Idea: Kakashi being lead to believe that Naruto, his Sensei's precious daughter, was consumed by the Kyuubi soon after being sealed into the child by the counsel; mistreats the girl that, in his mind, would have been his baby sister. So, when it is revealed that, after Naruto succeeds in getting Sasuke back, the Elders lied to him… and then goes ahead and banishes his little sister, a goddamn hero, from the village; He joins Tsunade and Naruto in exile, bringing with him the rest of Team Seven. (Tsunade and Team Seven centric might become Sasu/Naru, Iruka might end up joining the group too so maybe Kaka/Iru also)

Summary: When Kakashi finds out the Elders lied to him about Kyuubi and Naruto after Naruto is banished from the village, Tsunade isn't the only one who leaves with him. An answer to the Missing Hokage Challenge, kind of. After successfully bringing Sasuke back to the village, Naruto is banished by the council. Tsunade leaves in retaliation, taking the rest of Team Seven and a few extras with her. (Life and Times verse)

Disclaimer: I don't one Naruto, hell I don't even own the IDEA really…

Warnings: Occness, het, Genderflipping (Fem!Iruka and Fem!Naruto)

Title: Team Seven: Missing?

Chapter One: Truly Recovering a Friend

It was near the end of their battle. The girl could tell, not only she panting she could tell that the dark haired boy in front of her was also. "How could you do this to us Sasuke?" she called across the valley that was their battleground. "You promised that we'd get stronger together! Why are you running away from me?"

The dark haired youth, Uchiha Sasuke surveyed his opponent; she was a rather pretty blonde girl with bright blue eyes that, in the right light, reminded him of diamonds. Her long, messy blonde hair, usually pulled into a long French braid was starting to fall into and around her face. Her hair was falling out of the usually perfectly neat braid and she was panting, looking as tired as he felt. "Oh really?" he called back to her snidely. "When did I say that? You're such a Dobe Naruto! I'm going to Orochimaru whether you like it or not!"

"Teme! You promised right before we entered the Chuunin Exams!" Naruto stared at her best friend, tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. "How could you have forgotten? It wasn't that long ago! Sakura-chan had just promised to focus on her training and stop fan girling after you! Our team was finally working together to get better! How could you…"

Enough!" Sasuke shouted, causing Naruto to flinch. "I don't remember any of that. Both you and Sakura are holding me back! That's all you ever do, hold me back from my potential, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Naruto shook her head, trying to stop the tears and hold them back, blurred vision would only be a hindrance for her right now and that would not help her get her best friend back, it wouldn't help her knock some sense into him! "You're wrong Uchiha Sasuke! Who will you spar with if you leave? Who will help you and push you forward? Who will help you achieve your dreams? If not Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan and I then who?"

"Orochimaru." Came the flat answer.

Naruto's breath hitched, her best friend/crush's answer made her sick to her stomach. "He's only using you! He wants your body! Your Kekkei Genkai, your Sharingan! Noting good will come of this Sasuke-kun! Can come of this, you will die if you go to him, I know it! You hate that damn seal!" why wasn't he seeing sense, this wasn't like him at all! Her best friend was acting out of character! "He will use you, and when he can't any longer, he will throw you away like a used up, broken toy… don't you remember your second goal? You wanted to revive your clan and restart the Konoha Military Police, didn't you? You can't do that outside the village…"

She knew for a fact those goals had been more important to him when their ninja careers began. He had listed them before saying that he wanted to kill his brother after all! What the hell had changed? They, all four of them, had been growing closer, Kakashi-sensei had even been opening up and was telling them bits and pieces of his life during the Third Shinobi War, little tidbits about his team and his own Sensei.

She remembered her teammate's reactions clearly, Sakura had squealed and started going on about how lucky Kaka-sensei was, for being a student of the famed Kiiroi Senko. The second shinobi to ever get the Flee on Sight order. If she hadn't been so good at reading body language, she would have missed the excited gleam in Sasuke's eyes, he also couldn't wait. Maybe they'd learn some of his secrets, like the jutsu that had given him that moniker: the Hiraishin no jutsu…

