Leaving the Light

Well here's chapter 3. It's got a little bit of fighting in it. Enjoy.

I don't own Naruto or any of the characters. They are property of their respected creators and I am writing for entertainment purposes.

Chapter 3

Neji was helping Lee because he had just had his surgery on his back a few days ago. Lee now had to walk with a crutch and was forced to take it easy.

When Sasuke and Sakura reached the two of them, Sasuke spoke first. "We need your help for a mission"

Neji and Lee looked at them a little confused until Neji asked, "What's the mission?"

Sakura spoke this time, "There's no time to explain, we have to be at the gate in five minutes. Once we're there, Shikamaru will explain everything"

"Okay! Let us go with the power of youth!" Lee exclaimed.

Sakura looked at him and said, "Sorry Lee, but you're still not healthy enough for missions yet, by Tsunade's orders"

Lee looked down at the ground. "Okay. If by Hokage-sama's orders, I wont go"

They all looked at Lee until Neji said, "We must be going now"

The three nodded to each other, then ran towards the gate. Lee watched as they ran off and decided to go to the gate and wish them luck on their mission. He began to walk towards the gates at a steady pace.

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Sasuke, Sakura and Neji arrived at the gates to find Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba and Tsunade waiting for them.

"Now that everyone is here, I can begin with the mission briefing" Tsunade began. "What we have found out is that as of last night Naruto Uzumaki abandoned the village" Neji, Kiba and Choji were all surprised by the news and had it written all over their faces.

"WHAT!?" Kiba shouted.

"He is heading towards the Village Hidden in the Mist. What we don't know is why he is leaving, b-" Tsunade was cut off by Sakura yelling.

"That's not true!" Everyone looked at Sakura in surprise. "Naruto said that he has nothing important to live here for anymore and he would use force to break these bonds if he had to" They all looked back at Tsunade.

"Shikamaru! I am appointing you squad leader" Tsunade told him.

Shikamaru nodded and turned to his squad. "Alright. I need to see the supplies you all are carrying on this mission" they all take off their weapon pouches and show Shikamaru. Shikamaru examines them all and then nods. They all put their weapon pouches back on and look back at Shikamaru. He pulls out a pencil and a piece of paper and draws six figures in a straight line. "We will be going in the falcon formation in this order. Kiba (points to the first figure) you will be leading us, Sakura (points at the second figure) will be behind Kiba, (points to the third figure) next will be yours truly, Sasuke (points at the fourth figure) will be next, after Sasuke will be Choji (points to the fifth figure), and bringing up the rear is Neji (points to the last figure).

Shikamaru looked back up at all of them and said, "Each of us will be given a direction to scan for Naruto" he looked back down at the paper and continued. "Kiba will look to the front, Sakura will look to the left, Sasuke will look to the right, Neji will look behind us with your Byakugan, and Choji and I will look all around us"

Shikamaru stood back up and said, "I know that I usually would wave this off as troublesome, but this time I wont be saying that. We are going after a fellow Leaf shinobi and I will do whatever it takes to get him back. He is also a friend and I will help a friend who has fallen into the darkness" all of them nod and look back at Tsunade.

"Alright… Be careful and bring Naruto back"

"Hai" they all said in unison. They all turned around and began to walk away next to each other, shoulder to shoulder.

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Naruto was jumping from tree to tree, heading towards the Village Hidden in the Mist. He suddenly stops on a branch and turns back towards the Hidden Leaf Village. "I wonder who she will send to stop me"

'I should set up a test for them' he thought.

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Naruto's retrieval squad was jumping from tree to tree in silence while in their designated order.

As Sakura was going along, she was thinking, 'Naruto… How could you leave?' She then put on a serious face and thought, 'No matter what, we will get you back' Sakura then looked ahead of the group and saw orange on the ground up ahead.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled.

Everyone looks to where Sakura is looking and see Naruto. They all land where he is and stare at him.

