The next morning after breakfast, the team was standing in a clearing in the woods behind Tazuna's house.
"Alright everyone, I'm still a bit sore from the encounter yesterday but we have a lot to accomplish and not a lot of time to do it." Kakashi said earning a nod from the genin in front of him. "Zabuza will be back and this time he will have his accomplice, the hunter-nin with him. I will engage Zabuza with Sasuke while Naruto and Hinata engage the hunter-nin."
"Do you think it wise to put two genin against the hunter-nin instead of three when we don't know his abilities?" Sasuke asked
"Well from what we saw, the hunter-nin uses ice style moves. I've heard that the ice style is nearly indestructible, but Hinata's jyuken should be able to see the chakra and destroy the ice without problem, while Naruto himself should be able to handle whatever else the hunter-nin throws at him, he's well above chunin level in all fields. When we're done with this next week's worth of training you two should be able to easily defeat the hunter-nin even if he is jonin level." Kakashi replied, pulling several small pieces of paper out of his vest pocket handing one to each genin.
"As for Zabuza, he is a strong water user, so if what I suspect is true then Sasuke will be great long range assistance to me against Zabuza. What I just handed you is chakra paper. If you channel chakra into it, it will tell you your elemental nature." Kakashi continued as all the genin channeled their chakra into the paper.
Sasuke channeled chakra into his paper and watched as it crinkled up before catching fire and burning away. "So I have fire and lightning right?" he asked for confirmation earning a nod from Kakashi. "Just as I thought. As an Uchiha it's all but guaranteed that you have fire, but I figured you had the lightning affinity as well." Kakashi said.
Kakashi then turned to look at Hinata who channeled chakra to her own paper, surprised when it split in half and both sides turned soggy. "S-So I have w-water and wind?" Hinata asked.
"Yes, and might I add that it is rare for a genin to have more than one affinity, most don't develop their second or third affinity until they are seasoned chunin or even jonin. Also, wind is a rare element in Konoha, I can only think of one other currently alive… actually that's probably two." Kakashi said, looking at Naruto as he finished.
Naruto already knew that because of his Rinnegan, he had an affinity for every element and the ability to use the sub-elements, so this test was pointless to him but everyone expected him to do it so what the hell. He channeled his chakra into the paper and everyone watched in amazement as the paper split into four equal pieces; one crinkled up, one became soggy, one caught fire, and one turned to dust. Naruto noticed everyone staring at him with their eyes bulging out of their heads before putting his hand behind his head and chuckling. "I guess I have some explaining to do, huh?"
Before anyone could say yes or no, Naruto blurred through a set of handseals and slapped him his palm to the ground causing several seal kanji to spread out on the ground around them before a purple dome formed around the group. After a second the kanji and the dome faded away.
Everyone looked confused for a moment before Naruto decided to clarify "Privacy seal, just to make sure none of Zabuza's associates are listening in. For now I'll keep things short, but I promise to tell you all the full story when we get home. I should've already told you all but that's behind us now." Naruto stopped briefly and closed his eyes before opening them again, revealing his Rinnegan. Everyone in the group nearly fainted when they saw his newly transformed eyes. "My eyes are said to be the eyes of the Rikoudou Sennin himself. They are the highest evolution of the Sharingan. By simply having these eyes I am granted control over all elements, including the sub-elements. There's a long list of things they can do, such as control over gravity, the ability to absorb chakra, and even the ability to defy death if I'm willing to pay the price." Naruto paused here once again as his eyes began to glow.
Naruto adjusted his gaze towards Sasuke before Sasuke instantly levitated a few inches into the air. Naruto held him there for a moment before gently sitting him back on the ground. "I am right now one of the strongest shinobi in the village based on the power of my eyes alone, and in my prime I was hailed as the strongest shinobi in the entire world. I'm not sure what exactly happened but I was thrown back in time 5 years, to the day we graduated. I retained my memories and the knowledge of all my abilities, but didn't and still don't have the chakra control or capacity to use them all. Like I said, I'll explain better after this mission, just know that I'm on par with you right now Kakashi-sensei."
Everyone sat there looking at Naruto in shock. To reveal that the dead last of the class was actually a hero from the future who was said to be the strongest shinobi to ever live… that was a bit much.
Kakashi was the first to get over his shock. "Every part of me says not to believe you… I just want to laugh and pass it off as a prank but after seeing the eyes in person… I can't believe it. Does anyone else know about this?"
Naruto shook his head in reply "Just you three and Hokage-jiji. I've kept all of this a secret because I didn't know how people would take it. Ideally I would've waited until I was back to nearly my full power to reveal my true powers but the circumstance kinda calls for it now."
"So all this time you've been hiding your true abilities… this is so hard to believe but like Kakashi-sensei said we witnessed your power firsthand." Sasuke said as he came out of his shock and looked over Naruto, who was now exuding an aura of power like he had only saw once before when Kakashi and Zabuza fought.
