Hero's Hearts

Chapter 1

Konoha's Hero

After the War, the Great Nations finally decided to lay their arms down after the heroic efforts of Naruto and Sasuke. A treaty was made to unite all of the lands into one. This went well since everyone was pretty much devastated by the War. With everything settling down, the Hidden Leaf has finally undergone new management. Hatake Kakashi was voted as the next Hokage. Although he didn't believe he should be Hokage, everyone in the village supported him and congratulated him. As for Naruto, this only pushed him more to become stronger. The only bad thing was that all of his real training was over. He became one with Kurama, achieved the almighty Sage Mode, and was finally acknowledged by Sasuke.

There were still things Naruto needed to do in order to become the Hokage.

One day, Naruto decided to wake up early. He got ready and decided to take a little walk through town. He quickly noticed that no one was around. All of his usual friends were nowhere to be seen. He even passed by Ichiraku's Ramen House without the craving for ramen. He knew that this was going to be an interesting day. With that in mind, he decided to head up the Final Valley waterfall to do some training.

"Naruto-kun…" He turned around to see Hinata calling out to him.

"Oh, good morning Hinata. Have you seen anyone else around? It's almost like a ghost town around here."

"Well, I don't know precisely, but I'm sure they're all relaxing since the War was kind of taxing thing on a lot of people."

"Hm, I guess you're right." He had his body in a way that told Hinata that he was on the move so she ended up asking him where he was going. "Huh? I'm gonna head up to the Final Valley to do some training. You wanna join me?" Her face immediately turned red. He had never asked her to train with him before so she wasn't going to let this opportunity pass her by.

"S-Sure."

"Alright. Let's go." Naruto guided her to the Final Valley where things immediately started to get interesting. Naruto took off his shirt which caused an immediate response by Hinata.

"Naruto-kun, what are you doing?"

"Huh? My shirt? I'm taking it off so it doesn't get wet."

"Wet?"

"It's part of my training. Sage Mode is an important part of my training and I have to practice it every day. Going underneath the waterfall calms my body and it kind of makes it a challenge for me as well." That's when Hinata finally calmed down. Sage Mode was amongst the vast amount of things that Naruto was capable of achieving and yet, she had no idea what it actually was so she decided to join him. She removed her jacket, leaving just her garment armor on. Naruto walked towards the waterfall and sat down right below it. Hinata joined him and watched carefully as to what the purpose for all of this was.

At first, there were no signs of anything. Naruto just sat completely still as the falling water fell on his head and shoulders. That's when Hinata decided to dig deeper into this case. She activated her Byakugan and that's when things started to make a little more sense. She saw some sort of chakra flowing into Naruto's body. When it did, she saw his own and that new chakra combine into one. It was a sight she had never seen before and she was completely taken away by it. Naruto was always full of surprises and this was definitely one of them.

After a while, the chakra stopped its flow which made Hinata ask another question.

"Naruto-kun, what's going on with all of that?" She was a little nervous to ask since she could tell that he was concentrating more than he ever does.

"I'm absorbing Natural Energy and blending it with my own chakra."

"Natural Energy?"

"It's kind of hard to explain. I don't really understand it myself. It's like… Chakra that enhances your own abilities tenfold."

As she continued to examine Naruto's chakra, all of the blending that was happening inside of him seemed to come to a halt. The two chakras were perfectly balanced, exactly like the yin and yang symbol. Hinata was so speechless at witnessing this spectacle. That's when Naruto opened his eyes and revealed his perfected Sage Mode. Hinata reverted her eyes back to normal to see the actual change and still couldn't find the words for the situation.

"Wow, it's getting a lot easier already. I remember when I was at Mount Myouboku. This whole concept was just impossible to get. Now, it's almost like second nature." Hinata noticed the orange shade around his eyes as well as the overall structure of his eyes.

"So what can you do with Sage Mode?"

"This may seem like a stupid answer, but you can do almost anything with it." Naruto suddenly closed his fist and thrust it towards the side of the canyon. At the point of his full extension, a dent was created in the direction of his punch. Hinata managed to catch that all with her Byakugan, but was still speechless. "There's more, but that's about as basic as it gets."

"Um, Naruto-kun, I know this won't be considered training for you, but… C-Could we spar? I would like to experience how strong Sage Mode is."

"Really? That would be awesome. I've never actually fought a Byakugan user with it before. This could get pretty interesting." He walked a few paces away from her and got into his stance. Hinata did the same, analyzing every bit of chakra she could. "Alright, here I come!"

At that moment, Naruto vanished. Even her Byakugan couldn't keep up with him. She looked around to find any traces of him, but it was as bleak as could be. Eventually, Naruto appeared right in front of her with a punch ready to go. Luckily, Hinata pushed to the offensive as well. The power of her gentle fist combated his punch fairly well. All that happened was her body being pushed back from the two opposing forces.

"Alright, that's pretty impressive. Try to dodge this, and I'm being serious about this. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Three clones and started to form his signature attack. Hinata widened her eyes as this was the first time she was on the receiving side of this. "Senpou: Oudama Rasengan." Two giant Rasengans were formed in their hands. Hinata didn't really know what to do so she improvised. She ran right at him and the two holders ran at her. They charged her with the attack right in front of them. However, this blocked their vision which allowed her to jump above them.

"Juuho Soushiken!" With her gentle fists, she formed the twin lion formation and aimed right for the clones. She ended up landing right on top of them, thus ending their wind style. However, even her Byakugan has a blind spot as she quickly noticed someone right behind her.

"You forgot that I had more clones, didn't you?"

"Yes," she said as she dropped her head in shame.

"But hey, that was really good. I had no idea the Byakugan was that effective against Sage Mode."

"Naruto-kun, there's no need to be nice. You could have easily beaten me. You were just going easy."

"Well, I had no intention of hurting you. I could never do that."

Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat. She didn't even realize that she was alone with Naruto until when he said that. All of this time, she was acting very normal around him which was pretty rare for her. Unfortunately, it also made her realize that she still had a promise to uphold. She said that after the war, she would finally confess her love to Naruto. It wouldn't be like when she fought Pain. It would be a real confession with a real answer on his part. The only problem was how she would go about that. Right as she was about to open her mouth, the normal Naruto entered the conversation.

"Aw man, I'm starving. I really shouldn't have skipped out on ramen this morning. You wanna come with me?"

"S-Sure?"

Her chance at telling Naruto her true feelings went by again. Even though being alone with him made her feel completely vulnerable, she always felt the most confident. When everyone else was around, she could never muster up the strength to bring it up. Now that they were heading back into town, she thought that that kind of opportunity would never come again. However, she was in for a surprise. Once they got to Ichiraku's and ordered their food, Naruto asked if she wanted to train with him tomorrow. Of course, she gladly accepted his offer.

This time, she was determined to follow through with her promise. There was no backing down now.

End of Chapter 1