{OOC - Application}
PLAYER INFO
Name/Nickname: Elisa.
Age: 21.
Journal: flibbergibbet
AIM/MSN/IM: AIM: BurnMyStudy
Email: skiagrapher@gmail.com
CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Haruno Sakura.
Canon: Naruto.
Point taken from canon: After the Pain arc. About chapter 453 in the manga.
Age: 17
Gender: Female.
Preferred Village: Konohagakure.
Appearance: Sakura is 161 cm (about 5’3”) tall and weighs 45.4 kg (about 100 lbs). She is petite and, being a kunoichi, very athletic in build. Her most noticeable feature is probably her hair, which is a bright shade of pink. She used to wear it long and spent a good deal of time on its upkeep (because she’d heard a rumor that Sasuke, the boy she had a crush on, liked girls with long hair). She cut her hair short during a fight with a Sound kunoichi in the survival stage of the Chunnin exams, however, and has worn it above her shoulders ever since. Since that time, she has resolved to be less concerned with her appearance and more concerned with becoming a better kunoichi. Sakura has a wide forehead, which she used to keep hidden under bangs because she was so insecure about it. Despite this, she is considered rather pretty by some of her peers, notably Naruto and Rock Lee. (Lee, in particular, is quite effusive in his appreciation of her loveliness).
Background: When Sakura was first in the ninja academy, she was often ridiculed by her classmates. Young as she was, she was insecure about her wide forehead, and the girls in her class preyed on this weakness and picked on her mercilessly. It was then that she met Yamanaka Ino, who stood up for her and chased off her bullies. Ino gave Sakura a ribbon to tie in her hair so that Sakura wouldn’t have to hide her forehead any more and helped Sakura out in areas of the kunoichi arts where she was struggling, like flower arrangement. They became very good friends. Sakura admired Ino very much, but as she grew up she wanted to come into her own. When it became clear that both Ino and Sakura had crushes on the same boy, Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura ended their friendship and declared that they two were rivals in love. She went on to say that when she wore her forehead protector in its proper place, against her forehead, she would not lose to Ino as a female ninja. Ino declared that the same was true for her.
After graduating from the academy, she was placed on genin Team Seven with Uchiha Sasuke (much to her delight) and the troublemaker Uzumaki Naruto (much to her chagrin) under the instruction of Hatake Kakashi. Their team struggled during their jonin teacher’s bell test, but after realizing that they needed to work together instead of separately, they passed and became a true team.
Team Seven’s first mission outside of Konoha’s walls was very nearly disastrous. The man who commissioned their services, a bridge-builder from Wave Country named Tazuna, lied about the dangers of his situation and their team ended up encountering Zabuza, a dangerous missing-nin from Mist. Kakashi won their first encounter but was out of commission and unable to fight for about a week. In that time, he taught his students how to climb trees using precise chakra control. While Sasuke and Naruto struggled, Sakura showed an immediate aptitude for it (much to the boys’ disgruntlement). Later, when the team encountered Zabuza and his partner, Haku, on what would become known as the Great Naruto Bridge, Sakura admitted to violating shinobi rule number 25 - show no emotions - while crying over Sasuke, who appeared to be dead.
When the Chunnin Exams came around, Sakura expressed a reluctance to participate because she believed that she wasn’t ready. After some encouragement from Sasuke, however, she resolved to do it. During the survival section of the exams in the Forest of Death, Team Seven encountered a disguised Orochimaru, a dangerous missing-nin. Orochimaru appeared to be very interested in Sasuke and attacked him, biting him on the neck and giving Sasuke his curse seal. After Orochimaru withdrew, Sakura was left to take care of both her unconscious teammates through the night. The next day, they were attacked by a team of Sound genin sent by Orochimaru. Rock Lee, a boy on an older genin team (who had noticed Sakura just prior to the start of the written exam and had professed his love for her), jumped in to protect her but was defeated. The Sound kunoichi Kin immobilized Sakura by grabbing her hair and mocked Sakura for having spent so much time on keeping her hair pretty, for caring more for her appearance than for bettering herself as a ninja. Ashamed by the truth in this statement, tired of being left in the dust by her talented teammates, Sakura swore to become better, and that one day they would be the ones watching her back. She cut her hair off above Kin’s grip with a kunai and desperately attempted to fend of the Sound team, even resorting to biting Zaku as he beat on her. It was at this point that Team 10 - composed of Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji - stepped in. Sasuke awoke shortly thereafter, and observed the state that Sakura was in. He demanded to know who had done that to her as Orochimaru’s curse seal overcame him. Scared and horrified at the change in him, Sakura hastily embraced him and asked him to stop. Her plea reached him, and Sasuke backed down.
Team Seven passed the survival stage, but too many teams had done the same. A preliminary round of fighting was held to eliminate more genin before the final round. She and Ino were paired to fight. Their old rivalry surfaced. After exchanging some blows, Sakura paused in the fight to adjust her headband, so that she was wearing it on her forehead. Recognizing the symbolism in this, Ino did the same, and the two fought each other seriously. At one point, Ino trapped Sakura with her hair and used her family’s body switch technique on Sakura, attempting to make her forfeit. However, just before she could, Sakura’s violent alter personality, Inner Sakura, rebelled and ejected Ino from Sakura’s mind and control, and the battle continued. In the end, they knocked each other out and neither advanced to the finals.
