Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-33731988-20180116041116/@comment-33068326-20180305234813

LegionZero wrote: Also despite her being a straight A student you would think she would be some sort of tactition for Team 7, but no, Kakashi was usually that if it was necissary. THIS. Sakura rarely ever gets credit for her intelligence. I think Kishimoto originally planned her to be the genius, with all the wide forehead hints (having a huge brain), but then gave that title to Shikamaru. Honestly, she wasn't useless when it came to grades. She was an honor student. She memorized over 100 rules of shinobi. And in the Chuunin Exams written test, she answered all questions by herself - something even Sasuke and Shikamaru, considered geniuses, couldn't do. Kakashi called her the brightest in the village during the Zabuza Arc, and Sasuke said her analytical abilities surpass even his Sharingan. Ino also called her smart. She was the first to notice it all. She's like a calculator. She's super smart - like a prodigy in mathematics. Like another Albert Einstein. Smarter than either Sasuke or Naruto.

Kishimoto never developed her like Naruto and Sasuke, and yet I really can't see her a bad character - she had seriously so much potential. She had better medical skillz than an entire country at the age of 15. She should have developed her own jutsu. If they were going the medical route, Sakura shouldn't have been a regular medical ninja. She didn't have to be powerful like Naruto and Sasuke, she could take an entirely different route than them, but it should have had some relevance to the plot, something interesting besides the Byakugou and healing. They should have shown her actually saving nations, doing surgeries, creating giant genjutsus, learning about secret underground medical ninja societies, experimenting with several poisons, and even pit her against Kabuto or Orochimaru, who both like to experiment with bodies. It would have been seriously interesting. I find it very peculiar that she is a student of a Sannin, but they rarely showed her training with Tsunade. Of course, it was the same for Naruto and Sasuke, but their training was shown a bit more. There was more suspense to them. Kishimoto should have developed her character so much more and put her in the spotlight.

The excuse that she's just a civilian just gets on my nerves so much because her weakness could have been her strength. She could have been the only civilian in the group. She comes from no clan. She's not supposed to be special, yet it could have been like she's no ordinary civilian. Maybe her parents didn't wish for her to become a shinobi, but she believes it's her destiny to be one, and that causes conflict between them. Kishimoto never even showed her family in the manga. Apparently she only thought about Naruto and Sasuke. I wish he'd stop comparing her to them and actually just focus on herself. After all, that was just one side of her. She had a family; which contrasted a lot with Naruto and Sasuke's situations. Could have been really interesting to see the interactions between them. People would sympathize more with her, and as civilians never had much representation in Naruto, she could be their representative. She had a different life than the Konoha 11. She belonged to no clan, yet her genius allowed her to reach such grand heights.

Kishimoto should have also put a viable reason for her hating Naruto. Could it be her parents were part of an anti-Nine-Tailed-Fox movement? Slowly, he could have shown her accepting Naruto as she realized he wasn't such a threat as she'd been told and being conflicted about it too. That's way more interesting to watch. Sasuke and her could have been childhood friends before the massacre, and the reason she feels the need to go after him is because their friendship fell without an explanation of why. Trying to get involved with him would be more justified. Readers would even cheer her on to rescue Sasuke and get back together. All that was needed was some development.

Sakura isn't a bad character, nor is useless; rather, Kishimoto stunted her potential, and even then she managed to become the strongest female kunoichi at the very least. He just did not allow her to become the heroine she could have been.