Author's Note: Hello! This is my first story I've ever posted on FanFiction. Please be kind and review please! I would much appreciate it so I knew whether you like it or not! (:

Chapter 1

The day started out typical for him. He punched the snooze button one too many times until he realized he would be late for work yet again. He never had, nor would he ever have an easy life or a good morning.

"What the fuck! How in the hell did I sleep an extra two hours!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. Naruto Uzumaki was used to being late, but never before had he over slept two hours. "I was supposed to be at work over an hour ago!"

He looked at his phone and cringed. He had eight missed calls from his boss. He thought, no knew, he wasn't going to have any balls after she got a hold of him.

He was only wearing boxers, so he quickly threw on his uniform. He knew he was screwed. He hadn't bothered to clean any of his Subway shirts. He picked the one that looked and smelled the cleanest, then hurriedly threw on his pants and shoes.

"I'm buying a damn alarm clock that doesn't have a damn snooze button," he mumbled to himself as he gathered his cell phone, wallet, and keys. He had a long list of things to buy, the first being a car, but now he had just added an alarm. He wondered if he would ever stop needing to buy things.

It would be a fifteen minute walk to work, a five minute run. It turned into an eight minute jog while Sakura Haruno, his boss, screamed into his ear about him being late on a Monday morning when everyone was getting breakfast.

He liked his boss, even if she was an utter bitch sometimes. She was young, only nineteen but she was completing her Bachelor's degree and about ready to move onto her Masters'. She only had this job to get spending money since her parents and scholarships paid for her schooling. She would go far and life and he would probably still be stuck in this crappy job for the rest of his life.

"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed his name, venom dripping from his name. He feared for his life, and wished to be anyone but himself right now. Sakura stood there fuming, demanding silently he see her, now.

Naruto sulked and walked into the back. She wasn't dressed for work, that was for certain. She looked like she had just woken up, her bubblegum pink hair thrown into a messy bun and her sweat pants all wrinkled.

"Sakura, I don't have an excuse this time. I'm sorry, I just didn't wake up on time. I'm not going to screw up again," Naruto told her, never looking her in the eye.

"Naruto, you're a good guy. You work hard, but you hardly ever get her when anyone needs you. You need to be here before we open, you need to be preparing everything, not just leaving it up to us college kids," she said. He knew what she meant: Get your old, lazy ass to work so we can just push all the work on the old guy and do our homework.

"I'll start doing that Sakura. What do you need me to do?" Naruto asked, trying to make up for being late.

"Well breakfast is still going on, so help Sai serve the customers. Just start showing up early and all will be fine Naruto," Sakura said with a smile. They bid each other good byes, and Naruto thanked her. She went to class and he went to work in the front.

"Yo, Sai, I'll take care of making the food, you run the register." Sai agreed quickly, keeping my strange nickname to himself. Breakfast was the worst shift, especially on a Monday. Everyone was grouchy and still recovering from partying over the weekend. Add in the fact that they were hungry and you were making them late by just breathing, and you got yourself the shitty shift.

Naruto didn't mind to much, the customers' bitchiness no longer affected him. This job paid for his food and his other one would pay for the bills. He was just glad to not be on the streets anymore.

The morning always moves quickly since there is a never ending line. Around ten it starts to slow down. It's not quite lunch, but still not quite breakfast. It was an odd time of day for the Subway workers. Sai and Naruto enjoyed their breakfast separately.

Naruto was rarely stuck with Sai on a Monday morning; it was normally his day off. Sai was a weird guy. He gave Naruto the nickname dickless, irking Naruto to no end. Some days he was almost ready to drop his pants and show Sai he had a dick. Some part of his brain reminded him that it would be a bad idea to do that at his workplace. He didn't have a college degree, but even he knew that he would be out of his job if he did something as stupid as that.

Naruto hated his shift sometimes. It was from six to two. After one, no one came into Subway, leaving him completely bored and out of his mind. The days when he missed coming in at six, he wound up staying later, like today. Now he would be here until four, when the rush started. He couldn't leave during a rush, and he knew the college kids wouldn't come to his rescue. Everyone, including Sakura, thought he was an idiot. He had barely graduated high school with a 2.5GPA, which showed up on every job application; he was lucky to land this job when no one else applied.

Naruto sighed heavily. He didn't know the new guy who was next to him, all he knew was he was some college student who was here for the same reason the rest of them were: to have some spending money. Sometimes, Naruto wished his life would be so simple instead of just being filled with work to barley get him by. He looked at the clocked again and sighed a somewhat happy sigh. There was only five minutes until he could go take a nap for a few hours until his next job. Lucky for him, the rush hadn't started back up yet.

Naruto went in the back, clocked out and headed home at exactly four on the dot. He wished his jobs' shifts were closer together since the buildings were less than a block from the other, but Naruto had gotten used to never having free time. Around eight he would go to his next job. He was a janitor at the Uchiha Corporation. The pay was way better than his Subway job, even if the job was crappier. Naruto had long learned to accept the oddest jobs for money. Money meant survival, and that's all he could do until he ultimately died.

As Naruto walked back to his apartment, he passed the park. The laughter of children filled the area. He knew he had plenty of time to get home, change, and get to his next job, so he detoured into the park. He hadn't sat in this park for quite some time, even though he passed it four times a day for the past three years.

Naruto watched the children play for at least an hour. He couldn't ever remember being that happy as a child, being thrown from home to home, but he always felt a bit happier about his life when he saw children. Something about the way they could just make the best of every situation and have hours of fun doing the same thing over and over always got to Naruto. He wished his childhood had been different, that his life was different.

Naruto got up from the bench and started to head back to his apartment when the sun started to set. He guessed it was around six-thirty now. He got stares as he walked down the street, like usual. He looked like a "delinquent" as proper members of society called him. His golden hair and bronze tan were standing out as the sun shone its final rays. He had a few different piercings in his ears that he knew people saw considering all his hair was spiked on top of his head. He ignored the stairs. He was only twenty-three, he could do what he wanted to his body damn it. He wasn't dead or going into a white collar job! He could have all the piercings he wanted. His hair was naturally blonde, and he figured his parents weren't natives to Japan if he was so dark and they were so pale. Most of them resembled vampires to Naruto, scaring him shitless as night.

He eventually made it back to his apartment. He wondered if people tried to create holes in his body with their stares. He heated up his last bowl of instant ramen and sighed. He hated being poor. He wouldn't get either of his pay checks until next week, and now he was out of food. Working at Subway got him a sandwich or two, but he was off tomorrow. He hated not being able to at least eat something once a day.

On the streets, Naruto hardly ever worried. He did at the beginning, right after he turned eighteen and got kicked out of the orphanage, but after a year, he befriended the biggest hustler in the Red Light District. He always had a place to stay and food. He didn't even have to worry about bills. All Naruto worried about was street fights; he always came out on top, but the after math of being hunted by both the gang and the cops was never fun.

Ignoring the growling of his stomach and the fond memories he strongly wished to relive, Naruto crawled into his unmade bed and set his alarm for seven forty-five. He welcomed the short precious nap that would take him away from reality if even for only half an hour. Before he dozed off, he wondered if he should have tried to better his life, considering he was living in hell now.