Personality
and Ability
In the beginning of the manga, Sakura
is a Genin student of Hatake Kakashi's, but she later becomes a Chūnin
kunoichi (female ninja) under Tsunade's guidance. Sakura's main
strengths are her intelligence and her great chakra control. She was
able to climb trees using her chakra while it took days of constant
training for Sasuke and Naruto to manage it. Initially Sakura's stamina
and overall talent were quite subpar, having had only used a few skills
over the course of the series, the most advanced of which is Kai
("Cancel", for dispelling Genjutsu). Under Tsunade's guidance, Sakura
becomes monstrously strong and a qualified medic; after three months of
training Sakura's progress makes Tsunade think that Sakura has the
greatest talent in Medical ninjutsu she's seen since Shizune. Kakashi
even thinks that Sakura might surpass her teacher.
Inside Sakura resides the "Inner
Sakura", which ridiculously seems to be much more mean-tempered than
Naruto's Kyubi. "Inner Sakura" seems to represent an assertive part of
her personality and serves mostly comedy purposes as Sakura's typical
gentle responses are juxtaposed with the inner Sakura's constant
しゃーんなろー (Shānnarō), which doesn't mean anything but is usually
translated as "Hell yeah", "Hell no" or "Damn it" depending on the
situation (In the English anime, it's translated as an angry and
forceful "Cha!").
Sakura's having 'two minds' actually
came in handy when Ino hit her with the Shintenshin no Jutsu ("Art of
the Valentine" or literally "Body Mind Switch Technique"), Inner Sakura
combating Ino's spirit where in the case of a regular person there
would be no resistance. More recently in the manga, Sakura seems to
have gotten in touch with her inner self, yelling out loud things that
previously only inner Sakura dared to.
Earlychildhood
and the Academy
In her early school years, Sakura was
timid and was occasionally made fun of and bullied because of her large
forehead. That was until the popular Yamanaka Ino approached and
befriended her, giving her a ribbon and telling her not to hide behind
her bangs.
Sakura and Ino
Sakura looked up to Ino's looks and
ability a lot; while she appreciated Ino's friendship, she couldn't
help the feelings of inferiority she induced in her, at one point-
during a flower arrangement lesson - wondering whether Ino was like a
fully-bloomed flower, and if so, than what was she? Ino cheered her up,
telling her that even a bud eventually becomes a flower, and there's no
point to a flower unless is blooms. Their friendship continued until it
became clear that both of them were infatuated with Uchiha Sasuke;
Sakura felt that she could never equal Ino, let alone surpass her at
anything, while she was trapping herself as Ino's mere sidekick in her
mind. She handed Ino her ribbon back and proclaimed that they were
rivals from that point on, their friendship indeed slowly deteriorating
into a spiteful rivalry; in fact, when they are first seen interacting
in the manga, there is no indication that they were once best friends,
and the story of their friendship is only elaborated on later.
In a sharp contrast to most other
characters, Sakura lacks any childhood tragedy and, initially, defining
themes (Kishimoto Masashi says that he made her initially unlikeable by
design). When she, Naruto and Sasuke are assigned to form Team 7, she
is ridiculously fixated on her attraction to Sasuke and downright
cannot stand Naruto - hardly knowing either of them. Shortly after
their formation she tells Sasuke that she believes Naruto must be
happy, having no parents to order him around; though Naruto isn't there
to be outraged at this, Sasuke knows from personal experience that
nothing could be further than the truth, and harshly berates her
frivolous attitude. It is then that it is first hinted that deep down
Sakura isn't as shallow as she's been presented, and she concludes that
Sasuke was probably right and she should treat Naruto better (though
even this may be partly due to her infatuation- Kakashi later notes
that she always agrees with Sasuke without question).
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