"I don't know how you get yourself into these situations." Hinata's lips twitched briefly, like the fluttering of a butterfly's wings. Then she abruptly straightened up and turned her head to the side.

She was doing that thing again. Naruto noticed. She thought he didn't notice for whatever reason, but he did. He always did. She was doing that thing where she politely covered her mouth with her fist and turned away to hide a smile.

At first, Naruto thought that maybe it was just something that a lot of girls did. But his other Academy classmates, Sakura-chan and Ino, they never hid their smiles like that. They had what some mean old ladies called "uncouth" laughs. He'd asked what they meant, and they'd only snarled at him and shooed him away. Typical. He had to fill in the blanks like always.

So he supposed that laughing with your mouth open meant you were uncouth…whatever that meant. It sounded bad. Maybe those old ladies were just jealous because they didn't have any teeth.

All he did know was that Iruka-sensei kept pairing him with Hinata on class assignments lately. He said that things were less "disruptive" that way, and she always did that super-polite-cough-laugh whenever he said something funny. Only a super-polite-cough-laugh.

Naruto wanted to see Hinata's open-mouthed laugh, dammit. He was sure she had nice teeth. She didn't have to hide them like she had cavities or something.

That was how he began getting himself into these "situations." He'd gotten more and more audacious each time, trying to get a glimpse of her open-mouthed laugh.

Covering the chalkboard with pink glitter. The whole class had burst into raucous laughter.

Except her. She coughed.

Doing his very best to convince his classmates that he had secret meetings with Sandaime jii-chan. That the Hokage would make ramen the official food of Konoha. Even Iruka-sensei snorted a little at that.

But Hinata just developed a sudden sneeze, claiming spring allergies.

Painting Shikamaru's face with henohenomoheji while he was sleeping made her cover her face against the table. Naruto strained his ears carefully, but he couldn't hear any telltale giggle.

But this time! He was so sure that this time, he'd finally, finally see what Hyuuga Hinata's open-mouthed laugh would look like. Unfortunately, Naruto was the shortest in the class. Too short to balance a can of paint on the top of the classroom door.

He huffed gloomily.

A globule of bright orange paint dripped from his hair and splattered onto the floor in a gaudy puddle.

Looked like he'd be unlucky today too.

I don't know how you get yourself into these situations.

Yeah. He didn't either.

A small, rough, calloused hand tugged the paint can from his grasp.

"Um…Naruto-kun, Iruka-sensei won't be back for at least an hour. He has a meeting with Mizuki-sensei."

Hinata's voice was just as polite and kind as her laugh-cough. Her laugh-cough. Not her open-mouthed laugh. He wouldn't be seeing that today.

His stomach lurched unpleasantly, and for a moment he swore that someone was there, in his belly, laughing at him.

"So…if…if you want…I can help you clean this up."

She poked her fingers slightly together, then hid them in her big, bulky sleeves.

But before she turned her head, he made sure to squint carefully, and was rewarded with a brief flash of white. The lurching in his stomach stopped, just a little.

"Really? Thanks a bunch, Hinata! You're a life-saver!" He smiled then, as brightly as he could, so that she could see every single one of his teeth.

One of these days, Naruto would make sure to see Hinata's open-mouthed laugh.

He would.

She had amazing teeth, after all.

A/N: So, a bunch of people have been giving me prompt requests about NH. I initially thought that I wouldn't get enough to actually post them here, but well, I was mistaken. :)

This is for the prompt request "I don't know how you get yourself into these situations." Tell me what you think!