(Old) Application (a.k.a. tl;dr)
CHARACTER INFO
CHARACTER NAME: Haruno Sakura.
SERIES: Naruto, manga-verse.
RESERVED: Y
WISHLIST: N
PERSONALITY:
Sakura is an intelligent, at times preachy (to those she knows and/or finds clueless about a given subject she is knowledgeable about), caring young woman. She takes her job as a medical shinobi seriously, and this seriousness is displayed in how she handles any work assigned to her. Sakura likes to be thorough, complete, and as close to perfect as possible -- given how often this isn't allowed to happen, when it does, she's quite pleased with herself -- be this in her written reports, her abilities, her training, or any other aspect of her life. She's also neat, from what little can be seen of her home, and of her reactions to Naruto and his housekeeping "style."
Her tendency to follow the rules also lends itself to her having little patience for people acting blatantly outside of them - especially when "people" includes Uzumaki Naruto. She prefers her deviance to be subtle, or even denied, such as in the case of perversion. (As a twist, Sakura herself is a closet yaoi fan, and is not above certain objectification in favor of finding visual results that are appealing.) Most her attempts to flirt fail, or end in her punching guys in the face. She does not like people implying she's flat-chested. She's not as sensitive about her appearance as she once was, but making an issue of it with her is asking for trouble, and Sakura's not above doling out that trouble liberally -- usually just to the responsible party.
Sakura is determined to achieve her goals, and pursue them at 110% capacity. She has a good grasp of tactics and a good mind for cryptology and research. Her memory is also very good, and her detail recall is detailed, but not infallible. Considering one of her hobbies is learning trivia, it makes a certain sense that her recall is pretty good as well. Sakura's also tenacious in her resolve. She's far less judgmental than she was as a pre-teen, and is more likely to forgive (if not forget) people's minor indiscretions. (Or major ones, as in the case of Sai.) She holds teamwork as incredibly important, and still respects the opinions of her elders enough to listen to them when they give advice. Most the time, anyway.
Sakura is honest, even to the point of bluntness (though she has semi-decent helpings of tact, so she's usually only blunt to those she knows well, or who she requires certain standards from), and has been known to overreact to people, particularly with irritation and anger and outrage. What used to be repressed and relieved through "Inner-Sakura" is now more freely expressed to the world - not that it's always appreciated. She's the sort of person who could be talked into a challenge, even if she wouldn't blindly accept one (taking on challenges in even those things she's not so good at, due to a competitive spirit). Sakura hates losing, and giving up was crossed out of her dictionary years ago.
She is outwardly confident in her skills and abilities, if not to an inward point where she doesn't feel the need to re-evaluate and take a look at herself from time to time. Her resolve to improve makes her a harsh taskmistress on herself, in order to make sure that she's able to stand equal with Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, Kakashi - everyone important to her - and not end up on the sidelines, unable to help. Perhaps her greatest fears and failures come from feeling inadequate in the face of her important people; being unable to help them would drive her up a wall. Helplessness as a feeling is one she doesn't handle well, and really, really dislikes. (And tends to make her cry, when it's an honest inability or emotionally deep moment where she just doesn't seem able to interpret what's going on without letting some of it overflow.)
Even with her more emotionally "open" personality, Sakura has displayed excellent bedside manner, doubtlessly invaluable in her profession. Her kindness towards others, including Naruto, and her ability to relate to differing circumstances than those she grew up under has improved greatly with time. She does practice more restraint than she's probably given credit for by those in her own generation. She's also willing to pass off the things she's done if it avoids an explanation of what she found stupid in the moment it was uttered - telling Kakashi it was nothing when both Sai and Naruto had fat cheeks visiting him in the hospital.
Sakura is not above gossiping, though she keeps it to a minimum. She doesn't appear to talk about herself or her feelings often, presumably because she doesn't want to burden others and prefers to deal with them head on. Then again, most the time she reads like an open book. Some of her compatriots are simply too thick headed, or too disinvolved, to notice.
TIMELINE: Chapter 470.
BACKGROUND:
Sakura started out in life as most people do: bits of genetic information that was birthed, and at roughly 6-8, was a rather shy, self-conscious little girl. While not much about her youth is shown, Sakura was portrayed as a somewhat friendless and sad child, teased for having a "big" forehead by her peers at the (possibly pre-) Shinobi Academy. This changed when Yamanaka Ino approached Sakura and made friends by encouraging her to not let what other people say affect her so deeply, and giving her a hair ribbon to start trying out a different hair style. Sakura appeared to treasure this relationship, and started to become a more open person through their time spent together.
This new found self-confidence eventually propelled Sakura into feeling good enough about herself to develop a crush on a fellow classmate. While it's not known exactly how or why she so proudly discovered Uchiha Sasuke on her own (for quite clearly, based on the reactions Sakura had to her fellow classmates and Ino when she announced her crush, she had no clue Sasuke was himself already popular among the other girls) owe see that she did indeed reach this conclusion with no help from the other girls her age. This led to the first stance Sakura definitely took in her friendship with Ino, at some point afterward returning the ribbon Ino had given her as a sign of their becoming rivals. The two bickered back and forth, though they never really forgot that they had been friends.
Sakura was intelligent and hard-working, doing well at the Academy and striving to be close to her crush (Sasuke) and to keep the boy crushing on her (Naruto) away. She didn't understand Naruto (or Sasuke, really) when she found herself suddenly on the same team as her crush and her would-be boyfriend. She insulted and shut Naruto down, while trying to engage Sasuke - a tactic which, combined with the personalities of her teammates, almost got them all to fail their genin team test with Kakashi.
Sakura's weakness for believing what she thought she saw when right out of the academy contrasted with her actual strengths of seeing through what was presented. Coming to understand Sasuke's point in offering food to Naruto during Kakashi's test was the first of many small turning points for Sakura. Tolerance was a hard lesson. Learning to "see beneath the beneath" was equally difficult.
The first direct confrontation Sakura had with Sasuke over Naruto proved another turning point. Having her crush tell her, point blank, that he couldn't stand people like her, people who had no idea of what it was like to lose bonds, or never have them, and yet passed judgment on others, rocked her to the core. (Liberal rewording taken.) Sakura had to look at how she treated Naruto, and while she never fully prevented herself from knocking Naruto for some of his habits (over-enthusiasm, perversity, and the like), she started to grow closer to both her teammates.
She was about to be further shaken. What was meant to be a simple escort mission to the Wave Country proved to be anything but when not far out of Konoha, Team Seven and the man they were escorting were attacked. Sakura defended Tazuna, though she would have been killed if Sasuke hadn't stepped in. Her instinct to stick to the mission was admirable, yet her ability to perform was lackluster. When the threat to their team and Tazuna's life brought out even more powerful shinobi, Sakura found herself on the sidelines and close to useless. She strove to protect Tazuna, but it was Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto who were able to fight and defeat Haku and Zabuza. At this point she still had an obvious bias toward Sasuke - emotionally, at least - as she recited out the 25th Shinobi Law (never show your emotions) while racing past Naruto to Sasuke, openly crying. Sakura started resolving to be useful to the team and not to just be protected in the aftermath of the mission. This also introduced her to Naruto breaking down his seal due to emotional distress - and gave her some insight into what he was capable of in full.
Sakura excelled before both the boys in chakra control. This came to the forefront first with the tree walking exercises, which she mastered in much less time than either of her teammates while still in the Wave Country. Still, control itself wasn't enough to make her shine. She lost confidence before the first chuunin exam, a contrast to the assurance of Sasuke, and the enthusiasm of Naruto. She was close to not wanting to participate at all, though she didn't know her choosing not to go would stall her team as a whole.
The first encounter Team Seven, and Sakura, had with the Sand Nin competing in the Chuunin Exams was in their village, when Kankurou was bullying some of the local kids (Konohamaru!). Sasuke and Gaara immediately struck a tense note with each other. Other than verbal exchanges, and some physical, not much was traded at that point. It was time for the Exams.
Naruto had a blind belief in Sakura's will to compete and complete the exam, while Sasuke ended up being the one to give her the confidence to feel useful to the team. When they were confronted by exam officials in disguise at "Level 3" and Sasuke prompted Sakura into saying she had already figured out this wasn't the real level 3, she pauses for a moment before smiling, and saying, "Of course I did. It's level two." (Of course, this may have been "door two" but I admit I don't remember this specific detail at the moment.)
