But he couldn't.
Whether he liked to admit it or not...he was more affected by the day's trials than he liked to admit.
From the fact that hostile people made their way inside a secure barrier...
To the fact that this devil could hide his energy signal from the blond...
To the fact that this guy nearly killed two of his friends...
To those eyes...
He shook his head, willing the thoughts of the day to go away.
He'd deal with them later. Now he needed some rest for when Rias-san came back...they had a lot to talk about.
"...Naruto?"
Naruto turned his head to regard his pseudo-sister.
"...What's up Mio? Can't sleep?" the shinobi asked quietly, not wishing to wake anyone else up.
Said half-devil shifted her feet, clearly uncomfortable. Glancing at him and then turning away the second they made eye-contact.
The blond raised an eyebrow. What was up with her?
"Um, Naruto...is it possible that I can...well...you know?" the red-head mumbled, tripping over her words repeatedly.
Naruto squinted his eyes at her, not understanding why she was having trouble asking him something.
"Oh come on Mio. You should know that I'm not gonna bite by now. Say what you want to say."
Mio bit her lip, drudging up the courage to ask something embarrassing from her 'brother'.
"...Can I sleep with you?"
...
"...Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
Mio was as red as a tomato as she frantically shook her head in denial. "No no no! That's not what I meant! I meant if...I can rest in the same bed as you. Just for tonight."
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief at that, she almost gave him a heart attack...
"Now why would you want to do that, Mio?" Naruto asked reasonably, figuring that she had a good reason for it.
The half-devil looked down at her feet. "...I had a nightmare. Hard to sleep by myself."
The blond's eyes softened.
That's right...she's not entirely used to this kind of lifestyle, right? She's only been involved with the ever-present danger of the supernatural world for...what? A year?
About a year ago, the worse thing she probably had to worry about was her homework and tests, not death threats.
"...Yeah. You can sleep with me." Naruto responded with a smile.
Then his eyes widened.
"I meant...uh...the safe sleeping of course. Not the...you know...other one."
Mio just gave him a small smile of gratitude, gracefully ignoring his misstep, before slowly walking up to him and snuggling into his futon on the floor.
He made sure to give her a spare pillow as well as some space, but the futon was quite small...so he didn't exactly have much space to give.
This led to the somewhat uncomfortable situation of the 'siblings' being too close to one another.
But the blond didn't mind too much.
He then turned back to what he was doing, still wishing to fall asleep...but having trouble doing so.
"Naruto...got something on your mind too?" the red-head asked, she was peering at him from half-lidded eyes from her comfortable position.
The shinobi shrugged, unsure if she saw the gesture or not, but nevertheless continued.
"I guess you could say that...I made a lot of mistakes today." the blond mumbled quietly, narrowed eyes staring into the darkness.
Mio tilted her head, unsure of what he could be referring to. "From what you told us, you've made nothing but the best decisions in a pretty bad situation...so I'm not too sure what you're talking about."
Naruto gave her a slightly bitter smile, he forgot to mention it in all of the commotion didn't he?
"I guess...I just feel like I failed. That masked guy...I doubt that what I did to him will stop him, if anything...it probably just made everyone here into a target for that sick bastard. But that could've been avoided if I just finished him off after I hit him with my attack...after I made sure that Issei and Asia-san were ok." Naruto said quietly, stewing in his mistake.
"...Why? Why didn't you finish him off if you had the chance to? Help me understand." the younger girl whispered, wishing to understand what has the blond in such a mood.
Blue eyes connected with pink.
Then the blond sighed.
"...When I managed to stop that guy's attack, I was intensely aware of just how close I was to not getting there in time...if I was even a split-second later then Issei and Asia-san would've died. Add in the fact that I was already spooked by this guy's abilities and to what happened to that woman..." Naruto trailed off, eyes gazing past the ceiling as if he was in a trance.
Mio decided to wait, allow him to take his time. He needed this.
Then he finally took a deep breath and continued.
"To be blunt, I was afraid for their safety. So hyper-aware of my near-fail that...I didn't even consider going after this masked guy seriously at all. I felt like...that I barely lucked out at saving those two, that just trying to push that luck by doing anything to finish him off would damn them. I know it sounds stupid...hell...it sounds stupid to me too...but I wasn't thinking properly at the time." the blond admitted shakily, the frustration beginning to get to him.
How could he have made such a mistake in the middle of a battle? He should be better than this. He was better than this!
...Or was he?
Back in the Elemental Nations...he always fought alongside people that were at the very least near his level or above it. He never really had to worry about protecting someone weak by himself, especially when he was part of a squad.
Even Sakura-chan, who wasn't exactly the strongest shinobi back when they were kids...could at least stall enemies long enough with the jutsus that she knew at the time.
But Issei and Asia-san...hell...most of his new friends and allies weren't like that.
They weren't on his level.
They didn't have too many ways to get out of immediate danger.
If they fought someone stronger...then that pretty much meant that they were going to die.
To put it simply, maybe he just wasn't used to worrying about the well-beings of his comrades to such a degree before. To the point that when he almost failed in protecting them, that his entire approach to the situation was to protect Issei and Asia-san and to ignore any other objective.
To him at the time, the masked man wasn't worth the effort, even to spare a single second to make a clone.
What mattered was that they were alive to fight and laugh another day.
...But it was still a stupid mistake, especially when he was used to keeping his cool in the middle of a fight.
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