Proof. Is that all he'd need? Proof shown to him by someone else, proof that could be falsified -
- no, she's not being fair, is she? He'd look into it himself. She has to believe that she knows him that well at least -
- does she? Does she have to believe it? In his world, his shadow techniques were normal, Ino's mind-and-body swapping techniques were normal, and Shino turned his body into a feeding ground for thousands of bugs. He was smart, impossibly brilliant, and she'd long-since learned how easily strategists can view others as pieces, and not as human beings, or as friends. She'd been so wrong before...
I can't let fear determine who I'll trust.
A handful of heartbeats later, as Katara reviews their every interaction. If she's wrong about him, then she hasn't just trusted him with her own secrets - she's trusted him with her friends', with combat information on all the people she's observed...
And that's possible. It's possible that she's wrong. She stares that possibility straight in the face for a long moment, inspects it from every angle... and then dismisses it.
There's just no reason to believe it. If he wanted to lie to her, surely he'd lie to her now, say something a little more palatable, instead of the honest soul-searching she'd just witnessed.
[ action ]
Proof. Is that all he'd need? Proof shown to him by someone else, proof that could be falsified -
- no, she's not being fair, is she? He'd look into it himself. She has to believe that she knows him that well at least -
- does she? Does she have to believe it? In his world, his shadow techniques were normal, Ino's mind-and-body swapping techniques were normal, and Shino turned his body into a feeding ground for thousands of bugs. He was smart, impossibly brilliant, and she'd long-since learned how easily strategists can view others as pieces, and not as human beings, or as friends. She'd been so wrong before...
I can't let fear determine who I'll trust.
A handful of heartbeats later, as Katara reviews their every interaction. If she's wrong about him, then she hasn't just trusted him with her own secrets - she's trusted him with her friends', with combat information on all the people she's observed...
And that's possible. It's possible that she's wrong. She stares that possibility straight in the face for a long moment, inspects it from every angle... and then dismisses it.
There's just no reason to believe it. If he wanted to lie to her, surely he'd lie to her now, say something a little more palatable, instead of the honest soul-searching she'd just witnessed.
...that doesn't make it any less horrible.]
I'm sorry, Shikamaru.