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Balloon Ninja Chapter 4

Deviation Actions

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That Night

After that much training, it was easier for Hinata to fall asleep that night even with Naruto using her side as a pillow. In fact, Hinata almost seemed to prefer it based on the happy smile on her slightly red face. Naruto was also enjoying it since Hinata’s inflated body acted as a makeshift air mattress that was very comfortable and was even warmed by Hinata’s own body heat. Throughout the night, Hinata was occasionally woken up by Naruto digging his head into her side in an effort to get more comfortable. He would snuggle into her belly like a dog with a pillow for a few seconds before falling back asleep mumbling something about ramen or Sakura. However Hinata swore she heard her name mentioned once or twice the last time she was woken up by Naruto around 1:30 in the morning.

Around 2:00 Hinata was back asleep and Naruto finally settled down which should have meant the two could have a peaceful night’s sleep at last. However things didn’t turn out that way. Hinata woke up with a yawn for roughly the sixth time that night however this time it’s wasn’t because of a nudge from her side it; was because she felt something on top of her. It only felt like a light tap around her bellybutton but it was just enough to cause her to wake up in a daze. Naturally she was disoriented and before she could say a word, her mouth was covered with tape and she was looking into the smiling face of Hitoiki, who was standing on her with an inflated belly. Hinata tried to scream for help but it was no use, her scream was muffled too much by the tape to wake the deep sleeping Naruto.

“Be quiet, you don’t want to wake him.” whispered Hitoiki playfully putting her finger to her mouth.

Hinata tried again to scream but it was no use and only succeeded in getting Hitoiki to emit a few quiet giggles at Hinata’s expense. Naruto continued to sleep below, unaware that the girl he was supposed to protect Hinata from was actually standing right on top of her that very moment. However Hinata realized Naruto was also touching her and that if she was moved Naruto would wake up and be able to save her. Plus she would have to somehow escape with her without tripping any of the many traps Naruto had placed at every exit and throughout the hallways that Hinata’s body could fit through. With confidence Hinata calmed down but tried to look terrified so Hitoiki wouldn‘t become suspicious of her behavior. If Hitoiki saw anything that she felt was out of the ordinary she would, like any half decent ninja, assume she was being set up and be on guard for traps and ambushes. Hinata began screaming hysterically and flailing every part of her body she still could as much as possible in an attempt to look like she really thought she was doomed.

“Calm down. I’m kidnapping you not killing you.” whispered Hitoiki not honestly surprised Hinata was acting this way since this was how most of her victims acted.

She remembered one time she had to kidnap a lord’s young wife for a local crime boss to make enough money to survive the winter. Hitoiki hated doing evil missions but had no choice due to the fact she was flat broke and would never survive on a small part time job due to how much money she wasted on balloons instead of food and other necessities. With a harsh winter predicted and her house having no heat or fire wood, Hitoiki had no other choice but to agree to help out the crime boss with his grand plan to ransom the lord’s wife. It was easy due to the fact that she only had a few servants to protect her, all female, who easily fell to her inflation jutsus along with the wife. Every time the reaction was the same among her victims: extreme panic as they tried to grasp the fact they had been inflated into balloons, yelling that was easily stopped with a gag, and finally the flapping of every part of their bodies that would still move. Hitoiki had grow to find their panic amusing since none of them bothered to stop, calm down, and think of a way out and that included some of the kunochi she had gotten to as well. She had also learned that this panic helped keep many of her victims from remembering much about their captivity and kidnappings leaving investigators no much to go on after she returned them. Like with Hinata, the initial inflation had been easy however the escape had been a bit more “complicated” than she had anticipated. That complication was due to roughly 20 hired male ninja that were assigned to protect the lord’s wife after someone who worked for the crime boss leaked info to avoid jail time. She had barely escaped with the lord’s wife un-popped thanks to how many shuriken the careless ninja decided to throw and afterwards collected her money and left town to avoid being caught.

Hitoiki smiled to herself while remembering that little incident before returning to her work with Hinata who was still pretending to panic in order to get her to lower her guard. So far it appeared to Hinata that Hitoiki thought she was in total control of the situation based on how relaxed she appeared and how she almost looked distracted for a moment. However what happened next showed Hinata that Hitoiki was really in control of the situation and was a far more clever opponent than she could have imagined.

“I’m going to have to be careful here if I don’t want to wake up sleeping beauty down there.” said Hitoiki quietly to herself in amusement.

Much to Hinata’s surprise, Hitoiki jumped straight off of her belly and into the air without any regard for how much noise she would make upon hitting the ground. What was more surprising was that Hitoiki’s belly ballooned out another five inches once she was in the air. The result was Hitoiki floating in mid-air belly-up like she was attached to a hot-air balloon, this allowed her to float up half a foot before her belly shrunk back down a bit and she gently floated down to the ground without a single creek of the floor boards.

‘She must have helium or something in her belly! She’s using it control her weight and even float!’ thought Hinata, amazed by this technique.

