Disclaimer: I did not acquire the rights to Naruto since my last disclaimer.

Tsunade tapped her foot dangerously while glaring over her cup of "tea." Her voice was dangerously calm as she began. "Naruto, I would have expected this of, but I thought you had more sense, Kakashi."

"HEY!" Naruto protested while Kakashi remained as he was, hands casually stuffed in his pockets, uncovered eye expressionless.

"I thought we had adequately explained why we needed to surprise Kumo with shadow clones." he informed her lazily.

"But did you think of where you were doing it? Scaring a ninja in the middle of a market full of civilians! Civilians freak out when someone suddenly pulls a knife out and holds it to someone's throat."

"Uuhh." Kakashi responded intelligently.

"The idea seems like a good one, but do it somewhere else!" Tsunade was yelling by the end of her sentence, punctuating her words with slams of her fists on the desk.

Kakashi and Naruto began backing away slowly, wondering how many cups of "tea" she had had this morning.

"Now get out of here!"

With pleasure.

Kumo was walking away from the chaos that was the market at the moment, watching her feet scuffle through the dust, lost in her memories of scaring the civilians before she thought about what she was doing. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her upper arm, and without thinking, she spun around, driving a kunai through her attacker's abdomen before he dissolved into bugs. She stopped and ground her hands into her face. I can't do this.

"You can do this." Murmured a quiet voice beside her.

"So now your bugs read minds?"

"No. It was rather obvious what you were thinking. You tried to kill my bug clone, then showed obvious signs of frustration."

"It's still freaky." She grumbled.

Shino decided to ignore her comment and approach the root of the problem. "This is only the first day. It will take time to recondition your reflexes."

"I'm just so tired of having to be fixed. First healing my wounds from Iwa, curing my episodes, recovering from my stay in the desert, and now trying to fix my attempts to kill anyone who touched me."

"I know." He replied quietly. "I've been thinking. Perhaps training you to not kill anyone who touches you unexpectedly would go faster if we also got you more comfortable with being touched when you are expecting it. I assume that if I said 'Kumo, I'm going to put my hand on your shoulder,' you would still feel uncomfortable at the touch."

Kumo looked at the ground beside her left foot, answering Shino's question even without speaking.

"Kumo, I'm going to put my hand on your shoulder." He told her, then slowly extended his arm, maintaining eye contact with her as he brought his hand to touch her shoulder gently. She flinched at the contact like she had been expecting pain. He kept his hand there, never taking his eyes off of hers. "That wasn't awful, was it?"

"Nnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooo." Her word was drawn out, as though she was unsure.

"Kumo, I'm going to touch your other shoulder as well. I will not hurt you."

She swallowed as she watched his other hand begin its agonizingly slow journey through the air to rest on her shoulder. She couldn't stop her flinch and the closing of her eyes as it came into contact with her shoulder.

"Kumo. Look at me. It's alright. I promise I won't hurt you. Can you trust me?"

If she couldn't trust him, then she couldn't trust anyone. "Y-yes."

"Then trust me that while you are in Konoha, being touched will not hurt you. You are a part of Konoha, and we don't hurt one another." He gently squeezed her shoulders before releasing her. He looked at her for a moment before silently extending his hand again. This time, even without the verbal warning, she barely flinched when he touched her shoulder. "You are already making progress." He informed her.

She smiled her gratitude to him before her face returned to her normal expression. "So where are we going for lunch?" she asked, deciding a change of topic was safer.

One of his eyebrows crept up his forehead slightly. "What indication was given that I would be taking you to lunch?"

She rolled her eyes. "I don't have to be a mind reader to figure that one out. I just got out of the hospital for trying to kill myself. I'm not going to be left on my own anytime soon, you're the only one around, and it's lunch time. Therefore, you're going with me to lunch."

"You are correct in your deductions. Where would you like to go?"

When Kumo set her bowl down with a satisfied thunk, she caught Shino looking at her. "What?" she demanded.

"You have a piece of noodle stuck to your cheek. I am going to remove it." He slowly reached forward to brush his fingers against her cheek and remove the offending bit of noodle. He was pleased to note that her flinch was barely noticeable. Her skin is soft. He noticed, a little surprised. Why am I even noticing that? I need to focus on the task at hand. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a flash of orange, and the next moment Kumo was holding a kunai to the throat of Naruto's clone. But she hadn't killed it, Shino was pleased to note. "You are improving." Shino stated, nodding slightly. The orange eyesore grinned happily before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Naruto (the real him) grinned at Kakashi as his clone disappeared, transmitting the memory of not being killed to the original. "SHE DIDN'T KILL ME!" he cried happily.

"That is good, Naruto." The jounin replied. "But one time is not enough. We must keep her on her toes until she becomes accustomed to not attacking when touched."

"SHINO WAS HOLDING ON TO HER SHOULDERS EARLIER AND HE WIPED A NOODLE OFF HER FACE!"

"That is also improvement, but this is going to require more than one day."

"SHOULD I GO SPOOK HER AGAIN?"

"Not yet, wait until she lets her guard down."

"AWW!"

"You will have plenty of chances to startle her, I'm sure."

"WHY DID THEY HAVE TO GET RAMEN? WATCHING THEM EAT IT WHILE WAITING FOR A CHANCE TO STARTLE HER IS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT!"

"You can have ramen later." Kakashi responded habitually; he had pulled out his orange book and was reading it as he always did when Naruto steered the conversation to ramen.

"YOU'RE NO FUN!"

But reading Icha Icha Paradise is. Kakashi thought, ignoring his student.