Chapter 24: Reserved Recriminations

Naruto opened the door to Ruby's room with a quiet squeak, Blake padding silently behind him. Inside, Ren sat on a small plastic chair next to the white tile wall, hands folded neatly into his lap. Upon seeing Blake and Naruto, Ren nodded slightly.

"How are you feeling?" he asked Blake quietly, his concern discernible only to the attentive eye.

"I'm fine." Blake answered hushedly back, eyes drawn to Ruby's prone form. "Is she?..."

Ren turned back to Ruby. "She seems to be fine; from what the Doctor said, she still needs to rest for a week, and then she can resume classes as long as she doesn't strain herself for another two weeks."

"That's good." Naruto said, relieved. "Do you know if we can wake her up?"

Ren shrugged. "I suppose so; I'm no expert however. But she was awake earlier today, so I don't see why not. Aura acts as a natural painkiller, so she should be fine to just talk."

Naruto nodded. 'Shukaku?'

"Right! Reverse Sleeping Possum Jutsu!" Shukaku exclaimed to himself with a light cackle as Naruto pressed his hand on Ruby's forehead. Slowly, she awoke, if a bit bemused.

"What? What's going on?" she mumbled, looking around slowly. When she saw Ren, she smiled happily. "Oh, Ren! What time is it?"

"Just past ten." he answered softly, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"Oh." she hummed. "Why am I awake?"

"Because I thought I should speak with you all." Naruto said quietly from the door. Ruby turned, eyes widening.

"Naruto! You're back!" she smiled brightly. "How was your trip?"

Naruto smiled sadly. "I think that we need to talk more about what happened to you, than what happened to me."

Ruby frowned slightly. "You mean with Torchwick?"

Blake snarled quietly. "He means with the White Fang!" she hissed.

Naruto turned to her, frowning. "What I mean," he stressed, looking at all three of them, "Is that you were all hurt in battle."

Ren nodded. "Yes, we were."

Naruto continued, acknowledging Ren with the barest vestiges of a nod. "And I wasn't here to aid you in battle." he shook his head. "That was a mistake."

Ruby looked at him with a quiet shock, while Blake tapped her foot impatiently, and Ren smiled.

"As the leader of this team, I should be here to fight for you." Naruto said firmly, "And I should be here to decide what fights are worth fighting, and which ones are beyond us."

Ren spoke quietly in the silence. "We shouldn't have gone after the White Fang. They number in the thousands, and we were but three. We stood no chance, and even though we fought the barest fraction of their forces, we still put ourselves against them. And we lost because they were stronger than us."

Naruto nodded. "But that's not why you shouldn't have fought them."

Ren and Blake looked at him, confused. "But wasn't your problem with it that we started a fight we couldn't win?" Blake asked, confused by his apparent sudden reversal in opinion.

"No." Naruto spoke, "Sometimes, even if there is no hope of victory, you must fight. But in this case, you didn't need to fight. The Headmaster was here, the Professors, and there are countless professional Huntsmen and Huntresses in Vale. You could have called on any of these resources to fight in your stead, which is their responsibility. And they would have won, where you lost."

Ren nodded, understanding. Blake however, was not as understanding.

"What do you mean?!" she hissed, "You would have preferred us to do nothing?!"

Naruto sighed, palming his face as Ruby looked between Blake and him confusedly. "I didn't say that. I would have preferred if you'd gone to the proper authorities before leaping into action on your own. Heavens know I haven't always done that, but in my experience, asking for proper help, and getting permission often is best. You have a much higher chance of success."

Blake growled, eyes flashing bright. "You know nothing of the pain the Faunus go through! They would have been killed by Huntsmen! I HAD to do it myself!"

Naruto turned to her, eyes drawn into a fearsome scowl. But before he could launch into another tirade, Ruby interjected.

"Blake, that's not true! They were bad guys, the Huntresses and Huntsmen would have taken them to jail!"

