Naruto groaned as his jumbled mind cross-analyzed what happened and why. Even if he had all of the reasons in the world...it didn't change the fact that the masked bastard had the chance to hurt his friends again.
"...Naruto."
The blond stopped his thinking process for a moment to look at young girl next to him.
She was giving him a frown.
"...You can't go on thinking like this Naruto. You can't blame yourself for every little misstep that you make or every little accident that occurs along the way." Mio reprimanded quietly.
Naruto merely shook his head.
She didn't understand...she couldn't understand how close it was.
He can't afford to make mistakes. If he failed, then people he cared about would suffer...
"Naruto! Listen to me!"
The shinobi snapped his attention back to the red-head, shocked at how she raised her voice to grab his notice.
She placed her hand on his chest.
"I don't know what you are dealing with right now Naruto...I'm not sure I can ever understand to be honest...but I do know this. That you are human Naruto...!" Mio said, a plea laced in her voice for the blond to listen to her words.
He did.
"Humans make mistakes...they do stupid things that defy logic...they fail. But you can't obsess over every one of those missteps right? But there is something that you can do...something that I believe my foolish...foolish brother is really good at."
She then smiled at him, a gesture that revealed her trust in him.
"Doing his absolute best to make sure that he doesn't make the same mistake again. Isn't that right?" Mio asked rhetorically, knowing the answer before she even asked.
...
"You're right. You don't really understand what I'm dealing with." Naruto responded quietly, eyes still looking past her and staring at something conjured in his head.
An image of a crater...where his home once stood.
He sighed.
Then the shinobi turned to face a worried younger sister.
"...But I really shouldn't be moaning and bitching about something that happened right? Instead...I should be making sure that I don't make that mistake again." Naruto said finally, a grin making it's way to his face.
Mio returned his grin with one of her own, pleased that his good mood was returning.
Right...the bonds he forged in this new world was new and untested. But bonds in general weren't one-way streets...they were two-way.
Just as he had to help them, they were there to help him in return.
Looks like he forgot about that after having to help his new friends for so long. Man...being without comrades for so long messed him up in an important way huh...?
"...Look at you. Who knew that my little sister would be lecturing me? Ah...how time flies eh?" Naruto teased, a sly smirk making it's way to his face.
Mio just pouted a little bit. Now feeling annoyed at how quickly he switched personas.
"Well, I gotta learn something from all of your talks after all of this time. Although I didn't do anything serious, someone just needed to give you a reminder of what's really important. That's all."
The young half-devil then preceded to scratch her cheek slightly, a bashful gesture.
"I'm actually a little happy that you messed up."
The blond gave her an incredulous look. How could she be happy that he messed up? It wasn't exactly a good thing that the masked guy got away by any standard.
Seeing his expression, Mio decided to elaborate.
"You seemed so...infallible to me before now. So much so, that a part of me thought that you were some sort of demi-god instead of a regular human. But now, knowing that you can make mistakes too helps me see you as a regular person." the red-head claimed, slightly embarrassed that she admitted that.
She couldn't help but look up to him, see him as something greater than she was. It was inevitable, seeing how he seemingly handled every issue that was dealt to him without much trouble.
But she shouldn't.
When you looked up to someone, sometimes you can't help but place them on a pedestal. When they are on that pedestal...you want them to live up to your expectations and ideals, even if they are thoroughly unreasonable and unfair.
You would be seeing them in their ideal selves instead of their real selves.
When they don't meet those ideals and expectations, then you feel betrayed and disappointed, despite how selfish your expectations could be.
For Naruto, her expectations could have easily swelled to the belief that he was guaranteed to never fail at something he put his mind to. A guarantee that when he fought an enemy or faced a difficult situation, that he would always prevail. No matter how difficult the battle was.
A very nice and comfortable fairy tale. One that would ease her mind and heart. Allow her to live the life she wanted to, without truly facing any of the consequences.
But completely and thoroughly unfair, as she'd be placing a heavy burden onto him.
She didn't want to do that to Naruto.
The young red-head shrugged her shoulders. "Besides, whoever this guy is...I'm sure that you'll get him eventually. You're just stubborn like that."
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