Kat *ੈ❀

Again, I’m not saying Sakura like easily beats Sasuke or anything. What I do think though, is that the anime/manga does a lot of telling us how strong Sakura has grown, versus showing us. They talk about all this training she does and the most payoff we see is in hers and Naruto’s bell test in shipudden. I’d actually go as far as to say that Sakura NEEDED this fight with Sasuke, and that she even had a chance of winning it.

Sasuke in his current state at this fight had just fought with Danzo. He was worn out and not prepared for another fight. Just that fact alone should be enough that Sakura should actually have been able to go toe to toe with Sasuke. Because yes, at his peak Sasuke is stronger than Sakura. He can use kenjutsu, his taijutsu (while not as physically strong) is more skilled than Sakura’s, his arsenal of ninjutsu is wider and more heavy hitting and to top it all off he has the sharingan. Sakura, however, is smarter than Sasuke and her endurance is higher, based purely on the fact that she has the ability to heal herself and isn’t using excessively draining ninjutsu. She should have been able to, at the least, wear him down further, if not force him to retreat entirely.

I think that frankly, my biggest issue with the Sakura and Sasuke confrontation is that a lot of things happen which directly contradict almost all elements of Sakura’s character growth. For one, she has just vowed to kill Sasuke to take the burden from Naruto. Not only is she not given to opportunity to actually fight Sasuke, but Kakashi and, more importantly, Naruto are forced to save her from Sasuke. This immediately puts Sakura back in the position of damsel, which she is working hard not to be. Sakura does not like being saved by everyone else and she acknowledges, particularly in og Naruto, that she has been useless in the past and doesn’t want to be anymore.

I just think this fight with Sasuke could have done so much for Sakura’s character growth in so many ways, and sure it might be a little heavy handed, but demonstrating that Sakura is getting stronger. I think as well, that if Sakura were allowed these moments, then when we have scenes like this…