Blake glared at Ruby with contempt. "They're not the 'bad guys', Ruby. They're simply misguided. It's childlike to look at it that black and white."

Ruby frowned, and Naruto spoke up, wrath vanished. "Blake… they're not just misguided. Despite my lack of knowledge on them, I know enough to say that anyone who puts three teenagers into the hospital, one of them in critical condition, aren't good people."

Blake shook her head. "They might have gone a bit far, but they've just been driven to this by the abuse and mistreatment from humans!"

Naruto shrugged. "That doesn't change that if you don't want people to believe that you're an animal, you shouldn't behave like a rabid dog. If you do, someone will put you down."

Blake growled again, backing into a corner. "I should have known you wouldn't care." she sneered, "It's not like you're any different! If you're not actively trying to stop the racism, then you're a part of the problem!"

Naruto glared at her, finally finished. "Fine. You say this is your responsibility? I'll let you take care of it." Ren looked at him in surprise, but before he could ask, Naruto kept speaking. "On one condition. You need to beat me in the sparring ring."

Blake snorted. "Why? I don't need to do what you want. I have more important things to do than to fight a privileged human in a school." she disparaged.

Naruto turned his full body towards her. "If you try to leave Beacon's grounds without defeating me first, I will drag you back personally."

"You really think you can stop me?" Blake scoffed. "You? You might have a weird eye Semblance, and be fast, but you can't watch me everywhere."

Naruto sighed. "I had intended to apologize to you all, and beg you to let me be your leader." he ruminated aloud. "But it appears that you don't think this was a mistake. Until you understand that you shouldn't have sought this fight, we won't understand each other."

Ruby spoke up quietly. "Naruto… I understand. You're right. We aren't Huntresses yet. It was stupid of us to go fight Torchwick alone. But with you, we can take him!"

Naruto turned to her, eyes searching. "Oh?"

Ruby nodded vigorously. "Yeah! You're really strong!" she turned to Blake and Ren. "Guys, I'm being serious. Naruto… he's probably as strong as my dad. He's more powerful than all of us together. He'd have easily fought off Torchwick."

Blake snorted scornfully. "Hero worship and naivety."

Naruto turned to her, a glint in Obito's eyes. "Oh? Well, if you can defeat me tomorrow, then you can leave. Sound fair? But if you can't, you stay here for a week, training, and then you can fight me again. Once you win, you can leave and hunt the White Fang. Sound fair?"

Blake was caught; either she could take back her scorn, or she could fight. "Sure." she waved him off.

"I hope you are. Because I will not let you leave." Naruto spoke, sure of his victory. He turned to Ruby and Ren. "And that goes for you two as well. No hunting down terrorists until you can best me in combat, or until I deem you ready. And if you see a fight in Vale when you're down there, I want you to go get help. Not fight."

Ruby pouted, and Ren nodded, speaking up. "That seems fair. I'm glad you're starting to behave like a leader."

Naruto sighed. "I truly am sorry, to all of you. I promise you, I will make it up to you. Blake, even if we disagree about this, I truly want to be your friend. I will do my best to be a good friend, and a great leader for you all."

Ruby smiled happily. "Well, the fight couldn't have been all bad then!"

When Naruto looked to her in confusion, she explained. "It brought you back to us." she explained, happy.

Naruto smiled tiredly. "Well, I guess that's true. I think we should all go back to our rooms now, we have a big day tomorrow."

Ren nodded. "I agree." Blake grunted to herself, sliding through the doorway back to her hospital room, and Naruto and Ren both bid Ruby good night, before heading back to their dorm, preparing for the next day.

AN:

A nice short chapter. Sorry for the abstinence from writing, everyone. I've been a bit busy; I've had the distinct pleasure of working more than 60 hours last week, and the week before. Fortunately, I only worked 50 hours the week before that. But I had today off, so I'm writing this to let you all know I'm still alive.

Next chapter, Blake vs Naruto. We all know how that's going to go down, so don't expect it to be long.

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