Chapter 2

"Naruto, just a minute left until the bell rings. You remember the plan?" Kiba asked as he stared at the wall clock on their room.

"Yeah. Just find out stuff about Hinata that can help you get a date with her." Naruto recited then looked expecting of Kiba. "And of course you're gonna do the same with Sakura-chan."

"Then good." Kiba smirked. It was Monday afternoon of the last class and that meant he was gonna be meeting up with Sakura after the bell rings and Naruto with Hinata.

RING.

"Okay class. You are dismissed." Mr. Sarutobi announced as the whole class became busy picking up their stuffs. "And you guys better start working on those projects now."

"So uh, I suppose I better go see Hinata." Naruto said.

"Yeah you should." Kiba agreed while he sorted out his stuff. Naruto took his books and went straight to his partner's table where he surprised the shy girl once again.

"Hi Hinata." he greeted heartily, making Hinata jump in place at his voice. It took a few seconds before she was able to look at Naruto although not yet directly in his eyes with her face flushing a little bit.

"H-hi Naruto-kun."

"So we're gonna talk about the project today aren't we? Do you have any suggestions on where we can work on it?" Naruto asked. Hinata took that question as an opportunity to gather herself up and not act so nervous around her crush.

"Uhm, maybe the library?" she said in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

"Wait what was that? I didn't hear you there."

"The library." she repeated a bit louder, hoping he would hear.

"The library?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at her. He hated that place. The librarian Mrs. Biwako was too strict and happens to be 's mother. He's been given too many detentions before due to his difficulty in controlling his loudness during those time he did work in the library. "But that's the place where you're supposed to keep quiet, right? We can't talk about it there."

"Oh. I suppose not." Hinata sighed.

"I know. We can use one of the benches around campus." Naruto suggested. "That way it's okay if I speak a little loud, unlike in the library."

"Oh, okay."

"Do you need to go back to your locker?"

"Yes, I need to get some of these books back."

"Do you want me to carry them for you?" Naruto offered.

"Oh no, you don't re-really have to... they're not really heavy." Hinata reasoned out. She couldn't believe Naruto would offer to do something like that for her but even though, she didn't want to impose.

"Uh, okay then." Naruto smiled. He knew it was always polite to offer help to girls so it was more of a natural thing for him to do rather than something with other intentions like when he offered Sakura help. He accompanied Hinata to her locker and while she placed her books there, Naruto did the same with his as their lockers were only around 20 feet away. After finishing, he ran back up to Hinata.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yes."

"Well then, let's go." Naruto grinned as he took Hinata by the hand to lead her outside. The shy girl's face reddened at his hold although unnoticed to the innocent blond. They made their way past the students in the hallway until they found a bench with an abundant shade from the huge trees surrounding it. The two sat down and Naruto positioned himself with his ears all ready to hear what Hinata had to say about the project. After all, he really didn't get much about what they needed to do due to how complicated it was for him.

"So uh, what are we supposed to do again?"

"It's a circuit using small light bulbs and switches."

"Oh yeah. I kinda forgot. That sounds really difficult but you know how to work with it right?"

"Well I suppose I can try to design the circuits required by Mr. Sarutobi. We need to use at least 10 light bulbs and connect them with wires and switches in such a way that we can control them, or make them show patterns with the use of the switches."

"Switches huh? Okay, I really don't know how to design that but I believe I can build them. My dad has taught me and my older brother Kurama on how to install light bulbs and switches before one time when built a shack on our backyard." Naruto told her.

"I'm glad to hear that, cause I admit I... I've never really done such things before." Which was only expected of a girl from the Hyuuga clan.

"That's okay. You plan the circuit and I'll build them. Maybe I can even teach you how to make them yourself too."

"I suppose I could always try it. And actually I've already drafted out the circuit we're going to build." the girl announced. "I'll explain it to you and you can maybe uhm... comment on it and we can decide whether it's okay or if it would need changes."

"That's cool. You really made that during the weekends? And here I only played video games and basketball that time. Hehe." Naruto chuckled with a scratch on his head.

"My father expects me to do my homeworks during weekends so I... do you want me to show you now how the lighting and switches work?"

"Yeah sure."

