This is shorter than usual, sorry! Blame writers' block and laziness and Bleach! ^.^ I'm now on episode 168! Heheh...

Disclaimer- Nope. I don't think I even own Koko. o.O I didn't sign papers. But please don't steal her! She's my Koko!

Kokoro- "Call me that and you'll die. And I do not belong to anyone!"

ShikaNaru- "So hurtful...so hurtful..."

**WARNING: THE EXPLANATIONS IN THIS CHAPPIE SUCK! Really, looking back on them, they're horrible. I'll add in some humor regarding Koko's around chappie 15. I honestly wouldn't blame you if you dropped this fic cuz of them. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**

MAJOR EDIT COMPLETE

KOKORO: SOUL, HEART

Tsunade wasn't one to meddle in things that didn't concern her, but at the same time she hated the broken ninja that so often returned from missions. It didn't help that she was the one to send them on the missions that shattered their minds either. Still, she tried not to mess with them. She couldn't afford to give a certain few special treatment and it's not like it affected their performance. That being said, she took one look into Kokoro Haratsuchi's eyes and knew immediately that the kid was more broken than some of the poor souls in ANBU, and after reading her file she understood why. Obviously she had been a fragile pane of glass, and after being forced to kill her only anchor she shattered. The gambling Hokage had no idea how to fix her up again and so she called the one and only master of therapy jutsu- aka, beating the sense back into someone (literally in most cases)- Naruto Uzamaki.

Luckily, the master had just returned and so Tsunade set him up, ahem, coincidentally assigned him a random and semi-pointless three week long mission, with Kokoro.

But, since she never got lucky and bad things happened when she did, she was wary.

What was going to go wrong?

Of course she was pondering the issue when a thoroughly horrified looking girl and thoughtful boy entered her office slowly. Looking up, she nearly choked on the gulp of sake she had just taken.

Naruto was looking thoughtful.

Dear god, the apocalypse had begun.

OOooOOooOO

"So you're telling me that this Tobi, a member of the Akatsuki and therefore most likely insanely powerful, ran away from a jinchuuriki, the very thing they're after, and a Chunin with apparent anger management issues and overprotective tendencies?"

"Eh, yeah, more or less," Naruto said, avoiding Tsunade's eyes.

Silence.

"Bullshit. Now tell me what really happened before I-"

"But that is-"

"Don't interrupt me, brat! You're leaving something out; I'm not an idiot!"

"Lady Hokage," Kokoro said softly, effectively drawing attention to herself. "That's technically what happened,"

"Technically?" Tsunade asked harshly, causing her to wince.

"…"

"…"

"One of you tell me what happened, or so help me-oh," suddenly her voice got a lot gentler. "So you used it,"

"Yes, Lady Hokage, I did. It wasn't intentional and I apologize. Whatever punishment you see fit, I will readily accept-"

"Oh for the love of- be quiet!" Tsunade yelled, glaring at an astonished Kokoro. "Punishment? Why would I punish you? You managed to catch the Akatsuki off guard and protect Konoha's jinchuuriki and number one, hyperactive, knuckle-headed ninja! And you managed to control yourself-"

"Not really," she muttered.

"Did you say something? No? Good. As I was saying, you did well. You may not be able to boss her around yet, but this is the first time in ten years you've even established any sort of contact, correct?" the Hokage paused, allowing Kokoro to nod dazedly. "So good job. Maybe in the future you can use her at will,"

Kokoro's eyes widened dramatically.

"What? No! I'm never going to use her again! Lady Hokage, do you know how that could end? It would be-"

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Naruto burst, looking between the women. Kokoro paled, glancing pleadingly at Tsunade. When she wasn't any help, she tried desperately to change the subject.

"Well… what's a jinchuuriki?"

"Hey, I asked first!"

"So? I'm your superior! Answer me!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"I don't have to tell you anything!"

"Considering you put my life in danger, I think I have the right to know why they were after you!"

"I'm pretty sure you put my life in danger too when you almost went after him!"

"What? I told you to run back to the village! It's not my fault you didn't listen!"

"You're just lucky I called you 'Koko' or you'd be dead!"

"Something we still haven't talked about…" Kokoro said with an evil glint in her eyes.

"You owe me!"

"Do not! You caused the whole situation!"

"Oh, what's this I found? I long list of D-ranks?" Tsunade asked innocently, inwardly reveling at the speed that they quieted down. "Now, Kokoro, you're going to tell Naruto. After she's done, you're going to tell her what a jinchuuriki is. Deal? Good. Begin," she said, clasping her hands in front of her and ignoring the betrayed and dismayed looks she was receiving.