The Chuunin exam is where Sakura first met Rock Lee. His impromptu attack of Sasuke and their brief conflict left Sakura catching Sasuke to break his fall as well as dodging Lee's blown kisses and expressions of endearment. She also met Maito Guy in all his spandex-clad, youthful glory, and was left subtly disturbed by the event. Her then particularly shallow nature showed through again, with her largest complaint being that both weren't particularly "attractive." Her depth was echoed by the other two teammates, and they wore identical expressions of disbelief at the closeness of the student-teacher bond Gai and Lee displayed. (That may have had something to do with both men crying tears of joy while hugging each other, however.)
Stage one of the exam placed Sakura in her natural element: the written test. She passed without trouble, or shall I say she filled out the exam without trouble. Very likely, she was one of the few persons in the room to have passed without cheating, even if cheating was the point (to an extent), and the test was meant to force students to cheat. In fact, it's likely she was the only person to pass the test having correctly answered the impossible question -- well within time limits. (Ino cheats off of Sakura, filling in the answers for Chouji and Shikamaru.) We also finally see Sakura thinks about, and cares for, Naruto, as she ponders standing up and asking for their team to be disqualified, so that Naruto wouldn't have to bear the shame of doing so himself.
He of course stands up and manages to shoot down all her concerns in one go, showing just how strong he is at heart. Sakura was learning in bits and pieces who Naruto really was, and what kind of respect he deserved. She held her tongue.
The second part of the chuunin exam forced Sakura to try and find herself. Surviving the other participants wasn't their first worry - no, once Orochimaru located Sasuke and Sakura, the difficulty became surviving the former sannin. Sakura wasn't able to combat Orochimaru's sheer malevolent presence, and Sasuke was forced to carry her out of the immediate danger zone after shoving a kunai through his leg.
Since Sasuke was Orochimaru's target, however, the pre-teen couldn't escape forever. Naruto ended up making his way back toward them after the separation which had allowed Orochimaru to close in on Sasuke. Sakura was again left unable to do anything directly while Naruto and Sasuke fought, even at the point where she had to again run to Sasuke when he collapsed from the pain of the curse seal. Naruto then collapsed in turn, and Orochimaru left the scene.
Sakura took up an all night vigilance over her two teammates, doing as much first aid as she could while setting up a perimeter guard to help protect them all. Unfortunately, Sakura had a soft heart (or a certain sense of what the element of surprise should be), and when a squirrel was going to set off one of the traps, she purposely stopped him from entering the protected area.
(Of course, elsewhere, Lee had to save squirrels with exploding tags on their backs, but that's a little digression.)
This led to Sakura finding herself facing down the chuunin team from Sound on her own. She didn't back down, and was prepared to fight them (though certain to lose) when Lee appeared to assist her. This was a slap in the face to Sakura's judgmental nature, so in a way another sort of turning point since Naruto wasn't the only person she'd slighted.
Lee was ultimately defeated, and Sakura then took front and center to protect him in addition to Sasuke and Naruto. She was on her own - though from the shadows Ino and her team watched and waited.
Sakura was losing, but she wasn't giving up. Kin, the female from the other team, got a hold of Sakura's long hair and kept her on her knees, cutting Sakura down for being too concerned with her looks to concentrate on her skills as a shinobi/kunoichi. In pain, Sakura dug at the ground and then lashed out with her kunai - missing Kin entirely. The other female was going to belittle her yet again, only to realize Sakura had managed to cut through her hair, and thus break free.
The battle with the Sound Nin continued, degenerating to a point where Sakura even bit down on the arm of one of her aggressors in her staunch effort to not roll over and take it like a dog. It was the sheer determination behind Sakura's actions that pinged Ino, and caused her to drag her teammates out with her in order to face down the Sound Nin and save Sakura.
During this transition, Sasuke finally came back to consciousness. After seeing Sakura's beaten up body, he asked her who had done this, and proceeded to draw upon the curse seal to entirely lose his cool. The sadistic, brutal way he dealt with the Sound Nin frightened the rest of the conscious Konoha Nin, to the point where Sakura found herself bursting into tears (a habit she didn't have as often as one might expect) and running out to stop Sasuke. He wasn't Sasuke, and latching onto him from behind,she managed to make him stop. His curse seal receded, though it hardly left him in a better state than before.
Team Seven finished the second part of the exam. Sakura worried for Sasuke and Naruto, though particularly Sasuke. The preliminary matches didn't leave her feeling any better. Sasuke won his match, and so did Naruto. Hell, for the first time, Sakura was rooting for them both. (Biased little wench that she usually was disappearing for a moment.)
Her own match paired her up against Ino. This battle came down to one of wills, which, surprisingly, Ino lost. The two of them came to a sort of respect for each other, even as Inner!Sakura (a testy little "second" personality Sakura kept locked in her head) pushed Ino back out of Sakura's mind. The two knocked each other out simultaneously, leading to a draw. Neither qualified for the matches in the exam proper.
Sakura didn't see Sasuke for the days after the preliminaries. She went to the Chuunin matches with concern heavy in her heart. Kakashi sensed some of this concern, and attempted to alleviate her concerns without specifically addressing them. Being a smart lass, Sakura found herself comforted a bit by her sensei's words... just not entirely.
Watching Naruto's fight had her supporting him yet again, if it didn't diminish her opinion of his idiocy overly much. Sasuke's match, which was one almost all of Konoha looked forward to (both because, hey, an Uchiha! and also, "Sand Demon" Gaara), was tying her stomach into knots.
Her premonitions, if they could be called that, were met with Orochimaru's second move. When the genjutsu that put most the village to sleep was put in place, Sakura, along with Shikamaru, Kakashi, and a handful of others, was able to dispel the technique and maintain consciousness. One of her natural strengths was shining through. Kakashi asked her to wake Naruto in order to pursue Sasuke, who had in turn pursued the sand siblings in a one-track mind way.
Sakura and Naruto caught up to Sasuke, who was (not terribly successfully) battling Gaara. Unable to, you know, let anything go ever, Sasuke had to be saved by Naruto, and then Naruto had to keep on fighting after Gaara trapped Sakura up against a tree with a giant hand of sand.
Understandably, she doesn't remember a whole lot of what happened right around then.
Sakura did, however, start seeing the problems between Sasuke and Naruto, as well as the problems Sasuke was having with himself. He never was a good patient, but he became even less of a good patient facing the difference in power between himself and Naruto. The fight he and Naruto broke out into on the hospital roof was interrupted by Sakura and Kakashi, but if it hadn't . She couldn't understand the anger driving Sasuke, because this wasn't how it was supposed to be. They were a team - they all worked together, they all improved together.
But with Orochimaru's curse seal, suddenly, it wasn't enough. Sakura wasn't around when Naruto was starting to train with Jiraiya (far before they all went separate ways, and right after the death of the 3rd Hokage because of the chuunin-exam mess), and she wasn't around for when Itachi screwed Sasuke over mentally (again) and sent him back to the hospital, saying he wasn't strong enough, that Naruto was Itachi's aim (which I suppose implied Sasuke wasn't special enough for his brother to care about at the moment), it really wasn't enough. Sakura could sense the undertones, even perhaps the reasons behind them, and she didn't know what to do.
The fact that this culminated in Sasuke willingly leaving Konoha says something about how deeply it affected Sasuke. The fact that Sakura was waiting on the path out of town for him says something about how well she knew him - even if her speech, both admitting to what she hadn't been, and what she wanted to be, showed how far apart they were. Sakura was earnest in her desire to stay with Sasuke, just as Sasuke was likely earnest in saying thank you before he knocked her out.
For reasons citing the fact that females weren't often doing important things and Sakura was (apparently) far more likely to break down, Sakura was not part of the initial Sasuke retrieval arc. All she learned about it came from others, and what Kakashi and Naruto would say.
Naruto's apology to Sakura for not bringing Sasuke back (a promise he had made to her before setting out) on his hospital bed cemented her direction for the next two to three years. She would never ask Naruto to tackle this alone again, and she told him that next time, they'll bring Sasuke back together. She approached Tsunade about becoming her apprentice, and is summarily accepted. The Triad was complete in it's mirroring of the Sannin, as each of the new students out of team seven fell to working with the former masters.
Time skip happened, and Sakura grew a few inches. Her abilities also grew, but Naruto didn't notice until he got decked for saying she looked the exact same as when he left. Sakura was more expressive and less repressive when Naruto came back, a likely side-effect of working with Tsunade.
As a "Welcome back!" party, Naruto and Sakura were challenged to a replication of the Bell Challenge Kakashi put them through two-three years past. Sakura's abilities manage to surprise both Naruto and Kakashi, even if it's an underhanded ploy by Naruto that allows the two to capture the bells. Thus began an era where Sakura kicked much ass!