In the final round, Sakura was one of the few people to repel a sleep genjutsu laid on the entire crowd during Sasuke’s match. Kakashi told her to take a team and go after Sasuke, who had run off in pursuit of Gaara. When she found them, she valiantly stands up to him at the risk of her own life. Early into the fight, he trapped her with sand and tried to suffocate her until Naruto jumped in to her rescue.
Sakura disappeared for a little while in the manga, reappearing after Sasuke has been hospitalized by his brother, Itachi. Naruto had been off with the Sannin Jiraiya, looking for Tsunade so that she could take the mantle of Hokage after the Third Hokage’s death at Orochimaru’s hands. Tsunade healed Sasuke and he came out of his coma. Sakura went in daily to take care of him, but when Naruto visited Sasuke demanded that they fight. Sakura protested, but they ignored her. They proceeded to the roof of the hospital to duke it out. When the fight escalated to the point where they attempted to use deadly attacks on each other, Sakura jumped between them. Sasuke and Naruto couldn’t stop their momentum, and they would have hit her if Kakashi hadn’t intervened at the last minute and thrown them away from each other. Sakura began to cry, but Kakashi assured her that everything would be okay.
The night that Sasuke defected, Sakura was there waiting for him. She told him that she suspected that he might try and leave, and that she had waited for him at the only route out of town. She tried to convince him to stay, but he brushed past her to leave despite this. Desperate, she confessed that she loved him and that if he couldn’t stay, she would go with him. She threatened to scream and alert the village. Sasuke quickly got behind her, told her “Thank you,” and knocked her out. He left her on a nearby bench as he left the village.
Several Genin went out to retrieve him, and many of them came back badly injured. Sakura learned that Naruto was unable to bring back Sasuke, but Naruto promised that he would bring him back. Sakura told him that next time he went to retrieve their lost teammate, she’d be there with him. After that, she asked to become Tsunade’s apprentice. Tsunade agreed.
Naruto left Konoha for two years to train with Jiraiya. During that time, Sakura trained hard under the fifth Hokage’s tutelage, learning medical techniques and Tsunade’s taijutsu technique, which utilized the focusing of chakra to maximize the impact of Sakura’s strikes. In that time, she ascended to the rank of Chunnin. When Naruto returned, Kakashi gave them a second bell test to determine their growth. Kakashi disappeared at the start of the fight, and Sakura showed off the fruits of her training by cracking the ground underneath her with her fist, revealing Kakashi’s location. The two of them were able to get the bells by tricking him.
Shortly thereafter, Gaara (who had become Kazekage) was kidnapped my members of an organization named Akatsuki, who were trying to collect the tailed beasts such as the ones residing in both Gaara and Naruto. Gaara’s brother, Kankurou, had been poisoned by one, Sasori of the Red Sand. Upon Team Kakashi’s arrival in Suna, Sakura used a high-level medical technique to purge the poison from his body, then used the poison extracted from him to create several antidotes. Team Kakashi and Team Gai left shortly thereafter with Chiyo, an advisor to Suna.
When they arrived, Team Gai dispersed to dismantle the seal on the boulder blocking the entrance to the cave. Sakura then broke the boulder down. The only Akatsuki members in the cave were Deidara, the explosives expert, and Sasori, the puppet master. Deidara took Gaara’s body and left, sending Naruto into a fit of rage and pursuing him. Kakashi followed. Sakura and Chiyo were left to fight Sasori, who was actually Chiyo’s grandson. To aid Sakura’s dexterity, Chiyo helped her out by controlling her like a puppet as Sakura used her strength, ability to dodge, and quick analytical mind to attack Sasori and repel the Third Kazekage’s iron sand techniques. Sakura destroyed the puppet of the Kazekage by allowing herself to be scratched by the sand, then using the antidote she’d created and faking having been poisoned. Sasori then used one hundred puppets against them. During the fight, Sakura threw a seal at Sasori, which rendered him immobile. She and Chiyo thought that they’d won, but Sasori appeared in another puppet body and raised his sword to attack Chiyo. Sakura leapt between them at the last second and was stabbed through the stomach. Sasori withdrew to attack Chiyo again, but Chiyo used puppets of his parents to stab him through the heart. She then used the final antidote on Sakura and healed Sakura’s wounds. As a reward for having defeated him, Sasori told Sakura that he had a spy in Orochimaru’s - his former partner’s - ranks, and that he was scheduled to meet the spy soon. Sakura and Chiyo met up with everyone else, and Chiyo used a life exchange technique to restore Gaara’s life at the expense of her own. After Chiyo’s funeral in Suna, Team Kakashi and Team Gai went home.
