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.

Title: Team Seven: Missing?

(Chapter Two: The Truth about the Seal and the Meeting)

Almost ten hours later, when Tsunade stepped out of the third Operating Room she noticed that Shikamaru, Sasuke and Kakashi weren't the only ones there any more. During the wait, Sakura, Ino Hinata and Iruka had arrived. It looked like Sasuke and Sakura had been crying on each other's shoulders and Kakashi by the way Kakashi was holding Iruka… they all turned to her when they heard her footsteps. Sasuke was the first to speak.

"Na-chan; how is she? Will she make it?" he sounded almost panicked and his Sharingan eyes were rapidly changing between a pinwheel shape and the three tomoe.

"She's stable now; we almost lost her several times. I'm surprised that she was still alive when we got her to the operating room." Tsunade informed them; relief caused all those waiting to sag. "Shikamaru, congratulations on retrieving Uchiha Sasuke. Your first mission as a Chuunin was a success. All that's left is to punish him. I will tell you now, it will lighter than it would have been, as he carried Naruto as far as he could."

Sasuke sagged in bitter relief. This was all his fault, he just knew it. "I will submit to any punishment you see fit to give me, Hokage-sama" He said quietly. "I will… even leave the village if that is what you decree." His dreams of reviving his clan and restarting the Military Police were a small price to pay really, compared to what he had almost made Na-chan pay. His Na-chan was the most wonderful person in the world… the fact that he had almost extinguished her life with his own hands…

Tsunade shook her head. "That won't be necessary, Sasuke."

Sasuke's head shot up, but he didn't dare say anything, lest she change her mind.

"I haven't decided what your punishment will be just yet. You may go visit her in a bit when she is settled into her room." Tsunade's eyes narrowed, "In the meantime, you can give me your account of what happened, Kakashi, you come also."

Kakashi and Sasuke nodded, following after the Hokage after both give one last look at the doors to the OR. "Naruto, are you alright?" Kakashi asked, but he got no response.

As Sasuke followed the Hokage and his sensei, he felt as if he was missing several months of his life. He was remembering bits and pieces, but they were scattered like puzzle pieces and Sasuke was sure that he was missing several. And the pieces he did have had no real order, making it hard to make any sense of well, anything after a certain point.

The three stepped into her office in the hospital and Tsunade closed the door behind them. She walked over to her desk and sat down. "Sit. Both of you."

Sasuke sat obediently. There was no way he was going to give her anything else to punish him for.

"Sasuke." Tsunade said sharply, causing the already scared child-shinobi to jump slightly in his seat and flinch.

"Y-yes, Godaime Hokage-sama?" Sasuke asked in a quiet, submissive voice.

"Can you give me an accurate account of the events leading up to and including your defection and battle with Naruto at the Valley of the End?" she inquired.

Sasuke blinked. "I will certainly do my best, Hokage-sama…" He began. "The last clear memory I have is getting bitten by Orochimaru-teme. After that, I only remember bits and pieces but I will try to paint as clear a picture as possible."

"Go on." Tsunade prompted less harshly than before. "Tell us all you can."

Sasuke nodded as he closed his eyes to try and put his fragmented memories in some kind of order. "Well, as I said, my last clear memory was of your ex-teammate biting me. After that I kind of remember waking up in the middle of an attack by Oto ninja. I can't really remember what I did to our opponents. After that I'm pretty sure we meet up with Kabuto and fought some Ame shinobi. We weren't attacked after that and we made it to the tower in one piece. I think, in the preliminaries for the third round I fought one of Kabuto's teammates. And I'm rather certain that it was an early match, though I can't get more specific than that. You sealed, or at least tried to, the curse mark that Hebi-teme gave me, didn't you Sensei?"

Kakashi nodded. "That I did."

