AN: While I'm a huge fan of the setting of the anime and manga, I think that most of the characters in Naruto can stand up quite well in settings beyond their own. This idea has been kicking around in my head for a while now, and I hope you guys enjoy it. Things are going to get started off with a bit of a bang - a veritable end of the world. While the setting is in a world quite like or own, it's still not meant to be simply a post apocalyptic future - there are fantasy elements in it as well, though not always as you might first think.

The italics text can be safely ignored, if you're wanting to get straight to the story, as it's not vital to story progression - but I'm a firm believer in having a good back story, so if you share that belief - by all means, indulge yourself.

In the year 2010, political destabilization reached a critical point - a point where first the Middle East, and then the rest of the world fell into a war that brought civilization to its knees. Governments collapsed, with the superpowers falling the hardest. The United States, European Union, and Asiatic Defense Confederation deteriorated into wastelands. Power hungry commanders in the armed forces staged coup after coup, with none being truly successful. Stabilizing the latest flavor of the week government proved impossible, and by 2015, any semblance of a functioning military was something only dreamed about by people all over the globe. Unfortunately, those five years were perhaps the most bloody in human history.

It had all started with a single spark in the most war torn region on Earth, during the year 2008 -a border dispute, where a single soldier had made the mistake of using deadly force on a civilian. The government responded by declaring war. Soon, political allies were dragged into the fight, with the entire region in a military brushfire. The region was never known for it's abundance of water, and it seemed that similarly, there would be no relief to put out the rapidly deteriorating situation.

By September of 2009, the three political powerhouses had come to an agreement. The war was too costly for all parties involved, in both lives and resources. The decision was made - the decision that inevitably sent the world back into the dark ages - to cut their losses and run, and implement a scorched earth policy. If there wasn't to be peace, there wasn't to be anything. Atomic weapons were to used to end the war... as well as most life inside of the Middle East.

The public outcry was immediate. Protestors lined the street, and a series of riots lasting months overtook every major city in every major country of the world. Texas broke from the Union, citing that they had once been their own country, and would return to that state. Following suit, California did the same, claiming that the foundation the country had been built upon had been desecrated, and that they could not remain in good conscious. Several formerly Confederate states decided to take up their old mantle, and on the third of January, 2010 the second American Civil War started. Texas, California, and much of the Midwest stayed their hand and any involvement, leaving the Northeastern states to fend for themselves. Before any meaningful victories could be had by either side, rogue generals began their own factions. Any semblance of order or reason for the war evaporated, and all that was left was a power play for dictatorial rule of the land.

Europe and Asia fared little better. The Eastern Bloc knew that much of the world would be too busy with their own problems to attempt to stop their own military advances. The Soviet steamrolled through Europe, destroying those who did not ally with them, and rewarding those that did. Whole populations were mass conscripted into the army used to defile the land. Fearing for themselves, the European Union split in half, many joining the reincarnated Soviet powers for their safety, and the rest barricading themselves in within their own borders, hoping for some sort of earthly miracle to save them from impending invasion. In Asia, an economy fueled almost entirely by trade, threatened to collapse. Japan and Korea, desperate for resources, began their separate invasions of the Chinese mainland. It turned into a deadly three way battle for their way of life, and soon the Chinese population began a revolt against their government. Tibet broke off, as did Hong Kong. The infighting rivaled that of what was occurring in North America, leaving little to fight the Korean and Japanese invaders.

South America became a mess of guerilla warfare. In the end, their lack of large militaries saved them from much of the fighting. Beyond the initial shock causing several terrorist groups to rise up, and in some cases, take temporary hold of the government, things settled down, as they realized that was one of the few relatively stable regions of the world, people would soon begin to, in a perversely ironic change, mass immigrate into their lands. Realizing this, they formed a coalition to secure their borders. They were not alone in this situation. Australia was all but untouched by the war, but was afraid of the political instability that would be caused by a mass immigration. Smaller island countries such as Cuba followed suit. Within a year of the major outbreaks of war, immigration into these countries all but stopped, with only close relatives of citizens being allowed in.