Once on the ground the lift from Hitoiki’s belly left her virtually weightless as she hopped around like an astronaut, this made her movement completely silent since she barely stayed on the ground and when she did land she was far too light to make any noise. She was able to hop right over Naruto and land an inch away from his head without waking him up or disrupting him at all. Hinata’s yelling even with her mouth covered was making more noise than Hitoiki right now and neither thing was loud enough to wake the deep sleeping Naruto.

‘Well there’s no way she can move me without waking Naruto at least, even he’s not that deep a sleeper.’ thought Hinata slightly worried about how experienced Hitoiki seemed to be at this.

However Hitoiki saw where Naruto was resting his head and quickly came up with a solution to the problem as she pulled out one of her many balloons she always carried with her.

‘I thought I was the only one who slept with a balloon. Oh well, this should do it.’ thought Hitoiki gently lifting Naruto’s head enough for her to place a light blue balloon through the gap between his head and Hinata’s body.

With a few steady breaths she inflated it until Naruto’s head was completely separated from Hinata’s body and quickly tied the end before the air could rush out. Naruto couldn’t tell the different due to how he sunk into both until the air inside resisted so he continued to sleep peacefully while Hitoiki quietly rolled the now actually struggling Hinata away.

‘No! Naruto! Help!’ thought Hinata before the dome of her belly blocked her view of him as she was rolled away.

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The Courtyard

Somehow Hitoiki managed to disarm all of Naruto’s traps before she had even snuck into his and Hinata’s room (Hinata suspected she had used her belly inflation technique to avoid setting them off while she disarmed them) which made her escape all the more simpler. She had simply rolled Hinata out the door and into the courtyard where she had first turned her into a balloon girl with her balloon body kiss jutsu only a few days before. The night was clear with no clouds in the sky to block out the moon which bathed everything with it’s pale light while a slight breeze caused Hinata’s sensitive body to shiver slightly in the cold. It would have been a nice night to sit on the rooftop looking at the stars with Naruto if she wasn’t being rolled off to have whatever bounty was on her collected thought Hinata, who was trying to stay calm despite her situation being hopeless. She had stopped trying to yell through the tape and she wasn’t flailing anymore but she still was praying she would be saved somehow despite there being little chance of that.

Hitoiki had noticed she had calmed down and said quietly “That’s better, just relax for now. I won’t get paid if you die of a panic induced heart attack or something”

‘Plus there’s a good chance that I’d have my throat slit if you do die.’ thought Hitoiki, nervously remembering her client’s threat.
Hinata didn’t respond but just tried to keep calm and avoid thinking about what was going to happen to her now that she had been captured, but that was not easy and her thoughts kept drifting to that.

‘The Hokage said that they wanted the Byakugan but how are they going to get it? They could just kill me and study it by examining my body or they could keep me alive and torture me to tell them about it.’ thought Hinata hoping that it was the first one since that would probably be the quickest and most painless option ‘Or…Oh no! They could impregnate me and start their own line of Hyugas! I’m going to be raped!!!’ thought Hinata in a panic realizing that option would be the best long term option for whoever she was going to if they wanted the Byakugan ‘And with my body like this no matter what happens I’m helpless!’

Hinata couldn’t get the idea of herself being raped as a balloon out of her head and began flailing and screaming again causing only mild annoyance to Hitoiki who had only rolled her half way across the courtyard.

“No matter how much you struggle, you can’t win and you aren’t getting rescued so just save your energy and stop.” said Hitoiki giving Hinata a slight shove forward out of annoyance putting some distance between the two.

“Think again!!!” yelled a voice from the side of Hitoiki right before a powerful blow to her face sent her skidding across the courtyard in a stunned daze.

Hinata muffled through her gag after recognizing the voice but being unable to see the source since her body was facing away from it. She tried to tilt her head up enough to see behind her but her rounded body prevented that so she activated her Byakugan and saw Naruto and his familiar chakra network standing behind her with a confident smile on his face and Hitoiki’s blood on his still clenched fist.

‘Naruto you came! You came!’ thought Hinata seeing everything she loved about her blond crush at that moment from his confident smile that always gave her hope and strength whenever she thought about it to his ability to surprise people who didn’t think he was a threat.

“Ow…What the heck hit me?” asked Hitoiki still dazed by Naruto’s full force punch with a bit of blood coming out of her mouth.

“Naruto Uzumaki!!! That’s what!” yelled Naruto before turning to Hinata and rolling her onto her belly and into a position where she could see him and Hitoiki. He was greeted by tears of joy coming out of Hinata’s eyes while she mumbled something that sounded like “I love you” through her tape gag.

“What was that?” asked Naruto thinking he had just imagined the “I love you” thing as he removed the tape over her mouth so she could speak clearly.
Hinata hadn’t realized what she had been saying in her moment of passion and quickly turned red before saying “I said thank you! Thank you so much for saving me!”

“Well I wasn’t about to fail my mission…”replied Naruto “…or let one of my friends be kidnapped.”

“But how did you know about Hitoiki taking me away?” asked Hinata “You were fast asleep when we left.”

“Well I guess I was digging my head into that balloon like I did with your belly and it must’ve popped from the pressure since the next thing I knew I was awake with a ringing in my ears.” explained Naruto who had actually thought he had popped the real Hinata for a few seconds after waking up.