Sasori’s scheduled meet with his spy was a little over a week, and Team Kakashi intended to go there in his place. However, Kakashi had used his mangekyo sharingan too much and was out of commission. As a result, the council assigned a third member to their team. He was the Root ANBU member, Sai. Because Tsunade didn’t trust him, she sent an ANBU member she knew to be loyal to her, Tenzou (code named Yamato). This new Team Kakashi got off to a rocky start. During the trip, Sai badmouthed Sasuke, Sakura smiled at him, then punched him across the face. Later, however, she enquired after his paintings in an apparent attempt to get to know him better.
Team Kakashi met Sasori’s spy, who turned out to be Kabuto, Orochimaru’s top henchman. But Kabuto was actually a double agent, working on Orochimaru’s behalf. Naruto became enraged when Kabuto and Orochimaru refuse to give Sasuke back, and transformed into a three-tailed version of the Kyubbi. Blindly destructive, he lashes out and Sakura got thrown and hit her head, knocking her out; when she came to, Sai had apparently betrayed them and gone off with Orochimaru. They pursued him to Orochimaru’s hide-out. They learned that Sai had a secret, second mission: assassinating Sasuke. However, Sai abandoned this mission because he wanted to explore the bonds that Team Seven had. Team Kakashi split up in search of Sasuke. There was an explosion. When Sakura arrived at Sasuke’s room, where the explosion had occurred, she initially attacked Sai and demanded to know what he was doing, but then she spotted Sasuke for the first time in years. Sakura looked on as Naruto yelled at Sasuke and as they fought. Sai and Naruto were taken out by Sasuke’s Chidori Nagashi. Sakura ran at him with the intent of attacking him and bringing him home under her own power, but Yamato jumped ahead of her and took Sasuke’s attack. Before Sasuke could kill them, Orochimaru stepped in, and Sasuke left with Orochimaru. Naruto began to cry, then, berating himself for being so weak. Sakura, through tears, declared that crying wouldn’t bring Sasuke back, and that they’d get stronger together. Defeated but with a renewed vigor for bringing Sasuke home, Team Kakashi went back to Konoha.
When Konoha hears news that Orochimaru had been killed by Sasuke, and that Sasuke had set out in pursuit of Itachi, Team Kakashi along with others of their generation set off in pursuit of him. Along the way, they met Tobi, a mysterious member masked member of the Akatsuki. All attacks against him seemed to go right through him. Hinata informed them that his chakra hadn’t moved, so Sakura deduced that Tobi must be moving specific parts of his body out of existence. As they were fighting, another member of the Akatsuki, Zetsu, arrived and announced that Sasuke had defeated Itachi, and that the latter was dead. Tobi and Zetsu vanished. The Konoha team rushed to the site of the battle, but Sasuke was gone by that point.
After Jiraiya’s death at the hands of the Akatsuki leader, Pain, Sakura tried to comfort both Tsunade and Naruto. She helped with deciphering Jiraiya’s coded message to Konoha. When Pain attacked Konoha, Sakura fought off various frightening summons until she was told that she would be more useful back at the hospital, treating the injured. After Pain used his Shinra Tensei technique to blast a crater into the village, Tsunade collapsed under the strain of using her Souzou Saisei technique to heal villagers. Sakura watched as Naruto fought Pain, then left to go talk to Pain’s real body. Sakura was shocked to hear that Hinata had jumped in to protect Naruto, and Sakura healed Hinata. When Naruto returned triumphant, Sakura hit him for being so rash, then hugged and thanked him.
Tsunade, exhausted and drained from using her technique, fell into a coma, and Sakura said she didn’t know when she’d wake up. This news upset Sakura very much. In the mean time, Danzou used Tsunade’s condition to take over as Hokage, and then order Sasuke’s death. Upon hearing that news, Naruto and Sakura want to rush in and confront Danzou, but Kakashi cautioned them, telling them that doing so would only make the situation worse. They then saw Sai, and tried to get information about Danzou out of him, but Sai revealed that he was literally forbidden from talking about him due to a seal placed on his tongue. It was then that they were confronted by a team from Cloud, demanding to know everything they knew about Sasuke. The Cloud team said that this was because Sasuke had killed their master, Killerbee, who had the Eight-tailed demon inside of him. They revealed that Sasuke was an Akatsuki member. Upon hearing this news, Sakura began to cry. Naruto told the Cloud team that it was possible that their master was still alive, and that he would help them find him. He went off with the Cloud team, leaving Sakura behind.
Personality: Sakura is a very passionate person. In many ways, she allows her emotions to dominate - she’s never been very good at shinobi rule # 25. Whether she’s happy, or sad, or angry, it’s not hard to read Sakura’s emotions. In the beginning she thought that this was a bad thing, but after training to become stronger she no longer tries to hide her emotions.
At the beginning of the series, she appears to be a shallow person, and maybe she was, in the way that twelve-year-old girls often are. She was obsessed with Sasuke and dismissive of Naruto. But as the three of them began to work together as a team, she realized that both boys had their faults and their strengths, and she came to see them as real people who she admired and cared about very much. Now, Sakura is fiercely loyal to those she calls friends. She is not one to back down from a fight, especially if the people she loves are in danger. She can be quite stubborn in that way.
