Haruno Sakura



Age: 12 at the beginning of the series, currently 15 years old
Eye color: Green
Hair color: Pink
Height: 150,1 ㎝
Weight: 35,9 kg
Birthday: March 28
Blood type: O
Registration #: 012601
Rank: Chūnin
Current affiliation: Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf)
Current team: Team Kakashi (Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura; also temporarily Yamato and Sai)
Previous affiliation: N/A
Previous team: Team 7 (Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura)
Relatives: Mother (never seen)
Jutsu:Dokumeki no Jutsu (Poison Extraction Technique)

Bunshin no Jutsu (Art of the Doppelganger)

Kawarimi no Jutsu (Change of Body Technique)

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.

Early Childhood and 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 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).

Wave Country and Chūnin exam:

Though her initial infatuation with Sasuke still overshadows her interactions with both him and Naruto at that stage, Sakura's understanding and respect for both her teammates slowly increase as they spend more time together. Another wake-up call for her is when the sensei of their newly-formed team, Kakashi, easily manages to prevent the three from getting even a single bell of the two he challenged them to get. He berates them for their lack of teamwork and specifically admonishes Sakura for her constant search for Sasuke even though Naruto was right next to her and could use her help. Kakashi allows them to eat - having forbidden it since the morning - save for Naruto, saying that he will fail them all if they feed him. She and Sasuke decide to feed Naruto anyway, in Team 7's first true bonding moment, and Team 7 thus becomes the first team Kakashi ever passed, as all along he was looking for the team with enough spirit to put a starving teammate on higher priority than "the rules".

Later, when the team is sent on a dangerous mission in the Wave Country, Sakura is first confronted with the meaning of being a kunoichi as she witnesses what appears to be Sasuke's death. She recites out loud the shinobi rule of repressing emotions and never showing them while hysterically crying over his body. This is also the first sign that her feelings for Sasuke actually go deeper than just a crush and she is coming to understand his frame of mind and his role as avenger better.

Sakura's true leaps in maturity and the depth of her relationship with Naruto, Sasuke and Ino start in the Chūnin exam. In the first stage, which is a written test - which she, herself, knows the answers to despite it being designed specifically to be so difficult for Genin to accomplish that they would have to cheat, a testimony to her intelligence - the teams are eventually presented with the mysterious "tenth question", where they are given a choice of whether to take it or not. The examiner tells them that not taking it fails your whole team immediately, but taking it but failing to answer correctly prevents you from becoming a chūnin forever. Sakura, who initially scorned Naruto and his foolish dream of becoming Hokage, comes inches close to actually raising her own hand to spare him from the chance of seeing his dream go to waste (she is stopped by him raising his hand to proclaim that he doesn't care if he becomes a chūnin or not, because he'll will himself to be hokage even if he stays a genin forever).

Sakura's shining moment comes in the second stage, set in the Forest of Death. With Sasuke feverish and unconscious on the floor after being branded with Orochimaru's curse seal and Naruto similarly knocked out from the battle, Sakura finds herself the one in charge of protecting both of them from attacking sound-nin. As Kin Tsuchi grabs her by her long hair and immobilises her, commenting that if she's had that much time to spend on her appearance perhaps she should have spent it training. Sakura happens to have grown her hair long because it was "known" (or rather believed by the girls) that Sasuke liked girls with long hair (given Sasuke's disposition, this rumor is unlikely to have been true); taking her Kunai out, Sakura cuts her own hair, setting herself free in more ways than one. Ino's team arrives just in time to witness this, which changes Ino's outlook on Sakura. Later, when they tie on their battle in the third stage preliminaries, Ino tells Sakura that she finally had blossomed, and- each acknowledging the other as her equal- they become friends again, although they snap into (mild) rivalry mode again whenever Sasuke is mentioned.

The aforementioned battle with the sound-nin terminates not by the intervention of Ino's team (though they make a laudable effort) or even the two other members of Rock Lee's team, who come searching for him seeing as he came to Sakura's aid earlier. It is Sasuke, finally awakening, engulfed by Orochimaru's cursed seal, who inquires about who is responsible for Sakura's wounds and consequently comes close to killing them. Before he does, however, Sakura - who knows that the Sasuke she knew would never go on a pointless killing spree - catches him in a hug from behind, begging him to stop, and the curse seal recedes.

