Sakura Haruno (original series and Shippuden)

Sakura Haruno is one of the main characters of the Shonen Jump manga and anime series, Naruto. She is the wife of Sasuke Uchiha and mother of their daughter, Sarada Uchiha. This page will mostly talk about her in the original Naruto series as well as Naruto Shippuden. In Post-Naruto the Last and Boruto, she is a much better character.

Qualities that she's poorly-written

 * 1) In her introduction, she is very selfish and inconsiderate towards others. She constantly puts down Naruto, and in one of her most infamous scenes, she mocks Naruto over not having any parents and how lucky it must be for him in front of Sasuke, whose parents were also killed when he was young. This earns her a well-deserved scolding from him, who called her annoying.
 * 2) She is somewhat of a mean girl stereotype.
 * 3) *As well for that, Sakura's role is supposed to be portrayed a tsundere like Nami and Maka. Aside from that, she wasn't shown blushing when she gets angry, she only blushes when she constantly falls in love with Sasuke, making her look like a mean girl rather than tsundere.
 * 4) During her childhood, she was very insecure about her looks and had trouble making friends. Then, Ino came along to defend her from other bullies and basically became one of Sakura's only friends, helping Sakura to gain confidence in herself. Then, when Sakura gained a crush on Sasuke and learned Ino had a crush on him too, she responded by completely breaking off their friendship just so she could get Sasuke, turning their friendship into a much more bitter rivalry. She even gave back the ribbon Ino had once given Sakura as a token of their friendship.
 * 5) *As if that wasn't enough, Sakura never actually thanked Ino for supporting her when no one else did, nor did she ever apologize for breaking off their friendship.
 * 6) She can be far too quick to cry, and while some of those moments are understandable, it can be pretty annoying to see her break down so easily, especially when most of the time she cries about Sasuke.
 * 7) Even though she says she'll become nicer to Naruto, she spends a majority of the Land of Waves arc constantly hitting him or putting him down for being useless, even when she contributed practically nothing during the mission, which is another instance of her being a hypocrite.
 * 8) She contributes practically nothing during the Land of Waves arc besides showing her superior chakra control by climbing up a tree.
 * 9) During the start of the Chunin Exams, she almost got Konohamaru killed because Sakura got very angry at Naruto, Konohamaru and his friends. She chased them and Konohamaru accidentally bumped into Kankuro, who got very angry at him and almost killed Konohamaru using his puppet Crow. Thankfully, Sasuke and Gaara saved Konohamaru and calmed Kankuro down. Keep in mind that Konohamaru was only a small child at the time.
 * 10) In the Forest of Death, she has her big moment of protecting Naruto and Sasuke from the Sound Ninja, but she's barely able to put up a fight, with the most she does is cut off her hair. She's then forced to be saved by Rock Lee, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, Tenten and Sasuke, the guy who she was supposed to be protecting.
 * 11) Her fight with Ino in the Chunin Exam is widely considered to be one of the worst and most boring fights in the exam and the series overall.
 * 12) After the Konoha Crush and Naruto's incredible battle with Gaara, assuming that Sasuke saved her from Gaara, she decides to thank him. When Sasuke tells her it was Naruto who saved her, she at first doesn't believe Naruto could be strong enough to singlehandedly fight Gaara, but Sasuke tells her how crazy the battle was and how hard Naruto fought to defend Sakura. Then, she doesn't even take the time to thank Naruto, even though she thanked Sasuke.
 * 13) She's a hypocrite.
 * 14) *She says Naruto only superficially loves her because of his rivalry with Sasuke and sees gaining her affection as part of that competition, even though Sakura only became attracted to Sasuke because he was the most popular boy in class and also treated winning him over as a rivalry with Ino.
 * 15) *When she meets Rock Lee and he asks her out, she immediately rejects him because of his bushy eyebrows and bizarre appearance. One would expect Sakura to be more open and accepting of people with different appearances, considering she was bullied throughout her childhood because she had a large forehead.
 * 16) *She hits Naruto for being a pervert and constantly using his Sexy Jutsu, but fawns over Konohamaru's Boy-on-Boy Jutsu.