Naruto stares back at them and says, "So this is who she sends? A dog, a crybaby, a lazy ass, a stuck-up asshole, a fat ass and a jackass who believes you can't change your destiny"

Everyone was shocked by Naruto's words. Shikamaru got over it quickly and said, "Naruto… We are here to bring you back to the Leaf Village. We are your friends. We're here to-"

Neji cut off Shikamaru by saying, "Save your breath. This is not the real Naruto"

"What do you mean? He's standing right there" Sakura said.

"His chakra level is to low and as far out as we are, he would have made it farther than this by last night" Neji replied.

Naruto laughed evilly and everyone looked at him. "Nothing gets by you and your Byakugan, eh Neji" Naruto then put on a serious face and said, "Alright… This was supposed to be a test to see how good my retrieval squad was, but because I know all of you… This will be a snap… This will be a four round battle, if you all can beat me I will point you in the next direction of the battle because the real me isn't taking the normal route to the Mist Village"

"Naruto why are you doing this?" Sakura yells.

Naruto looks at Sakura and says, "I already told you… To break the bonds from all of you" Sakura gets tears in her eyes as the rest continue to stare at Naruto. "So… Whose first?"

Everyone looks at each other until Choji steps forward and says, "I'll go first"

Naruto smiles and says, "Very well. Come at me with the intention to kill because I have a seal lock on, so I cannot disperse until I run out of chakra or die" Everyone flinches at his words, but soon get over it. "Let's begin" and Choji gets into a fighting stance.

Naruto and Choji continue to stare at each other until Naruto says, "Fine… I'll start things off" he pulls out three kunai with his right hand and throws them at Choji. Choji rolls to the left to avoid the kunai and then charges Naruto. "Finally" Naruto mutters. Choji reaches Naruto and wraps him in a bear hug. He lifts him off the ground and squeezes harder. "What the?" Naruto questions. Choji smiles thinking he has Naruto until he sees Naruto smiling at him. Naruto starts to push against Choji's arms, loosening Choji's grip from him. "Pathetic" Naruto says as he gets out of Choji's grip and falls to the ground, but he keeps a hold of Choji's arms. "You are far too weak to beat me" Naruto then jumps up and knees Choji in the face, sending him airborne. Naruto does a 360 in the air and kicks Choji in the chest with the heel of his foot. Choji is sent flying through the air, going through three trees and stops by hitting a fourth tree while leaving a crater in the tree.

Naruto turns back to the rest of the group and says, "So… Whose next?" Everyone just stares at Naruto in amazement and shock.

"No" Choji yells and starts to get back up.

Everyone looks over at Choji and Naruto snickers saying, "Persistent aren't we? Good. Time for round two" Naruto charges Choji and punches him in the face. Choji rolls back 20 feet and stops himself in a crouch. Choji gets back up and charges Naruto while making a few hand signs.

As Choji is charging Naruto, he jumps into the air and yells, "Partial Expansion Jutsu! Hand!" Choji's hand begins to grow until it is as large as he is. Choji thrusts his oversized hand down on top of Naruto while leaving a small crater where Naruto was.

Everyone thinks Choji has beaten Naruto until Choji's hand starts to move. Choji's hand begins to lift into the air. They begin to see Naruto lifting it with one hand. Once Naruto was standing back up, he held Choji's hand held above him with one hand. "That was good… but not good enough" Naruto grabbed Choji's hand with both hands and picked him up off the ground. Naruto then slammed Choji to the ground on his back.

Once Choji hit the ground, he screamed out in pain as blood came out of his mouth. Naruto let go of Choji's hand and as soon as he did, it went back to normal. Naruto jumped into the air above Choji and came back down, kneeing Choji right in the chest. This caused Choji to scream in pain as blood shot out of his mouth. Naruto did this four more time, each time sending more blood out of Choji's mouth, until he was satisfied with his work. Naruto got off of Choji and walked towards the group, away from the large crater with Choji in it. As soon as Naruto was close enough he said, "Okay, whose next?"

