The Official Haruno Sakura thread

[RezzieThaRapper]

I agree. But to me the real kick to the daddybags was the right after she wussed out. When she was suddenly like..

"I'll just trust Naruto to handle everything. (Since I've apparently learned nothing)"

That was brutal. Because it's not just that she failed it's that she failed AND did not gain a single bit of wisdom from it. She was placed right back at square one and leagues away from a point where she could be in any way helpful to Naruto.

But even that could have been fixed during the full week between their return to the village and Naruto's trip to turtle island. The perfect opportunity to try and fix what got broken, should Kishimoto want to do that, but he did not. Then Naruto gets sent off to turtle Island with the Yamato, Guy, and...the freakin' sunglasses guy! She should have gone along on that arc; and nobody can tell me that "if she was there she couldn't have been part of the war" because Guy was both places.

That was her time to step up and Kishimoto for some unimaginable reason decided to supplant her with....Killer Bee.

(There is not a single person on god's green earth I hate more than whatever moron gave Kishimoto a Jay-Z album for Christmas.)

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It's certainly true that, as long as her Sasuke infatuation holds, it's a bit hard to like her since she appears to value Sasuke (selfish murderous emo brat) equal to or above the level she values Naruto (faithful and valiant but possibly stupid man of the year candidate). That's not going to endear her to people.....because it seems dumb.

If she were actually developed and given a reason for liking Sasuke maybe it would seem less dumb, like with Karen. Problem is..WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY SHE LIKES SASUKE!!!!!!

It was never explained! Which drives me completely insane! How could that never have been explained? How is that even possible!?

Probably wasn't a Jay-Z album...

In fact it was most likely the Wu-Tang Clan's (who also happen to be very much into anime and martial arts movies) 1998 album "The Swarm" as that one had a track on it called "Killa Beez" and it goes hard...

But yea I see your point... lol

[kkck]

Well, there really shouldn't be a reason for her to specifically like sasuke in a special way. I mean, does that even work that way? My main issue here is that sakura should have every reason to hate sasuke's guts and want to punch them out of him herself. Sasuke is a criminal, a murderer and a terrorist. He attacked the kage summit and tried to kill her ass with a chidori. On top of that the last time he met sasuke he promised to destroy the village and kill naruto himself. Sakura's actual attraction to sasuke takes the whole thing about girls liking badboys and girls liking douchebags to the absolute most impossible level of overwhelming stupidity imaginable. We are talking about a 16 year old not being able to get over her crush from when she was 12, she was borderline prepubescent at the time. If logic worked at any level in the manga, by now sakura would not even remember sasuke's name and would prefer (like everyone else) if he ended up in prison with other murderers and terrorists. I mean, it shoudn't even matter if sasuke suddenly turns good and saves the world, he is already a criminal and should end up locked away for it. And of course, naruto is just about as much of a moron except the whole thing is a little queerer. If the manga keeps going the way it is then odds are everyone in the world is somehow going to end up ignoring sasuke is a horrible person and criminal and once he ends up with sakura we are going to see an enraged naruto rasenganing his ass while screaming "IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU THEN MOTHERFUCKING NO ONE CAN". Afterwards he keeps sasuke's body in a number of jars and eats sakura.

[Googlez_kun]

Well, there really shouldn't be a reason for her to specifically like sasuke in a special way. I mean, does that even work that way? My main issue here is that sakura should have every reason to hate sasuke's guts and want to punch them out of him herself. Sasuke is a criminal, a murderer and a terrorist. He attacked the kage summit and tried to kill her ass with a chidori. On top of that the last time he met sasuke he promised to destroy the village and kill naruto himself. Sakura's actual attraction to sasuke takes the whole thing about girls liking badboys and girls liking douchebags to the absolute most impossible level of overwhelming stupidity imaginable. We are talking about a 16 year old not being able to get over her crush from when she was 12, she was borderline prepubescent at the time. If logic worked at any level in the manga, by now sakura would not even remember sasuke's name and would prefer (like everyone else) if he ended up in prison with other murderers and terrorists. I mean, it shoudn't even matter if sasuke suddenly turns good and saves the world, he is already a criminal and should end up locked away for it. And of course, naruto is just about as much of a moron except the whole thing is a little queerer. If the manga keeps going the way it is then odds are everyone in the world is somehow going to end up ignoring sasuke is a horrible person and criminal and once he ends up with sakura we are going to see an enraged naruto rasenganing his ass while screaming "IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU THEN MOTHERFUCKING NO ONE CAN". Afterwards he keeps sasuke's body in a number of jars and eats sakura.

