I do not own Naruto nor God of War...What? Were you expecting a witty disclaimer? One that not only absolves me from any legal action but also gives you a good chuckle? Alright fine, here it is...

XXX

Naruto and his two teammates stared blankly at their new teacher. They were all on top of the Academy, the students sitting on the short stairway while he leaned against the rails around the edge of the building. They had just heard what had to be the laziest introduction ever.

Of course, everything about their sensei seemed to scream laziness. First was the fact he had been over two hours late in picking them up. Then there was his silver heir which was standing straight up, like he awoken one day with it frozen in that position. His outfit was simple: a long-sleeved shirt, pants, and gloves, all a dark navy blue. Over his chest was a pale green flak jacket. A mask covered the lower part of his face and his hitai was sliding off of his forehead, covering his left eye from view. Their jounin sensei, Kakashi Hatake.

"Alright, now its your turn, starting from the right." He said, gesturing towards Naruto. The boy smirked and fiddled with the pommel of his sword before starting to talk.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like my mom and dad, training, and ramen. I hate how long it takes to sharpen my sword properly. My hobby is training, I guess. As for my dream..." He paused for a second. Gripping onto the leather bound handle of his blade, he answered with a determined look on his face. "My dream is to be the strongest ninja ever. Stronger than even my parents or the Old Man." Kakashi nodded and looked at Sasuke.

"I am Sasuke Uchiha. I hate many things, considering there are very few things that I like. I have no dreams, just a determination to restore my clan and to kill a certain man." The Uchiha's speech left Naruto feeling a little uneasy. He remembered the week in the Academy when Sasuke had suddenly disappeared, only to come back completely changed. He knew it had something to do with what happened to his clan, but other than that there was nothing else he was able to find out. During the silence that followed Sasuke's introduction, Sakura noticed that it was her turn.

"Oh, umm," She faltered slightly, "I'm Sakura Haruno. I like reading, listening to music, Naruto, and umm..." The pinkette trailed off blushing and glancing in Sasuke's direction. In an about turn of emotions, her face was suddenly contorted in disgust. "I hate Ino-pig. My hobbies are studying, watching plays, and shopping. My dream is..." Once again, she trailed off, but this time there was an added soft squeal at the end. After a few moments, Kakashi concluded she had finished and spoke up.

"Enough, your teaching will begin tomorrow." Naruto pumped a fist into the air with a grin.

"Awesome, what's our first mission?" Kakashi began to chuckle. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing, I'm just imagining your faces when you find out your mission is actually a mandatory test over half your graduating class will fail." At that, Naruto's and Sakura's jaws dropped. Even Sasuke's head perked up with a look of surprise on it. "Ah, there it is." Their teacher said, a twinkle in his visible eye. "Your graduation exam was meant to weed out those with little to no talent at all. This test will show whether you have what it takes to really be shinobi. Here is a map to the training ground where your test will be administered at seven o'clock sharp. The specifics will be given to you then." His chortling returned while handing out the papers. "And before you go, I would suggest not eating breakfast tomorrow. Unless, of course, you enjoy throwing up." With those final words said, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto looked down at the handout and grinned at the thought of the battle to come.

XXX

Naruto sprinted down the streets of Konoha, desperately shoving his way through the morning crowds. He was almost two hours late for his genin test, and now his last hope of passing was that his teacher would be kind enough to still let him take it. It was not even his fault; the whole reason he was late was because his father. Naruto had been about to leave when Dad returned home from meeting with his own team. He had grabbed and dragged him out back to where they usually trained, and is father insisted on Naruto completing his daily morning spar with him. He kept telling Dad he had to go, but nooooo, he had to keep fighting until his father said he could stop. Whenever it came to training, his dad's word was law. Granted, Dad did seem to have been taking it easier on him last night and this morning, but that meant nothing if he did not even get to the test on time.

Seeing Training Ground 14 in front of him, Naruto pushed himself even harder, eventually coming to a skidding halt next to the people he saw gathered in the middle of it. Putting his hands on his knees, he sputtered out an apology in between pants.

"Sorry... I'm... late...my Dad...kept me... to long." After catching his breath somewhat, he looked up and only saw Sasuke and Sakura standing there looking at him. Sakura saw his confused look and answered the unasked question.

"Kakashi-sensei isn't here yet. He's almost two hours late now." Naruto let out a long groan. He would be willing to bet anything that Dad already knew that this would happen, and that was the sole reason their training lasted so long. He let out a huff of annoyance then plopped down on the grass with his head in his hand and began to wait with the others. Minutes passed, and the masked jounin finally appeared, casually walking towards the three. Their teacher, upon seeing his students, lifted up his right hand in a lazy wave of greeting.

