Naruto - Sakura Haruno / Characters

Sakura Haruno

Voiced by: Chie Nakamura (JP), Kate Higgins (main series), Dorothy Elias-Fahn (Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth) (EN), Christine Byrd (Latin America), Pilar Martín (Spain), Maia Baran (French), Nathalie Hugo (French, replacement voice), Anisa Dervishi (Albanian)

Debut: Naruto Chapter 3 (Manga), Naruto Episode 1 (Anime)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/naruto_sakura_part_ii.png

Part II appearance

^{Click here to see her pre-Timeskip appearance}

^{Click here to see her in The Last}

^{Click here to see her in the Epilogue and in Boruto}

I've always considered myself to be a true ninja… but those were just empty words, because Sasuke and Naruto were always in the lead! But now it's my turn to take the lead, and all of you can watch me from the background!

The girl of Team 7. For most of the series Naruto has a comical unrequited crush on her, but she acts dismissive towards him while she's in love with Sasuke; However, over the course of the series she grows to appreciate and care for Naruto as a friend and teammate in great part due to their shared bond with Sasuke. She would eventually become Sasuke Uchiha's wife and the mother of Sarada Uchiha in Boruto. Sakura herself is an intelligent, gifted kunoichi from Konoha. Unlike most other ninja in the series, she has no unique skills of her own, using only standard ninja techniques and her brains. As a result, during Part I, she mostly sits on the sidelines standing guard over someone. After failing to prevent her only love, Sasuke's defection, and seeing a badly injured Naruto in the hospital, she concludes that she can't leave things like this, and apprentices herself to Princess Tsunade with the intent of no longer being a burden and help bringing Sasuke back.

In Part II, Sakura has picked up Super-Strength and medical skills courtesy of Tsunade's Training from Hell, which turns her from The Load to a fine kunoichi of her calibre. Her growth is shown in the first major fight of the new series, joining forces with Chiyo to help defeat Akatsuki member Sasori in a drawn-out battle, and her healing skills are put to use for much of the series.

From then on, Sakura's focus and presence in the story Zig Zags in importance, though the two constants that remain throughout are her unwavering love for Sasuke and her platonic friendship with Naruto. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, she unlocks her full potential with the White Strength Seal and like her teacher Tsunade, gains a permanent mark on her forehead signifying mastery, although for the most part she serves as The Medic. Even though she participates in the final battle against Kaguya, Naruto and Sasuke do most of the fighting, but when Kaguya transports Sasuke to another dimension, she teams up with Obito to retrieve him and later, lands a blow on Kaguya that stuns her long enough for Naruto and Sasuke to seal her. By the story's end, her love for Sasuke is finally realized and reciprocated; they marry after he is redeemed by Naruto and have one daughter together, Sarada Uchiha.

Her hobbies are playing trivia games and memorizing new material for her medical studies.

Favorite phrases: "A life with love throughout!" and "Courage"