Best part of the post.
Anyhow, I agree. The problem the manga has is that when reading the recent chapters you get the feeling that Sakura,Sasuke and Naruto have been friends for years, while in reality they were a team for several weeks at most, making the whole chain of events totally ridiculous and surreal. Even though I do somewhat understand Naruto's actions, as Sasuke was his very first friend after 12 years of loneliness(this must've left some kinda trauma), Sakura's way of thinking is absolutely incomprehensible. If Sasuke actually ever showed any particular interest in her and they got along well for several months, I would understand that she always keeps a tiny piece of hope in her heart, but as you already mentioned, Sasuke was a mere crush. A cool guy every girl likes. But nothing more than that.

[kkck]

I think it was more than a few weeks lol. I would argue it was anytime between 6 months and 1 year. When the manga started they were 12 years old and considering it was a 2 year timeskip and they were 15 after it then right before the timeskip they must have been 13. I doubt kakashi would decide to send them to the chunnin exam if he had only been their teacher for a few weeks. Kakashi is supposed to teach them, a chunnin is supposed to be a ninja capable of standing on his own which I doubt a bunch of gennin with a few weeks worth of training would achieve.

[Googlez_kun]

I think it was more than a few weeks lol. I would argue it was anytime between 6 months and 1 year. When the manga started they were 12 years old and considering it was a 2 year timeskip and they were 15 after it then right before the timeskip they must have been 13. I doubt kakashi would decide to send them to the chunnin exam if he had only been their teacher for a few weeks. Kakashi is supposed to teach them, a chunnin is supposed to be a ninja capable of standing on his own which I doubt a bunch of gennin with a few weeks worth of training would achieve.

Oh yeah,you're right. Still, it doesn't feel like it at all. Kishi should've spend more time developing them as a team pre-chunin exams. While it's true they had their fair share of time together, it was off-screen, so almost ignored you could say, making recent events ridiculous with or without that fact.

[Sakura Hime]

Hello everyone!

There is going to be an interview with Kishimoto-sama next week. And it's about SAKURA!!!! Shannaro!!!!!

I'll keep you posted with a rough translation when it comes out!

Yosha!!!

PS. Don't give high expectations, it's gonna be a VERY short interview. =(

[M3J]

We don't know if Sasuke was just a crush. I think he was before the team formed, but after they formed and Sakura got to know Sasuke more and see him in action, it may have turned to love. It's like how seeing Naruto in action made her respect Naruto, being with Sasuke may have made her fall in love. Ino and the other girls have no excuse, however, with the exception of Karin, unless they've hung out with Sasuke for a long while like Sakura did.

[Impossibility]

We don't know if Sasuke was just a crush. I think he was before the team formed, but after they formed and Sakura got to know Sasuke more and see him in action, it may have turned to love. It's like how seeing Naruto in action made her respect Naruto, being with Sasuke may have made her fall in love. Ino and the other girls have no excuse, however, with the exception of Karin, unless they've hung out with Sasuke for a long while like Sakura did.

Sakura has no excuse whatsoever for her feelings. She's more aware than the others of the full extent of Sasuke's crimes. There's also that matter of attempting to end her life. Some guy attempts to end your life, so you decide to whine about him some more. No. What do you do? You train, train, and train some more, until you can beat the living f*** out of him. You are a beast, find some way to rip him limb from limb, or at least encourage someone else to do so.

[M3J]

Or rather, uphold your promise to a friend to help him bring back that person. Sakura's made promise to Naruto, twice, that they'd bring back Sasuke together, and now she's leaving it all up to Naruto. LIke, wtfbbq? The Sakura of early Part II would keep training and getting better, not just let Naruto do all the work.

But, I guess it's similar to how Luke thought Anakin still had good in him. Though in this case, the fact that she tried to kill Sasuke means she lost hope, but she just can't kill someone she loves.

[kkck]

Well, sakura helping get back sasuke is a bit of a tough topic at least within the context of the manga. Sakura does not have the fighting skills to survive or even help in a fight against sasuke. The fact of the matter is that sasuke is simply that strong. In turn, nothing sakura says even gets to sasuke, let alone get through to him. Naruto on the other hand conveniently leeches strength and power from the kyubi and learned sage mode which only he could learn because he is so perfect (perhaps even about as perfect as sasuke) so he has the tools to deal with him. On top of that, naruto is someone who sasuke acknowledges for his strength and for is pain. Even if sakura had the will to actually do something about sasuke, there is nothing she can do. By manga standards she was so desperate to do something that she attempted to kill sasuke (which is by far the most sensible thing anyone has ever done in the manga) only to have naruto talk her against that.