"Hello, class."

"You're late!" Kakashi ignored Sakura's shout and the boys' glares. He walked up to one of the three tree stumps in the clearing and pulled out an alarm clock. Setting it down, he turned to look at the children. "This timer will go off at noon. You have until then to steal one of these two bells from me." He held up a pair of small silver bells, jingling them slightly for emphasis. "Whoever does not get one will be tied to the stump until everyone else is done eating lunch, and will be sent back to the Academy for another year of schooling. Since there are three of you, one of you, at least, will be returning home in disgrace." Their sensei's eye narrowed. "A piece of advice, attack to kill, or you will have no chance of passing this test."

"Heh, that's good. It means I won't have to hold back. You had better watch out, Sensei." Naruto said as he got up and started stretching out his arms and legs. Kakashi simply stared at the blond for a time before responding.

"The weakest dog always barks the loudest." His attempt to anger the boy failed, for Naruto simply smirked and drew a kunai from his holder.

"Then I guess I'll just have to show you my bite is much worse than my bark." The jounin sighed and looked at his two other students. Sakura seemed a bit nervous but unwilling to show it. Sasuke's face was as stoic as ever, barely letting out any hints of what he was feeling. Even so, Kakashi could still tell they were both ready, so he called out,

"Begin."

The moment he did so, Sasuke and Sakura took off to the surrounding trees in order to find a place to hide. Naruto took a different approach. Twirling the kunai so that he was holding it in a reverse grip, he charged forward, right at Kakashi. Once he was an arms length away, he dropped to the ground into a slide, going right between his teacher's legs and slicing at the back of the knee. Kakashi was surprised by the brutality of the attack. The young boy was trying to hamstring him right out of the gate.

Unfortunately for Naruto, the attempt failed. Kakashi pivoted on his right foot, pulling his left leg out of danger. Naruto continued with the assault, throwing the kunai at his teacher's exposed back. The silver haired man easily dodged it but was forced to leap back unless he wished to be gutted by Naruto's sword draw. Naruto pressed forward, hoping to keep his teacher off balance and unable to counter. He slashed and stabbed rapidly with little results. Kakashi either moved out of the way of the blade or was able to block it using the metal plates on the top of his gloves.

One upward slice caused Naruto to extend his arm too far out, and Kakashi quickly struck at the jinchuuriki's exposed chest with an open handed strike. As Naruto stumbled back slightly from the hit, he grabbed his teacher's wrist with his left hand and jumped into the air. While floating, he pulled on the arm and used it to add momentum to his drop kick at Kakashi's face. The masked jounin brought his free forearm to stop the strike dead. This is what Naruto wanted; He chopped at Kakashi's now exposed torso, going straight for the finishing blow. It was to no avail, for Kakashi-sensei pushed on Naruto's legs with his blocking arm. The blond's entire body was swung out, the blade barely scratching the forest green vest before it followed the rest of him. However, Kakashi was not finished. He pried loose Naruto's hand and then threw the small genin away towards the lone tree that towered out of place in the middle of the field. Naruto smashed against the trunk and slid down the side, but it only got worse for the young jinchuuriki. The moment his left foot touched the ground he was dragged into the air, a line of rope looped around his ankle. Kakashi calmly pulled out a book and began to read as he approached the dangling boy.

"Impressive," He said, turning a page. "But not good enough. If you want to get one of these bells, you need to stop looking at the surface of everything." Anything else he might have said was stopped short. While he was talking, Naruto had swung his sword at the rope holding him, cutting him free. He tucked into a ball as he fell and turned his drop into a combat roll. It ended with him on one knee, his xiphos extended out in front of him, sinking into Kakashi's gut. That same moment, a multitude of kunai and shuriken came flying out of the tree line, impaling themselves in the jounin's left side. A brief moment later, Kakashi exploded into a plume of smoke, revealing a damaged log in his place.

Naruto sighed and sheathed his sword. By now Kakashi-sensei would be long gone, along with any chance he had of beating him for the moment. Standing alone in the grassy meadow, he thought about the fight. That entire time, something had seemed off to him, but he just could not put his finger on it. His sensei's words only added to the enigma. Naruto frowned slightly before taking off for the trees. Perhaps if he could see Sensei's other fights, he would be able to figure out what was bothering him.

XXX

Sasuke raced through the dim undergrowth of the forest, trying to put as much distance between himself and Kakashi as possible. He had been overeager and blown his cover with that supposed sneak attack. He should have known Kakashi had pulled a Kawarimi on him and Naruto; there was no way any seasoned shinobi would have dropped their guard so easily.