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A-D

A-Cup Angst: Has a rather small chest and shows irritation about that at times, namely when observing Hinata during a bath.
Action Girl: Sakura initially lacked much in the way of combat ability, but by the time of Part II/Shippuden she trained to attain Super-Strength surpassing that of most other ninja, eventually acquiring the Strength of a Hundred Seal. While not as skilled technique-wise as characters like Rock Lee, she can set off veritable earthquakes with simple punches and kicks alone; and can also use her medical jutsu offensively.
Action Mom: She delivers in Naruto Gaiden by defending her husband Sasuke and their daughter Sarada from Shin.
Action Survivor: Becomes this in the Forest of Death, where she tries to protect her unconscious teammates from the Sound trio, despite being hopelessly outmatched.
Adaptational Badass:
- In the Five Kage Summit arc, she avoids fighting Sai, Lee and Kiba once Sai realizes that she plans to drug them so that she could try and kill Sasuke by herself. She can't bring herself to kill him and he tries to kill her twice, during which she just stands there with an Oh, Crap! expression. However, in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, she fights Sai after he figures out her plan and wins, then she puts up a good fight against Sasuke, and even after Kakashi intervenes, she takes advantage of the distraction and comes within inches of actually stabbing Sasuke in the back, rather than being at a distance like in canon.
- In Chapter 614, she stands out in the open as Madara and Obito use the Wood Release: Cutting Technique to attack the Shinobi Alliance, and Kakashi has to grab her, move her out of the line of fire, and protect her. However, in Shippuden Episode 364, she uses her Super-Strength to pull up an entire section of dirt and use it as a shield to protect herself and another person from the attack.
- In Naruto Gaiden Chapter 6, she got warped away by Shin's Space-Time Dojutsu because she was standing next to him and his clone, and she wasn't fast enough to move. However, in Boruto Episode 21, Sarada was the original target, but Sakura pushed her out of the way and was teleported in her place.
- In Gaiden Chapter 9, her "fight" against Shin merely consists of her running around and getting things thrown at her, including getting smashed against a giant rock pillar. However, in Boruto Episode 23, this fight was considerably extended, where she put up a good fight against Shin, gaining the upper hand and catching him with the aforementioned pillar.
- Also in Gaiden Chapter 9, Sasuke defeats Shin rather quickly and by himself, by catching Shin off-guard and crushing him with the Susanoo. However, in Boruto Episode 23, this fight was also considerably extended, where Sakura helped him defeat Shin—he teleported her close enough to cripple Shin with her Super-Strength.
- In the movies and a few filler arcs, Sakura is shown to be more competent in battle, fighting and defeating one of the members of the Quirky Mini Boss Squad on her own.
Adaptational Early Appearance: Like the other members of the Konoha 12, Sakura appears in episode 1 of the anime. This also inserts some Foreshadowing of her fallout with Ino because she's wearing the red ribbon that Ino gave her to tie up her forehead bangs. When she earns her forehead protector, she no longer needs the ribbon and gives it back to Ino, becoming a full rival for Sasuke's affections.
Adaptational Jerkass: The anime, especially in part 1 and in filler material, often made Sakura out to be more violent toward Naruto than she was in the manga.
Aesop Amnesia: In Part II and especially in the anime Filler, for the sake of humor, Sakura would often forget that she promised to start treating Naruto better.
Affectionate Gesture to the Head:
- Sakura channels her brother-in-law Itachi when she taps Sarada's forehead, as Itachi used to do to Sasuke, and promises they'll finish discussing her father next time.
- When they were little, Ino poked Sakura in the forehead to comfort her.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played straight at first, but later Deconstructed after the Time Skip. Ultimately, she still loves Sasuke, despite what he's become and despite that his actions threaten war, and her need to help stop him.
All of the Other Reindeer: A very mild example compared to many others. When Sakura was younger, she was always teased and made fun of because of her big forehead; after Ino began to stick up for her, she became more outgoing. Ironically, after befriending Ino and developing feelings for Sasuke, she became a bully especially towards Naruto, who had far worse issues than her. She did gradually become nicer to him once they became teammates.
Alliterative Family: Sakura shares her first syllable with her husband, Sasuke and daughter, Sarada.
Alone with the Psycho: In Naruto Gaiden, Shin Sr invokes this: she's all alone in his lair and, now that he's finished the transplant surgery on himself, he's going to kill her. She retorts that she'd been waiting to get as much intel out of him as possible before breaking free.
Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: She shows some trace of this in Boruto: Naruto the Movie when she was in the audience cheering for her daughter loudly during the Chunin Exams.
Anger Born of Worry: Towards Naruto. No matter how skilled he becomes, she always has serious concerns about his safety during combat situations, especially when she punches him after coming back from his battle with Pain for making them all worry, then catches him in a surprise hug, which is meant to highlight the development in their relationship up until now. Though justified: as the jinchuuriki of the Nine Tails, Naruto has more enemies (some ridiculously powerful) than your average shinobi, it can make things more complicated for the both of them.
Animal Motifs: Slugs, which is what she learns to summon while under the tutelage of Tsunade.
Anguished Declaration of Love: She tries this at least three times without any success.
- When Sasuke defects from the village, Sakura confronts him and reveals her feelings. Sasuke thanks her, then knocks her out.
- When Sai reveals that Naruto has feelings for her and that his promise to bring Sasuke back for her is causing him a lot of pain, Sakura breaks down in tears before resolving to handle the situation herself. She confronts Naruto and tells him she's gotten over Sasuke and finally fallen for him, everything she believed Naruto wanted to hear her say. Except that she didn't really mean any of it, and Naruto sees right through it and rejects her false confession.
- When Naruto and Sasuke are about to have their Final Battle to determine the fate of the Shinobi World, Sakura begs Sasuke to stop if she ever had even the smallest place in his heart. Sasuke hesitates for a moment before promptly knocking her out with a genjutsu of himself impaling her with Chidori, then sneers at how naive she is, in a bid to be finally alone and not have Sakura intervene.
  - Though he later subverts this by marrying her.
Badass Adorable: Sakura is the adorable, blushing bookworm. She can just kick ass now.
Badass Bookworm: During the Time Skip, Tsunade teaches her both Super-Strength and medical ninjutsu, the latter of which takes a great understanding of the human body.
Bad Liar: When she is truly desperate and when it comes someone she cares about:
- Later, when planning to take out Sasuke herself, she claims that she has defected from Konoha as well and wants to join him. Sasuke is naturally suspicious, and he calls her bluff when she is unable to finish off Karin to back up her claims.
Band Wagon Technique: Part of Sakura's infamous fake love confession to Naruto sounds a lot like this, as she says that now that Naruto is a respected and admired hero of the Leaf Village, it's only natural that she falls in love with him, which is how he knew it wasn't genuine.
Betty and Veronica:
- She was the Archie for Naruto's "Betty" (friendly, hardworking ninja who later becomes a messiah-like person) and Sasuke's "Veronica" (arrogant, top-student who later becomes a rogue ninja).In the end, Sakura marries her Veronica.