For sakura to be able to do something here she needs something, anything really, that would effectively allow her to either get through sasuke or be able to hold her ground in a fight. How could she ever attempt to do that if kishi became oblivious to the whole thing about "the new sannin" thing they originally had going on and made sakura into a ninja which could not have an effect on a battle between naruto and sasuke? How would she ever compete against a mangekyo sharingan? Let alone a perfect susanoo which does not overly tire the user? And what about when sasuke gets the biju comparable perfect susanoo which madara had? How would she measure up against the full might of the kyubi? What about sage mode? Its not a matter of sakura not wanting to do anything or even being regressed into a more useless version of herself. Within the context of the manga and with the way kishimoto developed her the issue at hand is that there simply is not a thing sakura could do to help. Its just as there is nothing any other character could do to help in the matter of getting sasuke back.

[M3J]

Naruto never talked her against killing Sasuke, she didn't kill him out of love. I don't think she'd need equal power, just the ability to survive and break genjutsu as well as heal. Plus, she can always ask Rock Lee to train her in speed.

She needs Tsunade's strength and Raikage's speed, as well as ability to heal herself. Her ability to heal herself would be very helpful as well, she can surprise attack the enemy by pretendin to be dead and then healin herself.

[Kay3795]

Well, sakura helping get back sasuke is a bit of a tough topic at least within the context of the manga. Sakura does not have the fighting skills to survive or even help in a fight against sasuke. The fact of the matter is that sasuke is simply that strong. In turn, nothing sakura says even gets to sasuke, let alone get through to him. Naruto on the other hand conveniently leeches strength and power from the kyubi and learned sage mode which only he could learn because he is so perfect (perhaps even about as perfect as sasuke) so he has the tools to deal with him. On top of that, naruto is someone who sasuke acknowledges for his strength and for is pain. Even if sakura had the will to actually do something about sasuke, there is nothing she can do. By manga standards she was so desperate to do something that she attempted to kill sasuke (which is by far the most sensible thing anyone has ever done in the manga) only to have naruto talk her against that.

For sakura to be able to do something here she needs something, anything really, that would effectively allow her to either get through sasuke or be able to hold her ground in a fight. How could she ever attempt to do that if kishi became oblivious to the whole thing about "the new sannin" thing they originally had going on and made sakura into a ninja which could not have an effect on a battle between naruto and sasuke? How would she ever compete against a mangekyo sharingan? Let alone a perfect susanoo which does not overly tire the user? And what about when sasuke gets the biju comparable perfect susanoo which madara had? How would she measure up against the full might of the kyubi? What about sage mode? Its not a matter of sakura not wanting to do anything or even being regressed into a more useless version of herself. Within the context of the manga and with the way kishimoto developed her the issue at hand is that there simply is not a thing sakura could do to help. Its just as there is nothing any other character could do to help in the matter of getting sasuke back.

The issue with Sakura really as to do with Kishi's intentions.
Naruto as a character had to man up physically, mentally and etc because of his circumstances.
He was treated like trash in his village but this made him have a strong will. So as a result of this he set himself a goal to be acknowledged by his Village.
He decided that he wants to become Hokage, a person who is greatly acknowledged by many, a person who has great authority and influence not just in the village but also outside the village. Along the way he experienced a lot of unfortunate troubling moments by Akatsuki as the keeper of Kurama who was considered a most acquire weapon. So Naruto was targeted and because of how valuable Kurama is, he was trained by some of the greats such as Jiraiya in order to defend himself. One thing led to another because of Naruto's circumstances

Sasuke was also driven by Circumstances. He witnessed the death of not just his parents but his entire clan by his older bro, Itachi. So his goal became that of an avenger who must kill his older bro at all cost. Along the way he learned that he was no match for him, he learned that he was weak by many people such as the sound 4 shinobi, Orochimaru and even his older bro. As a result of this he went rogue and joined Orochimaru because that was his only alternative to get strong at the time. One thing led to another with Sasuke and those things made him strong.

From the interviews, Kishi intended for Sakura to be normal or atleast more normal compared to his team members. She wasn't forced in any unfortunate circumstances, never strived for something great. She even took for granted what she has that both his other team members didn't i.e. A loving caring parent. So her character was dull.
Her goal was to basically suck on sasuke's dick (no offence to her of course XD).
She has a good heart of course and she's helpful many times but she hasn't step into the world where Naruto & Sasuke live in.

[Jammin]

Hello everyone!

There is going to be an interview with Kishimoto-sama next week. And it's about SAKURA!!!! Shannaro!!!!!

I'll keep you posted with a rough translation when it comes out!

Yosha!!!

