Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-4271790-20141106113847/@comment-8284722-20141112033753

@Aghias And so was Sakura before Sasuke's defection. Here's how I put it. The Naruto franchise is chock-loaded with foils (characters that are like others but with certain divergent traits) to Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. For example, there's the Sannin being foils of the three's respective apprentices, there's Obito and Kakashi being foils to Naruto and Sasuke respectively, etc. Then there's Karin, who's a foil to Sakura, representing what Sakura would've become had she gone ahead and joined Sasuke. Karin even figured this the moment she laid eyes on Sakura (Five Kage Summit Arc). Thankfully, Sakura didn't go with Sasuke and was able to become a fully-fledged, great character in Part II who got far more scrutiny than she deserved and had all her characterization wasted by having her pair up with Sasuke. I even think she might've gone back to her fangirl state judging by her reaction to Boruto; we'll find out in the spin-off manga, I guess.