mari 🪷

i don't mean to show any disrespect to Kishimoto and everyone involved in the canon material of Naruto, please simply think of this as my opinion on how her character could've lived up to her potential because i truly love her! like super strong, smart, and badass female character with pink hair that also values love? a coexistence of beauty, femininity, and strength? sign me up.

please let her have her original design of yielding a ginormous weapon (battle axe) with sakura blossoms (like hello??) on it. do i have to say any more? other than looking awesome visually, it would be a really good extension of her strength and power.

utilize her intelligence more. from early on, the manga clearly showed signs of her being academically gifted, emotionally mature, and tactically sharp, but i feel like it's definitely underutilized. her being an armin arlet-style character would've been super cool to witness. she's exceptionally physically strong, but it would've been nice to prove that being a shinobi doesn't only require a special lineage and godly powers that naruto and sasuke have. yes, she's a medical prodigy which i LOVE, but it would've been awesome to witness her use her wits MORE in battle.

fix her relationship with sasuke. this should be a whole different post altogether, but as someone that actually loves this pairing and feels like there was so much more potential for a healthier relationship that could make more fans go "yep, they're actually meant for each other," i have so many ideas on how it could've been written a whole lot better. when compared to the anime, the manga definitely shows better hints of sasuke showcasing care and potential romantic feelings towards sakura. i would have sakura rather have neutral feelings towards sasuke at first, maybe even sometimes describing him as being a little arrogant and way too emo for her taste. eventually, as the team gets closer, she develops friendship and love for both sasuke and naruto but realizes she loves sasuke in a slightly different way. it would be a nice touch given that ino and the other girls in the academy are mostly crazy about him for more shallow reasons, but sakura being someone who loves him after truly spending time with him and learning more about him as a real person would make her more special to him. i feel like it would definitely make more sense for sakura to have mixed feelings of resentment and love towards sasuke after he leaves. it would make more sense for her to prioritize the current people in her life like naruto, kakashi, etc., while sasuke's gone, but also can’t help loving him despite turning against them (but not to the extent of it overshadowing other character traits).

personally, i feel like sakura having a more deeper backstory of having parents that she doesn't have the best relationship with would be a good foil to naruto and sasuke. and instead of the moment where she disses naruto for being an orphan in front of another orphan, sasuke, she could have been ranting and complaining about her parents and how she would be better off without them, which eventually makes sasuke lash out. she could have had strong ambitions of being a kunoichi, but her parents often doubt her abilities and deem her as being inferior as a woman/dislikes the lifestyle and risks of being a ninja. she could have higher motivation to succeed as a ninja to prove them wrong and gain independence from her family. when she realizes the immense suffering both sasuke and naruto have undergone due to being orphans, she aims to fix her relationship with her parents and gain some sort of support and understanding for the life she wants to lead. it's nothing too crazy too, because i like the fact that a character doesn't have to have some insanely depressing backstory to have depth.

i find the dynamic sakura and naruto have absolutely hilarious and i wouldn't change it though lol