, you do and you're expecting to go beyond that so to put it short I'm proud of you." He said smiling warmly at Naruto who smiled back. Was this how it felt to have a family? If so he didn't want to leave.

"Naruto, you're so cute. How can a cutie like you be so well put together...and they say blondes are dumb." Mikoto said blowing a raspberry at him making Naruto laugh.

"No mom I think it's just him who's breaking the stereotype." Sasuke said munching on some broccoli. Naruto started to relax around the Uchiha's and came to like being in their company, which was rare. The only other adults that he felt comfortable with was Kiba's mama and Tsunade the principal and Jiraiya the vice principal. They were a bunch of old farts but funny ones who accepted him with open arms.

"You know Sasuke you might have actually done something right in your life." Itachi said taking a seat at the table. "And what is that Itachi?" Sasuke growled as he watched his brother make his plate. "Bringing him into our lives, it gets boring with all black-haired people with onyx eyes. Its fun to toss caution to the wind and bring in a vibrant blue-eyed, blonde haired boy." He said chuckling to himself and all he and everyone at the table besides Naruto hmpt, causing the blonde to blush.

So embarrassing~

The night went on without a hitch and Naruto actually was enjoying himself, who knew that the oh so prestigious Uchiha's knew how to have fun. After dinner they decided to play monopoly but Mikoto was selling money from the bank, can you believe it? He would have thought that it would have been Sasuke or even Itachi but their mother...no way.

He was happy he had all the blue's which was park place, the yellows, and the railroads...except for one, damn Sasuke but he was winning at the moment. Just collecting all the money he made when they stepped on his property, but when he looked at Mikoto's stack he noticed that she was on par with him and that shouldn't be right since she had the whack properties that paid nothing really. What was going on? He decided to keep an eye on her.

"Hey, I have no money left...what do I do?" The now grumpy Fugaku asked, he was so sure in the beginning of the game that he was going to win and show them all just how powerful Fugaku Uchiha was, but that feeling didn't last long when he kept landing on things that made him pay and ending up in jail more than twice, while everyone collected properties.

"Dear, you are bankrupt so you'll have to go to jail for three rounds or you can try to roll doubles but when you get out of jail the bank will give you a $1,000 dollars to start-up again." Mikoto explained smiling at her husband who seemed to be pouting at the moment. They were really something else, Naruto thought.

Smiling he looked at the bank money and sighed what the hell, how was she going to pay anyone with that little bit of money in it. The time was now to pay attention to see if she'll put money back to continue the game and not seem suspicious or take more, which would be crazy. Deciding that he needed more eyes he leaned over to Sasuke who so conveniently sat beside him.

"Pshh, hey..." He whispered but didn't know how to tell him that his mother was stealing from the bank, it's just a game but he wanted to see if she really was.

"What dobe?" Sasuke said sliding closer so he could hear better, he had a pretty good idea what he wanted to ask but he was trying to catch her in the act too. Every time they played a game the outcome was always suspicious but he could never figure out how she does it, she's so crafty.

"Ummm, is...is your mom cheating? I don't know but I've been looking and she made no move so far but she will have to put money back to make it enough to give to your father in the rounds to come. But how did she get that much money to begin with when her properties aren't that costly?...I want you to pay attention to her movements too, okay?" He said with his best smile, as if he didn't just accuse his I-don't-know-what-we-are-friend's mother of cheating.

Sasuke laughed causing Naruto's smile to slip, what the hell was so funny...

"Dobe she is cheating, she cheats in like everything I think to make the games more fun...I think that's what she said one time, saying that if she did cheat it's to make the game fun and intense. I have tried to catch her in the act but can't she's slick, but if we work together we might catch her. But you have to realize she's been doing this since I was a child, she could have been doing this since her childhood...so I think she mastered the technique of cheating without getting caught...such a criminal, maybe you can figure out the deeper reason behind it." Naruto blushed, how was he going to figure out how and why she cheats. Mikoto seemed a little dangerous if cornered and he wasn't going to be the one she attacked, but he did agree to work together to crack the case.

The game forgotten he and Sasuke paid close attention to Mikoto in hopes of figuring out how she did it, right under their noses no less.

As the game progressed, Naruto saw Mikoto smile and felt a chill creep up his back. Why was she smiling? Did she know that they were on to her? Maybe, so he had to pay close attention but as time went by she did nothing and that worried Naruto so he glanced at the bank and noticed that it was filled with...with MONEY!? What the hell, she didn't move anywhere never the damned thing. Someone was fucking with him, his mind...did they slip him something? No no they wouldn't do that. Would they?

