Same. She crept her way into place as my favorite female character.
I always felt that her crush on Sasuke held her back development-wise. How is it realistic to still "love" the guy you had a crush on at 12, especially when it was portrayed the way it was in part one? (While the same could conceivably be said of Naruto's crush on Sakura, it was portrayed differently. Even in part one, it wasn't a shown as a selfish love with some ridiculous notion of "omg tru lurv!!!" tacked onto it. Plus the idea of falling in love with somebody because you spent time with each other and grew close, as we see with Naruto and Sakura in part two, is more realistic than loving someone you barely know.)
I don't think Kishi ever did a very good job on that aspect of her character, but it honestly looked like she was falling in love with Naruto--which would have been a better development seeing as he treated her totally different than Sasuke ever did.
Sakura is still my favorite female character from Naruto.
Edited by questdrivencollie, 30 November 2014 - 05:28 AM.