Feeling that he had gone far enough, Sasuke stopped at the bottom of a large oak tree to think of a new strategy. Naruto had impressed Sasuke during that brief fight. He must have improved a lot since their last match against each other. Even then, the Uzumaki had not even come close to getting a bell. If Naruto could not get one, then what did that say about Sasuke's chances?

No, he could not think like that. He was better than Naruto. Everyone knew that, and even Naruto himself had admitted to it once or twice. There was no point in giving up before he had even tried. Taking a few deep breaths, Sasuke reviewed the fight in his head. It was obvious Kakashi was better than Naruto in taijutsu, and there was little hope of Sasuke being able to get the drop on him. That meant that Naruto's approach was most likely his best option at this point. He would have to close in quickly and force Kakashi to fight on his terms. Hopefully, Sasuke would not have to find out how good Kakashi was at ninjutsu and genjutsu.

His mind made up, Sasuke began running to his left, looping his way back around towards the clearing. He was surprised to find that Kakashi was still in the same spot reading his orange book when he got there. Sasuke put his hands in his pockets and marched out to meet him. He stopped a short distance away from his teacher, staring intently at him. If Kakashi had even noticed his presence, he did not acknowledge it. Knowing this was just a ruse to try and annoy him, Sasuke readied himself. This would be the best shot he would get.

In a flash his hands came together, flying rapidly through the necessary hand seals for his opening attack.

"Fire Style: Fireball jutsu!" Sasuke called out as a stream of flames erupted from his mouth, curling into a large ball on the way to its target. Kakashi jumped out of the way right before the fire collided with him and stuffed his book back into his pouch. He was caught of guard with his right hand behind his back when Sasuke appeared in front of him, launching a kick at the silver haired man's chest. Instead of completing the jutsu, the boy had only held onto it long enough for a fireball big enough to hide his approach to form and then cut it off. Kakashi was able to block the kick with his other arm, but Sasuke continued his attack with a punch at Kakashi's head. The teacher ducked and swept the leg Sasuke was standing on, sending him falling. While he was in the air, Sasuke lashed out once more with his foot, but it was quickly batted away.

The Uchiha hit the ground hard but was swiftly back on his feet. To his dismay, Kakashi had disappeared from where he last was, nowhere to be seen. Sasuke looked around trying to find any trace of him when the earth beneath his feet began to tremble. He leaped back, just as a hand reached out of the dirt where he had just been standing. The rest of Kakashi emerged, and he calmly brushed the left over dirt off of his outfit. This was interrupted by Sasuke's renewed assault.

Punch after kick he threw, trying desperately to keep some kind of pressure up. His teacher simply dodged them all, not showing even the slightest bit of stress from doing so. He was finally able to touch Kakashi with a quick one, two punch combo that was quick enough to force the jounin to block with an arm. Taking advantage of this, Sasuke used that limb as a makeshift platform to vault over Kakashi's head with. He reached out an arm as far as he could while he descended, and the very tips of his fingers brushed against one of the bells. Its soft chime reached his ears, almost taunting him with the knowledge of how close he had been. Any further opportunities he had were dashed by a spinning round house from Kakashi. The raven haired boy tumbled through the air until he was finally able to right himself and land safely on the ground.

"Hm, you're definitely good," Kakashi pondered out loud. "You and Naruto have a lot of skill."

"I'm better than him." Sasuke said defensively, almost more to himself than to Kakashi.

"Too bad that I'm going to have to call this fight early then. There's still one more of you I have to check in on." Realizing what his teacher was saying, Sasuke threw a kunai at him to try and stop him from leaving, but it passed harmlessly through the swirl of leaves the jounin had left behind.

XXX

Sakura knelt hidden under a bush in the middle of the forest, putting the finishing touches on one of her hastily constructed traps. The brief glimpses she had seen of Naruto's and Sasuke's fights with Sensei had shown her that she had no chance of getting a bell in a straight up fight. She was nowhere near as good at taijutsu as them, so her only hope was to lure Kakashi-sensei into this place. Here, Sakura would have the advantage and hopefully be able to get a bell for herself, and maybe even Sasuke too. She could not afford to fail.

A soft rustling of leaves reached the pinkette's ears. Looking around, Sakura spotted her teacher walking casually through the woods and calmly reading his book. The direction he was going would lead him right through the area she had trapped, meaning this would be the best shot she would get. She grabbed one of her strings and was about to pull it when she hesitated. Even though her traps gave her an edge, would she be able to get a bell? The odds against her seemed insurmountable.