“I’m just so glad you came.” said Hinata gratefully.

“No problem.” replied Naruto before turning around to face Hitoiki “Now then let’s finish this!”

Despite Naruto’s dramatic taunt Hitoiki continued to sit on the ground looking dazed and confused before replying “Just give me a second, my head is still pounding.”

Naruto was surprised and a little annoyed by this but didn’t attack since he wasn’t the kind to kick someone while they were down.

“Wow she sure can’t take much can she?” asked Naruto who expected a ninja to be able to handle a sneak attack a bit better

“She must be really weak in combat.” whispered Hinata to Naruto “if all she ever deals with is women blow up like balloons who can’t fight back, I don’t think she has ever had to fight someone head on before.”

“Well that explains why she just didn’t kill me in the first place to get to you.” replied Naruto realizing she was probably right “Well if that’s true this is going to be an easy fight.”

‘If one hit is enough to nearly take her out a few shadow clones should finish this fight before she can use any jutsu.’ thought Naruto who was confident but still slightly on edge since he still had no idea the full extent of Hitoiki’s abilities and whether they would work on him.

Hitoiki finally managed to get back onto her feet despite being in a lot of pain and feeling very dizzy from the blow to the head which caused her to sway a little from side to side. It appeared that Naruto was correct about Hitoiki who had a very low pain threshold and almost no endurance since she had always avoided a head on battle with male ninja and just inflated the females.
‘This is just great. I’ve never had this much trouble with the extraction before’ thought Hitoiki as she tried to get ready to fight ‘Looks like I have no choice but to just knock her guard out with force.’

Hitoiki suddenly stood up straight and took a deep breath in an effort to calm herself and prepare for the fight ahead. She hated fighting but in this situation she saw no other choice but to use force for once instead of her stealth. It was either that or go back empty-handed which probably would be far more dangerous to her than this kid could ever be.

“How about you just surrender and deflate Hinata so I won’t have to wipe the floor with you?” asked Naruto hoping Hitoiki would just give up rather than fight.

“Not a chance! You won’t even be able hurt me!” yelled Hitoiki defiantly.

“I almost knocked you out cold with one hit!” pointed out Naruto.

“Just come on! I want to have your little friend prepared for my boss before the sun rises.” replied Hitoiki impatiently.

“Let’s see what you got then! Shadow Clone Jutsu!!” yelled Naruto creating five shadow clones who surrounded Hitoiki while he rolled Hinata onto her feet in a corner so she would be out of the way.

Seeing the clones Hitoiki let out a quiet “Bring it on” right before the five clones charged at her from all directions aiming to end this battle in one barrage attack. However right before they reached her Hitoiki decided to show Naruto just what a balloon ninja could do and quickly formed a hand sign.

“Balloon Bumper Justsu!!!” yelled Hitoiki with the clones practically on top of her.

Suddenly she inflated into a 10 foot sphere so fast that the clones were hit by her expanding body and launched into the courtyard walls so fast they looked like they had been caught in an explosion. Naruto stared in disbelief as all his clones were destroyed against the walls in puffs of white smoke leaving only the original Naruto standing.

“Holy crap!!! I didn’t know she could do that!” yelled Naruto.

“Not bad right? My balloon bumper technique causes opponents to bounce off me at a high velocity.” explained Hitoiki who slowly deflated back to normal.

‘This isn’t going to be as easy I thought, if I get too close to her I’m going to be sent flying by that move’ thought Naruto re-thinking his strategy about dealing with this balloon ninja.

“I’m glad you can do that, I was worried for a second that this would be way too easy.” taunted Naruto walking a few paces towards Hitoiki while making sure he was still close enough to Hinata to protect her.

“Then you’re going to love this!” said Hitoiki happily as she did a number of hand signs.

“Balloon Body Jutsu!!!” yelled Hitoiki as she inflated into a seven foot balloon with only her head, hands, and feet unaffected just like Hinata.

Naruto was dumbfounded as he just stared at Hitoiki as she wobbled a little bit after inflating so fast, no matter how he looked at it what Hitoiki had done to herself made no sense whatsoever.

‘What the heck is this girl thinking?! She just turned herself into a helpless balloon like Hinata!’ thought Naruto still trying to understand Hitoiki’s logic.

Hinata also was confused by the move and wondered ‘What kind of strategy is this? She’s turned herself into a big, very delicate, immobile target with no means of fighting back and yet she’s smiling. I don’t like this, she must have something planned but I have no idea what she can do with an inflated body’

“Naruto be careful! She must have some kind of plan or trap!” warned Hinata

“Turn your Byakugan on and keep an eye out! Tell me if you spot anything!” ordered Naruto who had already figured out that something was definitely wrong with this situation

Hinata nodded and activated her Byakugan to scan for anything that looked out of the ordinary besides the fact that two girls had been blow up into seven foot wide balloons. She found that like herself Hitoiki had a lot of chakra stored up in her inflated body but Hitoiki’s seemed to be different somehow, it was much more controlled and focused than hers and was flowing in an unnatural pattern

Hitoiki could tell that her target was examining her with her bloodline ability but thought that this fight would be over before she could figure out her technique. However she didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks and decided that she had better get this battle started so it could be over quickly