And so Hinata explained her plan for their project. It took all her courage, little it was to be able to speak as continuously as possible and trying her best to get rid of the shakiness of her voice. Naruto watched her as she explained, not failing to notice her nervousness. This was like the longest time he's spoken with Hinata even since they were elementary students. It was kind of curious really that they were seldom grouped together in projects and this was the first time he was paired up with her. It made him remember that it probably was also due to him not sharing the same classes with her for most of the previous years.

Naruto knew that Hinata was shy but never imagined it to be like this. Was she also like this when Kiba speaks with her? Could she be declining Kiba when he asked her out for dates due to her shyness? It could be but even so, Naruto also didn't think Hinata was the type of girl to date in high school. She was more of the studious type and unlike most girls, he never heard about Hinata having crushes on anyone.

"So, that's what we are going to do." Hinata said lastly which jerked Naruto out of his musings. The blond blinked and was trying to remember what it was that she said. He tried his best to look like he was listening fully the entire time.

"Do you think it's a good plan?" the Hyuuga girl asked, her thoughts swimming with tbe possibility that Naruto might disapprove.

"Oh yeah sure Hinata." Naruto agreed. He might not have caught the last but he believed strongly about what Hinata has designed. Hearing Naruto's approval, Hinata was celebrating inside and could only look forward to when she starts to actually build the project with her long time crush.

Kiba and Sakura

As soon as Naruto ｗent to see Hinata, Kiba too began his search for his partner. The only girl with that bubble gum pink hair wouldn't be too hard to spot and as soon as he was out of the room, he saw her walking towards the direction of her locker, possibly. It made Kiba wonder why she didn't stay in the classroom to wait for him to talk about the project. Could she have forgotten?

'She probably just doesn't want to work with me since I'm not Sasuke.' Kiba thought to himself but he quickly dismissed it. As much as he preferred to go home already to play some games on his console, doing this project is necessary if he was to passｔhe subject. And of course he also needed to use this as an opportunity to find out more about Sakura for Naruto's sake.

He would find out what he can and if by it he comes to find out that Sakura wasn't fit to be Naruto's girlfriend, he'd tell the blond what's good for him. Honestly he didn't like Sakura's personality at all. She acts like a bitch most of the time, thinking about how pretty she is and how rude she sometimes treats Naruto when the blond tries to ask her out.

But of course he wasn't gonna judge just like that so this working together with her would be the one to confirm his thoughts on her.

"Sakura." he called out to her as he reached her locker. She looked towards him looking surprised to see him.

"Oh it's you." the pinkette said, not really looking too pleased and not even giving an effort to fake it. "So we're gonna start on the project today right?"

"That's what you told me last week, so here I am since I obviously do not want to incur your wrath." Kiba said chuckling. Although whether it was a chuckle of a joke or a nervous chuckle, one couldn't tell.

"Well that's good to hear. I wanna be able to be finished with this project as soon as possible. I still have a lot of advance reading I want to do, and some shows to watch." she informed.

"Whoa, I'm not surprised about the reading but you have shows to watch?" Kiba asked, tilting his head and scrunching his eyebrows upon hearing her statement.

"You thought all I do is study? Ha, of course not." Sakura smirked. "Now why don't we go to the library and discuss what our project's gonna look like"

"Okay. That's fine with me. Better get this over with."

And so the two went their way inside the library on the second floor of the building. They chose a table in the far corner of the room where they didn't need to keep their voices too soft. Sakura had already drafted the design, even having went as far as listing down how many light bulbs, sockets, switches, length of wiring and other necessary materials they needed to obtain.

Kiba sat there listening intently, actually now getting interested in the project. Sakura was good, he can't deny that. How could she have thought of all that in just the weekend? If he did something like that his head would have probably tangled just as the wirings would.

After telling him all that, Sakura asked that Kiba should be the one to buy the stuff as it wasn't a girl thing to go to a hardware store buying bulbs, wirings and other things. After all, she was the one who designed the project and Kiba didn't seem to have any comments regarding it, well maybe except for the choice of the pink colored light bulbs.

"But shouldn't you go buy these with me?" Kiba reasoned out with her. His objective was to get to know more about Sakura and even though he didn't wish to, spending more time with her would give him more opportunities to ask questions.

