It has been three years since Naruto has disappeared and a few things have happened. For starters, Sasuke and Sakura were still Genin and Kakashi wasn't sure if they were ever going to be mature enough for it. Sure they had matured some, but not enough for them to proceed. He had nominated them for the Chunin exams but they failed. It didn't surprise him one bit. Orochimaru had tried to attack Sasuke but failed to do so with the information that Jiraiya had brought forth. Both him and Kabuto had been killed. Sarutobi had died and to the shock of all, Jiraiya had managed to convince Tsunade to come back and upon learning that Naruto had been taken but was suspected alive, re-started up the search for her.
Kakashi was pondering all of this while walking to the Hokage tower with the other two members of his so called 'team'. He had tried to get them to put more effort to look for Naruto but nothing seemed to work. Until he told them that they wouldn't pass the Chunin exams with out her, when they heard that they tried hard to find her in their spare time. Then Tsunade came and she put the ANBU on it. Kakashi let out an un noticeable sigh. He was really worried about the third person in this group, he knew that there was something that the Hokage and Jiraiya weren't telling them, which was why they were saying that she was alive, and didn't tell them to look for a body.
It was both worrying and hopeful, it worried him because if she was alive then there was a high chance that when or even if, she was brought back she will not be the same at all. It gave him hope because he won't have to bury her. Just thinking of all of the things that could happen to her if she was alive brought chills down his spine, males taken hostage, had it bad, but females taken hostage had it even worse. Add to the fact that she was only twelve when she was taken... a shiver ran through his body.
Naruto was running. She had managed to get away from the place that had held her captive for over three years now. She was completely disillusioned from ever being saved, plus she wasn't alone anymore... she wrapped both of her thin and scared arms around her slightly bulging stomach. Her long and dirty hair whipped around her in her frenzy to get away, her legs powered by the Kyuubi's chakra. Naruto ran and ran until she had no more energy to keep moving and collapsed.
Panting she looked around, her dark blue eyes frantic with trying to spot anything out of the ordinary. When three masked figures suddenly appeared right in front of her, she tried to run away in panic, but they quickly caught her and subdued her. The one holding her nodded to the other two and together they headed back towards Konoha. Once there they first got to the hospital and one of them went to the Hokage to inform her that the mission had been complete. Shock ran through Tsunade when she heard this. "What?" She whispered. The ANBU shifted, "The mission has been completed, one Uzumaki Naruto is in the hospital as we speak." Tsunade stood up and ran out of the tower and towards the hospital.
Naruto had been returned