“Hey are you two just going to talk or are we going to fight?!” taunted Hitoiki who sounded unusually confident for someone with no apparent use of their limbs

“You asked for it!” replied Naruto running straight at Hitoiki intent on a knock-out blow

However when he did a flying kick into Hitoiki’s belly he found that his foot merely bounced off her ballooned body and ended up doing nothing at all. Naruto bounced off her but quickly recovered and began unleashing a rain of kicks and punches into Hitoiki’s body that only resulted in Naruto getting more and more frustrated. After the barrage Naruto jumped back two feet from Hitoiki to catch his breath and saw that she was still smiling and appeared to not be worried at all

“Give up! My inflation makes my body immune to impact making taijutsu absolutely worthless against me!” taunted Hitoiki

“Yeah but your head is still exposed and you have no way of keeping me from pounding your teeth in!” replied Naruto, who realized that if he couldn’t harm her inflated body he would hammer on her un-inflated head.

Naruto jumped up to strike the immobile Hitoiki, only to have her suddenly somehow quickly move backwards and out of the way of his attack. She hopped into the air and managed to do some kind of back flip that seemed to defy the laws of physics before landing back on her feet perfectly upright.

“What? How did she do that?” asked Naruto puzzled.

‘That’s not possible! There’s no way she should be able to do that’ thought Hinata who had gotten familiar enough with her ballooned body to know that Hitoiki shouldn’t be able to move like that.

With her feet in the position that were in Hinata couldn’t even walk and yet Hitoiki could somehow use them to hop into the air. Hinata quickly tried to use her feet to pull off the same move but even with her body weighing practically nothing she just could not get off the ground like Hitoiki had. All she managed to do was set her rounded body off balance and nearly roll onto her belly before stabilizing herself. The issue wasn’t her weight, it was the fact that she could not move any of her leg muscles and was only using the strength she had in her ankles and feet. If Hinata had her legs back she thought she could more than likely jump rather high with her body being so light but with only her feet she was grounded.

While Hinata tried to figure out the secret to Hitoiki’s hop, Naruto tried to figure out how to beat Hitoiki the only way he knew how: trial and error. He began by charging Hitoiki again and seeing if he could roll her off her feet and onto her back where he thought she’d be helpless. Hitoiki saw him coming and expected another useless flying kick but instead she was surprised when Naruto put both hands on her belly and pushed up send her flying backwards. However some invisible force seemed to catch her and carry her a few feet before placing her gently on her feet.

“Just like before with the back flip.” said Naruto under his breath, realizing that somehow Hitoiki was controlling her mid-air movements.

“Ok you’ve had you turn! Now it’s mine!” yelled Hitoiki as she hopped high into the air before coming down almost on top of Naruto who stepped back to avoid it.

However Hitoiki had not intended to land on Naruto but just get close enough to unleash another balloon bumper technique that sent him flying into the courtyard wall like all of his clones. He hit with tremendous force and a painful thud before falling to the ground groaning in pain.

“Naruto!” yelled Hinata who wanted desperately to be able to move so she could help him.

Thankfully Naruto was used to taking a beating by his enemies and was already back on his feet before Hinata had even called out to him.

“Nice try, but there’s no way I’m going to be beaten up by a balloon.” taunted Naruto before charging Hitoiki again before even coming up with a plan.

‘When is this idiot going to realize that’s not going to work?’ thought Hitoiki waiting for Naruto to get close enough for her to attack.

When he got within four feet of her, Hitoiki hopped forward towards him while her body was spun in mid-air by some invisible force that left her doing almost a cartwheel over Naruto. Hitoiki managed to get one of her hands so close to Naruto that she used it to grab onto his shirt and lift him right off the ground with a startled yelp. When she landed on her feet she was left holding a struggling Naruto with her awkwardly placed hand by the collar.

Hinata had seen the move and was very impressed by it ‘Amazing! Since her arms got absorbed when she inflated she used the cartwheel to get her hand into a position where she could grab Naruto!’ thought Hinata as she flapped her own hands worthlessly at her sides.

Before Naruto could wonder why Hitoiki would grab him, she revealed her plan by using another balloon bumper attack on him. Hitoiki had grabbed him in order to get him as close to her huge body as possible before activating her attack. Rather than standing next to Naruto when using the bumper she now had him actually touching her body which resulted in him getting thrown much harder by the technique and allowing her to actually aim where he was launched by turning her body.

Again Naruto was thrown by Hitoiki’s body inflating like an airbag in car except this time he was thrown face first into the wall and he was thrown in the opposite direction of Hinata. Thankfully being hurled in that direction meant he traveled father to the wall which lessened him impact somewhat but not as much as he would have preferred. Like last time Naruto hit the wall with a painful thud before falling onto the ground groaning in pain.

“Owwwwww…This girl throws as hard as Grandma Tsunade without even using her hands” mumbled Naruto as he laid on the ground for a few seconds.

“Naruto! Get up!” yelled Hinata frantically trying to use her feet to walk or waddle over to him.

Hitoiki didn’t have that problem and did a few bounce/hops in order to turn and face Naruto so she could taunt him “So much for not being beaten by a balloon huh?!” she yelled.