There is a balance to Sakura’s hot-headedness, though. When not dominated by extreme emotions, Sakura is generally a calm and rational person who is good at reading situations and finding a way to resolve conflict, on and off the battlefield. She is also compassionate and tries to be friendly - she attempted to reach out to Sai not very long after she’d hit him for trashing Sasuke.
Abilities/Strengths: Even when Sakura was not strong physically, she was very smart. From a young age she showed aptitude and an analytical mind. During the written part of the Chunnin exam, she was one of the only Genin who was able to answer the questions without cheating. When fighting Sasori, she watched the movements of his fingers and quickly learned to predict his actions.
Sakura also shows leadership capabilities. During Pain’s invasion, when Tsunade was weakened, she directed the shinobi of the village to get out of Naruto’s way when he’d transformed into the Kyuubi.
Her main fighting technique is an enhanced taijutsu style based on her elevated ability to control chakra. By directing chakra to various parts of her body, she can enhance her strikes by forcing that chakra into the object she’s attacking with deadly force. She has also been trained in high-level medical techniques, including the poison extraction technique she used on Kankurou. It is also established that she is naturally a genjutsu type, although the extent of her training in this field at the time she’s been taken from is not known. She can also use Kuchiyose-no-Jutsu to summon slugs.
Weaknesses: Sakura has a temper. Oh boy, does she have a temper. Her temper is a character unto itself - literally. Inner Sakura, as Sakura’s violent id is known, popped up more regularly in the first part, when Sakura repressed all of her more extreme feelings because they would be considered unseemly. She does occasionally appear when Sakura is older - as when Konohamaru modified the Sexy no Jutsu to display Sasuke and Sai. Sakura can have violent mood swings and has a tendency to lash out at the least provocation. Considering her strength, this can tend to lead to injury to anyone unfortunate enough to incur her wrath.
She wears her feelings on her sleeve, which is not something she is ashamed of but which might be used against her. Her unfailing loyalty could also be perceived as a weakness - she has never once given up on the idea of bringing Sasuke back, even though he has tried to kill her and Naruto before. Sasuke himself is a weakness of hers, because despite everything, she still does care for him and might still love him.
Defining Quote(s): “This time… get a good look at my back!” - Sakura, Ch. 54
“But what I do have is my master’s contempt for losing!” - Sakura, Ch. 269
Well I may seem naive if I cry as you leave
Like I'm just one more tortured heart
These cracks that I show as I'm watching
You go aren't tearing me apart
- Come Round Soon, Sara Bareilles
My feel for you, boy, is decaying in front of me
Like the carrion of murdered prey
And all I want is to save you, honey
Or the strength to walk away
- Carrion, Fiona Apple
Other: There is little canon mention of Sakura’s parents: I have decided that they are both alive (though considering the whole “Pain nuking Konoha” thing, Sakura can’t be sure of that at the point she’s been taken from) and neither of them are shinobi. They’re as supporting as they can be of their daughter’s chosen profession, though they understand little about it.
Third Person Writing Sample:
“I want you to feel the difference between systolic and diastolic pressure,” Tsunade tells her, and presses Sakura’s hand to an unconscious patient’s chest. It’s natural and easy, by that point, for Sakura to slide her chakra through his ribcage, down through to his heart, so subtly that he’d never notice if he’d been awake. So easy. Her chakra wraps around the organ and Sakura feels it as though she held it in her hands. She feels it pulse, feels it thrum against fingers of chakra. A strong heart. A shinobi’s heart.
“The left ventricle,” Tsunade continues, “is the strongest chamber. It pumps oxygenated blood out of the heart and into the rest of the body.”
Sakura directs her attention there. The valve opens like a dam and blood rushes into the chamber and fills it. Then the strong ventricular walls clench tight, like a fist, forcing the blood up through the aorta. The valve opens. The ventricle clenches. Again and again and again. Sakura understands the concept on the second beat, but she doesn’t remove her hand. She is transfixed by this simple, primal action of the human body. Feeling this man’s heartbeat is feeling the force of his life through his body.
Her arms were still sore from training earlier that afternoon. Sakura had felt the force of her own heartbeat thudding in her neck as she punched a stump on the training grounds. Over and over. One fist after another clenched hard, driving into the wood, unconsciously mimicking the pounding in her ears.
Her muscles burned and screamed, but Sakura didn’t stop. The burn felt good. It felt like accomplishment; like being worth something.
She’d promised Naruto that she’d be there for him the next time he went after Sasuke, and she intended to keep that promise. If that was Naruto’s ninja way, then that was her ninja way, too. But if she was going to do that, she wasn’t going to be a burden any longer. She would get stronger.
Sakura had drawn her fist back one last time, shouted, and when she punched the stump this time, the wood cracked and split apart around her fist.
I am stronger.
Sakura draws her hand back from the shinobi’s chest.