- Both Hinata and Sakura were teased with Naruto throughout the series. Hinata is the "Betty", and Sakura is the "Veronica" and both girls toy with the standard, classic traits for the roles. At the end of the manga, it's Hinata who marries Naruto and Sakura marries Sasuke, the boy she always loved since the beginning.
Big Sister Instinct:
- Beginning from the Chuunin exams arc when Sakura vows to be kinder to Naruto (and even before then, such as defending Naruto from Sasuke's criticisms), she displays a protectiveness of Naruto, sometimes to the point of over-protectiveness, especially when it comes to Sasuke. This would include not telling Naruto that it was him, not Orochimaru, who destroyed the bridge and injured her in his Four-tails Mode out of her attempt to spare him the pain of guilt. When she learns from Sai in a rather blunt fashion, that from his point of view she (out of his feelings for her) and Sasuke keep making Naruto suffer, she resorts to lying about having feelings for him now instead of Sasukeand shortly afterward when she tries to kill Sasuke by herself in order to spare Naruto or anyone else from shouldering the burden. Not to mention her resolve of wanting to become stronger (and later, a more competent healer) so that she can protect both Naruto and Sasuke and not have to choose which one to save.
- When it comes to Hinata, she exhibits a strong sense of protection and care. However, her demeanor towards Hinata is noticeably noticeably more tender compared to her behavior with Naruto.
Believing Their Own Lies: During Sakura's infamous fake love confession, her tone implies that she is trying to make herself believe it as well, something that Naruto almost immediately saw and called her out for.
Boisterous Bruiser: While Sakura in her off-time is loud and easily excitable, she applies that same determination and energy in battle, making her a dangerous enemy.
Brick Joke: Early in Part I it is revealed that Sakura was called "Billboard Brow" as a child. Close to the end of Part II, as a teenager, she learns to use the Strength of a Hundred Seal, which manifests on her forehead.
Break His Heart to Save Him: This was Sakura's true intentions when she gave her infamous fake love confession to Naruto in Chapter 469, hoping that he wouldn't keep hurting himself for her and Sasuke. It didn't work out the way she wanted it to and she nearly lost her life for it. Hell, when Naruto called her bluff and rejected her outright, she spends the first few pages of Chapter 470 losing her temper and going as far as calling him out for thinking that she was faking it. However, once she realized that nobody believed her, she left and proceeded to move forward with the plan to kill Sasuke.
Break the Cutie: When it comes to her teammates, particularly when Sasuke becomes a criminal during the Five Kage Summit Arc.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Gentle Girl to Sasuke's Brooding Boy, although she's often angry, but is usually friendly and cheerful. She is also the first one to notice Sasuke's growing darkness, and the only girl in the series to express sincere concern about where his path of darkness will lead him.
The Bully: While not the typical form of this trope, Sakura was quite dismissive and hostile towards Naruto for no reason other than her parents' mysterious warning to stay away from him, and his interfering with her crush on Sasuke. Fortunately, she gradually stops being this way, notably after her team's ordeal in the Forest of Death, and later becomes one of his most loyal friends.
Can't Catch Up: Sakura starts out as the Team 7 member with the best handling of fundamentals, but Naruto and Sasuke quickly surpass her. This is Played for Drama in her fight against Team Dosu, leading to Sakura cutting her long hair and promising not to watch them from the sidelines anymore. She finally catches up to them by the Fourth Shinobi World War, and has remained one of the strongest Konoha shinobi ever since.
Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: The type of relationship she comes to have with Naruto. Even after becoming nicer to him, it's still comically easy for Sakura's temper to flare and cause her to lash out when it comes to him doing anything that could set her off. Yet, despite her rough attitude towards him, she comes to see him as the little brother she never had and the thought of his struggles or him dying easily brings tears to her eyes and into a state of great panic.
Changing Yourself for Love: Prior to getting her Important Haircut, Sakura grew out her hair because she heard a rumor that Sasuke liked girls with long hair.
Character Development:
- Goes from initially standing on the sidelines to taking an active role in helping Naruto and Sasuke, especially to bring Sasuke back. Much of her development in Part II is answering the question of how best to accomplish this goal.
- While she starts out as being unkind to Naruto, from the Forest of Death onward, she does her best to stick up for Naruto time and again and becomes one of his closest allies and friends. To put it into perspective: Naruto considers Sasuke to be his best friend, yet it is Sakura who is consistently doing what she can by his side, healing him and supporting him during their struggles, for almost all of Shippuden.
- Completely symbolized by "Inner Sakura" as well. The character represented all of Sakura's repressed emotions she constantly tried to cover up. "Inner Sakura" disappeared halfway through Part I as she started to be more straightforward about her feelings, and only appeared once in Shippuden as a gag.
- She had something of an ego at the beginning, but as the series continued, she instead gained Heroic Self-Deprecation.
- In the fight against Madara, she acknowledges that even if she Can't Catch Up to her teammates, she can still do her part and charges him to provide a distraction for Naruto and Sasuke to do their thing rather than just sit there and do nothing.
- Inverted because the development isn't always for the best. Sakura always has the bad habit of thinking she knows better than the people around her, to the point that she disregards their input completely, which often leads to disastrous results:
  - The development to not stay on the sidelines brings this quality more forward as she would later drug her entire team because she wanted to face Sasuke alone, and she knew they would try to stop her from going on what's essentially a suicide mission, instead of working together as a team. To put in perspective with the above, yes she does try to provide a distraction, but she plans this out only a few feet away from Naruto and Sasuke and makes no attempt at all to let them in on the plan or to ask what they think. They're just as surprised as Madara was by the distraction, and when she's immediately defeated, they both have to jump in to save her. So she was as every bit as distracting to her own team as she was to her target. Her failed attempt to distract Madara proves to be more of a Leeroy Jenkins moment than a Heroic Sacrifice.
  - Likewise, while she isn't repressing "Inner Sakura" anymore, "Inner Sakura" was her angry, violent, and jealous emotions personified. Instead of repressing and controlling those emotions, she expresses them by shouting at and punching people, along with being incredibly condescending and more sensitive to guilt and shame. In all cases, Naruto is often the unfortunate target.
Character Exaggeration: In the anime, Sakura's Tsundere characteristics gets exaggerated for the sake of humor, much to the disdain of the majority of her fans, since her Tsundere traits in the manga died down during the Time Skip.
Character Tics: Shoving her hair in her face when feeling a strong emotion.
Cherry Blossom Girl: Named Sakura, check. Pink hair, check. Healing powers, check. Associated with love, check. Traditional Japan, check - ikebana and being, well, a ninja. Born in early spring (March 28th), check. Spring-themed, see Meaningful Name below.
Childhood Friend Romance: She marries and has a daughter with Sasuke, her childhood crush and the only man she ever loved.
The Clan: She's not from any clan whatsoever. Instead, she come from an ordinary and mostly unknown family who never made an appearance in the manga and have only appeared in the anime Filler. Later on, though, she marries into the Uchiha clan.