"Well it worked somewhat, for a while because after that I clearly remember telling Na-chan and Sakura that I would not use the thing if I could help it. I remember the month of training as well, but not quite as clearly. I do remember, vaguely, fighting Gaara in the third round and the invasion. I'm sorry but fighting Gaara during the invasion is really hazy because I was forced to use the 'hickey of doom' as Naruto put it. I can barely remember the talk Kaka-sensei and I had about precious people. But not long after sensei left… I had a fight with the guys that kidnapped me. That night I remember wondering why I was packing when everything I needed to fulfill my goals were at my fingertips here in Konoha." Sasuke bit his lip, trying to remember more. "After that… I don't remember anything… just waking up, almost on top of Na-chan. And Na-chan having two holes in her chest, bleeding badly. And finally, trying to get back to the village as fast as I possibly could so that she wouldn't die!" he wasn't facing the Hokage or his Sensei, Sasuke's head was turned down, trying desperately to hide the tears in his eyes. That; and he was trying desperately to protect his best friend from the CRA. He didn't know how they would react to Na-chan being a Namikaze, and he didn't want them to put her under the CRA at all.

"That's all I remember." He said finally. He hated lying to his leader and Sensei, but right now it couldn't be helped. He had to keep Na-chan safe.

Tsunade and Kakashi were both rather disturbed. "What kind of seal…" Kakashi began.

"Not only warps a person's personality but messes with their mind?" Tsunade finished.

Neither of them knew, they weren't even sure they wanted to know. But they needed to. It was a good thing Jiraiya was in the village. Sasuke's very sanity might depend on it, and the added bonus of; perhaps, being able to rid another loyal ninja of the same kind of seal was too good to miss out on.

Team Seven: Missing?

At the same time, in the counsel chambers a few buildings away, the heads of the major and minor ninja clans and the civilian counsel were convening. Homura and Koharu had made sure long ago that the proxies for the Uzumaki and the Namikaze, two of the most important clans in Konoha, (one being the famed Fox Clan and the other being foreign royalty) were on their side. All of the civilians would vote their way as would all the minor clans.

"This meeting is now in session," Danzou called from the head of the table. He and the other elders felt that they were doing the Hokage a favor, while she was taking care of the reports of the mission, they would decide on several different punishments for two of the concerned Genin. Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke both had to be punished somehow.

Danzou wanted both Genin for obvious reasons, or at least, he thought they were. For one, both needed to be trained properly, with Naruto being a Jinjuuriki she would be Konoha's secret weapon. Two, Naruto and Sasuke were really close, they were a set; you couldn't have one without the other. Three, while he wanted them in ROOT, they wouldn't really work well with the program; they seemed to fight their hardest and could pull power out of nowhere when their emotions ran high. So the obvious solution was to train them himself. Sasuke, because he did leave the village needed some form of punishment. Naruto, for successfully getting Sasuke back, needed more of a reward… but this counsel would never allow it.

"There are two things on the agenda today." Homura spoke in a strong voice when the mass had quieted. "The punishments of Uchiha Sasuke, for trying to leave, and Uzumaki Naruto, for hurting Uchiha Sasuke more than necessary to bring him back."

Danzou thought that it was funny that these simpletons ignored the fact that Naruto's name, or at least, the name she carried for her own protection, was Uzumaki, the foreign royalty. Anyone with eyes could see who her father was. The only reason that he had lied to Hatake was to get at the girl, but his efforts had obviously not worked. There was no reason for the lie to carry on any farther, and while Hatake wouldn't ever want to give his charge to Danzou, Danzou was better than what he was sure the other two were planning. His late friend's old teammates probably wanted to either exile the girl, or kill her. Why do that when there were other, better alternatives? They really shouldn't be worried about her loyalty; it was the boy they needed to worry about. They could marry the boy off to keep him in the village, couldn't they?

Koharu smiled. "Let's take care of Sasuke first. Any suggestions on what we should do?"

One of the civilians stood up. "We believe that he tried to leave because of Uzumaki, I move that we pardon the poor boy."

Danzou sighed as Hiashi stood to argue. "Are you serious? Uchiha tried to commit treason, Uzumaki was just trying to get him back! He needs some kind of punishment! I say we should hold off on deciding on this issue until we know the facts, until then we can provide suggestions of punishments."

