To Have a Mother [Hiatus]

Episode Twelve: Proud of You

After their first B-rank mission was completed and the ninja were compensated for their job well done, the two squads made their way back to the village first thing in the morning. It was a dark and cloudy day, but nothing could ruin the sweet taste of victory.

"We did great!" Naruto smiled proudly, walking with his arms crossed behind his head.

"You sure did!" Kurenai agreed, congratulating the genin. "All of you did great work yesterday!"

"Thank you," Hinata replied bashfully.

"We were pretty awesome," Kiba nodded, grinning as his dog nestled into his hair.

While the others were soaking up their sensei's praise and celebrating a job well done, Sasuke couldn't help but notice Sakura being awfully quiet. She was dragging behind with her arms rigid at her sides. He couldn't see her eyes but her cheeks were reddening. Sasuke didn't know what was running through her head, but he was sure it was... explosive.

"Shut up!"

There it was. Sasuke slowly inched away from her, and everyone else paused and turned to face her.

"What's wrong, Sakura?" Naruto asked her, gently putting a hand to her head. "Whoa, you're all red! You getting sick?"

Sakura huffed and slapped Naruto's hand away. "Why didn't you just follow the plan?"

"Are you still angry about that?" Naruto asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Why does it matter? Everything worked out."

It mattered because Sakura had spent two hours constructing a plan in which she had a significant part of, and she never got to execute it. Naruto screwed everything up, stole the spotlight, and the mission was over in five minutes. She wouldn't have made a difference if she hadn't come at all.

"There was no certainty that your plan would work!" Sakura argued. "It was Plan B for a reason!"

"I understand your point," Naruto replied, "but there was no guarantee Plan A would have worked either."

"Children..." Kunai tried, but Kakashi shook his head and pulled her back.

"Trust me, you don't want to get in the middle of that," Sasuke told her.

The rest of the genin backed up as well.

"Yeah, because you screwed it up!" The kunoichi retorted. "You're so annoying, and impulsive. I mean, what jōnin can't sense a kunai? How stupid can you be?"

"They already knew we were there!" Naruto shouted. "The kid pulled one over on all of us. Neither plan would have worked out, okay?"

"What if it was a mission with real danger, huh?" Sakura said, rubbing her temples. "What if you pulled something like that, exposed us all, and we got hurt or worse? Are you really that braindead or just self-centered?"

As unkind as Sakura had said it, everyone, including Naruto, found truth to her words. Sakura found satisfaction as Naruto seemed to have lost his words, and even more so as their peers began to chime in.

"Um," Kiba spoke tentatively, "she's kind of right. What if this was real, all of them were jōnin, and they overpowered us because we lacked a real strategy?"

"Yes," Shino agreed, "without the advantages of surprise and reason, in another scenario, we could have been done for."

Naruto looked to Hinata for her input, but like last time, she reddened and looked away, fiddling with her fingers.

"P-Please don't l-look at me like that, Naruto..." she said softly. "I... can't help you right now... I'm not mad... b-but I agree. I-I'm sorry."

Naruto was disappointed Hinata could no longer stand up for him, but he understood why and was thankful she spoke at all.