Clothing Damage: Becomes an unusually frequent victim of it during the battle with Kaguya. First, her headband falls off and plops into a pit of lava, melting away. Then, Obito opens up the wrong dimension and a wave of deadly acid douses her flak jacket, forcing her to ditch it before the whole thing- thick metal plates inside included- gets completely eaten away. Sakura also shreds off a sleeve of her combat uniform that was exposed to the acid as well.
Color Motifs: Sakura is represented by two colors: Pink (given her hair color and her first name "sakura" meaning "cherry blossom" are pink flowers) and red (the color of her outfits throughout the series).
Combat Medic:
- With her chakra control, she can heal injuries (either hers or others') and extract poison... and pulverize the earth with Super-Strength.
- Healing Hands with gloves to protect them in battle. During the war arc it's revealed that she has mastered Tsunade's Strength of a Hundred technique, giving her a Healing Factor like Tsunade and (reputedly) Hashirama.
Combat Pragmatist:
- Her entire fighting style is this. Her punches may not be the most flashy, but one hit and you're mist. And even then she adds poison to her weapons and is willing to play dead to catch opponents off guard.
- This was best shown in the Five Kage Summit arc. She knew that she, Lee, Kiba and Sai didn't have the power to kill Sasuke head on, so she instead tried to pretend she was going to join Sasuke's side and kill him when his guard was down. And after failing once, she still tried and nearly killed him but failed again because she still loves him.
Commonality Connection: Her and Naruto's shared bond with Sasuke is one of the main reasons she and Naruto develop a strong friendship over the course of the series.
Control Freak: At times, especially when it comes to her emotional spot: her teammates, Naruto and Sasuke. One of the best examples can be during the Five Kage Summit arc, where thanks to Sai, she was driven by overwhelming guilt and shame to the point where she resolved to take care of the situation herself.
Cool Big Sis: The Last has Sakura acting as a surrogate one to both Naruto and Hinata, especially in helping Hinata reach her affections to Naruto, and then helping Naruto recognize the depth of Hinata's love for him to snap him out of his Heroic BSoD.
Covert Pervert:
- It goes back as early as the Chunin Exams. In Chapter 46, she loudly tells Naruto to go behind a tree if he has to use the bathroom in the Forest of Death, but "Inner Sakura" indicates that she might want to see Sasuke, the boy she likes, pee. And she's a closet Yaoi Fangirl.
- Also, it's been shown more than once that the Sexy Jutsu works perfectly fine on her. Even during the heat of battle with a goddess:
  Sakura: Idiooooot!!! How can you use such a jutsu in this situation!? OK for me, but how can you think that'd work on a god like that?!
Coy, Girlish Flirt Pose: On Sasuke.
CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: She performs CPR on Naruto in order to keep him alive after Yang-Kurama is extracted. This was explicitly noted to be a stop-gap measure until they could seal the other half of Kurama into him. Sakura even uses a different medical technique, internal cardiac massage — i.e., cutting the patient open and massaging the heart by hand, which was actually one way to do CPR in real life before it was invented.
Crater Power: One of her taijutsu techniques, called Cherry Blossom Impact, involves punching the ground hard enough to send chunks of earth sailing through the air like flower petals. Her Strength of a Hundred Seal amps that up.
Cute Bruiser: She learns earth-shattering Super-Strength from Tsunade by the time Part II starts. While she's primarily The Medic, she makes use of her chakra control skills by building up chakra in her fists and releasing it all at once. She first demonstrates this ability by smashing the ground open in Chapter 246.
A Day in the Limelight: Sakura Hiden: Thoughts of Love, Riding Upon a Spring Breeze, a light novel that focuses on Sakura, after the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Defrosting Ice Queen: Sakura is initially dismissive and hostile towards Naruto, mostly because of the parents in the Leaf Village, including her own parents, telling her to stay away from him. After getting called out by Sasuke for this in Chapter 3 and during their ordeals in the Chunin exams, she becomes nicer towards him.
Deliberately Distressed Damsel: In Naruto Gaiden, she doesn't fight back after she's kidnapped by Shin Uchiha Sr. Instead, she watches him perform transplant surgery on himself, all the while discussing with him his motives. Turns out, information was all she wanted: as soon as she got everything, she prepares to punch her way out of this.
Demoted to Extra: She has a minor role in Boruto: Naruto the Movie and both the manga and anime of Boruto.
Determinator: Case in point, the spoiler listed under CPR. Your teammate's heart has stopped? Cut open his chest with chakra and keep it pumping yourself.
Sakura: Always acting like a fool who only knows one thing... Hokage, Hokage. I'm sorry Naruto... that impossible dream of yours... I don't want to see it crushed!
Devoted to You: To Sasuke. When she confesses her love to him in Chapter 181, she outright admits that she'll abandon Team 7, her family, her friends, and the village, and even tells him that she'll help him take his revenge, as long as he stays with her. She still loves him even after he tried to kill her twice when they're enemies, and she remains loyal to him even after he leaves her behind in Konoha to Walk the Earth following his definitive Heel–Face Turn.
Didn't Think This Through: Sakura's attempts to protect Naruto and Sasuke her way and by herself during the Five Kage Summit Arc, no matter the cost, out of immense desperation and guilt, comes off as this. Because it ultimately leads to nearly disastrous consequences, namely getting herself, Kakashi, and Naruto killed by a bloodthirsty Sasuke.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She punches out Kaguya when Kaguya tries to avoid Naruto and Sasuke's attempt to seal her, hitting Kaguya so hard that one of her horns snaps off. Downplayed because the only reason she was able to punch Kaguya at all is because Kaguya was distracted; previously, Kaguya ignored her upfront.
Disproportionate Retribution: Any time Naruto annoys her she clobbers him with her Super-Strength. This aspect of her character gets toned down in Part II of the series, (not so much in the anime fillers) but it does still pop up from time to time. Then again, we never see her dealing Naruto any life-threatening injuries (unlike what Tsunade did to Jiraiya), so it seems to be Played for Laughs or Comedic Sociopathy, unless you count how she indirectly got him cut by her own poisoned kunai.
Distress Ball: She picks it up when it comes to dealing with Sasuke.
Ditzy Genius: From time to time, mostly in Part I. Case in point: during Kakashi's bell test, she comes across Sasuke after one of Kakashi's techniques left him buried up to his neck in the ground. She promptly panics, assumes Sasuke has been reduced to a talking head, and passes out.
Sasuke: "And that's my partner?"
Dogged Nice Girl: Towards Sasuke in Part I, prior to her Character Development.
Dope Slap: As a common Tsundere, she's quite fond of giving Naruto, Sai or even Konohamaru a good thwack over the head whenever they does or says something annoying or idiotic, even by accident... which is quite often. Again this mostly happens in fillers.
Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Her Megaton Punching Naruto and being incredibly condescending towards him, especially in Filler where she knocks him around for no clearly defined reason for comedic purposes, would not be acceptable if the genders were reversed.
Double Think: During her fake confession to Naruto, when she talks negatively about Sasuke and the promise between herself and Naruto, her tone implies that she is trying to force herself to believe what she is saying when, in reality, she is still very much in love with Sasuke, which Naruto notices.
Dude Magnet: Gets four men to develop feelings for her over the course of the manga. Plus she's the only girl Sasuke has ever shown any romantic interest in and he eventually marries her.

