May the Leaf Burn (Chapter 2)

Hey everyone, IanAlphaAxel here. Here it is as promised, the next chapter of May the Leaf Burn by yours truly and TheReaper999. Hope you all like it! Also, let me know about your thoughts of the next chapter in your reviews and PM and stay tuned for TheReaper999's new Naruto story.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Tears flowed out of his eyes as he silently and swiftly made his way to his apartment. Never in a million years had he thought that he'd be using Orochimaru's secret tunnels to escape his own village… Okay, that was a lie. He had thought he'd be using this but definitely not to escape as a traitor. He thought he'd be using these tunnels to escape the village if they ever found Sasuke and forbade Naruto from going after him.

Tch… Fucking Leaf Village, he thought as he entered his shithole of a home. Naruto knew he didn't have much time. The seal would only hold for about ten more minutes. Immediately three shadow clones popped into existence and sat down, gathering nature chakra. As the blond went around gathering his most important possessions (a scroll about sealing, some clothes, and a book about ideas for new techniques), a small smile made its way to his face. Naruto realized that with him being gone, Konoha's most powerful summoning contract would disappear with him too. Yes… this was perfect.

With his belongings gathered, he placed a number of invisible explosive seals all over his apartment. Then, he drew another seal right over the hatch of the secret tunnel entrance which, when opened, would trigger all the explosive seals, thus killing whoever was in his apartment, and blocking a significant portion of the tunnels.

"Alright… Goodbye assholes!" he said as he jumped down the chute. Once again, without hand seals or any smoke at all, ten copies of Naruto popped into existence and wordlessly started running in different directions. This way, even Kakashi's dogs and the Inuzuka would have trouble tracking him.

A clone that had finished collecting nature chakra popped and orange pigmentations faded in around Naruto's toad-like eyes. He reached out with his senses and felt hundreds of chakra signatures many feet underneath him. Root, most likely, he thought and felt relieved that he had had the idea to suppress his own chakra since leaving the Hokage's office. He stretched out his sense even more and realized that the seal he had placed in the Hokage's office had worn off. Tsunade, Kakashi, Yamato, Sakura, and about two squads of ANBU were making their way to his apartment.

"You know, I'm sort of insulted that you think only two squads of ANBU and the Hokage can actually restrain me." Naruto said frowningly as he took off towards outside the village.

Tsunade, Kakashi, and Yamato landed on the front door of Naruto's apartment and the rest of the shinobi surrounded it from all sides. They signalled to each other, saying that they had visual on the target who seemed to be meditating with a clone.

Tsunade brought her hand up and banged on the front door. "Naruto! Open up! We know you're in there! You're surrounded. Just come out here and we can talk like this out." There was no answer from the inside. Tsunade sighed and ran her fingers through her blonde locks. "Kakashi, breach the door." she ordered.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Kakashi said and kicked it down instantly. Yamato jumped into the open apartment at the same time that every other exit was also breached and multiple ANBUs landed inside. Their eyes scanned every inch of the apartment and as professionals took position around the two meditating Naruto clones.

Tsunade, Kakashi, and Sakura walked in right after and also stood with the ANBU.

"N-Naruto…" Sakura started but couldn't continue. She had no idea what to say. Tsunade had told her about Naruto's suspicions but no one had really suspected him. He was to be chosen as bait in a clandestine operation. Now she realized that Naruto was nowhere near as dumb as he presented himself. This was a very, very, bad idea.

"Naruto, open your eyes." Kakashi said. For a moment, nothing happened, but then instantly one of the clones popped away, transferring its nature chakra to the original who was about to run out. Everyone tensed, waiting for something to happen. That was when they finally noticed the orange pigmentation around his eyes. "Shit, this is just a clone. It's merely gathering nature chakra…" Kakashi said, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"Then… where's the real Naruto?" asked Sakura. "Everyone outside the apartment said they only saw him go in. Is he still in here?"

"I don't think so." Kakashi spoke and unfurled a scroll and smeared some of his blood on it.

"Yo!" said Pakkun as he emerged from a poof of smoke.

"No time for greetings, Pakkun." Kakashi said as he pointed at the clone. "That's a shadow clone. Find the original." he commanded. Pakkun did a comical salute with his paw and jumped off, to sniff the clone. He took deep breaths and started scurrying around the apartment.

A minute later, the small dog called out to them as he pawed the carpet. "He went under here!" Pakkun said and Kakashi was instantly by his side, cutting it up.

The ANBU stayed spread out through the apartment to make sure nothing went unnoticed. Kakashi gripped the handle of the hatch and looked at Tsunade who was now at his side, along with Sakura and Yamato. Tsunade nodded and Kakashi turned the handle and opened the door of the hatch.

"Ahh..." Naruto sighed as he stretched to get rid of the knots that were in his body from crawling for so long.

He looked around the forest he in and climbed the tallest tree that he could find to regain his bearings. He had shed his orange jacket quite some time and thoroughly burned it up. Now he was only wearing his orange pants and a very dark blue t-shirt. His belongings were sealed into a scroll and the only things on his were his ninja pouch and his kunai holster.

Naruto looked around and smiled. He was currently a few kilometres northwest of Konoha. That meant that he could either go to Takigakure, Iwagakure, or Sunagakure.

"Hmm… maybe I should-"

BOOM!

Naruto whipped his head towards Konoha and saw lots of black smoke rising from a spot.

"Huh… I guess they tripped the seals. Dumbasses." he muttered and climbed down. "Okay, first Suna to meet Gaara, then…" he trailed off as an idea came to mind. "Yes." he nodded to himself. "Then Uzushio to find out more about my heritage." And Naruto took off running.

To be Continued...