Sort of. Called in to help find the kidnapped Gaara, now kaze-kage of Suna, Sakura got to show off her medical ninjutsu as she saved Kankurou's life in removing the poison Sasori injected into his system. A short while afterward, when paired up with Chiyo of Suna, Sakura and Chiyo faced down Sasori, who turned out to be a former shinobi of Suna. The antidote she and Chiyo had developed to save Kankurou was "used" by both women as they fought Sasori - only Chiyo was a crafty old woman and double-injected Sakura when the effective time limit ran out. Between using Sakura's natural strength and chakra manipulation skills, and Chiyo's masterful puppetry skills, the women managed to defeat Sasori.
Then they had a dead Gaara. Chiyo did the last crafty thing of her life, and gave her life's energy to Gaara - which brought his soul back to his body, even if it sort of missed the part that Shukkaku had gotten friendly with. Naruto rejoiced Sakura smiled, and then she remembered that Sasori gave her some interesting information about a spy in Orochimaru's ranks, and a meeting place to where he was supposed to go.
The plot moves forward. Kakashi was so severely messed up from the Suna trip (he was screwing around with Deidara while Sakura was off being effective for once) that he remained hospital ridden as two new members were added to Team Seven. Yamato was a fairly straight-faced, straight-laced jounin who got stuck with the mostly reasonable Sakura - until Sai or Naruto pissed her off, and she decked them in the face. Sai was an enigma - she understood that he has absolutely no social skills, but didn't like being on the butt end of all his social faux pas. Or, as it turns out, the butt end of the writing scale, as her prior strength is essentially neutralized when she manages to get herself knocked out and falling through space during the pursuit of the "spy" meeting. (Orochimaru and Kabuto, as it were.)
Still, the new team met up with this "spy," which turned into a trap that severely injured Naruto and made Sakura aware of just how fragile Naruto's control was. She tried to approach him in four-tails form and was injured in the attempt - Kabuto, of all people, healed her while Yamato took control of Naruto with his specialized binding jutsus. (Yamato, who was an Orochimaru experiment, it turns out, but hey, no one needs to know that for long.) Sakura was able to heal Naruto after he had reverted to his true form, and yet again resolved to help Naruto in every way she could. Yamato gave her some advice on this count, saying it was the strength of her feelings that mattered too.
Their conversation was interrupted as Naruto regains consciousness, and they continued on to Orochimaru's hideout. Searching the hideout thoroughly, they located Sasuke, who wasn't particularly wanting to see them. The first meeting after years of separation brought Naruto to stumbling shock, even if it set Sakura a bit on edge. The confrontation they had was brutal and too quickly over. Sakura had chased Sai down and was throttling him to figure out what he was after when Sasuke said her name, and she turned to look up at him. The dramatics were ones Sakura followed fairly well - and had Naruto sort of trump Sasuke's reasons by pointing out that Sasuke actually sucks at cutting bonds, despite Sasuke saying that was what he had done.
Sakura told Sasuke she's going to stop him with her own power, and was cock-blocked by Yamato, who noticed that Sasuke's eyes look dangerous. (Seriously, that's what he says.)
Sasuke did some more schnazzy sharingan stuff, and was about to pull out some move before Orochimaru stopped him cold.
Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Sasuke left. Naruto broke down a bit, crying, and Sakura said, "You know, crying isn't going to bring Sasuke-kun back! I'm here too! We'll both get stronger, together!" While she is also crying. Sai tossed in his hand to the friendship pool, and Naruto stood and said thanks.
We next see Sakura with Sai, acting as back-up to Shikamaru in the second confrontation for Team Ten with Kakuzu and Hidan. (The first killed Team Ten's sensei, Asuma.) She didn't end up fighting, because Shikamaru was too ninja and already had defeated Hidan by blowing him into a hole, so her usefulness was saved for healing Naruto's screwed-up arm after the use of his new technique in fighting against Kakuzu. While Naruto is healing, Sakura felt more drawn to her new team as a whole, and as a sort of payment for Naruto's kind words at an earlier point, offers to feed him. Sai, too, makes an offer, which ah... doesn't fly as well. Sakura seems largely unaffected by the fact Naruto still displayed crush-like feelings toward her - in at least the sense that they remain unrequited. (Yamato believed differently, and was about to say so prior to finding Sasuke the first time. Sai has started to make mention of this before as well.)
The in-town encounters that Sakura, Sai, and Naruto have with others are almost like side-line jokes; first, Sai screwed up nick-names and called Sakura "Hag," while due to her physical correction on the subject, he then defaults to calling Ino "Ms. Beautiful." The fact that he's going for the opposite of what he thinks doesn't translate, so he's decked again.
A separate encounter with Konohamaru had Sakura lecturing him and Naruto on their sexy no jutsus of two women feeling each other up - and her credibility drops when Konohamaru switches the genders (so Sasuke and Sai are shown in a similar embrace) and Sakura reacted like a sex-starved female pervert.
All's fair, but really? Sakura was an undercover yaoi fan.
News of Sasuke killing Orochimaru reached Konoha, and Sakura was back on the road with Kakashi's 8-man squad to find him. She passed within touching distance of Karin, one of Sasuke's new teammates, but they never find Sasuke himself.
Back in Konoha, after that venture ended in visiting Tobi, Sakura found herself present when Naruto was told about Jiraiya going off and getting killed. She was surprised by Naruto's vehement reaction, and subsequent lash of anger in blaming Tsunade for Jiraiya's death. Sakura appealed to Shikamaru in attempting to figure out Jiraiya's dying code. She ultimately was assigned to figure out the code and it's meaning and how to defeat Pain.
Pain came to town, and life got serious. An explosion at the Code Breaking Facility drew Shikamaru and Sakura close, and she killed Pain's centipede summon-creature, in one blown that the little tailor would have been proud of, and began her healing escapades. Kakashi was killed in the initial attacks, along with many other shinobi. The intense healing lasted at high volume until Pain blew up Konoha and Sakura cried out for Naruto. (It wasn't as sexy as it sounds.) He showed up, and Sakura was relieved to know - even if it's only because a Hyuuga ninja informed her of what was going on at such a distance.
Unfortunately, relief didn't last long - Naruto's butt was being seriously kicked, to the point where it seemed he might lose. Hinata placed herself between Pain and Naruto, confessing her love for and to Naruto as she took a near-fatal blow that pushed Naruto over the edge, sending him almost to nine-tails while Sakura felt sick to her stomach. She worked on Hinata almost immediately, and wasn't witness to the parts of the battle fought outside of Konoha, a move Naruto made to protect the people back in town. When he wins, and brings back to life everyone killed in the attack, Sakura is glad her best friend has survived this insanity... and that he's finally getting recognized by the village, something she'd come to hope for him during his years away.
Unfortunately, she then learns Tsunade is in a coma, but instead of being comforted by anyone, she ends up comforting Naruto over the same fact. She's proud of him again as he handles the topic of Sasuke's being out of Konoha with old acquaintances, and then is confronted with information that no one ever wanted to hear: Danzo was the new Hokage. She's outraged (for a variety of reasons, including "Danzo has done many shady things and that's my mentor you're talking about"), but Kakashi manages to forestall her doing anything blatantly stupid (along with Naruto), and instead she takes a walk with Sai and Naruto to calm down. Only the contingent sent out by the Raikage appears and decides to present them with even more information: Uchiha Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki, and had killed the 8-Tails. (Naruto lets them know the 8-tails may actually be alive, because extraction requires them to be.) They demand information from Naruto and Sakura, who both resist, and Sakura breaks down in tears because it's just too damn much, too damn fast, and she can't do a damn thing about any of it. (She can't seem to answer the foreign shinobi's question on what exactly Uchiha Sasuke is to her.)
Somehow, while Naruto skips away with the visiting team to get his face beat in, Sakura ends up in the tent with Tsunade and Shizune, still upset, if no longer actively crying. She's unaware that Naruto gets pummeled, then patched up by Kakashi (more or less) before deciding on a course of progress that includes begging the Raikage to forgive Sasuke, the now international criminal. She's unprepared for Sai, who having his first major emotional breakthrough, comes to confront Sakura after seeing Naruto, Yamato, and Kakashi off on their unassigned, not so legal mission to chase after the Kage Meeting. Projecting his anger, jealousy, and inability to understand the lengths Naruto goes for his friends, he lashes out and tells Sakura that she needs to see what's there in front of her and deal with it, and the fact he perceives her as having caused pain to Naruto, a similar kind to the pain Sasuke causes. She's in tears as Sai then tosses out that Naruto loves her, but won't say anything because blah blah blah that promise from when she was 13, it's Sakura's fault, blah blah blah. Dealing with that emotional outpouring and the fallout it caused Sakura herself, another emotional blow marches into the tent.