E-M

Earn Your Happy Ending: She only loves Sasuke, and she finally gets the man of her dreams. They eventually marry sometime after the end of the manga.
Easily Forgiven:
- Subverted in Shippuden, as it's not until Sasuke apologizes near the end of the series that she actually accepts what he has to say, even being willing but not really to try and kill Sasuke when it seems saving him is no longer an option.
- Played straight in Gaiden. She holds nothing against Sasuke being an absent parent and husband for ten years of her life, even covering for him at the cost of damaging her relationship with Sarada, her daughter. That said, it's implied the arrangement was something Sakura and Sasuke mutually agreed on.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Grows out her hair while trying to woo Sasuke, until her Important Haircut.
Extreme Doormat: Towards Sasuke in Part I. Not all the time, but it gets more pronounced as his behavior gets worse, and because she was a 12-13 year old deeply in love at the time, probably had no idea what to do about it.
Facial Markings: During the battle against the Ten-Tails, having stored up chakra for over three years, Sakura obtained a rhombus mark on her forehead similar Tsunade's, known as the Strength of a Hundred Seal, which since being released has permanently remained in the center of her forehead.
Fatal Flaw: Sakura's character development in the intense world of ninjas highlights the struggles of being one of the most humanized characters. Despite her growth, she still faces challenges.
- Sometimes, she believes that she is the only one who knows what is right and wrong, which can cause her to ignore others. She can be difficult to deal with when this is combined with her stubbornness, temper, passive-aggressive behavior, and selective hearing.
- She feels guilty because she is very in touch with her emotions, but sometimes struggles to control them, leading her to make impulsive decisions. She is particularly sensitive and emotional when it comes to Naruto and Sasuke. This can also cause her to withhold information, so Kakashi may not always share everything.
Faux Action Girl: Out of all the kunoichi in the series, Sakura suffers from this the most, largely because she's constantly compared to Naruto and Sasuke, whose random power-ups become downright gratuitous towards the end, whereas she is mostly relegated by Kishimoto himself to cheering for them from the sidelines, crying and relying on them, and distracting the enemy solely to give them a chance to do all the fighting. It doesn't help that she never informs her team of any of her plans and she ignores anyone who tells her not to do something, which constantly forces them to save her.

