Well yesterday I was glad that Sakura showed up and about her concern for Naruto but today I'm pessimistic because even thou we see some potential intervention from her part it will be shadowed by the Kages and Taka arrival.
The only way I see things going now is that Naruto used everything he had to shield the alliance during that shock wave and now he is incapacitated. Now I'm not sure if the alliance will retreat or try to attack the Juubi again but probably Sakura will go and try to heal him. And when that happens the Kages show up. And we are going to have the same things over and over again. She is useless she is bla bla bla bla bla.
Thing people expect is that Sakura actually commits to the action they expect her to fight in some major role, they always say she does not contribute save the Sasori and white zetsu incidents. This is why haters say she is useless, they think every person in this manga has to take some active role and in essence why they just stick to others. Thing is they are missing a few things:
1. There is a difference between physically and mentally developed heroes/heroines. Sakura is if anything a mentally developed heroine, just cause she is a mentally developed one first and a physical one second, this does not degrade her overall development, she has to approach problems with a limited skillset but with more knowledge and outlooks. Others like Naruto and Sasuke, they just get more power simply for facing stronger battles. Many people tend to treat this manga as well, it should be treated like One Piece or Fairy Tail, that is just it though, Naruto is Naruto, it is not one piece or fairy tail. Oda does a good job giving the straw hat crew all their own development, role, and identities but this makes the series go so long. Mashiro does a great job with Natsu and Lucy. Kishi could have done more with Sakura but still for her mental development, her main area of it, she is fine. Sakura could have been given more physical oriented roles at times and there were many opportunites kishi could have done such as fights with Kabuto in the Sasuke and Sai arc, let her and Sai assist shikamaru against Hidan, and even more recently let her have taken a larger role in fights like against the 7 swordsmen (she could have faced Haku or another one of the 7), or a real missed opportunity could have been her facing a reanimated chiyo, gaara could have even had a role to both return the effort to chiyo for reviving him and fighting alongside Sakura as both the a counter to when he nearly killed her and proof to chiyo that ninja like them fighting together and the alliance was proof that her sacrifice did not go unmerited.
Mentally developed characters are in no means bad, I mean in one piece Nami was like this a majority of the time and had limited fighting abilties. Only Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji were highly capable of handling themselves but then the time skip gave them all skill. People act like Sakura is the worst, well she is still the best developed female in the Naruto series. People think Sakura is bad? They should look at Rukia or Orihime, Rukia only had one major fight against that number 9 arracnar and killed a bunch of henchmen. Orihime has been a damsel in distress for a majority of the manga. Sakura may have been in this role at least 2 times but they didn't last that long now did they?
2. Medic ninja have their rules to follow like all ninja- Sakura actually has a purpose in her role, primarily as a medic ninja she has to stay alive and treat others and avoid fighting as much as she can. Sakura is a special case though because of her CES she can fight but only does with its either in personal defense (like the zetsu event), everyone is fine, or when it is absolutely necessary (such as sasori, between her and chiyo, only Sakura had the power to break his armor). This is not to say all shinobi have rules to follow like the 3 vices (1. Money 2. Drinking 3. Men/Women depending on the ninja's gender). There are rules all other shinobi have to follow such as the ANBU, training students, even kages. Sakura is just doing her duty and what she was taught as her primary role. I mean Pain was able to use his "medic" to fight but still limited it and kept it back now didn't he? As a precaution to bring back any killed bodies. If Sakura is worthless then doctors are worthless, not to mention Tsunade who actually got a lot of action still ended up healing more than she fought now didn't she?
Sakura is basically operating under like if anyone here played any RPG like Final fantasy or WoW. You have a healer in the group so what do you do? Send them in to fight? No you try to keep them alive and avoiding danger. People in WoW who spec into healing stuff, they are always at the back and healing and enhancing their friends but always avoiding trouble. They only assist in combat when it is absolutely needed or in an event where a boss was stunned for example then they contribute. Now I'm not saying Sakura acts like this but in a major situation like the invasion of pain and now the ten tails fight, she was healing others to keep their numbers up, every person remaining alive was another part in increasing their chances of winning. Dead ninja are not good now are they.
3. Anything that degrades Sakura's character in total makes other females look worse. I mean Sakura has the most development of any female character, Tsunade is second. Ino may be third due to the hidan and kakuzu arc giving team 10 some time. Anyways yeah kishi had a lot of opportunities to give Sakura more space for her own battles but anything else to other female characters save Tsunade and Kushina, if it makes Sakura look bad, it just brings the others down. Tsunade is exempt because she has her duties and own resolution and moved forward with the same ideal, she always had a good outlook. Remember, kishi said he had a hard time with heroines, if its hard for Sakura its not going to look good for the other females. Those with power in the series aside from Tsunade (Anko, Konan, Mei, Yugito, Temari) they are limited and not seen all that much. Sakura may have mot taken a larger role in as much action but its better than Hinata being steamrolled twice and her action costing the life of an actually good character. If Sakura is worthless than Hinata is an occupational hazard, seriously they should just put Hinata close to Madara or the ten tails, it may somehow implode its own power due to her being disaster prone.