Now she just needed to wait for Naruto to come home.
Name/Nickname: Elisa.
Age: 21.
Journal: flibbergibbet
AIM/MSN/IM: AIM: BurnMyStudy
Email: skiagrapher@gmail.com
CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Haruno Sakura.
Canon: Naruto.
Point taken from canon: After the Pain arc. About chapter 453 in the manga.
Age: 17
Gender: Female.
Preferred Village: Konohagakure.
Appearance: Sakura is 161 cm (about 5’3”) tall and weighs 45.4 kg (about 100 lbs). She is petite and, being a kunoichi, very athletic in build. Her most noticeable feature is probably her hair, which is a bright shade of pink. She used to wear it long and spent a good deal of time on its upkeep (because she’d heard a rumor that Sasuke, the boy she had a crush on, liked girls with long hair). She cut her hair short during a fight with a Sound kunoichi in the survival stage of the Chunnin exams, however, and has worn it above her shoulders ever since. Since that time, she has resolved to be less concerned with her appearance and more concerned with becoming a better kunoichi. Sakura has a wide forehead, which she used to keep hidden under bangs because she was so insecure about it. Despite this, she is considered rather pretty by some of her peers, notably Naruto and Rock Lee. (Lee, in particular, is quite effusive in his appreciation of her loveliness).
Background: When Sakura was first in the ninja academy, she was often ridiculed by her classmates. Young as she was, she was insecure about her wide forehead, and the girls in her class preyed on this weakness and picked on her mercilessly. It was then that she met Yamanaka Ino, who stood up for her and chased off her bullies. Ino gave Sakura a ribbon to tie in her hair so that Sakura wouldn’t have to hide her forehead any more and helped Sakura out in areas of the kunoichi arts where she was struggling, like flower arrangement. They became very good friends. Sakura admired Ino very much, but as she grew up she wanted to come into her own. When it became clear that both Ino and Sakura had crushes on the same boy, Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura ended their friendship and declared that they two were rivals in love. She went on to say that when she wore her forehead protector in its proper place, against her forehead, she would not lose to Ino as a female ninja. Ino declared that the same was true for her.
After graduating from the academy, she was placed on genin Team Seven with Uchiha Sasuke (much to her delight) and the troublemaker Uzumaki Naruto (much to her chagrin) under the instruction of Hatake Kakashi. Their team struggled during their jonin teacher’s bell test, but after realizing that they needed to work together instead of separately, they passed and became a true team.
Team Seven’s first mission outside of Konoha’s walls was very nearly disastrous. The man who commissioned their services, a bridge-builder from Wave Country named Tazuna, lied about the dangers of his situation and their team ended up encountering Zabuza, a dangerous missing-nin from Mist. Kakashi won their first encounter but was out of commission and unable to fight for about a week. In that time, he taught his students how to climb trees using precise chakra control. While Sasuke and Naruto struggled, Sakura showed an immediate aptitude for it (much to the boys’ disgruntlement). Later, when the team encountered Zabuza and his partner, Haku, on what would become known as the Great Naruto Bridge, Sakura admitted to violating shinobi rule number 25 - show no emotions - while crying over Sasuke, who appeared to be dead.
When the Chunnin Exams came around, Sakura expressed a reluctance to participate because she believed that she wasn’t ready. After some encouragement from Sasuke, however, she resolved to do it. During the survival section of the exams in the Forest of Death, Team Seven encountered a disguised Orochimaru, a dangerous missing-nin. Orochimaru appeared to be very interested in Sasuke and attacked him, biting him on the neck and giving Sasuke his curse seal. After Orochimaru withdrew, Sakura was left to take care of both her unconscious teammates through the night. The next day, they were attacked by a team of Sound genin sent by Orochimaru. Rock Lee, a boy on an older genin team (who had noticed Sakura just prior to the start of the written exam and had professed his love for her), jumped in to protect her but was defeated. The Sound kunoichi Kin immobilized Sakura by grabbing her hair and mocked Sakura for having spent so much time on keeping her hair pretty, for caring more for her appearance than for bettering herself as a ninja. Ashamed by the truth in this statement, tired of being left in the dust by her talented teammates, Sakura swore to become better, and that one day they would be the ones watching her back. She cut her hair off above Kin’s grip with a kunai and desperately attempted to fend of the Sound team, even resorting to biting Zaku as he beat on her. It was at this point that Team 10 - composed of Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji - stepped in. Sasuke awoke shortly thereafter, and observed the state that Sakura was in. He demanded to know who had done that to her as Orochimaru’s curse seal overcame him. Scared and horrified at the change in him, Sakura hastily embraced him and asked him to stop. Her plea reached him, and Sasuke backed down.
Team Seven passed the survival stage, but too many teams had done the same. A preliminary round of fighting was held to eliminate more genin before the final round. She and Ino were paired to fight. Their old rivalry surfaced. After exchanging some blows, Sakura paused in the fight to adjust her headband, so that she was wearing it on her forehead. Recognizing the symbolism in this, Ino did the same, and the two fought each other seriously. At one point, Ino trapped Sakura with her hair and used her family’s body switch technique on Sakura, attempting to make her forfeit. However, just before she could, Sakura’s violent alter personality, Inner Sakura, rebelled and ejected Ino from Sakura’s mind and control, and the battle continued. In the end, they knocked each other out and neither advanced to the finals.
