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Sakura is probably one of the characters who gets bashed a lot, especially during Part 1. Being called useless, annoying and comparing her to others such as Naruto and Sasuke who are probably a lot stronger than many of the other genins at the time. A lot of people didn't actually notice how much potential Sakura actually had and focused on the other stronger characters. However, Sakura grows throughout the series and matures. She starts to believe in herself more and strive to become a stronger person for herself and the people around her.

At the start of the series, Sakura is like any other girl. Caring more about her love life rather than becoming a strong kunoichi. Her crush for Sasuke is clear and obvious and at first glance, there isn't really that much to Sakura at all. However, we learn more and more about Sakura and how she came to be the person that she is.

During the chuunin exams, Sakura and Ino are put together in a match between just the two of them. We have already learnt by then that Ino is Sakura's rival in becoming a strong kunoichi and to win Sasuke's heart. As the match between Sakura and Ino goes on, we see flashbacks of when they attended the academy. Sakura was a shy and timid girl who was bullied because of the size of her forehead. She was too afraid to stand up to the bullies and hid her face behind her hair.

However, Sakura recieves friendship from Ino who saw Sakura's potential and decided to help her bloom into a beautiful flower. Sakura is touched by Ino's words and it gave her courage and more belief in herself. Due to Ino, she then decided upon herself to believe in Ino's words and to show Ino that she would indeed 'bloom'. She brakes the tie between Ino and herself so that she would no longer be the girl who hides in her friends shadow constantly and relied on her. To show Ino that her friendship meant something, that all of Ino's help and encouragement had actually helped her, Sakura took a step foward and vowed never to lose to Ino and to become equal, if not stronger than her.

" None of this will mean a thing unless I've become equal to you and surpassed you! "

Sakura in the end, ties with Ino as the match comes to end and it is then that Sakura has repayed Ino for everything she had done by not letting Ino's friendship go to waste but instead becoming an equal shinobi to her.

Which brings us back to the Sakura we all know and love today. An intelligent and confident girl who proudly holds her head high. Of course, later on Sakura is teamed up with Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and their sensei Hatake Kakashi as they all formed Team 7. As said before, Sakura was probably the weakest of her Team and had her many weakness's and flaws. The bell test with Kakashi, she honestly didn't do very well. Fainting, screaming and falling for one of Kakashi's genjutsu. I guess the chunnin exam really helped Sakura which Kakashi comments on after her fight with Ino saying he was glad that he entered them into the exam.

In the Forest of Death, Sakura began to mature a lot and learned just how much she truly cared for teammates. Her relationships with them start to develop as well as her character.

Getting tired of always being protecting and looking at peoples backs, Sakura does everything she could possibly do to protect an unconcious Naruto, Sasuke and Lee from Sound-nins in the Forest of Death. Cutting her own hair to break free and to show that her teammates were more important to her than her outer appearance. She protected them with everything she had with no fear of death or getting injured, she wanted everyone to look at her back this time as she fought for them. But of course, the development doesn't end there, her relationship with Sasuke and Naruto have grown since the start as well. When Sasuke was overcome by the Curse Seal, Sakura reached out to him and was able to bring him back to senses. She protected Sasuke from Gaara as he attempted to attack Sasuke, Sakura jumped fearlessly in the way to protect someone 'she loved'. Again, in Chapter 181 (Ep. 109) when Sasuke was going to leave to Orochimaru's place, she reached out with her heart to keep him from going and reminded him of the good times they have shared together being part of Team 7. Although she did not suceed in keeping Sasuke in Konoha, it did have an impact on Sasuke as he thanked her before knocking her out. She is important to Team 7 as they are important to her, she will always have a part in their lives as they do in hers.

Her relationship with Naruto has also matured quite a lot from the start. He was nothing but a person who stood in her way of love and brought her down at the beginning. But she later learned who Naruto was and how he really was like. People claim over and over again how she is a 'b***h' at Naruto and doesn't acknowlegde him when infact she does. During the written test, when they were to decide to take the last question or not, Sakura thought about Naruto. She didn't want his dream of being Hokage to forever stay a dream. She wanted it to become reality for him, she therefore began to raise her arm sacrificing the chuunin exam for herself AND Sasuke for Naruto's dream. That is proof that she acknowledges Naruto and his dream, she believes he can achieve his goal and that he will.

" I want to protect your dream, Naruto "

Naruto is actually the one who gives her motivation along with Sasuke. When Naruto had won his fight agaisnt Neji, she quietly comments to herself that looking at Naruto gives he courage to try hard and to become stronger and that she envies him. Also when Sasuke told Sakura that it was Naruto and not him that had saved her from Gaara, she faces Naruto and it shows us Sakura giving Naruto a gentle smile. Naruto is also the person who understood her most, when she was not able to keep Sasuke from leaving, she comes to Naruto and begs him to bring back Sasuke as it was her only wish. Naruto then proceeds to tell her that he understood exactly how she felt, when Sakura hears these words she has a flashback to when they first became Team 7 and then said that Naruto had always understood her. If that isn't acknowledgement, I don't know what is.

After all this, its safe to say that Sakura has really grown throughout the series hasn't she? Shes grown from a dying bud to a blossoming flower. Yet, she still has so much potential. Sakura is by far one of the most human characters in the series, in my opinion. She had her flaws, but she also had her strengths and was able to pull foward and overcome those flaws.

Nearing the end of Part 1, Sakura was able to yet again take another step foward into becoming stronger for the sake of her teammates. She asks Tsunade, the new Hokage of Konoha to allow her to become her apprentice. And what made her do this? The fact that she wanted to help, to actually stand by her teammates proudly and fight with them. To become stronger to bring Sasuke back to Konoha along with Naruto to bring back together the broken team.