Now, all those dreams seemed to be shattered and scattered on the ground between them. 'If he wants to fight more I'll have to call on Kyuubi and I hate doing that… I may be a Jinjuuriki, but I don't like relying on the chakra of my Bijuu…' Naruto thought as she watched Sasuke carefully. Kyuubi's chakra was painful to use, after she'd summoned Gamabunta the first time, she'd been so sore. She'd passed out from not just the chakra exhaustion, but also from the pain of using Kyuubi's chakra. If it hadn't been for the last part of the Chuunin exam that took place the next day, she'd have stayed in bed the whole week it had been so painful. And then having to use Kyuubi's chakra to reopen her tenketsu had been made even more painful because she was still sore from using the chakra the day before! Even if the pain had dulled to a throbbing ache. Stupid Neji…

Really, what had Yondaime-sama been thinking, giving her a tool that hurt her as she used it? But she was getting off topic. Why didn't Sasuke remember that promise he'd made to both, grow stronger together and to never use the Cursed Seal if he could help it? Why weren't her words reaching him? Where was her calm, always cool and collected best friend? Where was her voice of reason? Where was he? She suspected that he was lost in the darkness of his own mind. 'I will free you from the darkness, Sa-kun. I promise.'

Sasuke lunged at her again, coming in hard and fast, his fist cocked back as far as it would go to deliver the most painful blow that he could. Naruto saw it coming a mile away, but she had not the time to move, she was trying to pull out as much of Kyuubi's chakra as she could without going crazy.

Sasuke smirked as he heard the very satisfying crack of Naruto's left arm breaking. Her scream of pain was beautiful. He tried to punch her again, but her hand came up and caught his. Sasuke blinked, her hand was different; her nails were so long they looked like claws. He was tempted to say that they really were claws. When he looked at her face, the cute whisker marks that she'd always had were darker and more defined than before. When her eyes opened, they were a bloody red and her pupils were slits, much like that of a fox, or a Namikaze, according to the history books.

From what Sasuke could remember reading, the Namikaze Clan had owned the Fox Summoning contract since even before the Sage of Six Paths had appeared. With each generation they had become more and more fox-like until they had had to conceal these traits, at first they had been like the Inuzuka, in that they had to use jutsu to look more animalistic, but it had gotten to the point that they were born that way; they'd had to use a concealment jutsu since then. In one of the old Bingo books he'd looked at he'd seen a Kill on Sight order. He'd also read that they could make their ears more fox-like if they channeled chakra into them, and could create any number of tails with chakra as a show of how big their reserves were. The difference with the chakra tail he saw on Naruto now and the tails of the Namikaze was that the Namikaze's tails were real, not chakra, the same with the ears.

Naruto looked positively feral in Sasuke's opinion.

Naruto found her vision hazy, it wasn't good, any more than maybe one more tail and she'd completely lose her high brain functions, she was here to knock Sasuke back to his senses, not kill him after all. Orochimaru had basically stolen her best friend, there was no way that she was going to lie down and let it happen!

She punched him back as hard as she could. "I will take you back to the village Sasuke! Even if I have to break every single bone in your body to do it!" she told him in a whisper with such conviction that he was sure if he gave her a chance to do so, she would.

"Heh, you can try, Dobe." He snarled back, ready and willing to kill her if he was given the chance.

Naruto flinched again. So what if he was the last of a huge clan? So what if she was a clan less nobody, she would not let him talk like that to her, or to Sakura. "You're asking for a beating, Teme."

"I dare you to try!" he shot back.

The fight went on like that for a while, until he activated his curse seal to match the one tail of Kyuubi's chakra that she was using. She would admit that he might look kind of cool like that, but was that power really worth the price he paid for it? No, she didn't think so. He hadn't thought so either, so what had happened?

She watched him disappear and closed her eyes, she couldn't hear him. Where was he? There were things she could do to enhance her hearing, but she had never tried them before. The easiest way, was to just channel chakra into her ears. So that was what she was going to try first.

Sasuke's eyes widened when, slowly, her ears began to change shape. Her ears, which he had always liked, first became angular at the tips and then began to stretch out and started to look like an animal's ears, a foxes, to be more precise; then fur sprouted on them, soft looking golden fur turned white at the very tips of her ears. "N-Namikaze…" Sasuke breathed, knowing that he had just given himself away but not caring at all. The Namikaze had been given the Kill on Sight order for one reason, and one reason only: they were invincible when working together with their fox summons partners. But they were the most reliable teammates or ally a shinobi could ever find anywhere.

