Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-26955426-20150907145025/@comment-4503935-20150907224030

Hilary Judgeking wrote: Sakura in part 1, was in my eyes one of the worst characters in the history of anime. She was annoying, useless and surrounded by more sympathetic and interesting characters. When she insulted Naruto for being an orphan I was in awe of how much I could hate a child character. She was also poorly written, her entire back story and character motivations revolved around Sasuke. What's more interesting, a demon sealed inside of you that wants to kill everything you love or a crush on some emo? In many ways I felt a bit sorry for her, she was given so little chance to do anything or given any character development. She was outclassed by the other characters it was a bit sad. I'm legitimately surprised Kishimoto didn't just put her out of her misery.

That being said, she has grown on me after part 1. In part 2 she became motherly and actually contributed to the team effort. She grew as a person, her whole life didn't always revolve around Sasuke. Nevertheless I still don't understand why she persisted to love Sasuke. At least in part 1 her obsession can be passed off as a childish crush. In part 2 however Sasuke not only acts like an asshole towards her and shows no interest in her but she never actually shows a reason for liking him. They share no common interests or goals and she doesen't benefit from this love. Her entire attraction to Sasuke is superficial. Naruto and Sasuke shared way more believability as a couple than Sakura and Sasuke. This is why I prefer Hinata, this character has an obsessive infuatuation with Naruto but at least there's a reason for it. She benefits from Naruto, she becomes braver and stronger because of him so the respect she has of him feels justified.

So after all this do I hate Sakura? No. Despite my frustration at her obsessions with Sasuke I do kinda like her. In The Last and Naruto Gaiden she shows great kindness and is willing to sacrifice herself for her friends and family. Admittedly I would liked to have seen more fights like her one with Sasori but she did aid her comrades many times as a medic on the field. I even feel quite glad that Sakura finally gets Sasuke. So although some arguments against her are valid and I do feel Kishimoto put much less effort on her than other characters, she's a decent character. I don't regret knowing her. With you there, while I find her irritating and a lousy match for Naruto(especially in the Five Kage summit arc), I admit that when it counts, especially in the War arc somewhat, the last and Gaiden, she can be a good person at heart.

Plus there also how Naruto sees the two of them, as family. In a way, the both of them were always assholes toward Naruto, but Naruto has also seen the good in them when their not being jerks, they feed him in the first group exercise despite risking failure (even if it was for their own personal reasons, they both have tried to look out for him, Sakura had helped Naruto with the tree climbing exercise, the chunin exams were a small yet meaningful turn in their friendship. I'm saying that Naruto remembers his time with them as proof that despite all their bullshit, they are good people worth looking out for and helping whatever the case may be.

This is just my one and only detailed conjecture on this, but despite Sakura saying that Naruto's feelings for her in the past was just a indirect attempt to compete with Sasuke, knowing Naruto, it's likely that there's more to it than that. Sasuke, being Naruto's rival who was superior to him in practically every aspect, was a complete natural girl magnet with ladies seemingly of all ages attracted to him, leaving guys like Naruto single and lonely.

Naruto's rivalry with Sasuke may also have been a key part in his search for his own true soulmate, thinking that if he can show that he could be Sasuke's equal, and by extension like him, maybe he'll stand a better chance of finding his one true love, which he somehow thought would be Sakura (probably cause she had some minor, but somewhat similar experience with beeing seen as an outcast of their peers), since he grew to believe that girls would only notice and care for him if he was more like Sasuke in a sense or the very least get enough of their attention to stand a chance. What he doesn't realized is that there was already a girl who would love him, simply because he's Naruto, not because he's Sasuke, Hinata Hyuga. Maybe his feelings for Sakura were something real, but after that incident in the land of Iron, including how his feelings for her kinda almost got her killed, somewhere along the way he thought that it would be better to try and let those feelings go so she wouldn't put herself in danger, especially since those feelings would force Sakura to lie to herself for his sake, which he cannot accept.

Obito's feelings for Rin make sense for me, cause she was always openly kind and supportive of Obito and his dream for Hokage, Sakura was like this for Naruto too eventually, but it kinda took Sasuke to get to that point, while Hinata was always like this for Naruto, heck when Naruto thought Pain killed her and almost everything he loved and held dear, almost just like Obito, he nearly gave up on the world and become full Kurama till Minato stopped him.

Also, not only does he know that Sakura would never see him like she sees Sasuke, but loves him deeply as a close friend nevertheless, he seems to be a supporter of her and Sasuke's relationship. Deep down, it is possible that he see them as inspiration, a source of hope that he too could one day have something like they could have, more or less.