4. Sakura is normal. This is a world where basically genetics give you an advantage I mean look at the Uchiha and Senju, they are the strongest clans cause of genetics. The Uzumaki are high but only have extra stamina. Sakura and her parents are normal, Sakura is the average type of person with a normal background. But its in this universe that this normality that makes her a better character. Sakura is Sakura, she has no born powers but she earns them. I like Sakura in part because of this background, in a universe where genetics and bloodlines give you an advantage, Sakura stands above most in her group. Being normal is not a bad thing either, remember Minato has a normal background as well, there is no Haruno or Namazkie clan. Minato is basically the only "normal" hokage. He had his parents and a goal and confidence, and he became one of the strongest ninja ever. Jiriaya had no clan either and he was a sannin and sage. Where Sakura is normal but manages to fit herself, Minato and Jiriaya represent that an ordinary person in this universe can become strong. Naruto and Sasuke had latent powers but Sakura did not, this is why her normal element to the series is something good. If Sakura actually did come from a clan with super healing powers, that would remove this normality and likeability. Where others have suffered tragic pasts and she did not, she learns how to cope and understand and support her friends to try and make things better, basically you can't change the past but you can support them and help them for a better future.
5. There is a difference between not doing anything and participating in the fight. Basically there are major and minor roles in fights. Most of Sakuras roles in fights have been minor. In a sitution like Sasori, yeah that was major. Same with fighting Ino, that was one of her fights. Minor though would include others like Pain and the seven swordsmen, I'll explain the fights she was in, present and if it was major, minor, or simply there:
Part 1:
both Vs. Haku and Zabuza, she did nothing, this was the only fight she truly did nothing. She had no powers but kakashi was able to handle Zabuza and Naruto and Sasuke faced Haku. This one, she was simply there.
vs. Orochimaru in the forest of death- This was Naruto and Sasuke, she could not do anything though and so this began her determination to get better. This one she was simply there
vs. the 3 sound ninja- She fought at first holding them off, then lee came in, then team 10 an, then Sasuke awoke with the curse seal, then team guy came in. Sakura had a minor role overall but this fight shifted from her, to lee, to team 10, to Sasuke waking up.
vs. Ino- this was her own fight, her rival, this was simple Naruto only played a minor role for voicing her to wake up. She had a major role in this fight cause it was towards her character and her determination and will. This fight she had a major role.
vs. Gaara- this composed of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. It was Sasuke first and he struggled against Gaara, Sakura went to defend Sasuke on the count she was determined to protect her teammates after the FOD incident, yeah she was protecting Sasuke again, but this time he was in trouble and Sakura did not want to run away from a fight and leave it to her teammates. She got caught and was threatened. This capture made it so Naruto would have a resolve to save her. Sakura played a minor role in this fight but was this action and capture by gaara that gave Naruto more strength to overcome him. This was a minor role.
Special mention- Naruto and Sasuke's inital hospital fight- it was short but she tried to stop it and saw Sasuke's power demand come up and him being tempeted by power as orochimaru said, this would be minor.
This was all in part 1.
Part 2:
vs. Kakashi- She and Naruto displayed their powers and ablilites to get the bells, this was a training exercise but still a battle. This can be debated as a battle or not but it was a major role for her and Naruto.
vs. Sasori- Obviously this was her biggest battle, with Chiyo she faced Sasori. This fight also forwarded the story. This was a major fight for her.
vs. Orochimaru/4 tails naruto? okay this is a hard one to determine but it was the 4 tails event she tried to get naruto to snap out of it and she did heal him afterwards. Minor if anything, don't know if it should be counted as a battle.
Vs. Obito-when he was messing with them- This was a minor fight for all those involved including team 8. Sakura's role though came out to figuring out Obito's temporal powers and how they worked. Minor for all, her role found out the first way the kamui technique Obito used worked, the rest of the kamui mechanics would come later.
vs. pain- well pain can apply to a lot of people because he faced a lot Naruto was obviously the major role, kakashi had a minor role as did hinata too. Sakura did not face pain directly but her role was simple, she bashed a centipede and stuck to healing others. Healing as many people as she can was her role, she saved a lot of lives and took leadership. This was a minor role in the overall fight against pain, but though she did not fight that much, healing those in the fight is still technically participating. This was minor.
vs. Sasuke- if it we are looking at an actual fight, the major role in this one goes to kakashi. Sakura and Naruto are minor in this case. Sakura's minor role was to try and kill Sasuke and free Naruto at the risk of him hating her. Her role was minor but ended in her having faith in a resolution Naruto could bring.
vs. the seven swordsmen and haku- Sakura again went to healing like in pain, this was a minor role. The mist was up and blocked vision, if all the shinobi in their group were killed, it would be bad, basically she was able to heal those in need to allow others to get up and fight again like any medic would. This was minor. Again this was a short fight but she still participated.
vs. The ten tails- everyone in the series is basically involved here. We have not seen her fight yet though, but we know she is partipating. She can still get a role, as of right now though her role is minor, we know she was healing and helping others like kakashi and dauri, hell without kakashi obito would still be trolling them. Sakura did heal kakashi and he is a critical person in this fight. Its minor for now.
So yeah there is a lot to Sakura, she is technically participating within fights as long as she commits action. Keep in mind this is my opinion and technicalities can change everything.
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