Suddenly, Kakashi disappeared right before Sakura's eyes, shocking the young girl out of her thoughts. She raised her head, wildly looking around for any sight of him. Something tapping her on the shoulder made her twirl around and then scramble back in surprise. There was Kakashi-sensei, squatting down right behind her with a haunting look in his one visible eye. He calmly put his hands together to form the rat seal. Exhaustion filled Sakura's entire body. She tried to fight, tried to move away, but it was futile. Her body refused to move all the while her eyelids slowly drifted downwards.

The next moment it was as if she had been shocked awake. Sensei had disappeared once again, and she could find no trace of where he had gone. Sakura let out an irritated sigh. Now she would have to find some way to lure him back here. The preteen began heading back to the open field, figuring that would be the easiest place to find him. As she began running, a weak voice calling her name reached Sakura's ears.

"Sa...ku..ra." Sakura paused for a moment. That had sounded like Sasuke. She headed to where it sounded like the voice had come from. When she finally reached it, she froze. All color left her face, and her body was so paralyzed with fear she could not even scream.

Kneeling beside a tall oak was Sasuke, his entire body impaled with various kunai and shuriken. One of the knives had even pierced straight through the boy's palm, pinning it to the tree trunk. His entire left arm below the elbow had been hacked off, and blood ran freely from the open limb, staining the ground red.

"Sakura...you have...to help...Naruto." He gasped out, the kunai spearing through his cheek garbling the already hard to understand words, but Sakura had heard them well enough. She understood what he had said, and somehow she knew exactly where Naruto was. She looked down at her feet where the blond boy laid.

Naruto clothes had been all but ripped apart, revealing every injury his body had taken. Both of his shoulders had been dislocated and his hands mangled beyond recognition. His chest was a tie-dye of black and blue with the added dark maroon splashes of his own blood. The right side femur had been broken and was sticking almost three inches out of Naruto's thigh. That was not the worst part though. No, the worst part was his head. The vertebrae in his neck had been snapped, his head twisted more than one hundred and eighty degrees. The strain on it had been so great that small tears in the skin had opened up, slowly weeping crimson tears.

All of this was too much for Sakura. This was not supposed to happen. This was not how things were supposed to be. The fear inside of her finally pushed out in one great scream before the girl fainted, finally succumbing to the genjutsu.

From a nearby branch, Kakashi watched his only female student. He wondered if he had over done it a little, but was roused from his position when a sharp ringing sounded out. The jounin jumped down and picked up Sakura as she was in no condition to walk back towards the triggered alarm clock.

XXX

The sight at training ground fourteen a little past noon that day was a strange one indeed. Kakashi Hatake was sitting cross-legged on the ground and was slowly unstacking the three lunch boxes he had brought. Across from the jounin, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were all tied up to three posts watching their sensei work. Naruto was never one to remain still for long, struggling against the ropes that held him every now and again.

"Now, before I begin eating the food that you three so generously decided to give back to me, I think I will tell you the results of the test." Each of the kids hung their heads low, for they already knew what he was going to say. It was only made worse because the mere mention of food was enough to get a few stomachs rumbling. Kakashi chuckled a little at the sound. "First off, you should know that all of you have much potential." At that, hope was renewed for the genins. They just might have a chance. "But that doesn't matter, because I will personally make sure that none of you become ninja." Kakashi's voice had suddenly lowered, taking on a dark edge.

"What the hell? Why do you have it out for us?" Naruto clammed up quickly after a glare from Kakashi.

"Sakura," He said, directing his words directly at the pinkette, "You let your doubts and fears cloud your judgment. You were so scared of failing that instead of luring me into your traps yourself or getting someone to help you, you simply stayed put and hoped I would stumble into one."

"Sasuke, your overconfidence in your own abilities meant you did not even consider a task might be over your head, even after watching Naruto's fight with me. You gambled everything on the hopes that you by yourself would be enough."

"And Naruto. You had a good idea to focus on me and not on the bells, but you took it to far. You lost yourself in the battle and forgot your objective. I even left open a few opportunities for you to try for one, but instead you continued fighting, consumed by your lust for combat."

"I should flunk all of you right now; Why should I bother training children who cannot see what is right in front of them?" He turned around and slowly walked up to the large stone memorial that was behind him. "If you are not prepared for what this world with throw at you, then you will only get yourselves and others killed. This memorial is dedicated to all those who died in service to the village they loved and cherished. Punks like you have no right to bear the title of shinobi like they did."

"However, I will give you one more chance. Naruto, your errors were the most grievous, and as punishment you may not eat anything." He walked up to the genin and cut the two on the ends down. "Sasuke and Sakura, you may have lunch and regain your strength, but do not even think about giving Naruto any or there will be dire repercussions." Kakashi, having said his piece, gathered up his food and walked away, leaving two boxes behind. The three demoralized genin were left alone for the moment. Silence reigned for a short while until Naruto finally broke it.