Danzou nodded. "I agree. However, seeing as he brought his injured teammate back to the village and his personality has taken a one-eighty, we should consider lessoning his punishment a little bit, if only slightly. If Uchiha had not brought her back as fast as he did Hiashi, she would most likely have died."

Hiashi nodded. "I see, but not punishing him at all is what I'm against. I say we put him on probation for at least a year and have Inoichi do a psych evaluation every other week. If by the end of the year he can prove to us sufficiently that he is loyal then we will take him off probation, but I would like to restrict him to missions inside the village for a further six months, just in case."

"And if he hasn't proven himself after that one year?" Danzou asked curiously. "What would you have us do then?"

"We lengthen his probation, and if he causes trouble we could always let him sit in a cell for a few days to a week." Hiashi replied.

That was a good punishment. "Let's take a vote then." Homura smiled. "All for Uchiha Sasuke being pardoned raise your hands."

Danzou, Hiashi and the other major ninja clans looked on in horror as the proxies for Naruto's two clans raised their hands with the minor clans and civilians.

"All for Hiashi's suggestion?" the major clans and Danzou raised their hands, but they could tell that they had lost this time. "Then it has been decided, Uchiha Sasuke will be pardoned."

Inoichi leaned over to speak with Hiashi and Danzou. "I don't care if Uchiha is pardoned, I am still going to request that Hokage-sama send him to me at least once a month and I definitely want to see him before he starts doing missions again."

"I will make sure to suggest it to her." Danzou told him. "Since he is pardoned now, there is nothing we can do about it, but I will suggest to her to keep the missions Team Seven takes stay in the Village for a while. Though we might have to cut the six months down to three…"

"As long as he is punished somehow." Hiashi shrugged. The rest of the major clans nodded.

"Naruto and Sakura don't deserve to be kept in the village…" Chouza said looking thoughtful. "Maybe if we offered them some kind of special training? Who here knew Minato and Kushina best and trained with them?"

"The loyal pups don't deserve to be punished also," Tsume agreed.

"That is a good idea. But why don't we take an hour lunch break so that we can stretch our legs before we deal with the Uzumaki issue?" Danzou said to the whole counsel. He got nods from everyone. "And someone make sure that Hatake is here this time…"

They were deciding his student's fates after all, he should have some say…

Team Seven: Missing?

Team Seven was surprised when they got to Naruto's room, Jiraiya was already there. "Jiraiya-sama, I wasn't expecting you to be here." Kakashi said quietly as Sakura and Tsunade helped Sasuke sit on the other bed in the room so that he could get the medical attention he had been denying himself until he knew Naruto was better. "Although I probably should have, Sensei wouldn't trust anyone but you and me with her care…"

Jiraiya looked up at his student's student. "What do you mean Kakashi?"

Kakashi sat down next to Jiraiya and began to card his fingers through the girl's hair, since the other man was holding her had and Sakura was holding the other while watching Tsunade take care of Sasuke. "I mean, that as he lay there dying, Minato-sensei asked me to look after her while you were on missions."

Jiraiya laughed, "That is something Minato would do. On another note… how are you going to punish Uchiha? He put her in this condition…" he asked, turning his attention to the ninja his old teammate was tending.

"I'll probably send him to Inoichi, once before missions and then maybe twice a month after that. And, even though I hate punishing Sakura, for at least trying to keep him in the village before he ran, and Naruto, For succeeding in bringing him back, I'll probably restrict missions to inside the village walls for a while, though I don't know for how long."

Jiraiya nodded. "I wouldn't mind training Naruto-chan while you deal with Uchiha."

"Thank you. I know about your vices, but please, try to be attentive of her…"

"I will."

Sasuke had lowered his head as he heard the conversation turn to his punishment. He thought it was rather light, but seeing as he had come back on his own, and that he was carrying Naruto as if she could break at any second he knew that his punishment was going to be lighter than usual. Now all that had to happen was getting the seal removed, if it could be. "I'm sorry for causing so much trouble Hokage-sama."

