Anthology

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"Damn." Naruto cursed as he slammed his hands down on the dash of his car before he took a deep breath. 'I am so dead.' The blonde thought. 'Of course I lost my wallet. Of everything i could lose— just of course.' Narutos stomach grumbled in agreement. 'The one thing I needed.' Naruto's panic got worse as he realized that most of his fake credit cards were in there as well and to top it off he had been all over the city so it wasn't like he would be able to just easily track it down. 

'Knowing my luck the shady guy The was lurking around the gas station off of 43rd street swiped it.' Naruto sighed as He faced the realization that he would have to go and cancel all of them, 'assuming i can remember exactly what all was in it.' He thought, but Naruto was more upset losing about the pictures inside of it. 

Images of Kurama, Jiraya, Iruka and even Kakashi and Sasuke. There weren't any copies around of some of those and now? Now they were gone. 'Another rough and unforgiving day gone by.' Naruto thought as he fought he was through traffic to get home- thirty minutes later than usual of course. 

The minute Naruto got inside his apartment, he flopped out on the old tattered couch. The paint on the living rooms walls were peeling and the linoleum was cracked in spots revealing another horrendous linoleum patterned floor underneath. It was crappy apartment. 

The place was silent since Kurama was staying with Iruka. Naruto would deny the fact that it was because he couldn't take care of him— even though it was true. The blonde preferred to pretend that Kyuu just really liked staying over at Iruka's. Naruto fell asleep right there on the couch and when wakes up the next morning it was with a backache and a crick in his neck from sleeping funny. 

"i am an idiot." Naruto mutters to himself as he rubs where the couch left marks on his cheek. "Could have slept in the perfectly decent bed but no, had to crash here." Naruto yawned. That wasn't to say it was a perfectly good bed— it wasn't. Naruto had gotten it secondhand from Jiraiya and it had its fair share of lumps and dips. The blonde was just glad it didn't have bugs or weird stains.  

'when did my life get like this?' Naruto wondered vaguely. 'Living in a run down apartment working two dead-end jobs and making just enough to make ends meet?' Naruto shook his head. 'I can hardly keep my little brother Kyuu fed and I still need to cancel all of my credit cards.' The blonde didn't always have picture perfect behavior —he never had— but he still figured he should cancel the fake cards. 'First though I need some food.' The blonde decided as his stomach rumbled loudly again. 

So Naruto wanders into the kitchen bending down to look inside his fridge, as if by magic food would appear somehow. It doesn't. A half eaten jar of pickles, a quarter gallon of milk, some old cheese and a few boxes of take-out from his favorite ramen shop. The food there was good, but not two weeks after the fact. Naruto winced at the smell as he grabbed it and grudgingly tossed it in the trash. It had gone bad. 'I need to take the trash out before I leave.' The blonde decided, making a mental note of it as he turned his attention from the refrigerator and decided to browse the cabinets.

 'At this rate, I will be drinking pickle juice to keep from starving.' He thought before snorting. 'Nah. Things are tight but they can't be that tight.' He grinned when he found a nearly empty box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch hidden away. It was Kurama's favorite cereal. 

He poured the last of the cereal into a bowl and then dumped some of his Cheerios in to fill the bowl. 'At least I won't be hungry today.' Naruto thought as he dumped all of the milk in it as he could. He wanted to finish it off since it was going to go bad soon— he could smell it. He was already out of sugar for his coffee so on impulse he poured some of the milk into it to help ease the bitterness. It didn't work, and now Naruto was also out of coffee. 

"When was the last time I went grocery shopping?" Naruto wondered as he struggled and failed to recall. The blonde was running himself down between working at the gas station and at the Eden Club on nights. Between the two and the poor nights of sleep —when he could sleep— and the blonde was suffering from F.L.S.S or Feel Like Shit Syndrome.

Narutos life had devolved into a mess, and had been that way for the last few months. 'Kurama has been staying with Iruka for almost three weeks now.' Naruto thought as he gut twisted in guilt. 'I need to get my life together, I can't lose him too.' Naruto needed to a lot of things. Dish's, take the trash out, clean, pick up some more hours and pay the light bill. Not to mention rent and food. With a tired sigh he pulled out the trash bag and out and tied it off before reach to grab a new one— only to realize it was just an empty box sitting there. 'Guess trash bags are new thing to put on the list.' Naruto groaned inwardly. 