Shikamaru, someone she likely respects and knows is intelligent, has come to "ask" (really, inform) Sakura about the former rookie 9's decision about Sasuke. Through brilliant logic that makes no sense for it wasn't logical but a futile tail-chase, Shikamaru and the rest have determined the only way to move on is to kill Sasuke themselves. And they're going to tell this to Naruto, too.
Sakura takes a stance on that, pulling herself together. She would be the one to tell Naruto about the Rookie 9's brilliant mindgasm, and hopefully talk some sense or something into Naruto at the same time. Sai having told her he ran after the Kage's to the meeting means she's going to follow on his tail...
Only to arrive, with Kiba, Lee, and Sai, to confess her love to Naruto, and tell him how very over that criminal Sasuke she was. This backfires, unsurprisingly, considering her and Naruto and Sasuke's histories together, leading Naruto to call her a liar. Sakura, who had been hoping to use this as a way of either convincing Naruto to start backing off of Sasuke for his own emotional help, or a lead in to telling him their homeboys wanted him dead, finds herself annoyed. Sure, not all of it was true, but she did (probably) love Naruto, and she did think he was a hero.
So she leaves. Turning on heel, she announces, in the snow, that she's going back because she's tired of this.
And then, out of range, asks Kiba to help her track down Sasuke on her own. DUN DUN DUN!
ABILITIES:
First, just a general listing and summary of what she does in canon, followed by an "active" versus waiting to be relearned/activated list with more detail following:
Martial Arts: Even ignoring all her other skills, Sakura has been specifically trained to excel in hand-to-hand combat, and other forms of unarmed combat. Her body is a weapon, so to speak, and she's well toned, agile, flexible, and stronger than most women her size.
Chakra Enhancements: Chakra allows Sakura to move faster than a human being ought, walk and climb on walls and ceilings as well as water and the like, and utilize all the basic techniques on her world. (Clones, shadow clones, etc.) She additionally has perfect control of her chakra, to the point where she doesn't waste chakra unless she absolutely has to. Her overall reserves are greater than most shinobi, but sadly still far less than Naruto, and unknown (but probably less) than her age Sasuke.
Subset - Super Stregth: Training with Tsunade has perfected Sakura's chakra release. She can use chakra to capitalize on single points of contact, a sort of KO style of fighting. These massive releases are capable of causing spontaneous fracturing of the ground for a significant distance and depth, shocking even Kakashi and Naruto into realizing just how dead they'd be with one direct intentional hit from Sakura.
Medical Training: Sakura can heal almost anything, as long as she's not being asked to heal on a cellular level. (This she just can't do - encouraging cells to regrow, yes, or flesh to reknit, but she cannot mend individual cell walls. See this as explained after Naruto uses his new technique on Kakuzu, I think.) She's skilled at making antidotes, has presumably extensive herbal knowledge, and well. It's magic. Healing's not explained very well in series. She can't bring people back from death, that much is clear, so if you lose too much blood and there's no instant donor around, you're S.O.L. She's expected to surpass Tsunade, at some point. Canon makes that trend blatantly obvious. Her ability to work with plants to create accurate antidotes is amazingly fast -- Sasori was impressed. Sorta. Or annoyed.
Genjutsu and Sakura: Unclear to what extent she knows or practices genjutsu. She still appears to be able to dispel genjutsu, or at least detect genjutsu, at a level beyond most shinobi. What this means is negligible, since the only obvious references in canon are when she's 13, and include her being able to withstand a high level sleep inducement on her lonesome. Presumably if she trains in this, and she really should have at least trained to recognize it (for the sake of not getting tricked by Sasuke's eyes, so to speak), Sakura would be a formidable genjutsu user. As it stands, there is no clear evidence of how much she does or doesn't know. She presumably has enough control of her chakra to break most holds used by genjutsu users - she can surge through her own brain so that their manipulation is broken. Theoretically, which I can't stress enough. We just don't know.
Static:
Intelligence - Sakura has always been intelligent, even if this was far more "book intelligent" than people intelligent when she was younger. Now she has a good capacity with people in addition to her scholarly intelligence. She is good at explanations, and practically adores situations where she gets to use her knowledge for the benefit of others, even if this can lead to her feeling smug and superior in the back of her mind. (And in her displayed actions, though age tempered this down. She's better now.) Her intelligence lends her a certain talent in analysis, an excellent memory, and a fair hand at observation. She has also successfully worked in the field of cryptology.
Part of her intelligence is her ability to see through things; Kakashi had also noticed that Sakura has a natural aptitude toward genjutsu and the dispelling of illusions of that sort. She sees through deception and would have a knee-jerk reaction in attempting to shake any chakra-imposed illusion off. Those which are not chakra-based, but she detects, she'll be doubly confused by - not knowing why she'd react a certain way, or probably not knowing how she knows she's not experiencing reality. This has developed into being able to predict the movements of opponents one or two or more in advance - an invaluable skill for battle.
Genjutsu - Sakura is listed as a natural genjutsu user, though it is never said exactly how. The only manifestation liable to happen without her realizing is, again, a knee-jerk reaction to when she feels something is "off" about the reality of a situation - when she feels things are being presented as an illusion. Until she discovers through a memory crystal, teaching, or accident, she won't dispel what she perceives to be "illusions," only be aware of their presence to a limited degree. (Presumably, as she gets better at understanding what she feels when it comes to illusions, the better she'll be able to handle them, if it ever becomes something she's confronted with in the first place.)
Strength - even without chakra to enhance her physical attacks, Sakura is stronger than the average female of her height and weight.
Unlockable:
Taijutsu - Not counting chakra (though knowing Sakura, she's always drawn on it to 'enhance' her punches a bit, perhaps without realizing), Sakura is a capable martial artist, though lately she has specialized into avoiding any and all possible hits. Training has made it second nature to avoid attacks and seek single points of entry in order to decisively win battles in one hit. (Of course, her one-hit wonder background came from being able to manipulate and pool her chakra, which she wouldn't be able to do on waking up, but the theory behind how and why she fights remains the same.) This would need some sort of physical confrontation to surface, and over time, skills would build as she retrains her body to respond.
Chakra Control - While not remembering what this is, or how to use it, per say, she has a natural ability to utilize chakra without wasting it. Her control is pretty much perfect. She is able to execute the "basics" without flaws, such as tree walking, the faster than normal run common to shinobi, even faster than that (as a medical shinobi, extra training went into evasive maneuvers and being fast enough to not get hit, supposedly), along with other feats of physical labor. Most of these would be location triggers, or necessity triggers; again, with Sakura, probably more likely to manifest through emotional or extreme rational necessity, or re-taught by another, or the memory crystals.
Sakura has the ability to pool chakra and release it as a concentrated blast, making her far stronger through one simple point of contact. For Sakura to trigger this response, she'd have to be on a emotional high - either very desperate, or very angry. As this is a technique which "builds up" before being released, the emotional build would be the likely catalyst - Sakura feeling bottled up before releasing. If no such situation arises, it would then become a memory crystal learning experience.
Medical Ninjutsu - Sakura is a highly skilled medic nin. It's apparent her level of healing can help prevent people from dying when near death, if she can't bring people back from death. She can't "cure" people of conditions such as paralysis, particularly as most the healing in series appears to rely on "encouragement" when it comes from a straight-up medic nin, and not recreating tissues or the like from scratch. She's able to physically withstand high-pressure healing situations without collapsing herself. (The recent attacks on Konoha, where she was almost constantly healing one person or another.) Healing shallow cuts and the like might be triggered by need, but any high level technique would rely on a memory crystal or direct training to re-learn, since even though her control is near-perfect, I'm assuming she wouldn't be able to remember the intricacies of chakra passageways and the human body enough to practice what she does. She'd perhaps be able to start fiddling around after re-learning anatomy/re-famliarizing with anatomy, but she's as likely to learn to break bodies at that point from too much pressure as she is to heal them. (Back to the dead fish she goes.)
Jutsu - All Nin- and Genjutsu will require memory crystals or the assistance of someone already in the know for her to learn. Extreme or unusual circumstances might trigger the simplest responses - such as being able to walk up walls, on water, jump large distances, move faster - and perhaps even accidentally find the seal for 'dispel' since it requires just the one hand-seal and a will behind that seal, but the rest require specific hand motions that would not be replicated in the normal day-to-day life. Permutations on basics would probably occur through chance and experimentation - shadow clones becoming sexy-no-jutsu clones, for example, though not likely for Sakura - but that would be a new spin on an old trick, not a new trick altogether.
GAME INFO
EDENSPHERE NAME: Seven
BIRTHDAY LOG: Yes.