After 2.5 years of constant training with Tsunade (Hokage), Sakura has become quite a strong kunoichi who can now stand proudly beside her teammates. Shes become the emotionally strong one out of all her teammates and she is what keeps them together. Just when we all thought Sakura had grown as much as she could, an immensly strong 15 year old Sakura is shown to us.

Sakura has always been faithful to Team 7, her main goal now is to save both Sasuke and Naruto. We have always been constantly reminded of how much Team 7 has affected Sakura and how important they are to her but Part 2 really shows it. On to Sakura's growth, she now has brute super-strength and can cause an explosion by simply one punch to the ground. This suprised both Kakashi and Naruto very very much to the point Naruto noted to himself not to play around with Sakura or he could seriously get hurt.

Later on, Sakura and Chiyo (sp?) is matched up against Sasori, a member of Akatsuki. This fight really shows us how much stronger Sakura has gotten and how her ability to heal can really become useful. As said before by someone in Naruto, whom I can't quite remember..Medic-nins are the ones who can up the chance of success and survival in any mission. Along with Chiyo, Sakura was able to defeat Sasori. And who would of thought? The weak, useless Sakura of the past is now strong enough to be able to survive a fight with someone from the Akatsuki.

Sooner, a new character is introduced named Sai. He is the replacement in Team 7 for Sasuke since they were in need of a third member. Sasuke has been mentioned quite a few times but it was when Sai bad-mouthed Sasuke that Sakura took that to offence and punched Sai, telling him that if he ever spoke of Sasuke like that again, he'd have her to face up to. It is a scene that shows that even though Sasuke had left Naruto and herself, he was still an important teammate and that Sakura would defend him when needed. Why would she do such a thing? Because no one, except maybe Kakashi and Naruto really know Sasuke. Sai didn't. They didn't know anything about Sasuke and yet they spoke poorly of him. She would defend Naruto as she defended Sasuke, she has said it before, she understands their pain.

" Since you seem to know nothing about Sasuke-kun..."
"Don't speak of things you have no idea of!"

Now to go a bit more foward to the Team 7 reunion. One of my absolute favorite scenes with all these little moments in them that I adore. Its was so much more exciting that Sasuke had finally reappeared and it was time to see the reactions of Sakura and Naruto.

I personally really thought the scene where Sakura jumped out to attempt to attack Sasuke really interesting and something Sakura would have definetly done. Her thoughts were "I will stop Sasuke-kun with my own power!" Sasuke's face was that of complete and utter shock for that was the same Sakura that he had left 2.5 years ago crying and begging him to stay. This time, Sakura wanted to be of use to Naruto and to the team and got up and attempted to use her powers to stop Sasuke. She has slowly broken away from being the girl who had always stood on the side, watching as her teammates fought. She is now a proud kunoichi of Team 7 that will fight for herself and for her teammates. This small little scene proved that.

Now, as I have said at the beginning I think Sakura is the strongest of her team, emotionally. She is what holds Naruto together. This is proven at the end of the reunion when Sasuke gets away. Naruto is devastated and falls to the ground crying. Sakura then tells Naruto that crying wont bring Sasuke back to them and that she was still with him, they would get stronger together.

Yet she, herself, was crying silently. Even though she was hurting inside too, she told Naruto crying would not help. I tend to think she was trying to tell herself the same. But Sakura was trying to encourage Naruto and tell him to not give up. She thought of Naruto rather than herself and her own sadness. This is showing us Sakura's kindness and her strong belief that they will reach their goal, that they will bring Sasuke back.

Like someone has told me, Sakura is the rock of Team 7. Shes holding them together. Sasuke may have left sometimes. Naruto may have left sometimes and Kakashi also. But Sakura will always be there, proud to be a member of Team 7.

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AAAAAAAAAND DONE. Gah, that took ages to write. Ages. gonk
And I still missed out heaps of stuff! Theres too much about Sakura to all fit into one essay. >>;
And it was so much easier writing about pre-timeskip Saku rather than post-timeskip.

Comments anyone?
If anyone thought it was good, I also plan on writing a SasuSaku and Sasuke essay in the future. ninja

Wonderful essay!! 3nodding
Like Karin said, it has made me like Sakura even more.

Thanks everyone heart

Time to pwn the Sakura bashers >D Glad people actually read the whole damn thing. xD

You finished reading it~ xd ninja

Well I am proud now after all the good comments. xD
And because I'm bored, I think I'll start the Sasuke essay. Omg I'm not being lazy. domokun

XD Yes, I did!

Whoo, Sasu essay! <3

Yeah, pretty much. :3

Fantastic. Wonderful points. I'm no college lit professor, but I've done my share of difficult essays. Very well written, dear. heart

Very, very well written Cherrihana. I love how you went over and analyzed some of Sakura's crucial moments of character development. I especially agree with how you explained the relationship between Ino and Sakura. I don't understand why people don't realize that the two of them are still friends, despite the bickering they do. As you mentioned, the "breaking" of their friendship was Sakura's way of showing to Ino that she no needed to hide behind her shadow in order to feel confident. She wanted to show Ino that she had indeed helped her to bloom and feel better about herself- thus, she wanted Ino to see that she was equal.

And I think the Chuunin fight between Sakura and Ino showed this. (The part where she took off her headband and said "this isn't a fight about Sasuke.")

But enough of my nonsense.

Great job on the essay! I look forward to seeing the SasuSaku and Sasuke essays! There are not enough of those around. heart