(Please check the notes at the end of the chapter before asking questions)

Hello :D It took such a long time to write this…kind of pitiful, really. So without further ado, here is chapter three of Project: Popularity.

XXX

Hinata sighed as she entered the doors of the mansion in which she lived. It had been a fairly taxing day. However, she barely had time to relax before her sister poked her head into the room.

"Hinata, Father wants to talk with you," said Hanabi.

"Really?" Hinata said. Her father had not requested one of these conferences in a while—she suspected it had something to do with her studies. Hyuuga Hiashi had always been very strict about schoolwork, and often pushed his daughters to achieve excellent grades. "Alright, then."

Hanabi's petite face disappeared as her older sister took off her shoes, placing them against the wall, and headed to the study, where Hiashi could often be found.

Her father sat on the chair at the other end of the room, reading a book. His eyes darted upward when Hinata walked into the room, closing the book and beckoning his daughter forward.

"Hinata."

"Father."

"How was your first day at school?"

"Fine, Father."

"What's that?"

Hinata paused, perplexed, and then realized he was talking about the bruise on her forehead.

"I was hit with a dodge ball in P.E."

"I see." She sensed a hint of disapproval in his voice: Hiashi wasn't as supportive of P.E. as he was of academics, but it was still part of school and Hinata was expected to excel at it all the same.

"I have not called you only because of academic matters, Hinata."

Hinata looked up. She could not remember a time when he had called her to talk about non-academic issues.

"You are familiar with your cousin Neji, correct?"

"Yes, Father," she replied, although Hinata was not on good terms with him at all.

"He will be moving here in next week. I expect that you will treat him with the same respect as you would to your immediate family."

Her eyes widened. "May I ask why, Father?"

He raised an eyebrow, and Hinata blushed at how inconsiderate her question sounded.

"W-why he is moving here, I mean…"

"That is none of your concern. Please go to your room and do your homework."

"Yes, Father." It was pointless to tell him that there was no homework on the first day of school besides the massive project Kakashi assigned them. She obediently left the room, brushing past Hanabi as she walked up the lengthy flight of stairs.

Reaching her room, Hinata set her backpack on the floor and, with a sigh, flopped onto her bed. Her head didn't twinge anymore, but it became dizzy from all the thoughts about the eventful day. First of all, why was Neji moving? And moving to her house, no less! It must've been serious, though, for Hinata knew that her cousin detested anything to do with her family—although come to think of it, she had never really known why.

She got up and went to her desk to turn on the computer. If I'm going to be in my room for a while, I might as well research for art, she thought, and typed in her password, 443494, proceeding to search for a list of art styles.

The number of them was staggering: a quick scan of the list told Hinata that there were well over fifty of them, perhaps even a hundred. She decided to just look at the ones that sounded interesting and print out examples to show Gaara.

The clock only read four o'clock, so Hinata still had time to waste before she was called for dinner, and decided to check her e-mail. You have 3 unread messages, the text on the screen told her.

Two of the e-mails turned out to be junk ("Your free 7-day trial is waiting!" "Get slim quick with SlimQuick!"), but the third was from Sakura. What would she be doing e-mailing her? Hinata thought at first it might have to do with the…project…but the subject line stated otherwise.

Hello,

Thank you for your expressed interest in the drama club. Attached are the purposes and such of the club, as well as a list of future meetings.

Many previous members have also left school. We wish them a happy and successful life from here on out, but this also means that the drama club is short on several officers. If you would like to apply, please fill out the attached form and send it to me () as soon as possible.

- Sakura, drama club vice-president

Hinata wondered about the lack of name usage in the message but quickly realized Sakura had sent the same e-mail to several other people. Mentally berating herself for not knowing such an obvious thing, she clicked on the first two attachments.

Konoha High School Drama Club

This club is devoted to:

heightened public speaking ability

encouragement of theatre

fun :)

If you would like to join, please print and detach the parent permission slip below and have your parent or legal guardian sign where indicated. Return it to an officer at the first meeting, September 1st.

--

Available Positions

Secretary – records information during meetings; must have great organization skill and legible handwriting.

Treasurer – keeps track of club's budget; must have great mathematical capability.

Scriptwriter – writes scripts for drama performances; must have great literary prowess.

Medic – treats any injuries or illnesses during meetings or practices; must have great medical knowledge and ability. Two of these positions are available.

