Sakura is what could be called the cute intellectual part of Team 7 that consists of , , and herself. This ninja knows every rule and every technical detail that would be required of a ninja to know. First in her class when it comes to knowledge, Sakura is a totally different person when she's on the battlefield at the beginning of the series. During the battle she could hardly hold back her feelings and emotions and is often seen panicking or bursting into tears when the battle is not turning out in her teams favor, therefore giving her the reputation of being somewhat unreliable in her teachers eyes. But, even though she sometimes lacks the bravery to act as a real ninja during battle, Sakura progressively takes a more and more active role in her team as time passes by.
Loving Sasuke with all of her heart and finding Naruto to be an annoying brat she spends her free time trying to seduce Sasuke and taking care of her appearance while completely ignoring Naruto and ofen picking a fight with her "friend" and rival for the love of Sasuke, Yamanaka Ino. This only holds true until Sakura begins to understand her other comrade, realizing that he is indeed very special and abandoning the idea that he is a miserable failure, like most of the others think until the end of the Chuunin exams. She admits that she was wrong and has been acting selfishly as if she was always right. Aside from that Sakura is always helping out her teammates, especially Naruto, to understand some of the specific ninja maneuvers that only a veteran could understand, and by doing so helping her team devise a strategy to win against the enemy. She also incarnated the teams good conscience and often acts as a warning bell, or the person who puts her team back on the right track (and Naruto is often the victim of such "reminders"). Sakura is otherwise a very gentle person that never misses an opportunity to help others and find a good thing to do or say to those who aren't as fortunate.
Through the series we learn that Sakura was not always as she is now. When she was younger she was generally rejected by the other girls, for no reason other than her being ashamed of her rather large forehead. When the other kids at the ninja academy saw that, they didn't miss an opportunity to make fun of it! Sakura would spend her days all alone until one day a popular girl, Ino, saw her sitting alone on the bench crying and began talking to her. From then on, Ino gave Sakura a whole new attitude and boosted her self confidence as she began to make some more friends, and even fall in love. Until then Ino was always helping her when she got insulted or bulled around by other girls, acting as a mentor giving her advice on how to act and how to be a better student and person, physically and mentally. This lasted until Sakura fell in love with the boy that every other girl at the academy had their eye on: Uchiha Sasuke. From there her relationship with Ino became cold and formal, neither of the two ex-best friends would openly declare war upon the other, which resulted in a few quarrels, some serious and some absolutely ridiculous! Recently though Sakura's relationship with Ino has become less tense and more friendly, but we have yet to see what happened to them during a three year time jump.
Sakura's fighting style was very basic before the three year jump in the series, but that does not mean it was bad as she excelled at the "basic stuff". Sakura, as states, is the best of the original genins at controlling her chakra. Basically, she's as good at that as a jounin would be: nearly perfect. She uses this near perfection over her chakra to execute all the basic ninjutsu that a ninja knows without a single flaw. These, mixed with some basic taijutsu makes Sakura tricky and sometimes very tough to deal with. It also seems that she is good at manipulating shuriken and kunai, making her even more dangerous at a long range. With all of these characteristics she is a ninja that should be taken seriously, unless you want to get beaten to a pulp! Being trained under Tsunade, Sakura acquired unbelievable physical strength, being able to easily split a large piece of land in two by just punching the soil. Adding to that, she is now a skilled medical ninja. Under the training of this new sensei there is no doubt that Sakura now possesses some significant knowledge of healing techniques, and some great talent that we have not seen all of... yet.
In Naruto part 2, After the timeskip, Sakura's personality has taken on a much more mature and even tone. Like most people when they come of age, she seems to be much more comfortable in her own skin than when she was younger, frequently displaying the more ferocious aspects of her personality formerly personified in the Inner Sakura segments, instead of just responding within her timid restraint.
Sakura's first impression of the new Naruto was that of a more mature person; she was sorely disappointed to discover he was still somewhat lacking in that department. Despite this, she does see that he has mostly changed for the better, and they are very close. They are able to work together much better than before, passing their second bell test due to their excellent, if somewhat unorthodox, teamwork. She still insults him, but in a much more playful manner than before. When Naruto defines one of their outings as a date, Sakura, still furious over the previous letdown, replies "Fine. As long as you're paying." She is more concerned for his well-being, especially since he's a target of Akatsuki and under constant danger of death. Yamato tries to give a clear description of these feelings (from his point of view) at one point while Naruto is unconscious, but Naruto wakes up and interrupts him before he can finish.
The state of her feelings for Sasuke are still unclear, though she still seems to care for him as a friend. Needless to say, for both herself and Naruto, Sasuke is still a touchy subject, and both have a moment of exaggerated gloominess when Kakashi mentions him during the second bell test. However, over the past two and a half years, Sakura has become more confident and less self-conscious around him; she is even willing to attack him to protect her friends and bring him home.
After two and a half years of intense training under Tsunade, Sakura has become an excellent medical ninja, and her abilities as a ninja have improved substantially in the form of medical jutsu and the use of chakra to create immense physical strength, also due to Tsunade's tutelage. During the Wave Country arc in Part I, it had already been mentioned that she had top-notch chakra control, which is essential for medics, and she does exhibit some enhanced strength in the filler arcs even before being trained. An example of her enhanced strength is seen when she slams her fist into the ground to force Kakashi, who had hidden underground, to reveal himself during the bell test; her superhuman strength easily splits the ground apart. Naruto and Kakashi, both shocked by the display, commented on her technique in reaction to this, calling it her "insane strength".
The reason why Tsunade and Sakura possess such remarkable physical strength is due to their unrivalled chakra control; their strength comes from the precise build-up and release of chakra, which requires almost inhuman timing and precision. If Sakura's chakra control wasn't top notch, Tsunade would have never been able to teach her the technique, let alone medical jutsu. Over time, both Tsunade and Sakura seem to instinctively use this jutsu (storing up chakra and releasing it), without actually having to concentrate. Sakura is amongst the most efficient chakra users in the entire series, potentially surpassing even her own master, considering she was able to learn such high level medical abilities in such a short amount of time. Also, Sakura's medical skills have been said to exceed those of many medical nin of higher rank, and she is probably on par with, or even surpasses, Tsunade's and Kabuto's skill when they were her age. Sakura has been praised by both Kakashi and Chiyo for having the potential to surpass Tsunade.
Sakura, like Naruto, now has A-rank and S-rank jutsus in her arsenal. Sakura played an instrumental role in the opening chapters of the new arc, creating an antidote for Sasori's poison and curing Kankuro. With the assistance of Chiyo, she also defeats Sasori in combat, gaining information about Orochimaru in the process. Chiyo used chakra strings to control Sakura like a puppet, so she could help her dodge Sasori's attacks, as Chiyo was familiar with the puppet, and she herself could not fight one on one with Sasori. With her vigorous strength, Sakura easily demolished the puppet Sasori was hiding in with one hit. Sakura also seems to have a determination that was previously not present when she was younger; she had kept herself going even when she got stabbed in the stomach with Sasori's poisoned katana to help protect Chiyo. She is now motivated by an intense desire to be of use to her village and friends, help Naruto rescue Sasuke, and prevent Naruto from becoming a victim of the Akatsuki.
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