The Finicky One: During her teenage years, Sakura is known to be rather rigid, and her sense of humor is practically non-existent. She could be quite temperamental at times, especially regarding her complicated relationship with Naruto. However, as she grew older, she became more relaxed and began to let her guard down.
Fire-Forged Friends: With Naruto; at first she thought Naruto was annoying, but started to admire him after she saw his determination.
First Girl Wins: She is Sasuke's first female teammate, and he marries her in the end.
Flower Motif: Sakuras (cherry blossoms), of course.
Forehead of Doom: She was bullied as a little girl because of it. Try mocking it now, and expect to grow accustomed to the imprint of her fist on your noggin.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric: Extroverted, analytical, assertive, generous and lively.
For Your Own Good: Sakura seems to firmly believe this (along with Tough Love) when concerning others, especially Naruto. She tends to believe that only she knows right from wrong to the point of patronizingly blocking others out. When it combines with her Guilt Complex, it has led to disastrous results.
Friend to All Children: Sakura has shown a soft spot for children. Sakura Hiden has her setting up a clinic for children after the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Generation Xerox: Not quite to the same extent as Naruto or Sasuke, so it's Downplayed. Yet she does have a couple of examples.
- She is very similar to Kushina personality-wise, as stated by Kushina's husband Minato. Both have Hair Trigger Tempers, both are a bit too willing to punch people, both having a Verbal Tic when they're excited (Kushina's "Dattebane" and Sakura's "Shannaro"), and both have done similar poses to each other. Both Kushina and Sakura were bullied as children and hated a feature of theirs; Sakura, her forehead and Kushina, her hair. They had similar relationships to Naruto and Minato respectively, both Sakura and Kushina and didn't respect their male classmate at first due to their first impressions, until Naruto and Minato proved them wrong. However, Sakura is quite intelligent and was a Shrinking Violet as a child, while Kushina was always a bit dull and pretty violent (considering she was where Naruto got his personality and intelligence from). Sakura never suffered from the same ordeals as Kushina had to. Sakura never shared the same dreams as Kushina. Sakura was a Sasuke-fangirl in the beginning prior to her Character Development, while Kushina never once was. Sakura is a deconstruction of All Girls Want Bad Boys with Sasuke, while Kushina was a Single Woman Seeks Good Man with Minato. According to the anime, Sakura is a Lethal Chef, while Kushina was a supreme one. Sakura doesn't end up with Naruto because she always loved Sasuke and she and Naruto were more like siblings than anything else. Instead, she helps Naruto in his relationship with Hinata, just like any supportive mother would.
- She also has this with her mentor, Tsunade for some of the same reasons as Kushina, namely temper, somewhat protective tendencies, talent for healing, and brains.
- Sakura Haruno also shares a lot of similarity with Rin Nohara, Mikoto Uchiha, Mebuki Haruno and other characters. It can be said that Sakura Haruno is a normal girl in the story.
Girly Bruiser: A socially conscious fangirl who is loud and abrasive. It starts out as her "Inner Sakura" side in Part I.
Good Is Not Nice: She is a good person and does have good intentions, but at times she can be a really nasty grump, especially towards Naruto.
Good Parents: She is this to Sarada. It's because of all the good she did in raising Sarada that Sarada gains the incentive to save her.
Hair-Trigger Temper: There are times, particularly in the anime, when it is incredibly difficult to determine what triggers her explosive and dangerous rage, which is unfortunately often directed at Naruto.
Happily Married: With Sasuke.
The Heart: During Part I she was this for Naruto and Sasuke, a somewhat level-head balancing two extreme personalities, trying to keep them from fighting. In Part II she does this in a lesser capacity for Naruto and Sai, but it's not nearly as significant, and is mostly dropped after a while.
Heartbroken Badass: After Sasuke leaves the village for his revenge.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: She feels horribly guilty for not being strong enough, or not doing enough for her teammates Naruto and Sasuke. She's the only one who thinks that though, In-Universe at least. It becomes something of a Fatal Flaw as the story goes on as it has led to some life-endangering mistakes for Sakura and her comrades.
Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: Despite being one of four people directly responsible for saving the world, Sakura hadn't finished paying off the loan on her house by the time Naruto Gaiden starts.
Hope Spot: Chapter 631 seemed to be this for Sakura. Sasuke is back on their side again, and the original Team 7 is back. But it quickly turns out that Sasuke isn't fully on their side and she knows it.
Horrible Judge of Character:
- Zigzagged. At first, Sasuke could do no wrong in her eyes. She gradually loses the rose-colored glasses and sees the real him, although that doesn't stop her from gushing over him. Even after he left the Leaf, she still tries to believe he'll change, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
- She can also be this with Naruto. Even after she became nicer to him, she always maintained the bad habit of being incredibly condescending towards a lot of people, especially Naruto. This has led to her lying to him about important issues, particularly when it came to Sasuke. This also led to her infamous fake love confession, which, despite her good intentions, was dripping with condescension.
- Strangely, this goes for herself too. When it comes to her feelings, especially when something or someone she cares about is involved in some situation, she becomes a little too focused on how she should act to resolve it, but underestimated how limited she is physically or how she is often easily ruled by her emotions, to the point it can cause her to hesitant or rash at critical moments, putting herself in grave danger.
Hot-Blooded: "Inner Sakura" certainly was. Sakura of Shippuden seems to be as well, at least in reaction to Naruto.
Hypocrite: Despite her considerable efforts and intentions, Sakura's words and actions don't always match up with each other, which is played both for humor and drama:
- When Team 7 first came together, Sakura echoed the view of the other villagers that Naruto was useless and dead weight. However, as Sasuke pointed out, Sakura herself was the one holding the team back. Upon realizing this, she became kinder towards Naruto and made an effort to become stronger by training under Tsunade. In the end, though, she was still unable to match Naruto and Sasuke in terms of power.
- Sakura often berates Naruto for his pervertedness, though as revealed by Konohamaru, she is a Covert Pervert who thinks Guy on Guy Is Hot.
- Sakura frequently scolds Naruto for not being able to control his emotions, but as shown by her actions during the Five Kage Summit arc she herself is prone to letting her emotions cloud her thoughts—especially when it comes to Sasuke and Naruto—and was almost killed as a result.
