Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-31492005-20180306150245/@comment-33731988-20180520130209

Drawingblank2014 wrote: I like Sakura. All children are cruel and impulsive, and at least she didn't straight up try and murder Naruto... like his best friend. She's also a hell of a lot better if you mull over the subtext of her character.

Bottom line, Team 7 doesn't really have any healthy relationships between them, not like civilized people would classify them anyway. Sakura shows unprecedented growth of character when she acknowledges that in the novels and creates a psychiatric hospital for the youths in her village.

That's actually some of the deepest character growth in the whole series, and it also makes her one of the most self-aware characters in the story. She knows that everyone that she formed strong bonds with as a child was a severely emotionally damaged child soldier, and doesn't want a new generation of ninja to end up like her husband, or her sensei... or Naruto.

Everyone draws their own opinions, and that's fine... but I like her.

I guess you could argue about Naruto and Sasuke's relationship (even though I ship them...you know what, I ship all canon ships plus SasuNaru except NaruHina and I question myself x_x), but I would say Naruto and Sakura's relationship is different. Naruto and Sakura are close friends, that's why they try their best to save each others' lives, have arguments with each other, ask personal favours from each other that only really close friends would do and hang out with each other a lot.

You know, healthy or unhealthy relationships are debatable. What I define as a healthy relationship is where you give and you get. Naruto gives Sakura his friendship, his care and his love (although that stopped) and Sakura gives him her friendship, her care and her medical skills to keep him alive. Sasuke was a toxic person in part 2 until after the war. Before the war ended, I would say their relationships with Sasuke weren't healthy, but I will say that their feelings to save him and Sakura's feelings of love for him were definitely real.

You're right about Sakura though. The fact that she built a mental health care unit for kids who couldn't get over the war makes me so proud of her. It shows how much she grew from a kid who couldn't do anything to a woman who cares deeply about the mental health of young children.