DREAM: Located here.
CHARACTER NAME: Haruno Sakura.
SERIES: Naruto, manga-verse.
RESERVED: Y
WISHLIST: N
PERSONALITY:
Sakura is an intelligent, at times preachy (to those she knows and/or finds clueless about a given subject she is knowledgeable about), caring young woman. She takes her job as a medical shinobi seriously, and this seriousness is displayed in how she handles any work assigned to her. Sakura likes to be thorough, complete, and as close to perfect as possible -- given how often this isn't allowed to happen, when it does, she's quite pleased with herself -- be this in her written reports, her abilities, her training, or any other aspect of her life. She's also neat, from what little can be seen of her home, and of her reactions to Naruto and his housekeeping "style."
Her tendency to follow the rules also lends itself to her having little patience for people acting blatantly outside of them - especially when "people" includes Uzumaki Naruto. She prefers her deviance to be subtle, or even denied, such as in the case of perversion. (As a twist, Sakura herself is a closet yaoi fan, and is not above certain objectification in favor of finding visual results that are appealing.) Most her attempts to flirt fail, or end in her punching guys in the face. She does not like people implying she's flat-chested. She's not as sensitive about her appearance as she once was, but making an issue of it with her is asking for trouble, and Sakura's not above doling out that trouble liberally -- usually just to the responsible party.
Sakura is determined to achieve her goals, and pursue them at 110% capacity. She has a good grasp of tactics and a good mind for cryptology and research. Her memory is also very good, and her detail recall is detailed, but not infallible. Considering one of her hobbies is learning trivia, it makes a certain sense that her recall is pretty good as well. Sakura's also tenacious in her resolve. She's far less judgmental than she was as a pre-teen, and is more likely to forgive (if not forget) people's minor indiscretions. (Or major ones, as in the case of Sai.) She holds teamwork as incredibly important, and still respects the opinions of her elders enough to listen to them when they give advice. Most the time, anyway.
Sakura is honest, even to the point of bluntness (though she has semi-decent helpings of tact, so she's usually only blunt to those she knows well, or who she requires certain standards from), and has been known to overreact to people, particularly with irritation and anger and outrage. What used to be repressed and relieved through "Inner-Sakura" is now more freely expressed to the world - not that it's always appreciated. She's the sort of person who could be talked into a challenge, even if she wouldn't blindly accept one (taking on challenges in even those things she's not so good at, due to a competitive spirit). Sakura hates losing, and giving up was crossed out of her dictionary years ago.
She is outwardly confident in her skills and abilities, if not to an inward point where she doesn't feel the need to re-evaluate and take a look at herself from time to time. Her resolve to improve makes her a harsh taskmistress on herself, in order to make sure that she's able to stand equal with Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, Kakashi - everyone important to her - and not end up on the sidelines, unable to help. Perhaps her greatest fears and failures come from feeling inadequate in the face of her important people; being unable to help them would drive her up a wall. Helplessness as a feeling is one she doesn't handle well, and really, really dislikes. (And tends to make her cry, when it's an honest inability or emotionally deep moment where she just doesn't seem able to interpret what's going on without letting some of it overflow.)
Even with her more emotionally "open" personality, Sakura has displayed excellent bedside manner, doubtlessly invaluable in her profession. Her kindness towards others, including Naruto, and her ability to relate to differing circumstances than those she grew up under has improved greatly with time. She does practice more restraint than she's probably given credit for by those in her own generation. She's also willing to pass off the things she's done if it avoids an explanation of what she found stupid in the moment it was uttered - telling Kakashi it was nothing when both Sai and Naruto had fat cheeks visiting him in the hospital.
Sakura is not above gossiping, though she keeps it to a minimum. She doesn't appear to talk about herself or her feelings often, presumably because she doesn't want to burden others and prefers to deal with them head on. Then again, most the time she reads like an open book. Some of her compatriots are simply too thick headed, or too disinvolved, to notice.
TIMELINE: Chapter 470.
BACKGROUND:
Sakura started out in life as most people do: bits of genetic information that was birthed, and at roughly 6-8, was a rather shy, self-conscious little girl. While not much about her youth is shown, Sakura was portrayed as a somewhat friendless and sad child, teased for having a "big" forehead by her peers at the (possibly pre-) Shinobi Academy. This changed when Yamanaka Ino approached Sakura and made friends by encouraging her to not let what other people say affect her so deeply, and giving her a hair ribbon to start trying out a different hair style. Sakura appeared to treasure this relationship, and started to become a more open person through their time spent together.
This new found self-confidence eventually propelled Sakura into feeling good enough about herself to develop a crush on a fellow classmate. While it's not known exactly how or why she so proudly discovered Uchiha Sasuke on her own (for quite clearly, based on the reactions Sakura had to her fellow classmates and Ino when she announced her crush, she had no clue Sasuke was himself already popular among the other girls) owe see that she did indeed reach this conclusion with no help from the other girls her age. This led to the first stance Sakura definitely took in her friendship with Ino, at some point afterward returning the ribbon Ino had given her as a sign of their becoming rivals. The two bickered back and forth, though they never really forgot that they had been friends.
Sakura was intelligent and hard-working, doing well at the Academy and striving to be close to her crush (Sasuke) and to keep the boy crushing on her (Naruto) away. She didn't understand Naruto (or Sasuke, really) when she found herself suddenly on the same team as her crush and her would-be boyfriend. She insulted and shut Naruto down, while trying to engage Sasuke - a tactic which, combined with the personalities of her teammates, almost got them all to fail their genin team test with Kakashi.
Sakura's weakness for believing what she thought she saw when right out of the academy contrasted with her actual strengths of seeing through what was presented. Coming to understand Sasuke's point in offering food to Naruto during Kakashi's test was the first of many small turning points for Sakura. Tolerance was a hard lesson. Learning to "see beneath the beneath" was equally difficult.
The first direct confrontation Sakura had with Sasuke over Naruto proved another turning point. Having her crush tell her, point blank, that he couldn't stand people like her, people who had no idea of what it was like to lose bonds, or never have them, and yet passed judgment on others, rocked her to the core. (Liberal rewording taken.) Sakura had to look at how she treated Naruto, and while she never fully prevented herself from knocking Naruto for some of his habits (over-enthusiasm, perversity, and the like), she started to grow closer to both her teammates.
She was about to be further shaken. What was meant to be a simple escort mission to the Wave Country proved to be anything but when not far out of Konoha, Team Seven and the man they were escorting were attacked. Sakura defended Tazuna, though she would have been killed if Sasuke hadn't stepped in. Her instinct to stick to the mission was admirable, yet her ability to perform was lackluster. When the threat to their team and Tazuna's life brought out even more powerful shinobi, Sakura found herself on the sidelines and close to useless. She strove to protect Tazuna, but it was Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto who were able to fight and defeat Haku and Zabuza. At this point she still had an obvious bias toward Sasuke - emotionally, at least - as she recited out the 25th Shinobi Law (never show your emotions) while racing past Naruto to Sasuke, openly crying. Sakura started resolving to be useful to the team and not to just be protected in the aftermath of the mission. This also introduced her to Naruto breaking down his seal due to emotional distress - and gave her some insight into what he was capable of in full.
Sakura excelled before both the boys in chakra control. This came to the forefront first with the tree walking exercises, which she mastered in much less time than either of her teammates while still in the Wave Country. Still, control itself wasn't enough to make her shine. She lost confidence before the first chuunin exam, a contrast to the assurance of Sasuke, and the enthusiasm of Naruto. She was close to not wanting to participate at all, though she didn't know her choosing not to go would stall her team as a whole.
The first encounter Team Seven, and Sakura, had with the Sand Nin competing in the Chuunin Exams was in their village, when Kankurou was bullying some of the local kids (Konohamaru!). Sasuke and Gaara immediately struck a tense note with each other. Other than verbal exchanges, and some physical, not much was traded at that point. It was time for the Exams.
Naruto had a blind belief in Sakura's will to compete and complete the exam, while Sasuke ended up being the one to give her the confidence to feel useful to the team. When they were confronted by exam officials in disguise at "Level 3" and Sasuke prompted Sakura into saying she had already figured out this wasn't the real level 3, she pauses for a moment before smiling, and saying, "Of course I did. It's level two." (Of course, this may have been "door two" but I admit I don't remember this specific detail at the moment.)