‘Ok I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to do here.’ thought Naruto as he stood up and began to analyze the situation ‘She attacks by inflating her body and sending her opponents flying into whatever’s around. Her balloon-like body is immune to impact and I can’t get close since she’ll just launch me with that bumper move so taijutsu is out of the question and getting close enough for a Rasengan definitely won’t be easy. Somehow she can hop to move around and control her body in mid-air like a balloon drifting in the wind so she’s mobile despite having no legs. I bet I could pop her with a shuriken or kunai but I made sure to stash all the ninja tools me and Hinata had so there’d be no chance they would accidentally pop Hinata. The only weak point she seems to have is the head so I’m going to have to just try and aim for that and hope I can get a lucky hit.’

“Still want to fight!?” taunted Hitoiki while flapping her hands at her sides in excitement.

“If you knew anything about me you’d know I’ve never given up in my life and I don’t plan on starting now!” yelled Naruto who was a bit more confident now that he actually had a plan.

After yelling Naruto created a shadow clone which he grabbed onto and spun around before throwing it at Hitoiki. The clone was just a distraction Naruto planned to use to get close enough to Hitoiki to attack her head without being spotted approaching her. But Hitoiki knew the flying clone couldn’t do much to her inflated body so she kept her eye on Naruto and spotted him running towards her. She figured out his plan and countered it by hopping into a position where the real Naruto was directly behind the clone allowing her to use her Balloon Bumper to send the clone flying straight back at the surprised Naruto. The clone was destroyed and Naruto was again sent flying backwards a foot or two but this time he managed to land on his feet and immediately began circling Hitoiki.

‘Huh? What is he planning?’ wondered Hitoiki as she hopped in order to keep watch of Naruto running circles around her since she didn’t want to be hit by a back attack.

‘Let’s she her counter this.’ though Naruto with a grin on his face as he created thirty clones who began circling Hitoiki in different directions.

Hitoiki didn’t even have time to figure Naruto’s plan before a clone ran recklessly straight at her with it’s fist raised in some sort of suicide charge. She easily waited for it to get in range and hit it with her balloon bumper attack smashing it against the courtyard wall instantly destroying it. However another clone was already charging at her from behind by the time she was deflating back to her normal inflated size. It leapt into the air and delivered a kick to the back of Hitoiki’s head with enough force to send her rolling head-first into the ground. Hitoiki yelled in pain as her head was slammed into the ground 3 times as she rolled forwards onto her head 3 times before coming to a stop.

“Ow…” said Hitoiki weakly as she laid on her inflated belly in pain.
“Come on let’s get her!” order Naruto to his clones seeing an opening.

Hitoiki gasped before somehow she was rolled back onto her feet by something Naruto couldn’t see and automatically rolled around to face Naruto and his charging clones. Naruto stopped all but four of his clones since he knew that Hitoiki could take them all out in one move if they all got close enough. So he sent two clones up the middle while the other two ran off to each side of Hitoiki and waited for the first two to strike so they could get an opening. The first two did another suicide charge straight towards Hitoiki’s front and sure enough when they got within her Balloon Bumper’s three foot range they were blasted by Hitoiki’s rapidly inflating belly. While Hitoiki was still deflating the two off to the side of her that had been at four feet charged her a few and leapt straight at her head. Hitoiki managed to spot them and hopped up before floating backwards like she was a balloon being blown by a gust of wind that came out of nowhere. After she traveled ten feet back and was against the courtyard wall she drifted to the ground slowly before landing perfectly on her feet.

‘How is she doing that? Every time she’s up in the air it’s like she’s being blown around by a wind that’s under her control.’ thought Hinata still trying to discover Hitoiki’s secret

Meanwhile Hitoiki was continuing the battle after figuring out Naruto’s strategy to fight her was to use his clones to surround her and then sacrifice one or two in order to create an opening during her brief deflation period after each Balloon Bumper. Also he had figured out that she had to move her entire body to look around since most of her neck had been absorbed into her inflated body actually leaving her lower jaw touching what was once her chest. This made it impossible to turn her head enough to look at things behind her leaving her with a much bigger blind spot than a normal person which Naruto exploited with his clones by attacking from different angles. One flaw of her bumper attack was that it required great timing and that required actually seeing her opponent approach and gauging their speed. When she was attacked from behind she had no idea when to use the attack which means she probably would have missed and just ended up giving a bigger target to her opponent.

‘He’s smarter than he looks to have figured out that I can’t keep track of multiple targets but his strategy focuses on him surrounding me with those clones and hitting me from different angles. I can avoid that by just moving into a position where they are all in front of me where I can see them all coming. I’m going to have to switch from staying in one spot and being mainly defensive to going on the offense and keeping my body moving’ thought Hitoiki who had already planned her first move.

That first move started off with her making sure her back was actually touching the wall behind her before hopping into the air and using her balloon bumper attack to bounce off the wall and launch herself right at the largest group of Naruto’s who weren’t expecting the balloon girl to come flying towards them and didn’t have any time to react. Hitoiki got as close as she could before using the balloon bumper again which ended up sending all five clones flying, three of which hit other clones destroying them as well. In all she ended up destroying 8 clones in one attack before continuing on her flight path into the wall on the opposite side of the courtyard. Hitoiki hit the wall belly first and bounced off which resulted in her landing on her inflated butt which caused her to bounce backwards.