By 2013, much of Europe had fled from the Soviet invaders into Africa, and the Soviet military pursued them. What happened next was the final blow that caused the house of cards to crumble. Authorizing nuclear warfare, the Soviet command tossed a lit match onto the gasoline that was the military situation of the world. Within days of using weapons of mass destruction to remove much of the fortified European footholds in Africa, hidden bases and submarines responded in kind. This new turn in what would be known as the fall of the world acted to remove whatever inhibitions the warlords in other locations had had about using whatever they had stockpiled. The end of these wars came in 2015, not because of peace or political agreement, but rather because there was no one left to fight.

He looked down in horror at the crimson liquid flowing out of him at an astounding rate. He felt as his knees gave way, causing him to crash to the ground, one arm holding him up from falling completely, the other clenched to his abdomen in a futile attempt to stop the flow of blood. As he gasped out an incomprehensible statement, a gust of wind brought a wave of dust and sand to his face, obscuring the vision of his blue eyes, and dirtying his blonde hair.

"Get up, kid. You know it's not going to be that easy, right? We're not going to let you just fall down and die before we've had our fun with you."

A fierce kick to his side forced his eyes open in pain. He turned to look at his ribcage, and saw that his orange jumpsuit was marred black by the ash and grime that had been layered on the offending boot. He tilted his head to look up at his assailants, two young men who looked to be in their early twenties. Both wore the same unmarked camouflage, white grey and black, meant for an urban environment. It was almost amusing to think of about, when taking into consideration the state of the world. Urban environment? Not much of that left. All around him, the ruins of what was once a major city of the southwestern United States lay in various crumbling states of deterioration. Adorning the streets were the burned out hulks of tanks left forgotten, rather than the cars that should have been in there place.

Another kick to his side forced his mind back into the present. He knew that his wandering mind was a product of the blood loss, causing him to go into shock and lose focus. He knew that if he didn't do something soon, then he was doomed to be just another statistic, one more death that would be nothing more than a number to some historian hundreds of years in the future, when they looked back on this sordid state of affairs as nothing more than another bleak patch in a tapestry of time full of bleak patches. Gritting his teeth, he stood slowly.

"Oh, standing up? Realized we weren't going to let you bleed into unconsciousness and death, I suppose." The taller of the two spoke.

He focused his eyes on the taller one, taking note of the weapons he had in his hand. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it, though it really shouldn't have surprised him. Weapons were the most valuable, traded, and stolen, commodity in these times. Making your own out of whatever you had at hand was hardly a rare occurrence. This one, however, was odd even for an age of oddities. It appeared to be a shovel with two axes attached to either side, with a long knife duct taped to the end. It was utterly impractical, completely unwieldy, and totally fearsome.

He took a stumbling step towards them. The only reaction he received was a smirk. Another step. And another. He rubbed his right thumb along the insides of his palm. Soon. Another step. He stumbled, but picked himself back up. His target rose his unwieldy battleaxe in warning, but it was too late. He tensed the muscles in his right arm, and the knife he had hidden up his sleeve fell into his waiting hand. Using his last burst of energy, he threw his weight against the man, bringing the two of them down. Forcing himself to continue acting, he shoved his knife upward into the man's throat. He felt a moment of grim satisfaction before he felt a blow to his head.

Stunned, he rolled over onto his back, looking up into the barrel of a gun. He had no time to question where the shorter man had produced the firearm from, as the world went black as a single shot rang out.

He showed no emotion as he folded up the stock of his rifle. He was wearing a black jumpsuit, with a thin piece of cloth covering his nose and mouth to prevent the sand and dust from irritating him. One of his eyes was covered with a similar piece of cloth, with the other giving only the slightest hint as to what he was feeling. He looked down upon the scene again, hoping that he would reach the boy in time to offer him aid. Subconsciously redirecting his chakra towards his feed, he began his descent down the building. As he broke into a run, he heard a gunshot, and felt a bullet tear into his shoulder, and he stumbled. Still several stories above the ground, he knew it was going to be a painful fall.