There is now a "medic" position available. This previous year, a few students were injured or fell ill and were unable to get proper medical assistance. This "medic" position is in case the same events happen this year during meetings or practices.

The last attachment, which was the list of meetings, was fairly self-explanatory. Hinata wondered, though, about the parent permission slip. Would her father be willing to sign it? He was extremely supportive of all other academics, so surely he would approve of drama as well…right? She printed out the files and folded the form, putting it in her pocket so she could ask her father about it later.

There was still plenty of time, so she immersed herself in a book until Hanabi called her to dinner.

It was fairly quiet in the dining room, like always. The table was smaller than would be expected of a family as wealthy as the Hyuuga. After all, there was only three—four, when Neji moved—people in the family. Hinata's mother had died when Hinata was seven.

"Hanabi, how was school?" Hiashi asked his younger daughter.

She swallowed her food and answered, "Fine, Father."

"How are your teachers?" Typical. Hiashi always wanted to know if Hanabi's teachers were adequate.

"Fine."

"I see."

The only noises for several long moments were the clattering of silverware as they ate in silence. Hinata decided to ask Hiashi about joining the drama club. No use if I put it off, anyways, she thought.

"Father?"

Hiashi put down his fork and looked at her. It was rare for Hinata to speak at dinner unless someone addressed her first.

"Yes?"

"Could you please sign a permission slip for me? It's for the drama club." Even Hinata was surprised at the unwavering of her voice.

"What is this…drama club?"

"It's a club for students who like public speaking and theatre."

"Does it have anything to do with academics?"

"Well…not really, it's more like—"

"Then you may not go."

Hinata gaped at her father, who had turned his attention back to the meal. "May…may I ask why, Father?"

His expression when he looked at her once more almost made her regret her words.

"Your grades are suffering as of late. You achieved a B minus average on the last report card, which is completely unacceptable. If this drama club will take studying time away, then it will not be an option."

Hinata opened her mouth to say something, but faltered under Hiashi's austere glare. She had long since learned how to deal with her family, and opposing the adamant head of Hyuuga was not on the "do" list.

"If you two are done with your dinner, then you may leave."

Hinata glanced at her half-finished food, wondering when it had transformed itself into an unappetizing mush. She immediately decided she was not hungry and left the table with Hanabi.

XXX

Hinata groggily opened her eyes. What was that mysterious beeping noise? Oh, yes, the alarm clock. She sat upright with a yawn and turned off the annoying mechanism.

After changing her clothes, she went downstairs for breakfast.

"Where's Father?" Hinata asked her sister, who was already pouring cereal into her bowl.

"He had to leave early to take care of something at his office," replied Hanabi.

Oh. Well, that's pretty obvious, now that I come to think of it, Hinata thought.

"Sorry you couldn't join that club," she continued.

The elder Hyuuga smiled to her. They had never had a very close relationship, so it was nice to talk like they were at the moment. "Thanks."

"If you still want to join, you could always, you know, forge a signature…"

"Hanabi, you know I can't do that. Besides, what would happen if Father found out?" Hinata didn't bother to mention that she had been thinking about forgery as well.

"Oh, yeah…"

They finished their cereal in silence. Once she drank the last dregs of milk, Hinata took a glance at the clock and stood.

"I should be going now. You should too, it takes a long time to get to your school from here," she said.

Hanabi nodded, and the two girls hurried to grab their backpacks and leave.

XXX

Hinata walked into art class feeling a little bit better than she had been feeling before about drama. She slid into her seat next to Kiba, greeted him, and started listening to Kakashi.

"You're going to spend time today working on your projects, but first, I'd like each of you to draw yourself in your ideal world," he announced. "As you can see, there's a sheet of paper on each of your desks. You can provide your own pencils."

Hinata got out a pencil, deciding to not use color. My ideal world… she mused, wondering what to draw. As she thought, her hand idly moved the pencil around the sheet, making random black marks. This continued for a while, until Hinata realized what she was doing and reached for an eraser. But as she held the eraser between her fingers, she looked at the marks and smiled, lowering her pencil and drawing around them. And as the ideas flew around Hinata's mind, her pencil glided around the paper. Strokes of different sizes and shapes appeared and sometimes she would bite her lip, wondering what to do next, but drew as soon as another mental image manifested itself. And once more, the previously blank sheet would be swathed in magnificence.