Hinata quickly activated her Byakugan and focused on Hitoiki since she knew that every time Hitoiki went into the air she could somehow control her movements. Sure enough when Hitoiki somehow back-flipped in mid-air and landed perfectly on her feet Hinata spotted what did it. While in the air Hinata saw a controlled jet of chakra come out of Hitoiki’s front that was aimed at a downward angle with had rolled Hitoiki’s body in the right direction for her to land on her feet. Hinata continued watching as Hitoiki hopped once in order to turn around and face Naruto who was trying to re-organize his clones behind her. The hop was done by releasing a controlled burst of chakra from one foot and then the other which allowed her to get into the air where two jets of chakra at opposite angles came out of her sides and turned her around.

‘I get it now! It’s like how I used a small burst of chakra from my bellybutton to blow me onto my back. With both our bodies so light from whatever it is we’re filled with she don’t need her muscles to move at all, she just uses jets of chakra to push her like a balloon is blown around by the wind. But the level of chakra control needed to be able to move as well as she does must be incredible. In terms of chakra control this style has got to be at least at the same level as the gentle fist style…maybe even higher!’ thought Hinata amazed by what she was seeing as well as thinking about the advantages.

With Hitoiki’s style of fighting she never had to put in any form of physical effort into a fight which meant that she would probably never get fatigued even after a ridiculously drawn out battle. Her body may have been moving a lot but as far as the strain on it went it was like she was just laying in bed at home which was probably a good thing since she would need to focus a lot on her chakra control and not on how tired she was. So long as her chakra held out she could probably fight even longer than Rock Lee without getting winded or becoming sore which would keep her fighting at her peak. However if she did run out of chakra she’d be left a helpless balloon like Hinata was now and be forced to deflate and fight with only her hands and feet.

‘There’s got to be some way I can help Naruto with the gentle fist. If I can shut down her chakra she’ll be just as helpless as me and then Naruto can capture her.’ thought Hinata as she looked at Hitoiki’s chakra network that was unusual due to the inflation.

Hitoiki’s chakra was mixed with whatever gas she was filled with rather than flowing in her network normally making a normal gentle fist strike impossible. However Hinata could still see Hitoiki’s main chakra point deep at the core of her body which, if she was able to hit, would probably cut off her chakra temporarily. The problem was that Hinata would have to somehow get close enough to Hitoiki to slam her palm into Hitoiki’s body and then use a massive amount of chakra in order to ensure her chakra hit Hitoiki’s core three and a half feet inside her seven foot wide body.

While Hinata thought about how to pull something like that off the fight between Naruto and Hitoiki had continued and thanks to her new strategy Naruto was down to only about three clones and unfortunately at this moment the last two were being destroyed by another balloon bumper. The real Naruto took advantage of the distraction by approaching her from behind and aiming a flying kick towards her head. Since Hitoiki couldn’t see him or gauge his speed she decided to doge than use another Balloon Bumper which would’ve probably missed. Naruto went flying past her head as she did some sort of cross between a barrel roll and a cartwheel out of the way of his attack.

“You’re actually pretty hard to hit for someone so big.” commented Naruto.

“Thank you. Are you beginning to see that you can’t be me then?” replied Hitoiki confidently “I’ve already destroyed all your clones so just give up.”

“Ha! No problem I can make 100 more right now!” said Naruto putting his hands together to form the hand sign.

‘Crap! I’ve got to stop him before he makes any more!’ thought Hitoiki as she used her chakra to roll onto her side and begin rolling towards Naruto as fast as she could.

Naruto saw that she was coming and tried to get out of the way but Hitoiki managed to grab onto his shirt as she passed close to him. She held on tightly and ended up slamming Naruto into the ground with each rotation as she rolled around the courtyard in a circle three times before releasing her grip at just the right moment in the rotation to launch Naruto into the air. While Naruto was getting an aerial view of the Inn and the surrounding woods (all the while screaming his head off) Hitoiki rolled directly where she thought he was going to come down. She was right and instead of Naruto crashing back down to earth he was surprised when he landed right on top of Hitoiki’s belly as she laid on her back looking up at him.

“Huh? Why’d you save me?” asked Naruto puzzled as he sank slightly into her body.

“Oh I’m not saving you. I just wanted to wish you another happy flight!” replied Hitoiki cheerfully.

“Oh no…” said Naruto weakly since he knew what was coming now.

“Balloon Bumper!!” yelled Hitoiki as she inflated rapidly and sent Naruto flying into the air again almost as high as last time.

“Let’s see how high I can get him” said Hitoiki happily as she continued to play her game by using another Balloon Bumper on Naruto as soon as he landed on her for the second time.

Hitoiki continued to juggle Naruto using her bumper attack, sending him progressively higher and higher as she put more effort into each attack. Naruto was disorientated and nauseated by the attacks leaving him unable to do anything to stop Hitoiki from launching him each time he landed on her belly.

