Title; Fallout

Disclaimer; Nope I don't own any of the Naruto characters.

"I think I feel sick." I didn't but I couldn't help feeling as if it wasn't my duty to feel at least some disgust with myself at the moment and every other moment from now onwards.

"Why?" He didn't even bother to open his eyes, in fact there wasn't any movement from him except his bare chest's gentle rise and fall and the flicker of the moonlight on his pale skin. Somehow I got the feeling he didn't care all that much for my moral dilemma.

"You are kind of responsible for destroying the Leaf." Despite what I said though, the oft repeated chant of any of the old guard that remained, I leaned back down allowing my cheek to settle on his chest and draped a hand over his scared stomach.

"Is that what I did?" I shivered as a chill wind blew through the still open window and was slightly surprised as a strong arm wrapped around my shoulders pulling me just a little closer. I suppose he hadn't really, but the Uchiha had played a significant role in creating this new world when the Moon's eye plan went…off course.

"You took away our Chakra." It had been amazing for all of ten minutes when the seemingly invincible Madara had been reduced to nothing more than a mere man. Then the after effects began to strike. Law collapsed, treaties were abandoned and Kages were disposed of as if they were nothing more than ailing children. Tsunade was reduced to an elderly woman with a barely functioning liver, Garaa a sheltered boy suddenly absent his protections, the Raikage a one armed brute with a temper…few of us kept anything of what had made us ninjas.

Even Lee was crippled as the Chakra that made his superhuman training methods possible evaporated. He almost immediately done something to his back, training undeterred as usual. He couldn't seem to understand that without chakra all that boundless determination was a double edged sword. It was something we didn't even remotely understand as medical jutsu as we'd always relied upon it was now impossible.

The village was torn apart within months, first with the loss of small areas of land and then greater and greater as the barbarians and outlaws of Fire country realised how feeble we now were. Tai-jutsu focused Genin now completely outclassed the Clans leaders and heirs. Weapon specialists, the grittier ones, they became Gods. Neji took that somewhat badly.

"Would you like me to apologise Tenten?" He wouldn't, the tone in his voice made that completely certain. And in all honesty I wasn't sure I wanted that, in the end all he'd done was even the playing field for the world. It was an interesting answer to fighting the hatred and cycle of revenge, the exact opposite of Pein's actually. Naruto had clearly thought so.

"Why did you do it, Naruto gave his reasons but…" The blonde Hokage wanna be had put forward his opinion, that it was the absurd amount of power each village held in its hands that caused our problems, that so weakened we'd be forced to depend on one another, that another tyrant like Madara would no longer be possible without chakra.

It had been sort of sad to see him executed.

The Uchiha mumbled something under his breath and I asked him to repeat himself.

"I thought it would take away the memories." He spoke quietly. His eyes had opened for a second and I saw a flash of their mild crimson. Sharingan without chakra, without the gleam or fire. They'd been locked in that strange state since I'd run across him. A dead man's eyes, almost.

"Did it?" A hundred thousand lives tossed in the wind because he wanted to see if his photographic memory had an off switch.

"No." A man of dangerous wild whims that never worked out, better I supposed than being a woman of small plans that never succeeded. I ignored the chill of the night air and untangled myself from him and the sheets…now where had I thrown my pants.

"Here." He offered his outstretched hand grasping my weapon holster. I had to ignore the way the moonlight reflected off his scars making them look so much more…artistic, lines from some beautiful language I didn't know describing battles the pale warrior had only just survived.

"I don't remember taking this off?" I offered with a raised eyebrow reattaching it to my thigh…probably counter-productive given I still lacked pants but the jingle of the metal inside was comforting.

"You didn't." Returned the Uchiha standing and allowing the sheets to fall away, I tried not to blush.

"I kicked your sword underneath the bed I think." I offered back to him, shrugging as he threw me an annoyed look. So maybe I could have been more respectful of his property but I'd had much more important things on my mind when I'd disarmed him…like that thing he did with his tongue.

As I plucked up my shirt I felt the rogue ninja wrap his arms around my waist, something hard and familiar rubbed my lower back as I returned to full height.

