TBH Sakura does have a lot of character development. She grows a stronger love for Sasuke, she greatly increases her skills in order to protect Naruto and Sasuke, and she becomes one of the best Medic ninja and Kuonchi in the Naruto Verse. She isn't meant to not love Sasuke anymore just like Naruto isn't meant to stop seeing Sasuke as a friend...
Yeah, not really. See, the thing you have to understand is, Kishimoto butters up Sakura’s character, he doesn’t build it. The last time Sakura actually developed was immediately after the timeskip where she showed the skills she learned and had grown to be marginally more mature. Since then, Sakura has learned absolutely nothing new nor improved on any of her skills in any facet. She has been doing the same shit for 500 chapters, and it’s been mediocre since then end of the Sai Arc. Nor does she show any interest in learning anything new. The powerup she got was a textbook asspull for reasons beyond “they never showed her training!”, hell, it isn’t even the main issue. Furthermore, she hasn’t grown in the mental or emotional ways that mattered and would ultimately never do so. That’s where the buttering up comes in.
Sakura has shown no desire or initiative to learn something new or improve herself, even when she has time and sees Naruto training. She takes no real interest in the one thing she’s good at, medical ninjutsu, beyond obligatory healing. When is she shown reserching new and refined methods of healing, creating new poisons, or even actually helping out the hospital at all? Despite popular defenses, Sakura has never even had any goals pertaining to surpassing Tsunade or running the hospital. Like you said, the only reason she even became a medic nin wasn’t because she took an interest in the craft, she saw medical ninjutsu in action and wanted to do the same, or wanted to help heal her fellow ninja, but rather because Sasuke leaving sparked her to finally actually do something about her general weakness. Furthermore, that Sakura acknowledges her own weakness but never actually seriously trains even after the Chuunin Exams and only puts forth any effort after Sasuke leaving gives her a wakeup call, it gives the heavy implication that had Sasuke never left she would have never asked to be Tsunade’s apprentice because pursuing her ninja career wasn’t as important until the happy times with Team 7 and Sasuke fell apart. Which ain’t a good look at all considering that Sakura has chosen a very serious and dangerous career and the boy you liked leaving the village shouldn’t be what sparks you to actually take it seriously. See what I mean about the buttering up?
And even going into the asspull powerup, still more buttering up. He has Sakura look cool punching the ground, but then when her lack of technique and style of offense leave her wide ass open to counterattack (as she has to recharge after every move) her showing off almost gets her killed and Naruto and Sasuke have to rescue her again. She ran out of chakra extremely fast, and instead of her being the one to heal Shikamaru, Tsunade has to come in and do so after being cut in half. When charged with the simple yet important task of stabbing Obito’s eye, she just stands there doing nothing for at least five minutes, even though she is costantly angsting about not being able to do anything. She hastily charges at Madara and not only causes them to miss their chance at doing something to stop Madara from activating IT, but almost gets herself killed in the process and needs to be saved (after which her main concern is that Sasuke-kun didn’t notice her). She can’t save herself from falling into lava before or after the fact, as she is once again too busy crying because Sasuke-kun said something mean. She is basically carried around until she is used as a chakra battery for Obito. Then she is placed in the spot to land a hit on Kaguya by Kakashi, after which she is saved again. Then its just her sobbing in the dirt for Sasuke to love her, and not because he has just declared he is going to kill her mentor and friend and plans to start a new world order. The only really notable thing I can say where she did something that truly stood out was when she pumped Naruto’s heart for him and helped save Sasuke, and she didn’t even need a powerup to do those things. Sure she grew to care for Naruto, but that was obviously expected, and even then she doesn’t seem to really know him that well and doesn’t say anything about him that practically every person that comes into contact with him that isn’t a villain doesn’t notice or say (when she can be bothered to actually voice these thoughts to him at all).
You see what I mean about the buttering up? He has Sakura look cool by punching the ground and taking out juubi fodder and bugs, but when it comes to doing things of actual substance and character she is left displaying a lack of depth. She is a satellite character revolving around the actual relevant main characters, and when Sasuke and Team 7 are not together, she has no reason to be shown (as Kishimoto has said himself). She has no thoughts on any of the key conflicts or themes of the manga, and no purpose or drive beyond Team 7 and Sasuke (to the point where any outside friendships are practically nonexistent, she never thinks about her parents, and even her bond with Tsunade seems to lack much depth beyond rudimentary teacher and student). She is there as the token and obligatory female teammate and is as basic as they come. She serves her purpose of damsel in distress/pairing fodder disguised as faux action girl.
