I seriously feel so let down by Kishimoto when it comes to Sakura. Early on I remember reading that he felt he sucked when it came to female characters. Turns out his self-assessment of is abilities was correct.
He did so well with her at first. She developed nicely as a character, going from a whiny little fangirl to a smart, strong and accomplished kunoichi.
But lately its like she’s allowed her emotions to rule her too much and she’s slipped back into being that weak little girl. While she may have strengthened physically, its like she didn’t grow at all when it came to mental strength.
She’s allowed her friends to bully her into making stupid decisions. Sai’ rightly feels guilty for her current course of action. As does Kakashi and he should feel that way. I still don’t understand why he would keep the truth about the massacre from her.
She’s a part of Team 7 and every bit as invested when it comes to Sasuke, why would Kakashi not make her privvy to the same information the rest of the team has? It shows no respect for her and well who can blame her for deciding to take matters into her own hands, when she’s treated with such little consideration?
What did Sai think she was going to do when he laid that massive guilt trip on her concerning Naruto? On the one level, Sai is right, her initial selfishness pushed Naruto on the course he’s on. But really Sakura has no need to feel guilty for the fact Naruto keeps chasing after Sasuke.
Yeah he’s partially doing it to keep his promise to Sakura, but Naruto is also going after Sasuke for his own sake. Sasuke was his team mate too and he wants to get him back as badly as Sakura did. She isn’t forcing Naruto to go after him and he’s pretty much shown that he would still go after Sasuke even with Sakura absolving him of any need to do so.
Then we have Sasuke, even though Sakura was there to kill him too, I can still think of him as an utter douche bag for attempting to kill her.
Sakura hesitated, she still couldn’t really bring herself to do it and only Karin’s warning and Kakashi’s arrival stopped her from being killed by him. He really has lost his mind if he can have so little disregard for his former friends and current team mates.
Again Sakura gets pushed to the side with Kakashi’s arrival. Its no longer about her once again, but now Sensei and student. All this build up about her confrontation with Sasuke is over in the blink of an eye.
Hopefully Naruto catches up soon before things go too far. With so much character butchering in this manga lately. Kishimoto would be nuts to kill off Kakashi at least he’s stayed pretty much true to his character, so I’d hate to see him go.
Calamitous Intent 
this post was wrong in so many way.
at first i agree with you he completely sucked at female development, but then your post made me realize he doesn’t really suck, because apparently there really are females who’s mind work the same way as sakura…
What other ways was my post wrong? Please elaborate!
Sasuke is an idiot, if he’s playing everyone just like Itachi did then he’s a super good actor. If he isn’t, then he’s the biggest twit on the planet for allowing Madara to manipulate him and going against everything Itachi sacrificed himself for.
Kakashi is stupid for leaving Sakura out of the loop. Maybe if they had made her aware of the situation beforehand she’d have had a better understanding of Sasuke at the moment.
Instead of explaining anything to her and treating her as an equal on her team. They treated her like a little girl, placated her with false niceties and kept important information from her. Then Sai employs guilt to try and fix the situation and it all exploded in their face.
He does suck at female development, but that stands to reason since its a shounen manga and so he’s more concerned with the guys anyway.
You say that there are females who do think like Sakura, but there are also females who don’t. Tsunade, Shizune, Kurenai, Anko are pretty damn good examples of strong willed, intelligent Kunoichi.
Sakura was well on her way to becoming like them and Kishimoto just set her way back.
“You say that there are females who do think like Sakura, but there are also females who don’t.”
*cough* I was implying on… never mind *cough*
Let’s break it down.
1. It was wrong for you to assume there to be ANY positive development from Sakura. Reason? All she achieved is a stronger resolve and physical abilties. Sounds all nice written out, but you’re not noticing the major character flow that 99% of the Naruto main cast suffers. Emotional disabilities.
2. You completely ignored the entire point of their obsessions and jump to conclusion that Sakura matured simply because of a time skip and new abilities. You have to look from Naruto and Sakura’s perspective, they straight on out were sickly obsessed over Sasuke to begin with, everyone else noted them for that. If you expect someone already mentally sick to make a clear judgment on what to do when it directly involves their source of sickness, you’re out of your mind.
3. Sasuke. Sasuuuke. SASUKEEEEEE! That is the biggest problem of it all. THE FACT THAT YOU EXPECT HIM TO HOLD BACK ON SAKURA OR HAVE ANY SENSE OF SELF LEFT!
