Hey syn11, if you have a wall of sakura confenssion why not post it in this tread, I believe many member will read it.
Well... you asked for it.
About two years ago this passage was written for the sole purpose of serving as Sakura’s apology regarding her decisions and actions during the “Dispose of Sasuke Uchiha” mission. Especially, her “lame confession” as many people judge it. Those manga chapters gave rise to the spike of Sakura-bashers movement and even shook (in a nasty way) the certitude of those who love “NaruSaku”.
In my humble opinion, the majority of the hastily drawn conclusions (that if the superficial statements can be called “conclusions”) are one-sided and generally demonstrate cognitive idleness of the folk. For example, Hinata supporters, who praise this character’s recent boldness and sincerity, deny the similarities between the two confessions and scrutinize the differences in a biased way. In the end, the main defect of Sakura turns out to be the fact that she is not Hinata. And those, who sympathize with “that deceived Naruto”, just follow his insufficient perception of the situation. Because all of his flashbacks in manga refer to the genin past. Also, Naruto judges by his own stubborn standards, thinking that Sakura should never give up on Sasuke: of course, she should not, but it doesn’t necessarily imply that she should want Sasuke the way she wanted when they were twelve-year-old. Naruto is prone to simplify complex situations and not always wisely.
Obviously, Sakura still cares about Sasuke (denying it is the part where she lies to herself), but currently she cares for Naruto even more. Their relationship is not an infatuation, based on every girl’s dreams, but a beautiful progressive growth of sentiments which started from the beginning of the series. Naming Sakura “a late bloomer” is a very accurate description. You can say that the tragedy of her development is that there were no tragedies in her childhood: right up to adolescence, when she was nearly killed several times, had to protect Naruto and Sasuke, witnessed them fighting each other, suffered a painful fiasco concerning the first love, lost one of her teammates and experienced the full impact of being helpless. Haruno has never been accustomed to the death of her relatives and friends (in spite of her specialty in medicine), that is why Sakura panicked (natural reaction) after she had seen the outcome of Pain’s gravitation jutsu and called out to her most trusted protector (Naruto). Thus, there were no serious catalysts for her to mature in advance. If in the power and knowledge department we can follow parallels with her shishou, then, regarding romance and personality, Sakura can be compared not only to Tsunade but also to Kushina Uzumaki. What about her ethics? Somehow Sakura’s choice (particularly, her intention towards Sasuke) reminds me of what Chiyo did to stop her grandson.
Back to the confession. Both parties had made mistakes (I would not praise Naruto for his reply to the confession) that could be explained by the unfortunate conditions. Have you ever tried to pose and answer questions, to properly analyze the development and circumstances? Why did Sakura decide to confront Sasuke alone from the start, when it practically implied suicide and other grave consequences? Does she love the nowadays Sasuke? Why did Sakura meet Naruto in the first place when she could have gone straight to Sasuke’s location? Why did the kunoichi confess (in public, most likely, anticipating rejection) instead of just briefly informing her teammate of his comrades’ resolution and (or) releasing him from the burden of POL? Personally, I want to thank Kishimoto for such a plot twist because it clearly shows Sakura’s maturation:
1) yes, the “whole planning thing” (but she should have prepared better: instead, she was probably considering taking Sasuke with her to shinigamis’ realm or depending on sheer luck);
2) independency; taking responsibility (totally);
3) rational thinking (pity, not at Shikamaru’s level, but there were attempts)
4) and the most important - choosing priorities (Naruto and Konoha).
Maybe, her performance was not perfect (she didn’t do everything she could have done, as I view the situation) and she omitted several important issues (like Sai’s stunt with the clone; Naruto’s newfound determination and insight which included the elders’ involvement in Uchiha massacre, Sasuke’s sinister character change and her lingering affection which she tried to subdue), but, overall, the chain of her actions can be considered as the most adequate solution according to Sakura’s subjective view of events (the lesser evil). Sakura had mimicked (sub)consciously Naruto’s wish of stopping the river of hate by restricting it to her persona (same with Itachi who attempted at making Sasuke focus his loathing on the elder brother too) and finally breaking the noxious cycle. Obviously, under all that psychological pressure and enormous guilt, she ignored the deeper layers of the conflict and the simple rule: violence leads to violence. I personally believe that her demise by Sasuke’s hands would have devastated Uzumaki, making it definitely impossible to mend the bonds or bring Uchiha to the “light side”.
Oh yeah, I remember now. I like how Sakura asked Naruto to stop Sasuke from doing something bad, but Naruto decided to accept his request to fight. The trust level switched to Naruto.
It certainly did. Naruto had gradually become her solid rock since Sasuke went crazy because of his Curse mark.
Edited by Derock, 23 May 2013 - 05:51 PM.