In the final round, Sakura was one of the few people to repel a sleep genjutsu laid on the entire crowd during Sasuke’s match. Kakashi told her to take a team and go after Sasuke, who had run off in pursuit of Gaara. When she found them, she valiantly stands up to him at the risk of her own life. Early into the fight, he trapped her with sand and tried to suffocate her until Naruto jumped in to her rescue.
Sakura disappeared for a little while in the manga, reappearing after Sasuke has been hospitalized by his brother, Itachi. Naruto had been off with the Sannin Jiraiya, looking for Tsunade so that she could take the mantle of Hokage after the Third Hokage’s death at Orochimaru’s hands. Tsunade healed Sasuke and he came out of his coma. Sakura went in daily to take care of him, but when Naruto visited Sasuke demanded that they fight. Sakura protested, but they ignored her. They proceeded to the roof of the hospital to duke it out. When the fight escalated to the point where they attempted to use deadly attacks on each other, Sakura jumped between them. Sasuke and Naruto couldn’t stop their momentum, and they would have hit her if Kakashi hadn’t intervened at the last minute and thrown them away from each other. Sakura began to cry, but Kakashi assured her that everything would be okay.
The night that Sasuke defected, Sakura was there waiting for him. She told him that she suspected that he might try and leave, and that she had waited for him at the only route out of town. She tried to convince him to stay, but he brushed past her to leave despite this. Desperate, she confessed that she loved him and that if he couldn’t stay, she would go with him. She threatened to scream and alert the village. Sasuke quickly got behind her, told her “Thank you,” and knocked her out. He left her on a nearby bench as he left the village.
Several Genin went out to retrieve him, and many of them came back badly injured. Sakura learned that Naruto was unable to bring back Sasuke, but Naruto promised that he would bring him back. Sakura told him that next time he went to retrieve their lost teammate, she’d be there with him. After that, she asked to become Tsunade’s apprentice. Tsunade agreed.
Naruto left Konoha for two years to train with Jiraiya. During that time, Sakura trained hard under the fifth Hokage’s tutelage, learning medical techniques and Tsunade’s taijutsu technique, which utilized the focusing of chakra to maximize the impact of Sakura’s strikes. In that time, she ascended to the rank of Chunnin. When Naruto returned, Kakashi gave them a second bell test to determine their growth. Kakashi disappeared at the start of the fight, and Sakura showed off the fruits of her training by cracking the ground underneath her with her fist, revealing Kakashi’s location. The two of them were able to get the bells by tricking him.
Shortly thereafter, Gaara (who had become Kazekage) was kidnapped my members of an organization named Akatsuki, who were trying to collect the tailed beasts such as the ones residing in both Gaara and Naruto. Gaara’s brother, Kankurou, had been poisoned by one, Sasori of the Red Sand. Upon Team Kakashi’s arrival in Suna, Sakura used a high-level medical technique to purge the poison from his body, then used the poison extracted from him to create several antidotes. Team Kakashi and Team Gai left shortly thereafter with Chiyo, an advisor to Suna.
When they arrived, Team Gai dispersed to dismantle the seal on the boulder blocking the entrance to the cave. Sakura then broke the boulder down. The only Akatsuki members in the cave were Deidara, the explosives expert, and Sasori, the puppet master. Deidara took Gaara’s body and left, sending Naruto into a fit of rage and pursuing him. Kakashi followed. Sakura and Chiyo were left to fight Sasori, who was actually Chiyo’s grandson. To aid Sakura’s dexterity, Chiyo helped her out by controlling her like a puppet as Sakura used her strength, ability to dodge, and quick analytical mind to attack Sasori and repel the Third Kazekage’s iron sand techniques. Sakura destroyed the puppet of the Kazekage by allowing herself to be scratched by the sand, then using the antidote she’d created and faking having been poisoned. Sasori then used one hundred puppets against them. During the fight, Sakura threw a seal at Sasori, which rendered him immobile. She and Chiyo thought that they’d won, but Sasori appeared in another puppet body and raised his sword to attack Chiyo. Sakura leapt between them at the last second and was stabbed through the stomach. Sasori withdrew to attack Chiyo again, but Chiyo used puppets of his parents to stab him through the heart. She then used the final antidote on Sakura and healed Sakura’s wounds. As a reward for having defeated him, Sasori told Sakura that he had a spy in Orochimaru’s - his former partner’s - ranks, and that he was scheduled to meet the spy soon. Sakura and Chiyo met up with everyone else, and Chiyo used a life exchange technique to restore Gaara’s life at the expense of her own. After Chiyo’s funeral in Suna, Team Kakashi and Team Gai went home.