 * 17) Just before Sasuke leaves the village, Sakura cries while begging Sasuke to stay with her. While it isn't bad that she wants Sasuke to stay in the village and the scene is a very touching display of her love, what makes it rather shocking is when she says she'd leave the village to go with Sasuke to help get his revenge. She's willing to abandon her parents, Naruto, Kakashi, Tsunade, Ino, her friends, and her entire village just to go with a boy she knew for only a few months and who treated her like crap almost the entire time.
 * 18) After Sasuke leaves the village, Sakura begs Naruto to bring him back, putting the burden of this promise on Naruto's shoulders even though Sakura had done nothing but treat him coldly and ignore him. His inability to fulfill this promise weighs heavily on Naruto, even years after Sasuke left.
 * 19) She treats Naruto really badly and often hits him, even more so in the filler episodes. While the hitting was supposed to be a comic relief, there are times when Sakura takes it too far and hits Naruto for no apparent reason or because of misunderstandings not to mention it also gets rather annoying and old very fast.
 * 20) She rarely thanks Naruto out-loud and never apologizes for the way she treated him in the past.
 * 21) When they reunite in the village after more than two years, she can't even be bothered to eat dinner at Ichiraku with Naruto because he didn't have the money to pay for the meal, even though Naruto really wanted to spend some time with her.
 * 22) During the Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission, she reverts back to her Part 1 self: she easily gets knocked down when Kabuto rams into her. Even when Yamato tells Sakura to stay away from Naruto while he's in the Nine-Tails state, she thinks she can somehow snap him out of it and just gets herself injured. Then, when they finally reunite with Sasuke, she doesn't do anything and is just pushed back by Yamato. She really contributes nothing substantial or does anything remarkable during this arc besides healing Naruto.
 * 23) She doesn't do anything to help or give Naruto emotional support when Jiraiya dies, even when she sees how devastated he is.
 * 24) She angrily scolds Naruto for being impatient when he tries to get Shizune to speed up her autopsy of one of Pain’s bodies, basically brushing off his feelings and not even considering that he is getting over the loss of his master or that he wants to avenge Jiraiya.
 * 25) In one of the movies, during a get well soon party, she slaps Naruto and Sai, who were incredibly injured and were in poor condition. She could have injured them even more and possibly could have killed them.
 * 26) During Pain's assault, she does barely anything. While she did help heal several people, someone with her incredible power should've been on the front lines fighting against Pain's bodies. Even Konahamaru did more to fight against Pain than she did, and he was way weaker than she was. Then, when Pain destroys the village, she just cries out for Naruto to help them instead of trying to fight Pain herself. Sakura also doesn't do anything to help Naruto when he's overpowered by Pain. Sure, almost everyone else does the same thing, but Hinata decides to step in and fight against Pain knowing she can't win but just wanting to help Naruto. It's pretty hard not to compare the two in that situation.
 * 27) When Naruto's worried about Tsunade's condition, she tries to assure him Tsunade's going to be fine, then internally asks herself why she's trying to cheer him up when she's the one who's feeling down. Keep in mind, this was shortly after Naruto had singlehandedly saved the village, whose master had only died a few days before, and was still dealing with the trauma of his fight with Pain. Like how selfish can she be, not being able to just suck up her pain and be there to comfort Naruto, especially when he's done that for her so many times.
 * 28) After she decides to kill Sasuke herself, she tries to get Naruto out of the picture by confessing her "love" for him. While it was done out of good intentions and so he wouldn't have to worry about the promise he made to her, she was still manipulating his emotions and trying to bank on his love for her to get him back to the Hidden Leaf Village. There was definitely a better option than that.
 * 29) In the anime, after the confrontation with Sasuke at the Five Kage Summit, she wonders who she would save first if both Sasuke and Naruto were critically injured. She asks herself this question after Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki, announced his intention to slaughter everyone in the Leaf Village, and literally tried to kill her. To even think she wouldn't consider saving the one who always stood by her side and saved her life countless times is infuriating.
 * 30) In the Road to Ninja movie, she had a huge fight with her parents and she even said that she doesn't care about them. Then, in her most infamous scene, she complains about how terrible her parents are to Naruto, THE ORPHAN, which rightfully gets him pissed. Then, she gets mad at Naruto for not understanding her, saying that if Sasuke were here, he'd agree with her. While the movie isn't technically canon, it was still written by Kishimoto, and the fact that he found it in-character of her to say that just proves how selfish he believed her to be.