“Then we have Sasuke, even though Sakura was there to kill him too, I can still think of him as an utter douche bag for attempting to kill her.”
The fact you even considered Sasuke to have any sense of self or previous emotions is a flaw. Ninja are supposed to be people who work for a goal and cut their emotions. Sakura and Naruto obviously flat out failed. Sasuke on the other hand failed because he let his emotions decide his missions, but at least he managed to succeed in cutting ties away. If you haven’t noticed, he cut off all emotions and went to the dark side the moment he followed Orochimaru. After all the events, he became darker than Orochimaru or any other member of Akatsuki, he is emphasized repeatedly as the ultimate form of avenger, who lives in the darkness. Now, of course for poor storyline purposes, Naruto will convert him eventually, but did you really expect him do any good on this world right now?
4. Last but not least. Why do everyone not tell Sakura the truth. Do you go tell a grieving wife who just lost her husband from a kidnapping that her husband is actually a mass serial killer and you’re going to kill her husband? Even if it’s a one-sided attraction, Sakura being obsessed as she is, feels stronger about Sasuke than even a wife would. Now the question is, would Sakura be able to handle it if everyone suddenly tells her that we’re all going to kill the love of your life? That’s why nobody told her.
Now you ask why Sai did. First off, he only knows Sakura as being very close to Sasuke and a dear friend. And he knows Naruto can’t handle the truth and is irrational from his encounter. On the other hand, he’s seen Sakura being sensible and logical, but yet willingly to accept some of the most plainly obvious facts. Now, what would you do? Go tell Naruto and have him go crazy on you? Since the answer is to reach Sakura, now how will you deliver it to her? One, do it the nice way that everyone else already did that didn’t work, or be frank and shove it in her face like she needed to? Sai’s only mistake is that he didn’t know well enough about Sakura’s obsession and only thought she was close friend with Sasuke.
Don’t imply my friend, just speak your mind! How else will we get a good discussion going ^-^
1. Why is it wrong to assume she there is any positive development for Sakura? Her change from just being someone who stood there, to someone who can hold her own in a fight is definitely a positive development.
The fact she could take charge of a situation where Kankuro was poisoned and save his life is definite positive improvement.
The fact she was able to put her training and intelligence to use and come up with a way to counteract Sasori’s poison, saving her own life in the fight against him is a definite positive improvement.
So I wasn’t wrong to assume there was any, but as you say maybe I was expecting too much to assume she might have developed more positively when it comes to emotion.
2. Yes I can expect for them to use clear judgement. After all you talk about their sick obssession with Sasuke.
Even though she wavered once faced with him, Sakura put aside that obsession and was willing to kill Sasuke.
Putting her own feelings aside and doing what was best for the village and to spare Naruto from having to kill his own friend, even if she lost his friendship in the process.
The fact she was able to put her own feelings aside and consider that course of action showed she has matured, not just gained new abilities because of a time skip.
If she were still the little immature girl of the past, the fact that Sasuke might have to be elminated would never have even been a consideration of hers.
3. Sasuke is just as flawed as Naruto and Sakura where emotions are involved. He isn’t thinking with the clear, cut mind of a true ninja either. If he was, then Danzou would have thought more highly of him.
Danzou was right about one thing, Itachi was more close to the ideal of a ninja and Sasuke isn’t anywhere near the level of his brother.
Sasuke is being ruled by his hate and anger, he’s letting someone else manipulate him. Yes being a ninja means at times you have to be able to separate your emotions for a mission, or have to be able to work autonomously.
But you also have to be able to work in a team, that can’t happen if your team don’t trust you to have their back. Kakashi is one of the best ninja’s in the village, he is able to balance duty with his emotions.
As he says, those that disobey orders are trash, but those that leave their friends behind are worse than trash.
As strong as Sasuke is, by having Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo along he’s proved he can’t do everything by himself. Would he have even been able to come through that battle with Danzou without Karin offering her healing abilities?
What you call Naruto’s failing in that he is too tied to his emotions have actually always been his strength as a ninja. Suna is a powerful ally of leaf, thanks to the bonds Naruto was able to form by saving Gaara.
You have to have heart to fight sometimes, if you have no emotion, can you really fight as hard as someone who is fighting for something they believe in?