"I've told you already, I did my part in the planning stage." Sakura replied with a frown. "Now it's your turn to do something."

"But what if I buy the wrong stuff?"

"You're the guy Kiba. I'm sure you're more familiar to what these things look like than me. You told me last week how experienced you are with electronics."

"Yeah but I..."

"No buts. Just make sure you have them by Wednesday." she said with authority.

"I don't have money to buy all these. Give me at least what's needed to be paid for half of these." Koba demanded.

"Okay then." Sakura grumbled. She quickly took out a 500 ryo bill and handed it to Kiba. "I'll be off then. Ino's waiting for me downstairs."

And she took off after that, leaving Kiba in the library with the list of the things to buy.

"What a bossy girl. I can't believe I'm getting ordered like this by her." Kiba muttered to himself. Even though he didn't like it, this was for the sake of the project. Her attitude was different from the other nicer girls. Very different from Hinata. How he wished he was in Naruto's place right now. And thinking about it, what was going on with the two? Was Naruto going on as planned?

Naruto and Hinata

"So, when are we going to buy the materials? Do you want to go to the hardware store now?" Naruto asked his partner.

"No-now? I would want to but I uh..." Hinata began to reason out as she remembered that she didn't inform her father about this meeting with Naruto for a project after class. Her father, Hiashi Hyuuga was a very strict man. She needed to be home by an hour after class and the car, along with her personal driver Kō was definitely already waiting in the parking area. "I can't buy it right now. I haven't informed my father about the project and he'll be expecting me home by 4:30. It's already past 4."

"School curfew huh?"

"Sort of."

"Well that's okay. We can just go buy it together tomorrow or some other day this week."

'To-together.' Hinata repeated his word in her head..'I'm going to be together with Naruto-kun when we buy the materials for our project.'

"Hinata?" she heard Naruto callｏut to her with a tone of concern. It quickly shook her out of her thoughts.

"Ye-yes."

"Are you okay there?"

"Huh? Yes I, I'm fi-fine Naruto-kun."

"Are you sure? 'Cause for a moment there your face suddenly turned red. Do you have a fever?" Naruto asked and without a warning he placed the back of his hand on her forehead, effectively surprising Hinata and causing her to sit almost petrified at the touch. It made her face turn into an even brighter shade of red.

"Well you don't feel hot, so maybe not." Naruto concluded, finally retreating his hand from Hinata's forehead. "But now you're even more flushed."

"I.. I'm fine Naruto-kun. I gotta..."

"Hinata, I've been looking for you. We need to go home now if we don't want your faher to..." a voice suddenly sounded from behind the two of them, causing both to turn their heads to the source. While Naruto didn't recognize the voice, Hinata did because it was none other than her cousin Neji, who was a year older than her.

"Neji-niisan." she called out his name. Neji Hyuuga was no doubt a Hyuuga, with those same unmistakable pale eyes that Hinata also has. His hair was a long dark brown tied in a pony tail that reached down until his lower back.

"I see you were talking with a...wait a minute, I recognize you." Neji said, looking at Naruto. "You're the infamous troublemaker from the junior grade. What's your name again? Naturo?"

"It's Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki." the blond spoke up, annoyed that the cocky sounding newcomer got his name wrong. He didn't even notice that Neji just called him an 'infamous troublemaker'. "And you are?"

"I'm Neji Hyuuga, a senior. I'm here to pick up my cousin."

"Wait, you have a cousin here?" Naruto asked Hinata with surprise. Kiba never told him Hinata had an older cousin in the school.

"Yes. Neji is my cousin. And with what I was telling you a while ago, I really need to go now." Hinata said sadly, standing up from the bench and taking her bag.

"You know Hinata, you really shouldn't be associating yourself with troublemaking students like him. Uncle Hiashi wouldn't like it."

"What'd you say?!" Naruto then stood up, this time catching what Neji has said and not liking it in the least.

"Neji-niisan." Hinata called out to him ｗith a pleading look, silently asking for him to stop his insult. She didn't want anyone calling Naruto that. It might technically be true but still, he didn't have to say it so frankly and demeaning. "Naruto is my partner for our Physics project, that's why we're here. We're talking about what to do with it and the materials we need to get."