 * 31) At the end of the movie, while she does reconcile with her parents and hugs them in relief, one would expect her to show some sympathy towards Naruto and invite her in her house to spend time together after he asks to go on another date later, since she learned the pain of living in an empty house and knew Naruto would have to experience that pain again. Instead, she just annoyingly says that the "date" they went on was long enough, and while that scene may have intended to come off as a joke, it just seems more mean-spirited instead. In addition, she never apologizes to Naruto for her absolutely rude behavior towards him.
 * 32) She really only pays attention to Naruto, treats him as an equal, or actually thanks him when Sasuke isn't with them. For instance, during the war, when Naruto and Sasuke saved her from the smaller Ten-Tails monsters, she only thanks Sasuke. This rightfully irritates Naruto, who reminds Sakura that he was there too. Then, when Naruto saves Sakura from Madara, instead of thanking Naruto for saving her, the only thing she thinks about is that Sasuke didn't seem to care, even though they were in the middle of a war to save the world.
 * 33) She acts extremely reckless in her desire to prove herself and not rely on others, and it always backfires. She tries to kill Sasuke herself and even knocks out Kiba, Sai, and Lee to do it, but ends up having to be saved by Kakashi and Naruto because she couldn't go through with it. Then, during the fight with Madara, she charges toward Madara to distract him without telling Naruto or Sasuke and to feel important, forcing herself to be saved again.
 * 34) *She leaves Kiba, Sai, and Lee completely defenseless in enemy territory. Sakura almost entirely forgot about them, and Kakashi literally had to remind Sakura that she knocked them out. Then, when they returned to find the three of them still asleep, Naruto decides to lie down with them. Sakura angrily asks why Naruto's sleeping too, and Karin has to remind her that Sakura's the one who cut him with the poisoned kunai that made him drowsy in the first place.
 * 35) During the war, when the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, appeared on the battlefield after being reincarnated, she asked him who he was despite him having "Fourth Hokage (四代目火影)" written in large red Mandarin Chinese letters on his cape (that is extremely hard to miss) and the fact that his face is literally carved onto the mountainside of the Hidden Leaf Village (again, extremely hard to miss). This proves that she isn't smart.
 * 36) Also, to top it off, when Naruto responded to Minato's joke about her being Naruto's girlfriend, Sakura took his response way too seriously and almost injured Naruto WHILE SHE WAS HEALING HIM.
 * 37) Also during the war, she hesitates in destroying Obito's Rinnegan, giving Madara enough time to retrieve it and activate the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
 * 38) She is obsessed over Sasuke even though he never really treated her with respect and were only on Team 7 for a few months. Whenever he's around, practically the only thing she ever thinks about is how to get Sasuke's attention or how he doesn't notice her. Then, she forgives him on the spot even after he abandoned her, always belittled her, tried to kill her twice, and put her in a genjutsu after she spilled her heart out to him again. She never even considered other options like Naruto and Lee, who always treated her super nice, saved her life several times, and constantly went out of their way for her.
 * 39) Overall, she has very little character development and has no real agency or goals outside of being with Sasuke. She constantly tries and fails to be stronger and catch up to Naruto and Sasuke in Part 1. Just when it looks as though she's going to show promise after defeating Sasori, her character instantly regresses, and she goes back to being saved by Naruto, crying, and relying on Naruto to fix everything, just like in Part 1. Furthermore, after Sasuke declares his intent to kill the Five Kage, she ends up doing nothing but crying and begging Sasuke not to leave, which is the exact same thing she did before Sasuke left the village. SAKURA HERSELF admits how pitiful and useless she is in that moment.

Qualities that are well-written

 * 1) In the manga she is far more tolerable since she hits Naruto much less and later genuinely warms up towards him. Most of her flaws are a result of her getting flanderized in the anime.
 * 2) Her designs are still great.
 * 3) Chie Nakamura and Kate Higgins do a good job voicing her.
 * 4) In some Naruto episodes, she was likable, especially in Gotta See, Gotta Know, Kakashi's True Face.
 * 5) In the original Naruto movies, she did become more useful and actually fought rather well.
 * 6) After being lectured by Sasuke, she does actually start treating Naruto better, and she gave him some advice on how to increase his chakra control during the Land of Waves arc.