The Chuunin exam is where Sakura first met Rock Lee. His impromptu attack of Sasuke and their brief conflict left Sakura catching Sasuke to break his fall as well as dodging Lee's blown kisses and expressions of endearment. She also met Maito Guy in all his spandex-clad, youthful glory, and was left subtly disturbed by the event. Her then particularly shallow nature showed through again, with her largest complaint being that both weren't particularly "attractive." Her depth was echoed by the other two teammates, and they wore identical expressions of disbelief at the closeness of the student-teacher bond Gai and Lee displayed. (That may have had something to do with both men crying tears of joy while hugging each other, however.)
Stage one of the exam placed Sakura in her natural element: the written test. She passed without trouble, or shall I say she filled out the exam without trouble. Very likely, she was one of the few persons in the room to have passed without cheating, even if cheating was the point (to an extent), and the test was meant to force students to cheat. In fact, it's likely she was the only person to pass the test having correctly answered the impossible question -- well within time limits. (Ino cheats off of Sakura, filling in the answers for Chouji and Shikamaru.) We also finally see Sakura thinks about, and cares for, Naruto, as she ponders standing up and asking for their team to be disqualified, so that Naruto wouldn't have to bear the shame of doing so himself.
He of course stands up and manages to shoot down all her concerns in one go, showing just how strong he is at heart. Sakura was learning in bits and pieces who Naruto really was, and what kind of respect he deserved. She held her tongue.
The second part of the chuunin exam forced Sakura to try and find herself. Surviving the other participants wasn't their first worry - no, once Orochimaru located Sasuke and Sakura, the difficulty became surviving the former sannin. Sakura wasn't able to combat Orochimaru's sheer malevolent presence, and Sasuke was forced to carry her out of the immediate danger zone after shoving a kunai through his leg.
Since Sasuke was Orochimaru's target, however, the pre-teen couldn't escape forever. Naruto ended up making his way back toward them after the separation which had allowed Orochimaru to close in on Sasuke. Sakura was again left unable to do anything directly while Naruto and Sasuke fought, even at the point where she had to again run to Sasuke when he collapsed from the pain of the curse seal. Naruto then collapsed in turn, and Orochimaru left the scene.
Sakura took up an all night vigilance over her two teammates, doing as much first aid as she could while setting up a perimeter guard to help protect them all. Unfortunately, Sakura had a soft heart (or a certain sense of what the element of surprise should be), and when a squirrel was going to set off one of the traps, she purposely stopped him from entering the protected area.
(Of course, elsewhere, Lee had to save squirrels with exploding tags on their backs, but that's a little digression.)
This led to Sakura finding herself facing down the chuunin team from Sound on her own. She didn't back down, and was prepared to fight them (though certain to lose) when Lee appeared to assist her. This was a slap in the face to Sakura's judgmental nature, so in a way another sort of turning point since Naruto wasn't the only person she'd slighted.
Lee was ultimately defeated, and Sakura then took front and center to protect him in addition to Sasuke and Naruto. She was on her own - though from the shadows Ino and her team watched and waited.
Sakura was losing, but she wasn't giving up. Kin, the female from the other team, got a hold of Sakura's long hair and kept her on her knees, cutting Sakura down for being too concerned with her looks to concentrate on her skills as a shinobi/kunoichi. In pain, Sakura dug at the ground and then lashed out with her kunai - missing Kin entirely. The other female was going to belittle her yet again, only to realize Sakura had managed to cut through her hair, and thus break free.
The battle with the Sound Nin continued, degenerating to a point where Sakura even bit down on the arm of one of her aggressors in her staunch effort to not roll over and take it like a dog. It was the sheer determination behind Sakura's actions that pinged Ino, and caused her to drag her teammates out with her in order to face down the Sound Nin and save Sakura.
During this transition, Sasuke finally came back to consciousness. After seeing Sakura's beaten up body, he asked her who had done this, and proceeded to draw upon the curse seal to entirely lose his cool. The sadistic, brutal way he dealt with the Sound Nin frightened the rest of the conscious Konoha Nin, to the point where Sakura found herself bursting into tears (a habit she didn't have as often as one might expect) and running out to stop Sasuke. He wasn't Sasuke, and latching onto him from behind,she managed to make him stop. His curse seal receded, though it hardly left him in a better state than before.
Team Seven finished the second part of the exam. Sakura worried for Sasuke and Naruto, though particularly Sasuke. The preliminary matches didn't leave her feeling any better. Sasuke won his match, and so did Naruto. Hell, for the first time, Sakura was rooting for them both. (Biased little wench that she usually was disappearing for a moment.)
Her own match paired her up against Ino. This battle came down to one of wills, which, surprisingly, Ino lost. The two of them came to a sort of respect for each other, even as Inner!Sakura (a testy little "second" personality Sakura kept locked in her head) pushed Ino back out of Sakura's mind. The two knocked each other out simultaneously, leading to a draw. Neither qualified for the matches in the exam proper.
Sakura didn't see Sasuke for the days after the preliminaries. She went to the Chuunin matches with concern heavy in her heart. Kakashi sensed some of this concern, and attempted to alleviate her concerns without specifically addressing them. Being a smart lass, Sakura found herself comforted a bit by her sensei's words... just not entirely.
Watching Naruto's fight had her supporting him yet again, if it didn't diminish her opinion of his idiocy overly much. Sasuke's match, which was one almost all of Konoha looked forward to (both because, hey, an Uchiha! and also, "Sand Demon" Gaara), was tying her stomach into knots.
Her premonitions, if they could be called that, were met with Orochimaru's second move. When the genjutsu that put most the village to sleep was put in place, Sakura, along with Shikamaru, Kakashi, and a handful of others, was able to dispel the technique and maintain consciousness. One of her natural strengths was shining through. Kakashi asked her to wake Naruto in order to pursue Sasuke, who had in turn pursued the sand siblings in a one-track mind way.
Sakura and Naruto caught up to Sasuke, who was (not terribly successfully) battling Gaara. Unable to, you know, let anything go ever, Sasuke had to be saved by Naruto, and then Naruto had to keep on fighting after Gaara trapped Sakura up against a tree with a giant hand of sand.
Understandably, she doesn't remember a whole lot of what happened right around then.
Sakura did, however, start seeing the problems between Sasuke and Naruto, as well as the problems Sasuke was having with himself. He never was a good patient, but he became even less of a good patient facing the difference in power between himself and Naruto. The fight he and Naruto broke out into on the hospital roof was interrupted by Sakura and Kakashi, but if it hadn't . She couldn't understand the anger driving Sasuke, because this wasn't how it was supposed to be. They were a team - they all worked together, they all improved together.
But with Orochimaru's curse seal, suddenly, it wasn't enough. Sakura wasn't around when Naruto was starting to train with Jiraiya (far before they all went separate ways, and right after the death of the 3rd Hokage because of the chuunin-exam mess), and she wasn't around for when Itachi screwed Sasuke over mentally (again) and sent him back to the hospital, saying he wasn't strong enough, that Naruto was Itachi's aim (which I suppose implied Sasuke wasn't special enough for his brother to care about at the moment), it really wasn't enough. Sakura could sense the undertones, even perhaps the reasons behind them, and she didn't know what to do.
The fact that this culminated in Sasuke willingly leaving Konoha says something about how deeply it affected Sasuke. The fact that Sakura was waiting on the path out of town for him says something about how well she knew him - even if her speech, both admitting to what she hadn't been, and what she wanted to be, showed how far apart they were. Sakura was earnest in her desire to stay with Sasuke, just as Sasuke was likely earnest in saying thank you before he knocked her out.
For reasons citing the fact that females weren't often doing important things and Sakura was (apparently) far more likely to break down, Sakura was not part of the initial Sasuke retrieval arc. All she learned about it came from others, and what Kakashi and Naruto would say.
Naruto's apology to Sakura for not bringing Sasuke back (a promise he had made to her before setting out) on his hospital bed cemented her direction for the next two to three years. She would never ask Naruto to tackle this alone again, and she told him that next time, they'll bring Sasuke back together. She approached Tsunade about becoming her apprentice, and is summarily accepted. The Triad was complete in it's mirroring of the Sannin, as each of the new students out of team seven fell to working with the former masters.
Time skip happened, and Sakura grew a few inches. Her abilities also grew, but Naruto didn't notice until he got decked for saying she looked the exact same as when he left. Sakura was more expressive and less repressive when Naruto came back, a likely side-effect of working with Tsunade.
As a "Welcome back!" party, Naruto and Sakura were challenged to a replication of the Bell Challenge Kakashi put them through two-three years past. Sakura's abilities manage to surprise both Naruto and Kakashi, even if it's an underhanded ploy by Naruto that allows the two to capture the bells. Thus began an era where Sakura kicked much ass!