Sasuke Retrieval Arc:

Eventually, almost inevitably, Sasuke decides to take Orochimaru up on his offers of power. He advances the cursed seal into Stage Two instead of attempting to contain it, and he turns his back on Konoha to join Orochimaru's Hidden Sound Village, betraying Team 7, and all of Konoha, in the process. As he sneaks out of the village, Sakura finds him, and soon understands the magnitude of what he is about to do. Crying and desperate not to lose Sasuke, Sakura does anything she can think of, confessing her love for him and even offering to join his twisted journey so they at least can be together. Sasuke's cryptic last words before swiftly knocking her out and departing are "Sakura... Thank you". The databook elaborates on this a bit, saying that "Sasuke is unable to answer her feelings - At the end, he leaves her with only a word of gratitude rather than words of parting".

The next day, before Naruto leaves to bring Sasuke back, Sakura appears and begs Naruto to bring back Sasuke, stating that only Naruto is able to do it. Naruto, looking at the crying Sakura, promised her that he WILL bring Sasuke back, making it his promise to her for a lifetime (even using Rock Lee's "nice guy" pose to seal the bargain).

When Naruto came back from the Sasuke retrieval mission, he can only tell Sakura that he's sorry for failing. He tells Sakura that he'll definitely keep his promise, because he said it was a lifelong promise. Sakura, seeing his determination, replies, giving him a strong smile, "Next time, we'll do it together!" Later on, she asks Tsunade to make her her apprentice. Tsunade, recogizing her determination, agrees to Sakura's request.

Naruto II arc:

Sakura, 2 years laterIn the second part of the Naruto series, Sakura's personality has taken on a much more mature and even tone. Also, like most people when they come of age, she seems to be much more comfortable in her own skin than when she was younger, frequently displaying the more ferocious aspects of her personality that were personified in the 'Inner Sakura' segments, instead of just responding with timid restraint.

Her abilities as a ninja have improved substantially in the form of medical jutsu and immense physical strength, due to Tsunade's tutelage. Kakashi has made reference to Sakura's past inclination towards Chakra control and Genjutsu, so it is possible she has made significant advances in these fields as well. Sakura has played an instrumental role in the opening chapters of the new arc, creating an antidote for Sasori's poison and curing Kankurō, and with the assistance of Chiyo, defeating Sasori in combat. Motivated by an intense desire to be of use to her village and friends, and to rescue Sasuke at all costs, Sakura would no doubt rather be dead than playing a sideline role in the events set to unfold.

Even after two and a half years, it seems Sakura still has lingering feelings for Sasuke, although perhaps due to the absence they have taken on a much more platonic nature. Needless to say, for both herself and Naruto, the subject of their ex-teammate proves to have remained highly sensitive, and both have a moment of over-exaggerated gloominess when Hatake Kakashi mentions him during the second bell test scene. It also seems that her relationship with Naruto has mellowed out, since Sakura seems to display a small amount of infatuation for him, and later sheds a few tears upon learning of Naruto's terrible burden being a container for the Kyūbi.

Her reaction towards temporary team member Sai has been notably more extreme than even Naruto's; going so far as to physically attack Sai with some prejudice when he insults Sasuke as a traitor to Konoha. This was considered a serious turning point, as up until then Sakura punching someone in the face was always in comedy-type scenes.

Trivia:

-The name "Haruno" means "spring field" and "Sakura" means "cherry blossom", which is the national flower of Japan.

-Sakura shares the same name as Wandaba Style's bratty nursery rhyme singer.

-According to the official databook Sakura’s favourite foods are syrup-coated anko dumplings and umeboshi (pickled ume fruits); her least favourite food is anything really spicy.

-Her hobbies are Quizzes and memorizing things and her favorite phrase is "Live for the love of your life!".

-Sakura is supposedly afraid of frogs, as implied in the anime in episode 139.

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