Information for Sakura Haruno

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Sakura Haruno

General SERIES: Naruto CANON POINT: Ch 488 INFORMATION: (Canon) (Character) MUSE STRENGTH: ★★★★★★★★--

In Game HavenRPG Abilities/Powers: Pulling from here Chakra Enhanced Strength Chakra Scalpel Cherry Blossom Impact Delicate Illness Extraction Technique Four-Corner Sealing Barrier (Anime only) Mystical Palm Technique Sakura Blizzard Technique Sakura has an impressive use of chakra control, allowing her to use her chakra with minimal waste. This assists in her abilities as a medical ninja. It's mentioned prior that her skill as a medical ninja are above average; she can extract poisons, such as with Kankaro; and heals extensive bodily damage, such as the aftermath of Naruto's nine-tails cloak. Sakura uses chakra enhanced punches to give her almost super human strength, too. Right before her battle against Sasori, Sakura punches out a massive boulder, no doubt a thousand times her size, without any difficulties at all. Even without her chakra, Sakura can be a very hard hitter, and has very impressive evasive skills. One lesson Tsunade teaches her is that a medical ninja must NEVER be hit. In the battle against Sasori, Sakura is able to learn the movements of Sasori's puppets, predict his attacks, and dodge all of his hits. She does this even when bombarded by a fleet of 100 puppets. In this particular battle, Sakura is assisted by Lady Chiyo with some evasions, but Chiyo mentions herself that Sakura hardly needed assistance doing so. Items/Weapons:Medical kit (basic supplies), kunai, Personality So everyone is pretty familiar with Sakura Haruno from the beginning of the Naruto series. She is a love struck young girl, somewhat aggressive, and can be pretty annoying. WELL WELL, clearly if that is all you remember of her, it is time for a reality check, and maybe a little more canon review, because let’s be honest. Sakura is a total boss. Let's forget how boss she is for a moment, though, and start by summarizing her character. Sakura is a good-natured sort of girl with a lot of punch to her personality. She's inquisitive on many matters, and likes to learn and be informed. One of her main goals as a person is to constantly become better and stronger, so that she can protect and help her own friends; especially Naruto. As a ninja, she uses medical ninjutsu (physical attacks enhanced with chakra) to assist her allies in battle, and uses chakra enforced taijutsu (i.e. martial arts) to deal punches that could pretty much kill you if you let her get a swing in. She's strong and determined, and can be pretty short tempered if given the chance. So how does all of that play out? Sakura's character in the very beginning of the series can seem very shallow: she was once very focused on Sasuke for his good looks and skill, and considered Naruto a complete idiot. Her effectiveness as a ninja, too, was questionable, often needing Naruto and Sasuke to get her out of tight situations. As a beginning Kunoichi (female ninja), her true strength lay in her intelligence; she was extremely studious in the academy, which may attribute to her slightly weaker physical strength at the time. As the story progresses, we definitely see a lot of change and development in Sakura's character. During the Chunin exam, Sakura makes a huge improvement in her ability to fend for herself. After Naruto, Sasuke, and Rock Lee all fail to protect her from the sound ninja, Sakura is alone, with little chance of saving her friends in her state. The sound ninja obviously have the upper hand, not only in strength but in numbers. After a failed attempt to protect her friends with traps and some physical abilities, she’s overpowered, and grabbed by her hair. In order to free herself, Sakura cuts her own hair off; something she'd spent years growing out because she heard a rumour that Sasuke liked girls with long hair. In that moment, as the title of the episode suggests, Sakura completely blossoms, finally finding her inner strength, and for the first time throws away something she cherished. Her devotion to her friends - the need to be as strong as them and do what they've done for her- is worth far more. While she isn't able to take on the three, powerful ninja herself, her outburst of strength and determination is something not displayed until that point in the anime. It’s also a great example of how much her friends mean to her, especially Naruto and Sasuke. After Sasuke leaves the village, Sakura begs Naruto to bring him back. It’s clear she feels too weak to bring Sasuke back herself (which had technically already failed). Alas, Naruto’s attempt fails horribly, Sasuke leaves the village. In their confrontation, Naruto is seriously injured and hospitalized. Feeling guilty for expecting so much of her friend, Sakura declares that she would help him next time they tried to save Sasuke, making it her goal to become as strong as Naruto. As a result, she asks Tsunade, the fifth Hokage, to train her to be stronger. She is determined to do everything she can to bring Sasuke back. That brings us up to the beginning of Shippuuden. We see in the first episodes that a lot has changed about Sakura, not only in her appearance, but her personality as well. She has a much "stronger" disposition. In their battle against Kakashi--similar to the bell test in the beginning episodes--Sakura displays an enormous amount of strength, destroying a field at LEAST an acre in size. She did it knowing Kakashi was hiding under the earth. A number of episodes later, Sakura shows that she is very capable as a medical ninja. When Kankaro, a shinobi of the Sand Village, is poisoned by Sasori. Not a single medical ninja in the village could find the antidote. Even Lady Chiyo, an expert in poisons and retired ninja of the Sand Village, was unable to