Sort of. Called in to help find the kidnapped Gaara, now kaze-kage of Suna, Sakura got to show off her medical ninjutsu as she saved Kankurou's life in removing the poison Sasori injected into his system. A short while afterward, when paired up with Chiyo of Suna, Sakura and Chiyo faced down Sasori, who turned out to be a former shinobi of Suna. The antidote she and Chiyo had developed to save Kankurou was "used" by both women as they fought Sasori - only Chiyo was a crafty old woman and double-injected Sakura when the effective time limit ran out. Between using Sakura's natural strength and chakra manipulation skills, and Chiyo's masterful puppetry skills, the women managed to defeat Sasori.
Then they had a dead Gaara. Chiyo did the last crafty thing of her life, and gave her life's energy to Gaara - which brought his soul back to his body, even if it sort of missed the part that Shukkaku had gotten friendly with. Naruto rejoiced Sakura smiled, and then she remembered that Sasori gave her some interesting information about a spy in Orochimaru's ranks, and a meeting place to where he was supposed to go.
The plot moves forward. Kakashi was so severely messed up from the Suna trip (he was screwing around with Deidara while Sakura was off being effective for once) that he remained hospital ridden as two new members were added to Team Seven. Yamato was a fairly straight-faced, straight-laced jounin who got stuck with the mostly reasonable Sakura - until Sai or Naruto pissed her off, and she decked them in the face. Sai was an enigma - she understood that he has absolutely no social skills, but didn't like being on the butt end of all his social faux pas. Or, as it turns out, the butt end of the writing scale, as her prior strength is essentially neutralized when she manages to get herself knocked out and falling through space during the pursuit of the "spy" meeting. (Orochimaru and Kabuto, as it were.)
Still, the new team met up with this "spy," which turned into a trap that severely injured Naruto and made Sakura aware of just how fragile Naruto's control was. She tried to approach him in four-tails form and was injured in the attempt - Kabuto, of all people, healed her while Yamato took control of Naruto with his specialized binding jutsus. (Yamato, who was an Orochimaru experiment, it turns out, but hey, no one needs to know that for long.) Sakura was able to heal Naruto after he had reverted to his true form, and yet again resolved to help Naruto in every way she could. Yamato gave her some advice on this count, saying it was the strength of her feelings that mattered too.
Their conversation was interrupted as Naruto regains consciousness, and they continued on to Orochimaru's hideout. Searching the hideout thoroughly, they located Sasuke, who wasn't particularly wanting to see them. The first meeting after years of separation brought Naruto to stumbling shock, even if it set Sakura a bit on edge. The confrontation they had was brutal and too quickly over. Sakura had chased Sai down and was throttling him to figure out what he was after when Sasuke said her name, and she turned to look up at him. The dramatics were ones Sakura followed fairly well - and had Naruto sort of trump Sasuke's reasons by pointing out that Sasuke actually sucks at cutting bonds, despite Sasuke saying that was what he had done.
Sakura told Sasuke she's going to stop him with her own power, and was cock-blocked by Yamato, who noticed that Sasuke's eyes look dangerous. (Seriously, that's what he says.)
Sasuke did some more schnazzy sharingan stuff, and was about to pull out some move before Orochimaru stopped him cold.
Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Sasuke left. Naruto broke down a bit, crying, and Sakura said, "You know, crying isn't going to bring Sasuke-kun back! I'm here too! We'll both get stronger, together!" While she is also crying. Sai tossed in his hand to the friendship pool, and Naruto stood and said thanks.
We next see Sakura with Sai, acting as back-up to Shikamaru in the second confrontation for Team Ten with Kakuzu and Hidan. (The first killed Team Ten's sensei, Asuma.) She didn't end up fighting, because Shikamaru was too ninja and already had defeated Hidan by blowing him into a hole, so her usefulness was saved for healing Naruto's screwed-up arm after the use of his new technique in fighting against Kakuzu. While Naruto is healing, Sakura felt more drawn to her new team as a whole, and as a sort of payment for Naruto's kind words at an earlier point, offers to feed him. Sai, too, makes an offer, which ah... doesn't fly as well. Sakura seems largely unaffected by the fact Naruto still displayed crush-like feelings toward her - in at least the sense that they remain unrequited. (Yamato believed differently, and was about to say so prior to finding Sasuke the first time. Sai has started to make mention of this before as well.)
The in-town encounters that Sakura, Sai, and Naruto have with others are almost like side-line jokes; first, Sai screwed up nick-names and called Sakura "Hag," while due to her physical correction on the subject, he then defaults to calling Ino "Ms. Beautiful." The fact that he's going for the opposite of what he thinks doesn't translate, so he's decked again.
A separate encounter with Konohamaru had Sakura lecturing him and Naruto on their sexy no jutsus of two women feeling each other up - and her credibility drops when Konohamaru switches the genders (so Sasuke and Sai are shown in a similar embrace) and Sakura reacted like a sex-starved female pervert.
All's fair, but really? Sakura was an undercover yaoi fan.
News of Sasuke killing Orochimaru reached Konoha, and Sakura was back on the road with Kakashi's 8-man squad to find him. She passed within touching distance of Karin, one of Sasuke's new teammates, but they never find Sasuke himself.
Back in Konoha, after that venture ended in visiting Tobi, Sakura found herself present when Naruto was told about Jiraiya going off and getting killed. She was surprised by Naruto's vehement reaction, and subsequent lash of anger in blaming Tsunade for Jiraiya's death. Sakura appealed to Shikamaru in attempting to figure out Jiraiya's dying code. She ultimately was assigned to figure out the code and it's meaning and how to defeat Pain.
Pain came to town, and life got serious. An explosion at the Code Breaking Facility drew Shikamaru and Sakura close, and she killed Pain's centipede summon-creature, in one blown that the little tailor would have been proud of, and began her healing escapades. Kakashi was killed in the initial attacks, along with many other shinobi. The intense healing lasted at high volume until Pain blew up Konoha and Sakura cried out for Naruto. (It wasn't as sexy as it sounds.) He showed up, and Sakura was relieved to know - even if it's only because a Hyuuga ninja informed her of what was going on at such a distance.
Unfortunately, relief didn't last long - Naruto's butt was being seriously kicked, to the point where it seemed he might lose. Hinata placed herself between Pain and Naruto, confessing her love for and to Naruto as she took a near-fatal blow that pushed Naruto over the edge, sending him almost to nine-tails while Sakura felt sick to her stomach. She worked on Hinata almost immediately, and wasn't witness to the parts of the battle fought outside of Konoha, a move Naruto made to protect the people back in town. When he wins, and brings back to life everyone killed in the attack, Sakura is glad her best friend has survived this insanity... and that he's finally getting recognized by the village, something she'd come to hope for him during his years away.
Unfortunately, she then learns Tsunade is in a coma, but instead of being comforted by anyone, she ends up comforting Naruto over the same fact. She's proud of him again as he handles the topic of Sasuke's being out of Konoha with old acquaintances, and then is confronted with information that no one ever wanted to hear: Danzo was the new Hokage. She's outraged (for a variety of reasons, including "Danzo has done many shady things and that's my mentor you're talking about"), but Kakashi manages to forestall her doing anything blatantly stupid (along with Naruto), and instead she takes a walk with Sai and Naruto to calm down. Only the contingent sent out by the Raikage appears and decides to present them with even more information: Uchiha Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki, and had killed the 8-Tails. (Naruto lets them know the 8-tails may actually be alive, because extraction requires them to be.) They demand information from Naruto and Sakura, who both resist, and Sakura breaks down in tears because it's just too damn much, too damn fast, and she can't do a damn thing about any of it. (She can't seem to answer the foreign shinobi's question on what exactly Uchiha Sasuke is to her.)
Somehow, while Naruto skips away with the visiting team to get his face beat in, Sakura ends up in the tent with Tsunade and Shizune, still upset, if no longer actively crying. She's unaware that Naruto gets pummeled, then patched up by Kakashi (more or less) before deciding on a course of progress that includes begging the Raikage to forgive Sasuke, the now international criminal. She's unprepared for Sai, who having his first major emotional breakthrough, comes to confront Sakura after seeing Naruto, Yamato, and Kakashi off on their unassigned, not so legal mission to chase after the Kage Meeting. Projecting his anger, jealousy, and inability to understand the lengths Naruto goes for his friends, he lashes out and tells Sakura that she needs to see what's there in front of her and deal with it, and the fact he perceives her as having caused pain to Naruto, a similar kind to the pain Sasuke causes. She's in tears as Sai then tosses out that Naruto loves her, but won't say anything because blah blah blah that promise from when she was 13, it's Sakura's fault, blah blah blah. Dealing with that emotional outpouring and the fallout it caused Sakura herself, another emotional blow marches into the tent.
