SAKURA

Sakura Uchiha (うちはサクラ, Uchiha Sakura, née Haruno (春野)) is a kunoichi of Konohagakure. When assigned to Team 7, Sakura quickly finds herself ill-prepared for the duties of a shinobi. However, after training under the Sannin Tsunade, she overcomes this, and becomes recognised as one the world's greatest medical-nin.

Sakura is the only child of Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno. She had an ordinary childhood, raised by her parents without any serious tragedy or complication. When she entered Konoha's Academy, some of the girls in her class started picking on her because of her large forehead. Sakura tried to combat their teasing by hiding her forehead with her bangs, but this proved to the other girls that it bothered her and caused them to tease her even more. Ino Yamanaka, one of her classmates, saw this, defended Sakura from her bullies, and encouraged her to embrace her forehead rather than hide it.

Over the following years, Ino's guidance and friendship helped Sakura become comfortable with herself and develop into her own person. Though she felt indebted to Ino for helping her, Sakura began to feel that she was living in Ino's shadow when she, instead, wanted to be Ino's equal. At some point after she entered in the Academy, Sakura met Sasuke Uchiha and she developed a crush on him. When she told her friends, she was surprised to learn how popular Sasuke was with the girls. Sakura heard a rumour of Sasuke being attracted to girls with long hair and she began letting her hair grow to get his attention. A couple of years later, when she learned Ino had a crush on Sasuke, Sakura ended their friendship so that they could compete for Sasuke's love, thus beginning a bitter rivalry between them. In the anime, Sakura approached Ino, telling her of her liking towards Sasuke. Ino took it to end their friendship, starting their dislike towards each other in the beginning of the series.^[10] When Sakura first attempted to confess to Sasuke, he rejected her because he didn't know her and she fled out of frustration and embarrassment. She vented her displeasure for his rejection by punching a tree and causing her Inner Sakura to be born.

As a child, Sakura was insecure and highly self-conscious about her large forehead; covering it with her bangs. It was not until she met Ino, whom defended her from bullies and became her friend, did she become more self-confident. At the start of Part I, Sakura typically gives the outward impression of being polite to her superiors, considerate of her peers, and confident in herself. She has occasional moments of bashfulness around Sasuke Uchiha and competitiveness around Ino Yamanaka, but otherwise appears quite collected. This reservation, though never disingenuous, frequently masks how Sakura really feels: in certain situations she has pronounced feelings of delinquency, jealousy, and anger. Rather than display these emotions to others, she projects them inward, allowing a manifestation of who she truly is — what is labelled "Inner Sakura" (内なるサクラ, Uchi Naru Sakura) — to have the opinions Sakura wants to keep to herself. Inner Sakura, whose appearances are marked by an exclamation of "Shannarō!", is in a sense a personality separate from Sakura herself, a fact that allows her to overcome the Mind Body Switch Technique.^[11] At other times, Sakura and Inner Sakura are indistinguishable from each other, usually with regards to Naruto Uzumaki; if Naruto says or does something that annoys or upsets her, Sakura responds with violence, a reaction that under other circumstances would be delegated to Inner Sakura.

Sakura's motivation to get stronger.

As Part I progresses, Sakura is increasingly exposed to the realities of the world, difficulties for which she cannot rely upon Inner Sakura to cope with. As an Academy student, Sakura succeeded through studying alone to the point of pride, able to avoid physical trials and thus allowing her to focus on her physical appearance in a bid to appeal to Sasuke. As a shinobi, however, this is insufficient: the long hair she puts so much effort into is a liability that opponents can use against her; missions cannot be completed with mere book smarts and it is necessary to be able to fight so that other shinobi will not kill her or her teammates. The latter makes Sakura particularly disappointed in herself, as she is unable to contribute much in battle and must rely on Naruto and Sasuke to save her. She sets out to change this about herself, dedicating nearly three years of training to making herself as capable as Naruto and Sasuke; in the meantime, she becomes willing to sacrifice herself to protect them, coming to value them both very deeply.^[12] She looks to Naruto as a model for this goal, inspired by his rapid growth and his determination to be there for her and all those he held dear. When Sakura realises that she is as rude to Naruto as Sasuke usually is to her at his urging, she starts treating him better, cheering for his accomplishments and confiding her hopes and fears with him.