Even though Sasuke has gone to the darkside, he’s as powerful as he is not because he has cut off emotion, but because he’s being fueled by emotion. It just he isn’t being fueled by any of the positive ones!
You say Sasuke succeeded in cutting his ties away as if that is a positive thing. I think cutting his bonds has only hurt him. Especially if he continues on this destructive path.
Of course if he hadn’t broken his ties and gone off with Orochimaru then we wouldn’t have much of a story now would we.
4. They did tell Sakura they were going to kill Sasuke. Which is why she said she wanted to be the one to tell Naruto the plan.
What they didn’t tell her was what they learned from Madara about the reason for Itachi’s murder of his clan which would go a long way towards explaining why Sasuke is so hell bent on destroying Konoha.
Kakashi knew what she planned to do when she left, perhaps he didn’t tell her because he never planned to let her get far enough ahead to confront Sasuke.
But its information she should have had. Its information she could have used to make her request to join Sasuke more believable.
In any case,she was a part of Team Seven and close to Sasuke and deserved to know what everyone else in the team had found out. Because even without being told she still ran off to Sasuke, at least she would have been better informed had they told her.
As for Sai I understand why he did what he did. He was hoping that Sakura could talk Naruto out of continuing to go after Sasuke, because he deems it pointless and only sees them being hurt in the end when Sasuke will have to be killed.
His execution sucked though. It basically ended up with him making Sakura feel so guilty that she decided she had to take up the burden all by herself to spare Naruto, which isn’t what Sai intended at all.
Though really considering his lack of understanding where emotion is concerned its not too surprising it all went wrong.
I’m too tired to read every little thing.
Long story short, Sakura is a moron, Sasuke is a douchebag and Kakashi is probably gonna die in a convoluted and crappy arc filled with angst.
SLACKER!
I think it would be stupid for him to have brought Kakashi so close to death, let him get his resolution with his dad, only to have him actually die so soon after.
Naruto is on his way, so maybe rather than Kakashi dying, they’ll be able to get him to see sense and have him turn on Madara…
Yeah… that’s what’ll happen…
Sakura is a narutard.
Which Sakura is free for interpretations.
Case Closed.
Yeah, but this is Kishimoto. He kills off character development.
In the Killer Bee arc, Sasuke stopped his Black Unstoppable Fire Thingy because Karin was in danger of being killed. This arc, he’s actively trying to kill her for… no discernible reason whatsoever.
Face it, Kishimoto ensures that anything remotely good he does is followed by a fucking lameass reaction where the good thing is replaced by a whole shitload of lame stuff.
If there’s a cliche, you can bet your ass that Kishi will put his grimy hands on it. And this, my friend, is a very cliched situation.
@ TNH. KEH!
Keh?
Meh?
Huh?
XD
@ maggeh, that’s what I’m sayin! ^-^
I agree that Sakura is a pretty sucky female character, but she has been that way from the beginning. Why does she need to change into a strong female character maybe her weakness is a part of her characterization. Sure some people change and mature as they go through life, but then again some people don’t. Look at Tila Tequilla (only example i can think of right now) she is much older than Sakura and she is still a mess. Besides these are still kids yeah they are awesome ninja children but they are still teenagers neverthe less, remember that physically they are going through all kinds of hormonal ranges that affect much of their lives. Maybe that would explain why Sasuke Naruto and Sakura seem so emotionally driven.
I guess she doesn’t ‘need’ to, but as a girl I would like to see her be stronger.
As for being a teenager explaining why they are so emotionally driven, I can totally see that. Especially with emo boy.
I think sakura is an awsome character and all and I was kinda annoyed by how whimpy she acted when they were younger…but after the time skip she really acted/sounded/looked more mature and I was like “awsome” but he killed it with these chapters….
And about their emotions… We teens have hormones. Lots an lots of hormones. We have to let em out some way or another lol…and let’s sympathize alil for
sakura- she is now trying to kill the person she loves the most in this world! I wouldn’t blame her for acting like this
True enough, maybe its because I’m old and therefore removed from teenage angst XD
That I forget how everything is life and death when you’re there age.
Although in their world, it is quite literally life and death at times.
You know looking at this i makes me happy that im not the only one to force you into massive arguments….Now i feel a lot less guilty geting you to respond to my commments…yay