A/N: I'll be quick. This is a Naruto/Hunger games crossover. The rules are all the same with one exception that instead of being chosen from age 12-18, your name is only called if your 16. I did this since all the characters were the same age so it would've been rather strange for that to happen normally. There is no main character exactly, the story starts with Sasuke but goes to different character's perspectives. I wanted to do something a little different than your usual hunger games crossover where girl A takes the place of Katniss and it just follows the book. This is a little different. This story is rated T but I may bump it up to M later. I haven't decided. The title is a little unoriginal I know, but give it a chance!

The Naruto Games

Chapter 1

District 7

Sasuke Uchiha was sixteen years old on the day of reaping. This is a day that everyone in the twelve districts in Japan has to experience once. This is a day everyone in the twelve districts fears more than any other day of their lives. The day they may be ripped from their hard but meaningful lives and forced into something with almost a guarantee will kill them. Most will be spared and allowed to go on but for two from each district they won't be quite as lucky.

Sasuke Uchiha has been preparing for this day since he was only ten years old.

Waking up at seven a.m. sharp he glanced at the calendar on the wall to see today's date circled. "The reaping" it read in black marker. Sasuke nodded slightly to himself. Getting up he got dressed in his usual outfit of a blue shirt and white shorts before finding something to eat in the kitchen.

He knew the reaping didn't start until noon but saw little reason to stick around. Knowing he would not be back he made sure to take care of anything he needed in the house before leaving. Unlike the huts most of the residents lived in Sasuke lived in a much bigger house thanks to the money his family has. Or had anyway; back when they were still alive.

The thought crossed his mind as he looked at the house for one last time. He gritted his teeth before turning around. It had all started seven years ago when his older brother Itachi had been picked for the hunger games. His parents had been devastated at the fate of their eldest son. Well, that is, until the games started.

Itachi started out normally enough by running and joining a small group. But when most of his group had been killed off something happened. No one was quite sure what, but Itachi snapped. There were twelve of them left when it happened, but by the end of the day Itachi was the only one left standing. He had killed all eleven of his opponents in a measly seven hours and was crowned one of the most successful winners of the hunger games yet.

People weren't sure what to expect of Itachi when he came back but it was obvious he had changed. He got into a lot of conflicts with neighbors and family members and the only one that he treated the same was his younger brother. Then a few months later it happened.

Itachi murdered his entire family and all his neighbors. The only person he spared was his younger brother Sasuke. A memory Sasuke would relive every day was finding his parents dead and his brother standing above their butchered corpses.

"I'm going to let you live Sasuke," he told the young boy. "Do you know why? Because you're already dead! You'll be chosen just like I was. It is inevitable." Those were the last words Sasuke ever heard his brother speak. He fled and was never captured. But despite the horror of what had happened Sasuke knew his brother was telling the truth. He would be picked. Random lottery or not the capital couldn't resist the younger brother of such a famous winner.

And so he had trained himself during these last six years. But it wasn't easy and he couldn't be sure if it would be enough to save him. But a promise is a promise, and Sasuke promised to avenge his family. But before he could kill his brother he knew he'd have to win the hunger games.

He reached the town square early and waited. The sun came up higher in the sky as time passed and the reaping approached. The square was packed and everyone knew it was time when the mayor came up to the town podium to ask the sixteen year olds to form two groups; one for boys and one for girls. Sasuke quickly made his way to the boys' line and waited until it was his turn.

They recorded that he was there and took a sample of his blood. Then they put a small piece of paper with his name on it and put it into the jar the mayor would pick a name from. He knew it was a ruse but went along with it. After everyone had been recorded they had to stay in the line to make it easier once one of them was picked.

"Welcome to this year's Hunger games!" The mayor Tsunade said sounding as hollow as possible. She had no choice but read the words of the capital for all to hear. "We will now be picking one girl and then one boy for the honor of being this year's tributes."

"And remember, may the odds be ever in your favor!"

