Naruto vs Sakura as ninjas in Pt. 1
I've been intending to make this post where I discuss how Kishimoto juxtaposes Naruto and Sakura when it comes to their skills as ninjas (Kishimoto juxtaposes both characters in multiple ways but this is the one I'll be discussing here).
Sakura is presented as a booksmart girl, she's a girl that definitely did good in school unlike Naruto, who was dead last in his class, almost didn't graduate and struggles focusing during lessons. Sasuke is, to put it simply, the prodigy of the group. It's even stated clearly during the chuunin exams, Iruka makes a contrast between Naruto and Sakura's skills as ninjas, Naruto lacks book/traditional knowledge and Sakura lacks the power and strenght.
However, what's interesting here is how once they're both put out in the field, Sakura struggles during missions and exams whereas Naruto demonstrates extraordinary strategic and battle skills. We'll see several examples on how Kishimoto establishes the type of ninja they both are throughout the entire series, but in this specific post only from Part 1 of the manga.
The first time we see them compared to one another is in ch. 18, during the Land of the Waves arc where they're training chakra control by attempting to climb trees. Sakura is the first to achieve the goal. Kakashi points out Sasuke uses too much chakra and Naruto uses too little. However, it is also pointed out that the reason why Sakura has much better chakra control than the boys is because she has nowhere near the same amount of chakra they do.
Something that's also pointed out right from the beginning is that Sakura being a natural talent doesn't train, unlike Naruto who we constantly see training for days to master a skill. Then there's Sasuke, a natural talent that also trains for days to no end.
But when we're really starting to see this comparison between Naruto and Sakura as ninjas is during the Chuunin exams arc.
First we see a scene where Sakura is aware that there's a genjutsu other ninjas are putting the genins through as a small test before the real one begins. Naruto, on the other hand, was oblivious to this until both of his teammates pointed it out.
Then we get to the written exam, which is comprised of two parts. The first part were the first nine questions, the purpose of this was for genins to showcase their information gathering and retrieval skills without being caught (or at least not be so blatant about it), neither Sakura nor Naruto understood this, only Sasuke was able to decipher the true meaning of the test.
The purpose of this test is simple, these kids are all preparing to become ninjas that will eventually have dangerous missions outside the village where the goal is retrieving information from the enemy, to avoid unnecessary losses, they'll try retrieving whatever information they need without getting caught using their ninja skills. This is what Sakura failed to understand. In the real ninja world she won't know the answers beforehand like she did in this test, she will encounter dangerous situations where she'll need to not be caught stealing information but she didn't prove the proctors she possessed such skills, hence why she failed the test. It's a pretty good example from Kishimoto in showing us how she's a booksmart girl but not a cunning kunoichi.
When it comes to Naruto, although he didn't understand the test, he intended to cheat but ultimately didn't because he felt he'd be caught, either way he also failed this part of the test.
Then we move to the second part of the written test, the tenth question. This question is disguised by the proctor. He makes it seem like it'd be another question of knowledge like the prior nine but in reality he's already giving it to the genins. You're willing to accept whatever mission you're assigned trusting your teammates or you're not.
Once again, Sakura is unable to read between lines and thinks is a question of knowledge but more importantly, she also shows us the she actually has no faith in her team, thinking Naruto won't be able to answer and would have the whole team fail the test, so she decides to tank the team herself "before Naruto does it" because in her mind she's sparing him the humilliation and "protecting his dream".
But to Sakura's surprise, Naruto does believe in himself and although not quite sure on what's the trick of the tenth question he accepts it anyway because he has guts which is what the proctor wanted to see. So Naruto shows during the written test he has what it takes to be a ninja in the real world, while Sakura fails to do the same.
So now we move onto the Forest of the Death section of the Chuunin exams which is a simulation of a dangerous mission outside the village. Each team is supposed to have an Earth scroll and a Heaven scroll to pass to the next part of the test. Because they already have one scroll, the idea is that they avoid having their information stolen while at the same time succesfully steal the other scroll from another team, the practice test of the theory from the written test basically.
In this part of the test is where Sasuke excels the most, but there's still an insteresting contrast between Naruto and Sakura's skills, as well as between Sakura and Sasuke's.
Once they're in the forest Sakura is unable to recognize that the enemy has transformed into Naruto after he left to pee.
Because we already know that Sakura doesn't bother to get to know either of her teammates she's is unable to detect when there's something odd about them. Sasuke, on the other hand, knew there was something wrong with Naruto simply because he wasn't wearing his equipment the way he usually does (and was before he left to pee)
Kishimoto reaffirms this once again when he introduces Orochimaru. Sasuke had come up with a plan where if the team got separated again, when they reunited they'd have to say a very long password to prove they're the real ones.
Sakura, once again, is not only unaware there's an enemy eavesdropping, but she's unable to clock Sasuke's plan: Naruto is too dumb to remember such long complicated passwords, the enemy wouldn't know this since they don't know the real Naruto, but she should because he's her teammate. But because she's too busy dunking on Naruto, she doesn't realize this.