"You know most of the story. My dad killed my mom, brother, and older sister before kidnapping me at performing a jutsu on me. In actuality, he sealed a… well… a nature spirit of sorts into me. Don't look at me like that. Stationed at each point of the village- north, south, east, and west- there are one of these spirits. When my father was saved by one he became obsessed. The ANBU was dragged in on the order of the Third Hokage to assist him in his research and long story short, spirit north and west had an affair and spirit northwest was born. Utterly fascinated with the young spirit (the others were thousands of years old) he tried to make a deal with the others. If he could find a suitable companion, they would allow her to socialize or something- I'm not really sure. Over the course of two years, unknown to the ANBU, he exposed my whole family to small amounts of her chakra. I got sick the least, so my father assumed I was most compatible. The other spirits, however, disagreed and refused to let my father even see their daughter again. This prompted him to lose his mind, or maybe he was already long gone, and do the things he did. The jutsu- he forced-"

"Gin-me..."

"The spirit, Midori, was sealed into me," she whispered, looking like she wanted to bolt out of the room. "Of course, with my luck, Midori is somewhat of a rebel and enjoys fighting and pain and has no good emotions from my very few and very brief encounters with her. When I was saved by Kakashi Hatake, yes, the irony of the world, he was too late to prevent the sealing. My ex-clan, worried for their safety, kicked me out, offering to let Takara stay. She refused and the rest is history,"

Tsunade looked at Kokoro sympathetically before snapping at Naruto, "Brat! Your turn!"

"Um, but-"

"No buts!"

"I'm a little confused about-"

"You can ask her questions on you own time! Explain your story, now!"

"Fine," he grumbled. "A jinchuuriki is someone who contains one of the nine tailed-beasts inside of them. I have the Nine Tailed Fox sealed in my stomach. He's big, angry, and likes to kill people. His power is unimaginable and people hate me because they think I'll eat them. Can we leave now?"

"Uh…"

"Please do! I have important paperwork to complete!"

OMAKE NO JUTSU!

As Naruto trudged to his apartment, he sighed heavily. It had been three days since the rather rushed explanations had transpired and he hadn't seen even a glimpse of Kokoro. This normally would've bothered him a lot less, but he was worried that she was avoiding because she was afraid of his judgment. Silently, he scoffed. He had the Nine-Tails in his freaking stomach and she had a rebellious nature spirit from fairy tales. Did she really think he cared? Not that he thought it was any less serious or dangerous, from what he'd seen Hidori could control thorn covered vines from hell with little more than a thought, and that was while Kokoro was still mostly in charge.

Lost in thought, he barely noticed as he arrived at his apartment, absently wandering in the kitchen to make instant ramen despite the fact that he just came from Ichiraku's.

He was snapped out of his reverie a few minutes later when a resounding knock echoed through his desolate apartment.

"One minute!" he called, wondering who it could be; not many people came to visit. When he opened the door however, he almost tripped over his own feet in shock.

"I just wanted to say hi to my new neighbor- wow! Would you look at that? Naruto, it's you! What a coincidence!" Kokoro exclaimed cheerfully.

"Wh-what? You-how did you- new neighbor?" he squeaked.

"Yup! I moved in a couple of hours ago. Well isn't this great! Now we can talk whenever we want! Well, I have to go unpack, see you later!" she beamed, and, with a cheery wave, she disappeared into the apartment on his left.

"Wa-wait!" he stuttered, trying to process what had just happened. When he did, he immediately rushed to the apartment an shrieked as he threw open the door, "Stalker!"

"What? Oh, you want to help me unpack? What a gentleman,"

"Huh? No! I said you're a stalker!"

"What's wrong?" she asked, suddenly getting a creepy smile on her face. "You don't want me to live next to you where I can see you and follow your every move and stare at you while you sleep and break into your apartment when I think something's wrong and look at you through the window when you go to train and tag along when you go to Ichiraku's?"

"I-I'm go-going to go take a na-nap now. Okay, bye!" he yelped, speeding back to his apartment.

"Okay then, sleep tight!" Kokoro sung, chuckling evilly.

"Oh god I'm going to die, she's crazy, she's going to watch me sleep, oh god I'm dead…" he moaned, sliding down against his now closed and locked door.

But slowly, a smile grew onto his face. Maybe-

"No! My ramen! The inhumanity! Why? Why do the ramen gods hate me?"

Yeah, short chappie, don't kill me. And a little anti-climatic, no? Oh, and the therapy-jutsu was stolen from... someone. I can't remember who, but it was a time-travel fic. I think it was called 'It's For a Good Cause, I Swear!' but I'm not sure so I'm sorry!

Feedback please! :D

On a lighter note, thank you, (Guest) Akira, for your kind words! If only everone other than you and mg4of6 had the same inspiration to review! (HINT-FREAKING-HINT)

Adios until next time!