Hey all, yes I am still chipping away at this on my own so as I've been basically shamelessly begging in the last chapters I am still looking for a beta. If you're a beta with some free time on your hands and you're still reading this thing then consider being my partner in crime and helping me make this thing awesome? If you know someone who might be interested send it out to them and see what they think. Thanks enjoy the chapter!
"I see, it appears this is far worse than I had imagined" The hokage said gravely facing the window in his office.
He turned, "well if he has not shown up for his team selection nor his registration I think it's safe to assume that we are dealing with a missing nin, as difficult as it may be for me to admit given my relationship with the individual at hand I fully believe this is the truth. For the safety of the village and it's allies we must retrieve him, failure is not an option. We will be sending out teams to survey the land of fire and put up notice to make contact with the nearest shinobi if he is found. You will be updated as we develop orders for you and your teams, this meeting is adjourned" the hokage commanded sternly as the group of Jounin exited his office in a flash leaving only Kakashi behind.
"And I'm assuming you are wondering what will be done about your team?" Hiruzen questioned tiredly.
"Yes Hokage-sama that's why I'm still here" Kakashi responded
"for now as unfortunate as it is we do not have a suitable replacement. Team Seven will have to continue as a three person support team for assisting other teams in missions. As of right now we'll be pairing up the teams to help find Naruto so that won't be an issue. As I said in the meeting as soon as any developments happen you will be the first to know our plans" the hokage reiterated.
"Thank you Hokage-sama" Kakashi spoke leaving quickly.
"How could this situation degrade like this?" Hiruzen questioned in turmoil looking over the village and shaking his head sadly before getting to work planning search teams.
"I mean how arrogant and selfish can he be, now we're missing a teammate. Oh well not that we need that dead last anyways because we have you Sasuke, you're good enough to take up two places on any team" Sakura said cheerfully.
"Hn?" Sasuke replied apparently unaware of what had been said much to Sakura's emotional deflation.
"Any member of our village should be viewed like family and we've lost one of our own. It's our duty to find him and get him back, I may have information for you guys about our upcoming retrieval mission soon, so I'll be in contact" Kakashi said taking off quickly.
"Humph" Sakura mused still not buying the importance of finding Naruto as Sasuke continued his apparent indifference.
"Kakashi, Asuma thank you for arriving so quickly" The hokage said acknowledging both of their presence.
"Your teams will be joining up to survey the land of fire for Naruto. Since this is only a search mission I feel confident in the abilities of your teams to help us find not let me down." He spoke commandingly.
"Hai Hokage-sama" They replied in unison walking out of the office into the hallway.
"Well it's a pleasure to be working with you Asuma" Kakashi said.
"The pleasure's all mine, it would be nice however if it were under different circumstance" Asuma responded looking sidelong into the distance turning back to face his partner.
"We're going to have to break the news to our teams, have any idea where would be a good place to meet up?" Kakashi asked.
"Sure there's a Barbeque restaurant in the village centre why don't we meet there in say… an hour?" Asuma questioned
"Sure I'll let my team know" Kakashi responded leaving.
"Why is she here?" asked Ino agitated as Sakura walked into the restaurant looking around to find any sign of what table they were meeting at.
She noticed Ino with a distasteful look on her face and made her way down to the table she and her teammates were occupying.
Ino and Sakura's mood immediately changed following the arrival of Sasuke.
"Hi Sasuke!" Ino bellowed waving wildly as Sakura scolded her "quit being so loud and obnoxious" she said rolling her eyes.
"Troublesome" Shikamaru muttered as Chouji licked his lips waiting for the food to arrive.
Kakashi came in just on time and the dialogue began.
"Well it seems we're all here" Asuma said "Where's Naruto isn't he on Team Seven?" Chouji asked.
"Well that's what we're here to talk about, the Hokage has made the tough decision to label Naruto..." Kakashi paused before delivering the shocking news to the genin at the table "as a missing nin" he finalized.
'What?" was the resounding message at the table as disbelief took over.
"Naruto loves this village he would never leave this place, he wants to be Hokage!" Sakura shouted adamantly "It's all just a trick, it's another one of his pranks right?" she asked almost hopefully in disbelief as Ino and Chouji took the news in a similar fashion.
"Well let's face it we don't know very much about Naruto, I mean it's not like any of us ever made a proper effort to try and be his friends," Shikamaru stated bluntly much to the disappointment of Chouji as he realized what Shikamaru was saying was very much so the truth.
"Yeah well he did that himself by being an idiot all the time" Ino and Sakura said simultaneously in dissatisfaction.
"Whatever get's you through the night" Shikamaru responded much to their chagrin.
Sasuke just kind of looked on not really listening to what was being said at the moment seemingly in his own thoughts.
"Alright that's enough of that" Asuma commanded bringing peace to the table once again, "we're going to eat here and get to know each other a bit more before we leave tomorrow. So treat this as an opportunity to get to know some of the other people in this unit who you may not know very well" Asuma spoke to the genin at hand just as the food arrived.
"Let's eat!" Chouji shouted picking up his chopsticks.
The next morning team seven and ten met by the gates noticing the other members of what was now the Konoha 10.
Asuma arrived to find them staring at what they considered an odd scene.
"Lee! We must go and retrieve our friend! If we talk to him about the fountain of youth he will be unable to resist coming back!" Gai shouted.
"Yosh! Gai-sensei the fountain of youth will bring Naruto back to the village for certain!" Lee responded.
"Lee!" "Gai-sensei!" "Lee" "Gai-sensei!" "LEE!" "GAI-SENSEI!" they shouted repeatedly.
"If we keep this up we'll never leave" Shino spoke walking in on the odd display from the shadows.
Kakashi walked up to his genin only to be interrupted.
"Ah it's my eternal rival Kakashi!" Gai said much to his dread.
"Gai do we have to do this today? For once I want to actually take things seriously" he said tiredly.
"I always take everything seriously!" Gai responded enthusiastically.
Kakashi groaned at the lack of his point getting across to his unfortunate acquaintance as he turned to Asuma.
"can we please get going before I'm challenged to some kind of competition I don't want to be a part of" he asked Asuma nodding in agreement "Yes it's time for us to leave, good luck to your teams as well" Asuma spoke to Gai who gave him a thumbs up and a blinding grin as they left.
Kisame had just been giving Naruto a lecture on using chakra to stick to objects when his apprentice turned away for a moment.
"Are you listening? Or do I need to beat some sense into you?" Kisame snarled in distaste.
When he got no response he went over to look in the direction Naruto was staring in only to have his apprentice turn back to him.
"What the hell was that?" Kisame asked still clearly angry.
"I apologize Kisame-sensei, I just had an odd feeling" Naruto responded vaguely.
"Well if you have any more odd feelings today I'll teach you how to dodge kunai while you try and climb a tree with chakra" Kisame growled out as Naruto straightened up immediately and began once again to listen intently to his sensei's lesson.