find a cure. Sakura arrives and is immediately able to determine what needs to be done; quiet seriously, she gives Kankaro a two minute look over knows exactly what sort of poison it was and what it was doing to his body. She effectively extracts the majority of the poison with a special jutsu, and because she has enough time now, discovers the antidote. So. Thought Sakura was useless? THINK AGAIN!!! This kunoichi is totally packing heat and drugs medicine. Sakura is consistently a very intelligent woman from beginning to present. During her time in the ninja academy, Sakura spent most of her time studying to become a ninja, verses physically training to become one. Her studious nature, as mentioned, likely attributed to her lack of physical strength in the beginning. During the written part of the chunin exam, Sakura is one of the only students in the class able to answer all the questions on the exam without cheating even once, and later it’s noted that Sakura finished the exam incredibly fast, especially notable because she hadn’t cheated. In other instances, Sakura is extremely inquisitive--while she knows a lot, she doesn't know everything. We see this right before team Kakashi's battle against Itachi, Sakura (as well as Naruto) needed a quick lesson on how to dispel the effects of genjutsu. She asks plenty of questions, but never too many, and definitely absorbs the information presented to her effectively. Oh and by the way? Don’t fuck with SakuraLike seriously, she is not a woman to be messed with. If anyone has ever seen inner Sakura in action, it’s obvious that Sakura has a lot more flare to her personality than it leads on to believe. Inside, she’s fiery, angry, and determined. In Shippuden, that “inner” Sakura isn’t so withdrawn anymore, and Sakura is prone to let loose at any time. Take for example her confrontation with Sai, the newest member of team seven. Sai and Naruto are arguing, at which Sai makes a jab at Sasuke. Naruto doesn’t approve, but Sakura steps in to make peace between the two of them. So much for peace, though; her own furry takes over, and she nails Sai in the cheek. In the series, after Sai and Sakura are on good terms, there’s an instance in which Sai insults her in an attempt to give her a nickname. Clearly he picked the wrong one, and gets a well-deserved ass beating from Sakura for being rude as fuck. In short, don’t upset Sakura, even if you’re her friend. Sakura has a habit of lying, hiding the truth, or manipulating a situation. Start off on easy mode, Sakura is sort of the reason Sai figures out what a 'false smile' is; as she's making peace between Sai and Naruto, her lips are curved and she looks sweet as Hawaiian bread. Next moment, BAMO, right in the kisser. She hides the truth as well. Naruto, possessed by his inner fox demon, attacks Sakura and injures her. She asks that Yamato not tell Naruto that it had happened, because she didn't want him to feel guilty or upset for what had happened. During her elaborate scheme to kill Sasuke, Sakura was throwing out words left and right in an attempt to make things happen how she wanted them to. She told Naruto she loved him to make him stop pursuing Sasuke (believing in part that his intense dedication to finding him was due to her plea while they were kids), sleep gasses her teammates to prevent them from following her, and inally goes to meet Sasuke. She tells him she loves him also, that she would give up her life in Konoha, and go against them to stay with him. The ruses are hardly fool proof: Sasuke allows her to join, but blinded by madness decides to kill her instead. Later in canon, Sai asks if Sakura still trusted Sasuke enough to fight along his side in the Ninja war, and easily determines that her smile is false and her words were lies: she certainly did not trust Sasuke. Lady Chiyo compares Sakura numerous times to Lady Tsunade, the fifth Hokage and Sakura's teacher. The description itself is quite accurate; after training under Lady Tsunade for two years, the similarities between the two are exceptional. Both are hot tempered, skilled medical ninjas, and definitely not somebody you should mess with. It's safe to say that though she might not be as powerful, Sakura holds many of the same strengths that Tsunade has. These are her most notable attributes; in one flashback, Tsunade is training Sakura to evade attacks, something which Sakura is very good at now. Sakura proves to be an excellent student under Tsunade, mastering the art of evasion as shown in her first big fight against Sasori. More recently in the series, though, we see Sakura has finally caught up to the boys as well as her teacher. She can summon slugs, and for years now has been storing half of her chakra inside of her body for later use, a technique passed on from teacher to student. Sakura highly respects Tsunade, as well, which would attribute to her willingness to learn from the legendary kunoichi. After the Kazekage arc, Tsunade openly declares that she trusts Sakura, as well as Shizune, more than anyone in the entire village. Their relationship is that of master and apprentice, yet they look at each other as colleagues. Sakura shares a similar, though not as strong, bond with her first sensei and squad leader: Kakashi. Unlike, say, the hot-headed Naruto, Sakura willingly listens to the orders of her superiors, and those she knows who are more experienced than she is. During the battle against Sasori, she accepts that Sasori is too strong an opponent for her alone, and because she accepted Chiyo's help and guidance, they were able to defeat Sasori without casualty. It was mentioned before, Sakura was obsessed with Sasuke. It's pretty bad, but being realistic, love makes us stupid. Well before the series begins, she had a crush on him. Sasuke was cool and strong; dark and handsome. Her crush ran so deep