Once Orochimaru appears disguised as Naruto, he's able to say the entire password, Sakura is even relieved by this, not once considering she had just called Naruto a dunce because he said he wouldn't be able to remember such password, that's how little attention she pays to her team. It wasn't until the enemy revealed themselves after Sasuke attacked them because he knew Naruto would never memorize the password, that Sakura finally understood that Naruto couldn't have memorized the whole password and would have said something else.
But in this fight against Orochimaru we also see a juxtaposition of in the team's skills, as rudimentary as they were by this early point in the story.
Naruto was swallowed by a snake Orchimaru summoned when he was trying pass off as him. But with his never ending creativity, he remembers the time during the mission at the Land of the Waves where he and Sasuke puked after eating too much.
So it occurs to him he can create a similar effect where the snake is so full of Naruto clones it makes it explode. He escapes and runs to his teammates position to help them fight.
At the same time, Sakura and Sasuke are facing Orochimaru who puts them both under a genjutsu.
Despite both of them having great skills to detect and repell genjutsu as we previously saw, only Sasuke is able to react and save himself and Sakura, who's become paralyzed in fear, once again unable to do anything. This is another instance of Kishimoto showing us how Sakura knows the theory but in practice, she fails to act in battle.
We see Team 7 fighting Orochimaru. They're all overpowered by the enemy, although Sasuke is the one that manages to stand his ground the best. Naruto is at a disadvantage for not knowing how to control the Kyuubi chakra and this makes Orochimaru quickly defeat him and Sakura is just there shouting.
With Naruto and Sasuke unconscious after their encounter with Orochimaru, this is Sakura's chance to show her ninja skills in a real life scenario without a sensei to tell her what to do or teammates to rely on.
Exhausted after taking care of her teammates all night without sleep, Sakura has to then face the ninjas from the village of the sound. They're able to spot her booby traps right away because Sakura didn't conceal them properly as she didn't take into account her surroundings appearances and chose hid her traps with some generic techniques.
But Sakura had another trap prepared clearly in case the first one failed. Unfortunately, Sakura's traps are clearly rather a lower level for the what the Chuunin levels require and her enemies quickly overcame her second trap as well.
Because Sakura had no plan beyond these two traps we see her begin to cry once both of them had failed to protect her and her teammates. To her luck Rock Lee appears to save the day and he notices Sakura's exhausted state
Sakura then tries to help Lee, she throws a single kunai at her opponent, failing to hit him but at least Rock Lee with his inhumane strenght pulls a root out of the ground to repel the attack.
After Rock Lee is immobilized by the enemy, we get what is supposed to be one of the most important moments in Sakura's development as a character. She gives us a small monologue on how she doesn't want to be behind her teammates anymore and this time she will be the one protecting them.
So let's see what she does on battle
It becomes apparent that Sakura doesn't have any outstanding skills when it comes to close distance fighting. She can do the replacement jutsu that was necessary for graduation from the Academy and she can also throw kunais (not always hitting the enemy) but other than that she doesn't showcase any special taijutsu skills.
Important to note she hasn't learned any complex jutsu like her teammates either. Naruto has learned & mastered the kage bunshin no jutsu and Sasuke the the Katon: Goukakyo no jutsu, both far too advanced techniques for their ages. So while Sakura manages demonstrates bravery during this fight, more out of pride than anything else, she also very clearly needed help because the ninja from the sound was very much about to kill her.
After Sasuke saves Sakura from the ninja sounds, they get his curse mark under control and Naruto wakes up the team moves to another location. Because the time to obtain the scroll they're missing is coming to an end, team 7 decides they will steal it from another team near the tower they're supposed to go at the end of the examination.
Near the tower team 7 encounters another enemy that traps them in a genjutsu. Sasuke is the one that realized this. Naruto is the one that comes up with the strategy of attacking all clone illusions of the enemy with the kage bunshin jutsu and at the same time use them as a distraction to turn some of his clones into his teammates and deceive the enemy, allowing the rest of his team to sneak behind them. Sakura didn't do much here except comply with her teammates' plan.
So we move onto the duels of the chuunin exam. We'll skip Sasuke and focus solely on Sakura and Naruto and see how they both approach hand to hand combat.
Sakura must fight Ino and because of their past, Sakura feels like she needs to defeat Ino to prove to herself she has surpassed and is no longer the crybaby she used to be.
Sakura fights Ino the same way she fought the ninjas from the sound. She uses a couple of clones and her great chakra control to do a few tricks against her opponent but Ino quickly goes toe to toe with her because Sakura skills have not grown from her Academy days.
Sakura doesn't have any strategy beyond punching Ino and because they're basically on the same level of skill taijutsu wise, this only drags the fight. Eventually Ino gets tired of fighting that way and decides to use the shintenshin no jutsu against Sakura.
What's interesting here is how arrogant Sakura responds to Ino. We had already seen her being arrogant when Naruto stated he couldn't memorize such long password and she bragged she could, not understading Sasuke's plan with the password. So Kishimoto is establishing Sakura as an arrogant girl that doesn't really have the skills to back her up.