And yeah, I know. I’ve been saying Sakura was pairing fodder since I started reading about a year and a half ago. The worst thing about it though, is she isn’t even good pairing fodder, you know? She doesn’t even do that properly. She has nothing to do with the character or story arc of the character that she is fodder for, one scene with another character holds more emotion and romantic undertones than all of his scenes with her combined, she has nothing substantial, deep, or interesting to say about his personality, character, actions, motivations, or past. She can’t handle his darkness or personality at his worst (or even best), 80% of their interactions have been negative, and she doesn’t influence or effect the other character nearly as much as she is influenced or effected by him to the point where he has not spared one panel of thought to her in the entirety of the manga, and even in their canonization she is a housewife for a husband that comes home whenever he feels like it and isn’t even an anchor to keep him there (and is essentially raising a dysfunctional family as her daughter feels neglected).
Furthermore, she cannot stand up for herself and can barely even assert herself, with behavior ranging from infatuated housewife to battered woman to infantile child seeking approval. Not to mention that she displays a lack of understanding or knowing him on even the most rudimentary levels and both of her confessions were not only a testament to this but also to how one sided this all is. This “developed a stronger love for Sasuke” doesn’t exist as there is no change in her behavior or thoughts toward him whatsoever.
And this is Sakura 500 chapters later
Please point out the growth and get back to me later. I would really like to know. Cuz see, if there is no mental or emotional growth as I’ve pointed out, then how does it not reflect in her behavior?
I’ll give you one of the best medic ninja, but one of the best kunoichi? Sakura is a mediocre fighter. She has an extremely linear style of attack, no technique or form, she does the same move in every battle (extremely telegraphed and simple punch which she cannot even do in succession) and she does not have the speed to aid this extremely flawed fighting style. She has virtually no offensive ninjutsu or genjusu and her sole other asset is summoning Katsuyu, which still doesn’t make up for her overall lack of skill in battle or her extreme lack of diversity. She doesn’t even have the proper mindset for it anyway.
Need I remind you what happened the one time she did actually take on another ninja of her rank without outside aid?
Yeah. And she doesn’t even immediately recover, just sits there. None of which matters anyway, because Sakura is a housewife now. See what I mean about the buttering up instead of building again? Look, Sakura isn’t an entirely trash character, but she has definitely brought very little to this series and has solidified herself as the worst heroine to have come out of Shounen Jump. I know you want Sakura to be this badass girl who takes shit from on one, kicks ass and takes names, and rises from a useless girl to one that endeavors to become the most successful medic nin and kunoichi of all time, but that is simply not Sakura Haruno written by Masashi Kishimoto. She may have had potential once, but that was basically all it was-potential. Fanon Sakura is great, but defending canon Sakura is a lost cause, especially at this point.
Also, uh, I don’t mean to rag on your tastes, but its pretty weird that you think it’s great that she was never meant to grow out of any of the above.
As far as the Naruto thing, look, whether you think that their relationship is romantic in nature is up to perspective I suppose, but Sasuke and Naruto do and say some really suspect things and they have the most romantic scenes in the manga by far. I mean, “We’ll die together?” “Naruto, you’re the only one I can ever really accept.” “My body moved on it’s own?” “We understand each other without using words?”
See, no one would be saying that “Naruto was never meant to see Sasuke as anything beyond a friend” if he or Sasuke was a girl. No, undoubtly everyone would agree that they were deeply in love to any human’s capacity, no other ship would even come close, and anyone trying to argue that they were in love with someone else would get immediate dismissal as a rival pairing tard because they were obviously soul mates. I suppose I do agree that Naruto and Sasuke were never going to get together, because this is a shounen, Naruto of all Shounen, and gay relationships are rare in general for this genre and unheard of for main characters.
But um, yeah, I don’t really ship Sasunaru like that, but for anyone to say they don’t see where it comes from is dishonest.
Long story short, hopefully the trend of pointless heroine’s ends soon.
Thank you for the message though. I feel like many people in this fandom don’t know how to communicate in a way that isn’t entirely offensive, and I really am curious about other points of view.
