(And welcome back to my next installment. Been awhile but I've got it all on track.)
That night when Naruto returned to the village, he was laying awake in bed inside his home. He gazed up at the ceiling deep in thought.
'A match against sensei along side Sasuke and Sakura. I wonder just how much stronger those two have gotten while I was away? Guess I'll find out tomorrow." and soon he drifted off to sleep.
When morning came, Naruto had got dressed and headed off the the training ground. Upon arrival he spotted his two teammates, "Hey, guys. Morning."
"Good morning." Sakura greeted him.
Naruto looked around seeing the training area, "This place really does bring me back."
"How can it not?" Sasuke asked.
"This is where we became Squad Seven." Sakura reminded them.
"Yeah. Good times." Naruto smiled in nostalgia.
Soon enough arriving was Kakashi accompanied by Tsunade, Jiraiya, Shizune, Hiruzen, the bending girls, Ino, Hinata, and the rest of the squads and their senseis.
"Good you're all here." Kakashi said.
Naruto saw the rest of his old friends of Konoha, "Hey, guys!"
"Naruto, what's up?" Chouji asked, as the two high fived.
"Good to see you all." Naruto smiled.
"We've really missed you around here." Tenten admitted.
"It just hasn't been the same without our Avatar!" Guy cried.
"But now you have come back to us!" Lee cried along with his sensei.
Naruto felt disturbed by their show of emotion and looked to Neji, "They haven't changed have they?"
"Unfortunately." Neji sighed.
"Nice to have you back, Naruto." Shikamaru greeted him.
"Thanks, Shikamaru."
"With you back maybe you can take off some slack I've had to pick up over the years." the lazy one said.
"Is that really why you're glad I'm back?" Naruto asked in disbelief.
"Forget about it, Naruto." Ino said nudging Shikamaru away.
"Welcome back, Mr. Avatar." Kiba greeted with a smug look.
"Nice to see you again, Kiba," he looked to see Akamaru had grown to be bigger than a wolf, "Akamaru, we've been taking our vitamins, haven't we?" Akamaru barked in response.
"It's good to see you again, Naruto." Shino greeted him.
"Likewise, Shino."
Yumi spoke up, "Naruto, why did you take off without waking us?"
"Yes. We could've walked with you here." Yuzuru put in.
"You two looked so peaceful." Naruto answered.
Tsunade cleared her throat addressing them, "Now then. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke. Are you three ready to show us all your hard work?"
"You bet we are!" Naruto answered, while getting pumped.
"That's right!" Sakura confirmed.
"Hm." Sasuke nodded in agreement.
"Then shall we get started?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah." The trio answered.
"Hey, down there!" came a voice from above.
Everyone looked up seeing Pepper the Sky Bison, with Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, Rohan, Kai, Opal, Bolin, Mako, and Asami.
"Prepare for landing!" Bolin announced as Pepper touched down.
Bolin used his Earthbending to construct stairs for him and the others, while the Airbenders used Airbending to float down safely off Pepper.
"Masters!" Naruto called, as he ran over to all his old Bending instructors and embraced them.
"We've missed you, Naruto." Asami said.
"My goodness, you've gotten so big." Jinora noticed.
"Good to see you guys made it." Jiraiya greeted them.
"Wouldn't have missed it." Mako answered.
"Ok, everyone stay back," Kakashi instructed, "I have my hunches it's really going to be an all out brawl."
So everyone backed away giving the Jonin and his students plenty of space to begin their test. Kakashi raised his headband up to reveal his Sharingan.
"Using your Sharingan in our match, sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Yes. I really do believe I'll be needing it."
"You will." Sasuke confirmed.
"So let's get this started." Sakura dawned a pair of black gloves.
"First up. Taijutsu." Kakashi beckoned them to come.
The three got into a stance as Kakashi summoned two shadow clones to assist him. The three took off and fought Kakashi and his clones with Naruto going for the real one.
Naruto fought Kakashi using all his hand to hand combat and taijutsu skill he knew and learned under Jiraiya. Kakashi using his Sharingan was able to intercept most of Naruto's blows, but the Avatar Ninja wasn't showing signs of letting up.
Sakura was also holding her own against one of the clones in terms of Taijutsu, despite being outmatched by Sharingan. Sasuke however with his own full Sharingan activated was matching against the clone he fought.
As Naruto fought Kakashi, he was able to take glances of his comrades and thought, 'Wow, Sakura's certainly come along since her Earthbending training. And Sasuke's got the full Sharingan? We're definitely gonna be one of the best teams of this generation. But I think it's time I showed sensei the fruits of my power.'
Naruto gained some distance from Kakashi and stood still as if concentrating, "What's Naruto doing?" Hinata asked.
"I'm not sure." Neji answered.
Jiraiya smirked, as the adults saw this knowing Naruto was indeed about to do something new. Around Naruto's eyes appeared orange markings. He opened his eyes to reveal they resembled toads eyes.
"Here I come!" he launched himself at Kakashi and threw a punch.
To Kakashi's surprise, Naruto missed his cheek, 'He missed on purpose?' The Jonin suddenly felt as if something did punch him in the cheek making him skid backwards, "Ugh, how did he?"
"Hold on!" Kiba called, "Naruto didn't land a blow and yet Kakashi-sensei felt something?"
"Tsunade-sama?" Ino asked hoping she had the answer.
Tsunade herself was just as surprised as she turned to Jiraiya, "Jiraiya, did Naruto?"
"Yes. He's learned the art of sage jutsu." the old man answered.
"Sage jutsu?" The younger shinobi asked, as they continued to watch Naruto in action.