Sasori’s scheduled meet with his spy was a little over a week, and Team Kakashi intended to go there in his place. However, Kakashi had used his mangekyo sharingan too much and was out of commission. As a result, the council assigned a third member to their team. He was the Root ANBU member, Sai. Because Tsunade didn’t trust him, she sent an ANBU member she knew to be loyal to her, Tenzou (code named Yamato). This new Team Kakashi got off to a rocky start. During the trip, Sai badmouthed Sasuke, Sakura smiled at him, then punched him across the face. Later, however, she enquired after his paintings in an apparent attempt to get to know him better.
Team Kakashi met Sasori’s spy, who turned out to be Kabuto, Orochimaru’s top henchman. But Kabuto was actually a double agent, working on Orochimaru’s behalf. Naruto became enraged when Kabuto and Orochimaru refuse to give Sasuke back, and transformed into a three-tailed version of the Kyubbi. Blindly destructive, he lashes out and Sakura got thrown and hit her head, knocking her out; when she came to, Sai had apparently betrayed them and gone off with Orochimaru. They pursued him to Orochimaru’s hide-out. They learned that Sai had a secret, second mission: assassinating Sasuke. However, Sai abandoned this mission because he wanted to explore the bonds that Team Seven had. Team Kakashi split up in search of Sasuke. There was an explosion. When Sakura arrived at Sasuke’s room, where the explosion had occurred, she initially attacked Sai and demanded to know what he was doing, but then she spotted Sasuke for the first time in years. Sakura looked on as Naruto yelled at Sasuke and as they fought. Sai and Naruto were taken out by Sasuke’s Chidori Nagashi. Sakura ran at him with the intent of attacking him and bringing him home under her own power, but Yamato jumped ahead of her and took Sasuke’s attack. Before Sasuke could kill them, Orochimaru stepped in, and Sasuke left with Orochimaru. Naruto began to cry, then, berating himself for being so weak. Sakura, through tears, declared that crying wouldn’t bring Sasuke back, and that they’d get stronger together. Defeated but with a renewed vigor for bringing Sasuke home, Team Kakashi went back to Konoha.
When Konoha hears news that Orochimaru had been killed by Sasuke, and that Sasuke had set out in pursuit of Itachi, Team Kakashi along with others of their generation set off in pursuit of him. Along the way, they met Tobi, a mysterious member masked member of the Akatsuki. All attacks against him seemed to go right through him. Hinata informed them that his chakra hadn’t moved, so Sakura deduced that Tobi must be moving specific parts of his body out of existence. As they were fighting, another member of the Akatsuki, Zetsu, arrived and announced that Sasuke had defeated Itachi, and that the latter was dead. Tobi and Zetsu vanished. The Konoha team rushed to the site of the battle, but Sasuke was gone by that point.
After Jiraiya’s death at the hands of the Akatsuki leader, Pain, Sakura tried to comfort both Tsunade and Naruto. She helped with deciphering Jiraiya’s coded message to Konoha. When Pain attacked Konoha, Sakura fought off various frightening summons until she was told that she would be more useful back at the hospital, treating the injured. After Pain used his Shinra Tensei technique to blast a crater into the village, Tsunade collapsed under the strain of using her Souzou Saisei technique to heal villagers. Sakura watched as Naruto fought Pain, then left to go talk to Pain’s real body. Sakura was shocked to hear that Hinata had jumped in to protect Naruto, and Sakura healed Hinata. When Naruto returned triumphant, Sakura hit him for being so rash, then hugged and thanked him.
Tsunade, exhausted and drained from using her technique, fell into a coma, and Sakura said she didn’t know when she’d wake up. This news upset Sakura very much. In the mean time, Danzou used Tsunade’s condition to take over as Hokage, and then order Sasuke’s death. Upon hearing that news, Naruto and Sakura want to rush in and confront Danzou, but Kakashi cautioned them, telling them that doing so would only make the situation worse. They then saw Sai, and tried to get information about Danzou out of him, but Sai revealed that he was literally forbidden from talking about him due to a seal placed on his tongue. It was then that they were confronted by a team from Cloud, demanding to know everything they knew about Sasuke. The Cloud team said that this was because Sasuke had killed their master, Killerbee, who had the Eight-tailed demon inside of him. They revealed that Sasuke was an Akatsuki member. Upon hearing this news, Sakura began to cry. Naruto told the Cloud team that it was possible that their master was still alive, and that he would help them find him. He went off with the Cloud team, leaving Sakura behind.
Personality: Sakura is a very passionate person. In many ways, she allows her emotions to dominate - she’s never been very good at shinobi rule # 25. Whether she’s happy, or sad, or angry, it’s not hard to read Sakura’s emotions. In the beginning she thought that this was a bad thing, but after training to become stronger she no longer tries to hide her emotions.
At the beginning of the series, she appears to be a shallow person, and maybe she was, in the way that twelve-year-old girls often are. She was obsessed with Sasuke and dismissive of Naruto. But as the three of them began to work together as a team, she realized that both boys had their faults and their strengths, and she came to see them as real people who she admired and cared about very much. Now, Sakura is fiercely loyal to those she calls friends. She is not one to back down from a fight, especially if the people she loves are in danger. She can be quite stubborn in that way.