Naruto's ears perked as she heard Sasuke's gasp. She giggled. "Found you, Sa-kun." She lunged punching him in the gut so hard that he nearly passed out. His return punch was just as hard and left her reeling. This next attack would be the last one; he had to make it count!

Naruto stilled, shaking her head. She only had enough for one more attack. "I have to make this count, if I don't get through to Sasuke now, I'll never get through to him and I'll lose him!" Team Seven would become shattered, irreparable.

"Heh, I think that's enough of a warm up, don't you, Na-chan?" Sasuke asked mockingly.

Naruto growled, snarling. "Don't fuck with me Sa-kun! If I have to break both your arms and legs and carry you back myself I will!"

Sasuke flinched slightly before smirking and activating the second level of his curse seal.

The fox-eared girl gasped slightly. That wasn't her Sa-kun! She snarled as she pulled out even more of Kyuubi's chakra, wincing as a second tail formed and her vision hazed red, it was even harder for her to think now but she could, just barely. She stood there and then formed the cross hand seal and created a Kage Bunshin. She held a hand out and watched Sasuke as her clone helped her to create the Rasengan, one of the Kiiroi Senko's attacks; one that he'd created.

Sasuke or the thing wearing his skin began to create a Chidori as Naruto created a Rasengan. When the preparations for both attacks were complete, they lunged one last time, meeting in the center of the waterfall.

"Chidori!"

"Rasengan!"

They cried in tandem as both hit their marks. Then, as one, both combatants fell, miraculously, onto solid ground and passed out, one nearly on top of the other.

Team Seven: Missing?

After quite some time, one of the downed figures began to stir, his eyes opening slowly. He groaned as he sat up. "What the hell…?" He looked around. "How the hell did I get here? The last thing I really remember… was being in the forest for the second part of the Chuunin exam and getting bitten by… that guy… Orochimaru…"

Sasuke looked to the side and gasped. "Na-chan? Na-chan! What the hell? What happened?" that was when he saw the hole in her chest. He knew of only one jutsu that could do that to a person, and that was Kaka-sensei's Chidori… "No… Na-chan, what did I do to you…?" he very vaguely remembered making a promise to never use the seal that Orochimaru had given him, to grow stronger together with his Na-chan, his annoying sister Sakura-chan and Kaka-sensei. The promise to fulfill their dreams together.

Sasuke looked closer, the hole in his Na-chan's chest wasn't healing like it normally would which was bad. He had to get her back to Konoha as fast as he could. She needed medical attention, and she needed it five minutes ago. "Hang on Na-chan; I'll get you back to Konoha, safe and sound. I won't let you die here…" He told her as he picked her up, knowing that she couldn't hear him. "Who would help me fulfill my dreams of restarting the Konoha Military Police and Reviving my clan? I can't do it without you… Na-chan…"

Sasuke leapt away from the ruble of the founder's statues, running as fast as he could in his worn out state. He was remembering bits and pieces of his last battle with his crush and flinched. He'd said a lot of things that he would never mean, things that he had thought he would never say to her. He hated himself… but what he remembered that was most surprising; was the fact that her ears had become blonde furred fox ears with white tips. He remembered that that was something only a Namikaze could do. The heir to the clan, if he or she was ever found; was going to be put under the Clan Restoration Act, like he was currently. There was only one way to get out of that Act. And that was to marry before the age of sixteen. It looked like his Na-chan was the heir to the Namikaze Clan, to protect her and himself from the CRA; he had to ask her to marry him. And he had to do it soon. Sasuke grimaced at how much blood she was losing and pushed his tired legs to go faster. If he didn't get back to the village soon, the Namikaze heir was going to die! "Hang on Na-chan, just a little longer, please…" He breathed into her ear as he began to jump through the trees.

Team Seven: Missing?

Kakashi pushed himself to go as fast as he could as he headed to where Sasuke and Naruto had been last seen. He had to stop this mess. Sasuke had just a month ago started to act strangely out of character. It had started worrying the whole team though they had tried to go about business as usual. It was getting harder to believe that the Kyuubi had consumed his baby sister's soul by the day, especially with Iruka's help. And once he was absolutely sure that Naruto was really Naruto-imouto, he would start teaching them all how to 'Play' just like Minato-sensei had taught him, and Rin and Obito once they had joined the team. Pakkun, who was in front of him was just as worried and was, at the moment, having no problem keeping up. "Pakkun, how much farther?" there was growing panic in his voice.