Sakura knows Ino's jutsu can only work if her opponent stays in the same position, so rather than conclude Ino might have come up with a plan to make her stay in one place, Sakura simply assumes Ino is stupid and all she has to do is move around to dodge her jutsu. Unfortunately for her, Ino manages to trick her, keep her in one place and use her jutsu on her. The only reason why Sakura managed to get Ino out of her head was thanks to Naruto, something she acknowledged herself and even then, the best result she could achieve was a tie.
Now let's compare Sakura's fight to Naruto's duel against Kiba. Throughout the fight, Naruto is constantly outsmarting Kiba and Akamaru, letting himself be hit to get to know his opponent and then using whatever knowledge he gains to his advantage. Naruto by this point has also become a master of clone jutsus and constantly uses them to deceive his enemy. But contrary to Sakura who uses the same justsus in very similar ways she becomes predictable, Naruto always comes up with new ways to use his signature jutsu that continue to catch his opponents off guard.
Another aspect we observe in Naruto's strategic skills is how he's able to use his environment at his advantage even in unorthodox ways. No only is he able to trick Kiba's smell by making him think he got him when he had actually hit his ally Akamaru but he even manages to *accidentally* find a weak spot fo Kiba's olfactory super power by farting in his face, Kiba becomes overwhelmed and oversensitive. This gives Naruto enough time to use his signature clone jutsu and hit Kiba with a final strike, thus winning the match.
This is technically where the juxtaposition of Naruto and Sakura as ninjas ends. Sakura doesn't compete in the final duels so we can't draw a comparison in how she fights there vs how Naruto fights. However, I've written about Naruto and Neji's fight if you're interested in reading it [LINK] I'm also running out of space for images on this post so bear with me with all the text.
During their fight against Gaara, Sakura demonstrates her bravery when she stood against Gaara's attack to protect Sasuke. She was quickly defeated because she's not a remarkable ninja but that paired with Sasuke's words "I already lost everything once... I don't want to watch my precious comrades die in front of me" awaken in Naruto the will to fight with all his might. He summons Gamabunta and even uses the Kyubi chakra, saving both of his teammates himself. By this point of the story Naruto is the most powerful member of team 7.
Later on in the series Jiraiya and Naruto embark on a mission to find Tsunade. After an encounter with Itachi, Sasuke is induced into a coma and we don't see much of him until he leaves the village. Sakura is just there looking after Sasuke but that's it, she doesn't train or learn any new skills, even though we have a scene of Naruto asking Kakashi to teach him chidori we never get a scene of Sakura asking him to train her as well.
During this arc Naruto learns a new jutsu: Rasengan. Paired with the Kagebunshin no jutsu, this will too become his signature jutsu. But because my goal with this post is to pin point Naruto's fighting style in contrast to Sakura's I'll add one final example; Tsunade and co. VS Orochimaru and Kabuto.
During Naruto's fight against Kabuto (ch. 167), Naruto intends to use the rasengan against Kabuto, however, due to his lack of experience using this jutsu and not having yet mastered it, Naruto fails to hit Kabuto.
Kishimoto allows us to see Naruto's strategic thought process during the fight. Naruto realizes it's much harder to hit a moving adversary than an static object (like the trees he'd been practicing with) plus it takes him too much time to create rasengan because he needs both of his hands giving Kabuto enough time to move.
So Naruto comes up with his strategy that includes the use of a clone. Jiraiya had previously told him in the previous chapter (166) to not use Kage Bunshin because he would exhaust his chakra. Tsunade, as we can see in the panels also believes is not the best idea.
But what neither Tsunade nor Kabuto anticipated was the use Naruto would give his clone. They both thought Naruto would repeat his signature move of creating several clones and attack all at the same time, but he didn't.
As we can see, Naruto stops Kabuto with his hand and keeps him in place so he wouldn't move like in the previous attack and only then, uses his clone to aid him make the jutsu and that's how he now manages to strike Kabuto, thus defeating him.
So far, we've seen the type of unorthodox ninja Naruto is compared to Sasuke and Sakura. He trains and works hard, perhaps more than any of his teammates but he's also the most creative strategist in the team.
Sasuke is a natural talent, he still works hards, we know how much it took him to achive the Katon fireball and the Chidori, his signature jutsus but although he's smart and cunning as a strategist I wouldn't say he possesses the same level of creativity as Naruto.
Then we have Sakura, by far the weakest not just physically but also in terms of strategy. She becomes quite predictable very quickly so the enemy knows how to strike her right away, she's also very dependant on her teammates & sensei when she has to act, but to her credit she's still a brave girl that will attempt to do something every now and then. Her biggest flaw as a ninja is, at least from my point of view, how much she plays by the book (what makes her a predictable fighter), it's clear that she was a good student during her academy days, doing all assignments & jutsus expected from her but she doesn't grow from there and unlike her teammates, she lacks the ambition to get better. Every single jutsu she uses in the battlefield is something that was taught to all genins so she'd hardly surprise them during battle. She's also unable to think outside the box so of course all her opponents are able to read her and easily defeat her.
In another post I'll continue contrasting Naruto and Sakura as ninjas but from Part 2.