"You're presumptuous." I whispered as evenly as I could as his tongue flickered out to tickle the flesh of my shoulder, then lightly suckle and…

"You're in denial." He growled back lips climbing higher to reach my neck, his fingers trailing my stomach.

"Why me?" I asked as his rough fingers trailed over a scar on my forearm. I couldn't remember where I'd gotten it, brought down to normal battles had become much more chaotic. I'd focused on two bandits to my right and an attack had come from the left, a dirty shuriken imbedding itself in my arm. I'd cleaned it well enough and escaped an infection but none of us were familiar with stitching or manual healing back then and patching it up had been awkward. It was an ugly mark.

"Ninja seek ninja." He answered back plainly allowing me to twist in his embrace. I decided to not look down.

"Ninja also kill ninja." And I should kill him, even if I found him somewhat sympathetic, he'd destroyed my village, my former livelihood and I knew he was still dangerous. Still another voice brought up the counter argument.

What had I left in the ruins of Konoha now. I hadn't any friends left, not really. There weren't any new Genin being produced, rather the youth attached to the village remains were being used differently. Sometimes spies or geisha but I suspected there may have been more going on behind closed doors, things I didn't want to know about to the orphans from the fall. New Konoha was becoming less like its inspiration of a noble Ninja empire and much more like a petty criminal organisation. We took jobs as enforcers now not guards, carried out beatings and lynching's rather than neat assassinations, smuggled booze and murderers rather than medicine and refugees. Increasingly we were little more than thugs with fancy armaments and useless training it seemed.

"I couldn't image going any other way." He remarked drawing me from my musings and earning a laugh. I wasn't even sure why, maybe because I agreed with the sentiment or because I thought that if I did want an actual ninja to kill me…there wasn't that many other options these days.

"Okay, so what is it you want with me…besides the obvious?" I tried, thumbing a scar of his own. The old scar tissue ran about four inches diagonally across his chest, probably a knife's work. A larger weapon wouldn't have been so kind to the skin.

"There's still work available for those capable, up north I hear." He answered raising a hand up to cover my own and entwining our rough fingers. I finally glanced down and realised he had in fact slipped into a pair of pants at some point.

"Business partners then?" Leave Konoha's ruins, start fresh in the north absent the constant reminders of what had been lost. The trill of just what life might be like with this man at my side was tempting. Would we work together for some time and part ways when it was convenient? Bond deeply as friends? Kill one another at some point over some dispute?

He tilted my chin up and caught my lips in a scalding kiss. His lips were chapped and he tasted of some form of booze I couldn't quite place, something local I guessed. The gesture was less forceful than it had been before though, when we'd been absorbed in our passions. It almost felt like a question.

"Okay not business partners as such." I chuckled as he pulled away smirking and began to gather his clothing up again. I settled myself on the side of the bed crossing one leg over the other and offering him what I hoped was a seductive if slightly confused expression.

"Don't tell me this was a want what you can't have thing?" I asked as he began his search beneath the bed for his sword. Apparently he really had lost all interest once I'd shown my own…I thought that was supposed to be some urban legend about romance.

"It's went quiet below us. Not to go out on a limb, but one of us is probably the target of whatever's coming." He remarked pulling his weapon free and sliding it into his belt. I moved on instinct snatching up my own remaining gear. I guess the Uchiha had improved his natural senses more travelling alone than I had working in large cell squads.

"How's your aim?" He asked as I pulled my cloak over my shoulders, I elbowed him in the ribs and offered him a dry look.

"I'll pretend you didn't ask that." I threw over my shoulder leading the way. I could hear the scuffle of footsteps now, the clack as a rushed amateur knocked his weapon against one of the tight corners of the small inn.

Time to test the new arrangement.

Just a little oneshot that's been wasting space on my hard drive. Naturally the background if you haven't guessed it was that during the final battle Naruto aided by Sasuke used Madara and Obito's frame work to cut off the entire worlds access to chakra bringing everyone down to normal. His answer to the hatred being to take away the ninja world's most potent weapons.

R&R