As he did what he could to tumble and break the moment of the fall, he still hit the ground with a loud crack, and felt a painful shattering within his already wounded shoulder. Looking up, he saw that the shooter had collapsed again, succumbing to his wounds. It seemed that his desire for revenge had given him enough strength to take one last shot before giving up.

Kakashi picked himself up, and hurried to the boy. He cursed his luck, as he did what he could to rummage through his things with his good arm. Finding what he was looking for, he used his teeth to rip open the packaging, and began to bandage the kid's side.

He knew that a gash that size could easily be infected, so he continued to search for some antibiotics. When met with success, he realized that with one arm he wasn't going to be able to force the kid to swallow the pills. Regretfully, he woke him up.

"Yo. Kid. Wake up. Tell me your name." He shook him lightly.

"Uh... Naruto..." came the moaning response.

"Swallow these, and hurry. There has to be time for it to get into your system." He popped the pills into Naruto's mouth. "Now swallow."

Moving his attention away momentarily, he searched the bodies of the two men. Grabbing the pistol, he switched the safety to on, and shoved it into a pocket in his jumpsuit vest. He found several protein bars and other semi valuable materials, and grabbed them as well.

"What's yours?" came the faint voice of the blonde kid lying beside him.

He rose, and helped Naruto up, bracing him over his working shoulder. He lifted him slightly, letting the kid drag his feet along behind them as he walked.

"Kakashi."

As he shouldered the load of the boy, he wondered just how he had survived the blow long enough to take down the first man. Taking an axe to the side should have put him down for the count. That he had been able to stand and attack was nothing short of amazing.

Naruto's eyes opened blearily as he felt a spoon being put to his mouth. He couldn't remember where he was, but all he saw was a dim light behind the head of a man with silver hair. Kakashi. The thought came to his suddenly, though he wasn't sure from where.

"Eat."

He did. Before he could mumble his thanks, however, darkness reclaimed him.

Naruto dug into the cup of ramen eagerly. Kakashi had found a small supply of it, as well as some bottled water in one of his forays into the abandoned suburbs. He had carried Naruto out of the city proper, and into the sparse, but largely undestroyed housing district. Most of it was long since looted, but before the war had reached boiling point many had stockpiled and hidden various nonperishable goods in hidden locations, and some of these lifesaving caches were left undiscovered by the local thugs warlords sent to scavenge for supplies.

They were sitting inside of an abandoned bus on a raised highway leading out of the city. Undoubtedly, the absence of the two sentries in the city had been noticed, and both Kakashi and Naruto fully expected they were being searched for, so they had taken shelter in the remainder of what was once a flourish of urban sprawl. He had learned some of his silvery haired savior. Formerly a military sniper, he had deserted during the early stages of the civil war, deciding that it was best to look out for himself in a world gone to shit. Since then, he had joined up with one of the warring groups, fortunately one out for survival for themselves and their families, rather than the submission of others.

He had been on a scouting mission to determine how close the enemy had encroached to their current encampment, and had been surveying things from the rooftops when he had seen the situation that Naruto was in. Well, to be fair, he had been drawn to it long before he had seen anything. The boy had an enormous amount of chakra, enough that it surprised him when he realized the boy had no training whatsoever. He could tell that he was young when the government, and thus the training programs, had deteriorated, but someone with that level of potential was usually discovered and put through the schooling system at an even younger age.

Naruto had mostly healed at this point, with a speed that had surprised his older compatriot, but he wasn't one to have misgivings about blessings. The angry wound had receded to a pink patch of new skin.

"How old are you, anyway, Naruto?" The silence was broken as they sat across the aisle from each other.

"About twelve. I can't be really sure, though, because I don't know the date." After finishing, he resumed eating, somewhat messily.

"The third of May."

"Hm?"

"It's May third, Naruto. I was telling you the date."

"Oh."

Silence permeated the air once again, with the exception of the smacking of lips.

"Why don't you ever take off that stuff covering your face, Kakashi?"

Before he could receive a response, there was a crack, and the window behind his head shattered. Both of them ducked in surprise, going to ground to hopefully avoid any further shots.