Eventually both Naruto and Sasuke punched their opponents back with the clone dispelling. Sakura managed to also land a pounding blow against the clone she fought making it go poof.
The groups watched in amaze, as Jiraiya turned to his old teammate, "Looks like you've trained quite the apprentice, Tsunade."
"Of course." Tsunade admitted.
Kakashi got himself together, "Ok, not bad. Now let's see how well you've all grown in terms of your real abilities."
"You'll be sorry you asked." Naruto smirked.
Kakashi started hand signs at a rapid pace and unleashed a water dragon at them. The three jumped back to avoid the blow.
"Watch and learn my friends." Naruto summoned five clones, and each of them reached into their pouches and pulled out metal disks. They threw them at Kakashi and waved their hands and made their disks stick together creating a bigger one and molded so that it became a buzz saw disk.
"What?" Kakashi gasped as he jumped away from the big disk.
Naruto manipulated the disk to continue to attack Kakashi, who performed hand signs and slammed his hand to the ground.
"Earth Style wall!"
Rising up from the ground was a wall made from earth that had five canine heads carved in it. The disk got jabbed into the wall thus resulting in stopping.
"Close one." Kakashi said in relief.
The other shinobi were astounded, as Naomi spoke, "Naruto knows Metalbending?"
"Now there's a surprise," Bolin said, "Guess he's the second Avatar to learn it."
"Not bad, sensei. But there's still more." Naruto slammed his hands to the ground and used Lavabending in Kakashi's direction.
Kakashi seeing it leak under his wall jumped back. He heard a familiar sound and saw Sasuke was right on top of him with a Chidori ready.
"Chidori!"
Kakashi once again jumped aside, before Sasuke left a crater in the ground thanks to his jutsu. When Kakashi saw the size of the crater left by Chidori he was amazed.
'Sasuke's making my Chidori look stronger than my Raikiri.' he thought, until he felt chakra coming behind him. He once again jumped away before one of Naruto's clones could nail him with a bigger Rasengan.
The clone's Rasengan nailed a tree destroying it along with a whole row of trees from the sheer force of the jutsu. The group was astounded, but not as much as Kakashi.
'This is getting ridiculous. Here I am one of the best shinobi in the village, and my own students are overpowering me. I'm both proud and yet scared.'
Kakashi suddenly found his feet stuck in earth blocks and two pillars of earth popped up encasing his arms and hands making him incapable of performing jutsu.
"Hey!" he called, and saw Sakura standing before him in a stance.
"Caught ya!" she declared.
Naruto and Sasuke stood by Sakura, as the Avatar spoke, "Not bad, huh, sensei?"
Kakashi knowing he was defeated couldn't help bu eye smile and chuckle, "Not bad at all."
The crowd applauded them, as Sakura used her bending to release her sensei's limbs, "You three did well. I'm very impressed in each of you."
"Thanks." Sakura replied.
"Though I really do fear you guys will truly surpass me in every way." the team chuckled.
Tsunade spoke, "Well, after this demonstration I can truthfully say Squad Seven is once again instated. I hope you all will be ready."
"We always are, Baa-san." Naruto assured.
Suddenly the group gathered around congratulating Squad Seven, as Hinata spoke, "Naruto, that movie you performed when your eyes turned orange. What was that?"
"That was me using Sage mode."
"Sage mode?" Kiba asked.
"That's right. One of the places Ero-sennin and I went to during our travels was Mount Myoboku, home of the Toad Summons. It was there two of the oldest toads trained me in a special style of combat."
"How does it work?" Ming wondered.
"In order to use sage mode I had to learn how to take in natural energy into body and balance with with my mental and physical energies. It was tough but I managed to pull it off. Using Sage chakra is like a power boost to my strength, speed, and jutsu. In Sage mode the natural energy surrounded and extended from my body. Even though I missed sensei, the aura around me was able to extend and land a blow. I wouldn't really hit sensei in that mode because if my fist made direct contact he would've broken his skull."
"Whoa." Mitsuki gasped.
"Plus being up there really helped get me more in touch with my spiritual and nature side. I feel more in tune with the earth now." Naruto added, as he looked over at a tree and touched it.
"And you also learned Metalbending, Naruto?" Ino asked.
"Yeah. I was actually experimenting with the idea. I mean not every Earthbender can learn it."
"Tell me about it." Bolin replied at the memory of trying.
"But yeah I was working with some metal and wouldn't you know it eventually started molding."
"To be able to utilize two of the sub bending elements." Shizune gasped.
"Yeah. It ain't a easy feat." Rohan admitted.
Naruto stretched his arms, "Well, that work out got me hungry. What say we go celebrate?"
"I'm all for that." Chouji answered.
"Same here." Sakura added.
"Well then let's go." Sasuke said, as the group took off.
Meanwhile in the underground lair of Orochimaru in Oto, Orochimaru was sitting down while looking over notes, until the door opened and Kabuto stepped inside.
"My lord."
"What is it, Kabuto?" Orochimaru asked, while feeling annoyed.
"Sorry to interrupt you, but I thought you should know our spies have informed me Naruto has returned to the village."
Orochimaru's interest suddenly perked up, "I see. Then it's about time we'll be putting our plans into play. And the Akatsuki will be on the move as well. We must make sure we eliminate Naruto before they get their greedy hands on him."
"Yes, my lord." Kabuto took his leave.
Orochimaru got up and took a look at some reports he was studying, "Naruto, enjoy your time while you can. Because soon enough your time will run out." he snickered.
(And there's the chapter. Squad Seven's back together and better than before. Be looking out for next time my friends.)