The story of Naruto is packed with lovable, exciting, and emotionally rich characters who can be compared and contrasted in many ways. One example is the comparison between two Leaf Village kunoichi who both play a major role in Naruto Uzumaki's career, Hinata Hyuga and Sakura Haruno. Naruto's life wouldn't be the same without them.
These to kunoichi seem totally different at first, such as Hinata being the one with a bloodline trait. Sakura is also a headstrong tsundere, while Hinata is a timid dandere. Despite all that, Sakura and Hinata also have plenty in common, and their character arcs have a startling amount of overlap in flashbacks, Naruto Shippuden, and even the sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
10 Sakura & Hinata Had Low Self-Esteem As Kids
Many of the main characters in Naruto had tough childhoods, such as Naruto growing up as a widely disliked orphan, while Sasuke witnessed his entire family's slaughter at Itachi's hands. This is also true for Sakura and Hinata, who both felt pretty lousy about themselves in their youth.
Sakura had no special hiden jutsu and disliked her large forehead, something she still felt bad about at age 12 later on. Meanwhile, Hinata felt like a reject in the Hyuga clan, being told that she had failed her family's standards despite being in the main branch.
9 Sakura & Hinata Also Had Role Models As Kids
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Fortunately, both Sakura and Hinata had role models to look up to, which slowly but surely helped these young girls overcome their insecurities and find something to like about themselves. Sakura's role model was the smart, clever, and confident Ino Yamanaka, who wisely told Sakura that she was merely a bud waiting to bloom someday.
Hinata's role model was Naruto Uzumaki himself, who deeply impressed her with his stubborn persistence and good work ethic as an academy student. Like Hinata, Naruto didn't have much going for him, but he did have grit, and Hinata could hardly believe her eyes.
8 Sakura & Hinata Felt Like Dead Weight In Their Teams
Early in their lives, Sakura and Hinata were similar for many negative reasons, which proves that they were both flower buds waiting for an opportunity to blossom someday, as Ion once put it. In fact, even when Sakura and Hinata joined their genin teams, they still hadn't blossomed.
Both genin felt like dead weight in their respective teams, and they felt guilty for holding their teammates back. Sakura did nothing to help in the Land of Waves arc, and Hinata weighed down her team by failing all missions, even D-ranked ones.
7 Sakura & Hinata Fought Ferociously In The Chunin Exam Tower
During the Forest of Death sequence in the chunin exam arc, Hinata and Sakura didn't do much to help their respective teams, but all that changed inside the tower, where the genin participants had to duel one another in an arena. Sakura and Hinata had no choice but to fight.
Both kunoichi wowed the audience with their newfound ferocity and courage in battle, and Sakura and Hinata no doubt amazed themselves in the process. For the first time, Hinata properly challenged Neji, and Sakura stubbornly fought Ino to a draw despite lacking a hiden jutsu of her own.
6 Sakura & Hinata Emphasize Taijutsu
Even if Sakura and Hinata can't compare to true taijutsu masters like Lady Tsunade and Might Guy, they are still highly adept at martial arts, and both kunoichi enhance their strikes with clever use of their chakra. Not even Rock Lee can do what they do in a serious melee battle.
Hinata has been trained to use her clan's Gentle Fist technique, striking with her palms to damage the opponent's internal organs and block their chakra points with each blow, just like her cousin Neji. Meanwhile, Sakura is a melee monster, infusing her fists with all her chakra to deliver explosive punches.
5 Sakura & Hinata Belong To The Konoha 11
The "Konoha 11" squad is an unofficial group that combines the genin of Teams 7, 8, 10, and Guy, minus the rogue Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto fans are quite fond of the Konoha 11's members, with them being the most powerful and memorable ninja of their generation.
Sakura and Hinata both belong to the Konoha 11, and along with fellow members like Naruto and Kiba, have fought hard to defend their village from external threats such as the Six Paths of Pain. However, the Konoha 11 group's importance slowly diminished over time.
4 Sakura & Hinata Had Shippuden Glow-Ups
Many of the Konoha 11's members had a glow-up by the time Naruto Shippuden started. They were not just older, but also more powerful, more confident, and overall more compelling as shonen heroes. Sakura and Hinata definitely changed the most, and entirely for the better.
Sakura had gone from dead weight to a taijutsu/medicine expert, courtesy of Tsunade's training, and she helped Chiyo take down Sasori of the Akatsuki. At the same time, Hinata had blossomed into a strong, brave kunoichi who could use any Hyuga clan technique in battle to devastating effect.
3 Sakura & Hinata Both Confessed Their Love To Naruto
Both Hinata and Sakura told Naruto "I love you" to his face, though they had different reasons for this. Sakura told Naruto those three big words mainly to convince Naruto to return home with his beloved friends and give up on Sasuke, but ultimately, Sakura's strategy did not work, so she pursued other plans instead.
Hinata's love confession was more genuine. She had always admired him, and as of the Pain arc, Hinata's cherished feelings had become true love at last. Hinata told Naruto as much when she faced Pain for his sake, and Naruto was amazed. This was a big step forward in their budding relationship.
2 Sakura & Hinata Eventually Married Their Love Interests
Most members of the Konoha 11 and their friends got their happily-ever-after in the years leading up to Boruto. Ino married Sai, for example, and Sakura and Hinata both got hitched as well. Sakura ended up marrying her longtime friend, enemy, and crush, Sasuke Uchiha, and she is quite happy now.
Hinata is even happier, having married her childhood crush Naruto Uzumaki himself. She is now the Hokage's wife, a lofty and comfortable position for any ninja to have. Naruto fans were overjoyed when they saw Hinata and her new husband get married in a beautiful ceremony.
1 Sakura & Hinata Have Powerful Daughters
Hinata's firstborn child with Naruto was a son, Boruto, and then she had a daughter, Himawari, to match Sakura's own daughter, Sarada Uchiha. A co-star of Boruto, Sarada clearly inherited her mother's fierce temper and strong will, and she inherited the Sharingan eye from her father.
Even if she's not quite as strong as her brother, Himawari is a capable kunoichi, and it helps that she inherited her mother's Byakugan eye to help keep pace with Sarada's own budding talents. In short, Sakura and Hinata are both happy mothers by the Boruto era.