The mayor stuck her hand in the girls' jar and pulled out a slip of paper. Opening it slowly her read the name in her head before speaking it out loud.

"Karin Kusagakure."

As always a few gasps were heard and whispering was heard among the girls but eventually a girl was pushed up onto stage. The girl had red girl and wore glasses. Sasuke noticed that unlike most girls she wasn't crying, but she was shaking rather noticeably. She was biting her lip as if afraid what could come out if she opened her mouth. Tsunade asked for volunteers to take her place but as usual no one did.

Then the mayor moved onto the boys' jar. Grabbing a piece of paper and opening it she read his name. "Sasuke Uchiha."

He almost laughed, but settled for a knowing smirk. There was some surprise among the crowd. Though he had no friends Sasuke was known for having a crowd of female admirers who weren't happy he was chosen. The guys' on the other hand didn't seem too bothered by this.

Making his way up the platform he could hear various things before shouted at him but he ignored them. "Would anyone like to volunteer?" Tsunade asked because she had to. To ignore this custom would be suspicious enough to wonder if the drawing had been fixed. And while a few brave teenage girls tried to volunteer for him no guy would so it didn't matter. Sasuke Uchiha would be competing.

"Shake hands." Tsunade ordered them. As the last Uchiha shook her hand he noticed the tinge of red on Karin's cheeks as he gazed at him. He however looked solemn and dropped her hand as soon as the handshake was over. Tsunade wasn't even looking at them but the crowd in front of her.

"District seven, I give you your two tributes!"

District 12

Naruto Uzumaki was starving. Literally.

He had not had anything to eat in days. He felt woozy standing there in the hot sun surrounded by people. It wasn't his fault. He'd love to be scarfing down bowls of food given the opportunity. But when you're an orphan in district twelve you tend to live your entire childhood with an empty stomach.

Naruto's parents had been killed mere days after he was born. He was never told why. Either because the people who worked at the orphanage he grew up in didn't know or because they didn't care. Whichever it was the blonde had lived his whole life never knowing the love of a parent. The caretakers at the orphanage were not loving and rarely showed any affection at all.

They also rarely fed anyone. Not wanting to sit around and starve Naruto would go out and try to steal some food. Sometimes he got away with it but he tended to get caught. And when he got caught, he got beat. Finally when he turned sixteen the caretakers had had enough of him and kicked him out for good. With nowhere to go he was out on the streets.

For a while he could get some food every once in a while from a nice man that ran a ramen stand that felt sorry for him. Sadly the stand was shut down and Naruto had no idea what happened to the nice owner or his daughter. Both had disappeared entirely. Not that that was strange in district twelve, but now Naruto had nowhere to go and nothing to eat.

He hadn't even realized that today was the reaping. He had been sleeping on the street and after he got up he was shepherded by some peacekeepers towards town square to get in line.

As he stood there waiting for them to call a name Naruto didn't feel very afraid. This was probably because he knew he was going to die soon of starvation and barely had the strength left to stand up. He watched as their mayor pulled the girls' names out of a bowl before calling it out.

"Sakura Haruno."

Naruto watched as a pretty girl with long pink hair dressed in a red blouse was taken up to stand beside the mayor. She looked nervous and scared; her eyes darted back and forth hoping, praying, that someone would have the decency to save her. When no one volunteered the girl tried to leap off the stage but was grabbed by two peacekeepers. They threw her back onto the stage and slugged her across the face. A red bruise started to form but the girl did not try to escape again.

The mayor tried to move past the interruption by picking the boy tribute's name out of the bowl next. The name was called. It wasn't Naruto's. Instead a tall boy with a fair amount of muscle on him was identified as the name's owner. He stood up and walked forward a few steps toward the stage. There was some talk among the crowd. The male picked this time was one of the few strong ones. Could he have a chance? Various people wondered optimistically if this year they might have a winner, or at least a chance.

They were of course all tragically disappointed when this boy made his way to the stage. They first noticed his knees were knocking into each other as he shook. Looking up they saw he had started to cry as tears ran down his eyes. "No please!" He said practically bawling. "Don't pick me! I don't want to die! I'm too afraid to fight anyone! Mommy!"