"At least you came back Gaki, that's all that really matters right now." Tsunade turned to Kakashi. "While you are dealing out his punishment, I can take Sakura on as a part-time apprentice so that you have more time to deal with him."

Kakashi bowed his head. "Thank you Tsunade-sama. How do you feel about that Sakura, you could become our medic-nin, would you like that? It would put your perfect chakra control to good use and I still remember the exercises that Sensei gave Rin to use to bolster her reserves. I could give them to you if you like."

"I would love to Kaka-sensei!" Sakura perked up. "I haven't been really useful to the team… I can't wait to start."

Kakashi nodded, reaching over to ruffle her hair, Sakura had come to be like a daughter to him and a sister to Naruto after she had learned the truth in Wave. "On that note Tsunade-sama, would you be willing to teach Naruto-chan and Sasuke, after his punishment is complete, the very basic of the medical ninjutsu?" Ino had started to turn into the same after the Chuunin Exams; they all looked up as the door opened and Inuzuka Tsume standing in the doorway.

"Hatake, come on, there's a counsel meeting going on."

Kakashi's single eye blinked. "If there's a meeting, why wasn't I called earlier?"

"I don't know, but the Counsel is deciding what to do with your students, they've already decided to pardon Uchiha."

Everyone's heads shot up. "But I tried to leave!" Sasuke protested. "I deserve some kind of punishment!"

"All the major clans agreed, except for… them." Tsume told them all. "Hiashi wanted to put you on probation for a year with visits to Inoichi and then, if you had proved your loyalty by the end of the year, you'd be allowed to take missions again, restricted to the village only for six months."

"I was thinking along the same lines." Kakashi admitted.

"As was I." Tsunade agreed.

Tsume pulled Kakashi out of the room. "We have a meeting to get to, Hokage-sama, I'll return Hatake-sensei when we are done."

Tsunade nodded in understanding. "Go then. And be careful of the elders. And, Kakashi, I'll have your answer when you get back."

Tsume nodded as she closed the door. "Come on."

Kakashi nodded. "Anything strange going on?" he asked.

"Yes, Danzou is actually on our side for once, although no one is sure what the hell he's planning." Tsume told him as they walked quickly down the hallway towards the exit of the hospital. "I have a bad feeling the this next part of the meeting is going to be even worse for us, the Uzumaki and the Namikaze clan proxies voted with the civilians, they are supposed to have Naruto's best wishes in mind, that they voted for the pardon instead of a more harsh punishment is troubling.

Kakashi nodded, he hated these meetings with a passion, but as much as he was late for everything else, he made it a point to be early for counsel meetings. "That is very troubling." He agreed. "And with Naruto-chan being in critical condition…" he couldn't finish his sentence.

Tsume nodded solemnly. Things weren't looking good for the child that had been their hero since a few hours after she was born. "Danzou is on our side, strangely enough."

"Oh really? Should we be worried that he's plotting something then?" Kakashi asked in a slightly joking manner.

"It's not certain, but he might. He wants to keep Naruto-sama in the village, but other than that… we don't know what he might be planning. We all know he wants her in ROOT…"

Kakashi nodded as they reached to counsel building and went in. a terrible sinking feeling settled at the bottom of his stomach, making his feel sick. "Well; here goes everything…"

(End Chapter Two)

Ok… editing isn't too hard… I noticed that some of you asked how Kakashi and Naruto could chat telepathically, my answer is thus: It is a trait of Naruto's father's clan the Namikaze, they are naturally telepathic.

The Namikaze are able to teach those that they bring into the clan (via adoption like Kakashi or marriage like Kushina) how to use telepathy, I invite you to read "A Fox's Tail" and "Aftermath: Minato's Tail" if you want to know how that is done.

The ability to speak telepathically is restricted to family and the family summons only so as not to be over powering. Namikaze to Namikaze, Fox to Fox and Fox to Namikaze.

Neph