She didn't even notice as Kakashi walked to her desk, so immersed in her work. He was intrigued by this talented girl sitting in front of him and oblivious to the staring eyes around her. He allowed her a few moments more to draw, and then said, "May I?"

Hinata snapped up with a start. She looked around, shocked to see the surrounding students staring at her as if she had grown another head. And then she looked at Kakashi in front of her, standing there with pure curiosity sketched on his face.

"S-sure…" she said with hesitation, and handed the paper to her teacher.

Kakashi observed the picture for several long moments, leaving Hinata to worry and stress over what he would say. Finally, he lowered it and asked her, "Have you ever taken art classes before?"

She certainly had not been expecting that. "No…" answered Hinata, who hadn't the faintest idea where this was leading.

The art teacher raised an eyebrow. "Come see me after class, alright?"

Hinata nodded numbly. What just happened?

"Alright, everyone, you should've had enough time to finish by now. Pass your pictures forward, and meet with your partner to discuss the project. After this week, you won't have much in-class time for this, so schedule other sessions if you need to."

Hinata sighed in relief as the class stopped gazing and scurried to find their partners. Then she realized she had to find Gaara and shuddered. A few minutes of his taciturnity was enough to last her a lifetime.

Once they had sat, Hinata realized with a jolt that she had completely forgotten about the information she had printed earlier, and hurried to get it out of her backpack.

"I found some information yesterday…this is a list of some of the art styles," she told Gaara.

He looked over the list with mild interest—or was that boredom? She could never decipher his facial expressions.

"You can just look at the examples…and decide which movement you like best, and we'll do that if you want to…"

"I don't really care. You can pick."

Hinata gasped softly, and when Gaara looked at her she hastily turned it into a cough. He had actually spoken two full sentences to her. She lost herself in these thoughts before seeing that Gaara was still staring at her, waiting for a reply.

"Oh! Alright then…um…can we do Color Field painting, then?"

Gaara inclined his head a little to show approval.

"Everyone! The bell's about to ring soon, so you might want to start packing up," Kakashi said.

"See you tomorrow, then," said Hinata, and slung her backpack over her shoulders as the bell sounded. Gaara paused, then nodded, and Hinata smiled. It seemed like he was becoming more open to her, if only a little.

Wondering what Kakashi wanted, she waited until most of the class had piled out, and then approached his desk.

"Hinata, was it?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Hinata, this picture is amazing."

What? was Hinata's first reaction to the news. She had never been anything special, especially in school. I can't have heard right, can I?

Kakashi smiled at her shocked expression. "It is. You seem to have a natural flair for art, since you said you had never taken classes before. So the reason I called you here was to ask you if you wanted to be moved into a more advanced class."

"An…advanced class?" she asked, her voice coming out a bit hoarse.

"Yes. We have two levels of art here at Konoha. Normally, one would need to take this class for a full year before trying the advanced class, but I think you have quite enough skill to make it. So, what do you think, Hinata?"

"Oh…um…" Hinata stalled for time, taken aback by the fact that she was expected to decide at that moment. "Well…I'm sorry…I think I'd like to stay in this class."

"Really? May I ask why?"

"Well…I might have…skill…at it, like you said, but I never really learned. And I think I should do that, the basics, before anything else. And Gaara will be left without a partner, too…"

"I see. Well, in that case, would you like to look into some contests? There's currently one online, I can give you the address if you want."

She hesitated. "Alright, then."

"Excellent. There are the rules and everything on the site," explained Kakashi as he scribbled something on a scrap of paper and handed it to Hinata.

She thanked him and left, finding Temari waiting for her.

"You really didn't have to wait," said Hinata.

"It's not a big deal. Besides, you have to show me to those girls' table," Temari said.

"Oh, yeah…" The upcoming meeting with Ino, Tenten, and Sakura had completely slipped her mind.

XXX

"Late!" Ino accused Hinata. "If you're going to be a part of this project, then you have to be on time! And why is Temari here?"

"To make sure you guys don't do anything weird," Temari said flatly.

"Well…fine. As long as Hinata's okay with it. But no more inviting people to our meetings!

"We—that is, Sakura, Tenten, and I—have been discussing. The consensus is that we will visit your house today!"

"What?" Hinata had been expecting something else entirely—well, she wasn't really sure what she was expecting, but certainly not visiting her home. "Why?"