"Darn it, that's what was bugging me." He shouted out and was now kicking his stump in frustration. Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at him.

"What are you talking about, loser?" Naruto glared at Sasuke for the insult but then explained himself.

"Sensei's a jounin." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at the blond.

"So what?" Naruto sighed and shook his head.

"So what? So, that means he's the same rank as my parents, and my parents run me into the ground so often it's basically our family bonding time." Sakura's face lit up, comprehension dawning on her.

"You're saying he was going easy on us?" Naruto nodded his head while still mentally kicking himself for not figuring it out earlier. This revelation only served to make Sakura feel even worse. She hung her head low in shame, and guilt welled up inside of her, eventually becoming to much.

"I'm sorry." She half mumbled. "You both were out fighting to get a bell, and all I did was get caught in a genjutsu." Naruto was taken aback by her statement.

"Are you kidding me, Sakura? You know how much I suck at genjutsu. If you couldn't get out of it, there's no way I would have." He looked at Sasuke, waiting for him to say something as well. Seconds passed. Naruto finally got fed up and contorted his body so he could kick Sasuke in the shin. The Uchiha scowled at him but decided to relent.

"None of us were able to get a bell, so we all failed. The reasons why are unimportant."

This brief instance of team bonding was interrupted when both Sasuke's and Sakura's stomachs growled loudly. Naruto laughed at their embarrassment until a combo kick from the two shut him up.

Sakura had a massive blush on her face and glanced at the food sitting near her. Naruto only chuckled at her reaction.

"Go ahead; you two can eat. You don't have to worry about me." The others looked at him incredulously, unwilling to believe what they thought was a tough man act.

"You can't mean that Naruto; you can't say you're not the least bit hungry." Sakura asked a bit worriedly. It was unfair that Naruto was the one being punished for what he did in the test, for she had no hope from the start of getting the bell. The most useful thing she could do was take this hit for Naruto, but that would have bad consequences for all of them.

"Nah, this is nothing." Naruto said. "I've gone days without food sometimes when I've had to train with my dad." Sakura was shocked at that. What kind of parent would do something like that to their own child.

"That's horrible." She gasped, voicing her opinion. Naruto only gave her a quizzical look.

"Are you kidding? It was awesome." His expression changed to one of sheer nostalgia. "I got to spend whole days just training and spending time with my dad. Why would I want to take a break from that just to eat a little food?"

During the last part of the conversation, Sasuke had grown more quiet than usual. Naruto's short talk about his parents had brought up painful memories for the Uchiha. It especially hurt when he mentioned training with them. Sasuke quickly shook his head to clear his head. He knew where that road in his mind would take him, where such thoughts would lead. It was pointless thinking about those times; it had been ever since that night. Refocusing himself, the sounds of him shuffling around interrupted the awkward silence that had followed Naruto's last question. Opening his lunch, Sasuke divided out about a third of everything in it and handed it towards the blond. Naruto and Sakura only stared at him as if he had suddenly grown a second head.

"Are you going to eat or not?" He snapped, his annoyance reaching the breaking point. Seeing Sasuke making the first move gave Sakura the courage to do the same. She picked up a bit of rice with her chopsticks, putting it in front of Naruto's mouth. This only made Naruto more confused.

"What are you guys doing? Do you know what will happen if Kakashi-sensei sees you?" Naruto said while turning his head away from the food.

"Face it, loser. Even if you can go that long without eating, you'll be more useful if you're not starving. Besides, I do not sense Kakashi anywhere near here." The jinchuuriki glanced at Sakura, and she nodded her head in agreement. He relented and opened his mouth to take a bite.

He was stopped when a massive eruption of smoke and wind appeared in front of them. Out from its depths charged Kakashi, his entire body trembling with anger.

"YOU THREE HAVE DISOBAYED MY ORDERS AND FOR THAT...You pass." The silver haired man announced, enjoying the ease at which he was able to mess with his students emotions. Perhaps having a team would not be so bad.

XXX

Hooollllyyyy Crap. I know that you guys don't care about excuses but let me just say this. Late nights, come home. Work sucks; I know. But no one left me roses by the stairs. No surprises to let me know he cares.

Seriously, sorry for the wait. Not much else to say. I realize I borrowed a lot from the manga for this chapter, but there are big differences there if you look for them. Now, sorry to say it's so, but I have to go. Turn the lights off, I'm going home.

Glock3bb, The Dark Void