"That's our cue to leave. Take this." He held out the pistol he had taken from Naruto's assailants. "If you're up for it, I want you to run through the cars, using them for cover to draw their fire. I'll be right behind you, and I'll hopefully be able to take them out."

Naruto took the firearm from Kakashi, taking a moment to look at the writing. Heckler & Koch USP45. He nodded, and ran in a crouch to the front of the bus, before kicking open the door. Kakashi followed him, bringing his assault rifle to bear. As Naruto ran out towards the next car on the highway in a zigzag pattern, the sound of gunfire returned. Flipping the cloth open around his other eye, he ducked around the corner of the bus, his eyesight centering in on the gunman. He hurried to the closest car. He hurriedly propped his rifle up on the trunk, attempting to handle the weapon with only one arm.

Naruto was busy dodging the hail of bullets, ducking and diving behind cars and through gaps. Kakashi better take him down soon. I'm not sure how long I can continue to avoid this. He focused heavily on preventing any real pattern form with his movements. He had survived by himself long enough to have a very strong survival sense.

The attacker was on one of the other risen bridges, around thirty feet away. Kakashi hurriedly worked the rifle, taking aim. He fired once, and missed. The man ducked. He appeared again several feet away, swinging his own weapon in Kakashi's direction. Realizing it was a race against time, he swung his rifle, and once again put the man in his sights. He fired, and the assailant slumped.

"Come on, he wasn't the last of them. There are more out there, or on their way. Even if he only stumbled upon us by accident, he's sure to have radioed in our position."

They broke into a light jog, continuing along the highway littered with cars abandoned by their owners. The scene isn't what you would expect of a city destroyed by war. There was no mass evacuation. No panic. The cars had stopped working because they had run out of gas, long before the tanks had ever arrived. The implosion of life as they knew it had happened slowly in many cities. Things gradually broke down, with no one there to bring them new supplies or fix it. There were no more shipping routes. No truckers bringing the life sustaining shipments of food and fuel.

The remainder of their journey had been largely without incident. They had long left the remainders of the city behind, and were still making their way along the highway, heading west, the sun setting as they neared their destination

"We should reach one of our outposts within an hour or two. Hopefully they'll have some transportation back to town, but we can't be sure that they will. If not, it'll be another day's walk."

Naruto nodded. "That's fine, Kakashi." He scratched the back of his head, and plastered on a grin. "I just can't wait to lie down someplace where things are in nice condition and there are people around. It's been years since I've had anything to call a home. It'll be nice to have my own bed."

"Everyone has to shoulder their fair share of the work, Naruto, and life isn't as good as things were before society crumbled... But it's home."

"That's all that I could want and ask for. A home." With this, Naruto relaxed his hands, and his face took on a look of contemplation.

Before Kakashi could dwell on Naruto's words, and the hardship he must have endured, he heard a low rumble. Scanning quickly for cover, and finding that there was none, he stopped.

Naruto took several steps, and then turned in confusion when he noticed that he could no longer hear the footsteps of his companion. "What's wrong?"

His question was answered when the ground in front of him opened up, and three men jumped out. He knew then that they were ninjas, which many would make the mistake of considering a relic in the modern world. The ability to perform ninjutsu had waned as technology had increased and population rose, but some still had it, and it was a valuable trait. Few average people would have ever understood the value placed on ninjas and training them by the armed forces of the world.

Over the past several years, the amount of people able to control their chakara and perform ninja techniques had risen. It seemed that when necessity increased, so did ability. As modern replacements for ninjutsu had disappeared, many more people found that they were able to perform at least basic techniques. But rating ability by the old system, very few ever went beyond the level of a genin. However, even before the war, a small portion of the population had shown aptitude for the arts. He also knew that he was one of them... but his reality had been ripped away long before everyone else had met with a similar fate.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he realized that Kakashi was speaking to the ninjas that had appeared.

"We don't want a fight. We're trying to leave, in peace."

"That isn't an option. The Raikage has demanded your heads."

Kakashi relaxed his pose, seemingly producing a kunai out of nowhere. "Even with only one arm, I can easily handle you lot. Come on, then."

