As far as Naruto characters are concerned, Sakura is one of the most contentious. Some viewers think she’s a great example of a female main character, with her own character arc and personality, while others feel like she spends a lot of time not doing anything and being in the way.
Even though she’s a ninja in a mysterious ninja village, she’s also at heart a teenage girl, and we can’t help but relate to her sometimes. Other times, we just can’t figure her out at all. Here are five times we totally got where Sakura was coming from and five times we couldn’t figure her out at all.
10 Could Relate: Cutting Her Hair Off
Sakura’s first big character moment in the show came when she got caught out by herself against ninjas from Orochimaru’s army. Her friends have already been defeated, and she’s the only one left to stand against these enemies alone. Sakura’s character arc is built around her self-confidence, and her need to prove herself, and as one of her enemies grabs her by the hair, mocking her for her weakness, she does the only thing she can do and cuts it off. It’s a great moment where we feel proud of her and motivated to do our best, against all odds, because if Sakura could, we can too.
9 Didn’t Get: Being Into Sasuke
When it comes to the Konoha Nine, it's clear that Sasuke is the coolest guy in the room most of the time. The problem is that the cool factor wears off after a while, and we’re left with a guy who’s just kind of a jerk. Sure, he’s had trauma in his life, but that doesn’t give him the right to treat the people around him badly.
Sakura, in particular, is a regular target for Sasuke’s abuse, but that doesn’t stop her from mindlessly following him around. With so many eligible, cool guys to choose from, her obsession with the one who isn’t interested in her and is often mean to her doesn’t make any sense to us.
8 Could Relate: Deciding to Become a Medical Ninja
Over the course of the series, Sakura witnesses a great deal of death and destruction at the hands of her fellow ninjas and their enemies. This leads her to pursue an apprenticeship with Tsunade, who trains her in medical ninjutsu. Her decision to contribute to the war and to support her friends by treating them when they’re wounded is valuable and noble, a decision based in trying to make the world a better place. Sakura is also really good at these skills, showing that she’s finally come into her own as a ninja.
7 Didn’t Get: Ending Her Friendship with Ino
Ino and Sakura have always been rivals, but ending their friendship over their mutual attraction to Sasuke seems really stupid. No girls should let a boy, especially one as annoying and moody as Sasuke, get between their friendship.
While rivalry in friendships is one of the cornerstones of shonen manga, these two girls should have been rivals as ninjas, pushing each other to be stronger and supporting each other during triumphs and failures, not tearing each other down over the attentions of a boy who hasn’t even noticed either of them.
6 Can Relate: Inner Sakura
Sakura has trouble expressing her real emotions, preferring usually to be polite and sweet in most situations. But her inner voice is often literally screaming and punching things, showing the frustration she believes that she’s not allowed to show outwardly. Girls, in particular, are often encouraged to keep our uglier thoughts or emotions under wraps so that we don’t appear too emotional or dramatic. We all have that little voice in our heads that is screaming how we actually feel about things, even if we look happy and smiling on the outside.
5 Didn’t Get: Not Being Able to Fight Sasuke
It’s hard to have a crush on someone or to think you’re in love with them, but Sakura could never get past those feelings for Sasuke, even when he betrayed his friends and Konoha and tried repeatedly to kill or hurt people he had previously thought of as friends.
Any time Sakura has been in a position to fight him, she’s messed up, unable to follow through with stopping him because of her feelings for him. When the rest of her friends and her family are on the line, we’d think she would be able to put aside old childhood feelings, but she’s never able to.
4 Could Relate: Avoiding Rock Lee
While Rock Lee is a favorite character with his own important story arc, our introduction to him isn’t the best. His diligent, aggressive pursuit of Sakura is creepy and over-the-top, even after she’s made it very clear that she’s not remotely interested in him romantically. So, while we love Rock Lee and are always cheering for him, in the case of him wanting to date Sakura, we have to side with her Matrix-ing her way out of getting hit by his blown kisses and being very clear that she’s not interested in him at all.
3 Didn’t Get: Telling Naruto She Loves Him
On the flipside, Sakura uses Naruto’s crush on her to try to stop him from pursuing Sasuke by telling him that she has feelings for him.
On top of the fact that it’s sort of stupid, and it doesn’t work because Naruto’s bond with Sasuke has always been stronger than any schoolboy crush he’s had on Sakura, it’s also manipulative and cruel. Sakura’s honesty with Rock Lee about her lack of feelings made us feel even more like we understood where she was coming from, but lying to Naruto makes us wonder what she could have been thinking.
2 Could Relate: Being Self-Conscious about Her Big Forehead
Everyone has their moments when they feel down on their physical appearance, and even ninjas can have low self-esteem. Sakura’s classmates constantly teased her about her larger than average forehead, making her feel even more self-conscious about the way she looks. We’ve all had moments of low self-esteem and understand where she’s coming from, especially those of us who have been bullied because of what we look like. Sakura’s self-consciousness about the size of her forehead is just another way that she’s a super-relatable teenage girl, and we totally get her.
1 Didn’t Get: Not Being Very Helpful in Battles
Sakura is in a training program for ninjas, so of course, she and her classmates often end up on dangerous missions where they have to fight. While most of her fellow students are pretty good at holding their own, even sometimes against enemies much more powerful than them, Sakura often ends up taking a backseat, if not outright needing to be rescued by one of her teammates. We find this all really baffling since she’s been training in the same skills as everyone else. What’s the point of having ninja training if she can’t even use it to protect herself, let alone save anyone else?