“Enjoying the flight?” taunted Hitoiki as Naruto landed on her belly for the 12th time only to be sent flying again

“LET ME OFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!” yelled Naruto as he flew higher than he had before.

“Okay.” replied Hitoiki with a giggle as she rolled onto her feet using her chakra.

However when Naruto looked down as he was falling this now meant he had nothing to cushion his fall and was heading towards the stone courtyard floor at critical velocity. Just before he was about to hit Hitoiki decided to cut him a break by using a Balloon Bumper to send him flying sideways…right into the courtyard wall. Naruto hit much harder than usual since he and Hitoiki had been much closer to the wall he hit than the last couple of times she had launched him. No one could see Naruto thanks to all the dust his impact had created but both Hitoiki and Hinata could hear a sharp, painful, gasp before there was a dull thud and then silence.

“Naruto…” said Hinata in horror.

“I think I overdid.” said Hitoiki with just as much surprise as she waited for the dust to clear to see what had happened.

When the dust did clear both girls could see Naruto laying on the ground just below the crater he had dug into the wall absolutely motionless with blood clearly seen in his blonde hair.

“No…” said Hinata weakly with tears forming in her eyes.

Hitoiki also looked very disturbed by the sight and mumbled to herself frantically “I actually killed someone” over and over. Normally Hinata would notice that it was odd for a ninja to be effected that way by a kill but she was too busy trying to do anything she could to get over to Naruto. All her struggling just caused her to roll onto her belly before she began sobbing uncontrollably.

“NAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!” she yelled grief-stricken at the top of her lungs as tears clouded her vision.

“Youcan’tbedeadYoucan’tbedeadYoucan’tbedeadYoucan’tbedeadYoucan’tbedeadYou can’tbedead!!!!” cried Hinata as every part of her body that was un-inflated went limp

“He died to protect me! He died since I was so helpless and weak! I couldn’t do anything to help him!” said Hinata angry at herself “And I never got to tell him that I loved him…”

Hinata didn’t say anything else and just continued to cry uncontrollably until she felt something grab her hand and not let go. Hinata gasped and tried to get her hand free but whatever it was had a strong grip and refused to let her hand go. Then she heard something that made her heart almost stop beating in her chest.

“Relax Hinata it’s just me.” came Naruto’s voice like that of an angel from heaven in Hinata’s mind

“NARU…” Hinata began to yell before Naruto reached around and covered her mouth.

“Be quiet! I don’t want Hitoiki to hear me. I’m just a clone the real one is still over there” explained the Naruto clone.

“Are you okay?!” asked Hinata in a worried whisper realizing that the real Naruto could still be badly hurt.

“Yeah I created a shadow clone in mid-air while I was falling which allowed me to make a Rasengan before tossing the clone in the direction of the roof so he wouldn’t be noticed. When Hitoiki shot me towards the wall I used the force of the Rasengan to cushion my hit and create enough dust so that she wouldn’t notice me lay on top of the Rasengan I still hand in my hand.” explained the shadow clone.

Hinata looked over towards the real Naruto and did see that he appeared to have his right hand underneath his body which hid the still active Rasengan. Naruto had used Hitoiki’s attack to set up a trap that put him within five feet of her with a Rasengan just ready to strike when her back was turned.

“Now all I need is a distraction so she’ll turn around.” said the Naruto clone.

“Wait Naruto! I have an idea!” said Hinata quietly so Hitoiki wouldn’t notice “Hitoiki moves around using her chakra so if I can get my palm onto her body I can use the gentle fist to make her as helpless as me!”

“Really?!” asked the clone.

“Yes, all you have to do is use the Rasengan to launch Hitoiki right into me so I can hit her.” explained Hinata seeing this as the perfect chance to strike.

“No problem, this is going to be easy.” said the clone who wanted revenge “Now she’s going to know what it feels like to get launched into something dangerous.”

Hitoiki had been too distracted by Naruto’s body to notice the conversation between Naruto’s clone and Hinata. She also failed to notice when the clone began to roll Hinata into position where she was right in Hitoiki’s expected flight path. With Hinata in the right position the clone created five more clones in order to brace Hinata’s light body for impact. With everything set Hinata activated her Byakugan while her body was positioned so that her hand would be the first thing Hitoiki hit.
‘I’m only going to have one chance at this. I cannot fail. Naruto’s put a lot into this fight so I have to put in just as much!’ thought Hinata as she prepared to use the most unorthodox gentle fist strike ever done.

“Hey! Over here!” yelled Hinata in order to get Hitoiki’s attention off Naruto and onto her.

“Huh?” asked Hitoiki before doing another hop in order to face Hinata who was now surrounded by Naruto clones.

Before she could say or do anything to react the real Naruto got to his feet behind her and began charging towards her exposed back with his outstretched hand holding the Rasengan. When the glowing sphere of chakra made contract with Hitoiki’s backside there was the sound of stretching rubber as a spiral formed in the back of Hitoiki’s outfit. It wasn’t until Hitoiki was spiraling through the air that she realized what was going on and began to scream as loudly as she could. Hinata watched the spinning and screaming balloon approach in almost slow motion due to how much adrenaline was flooding her system as she focused all her chakra into her palm.