"Hn, if you say so." Neji then took Hinata's word. If she said he was her partner, then he probably was. He couldn't do anything about it even though he thought that Naruto would be a bad influence for Hinata. After thinking for a few seconds, he turned to look at Naruto. "Just don't go dragging Hinata's grades down. Do that and you'll be answering to me."

"Ha, I would never drag her grades down." Naruto growled at Neji, a part of him itching to land a punch at the older Hyuuga. He hated it when other people look down on him and think that he's stupid. He might not be the sharpest tool in the box but come on, he still pass all his subjects.

"Hn." Neji just smirked, slightly amused at the irritated display of Naruto. "Come Hinata, Kō is waiting for us."

"Bye Naruto-kun. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

Naruto watched as Hinata walked away with Neji. Well that was something new he learned ａbout Hinata, but maybe Kiba has known this before because he's the one interested in the girl.

He picked up his backpack and thought about going home. He and Kiba never did talk about meeting up after and he thought that he would get more things done with Hinata, or at least take more time. He was really surprised that she already finished designing the project so that meant less time to talk with her and less info to give to Kiba.

Sighing he turned towards the school entrance and began to walk until he heard Kiba call out to him.

"Hey Naruto, wait up!"

Kiba jogged to his buddy who was surprised to him.

"So you're done too?" Kiba first asked.

"I could ask you the same thing. But yeah, I suppose we're done for today cause Hinata's cousin had to pick her up."

"Oh, Neji? Is he still overprotective?"

"Well, that's probably the word to describe him, and a jerk too. How come I've never heard of him before?"

"He doesn't socialize much and he's from a higher grade. Anyway, yeah I'm also done for the day. I shouldn't even be surprised but Sakura's already planned the entire project and left me with the job to buy the materials. She wouldn't even accompany me in obtaining them." he halfly complained.

"Oh, so you didn't get any info on her?" Naruto grimly asked.

"Not yet although I don't think she's one who'll just talk about stuff like that. She looks so focused on school work and she probably wouldn't want any distractions once we start with building the project."

"Well, it's only the second time you met so, there's still time." Naruto told Kiba, but actually more to assure himself. If Sakura won't talk just as Kiba thought, there could still be ways to take advantage of them being assigned as partner's to each other's crushes.

"So how was it with Hinata, aside from the run in with Neji?"

"Well if you're not much surprised that Sakura-chan already did the plans then I gotta say I was when Hinata showed me what she designed. I didn't get much of it but I know she's made something good. We're just supposed to buy materials but we haven't decided when yet cause Neji butt in."

"Hmm, not much progress on our second objectives too. But as you said, we still got more days. Maybe we can even work together, the four of us."

"The four of us?"

"Like work separately on our own projects but in the same area, like your place or mine." Kiba clarified.

"Hmm, I like that. I'd get to see Sakura-chan work. Oh wait, I got a better idea."

"Better idea? Since when did you have a better idea than me?"

"Oh shut up. You'll love this. What if you set a time and place where you and Sakura-chan would work on the project and then you'd make up an excuse where you wouldn't be able to come and you'd send me as a substitute? Isn't that great?" Naruto asked excitedly. His plan made Kiba pause for a moment to think. He had to admit that was a good idea but whether they can pull it off, especially on Sakura was the question. Kiba didn't really think Sakura would want Naruto as his substitute.

"That does sound good. And maybe I can substitute for you when you work with Hinata."

"Yeah, although we probably can't do it the first time, I still think it's a good back up plan." Naruto said and Kiba agreed. The Inuzuka checked the time and saw it to be nearly half past 4.

"Anyway, I should probably check out the hardware store and see what I can get. Sakura really wants to get this over with as soon as possible. You wanna come with me?"

"Oh, I'll pass today. Mom asked me to do groceries today so I should be heading home." Naruto informed.

"Well, see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah. See you Kiba."

A/N:

I am disappointed with myself. Three weeks for this chapter when I know how I wanted it to go but lacking the drive to type it up. How do I get the motivation?

I don't know if it would do any good but yesterday was the official start of my summer vacation so no work for me until means lots of free time but then again, I need motivation to write. I just hope things turn out for the best and I finish this story by the end of vacation.

And congrats to the Golden State Warriors for winning Game 1. I hope they win the series and KD gets his ring.