There is a balance to Sakura’s hot-headedness, though. When not dominated by extreme emotions, Sakura is generally a calm and rational person who is good at reading situations and finding a way to resolve conflict, on and off the battlefield. She is also compassionate and tries to be friendly - she attempted to reach out to Sai not very long after she’d hit him for trashing Sasuke.
Abilities/Strengths: Even when Sakura was not strong physically, she was very smart. From a young age she showed aptitude and an analytical mind. During the written part of the Chunnin exam, she was one of the only Genin who was able to answer the questions without cheating. When fighting Sasori, she watched the movements of his fingers and quickly learned to predict his actions.
Sakura also shows leadership capabilities. During Pain’s invasion, when Tsunade was weakened, she directed the shinobi of the village to get out of Naruto’s way when he’d transformed into the Kyuubi.
Her main fighting technique is an enhanced taijutsu style based on her elevated ability to control chakra. By directing chakra to various parts of her body, she can enhance her strikes by forcing that chakra into the object she’s attacking with deadly force. She has also been trained in high-level medical techniques, including the poison extraction technique she used on Kankurou. It is also established that she is naturally a genjutsu type, although the extent of her training in this field at the time she’s been taken from is not known. She can also use Kuchiyose-no-Jutsu to summon slugs.
Weaknesses: Sakura has a temper. Oh boy, does she have a temper. Her temper is a character unto itself - literally. Inner Sakura, as Sakura’s violent id is known, popped up more regularly in the first part, when Sakura repressed all of her more extreme feelings because they would be considered unseemly. She does occasionally appear when Sakura is older - as when Konohamaru modified the Sexy no Jutsu to display Sasuke and Sai. Sakura can have violent mood swings and has a tendency to lash out at the least provocation. Considering her strength, this can tend to lead to injury to anyone unfortunate enough to incur her wrath.
She wears her feelings on her sleeve, which is not something she is ashamed of but which might be used against her. Her unfailing loyalty could also be perceived as a weakness - she has never once given up on the idea of bringing Sasuke back, even though he has tried to kill her and Naruto before. Sasuke himself is a weakness of hers, because despite everything, she still does care for him and might still love him.
Defining Quote(s): “This time… get a good look at my back!” - Sakura, Ch. 54
“But what I do have is my master’s contempt for losing!” - Sakura, Ch. 269
Well I may seem naive if I cry as you leave
Like I'm just one more tortured heart
These cracks that I show as I'm watching
You go aren't tearing me apart
- Come Round Soon, Sara Bareilles
My feel for you, boy, is decaying in front of me
Like the carrion of murdered prey
And all I want is to save you, honey
Or the strength to walk away
- Carrion, Fiona Apple
Other: There is little canon mention of Sakura’s parents: I have decided that they are both alive (though considering the whole “Pain nuking Konoha” thing, Sakura can’t be sure of that at the point she’s been taken from) and neither of them are shinobi. They’re as supporting as they can be of their daughter’s chosen profession, though they understand little about it.
Third Person Writing Sample:
“I want you to feel the difference between systolic and diastolic pressure,” Tsunade tells her, and presses Sakura’s hand to an unconscious patient’s chest. It’s natural and easy, by that point, for Sakura to slide her chakra through his ribcage, down through to his heart, so subtly that he’d never notice if he’d been awake. So easy. Her chakra wraps around the organ and Sakura feels it as though she held it in her hands. She feels it pulse, feels it thrum against fingers of chakra. A strong heart. A shinobi’s heart.
“The left ventricle,” Tsunade continues, “is the strongest chamber. It pumps oxygenated blood out of the heart and into the rest of the body.”
Sakura directs her attention there. The valve opens like a dam and blood rushes into the chamber and fills it. Then the strong ventricular walls clench tight, like a fist, forcing the blood up through the aorta. The valve opens. The ventricle clenches. Again and again and again. Sakura understands the concept on the second beat, but she doesn’t remove her hand. She is transfixed by this simple, primal action of the human body. Feeling this man’s heartbeat is feeling the force of his life through his body.
Her arms were still sore from training earlier that afternoon. Sakura had felt the force of her own heartbeat thudding in her neck as she punched a stump on the training grounds. Over and over. One fist after another clenched hard, driving into the wood, unconsciously mimicking the pounding in her ears.
Her muscles burned and screamed, but Sakura didn’t stop. The burn felt good. It felt like accomplishment; like being worth something.
She’d promised Naruto that she’d be there for him the next time he went after Sasuke, and she intended to keep that promise. If that was Naruto’s ninja way, then that was her ninja way, too. But if she was going to do that, she wasn’t going to be a burden any longer. She would get stronger.
Sakura had drawn her fist back one last time, shouted, and when she punched the stump this time, the wood cracked and split apart around her fist.
I am stronger.
Sakura draws her hand back from the shinobi’s chest.
Now she just needed to wait for Naruto to come home.