In the middle of March...
"Seconds please!" Naruto held his empty bowl up.
"Coming right up," Hinata beamed as she reached to take the bowl from his hands. However, she accidentally brushed her hand against his and immediately drew back as if she had been burned.
The bowl fell and broke into pieces on the counter. Hinata flushed with embarassment and began to bow profusely, crying apologies in a high pitched voice. Teuchi came up beside her, "What's going on here?"
"I'm so sorry, I-" Hinata said, tears already building in her eyes.
"Naruto dropped the bowl," Sasuke mumbled, resting his chin in his hand. "In all his excitement, he let it go before Hinata could get a good grip on it. Considering how he eats, it was all slimy from the soup."
"Ah, my fault," Naruto said without a second thought. "Sorry old man."
"Just try to be careful next time, Naruto," The older man wagged his finger and turned back to the pot. "Our bowls are old, but we can't exactly afford new ones yet."
Hinata was beginning to calm down and moved to clean up the mess carefully. Sasuke glanced at Naruto who was scratching the back of his head sheepishly, completely unaware that it wasn't his fault at all.
"Sorry Hinata," He said. "Didn't mean to scare you."
"N-no," She glanced at Sasuke who gave her a blank look before turning around to dump the broken shards. "I... don't worry about it, Naruto."
"Why do you have to have another bowl anyways?" Sasuke sucked his teeth, somewhat annoyed as he watched his friend begin digging into another bowl. "You'd better not slow me down later on."
Another bowl was placed in front of Sasuke and he stared at it a moment before looking up at a bashful Hinata. With a slight bow of her head, she rubbed her cheek, which was still a bit flushed, and returned to cleaning various things. He looked at the bowl, understanding it to be a 'Thanks' kind of thing and reached for another pair of chopsticks.