‘This is my one shot! I can’t miss!!!’ thought Hinata as she readied her body for the imminent impact.

“NOW!!!” yelled Hinata as Hitoiki’s chest made contact with Hinata’s open palm which instantly shot a blast of chakra all the way into Hitoiki’s central chakra point.

The effect was instantaneous, Hitoiki let out a pained gasp as her entire body came to a dead stop before harmlessly falling to the ground and rolling several inches off to the side. Hitoiki coughed up a bit of blood before trying to get up only to find that she couldn’t access her chakra which left her with absolutely no way to move her inflated body.

“What’s going on!? Why can’t I move?!” asked Hitoiki frantically as she struggled to move.

“I figured out how you moved your entire body using only chakra so I used my gentle fist to shut off your chakra leaving you just like me.” explained Hinata.

“Yeah and now I can take my time in forcing you to tell me how to deflate Hinata.” said Naruto menacingly as he began to walk over to Hitoiki who was still rolled onto her side.

“Girls of my clan are the only ones who can deflate at will.” explained Hitoiki “And thankfully we have a way to do it without chakra too!”

Hitoiki had no sooner said that than she began to deflate until she was back to normal size. She was laying on her stomach by the time the deflation was complete and quickly rose back onto her feet which began to shake under her due to how weak she felt after that gentle fist attack.
“Not so tough now are you?!” taunted Naruto after seeing she was barely able to stand.

“You might’ve won this time but I didn’t even get to use my best moves, next time I’ll come prepared for a fight.” said Hitoiki defiantly before pulling out a black balloon which she began to blow up until it was as big as her.

“Wait!” yelled Naruto realizing she was up to something.

Before he could stop her the balloon popped releasing a very thick and dark smokescreen which covered most of the courtyard. Naruto had his clones guard Hinata until the smoke cleared in case Hitoiki tried to take her again but thankfully when the smoke was gone so was Hitoiki who had apparently fled.

“She’s gone for now.” said Naruto who sounded a little disappointed as he dispersed his clones.

As soon as he did he got a shocked look on his face like he had just seen a ghost but that didn’t last long before his face was overcome with one of the biggest smiles Hinata had ever seen.

“It’ll take a few days for her chakra network to return to normal after that hit.” replied Hinata.

“We’ll take care of her then.” said Naruto happily before looking at Hinata with the huge smile still on his face “But in the mean time that was a great plan Hinata!”

Hinata blushed before replying “I couldn’t have done it without you and your clones Naruto.”

“Speaking of which…” began Naruto suddenly changing his tone from happy to slightly unsure “When I dispersed my clones I instantly learned about everything they knew. The one I made in the air overheard you talking when you thought I was dead.”

Hinata’s heart instantly went frantic when she thought about what that meant. A look of sheer horror crossed her face as her mind began to run 1000x it’s normal speed.

However all her thoughts could be summarized in these words ‘And I never got to tell him that I loved him’

Naruto could tell what his clone had heard was true just by Hinata’s panicked reaction so he decided to push harder “Is it true Hinata…” he asked “…Do you love me?”

“I…I…I…I…” was all Hinata managed to come up with as she looked for any excuse or lie that could explain what she had said.

“I see…” said Naruto disappointed before he got a very angry and serious look on his face.
Naruto then proceeded to walk over to Hinata and roll her onto her back so that she was stuck looking up at the clear night sky she had dreamed about sitting under with Naruto earlier.

‘What’s he doing? And why does he look angry? Oh he must hate me or something!!!’ thought Hinata frantically.

Suddenly she felt something jump on top of her and looked up to see it was Naruto who was now standing on her belly looking down at her with a look that could kill. Without thinking Hinata just began saying anything that she thought could get her out of this mess, a stream of words just began to pour from her mouth that she hoped would make sense. Truth be told even she had no idea what she was saying at that point, she believed it had something to do with mind control and frogs but mostly it was probably just gibberish. Naruto slowly leaned down and put his hand over her mouth in order to stop Hinata from babbling on like an idiot long enough for him to talk.

“You love me huh!?” asked Naruto angrily before letting go of Hinata’s mouth.

“I’m sorry…” said Hinata weakly as tears streamed down her face.

Naruto then got down on his hands and knees on Hinata’s body and said “You should be sorry…” before going in for the kill

Hinata suddenly found Naruto’s lips locked onto hers which had an even bigger effect on Hinata than when she thought Naruto was dead.

Her mind was completely blank as Naruto stopped kissing her, raised his head up, and said “…sorry you didn’t tell me sooner!” with a massive smile on his face.

Then everything went black for Hinata…
Ok here's the next chapter of Balloon Ninja where we actually get to see how a balloon ninja fights. It took me awhile to come up with a good fighting style for an inflated person that wasn't just some huge rip off of Akamichi's style. I actually came up with it after playing as Jigglypuff in super smash bros brawl and watching one of her throw moves. Anyway I hope everyone enjoys it and feel free to comment on it.
© 2008 - 2024 kajinking3
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TheStoryWriter's avatar
nice work. but when are you posting the next chapter its been over 10 months XD