Instead of the hero-idolization and female weakness that this manga subtlely advocates, I choose to wishfully interpret Katara's scream as her going into shock and having a mental breakdown after witnessing massive amounts of violence and death. Since Sakura has a history of mental instability (and yet somehow, she's saner than Sasuke and half the ninjas of the village), I can imagine her having a PTSD breakdown right there.

It's not weakness, it's a medical condition! So of course, in her state of shock, she calls out for the one person that has never failed her. He may have left her behind, but he always, always came back.

I'm kind of canonically in love with NaruSaku. I only ever want to write Kakasaku from here until I leave the fandom, but in canon I want Naruto and Sakura to be happy with their best partner and friend. What's cool to me, though, is how popular the pairing is, now. It used to be that there were only a few decent fics about it and hardly any quality fanart, but now it's one of the major pairings in the fandom. I think a lot of people drifted toward it post-time skip.