Everyone just stared at Naruto in shock, wondering how he could do such a thing, until Neji spoke, "Unbelievable… Ch-Choji has used m-more than half of h-his chakra while N-Naruto hasn't used any a-and he only had t-ten percent to begin with" Everyone was even more shocked by Neji's words. Naruto continued to stare at them until he heard something behind him. Choji appeared out of the crater crouching down, breathing hard.

Naruto closed his eyes and sighed, but never turned around. "You were fun and all, but now you're starting to annoy me" and opens his eyes to look at Choji.

"I'm sorry, but it is our job to bring you back to the village and I will do whatever it takes to bring you back!" Choji snaps back at Naruto. Choji then make a hand sign and yells, "Partial Expansion Jutsu!" his body becomes big and round like a ball. He then tucks his arms, legs and head into his body as chakra came out from his limbs. Choji began to spin and he yells, "Human Boulder!"

Naruto rolls his eyes and says, "Fine. I'll play with you a little longer" Choji rolls towards Naruto as Naruto made his favorite hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" and seven clones appear next to Naruto. Four of the Naruto's jumped into the air while the others went to the left, right and behind Choji. Choji continued going towards the one he thought was the real one, not paying attention to the others. Once Choji was close enough, Naruto kicked him, sending him towards the Naruto to the left. The Naruto's on the ground continued to kick Choji around until the one at the front of Choji kicked him into the air. Choji was sent towards the Naruto's in the air. They continued to hit and kick Choji around between the Naruto's in the air and on the ground. Choji was sent toward a Naruto behind him in the air and the Naruto kicked Choji towards the Naruto across from him on the ground. All of the Naruto's disappeared in a puff of smoke except for the one Choji was heading for. Naruto brought his fist back and waited for Choji to get closer. Once Choji was close enough, Naruto thrusted his fist forward, but before it could hit Choji, it stopped. Choji landed right in front of Naruto and bounced over him. He hit a tree behind Naruto and stopped. Choji turned back to normal, but fell unconscious leaning against the tree.

Naruto brought his fist down and said, "Very good Shikamaru. Tell me… Did you find the loop hole or were you just protecting your friend?" Naruto turns back to the group to see his shadow connected with Shikamaru.

Shikamaru continues to look at Naruto and says, "I found your loop hole"

"And not a moment too soon, that last punch would have done some damage" Naruto replies and Shikamaru looks over at Choji with a sad face.

"What do you mean loop hole? Technically we cheated, right?" Kiba asked.

"No we didn't actually. Before the fight he said 'if you all can beat me I will point you in the next direction of the battle' meaning if all of us together could beat him, he would show us, but he threw us all off when he asked 'who goes first?' We assumed it was a one on one fight when in actuality it wasn't" Shikamaru said not looking away from Choji.

Everyone looked at Naruto in amazement, that he was able to fool all of them. Naruto then said, "Well… Now that this battle is over, I am a man of my word and will show you where the next fight is… As soon as you release me" Shikamaru was a little hesitant, but decided to release him since he knew where the real Naruto was. Shikamaru released his jutsu and Naruto said, "Now… You have a choice… Bring Choji with you as dead weight or leave him behind and get him when you bring me back"

They all looked at Choji until Shikamaru said, "We will bring him with us"

Naruto closed his eyes and turned around. "Very Well… Grab him and let's go"

Shikamaru and Neji walk over next and stand on both sides of Choji. They wrap Choji's arms around their necks and lift him up.

"Follow me" Naruto says and jumps into the trees, leaping away from them.

Everyone leaps into the trees following Naruto towards their next battle.

End of Chapter 3

How'd you like it? Tell me in a review and I may change my story around a bit. Anyways, next chapter will focus on round two of the battles. What will happen? Who will face Naruto? How strong will Naruto be? Will they ever get Naruto back? Why am I asking so many questions? Anyways R & R, it would help a lot.

Til next time

Peace Out