PS. Don't give high expectations, it's gonna be a VERY short interview. =(

I'm very curious about ANYTHING he has to say about Sakura at this point.

I don't really feel like he's going to fix what I think is broken but I'd at least want to know "why". Why he thought doing what he did with her character was a good idea.

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You'd think over time I'd have gotten used to Sakura being "The way she is" but I really haven't. There are just so many aspects of her character that simply are not working in my opinion.

Examples....

Sakura and Sasuke
People seem to generally think that Sakura's affection for Sasuke has become a negative, and I would agree. She acts like he's her true love but the whole thing has no foundation other than highschool crush on "the hot guy" which makes her seem pathetically shallow. Now clearly it's "supposed" to be more than that, but the foundation required to effectively sell that as a part of her character simply is not there. We don't even know what part of him she supposedly likes. Like in Hinata's case she likes Naruto for a specific reason. In Karen's case she liked Sasuke for a specific reason. Sakura completely lacks that.

Sakura as a ninja
It's fine for her not to be as strong as Naruto & Sasuke. I'd prefer she were closer to their level than she is but the fact that she is not isn't a huge problem. The problem is her attitude and the role she has been stuffed into. She CAN fight when she wants to, she proved that against Sasori, but now she acts weak and nearly helpless. She doesn't even seem like a squadmember anymore, she's just baggage. She's become the equivalent of a backpack full of band aids, and occasionally playing the role of damsel in distress for Naruto.

Sakura and Naruto
Here's something that isn't mentioned to often, Sakura is way way waaaaaay smarter than Naruto. How can people wonder how she could be useful to him? Naruto is a good guy but spends a lot of time acting about as intelligent as a bag of rocks. Another interesting tidbit, among Naruto's peers she is probably his closest friend(which is....kinda sad). Then there is the whole romantic tension thing. My point is this, Sakura is a SIGNIFICANT person in Naruto's life. Which is why I think treating her like she isn't is so terrible. Because that diminishes both him AND her.

[Uchiha_Blood]

Excellent examination Jammin, props.

I'm very curious about ANYTHING he has to say about Sakura at this point.

I don't really feel like he's going to fix what I think is broken but I'd at least want to know "why". Why he thought doing what he did with her character was a good idea.

I wouldn't really trust Kishi's interviews, if we go by them Kakashi should've been the main character for, like, the beginning of Shippuden, going for Kakashi's year every single damn year.

He already told the fans because he fails so much in regards to Sakura:
he has no experience in romance, love or women in general, as the story went Hinata fit the main heroine role way better than Sakura did, and then he said that he would've tried to make Sakura a main too ( just saying, it was told before the pitiful love confession to Naruto -> the biggest fail in manga history with Sasuke -> the consequential explosion of her character ).
What will he say, "sorry I failed at making a strong female lead"?
I don't think he cares, since the manga is ending

[Sakura Hime]

Here is a rough summary of Kishimoto-sama's interview on Sakiyomi Jan Bang about Sakura!!!

Kishimoto-sama always had an image of Sakura's parents on his mind and would've liked to write about them, but he lost the right timing to show them in the manga.

He also thinks that it's quite late to show them now, and no one would interested to see them. Though he still decided to show them in this up-coming movie!

Next week, he will talk about the characters who gave him most troubles!

It was very short and nothing much about her role in the manga.

However, Kishimoto-sama does read comments and suggestions from fans. He said that many fans want to see Naruto's life with his parents so he brought them up in this movie for fanservice! I think, most people just don't bother complaining to Kishimoto-sama about Sakura's role, that's why he and his editors haven't given much attention to her. Maybe we should send him more letters?

@Uchiha_Blood

I know that Kishimoto-sama keeps trolling about many things. About two years ago, he said, "I'm going to write about Kakashi and then Sakura"...but nothing happen til now! I think, it's because he's not an independent writer so there are many factors that could affect what he really wants to write and his own plans.

About the manga is ending - Kishimoto-sama just said that "It's heading towards its climax". He didn't say that it is ending at all. He just mentioned that "The ending of the story has been set up on my mind"...which we've already known about this a long time ago and he also said something like this during the Pain invasion arc.

Plus, Orochimaru has just come back and it seems Sasuke is going to have a power up/training from that scroll after he's learned what he wants to know about Konoha and his clan. So, it's possible that after the war end, there might be a time skip before Taka and Orochimaru make a move. And if Tsunade died in this war, Kakashi is the first candidate to become the next Hokage (As we've seen this when Naruto's defeated Pain) and Sakura might have a power up during this time skip, too. OK...I might have too high hope but I still believe that it could happen. =)