Shikamaru, someone she likely respects and knows is intelligent, has come to "ask" (really, inform) Sakura about the former rookie 9's decision about Sasuke. Through brilliant logic that makes no sense for it wasn't logical but a futile tail-chase, Shikamaru and the rest have determined the only way to move on is to kill Sasuke themselves. And they're going to tell this to Naruto, too.
Sakura takes a stance on that, pulling herself together. She would be the one to tell Naruto about the Rookie 9's brilliant mindgasm, and hopefully talk some sense or something into Naruto at the same time. Sai having told her he ran after the Kage's to the meeting means she's going to follow on his tail...
Only to arrive, with Kiba, Lee, and Sai, to confess her love to Naruto, and tell him how very over that criminal Sasuke she was. This backfires, unsurprisingly, considering her and Naruto and Sasuke's histories together, leading Naruto to call her a liar. Sakura, who had been hoping to use this as a way of either convincing Naruto to start backing off of Sasuke for his own emotional help, or a lead in to telling him their homeboys wanted him dead, finds herself annoyed. Sure, not all of it was true, but she did (probably) love Naruto, and she did think he was a hero.
So she leaves. Turning on heel, she announces, in the snow, that she's going back because she's tired of this.
And then, out of range, asks Kiba to help her track down Sasuke on her own. DUN DUN DUN!
ABILITIES:
First, just a general listing and summary of what she does in canon, followed by an "active" versus waiting to be relearned/activated list with more detail following:
Martial Arts: Even ignoring all her other skills, Sakura has been specifically trained to excel in hand-to-hand combat, and other forms of unarmed combat. Her body is a weapon, so to speak, and she's well toned, agile, flexible, and stronger than most women her size.
Chakra Enhancements: Chakra allows Sakura to move faster than a human being ought, walk and climb on walls and ceilings as well as water and the like, and utilize all the basic techniques on her world. (Clones, shadow clones, etc.) She additionally has perfect control of her chakra, to the point where she doesn't waste chakra unless she absolutely has to. Her overall reserves are greater than most shinobi, but sadly still far less than Naruto, and unknown (but probably less) than her age Sasuke.
Subset - Super Stregth: Training with Tsunade has perfected Sakura's chakra release. She can use chakra to capitalize on single points of contact, a sort of KO style of fighting. These massive releases are capable of causing spontaneous fracturing of the ground for a significant distance and depth, shocking even Kakashi and Naruto into realizing just how dead they'd be with one direct intentional hit from Sakura.
Medical Training: Sakura can heal almost anything, as long as she's not being asked to heal on a cellular level. (This she just can't do - encouraging cells to regrow, yes, or flesh to reknit, but she cannot mend individual cell walls. See this as explained after Naruto uses his new technique on Kakuzu, I think.) She's skilled at making antidotes, has presumably extensive herbal knowledge, and well. It's magic. Healing's not explained very well in series. She can't bring people back from death, that much is clear, so if you lose too much blood and there's no instant donor around, you're S.O.L. She's expected to surpass Tsunade, at some point. Canon makes that trend blatantly obvious. Her ability to work with plants to create accurate antidotes is amazingly fast -- Sasori was impressed. Sorta. Or annoyed.
Genjutsu and Sakura: Unclear to what extent she knows or practices genjutsu. She still appears to be able to dispel genjutsu, or at least detect genjutsu, at a level beyond most shinobi. What this means is negligible, since the only obvious references in canon are when she's 13, and include her being able to withstand a high level sleep inducement on her lonesome. Presumably if she trains in this, and she really should have at least trained to recognize it (for the sake of not getting tricked by Sasuke's eyes, so to speak), Sakura would be a formidable genjutsu user. As it stands, there is no clear evidence of how much she does or doesn't know. She presumably has enough control of her chakra to break most holds used by genjutsu users - she can surge through her own brain so that their manipulation is broken. Theoretically, which I can't stress enough. We just don't know.
Static:
Intelligence - Sakura has always been intelligent, even if this was far more "book intelligent" than people intelligent when she was younger. Now she has a good capacity with people in addition to her scholarly intelligence. She is good at explanations, and practically adores situations where she gets to use her knowledge for the benefit of others, even if this can lead to her feeling smug and superior in the back of her mind. (And in her displayed actions, though age tempered this down. She's better now.) Her intelligence lends her a certain talent in analysis, an excellent memory, and a fair hand at observation. She has also successfully worked in the field of cryptology.
Part of her intelligence is her ability to see through things; Kakashi had also noticed that Sakura has a natural aptitude toward genjutsu and the dispelling of illusions of that sort. She sees through deception and would have a knee-jerk reaction in attempting to shake any chakra-imposed illusion off. Those which are not chakra-based, but she detects, she'll be doubly confused by - not knowing why she'd react a certain way, or probably not knowing how she knows she's not experiencing reality. This has developed into being able to predict the movements of opponents one or two or more in advance - an invaluable skill for battle.
Genjutsu - Sakura is listed as a natural genjutsu user, though it is never said exactly how. The only manifestation liable to happen without her realizing is, again, a knee-jerk reaction to when she feels something is "off" about the reality of a situation - when she feels things are being presented as an illusion. Until she discovers through a memory crystal, teaching, or accident, she won't dispel what she perceives to be "illusions," only be aware of their presence to a limited degree. (Presumably, as she gets better at understanding what she feels when it comes to illusions, the better she'll be able to handle them, if it ever becomes something she's confronted with in the first place.)
Strength - even without chakra to enhance her physical attacks, Sakura is stronger than the average female of her height and weight.
Unlockable:
Taijutsu - Not counting chakra (though knowing Sakura, she's always drawn on it to 'enhance' her punches a bit, perhaps without realizing), Sakura is a capable martial artist, though lately she has specialized into avoiding any and all possible hits. Training has made it second nature to avoid attacks and seek single points of entry in order to decisively win battles in one hit. (Of course, her one-hit wonder background came from being able to manipulate and pool her chakra, which she wouldn't be able to do on waking up, but the theory behind how and why she fights remains the same.) This would need some sort of physical confrontation to surface, and over time, skills would build as she retrains her body to respond.
Chakra Control - While not remembering what this is, or how to use it, per say, she has a natural ability to utilize chakra without wasting it. Her control is pretty much perfect. She is able to execute the "basics" without flaws, such as tree walking, the faster than normal run common to shinobi, even faster than that (as a medical shinobi, extra training went into evasive maneuvers and being fast enough to not get hit, supposedly), along with other feats of physical labor. Most of these would be location triggers, or necessity triggers; again, with Sakura, probably more likely to manifest through emotional or extreme rational necessity, or re-taught by another, or the memory crystals.
Sakura has the ability to pool chakra and release it as a concentrated blast, making her far stronger through one simple point of contact. For Sakura to trigger this response, she'd have to be on a emotional high - either very desperate, or very angry. As this is a technique which "builds up" before being released, the emotional build would be the likely catalyst - Sakura feeling bottled up before releasing. If no such situation arises, it would then become a memory crystal learning experience.
Medical Ninjutsu - Sakura is a highly skilled medic nin. It's apparent her level of healing can help prevent people from dying when near death, if she can't bring people back from death. She can't "cure" people of conditions such as paralysis, particularly as most the healing in series appears to rely on "encouragement" when it comes from a straight-up medic nin, and not recreating tissues or the like from scratch. She's able to physically withstand high-pressure healing situations without collapsing herself. (The recent attacks on Konoha, where she was almost constantly healing one person or another.) Healing shallow cuts and the like might be triggered by need, but any high level technique would rely on a memory crystal or direct training to re-learn, since even though her control is near-perfect, I'm assuming she wouldn't be able to remember the intricacies of chakra passageways and the human body enough to practice what she does. She'd perhaps be able to start fiddling around after re-learning anatomy/re-famliarizing with anatomy, but she's as likely to learn to break bodies at that point from too much pressure as she is to heal them. (Back to the dead fish she goes.)
Jutsu - All Nin- and Genjutsu will require memory crystals or the assistance of someone already in the know for her to learn. Extreme or unusual circumstances might trigger the simplest responses - such as being able to walk up walls, on water, jump large distances, move faster - and perhaps even accidentally find the seal for 'dispel' since it requires just the one hand-seal and a will behind that seal, but the rest require specific hand motions that would not be replicated in the normal day-to-day life. Permutations on basics would probably occur through chance and experimentation - shadow clones becoming sexy-no-jutsu clones, for example, though not likely for Sakura - but that would be a new spin on an old trick, not a new trick altogether.
GAME INFO
EDENSPHERE NAME: Seven
BIRTHDAY LOG: Yes.
DREAM: Located here.