It had been a week since Naruto ran away. He was living somewhat comfortably in the little tree house he had built.
It was built in one of the medium trees. Not in one of the tall ones that would show the tree house to the village. And it wasn't in a short one that would let it be easy prey for animals. It let him have a decent view of his surroundings, while he was above all the annoying bugs and predators. It was perfect.
"Life is good!" Naruto thought.
Meanwhile, in the village hidden in the leaves:
An man in an animal mask ran into a large building.
It looked rather plain on the outside, but that is what fooled people. Under that building housed the headquarters for the ANBU, the leaf villages elite ninja.
The man ran to where he figured Dog would be right now (nobody used their real name, they identified by the animal mask they wore). He ran straight into the lounge and shouted in one breath: "!"
"Whoa! Hold your horses!" Dog said to Horse jokingly. "Slow down and speak English" Dog said calmly.
Horse took a couple deep breaths before saying "The jinchuriki has been missing for a week and the hokage thinks he has been kidnapped." horse said calmly.
"WHAT!" yelled Dog at the top of his lungs. "How long has he been missing?" Dog said calmly, getting his emotions in check.
"About a week." was the short reply he got.
"I wish to be part of the tracking team being sent to find him." Dog said.
Horse smiled behind his mask while saying "Why do you think I was sent to get you"?
As Dog stood up to leave he wondered "Naruto, just what did you get yourself into this time?"
Back in the forest, Naruto was grabbed roughly from the scruff of his shirt into the air while looking for food.
"No wonder that leaf outpost looked like a treehouse for a kid!" the man holding Naruto shouted. "It was a kid's treehouse!"
Two more ninja appeared in front of the man holding Naruto.
"What should we do with him?" said a short, pudgy man.
"Maybe we could sell him into slavery at that rock ninja outpost we passed?" said a tall skinny man.
"LET ME GO YOU BASTARDS!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs.
"See Chin, he holds too much spirit." the man holding Naruto said calmly despite the kicking child he was holding.
"Then what should we do with him Chang?" the short man said to the tall and muscled man holding Naruto.
"I say kill him." Chang said as an eerie silence swept over the four. "He's not useful and he might report to the leaf, so if nobody disagrees let's get kill'n."