"N-Naruto-kun we're not mad that you hid y-your powers from us. I-I-I'm sure you had good r-reasons. I'm just g-glad you trust us e-enough to tell us." Hinata said followed by a nod of agreement from the others.
"What's important right now is that we get ready for Zabuza and the hunter-nin. Sounds like you're ready Naruto, but I have a few things in mind to teach Hinata and Sasuke." Kakashi said getting back on topic.
Naruto nodded before Kakashi continued again. "Sasuke I want to teach you a couple of lightning jutsu so that you can provide support to me. With water as his primary element Zabuza will be susceptible to any lightning jutsu that you can hit him with. Hinata I want to teach you a water jutsu mainly for defensive purposes, it will come in handy while defending the bridge builder. Naruto is there any way you could teach Hinata the Kazekiri no jutsu? I believe it would be a great technique in conjunction with her byakugan." Everyone nodded at their assignments before Kakashi took Sasuke to the side while Naruto began teaching Hinata the Kazekiri no Jutsu.
After a couple of hours in the clearing Tazuna came outside ready to begin work on the bridge. Naruto agreed to go with him and left a clone to teach Hinata.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Almost two weeks had passed since Team 7's first encounter with Zabuza. They had spent the week with Naruto watching over the bridge builder while the others continued their training. Finally they had arrived at the day Naruto told them that Zabuza would return. Naruto created 10 shadow clones and hid them in the house before the group left for the bridge with Tazuna in tow.
As they approached the bridge everyone noticed that the fog was very thick all around the area. "Looks like he is here already. Everyone be ready, they're probably waiting on us." Kakashi said as the group kept walking towards the bridge.
Before long they arrived to see all of Tazuna's assistants on the ground either dead or unconscious. "Well Zabuza, it appears you didn't die after all. No matter, I wasn't lying when I said that your future is death." Kakashi said into the fog.
"Long time no see Kakashi, I came back to prove you wrong. I won't leave here today until the bridgebuilder is dead." Zabuza replied from somewhere in the mist.
As soon as he was done talking the group was surrounded by 5 Zabuzas, all with their swords poised to strike. "I see you brought the kids back again. It's a shame that they're gonna die here too." One of the Zabuza clones said before he burst into water and fell back to the bridge. Another of the clones looked just in time to see Sasuke jump away from the now dead clone before he slashed across another's chest, dispelling him back into water as well. Hinata jumped forward and made quick work of another two of them with her jyuken while Naruto simply waved his hand and blasted the last clone with a wave of fire. None of the clones even had a chance to attack before they were all dispelled.
"Impressive for a bunch of brats. Hey Haku, looks like they might actually give you a run for your money." Zabuza said with a half chuckle, still hiding somewhere in the mist.
"We shall see about that Zabuza-sama." The hunter-nin, now identified as Haku, said as he dashed towards the group.
"Everyone you know your assignment now move!" Kakaski said as he and Sasuke dashed off to the side heading for Zabuza.
Even though he knew what to expect, Naruto was still shocked at Haku's speed. Haku covered the distance between them quickly and flicked his wrist, forming several ice senbon and launching them towards Naruto and Hinata. Hinata responded by quickly going through some handseals and slapping her palms on the ground, shooting a wall of water up to block the needles. "Suiton: Suijinheki!" Hinata said as she finished.
Haku was annoyed that they managed to block his attack but had to quickly drop the thought as a lightning bolt shot through the wall of water. He dropped and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the lightning as it passed by his head. He quickly corrected and began going through handseals. "Hissatsu Hyoso!" He said as several ice spears erupted from the ground around the two genin. Naruto saw it coming and grabbed Hinata before dropping to a knee and touching his hand to the ground. As soon as he was down a wall of rock shot up around them both, stopping the ice spears. "Doton: Doryuheki."
Haku didn't relent and grabbed out a couple of senbon to try a close range attack. He dashed towards Naruto but never made it before Hinata stepped in the way and delivered several jyuken strikes to Haku's left arm before Naruto jumped in and smashed his foot into Haku's face, cracking his mask and shooting him back across the bridge.
"Haku, quit playing around or we're gonna lose this fight!" Zabuza shouted as he began his fight with Kakashi.
"You should surrender now, I've disabled your left arm, you're at a disadvantage now; you can't even perform any more jutsu." Hinata said clearly, not studdering in the heat of the moment.
"Allow me to correct you please." Haku said as he dashed back towards the genin while doing one-handed handseals. When he finished the handseals he slid to a stop as the genin felt the temperature drop several degrees. "Makyo Hyosho!" Haku said as several mirrors appeared around himself and the other two genin.
"This is my strongest technique, no one has ever seen it and lived to tell the tale." Haku said as he jumped into the closest mirror, causing his reflection to appear in each mirrior simultaneously. "Now prepare to die!"