Looking at Sasuke he saw that he came to the same realization that they just been hoodwinked. How did she do it, was she a magician? A witch? She was something a little on the wild side, he thought super impressed that they didn't catch her putting the money back in the bank. It was nicely stacked too, all in nice rows of $5's, $10 etc. Ugh this was going to get on his nerves, he just knew it. He will go home trying to figure out how she did it, should he just ask...no no that was impossibe!

"What the hell dobe, I thought you were watching her?" Sasuke growled as he looked at the bank with its neatly stacked paper money. "What the hell to you, teme! Is your mom some sort of magician because I was watching closely and didn't see her go near the bank." Naruto shot back, the bastard wasn't going to blame him.

"Now what are you boys over there whispering so heatedly about?" Mikoto said smiling, they shut up quick and sat straight up as if they had on a corset to hold their postures straight. At first they looked guilty, then angry, finally just defeated. She was a pro and they couldn't hold a torch to her, she was that good.

"Nothing much..." Naruto attempted but was caught off guard when Itachi opened his big fat stupid mouth Naruto thought.

"They were just trying to figure out how you cheat and put the money back." Itachi told laughing at the faces the younger two made. Sasuke threw a pillow at him and Naruto followed suit, the traitor he was supposed to keep quiet not tattle on them, but one thing that he noticed beforehand that Itachi did things that would humor him instead of others.

"Hey why'd you do that Naruto?" Itachi asked serious faced as he rubbed his head. "I...ummm sor-" He was trying to say before he was tackled to the floor with Itachi on him.

"You know Naruto you're too cute to be hanging with my brother and picking up his bad habits, but it's good to see you becoming comfortable around us." With that said he put Naruto in a headlock, messing up his hair.

"Itachi, stop it before you scare the boy off." Fugaku said chuckling at their antics, ah to be young, he thought as he got up off the floor. "I'm going to head to bed, Naruto it was a pleasure to meet you. It's after ten already so you can stay the night or do you want me to drive you home?"

Naruto didn't know, he was having so much fun and didn't want it to end but he had school tomorrow. He didn't have any homework since he did it during study hall. But he didn't want to be a burden so he'll go. "I'll go home but you don't have to take me, I can walk."

When he said that four sets of black eyes looked at him, fidgeting under the attention he looked down. Why were they staring? Feeling a hand ruffle his hair he looked up and saw Itachi, smiling at him.

"I'll take him home, we don't want anything happening to you so no walking home in the dark...okay?" Itachi said waiting for Naruto to respond, who just nodded his head in response. "Here take my number, if it's ever late and you need a ride call me."

"Do you have a pen and paper?" Naruto asked smiling, he loved the look on people's faces when he hinted that he didn't have a cell phone in this day and age. He didn't really need one since all his friends knew where he lived if they needed something but Itachi's face was priceless and so was Sasuke's...even though he was sure the raven figured it out already but it's something else when you think it but a totally different story when you know the truth.

"That's dangerous Naruto, especially since you live alone. Nope we are going to have to change that." Mikoto said turning into a mother hen.

"It's really fine, you guys have done more than enough for me already. I don't need anything else...really." Naruto said not too convincing for the heads of the Uchiha family.

"Nonsense, we will get you one immediately. Sasuke go and get my phone, I'll make some calls right now." Fugaku barked out and Sasuke went to do what he was told.

"No really..." Naruto tried again but his words fell on deaf ears. Why were they going through so much trouble for him, they just met him today and that was only for a few hours. People shouldn't be this nice, they shouldn't, especially to him. No one's been this nice except for Kiba's mom and she wasn't rich trying to support him and her own family. He always felt guilty when others went out of their way to help him. He didn't like having to owe people back.

"Just give it up Naruto, they are set on "adopting" you. They were sold on your character since before they even met you and they really fell in love when they heard how passionate you talked about the fields you want to do in the future. We all can see why Sasuke is in love with you and they approve, so don't feel like you're a burden because you're not. We have the money and resource to spend on you so let it." Itachi said ruffling his hair again.

"But how can I?" Naruto asked, really wondering if he can depend on these people when he didn't with his friends.

"Just take it one day at a time." Is all that Itachi said before leaving Naruto in the living room with Mikoto and Fugaku who sat on the couch motioning for him to come join them.

Could he really get use to this? Well, it was worth a try.

A/N: Thanks for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it!