The Balloon

Hinata Hyuuga sat on her porch, clutching the string of a light lavender-coloured balloon. As she watched the winter winds blow the fall leaves away, the balloon pulled in her hand. She was young, only 5 years old, and was very small so it was no surprise that the balloon was tugged out of her hand.

"Ah!" She turned as quickly as she could, "The balloon!" Although the children of the main branch in Hyuuga family were carefully guarded, she managed to escape. She leapt down off the porch to follow the small balloon, her geta sandals clacking on the cobblestone pavement.

It was carried along for sometime along the cobblestones on the edge of the Hyuuga compound before being blown into a tree were it's string tangled in the bare branches.

"I don't think that… That I can get it." Hinata mumbled sadly as her gaze followed the balloon's attempts to pull away. She stared at it for a few more moments before turning around dejectedly and slowly started walking back to her caretaker, but then she heard something from the fence.

"Hey, is that your balloon?" A boy's childish voice asked. Hinata spun to see who the owner of the unfamiliar voice was. He had blonde spiky hair, blue eyes, whisker-like markings on his cheeks, and was wearing a black shirt.

She nodded shyly. "Yes it is."

He pointed to it, "Do you want it?"

She found herself nodding again. And she watched as he scrambled up the tree, got scratched, broke some twigs, almost fell, and finally reached the balloon. He untangled the string while tightly hanging on to a branch and pulled it close to him. As he backed down the last three branches, he tripped and fell over backwards.

This alarmed Hinata. She ran over to the boy. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm okay!" He sat up and offered her the string. She happily took it. "I'm Naruto, who are you?" He asked, watching her.

"Hinata Hyuuga." She suddenly remembered her shyness, but smiled anyways.

Naruto struggled up the tree again, and over to the fence. He looked like he was going to say something, but then someone yelled, "Miss Hinata! Where did you go? Miss Hinata!!"

Hinata bowed quickly to him, "Thank you very much, Naruto." He just laughed foolishly and waved to her before jumping off the fence to the outside.

"Miss Hinata!! Oh, there you are! What were you doing? Everyone is looking for you!!" Her caretaker asked.

She apologized quickly and bowed, but as her small hands clasped on to the string of the balloon, she was smiling. That boy had been really nice and he had given her the balloon back. Maybe she would see him again.

Just Maybe…