"Not too much father Kakashi, the signatures are actually coming towards us, can't you tell?" Pakkun replied, noting the panic in his partner's voice. He himself had grown attached to Kakashi's pups while he was with them during the invasion.

"Really?" Kakashi let his senses flare out around them and very quickly pinpointed Naruto and Sasuke's chakra signatures. They were quickly approaching. "Thank Kami-sama!" He breathed, "That one of them is well enough to carry the other!" They pushed themselves faster still to meet up with Kakashi's students. He was still panicked but now he could control it, knowing that one was well enough to care for the other. Maybe he should invest in teaching all three of his students at least the most basic medical ninjutsu…

Team Seven: Missing?

Sasuke smiled as he spotted Kakashi coming their way fast. "Kaka-sensei!" He called, "Na-chan needs help!" He pushed himself just a bit more to meet his sensei in the middle of the clearing.

Kakashi stopped a few feet away to survey his two students, Sasuke was obviously the less injured as he was carrying Naruto, but, his imouto didn't look too good. "What happened Sasuke?" He asked, a bit cautiously. Sasuke had been acting strangely, but now it seemed that he was back to normal, but he had to make sure. "Are you ok?"

"Why are you asking about me Kaka-sensei? Na-chan will die if we don't get her to the hospital really soon!" Tears threatened to fall from his eyes. Why did Kaka-sensei choose now to play favorites with him? Maybe a more direct approach would work? But how much more direct could he be? "Na-chan has a freaking hole in her chest! I'm tired; I might not get her there fast enough to save her! I'm also injured! But Na-chan… Na-chan…"

Kakashi pulled his imouto from her teammate's arms. "Keep up." Was all he said before he started speeding back towards the village.

"Hai!" Sasuke called as he tried desperately to keep up with his sensei. He remembered… "Did I, did I really almost become lower than trash…?" Sasuke wondered.

'I promised myself I would never become my brother, that I would never kill my best friend!' and yet… he almost had. The regret was to much! If she died, he would get the Mangekyo, but was it truly worth it? If he got it from this then cool! But if she really died… "Sensei…?"

"Yes Sasuke?" Kakashi asked.

"Is, is it possible to become someone else?" his student asked quietly.

"No. I will never be my father, no matter how hard I may try to be, and I will never be my Sensei, even if I knew how to use the Hiraishin." Kakashi told him firmly. "You will never be your brother."

Sasuke sighed in relief. "He told me, that to get the next level of the Sharingan; I had to kill my best friend. After meeting Na-chan for the first time after the Massacre, I vowed to never try to obtain it, it would hurt too much. Na-chan is my best friend, I have no idea how this happened…" he confessed. "I feel like I've woken up from a very long dream…"

"Sasuke…" Kakashi breathed.

"I will take any punishment Hokage-sama sees fit to give me, no matter how harsh. It's what I deserve for almost killing Na-chan…" the rest of the journey was silent.

Team Seven: Missing?

Tsunade was just telling Shikamaru that Chouji's operation had been successful when the doors slammed open and shouts were heard.

"Tsunade-sama!" Was that Sasuke's voice? "Na-chan…" Ok, yes it was.

She turned to see a limping Sasuke and running Kakashi approaching her with a pail, bleeding Naruto. "Hokage-sama," Sasuke pleaded, "Please; help Na-chan, if you don't, she'll die."

"Shizune!" Tsunade shouted. "Have a team prep OR three!" Oh god… Naruto…

If the little bastard was right, then they didn't have very much time to get to work at all! Her little successor was on thin ice and the ice was getting thinner by the second! "Hang in there Naruto…"

Sasuke collapsed into a seat. "You're safe now Na-chan…" He breathed.

That was when it struck Tsunade, she remembered being around Minato and Kushina when they were dating and after they were married. Minato was always calling Kushina Ku-chan, and she always called him Mina-kun or Mi-kun. It was happening again. She hoped, for Naruto's sake alone, that Sasuke never tried to run again. But she could worry about that later; she had a Kunoichi to save.

Team Seven: Missing?

In another part of the village, the Konoha Shinobi and Civilian counsels convened to decide the fate of a Shinobi and Kunoichi.

(End Chapter One)

Ok! That's the first chapter recovered! I think it looks ok…

So yeah! Sorry it took so long! I only hope what I've got will work with the new prologue…

Neph