A glance at the old cat shaped clock told Naruto to kick it into to gear and he headed to the bathroom to run some water of his face in an effort to wake himself up. The water was cold and a look in the dirty mirror showed him that he looked terrible. He briefly considered trying to do something with his hair, but decided it against it. 'My hair is nearly impossible to control anyway.' Naruto thought before quickly brushing his teeth and using some deodorant. That all taken care of he snatched his keys of the floor (they seemed to have fell off the couch while he was sleeping) and grabbed the tied trash bag to throw in the dumpster on his way out. 

Naruto had already raced down two flights of stairs before he realized he hadn't changed out of his clothes from yesterday. 'Oh well. At least I put some deodorant on and brushed my teeth.' Naruto thought with a shrug. 'Crap I am almost of deodorant too. I really need to get paid soon.' He got to lobby and walked outside and down around the back to drop the trash in the dumpster. Absently the blonde wiped his hands on his pants as he headed back inside to check his mail slot. 

The tiny key corresponding to his mailbox jingled as he fiddled with it trying open the damn box. It wasn't wanting to cooperate but finally after a few moments it opened. And sitting right there on top of his mail, was his wallet. 

Naruto blinked and looked around to see if anyone else was around because, 'this has to be some sort of joke.' Naruto thought. The lobby was empty. Frowning Naruto braced himself as he reached in to grab it, half Afraid something was going to bite him or something. That or explode. 

Nothing happened. 

Naruto looked down to see the same old leather and well worn leather trifold he had carried for years. Jiraiya had gotten it for him. Before he died and before everything started falling apart. To Naruto amazement when he opened it, everything was still there. All of his (fake)credit cards, pictures and— 'even my money is still here.' Naruto realized, 'whoa actually this is more money than I had in here. I only had like twenty bucks. This has be close to five hundred dollars.' Naruto thought still trying to process the fact that not only did he have his wallet back, but there was more cash in it than it started with. A small slip of paper tucked in with the bills caught his attention and Naruto pulled it out to look at it. His stomach rolling with unease at the shadiness of this entire situation. It was great and all, but still shady. 

There was a fluidly written letter written out across the length of the paper. (older thick paper if he had to be honest) 

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Hello Naruto, 

I located your wallet yesterday. I believe you would like it back. I hope you have not canceled your illegitimate cards yet and you should note that nothing it missing. In fact, some things have been added. I hope you are not offended by this gesture. I noticed you could use it and I have enough to spare. I hope this helps. The small child in the photos is adorable, and I hope the money provides you some small comfort.

~G

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Naruto was shocked. "What kind of stranger is nice enough to return my wallet and on top of that give me some cash?" He mumbled not sure what to make of this. 'I never get this lucky.' Naruto glanced around again, wondering if he was stuck on one of those weird game show type deals. 'Maybe the person thought I looked hot in my driver license pic or something but this is just weird.' Naruto stood there staring down at the wallet in his hands. 'Someone helped me, without hinting at wanting anything back. They did it just to be nice. Nobody ever does that for me.' He swallowed and felt a tear prick the corner of his eye. 

Naruto had lived his life doing that for other people, he always liked to the right thing. It sorta irritated Jiraiya sometimes but for the most part the old man always supported him. It was nice to be on the receiving end for once.

"You alright Naru?" A tired voice said and the blonde looked up to Shikamaru standing there checking his mail. Naruto flashed him a grin he wasn't really feeling.

"Yeah dattebayo! Was thinking about something for sec but I'm good. How ya doing?" Deflection plain and simple. It was one of his best skills surprisingly. (Well that and fighting.)

"Fine." Shikamaru mumbled as he pulled a rather large stack of mail out of his box. "Making some progress actually." He admitted and Naruto gave the guy another more genuine smile. 

"That's great, congrats!" Naruto said and Shikamaru judges nodded. They weren't friends or close or anything but Naruto was still glad that he was doing well. The man was a writer and had been suffering from writer's block.

"Yeah, thanks. Im going to head home and see if I can't wrangle out a few more chapters."

"Good luck." Naruto called out as the guy darted quickly away. Shikamaru could be a strange guy but then again so could Naruto. 'And whoever it was who gave a perfect stranger nearly five hundred dollars in cash.' 

With a shrug he shoved it into his back pocket and made his way to his car so he could make it work on time. The street lamps were just starting to come and Naruto was glad he had eaten breakfast, thought perhaps dinner would have fit the timing better. He didn't really care either way as he pulled into the Edens Club employee parking and his belly want yelling at him. Bright neon lights and loud thumping music roared from inside the building as Naruto went around back to slip into his work uniform and start prowling the inside of the club. As security it was his job to break up fight and keep things happy go lucky in the midst of all of the drunks and music. It wasn't until he was out on the floor that a new thought had occurred to him. 

'How the heck did he get the wallet inside my mailbox?'