she began growing out her hair as soon as she heard the rumour that he liked long hair. Eeven at a young age, she was fiercely competitive for the chance to get with Sasuke. Llearning that her best friend Ino had a crush on him too, she ended their friendship entirely (remember: love makes us stupid), which made them rivals in combat and in love for years. During the bells test, Sakura searches out only Sasuke to assist him with retrieving the bells, whereas Sasuke wanted nothing to do with her. Kakashi says it himself: Sakura was so interested in helping Sasuke that she completely forgot about Naruto. While Sakura's infatuation was originally based off of his "good looks and charm," as time goes on, her affection for Sasuke becomes deeper and deeper. She finds that he, too, is flawed, which only humanizes him in her eyes, effectively deepening her feelings. By the end of the first part, Sakura admits to Sasuke that she's in love with him, and begs to come with him. Sasuke wouldn't allow it; when he leaves the village, she begs that Naruto bring him back. Where does that leave her two years later? Both Sakura and Naruto are just as determined to bring Sasuke home, making it clear that both of them still consider Sasuke their friend and ally; somebody they would do anything for. After an accidental run-in with Orochimaru, they find that they have that chance again to bring Sasuke back. The team decides to pursue. Their reunion with Sasuke ends tragically, however, and it's clear that Sasuke is far more powerful than their whole team combined. Even after that crushing defeat, Sakura and Naruto both are determined to become stronger than Sasuke. It's their absolute goal to bring him home. As Sasuke descends further and further into darkness, however, Sakura comes to the conclusion that it's very likely Sasuke was never going to be the same again. Making a very risky decision, she pursues Sasuke, in hopes to kill him. Unfortunately for her plan, the old memories of their longstanding friendship (and her once powerful love for him) cause her to hesitate just before making a killing blow. At her canon point, it's likely she's given up most of her romantic feelings for Sasuke; there's implication later in the story line that despite Sasuke's appearance to finally be realigning with the Leaf Village, she doesn't distinctly trust him. Sakura's relationship with Naruto, however, starts off on an entirely different foot. Naruto was the stupidest of stupid, the dumbest dumb, the most agitating of agitations. Sakura thought nothing but ill of him, constantly degrading him and looking down on him. Naruto was nothing but a screw up and a problem--and you could give that the snootiest Sakura pose you can think of, because seriously, how rude! This, of course, was only at the very beginning of the story. Almost immediately we start seeing a change in Sakura's opinion of Naruto. He was strong, determined, and in time she started to believe, too, that he could become the leader of their village: Hokage. When Sasuke leaves the village, she turns to Naruto for help. She wanted nothing more than for Naruto to bring Sasuke back for her. As mentioned before, much of Naruto's inner strength made her want to better herself as a ninja, so that she could one day help and protect him, too. In Shippuuden, Sakura depends a lot on Naruto still, as an ally in battle, but also as a friend. When they meet again, Sakura seems a little carried away by how much he had grown up since they'd last seen each other; when she asks Naruto if he thought she had changed, clearly trying to get compliments (as girls do), the answer which Naruto royally fucks up. So much for that one!! Despite Naruto's long standing crush on her, Sakura takes nearly all of his romantic advances on her and kicks them to the curb. Sakura does still care a lot about Naruto. She learns of the Nine Tailed Fox harboured inside of him, and seems upset; she'd just found out, and began to realize what made Naruto who he was. Later, the chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox leaks out of him. He loses control of the demon and it runs rampant in an attempt to kill Orochimaru. Upon seeing what they called the Nine Tails Cloak, Sakura is overcome with emotion. Thoughtless, she exposes herself to danger, weeping, and shouts that he didn't need to go to such extremes; she would save Sasuke, and Naruto didn't need to do what he was doing if it hurt him. Not long after, Naruto had regained control of himself, but he was still weak. Sakura expresses obvious concern for him; she wanted him to come on the pursuit of Orochimaru, yet knew he needed time to rest and recoup. While Yamato insists Naruto be left behind (which Naruto would never accept, anyway), she insisted that Naruto needed a short time to rest, even if it meant falling behind on their mission. She knew Naruto would be upset if they gave up their mission, thinking only of his health, but also of his hopes and dreams. RIGHT SO. Sakura does have some short comings. Every so often, Sakura isn't strong enough to defend herself, or can't do anything about a situation. When this happens, she criticizes herself for being weak and useless. During the first series it's more common, but even in the second, Sakura feels that she isn't strong enough to protect the people she cares about. For example, after Naruto loses control of the Nine Tailed demon and returns to normal. Sakura asks if Yamato could teach her the jutsu he used to pacify the demon, which he says isn't possible for her due to specialized ninjutsu only he could perform. Sakura, even though there was really nothing she COULD do, criticizes herself for being unable to help Naruto again, especially when he might need it. Her insecurity can also work as her strength, pushing her forward to become better than she once was.