 * 7) During the written test of Chunin Exam, Sakura tries to forfeit her position in the Chunin Exams to make sure that Naruto could continue and work towards becoming the Hokage.
 * 8) After seeing how much she relied on Naruto and Sasuke, she tries to do her best to catch up to them so that she wouldn't be a burden to them.
 * 9) She still acknowledges Naruto's skills and even calls Sasuke out for acting like a coward when Naruto was fighting Orochimaru all by himself in the Chunin Exams.
 * 10) Rarely, Sakura hitting Naruto is justified and even warranted. When Naruto mocked Lee's bush eyebrows in the Forest of Death, she almost immediately pummeled Naruto and told him not to say anything bad about Lee. Especially after he went out of his way to save her and was nearly killed by the Sound ninja, that punch was well-earned.
 * 11) After Lee saved Sakura, she starts treating him really nicely. She thanks him for saving her from the Sound ninja and inspiring her to be stronger. She then starts visiting him in the hospital every day after his battle with Gaara and even leaving him some nice flowers meant for Sasuke.
 * 12) After her fight with Ino, both of them started acting more friendly to each other.
 * 13) She later became more friendly with Naruto, one example is her cheering him during his fight with Kiba and Neji.
 * 14) Unlike Naruto and Sasuke, who were the reincarnations of Indra and Ashura and who were practically destined to be the most powerful ninja, Sakura's the only one of the trio who managed to get so strong through sheer effort and determination alone and became one of the strongest ninja in the village.
 * 15) She saved Kankuro's life when he was lethally poisoned by Sasori. Hell, she managed to get the poison out of his body, something that even Chiyo, a poison-expert and medical ninja on the same level as Tsunade, couldn't do.
 * 16) Her fight with Sasori was AWESOME: even if she did have assistance from Chiyo, she still managed to fend off Sasori's entire puppet army. In fact, she's the first member of Team 7 to have actually defeated a member of the Akatsuki.
 * 17) Unlike Naruto, when Sai joins Team 7, Sakura is more friendly towards their new member, attempting to talk to him and get him to open up, even after he'd insulted Sasuke.
 * 18) During Naruto's training to master the Rasenshuriken, when Sai tricks Sakura by saying that Naruto has no chance to mastering the jutsu and calling him a failure, Sakura fiercely defends Naruto. She talks about how much Naruto has overcome, the countless times Naruto has saved the village, even threatening to pummel Sai if he said anything else demeaning Naruto.
 * 19) After Sasuke almost killed Karin, she managed to save her life.
 * 20) During the war, she manages to stop White Zetsu like a badass and helps stop the other White Zetsu clones from killing more shinobi.
 * 21) Her release of the Strength of a Hundred Seal during the war was pretty cool, and she helps heal several of the shinobi during the war, which earns her praise from Tsunade, who pats Sakura on the head and congratulates her for her splendid work.
 * 22) Even after everything that Sasuke put her through, she never stopped believing in him and was one of the people who helped redeem him.
 * 23) It is pretty satisfying to finally see Sakura call Sasuke an idiot after everything he did.
 * 24) She is a great friend to Hinata, encouraging her to confess her feelings toward Naruto and giving her emotional support when she doubts herself.
 * 25) She helps Naruto overcome his depression from Hinata rejecting her, which was one of the lowest points of his life, by telling him that Hinata just lied to protect him and she still loved him. Because of that, Naruto managed to return to his regular self.
 * 26) She puts up with Sasuke leaving for years on-end and forcing her to raise their daughter alone.
 * 27) She did improve her character a bit later on during the original series, but later improved even more in Shippuden (though she does have some flaws). She had massively improved in The Last: Naruto the Movie, where she managed to break Naruto, Shikamaru, Sai and Hinata out of genjutsu, managed to find out where Toneri's hideout was, cared about Naruto's hurt feelings and managed to defeat a bunch of Toneri's evil dolls. In Boruto, she is massively improved and she became a much better character, and practically all of the negative traits she used to have in the original series and Shippuden are gone.
 * 28) The Naruto series wouldn't be the same without her.
 * 29) Despite what BQ #15 says, she did thank Naruto and hugged him after he returned from defeating Pain.

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