Hypocritical Heartwarming: She's not afraid to make snide remarks about Naruto, particularity about her opinion of him as a idiot, but when others do it, even Sasuke (on a more Downplayed level), she gets vicious and nasty in her outbursts towards them. Same can be said for Sasuke.
Important Haircut: She cuts her long hair off as a symbol of her new resolve. Conveniently, it's also to free herself from three Sound Genin, who wanted to kill the incapacitated Sasuke and Naruto.
Informed Ability: Downplayed to 'potential ability'. Kakashi referred to her as a 'genjutsu type' ninja, which doesn't necessarily mean she's an expert at genjutsu. It likely refers to her advanced ability with chakra control, seeing as how something like genjutsu, which manipulates the chakra of the opponent, would require precise control. She could become an expert, but instead went the medic route.
- Played Straight in The Last: it appears that this observation about Sakura was actually meant to convey that she's good at dispelling genjutsu as opposed to casting it.
- Much attention is drawn early in part 2 to how she was trained to excel at dodging attacks, since a medical ninja's priority in a fight has to be avoiding getting injured themselves and thus being rendered unable to heal teammates, and she displays this well against Sasori. However, over the course of the rest of the series she routinely takes hits without even an effort to dodge, or in many cases has to be pulled out of the way/saved by other people from attacks she is depicted as being helpless to avoid. The anime mitigates this by giving her more scenes where she does dodge things.
- The character often uses genjutsu in games.
Informed Flaw: When she faints after destroying her (and Sarada's) own house. Shizune then says that Sakura "used to faint often when she was younger", while we have only seen her faint twice in all the manga, both during the test to become Kakashi's trainee.
Innocently Insensitive: In Chapter 3, she remarks to Sasuke that she believes Naruto is such a Bratty Half-Pint because he had no parents to teach him how to behave. Needless to say, Sasuke, who had his entire family slaughtered, does not take it well and promptly calls her out on her comments.
Insult Friendly Fire: She insults Naruto for being an orphan, claiming that his bratty nature is because he has no parents to discipline him. She says this right in front of Sasuke, who's parents were slaughtered by his older brother, who promptly snaps and chews her out for it.
Insufferable Genius: Her intelligence, especially in academics, is a great source of pride for her, which can make her emotionally off-putting at times, especially with Naruto, though still came to care about him.
Irony: She was bullied because of her large forehead. Yet, after befriending Ino and developing feelings for Sasuke, she became a bully herself (albeit unintentionally), especially towards Naruto, who had far worse issues than her.
- She grew her hair long because she heard Sasuke liked girls with long hair, and Kin even calls her out on how she paid more attention to her looks than working on her skills as a kunoichi. Turns out that if Sakura had dedicated more time to becoming stronger, Sasuke would have far preferred that to the Girly Girl she was trying to be for him.
I Will Wait for You: Her relationship with Sasuke in a nutshell. It even expands to their marriage.
Jerkass Realization: In Chapter 3, she confides in Sasuke that she believes that Naruto became such an undisciplined prankster because he had no parents to teach him how to behave, at which point Sasuke, who knows from personal experience that not having parents sucks, promptly berates her and tells her that she has no idea what she's talking about, coldly telling her she's annoying and walking away. Having treated Naruto much the same earlier, Sakura is taken aback and resolves to try and treat him better (with varying degrees of success thanks to her temper and Naruto's tendency to get on her nerves).
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Early on, she looks down on Naruto, and lets her temper get the best of her when it comes to him. In Part II, she ends up admitting to actually look up to him. She still dishes out the punishment when Naruto acts like an idiot and/or a pervert, even accidentally, along with anything else that can set her off.
Kiai: Sakura likes to hand out her Megaton Punches while screaming "SHANNARO!"
Kill the Ones You Love: Attempts this to spare Sasuke from falling even lower then he already has, but her unwavering love for him kept her from landing the fatal blow and almost got herself killed as a result twice.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Deconstructed. While Sakura is shown to be wicked booksmart, a top student, and clever during the chunin exams, it is soon revealed that all of these traits are not immediately viable if she is just memorizing texts and not applying them. This is exemplified by her paralyzing fear during the introduction and Land of Waves arc, that even as a shinobi, she still has human responses to fear. So while she knows a lot, its the naivete and lack of experience that makes her a 'know nothing' in comparison to the likes of her teammates. It isn't until her haircut in the Chunin exams, when Sakura Took a Level in Badass in order to fight off the Sound ninja does she begin to grow away from her studious, perfect student mindset and move, even when afraid. Sakura eventually becomes Tsunade's apprentice, defeats an Akatsuki member, take down one of Pein's summonings by herself, and during the last stage of the Fourth Shinobi World War Arc keeps up with KCM Naruto and a Complete Susano'o EMS Sasuke, and is even able to overcome her fear of the Goddess when knocking off one of Kaguya's horn's, temporarily stunning her so that Naruto and Sasuke can seal her away.
- Her high grades and the praise she receives from Kakashi and other jounin alike in part I makes her condescending at times as she explains things to Naruto in a clearly aggitated manner.
Leeroy Jenkins: For someone as intelligent as she is, Sakura is prone to be just as stubbornly impulsive as Naruto, making rash choices with nearly disastrous results. This is suicidal and boneheaded on her part, considering she doesn't have Naruto's incredible powers, endurance, or even the ability to work around the trait's drawback. It's worse when Naruto and Sasuke are part of the situation.
A Lesson Learned Too Well: Before the Chunin Exams in Part 1, she had a bit of an ego, thanks to her being a wicked bright top student. While the events of the Chunin Exams have taught her not to have a swelled head, the series onward shows that she somehow got the idea that having stable self-confidence at all is a bad thing. She develops a severe case of Heroic Self-Deprecation that would bleed into many of her actions for much of the series, especially regarding Naruto and Sasuke, with nasty results. It wasn't until adulthood, after many trials, that she found that having stable self-confidence wasn't bad.
Lightning Bruiser: Fully becomes one after completing her Yin Seal. She uses her Super-Strength to punch a target, despite it moving at a fast speed, easily keeps pace with it...then smashes it with a tremendous impact.
Like Brother and Sister: Officially becomes this with Naruto in The Last and Sakura Hiden, especially when she gives him advice on his love for Hinata. In retrospect, this can actually be seen throughout the series, where like Tsunade was with Nawaki, their friendship felt more akin to the relationship between an older, well-meaning, though at times overbearing sister and a equally meaning, tall, happy, yet somewhat annoying younger brother.