Nobody laughed at him but they sure didn't look happy either. Naruto just found the whole thing amusing and wondered if someone would actually volunteer to save this guy. It was then the idea struck him that he could volunteer. Everything he learned in school about the hunger games came back to him. Sure all but one died, but not before they got to eat like kings! If he was going to die either way, why not at least enjoy himself first?

"I volunteer!" he thrust his right hand into the air. As he hurried toward the platform people turned to look. Had someone actually volunteered? That never happened in district twelve. The male tribute was now sobbing in relief as he realized someone had volunteered and he was spared.

Naruto reached the stage where everyone could see him. They were more than surprised to see the person who had volunteered was a poor blonde kid. He was short and thin and wore an old orange jumpsuit that had seen better days. But despite this he did not look afraid.

"You…volunteer?" The mayor asked hesitantly. Naruto nodded. "Who are you?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

The mayor nodded slightly. "Alright then shake hands." He told the two tributes. Sakura cringed as she had to shake Naruto's dirty hand. "I now present district twelve with its two tributes!"

They were quickly rushed off the stage by peacekeepers and a few minutes later found themselves in a locked room in the mayor's house. Naruto knew this was the part where the tributes said goodbye to their family one last time before going off to die. Right now Sakura would be saying a tearful goodbye to her mother and father. Naruto on the other hand had no one so he just sat there bored waiting for it to be over.

Thus he was quite surprised when a few minutes in the door creaked open. Turning to look Naruto saw the teenager he had volunteered to take his place walk into the room. He wasn't crying anymore and seemed to have calmed down. He looked a little nervous standing there and didn't immediately say anything.

"Umm can I help you?" Naruto asked wondering if the guy had the wrong room.

"You already did," the teen smiled. "I just…I just wanted to thank you for volunteering. You saved my life!"

"Oh that, don't worry about it." Naruto shrugged. "I didn't do it for you anyway."

"I wanted to thank you," the boy gulped. "You're allowed to take one item with you into the games. If it's okay with you, you can take this." He opened up his right hand and dropped a coin into Naruto's.

The blonde picked up the coin and looked it over. "What is it?"

"It's a good luck charm that's been in my family for a long time. It's a coin with a crow on it." Naruto could see for himself that on both sides of the coin was the image of a crow gazing forward.

"Yeah I guess I'll take it." Naruto said shoving it in his pocket.

"It'll give you good luck." The boy told him. "Well, I should go. They told me I had to be quick. Good luck…okay?" Then he left and Naruto was alone again.

Five minutes later the peacekeepers came in and took Naruto with them. They were glad he didn't try to resist like many other tributes. Instead he followed behind them at a quick pace until they reached the train where they made sure he got on. As the door shut Naruto felt relieved that he was alone.

Turning around he gasped. The train cart was designed to look like the richest most comfortable home Naruto had ever seen. Scratch that, this was easily better than anything he had ever seen. Sakura was right behind him and looked almost as surprised as he did.

They walked further in and saw a dining table with a man sitting at the end of it. The man had a scar across his nose and looked vaguely familiar to Naruto. Sakura knew who he was immediately. It was Iruka, one of the two people from district twelve to ever win the hunger games.

"Hey you two," he said pointing a fork at them. "Come over here and sit down." They walked over slowly and sat down across from each other. "You look hungry. Have something to eat." Iruka said as he started to cut through the meat on his plate with a knife.

Naruto looked at the table full of rich, expensive and delicious foods and started to drool. He quickly filled his plate with food before immediately stuffing large chunks into his mouth. The blonde never had much for manners but as he ate with abandon they were all but gone. Iruka watched him eat but didn't seem too surprised. Sakura on the other hand looked rather disgusted. She had filled her own plate with food and was eating but not like that.

"How can you eat like that?" She talked to him for the first time.