Inner Sakura makes one appearance at the very start of Part II and then is never seen again.^[13] This is because Sakura is finally in touch with her feelings and is willing to express what she's thinking, a self-comfort she picked up during her training with Tsunade, though this has made her more emotional and impulsive at times, which due to her desire to catch up in strength with Naruto and Sasuke, her overprotectiveness of them, and her need to prove her worthiness as a ninja, often leads her to impulsively attack her opponents and get rescued by her comrades. Her violent and/or loud outbursts are, as in Part I, uncontrolled and often directed at Naruto, usually as a reaction to his variations of the Sexy Technique, whenever he asks her out on a date or anything she feels is out of line, along with when anybody does something to offends her.^[14] Sakura no longer thinks poorly of Naruto despite thinking he is an idiot and her earlier stern disparaging opinion of him that flares at times. She now holds his abilities in high regard, yet is ever-worrying for his safety and well-being to the point of easily feeling unbearable guilt, and values him as one of her closest friends. Despite criticising Naruto for his perverted nature, Sakura herself has a perverted side, enjoying something even Naruto thought was disgusting. Sai eventually points out that he believes Naruto knows Sakura too well for his own good, constantly placing himself in personal peril out of his feelings for her so that Sakura will be happy. Sakura is moved to tears by this, feeling unbearably guilty for what she feels she had put Naruto through; and despite her attempts to take responsibility for herself during the Summit by trying to deal with Sasuke herself, she still finds herself relying on him due to her own shaky resolve nearly costing Sakura her life. She ultimately settles for doing whatever she can for him, trying to do more in supporting him and his decisions concerning Sasuke, trying to do more to help him bear the challenges of being a jinchūriki, and fighting at his side whenever possible. She is helped in this goal by Tsunade's influence, who trained her to have a contempt for losing and an unbending will;^[15] she will place herself at risk so that others don't need to and to assure her allies' victory.^[16]

Sakura has been in love with Sasuke since childhood and initially focuses on getting his attention above everything else. Her initial infatuation for him was rooted from his good looks and calm, collecting attitude and his rejections failed to deter her. After becoming teammates, Sakura realised Sasuke's imperfections and suffering, and her desire shifted to helping him as much as she can, which caused that the two of them became closer and protective towards each other and that her feelings could develop into true love. Despite being grateful of her loving him after she confesses to stop him from defecting from Konohagakure, Sasuke rejects her but thanks her before leaving.^[17] This rejection deeply upsets Sakura, driving her to plea for Naruto to bring Sasuke home and, when Naruto fails, motivating her to become stronger so that she can bring Sasuke back herself.^[18] Sasuke, however, is colder to both Sakura and Naruto in Part II: he showed indifference to them when they meet after more than two years and, in moments of intense hatred while trying to cut his bonds with anyone, has even tried to kill them. She tries to separate herself from her feelings when Sasuke becomes an international criminal, attempting to kill him for Konoha and Naruto's sake and so that he won't sink lower,^[19] but her love for him proved to be too great for her to harm him.^[20] She resigns herself to the possibility that Sasuke is beyond redemption, but still, even at the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War, holds out hope that she may mean something to him.^[21] Kakashi even states to Sasuke that Sakura no longer desires for him to return her feelings and she only wants to save him, even though it is breaking her heart. Despite Sasuke's crimes, Sakura was able to forgive him after he sincerely apologised to her for how much he hurt her. She was also surprised when he exhibited a much softer point with her and began poking her on the forehead, an affectionate gesture he picked up from his brother.^[22]

After marrying Sasuke, Sakura became very loyal to him and even refused to leave his side while she was pregnant with their daughter, Sarada. Sakura raises Sarada on her own due to Sasuke being away on his mission for many years and she frequently reassures Sarada that Sasuke loves them both and will return home once his mission is over. She is also very patient and wise as her love and patience for Sasuke never faded even though Sarada was barely a toddler when he left. As a mother, Sakura is loving and protective, and has a very close relationship with her daughter and will praise her for her achievements just as quickly as she admonishes her for wrongdoing. Although Sakura is very supportive of Sasuke's duties, she is disappointed when he teases her by refusing to show her affection.