Not waiting for a response, he let the kunai fly, and began performing hand seals. Naruto watched in amazement as the person who had previously saved his life did so again, taking out the first of the enemy ninjas with ease, putting a kunai in the unfortunate recipient's back. His left arm slack at his side, he still moved with a speed that gave lie to his usual meandering gait, blocking attacks with his forearm while lashing out with his legs, and a seemingly never ending supply of throwing knives.

The second ninja fell as the masked man gave him a blow to the face, knocked unconscious. The third looked at the scene uneasily, before running back towards the city. With some alarm, Naruto saw the moonlight catch the shape of an approaching group of enemies. He tensed, doubting that even Kakashi could take on so numerable a foe. Looking to his side, it seemed said ninja had his own doubts. Reaching a silent agreement, they broke into a run.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a ninja?" Naruto shouted over the howling of the wind in their ears.

"It didn't seem important."

Shaking his head, he continued with his pace. In the distance, he saw an outcropping of rocks, and he altered his course towards it. Kakashi did the same, and they were soon nearing cover. Unfortunately, the enemy had gained on them, and it was unlikely that any refuge they took there would be anything more than a temporary reprieve.

"Not anywhere to hide, really. It's only going to delay the inevitable." Kakashi sighed.

"Inevitable what? Punishment for being so late on an assignment? No corner of the world is going to save you from that! I should know, I've been attempting to hide from Tsunade's wrath for years!" came a booming voice from behind a boulder. From behind it stepped a large man, built with a large frame and sporting wild hair, white with age.

Suddenly, the location seemed to fill with ninjas and soldiers of a more regular sort. While none wore a uniform, it was easy to tell they had come prepared to fight. Not a single face lacked a look of determination, as they stared at the rapidly approaching detachment.

"Jiraiya! It's always a pleasure to see my favorite author, and even more so when it's a matter of life and death." Kakashi's face lit up into a grin, easily seen even with the lower half of his face covered.

"Of course. But you're keeping me from my research. Why can't you handle this group of rabble?"

"I ran into some bad luck with my shoulder." He shrugged.

Both seemed unconcerned as the enemy reached firing range. Naruto soon learned why, as the precise shooting of the soldiers took down many of their foes, with the ninja among the group engaging soon after, mopping up the remains of a force sized only for the intention of capturing two people.

That fight, he mused, really wasn't fair.

"Take anything that might be of use. We don't have time to bury them, or even to linger around. The Raikage is likely to have sent a follow up force to make sure this one did it's job. and we're not going to be here when it arrives. Let's move out." Jiraiya boomed out his orders with the easy confidence of a man used to being in command. He turned, and looked at Naruto as if noticing him for the first time.

"Eh. Who are you?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, sir!" Naruto said with a beam.

Kakashi once again grinned. "He has potential. I suggest we take him in and train him."

Jiraiya merely shrugged and made a noncommittal grunt. "We'll see. In the mean time, let's get going."

9 years later...

Naruto stood on the metal rigging, his eyes impassive as he watched two pickup trucks speeding their way, throwing up massive amounts of dust in their wake. He stood above the gate to their fortified town, watching for the team to return from their mission. It wasn't supposed to have been much more than a small force going to discuss things with one of their outposts and receive an update on the situation, something that would have taken a day at most, but they had been gone for almost a week, only returning now, and short of a vehicle. As they came to a stop, he looked into the beds of the trucks. There were many faces he didn't recognize them. Among them, a girl about his age with bright pink hair caught his eye. His gaze stopped on her as he signaled for them to be let in.

As if she could feel his gaze on him, she turned to look up at him. She held a bloodied rag to her arm, and there was a grimace on her face that disappeared as her gaze met his. He could see the curiosity lingering in her eyes as he made his way down to greet them.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed the prologue.

I'm not exactly sure I'll have an updating schedule, but new chapters should come out fairly regularly. Depending on work and such, there might be some slow periods, but hopefully bursts of inspiration will take me every now and then to make up for that.

Reviews are appreciated.