Naruto stuffed another roll in his mouth before answering. "It's easy! I haven't eaten in three days!" Suddenly he realized his stomach was trying to throw up all the food he had eaten as he wasn't used to it. But he covered his mouth with his hands and pushed it back down. He would not allow himself to throw it all up.

Sakura tried to eat with more manners than Naruto but couldn't help eating much faster than she normally would. She had never starved but often didn't have enough food and rarely experienced a full belly. Iruka watched them eat in silence. He waited a few minutes before saying anything.

"Well as you've probably figured out by now I'm the trainer for district twelve's tributes. This means I'll be helping you get sponsors and train before the games begin."

"You are?" Naruto said finally pausing from eating.

"What, are you stupid? Everyone knows that." Sakura said annoyed. "Iruka won the games eight years ago. He was the first to win from district twelve in over thirty years."

"I'm impressed you remember how long ago it was." Iruka rubbed the back of his head. "But yes, I won, and it's been my job since to try to prepare tributes for the games."

"Can you…help us?" Sakura asked nervously staring at her empty plate.

Iruka gently placed his hand over hers. "I'll do my best Sakura." He turned to Naruto. "That goes for you too Naruto. You surprised us all out there. It's been near a decade since we've had a volunteer."

"Why did you volunteer?" Sakura asked.

"It's simple," he answered. "I was hungry. Starving actually. I knew I was going to die until I remembered they fed the tributes for the hunger games. I'll still probably die but at least this way I live a few more days and get some good meals out of it."

Iruka chuckled a little and rubbed his nose. "I like your attitude Naruto. It looks like this year's tributes have a little more spunk than usual."

Suddenly the television behind them turned on and a special broadcast started to play.

District 8

Just my luck, Shikamaru thought to himself. Out of all the sixteen year olds in district eight I somehow ended up being the one guy who got picked! The statistics are so low I had a better chance of getting struck by lightning.

Shikamaru Nara was the name of the male tribute recently chosen from district eight. He had just said his final goodbye to his mother and father before they were taken away by the peacekeepers. Now it was just him and the female tribute left alone in that room in the mayor's office. Shikamaru turned his head to look at her.

Ino Yamanaka was still crying even after getting to talk to her parents. When her name was called she had started to sob uncontrollably about how unfair it was. Shikamaru agreed with her there but her crying was getting to him. Of course, at least it wasn't loud anymore. No she stood there with her long platinum blonde hair dressed in purple wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

Shikamaru had his dark hair pulled back and tied. He wore simple dark clothes and an old vest that used to belong to his father as he leaned against the wall waiting for the peacekeepers returned for them. It wasn't long; they weren't allowed to leave the tributes alone anyway.

The two teens followed behind as they were taken to the high speed train that would take them all the way to the capital. The trip would only take about a day or less since they weren't from one of the last districts.

District eight had had a few victors over the years and the man assigned as their mentor was named Asuma. He had won fifteen years ago and was a heavy smoker. The rumor was he spent most of the money the capital gave him on cigarettes.

When he walked into the room in the train where Shikamaru and Ino were eating he had a lit cigarette in his mouth. The smell turned Ino off of her meal but Shikamaru ignored it. Just as he tried to ignore Asuma.

So you two brats are this year's tributes huh?" He asked picking at some of the food on the table.

Ino nodded as she watched him. Her eyes were still puffy from earlier but she had no more tears to cry. "Are you going to help us get sponsors?"

"It's my duty to explain everything to you but don't expect much more than that from me." He said straight out. "No one I've helped as ever survived the games so don't expect me to save you."

Ino looked like she was going to cry again. Shikamaru would rather she didn't so he spoke up. "What a troublesome mentor. He'll probably leave us for dead once we get in there."

Asuma blew smoke into Shikamaru's face. "Don't kid yourself boy. No one's going to want to sponsor a smart-alec brat like you."

Shikamaru stood up. "I don't expect anyone's help." He walked away from the table over to the room that was set up for him. It was much nicer than the one he was used to so he quickly plopped down in the bed and didn't bother to get undressed.