"To change someone, you need to have an understanding of who they presently are first! So we'll all pay a visit to your house and see stuff like…what your wardrobe is, how your room is decorated, your family…stuff like that," Ino explained.

"Hinata, is there anything we should know before coming over?" asked Sakura gently. With a pang, Hinata realized that she would have to tell her she couldn't join the drama club, but put off the feeling. I'll tell her when I need to…

"Well…this might or might not be necessary," she began slowly, "but my father said that my cousin is moving in with us sometime next week." She was amused to note that Temari had paled a tiny bit. "My father's a bit taciturn, but Hanabi, my sister, is fairly easy to get along with. I think that's all."

"Perfect!" Ino said. "So we'll be coming over today, alright? Be prepared! Tenten, let's go—we still need to do that you-know-what!" And with that, the two left.

"HINATA!" a voice called out.

The three remaining girls turned to see who it was. "Hinata, did you get your permission slip signed?"

"O-oh…Naruto."

"Naruto!" said Sakura. "Didn't I tell you they could just e-mail us?"

"Sorry, but I couldn't wait! Some people didn't reply at all!" he whined.

"It's only been a day! Hinata might not even have checked her e-mail yet!" They both looked at Hinata, and she shrunk, still abhorrent of the spotlight.

"Um…well…I actually can't join," she said meekly.

Naruto stared at her. "What do you mean, you can't join?"

"My father wouldn't sign the permission slip…"

His face fell. "What about your mom?"

Hinata stopped to think of a good excuse. She had no intention of mentioning her mother's death. "My mom is…out of town."

There was a long pause. "Oh." Hinata startled at this word. It sounded distant, even kind of cold—and it didn't sound like Naruto.

"Naruto…are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'll see you guys later, I guess."

He shuffled away, no longer the warm, energetic entity he was just moments previously.

Sakura looked at his receding figure forlornly. Hinata turned to her for answers.

"Have I ever mentioned that Naruto was the one who created this club?"

Hinata shook her head.

"He did. Exactly one year ago, he decided that this school was too boring," Sakura smiled at the memory, "and went to the principal to request a drama club. It took a long time, but the school board decided to let him try—on the condition that he got at least nine other students to join.

"Of course, he approached me right after. I joined, of course, and we somehow managed to pull together a group of twenty-two other students who wanted in. It was wonderful. We received praise from the school newspaper, and got comments like 'you helped me to not be shy anymore' and such.

"On the other hand, some things didn't go smoothly at all. A few students, like I said in the e-mail, got injured from things like falling off the stage, or got so stressed with learning lines or creating costumes that their schoolwork suffered. The school board threatened to shut down the club.

"So Naruto spent the whole summer revamping the club and trying to convince them to let the club exist further. They gave him a second chance, on their initial condition that nine students joined. It wasn't so easy. Many graduated, some changed schools, some were prohibited by their parents, and still others just lost interest. We were back to just him and me.

"And we managed to do the impossible again, and pulled together exactly eight more members, you included. And then you told us, of course, that you couldn't join, bringing us to seven. We can only imagine, really, how he feels about all this work down the drain. Not only that, but all that praise and everything would never be heard again. I think he really thought he could do something to help people, you know, gain confidence and have fun and everything…"

Hinata felt horrible after Sakura had finished the lengthy speech. Naruto had done so much to keep the club alive, and she had been the one to ruin it! Sakura must've seen the expression on her face, because the next thing she said was, "No, no, it's not your fault, really! It was bound to happen eventually. In fact, there's probably someone else on our list who's not joining anymore."

Hinata smiled a little. "Thanks. Do you know where Naruto could be? I could try to cheer him up, at the very least…"

"I'm not exactly sure, but he likes being on the rooftop. You could try there. The stairs are pretty near, you'll find it if you just go out that way and keep walking."

"Thanks," Hinata said as she picked up her backpack, "I'll see you later."

XXX

-Alright, I know a lot of people would think that Hinata's really good with studying and all that stuff, but I need something to show that Hiashi is disappointed and all with her.

-Some might be like "Oh, a B- isn't so bad" but the school where I go is very competitive. They have things like not allowing you to continue an advanced math course if you don't have at least an A minus, and in the students' minds, a B is a horrible grade.

-If anyone else were writing this fic, Sakura would probably be in the medic position. But her not being a medic in the club does serve its purpose later—nothing big, but it still has a purpose.

-I might or might not describe the actual drawing later in the story.