An hour later the door to Shikamaru's room opened and Ino stepped inside. One of Shikamaru's eyes opened and he looked at the blonde wondering what she was doing. "Hey Shikamaru…"

"What?" He said getting to his feet.

"Help me," she said as she threw her arms around him.

"What? What are you doing?" Shikamaru was not the kind of person to be surprised easily however he had little interaction with women beyond his mother and wasn't sure what to make of this.

"I can't do it alone." She admitted to him. "Help me. Please. We can be a team," she stared at him with her big eyes.

"We barely even know each other," he reminded her. "Why should I?"

As if expecting this she reached up and kissed him suddenly on the lips. When she pulled back she looked more confident but he wasn't buying it. "Hey!" he said pushing her back. "Don't belittle me. I'm not one of those boys that follow you around like a puppy. Don't expect me to just fall into your lap just because you know how to use sex appeal."

She hugged him tighter. "Oh please Shikamaru! Please! This is life or death here!"

"Okay fine," he sighed. "How troublesome. We'll be allies for now but don't expect too much out of me."

Ino nodded. She then told him that Asuma wanted him back in the dining room where the capital was going to broadcast the twenty four sixteen year olds chosen as this year's tributes.

"Your late," Asuma grumbled as the two walked in. The television had already started and the host for the hunger games was on screen talking. The host was the handsome silver-haired man Kakashi.

"And now for what you've been waiting for. Our twenty four tributes have been chosen! We'll now be showing them to you from district one through twelve." They started with district one like they always do.

Shikamaru and Ino watched all twelve including their own. Viewing was mandatory but this time it was especially important as these would be the same people they would be expected to fight and kill in order to survive. There were a few tributes of interest.

District one certainly was interesting. Though nowhere near the capital it had quite a few rich families that lived there and were of some importance. One of most prominent being the Hyuga family. District one never had a real drawing; just volunteers. And this year the leader of the Hyuga family offered up his own child and nephew to compete in the games.

Hinata Hyuga and Neji Hyuga both had claims to be the next leader and in order to determine who would get to lead the family they had both been forced to join the games. The survivor would lead; that is if either of them managed to survive. Shikamaru noticed the boy seemed confident and strong while the girl was frail and shaking.

The tributes from district three and four looked to be real contenders. Shikamaru reminded himself that they were probably trained for this. There was quite a commotion in district six as both contenders, a boy named Kiba and a girl named Tayuya tried to fight the peacemakers. Kakashi commented how they'd be interesting once the games got started.

There was a lot of dissent in district ten when a good looking boy named Haku was chosen. Even stranger he told people not to throw away their lives by volunteering to take his place. A few people in the crowd cried as he was dragged away. And then there was district twelve where a poor boy had actually volunteered to help a complete stranger. This was always noted whenever it happened (which wasn't often).

At the end there was a list of all the tributes:

District 1: Neji and Hinata

District 2: Rock Lee and Tenten

District 3: Dosu and Kin

District 4: Kankuro and Temari

District 5: Shino and Amaru

District 6: Kiba and Tayuya

District 7: Sasuke and Karin

District 8: Shikamaru and Ino

District 9: Gaara and Matsuri

District 10: Haku and Sasame

District 11: Chouji and Shion

District 12: Naruto and Sakura

A/N: A few notes. Karin doesn't have a last name so I gave her one based on her supposed village. I considered Uzumaki but that's Naruto's so I thought that would be unlikely. There is a little romance in this story but I try to keep the plot first. Ino's awkward seducing of Shikamaru is not really romance, more her attempt to procure an ally out of her fellow tribute. Sorry if that came out really awkward. The mentor's won't have a big role but they'll show up a few times. This story will continue to switch between the perspectives of different districts until the hunger games start. Sorry about that. Also I need to give credit to fellow fanfic writer Mrs. Pettfer and her story "The black games" (check it out) which inspired Neji and Hinata's backstory from Zuko and Azula's in her story.

What did you think? Reviews are appreciated.