The Load: For Part I, she admits that she only really stood on the sidelines, and also wound up being a Damsel in Distress on at least two occasions. Averted at the beginning of Part II, despite the what the majority of the fandom likes to think, as she pulled her weight and Took a Level in Badass by studying medical jutsu and attaining super-strength. She ends up feeling like this again by the Fourth Ninja World War, having been overshadowed by Naruto's Six Paths Sage Mode and Sasuke's Complete Body — Susanoo even after she attains the Strength of a Hundred Seal, though she nevertheless gets the final blow in on Kaguya Ōtsutsuki — stunning her long enough for Naruto and Sasuke to seal her.
Love at First Sight: In Chapter 484, her flashback◊ reveals that she fell in love with Sasuke upon seeing him for the first time in the Academy.
Love Hurts: Sasuke defecting to learn under Orochimaru really hurt her. It didn't get easier after the Time Skip.
Love Informant: She takes this role in The Last, as Naruto and Hinata's Cool Big Sis and Shipper on Deck, where she gives Naruto an important pep-talk regarding Hinata, by telling him that Hinata has only ever loved him, just like how she herself has only ever loved Sasuke. It works.
Love Martyr: Despite admitting that she should know better, Sakura loves Sasuke, no matter what he does. She still loves him even after he has tried to kill her. Even after Kaguya is defeated and he makes it clear that he's going to kill Naruto, she begs him not to "if he ever loved her." This is met with a genjutsu of him shanking her in the heart with a chidori. Subverted as Sasuke deeply apologizes to her, acknowledges her feelings and tells her to wait for him while he goes to Walk the Earth in order to see it with new eyes.
Loving a Shadow: Sakura starts out like any other Sasuke-admirer, but later falls in love with him for real after they become teammates and she learns more about him. She remains in love with him even after he tries to kill her, because she believes that Naruto can bring him back. When he rejoins the good guys, he continues to treat her like trash, but Sakura still can't stop seeking his approval. When he goes off the deep end again and attacks her, Sakura still can't let go of her feelings for him, to the point that Sasuke himself says that Sakura has no reason to love him. Even over a decade later, after marrying him and having a daughter with him, she's unable to answer incredibly basic questions about him. According to Kishimoto, he deliberately avoided the reasons for why she fell in love with Sasuke because he found all the ideas too contrived.
Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Sakura develops a habit of not being completely honest about certain subjects with others if she believes that it will do more harm than good, especially when they involve Naruto and Sasuke, with dire consequences at times. One of the most renowned examples is her infamous fake love confession during the Five Kage Summit arc where, despite her good intentions, it nearly leads to disaster for all of Team 7.
Male Gaze: Part II seems to like giving attention to her rear. Here's◊ the◊ proof◊. One of the filler endings shows her from behind, wearing a bikini while walking.
Mama Bear: As Shin Uchiha Sr can attest, you don't mess with her husband and daughter if you want to keep your body in one piece.
Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Inverted. Very serious questions are raised by her daughter Sarada as to whether Sakura really is her mother, owing to Sakura's complete inability to answer even the most basic of questions about Sasuke and Sarada's noted resemblance to Karin. Chapter 7 of Naruto Gaiden seemingly confirms that Sakura lied about being Sarada's mother, but the final chapter reveals that Sakura really is her mother.
Meaningful Name: Haruno means "of the spring," and Sakura is Japan's famous cherry blossom tree which sprouts its distinctive pink flowers in the spring and which are the same color as her hair.
Mars and Venus Gender Contrast: According to Kishimoto, Sakura was designed as a character who struggles to comprehend men and their motivations, similar to how Naruto struggles with understanding women and romantic affection. When Naruto's unrequited love for her was explained to her by Sai, she finally began to take it seriously, although they both went about resolving the issue in an incorrect manner with improper mindsets.
Meaningful Rename: Later she goes on to take the Uchiha surname upon marrying Sasuke.
Megaton Punch: Her favorite method as a Tsundere, when it comes to anything or anyone that gets on her nerves, mainly and unfortunately for Naruto.
The Medic: Due to her training by Tsunade, she is one of the best at the age of 15.
Morality Pet: To Sasuke. This was constantly Zig-Zagged throughout the series, because his desire for revenge and powers was more important than her feelings. However, it was finally played straight at the end; it was first shown by his genuine apology to her for his selfishness. Later, in Sakura Hiden, Konoha manages to contact Sasuke and request his assistance to help against an enemy who wants to attack Konoha, but he turns them down, as he believes it does not concern him. However, once he finds out that the enemies have captured Sakura, he immediately rushes home.
Ms. Exposition: In the first arc she explained things essential to the verse like how chakra works.
Mum Looks Like a Sister: In Boruto: Naruto the Movie, her character design makes her look young enough to pass as her daughter's older sister, particularly as she lacks the curves that her adult self possesses.
Muscles Are Meaningless: As a result of chakra providing the force behind her blows.
My Greatest Failure: How she felt towards being unable to stop Sasuke from turning his back on the village, especially after Shikamaru refused to let her come along on the mission to retrieve him. Also how she felt when healing Naruto, after his match with Orochimaru.

N-Y

Narcissist: In Part I, she initially prefers to maintain her looks while swooning over Sasuke and belittling Naruto instead of practicing her ninja skills. Sasuke calls her out for it. After her Important Haircut, she gradually outgrows this.
Navel Window: In adulthood, she seems fond of wearing qipao-style top that splits just high enough above her pants to leave her navel visible in similar fashion to Karin.
Nervous Wreck: Sakura has a resolute mindset, and her unwavering determination is a quality that can be highly appreciated in most situations. However, during her teenage years, she struggles with neurotic tendencies that often manifest themselves when dealing with her close teammates, Naruto and Sasuke. Her rigid personality, combined with a lack of humor and a tendency to worry excessively, can sometimes be a recipe for disaster. Her finicky nature makes her difficult to deal with, adding to her already complex disposition.
Neutral Female: Sakura is infamous for spending most of the time in battle just standing with a kunai in a defensive position while her teammates do all the actual fighting (it made sense in the Bridge Builder arc because she was left as the only one actually guarding the person they were supposed to be guarding). If they had indicated that she's supposed to be a non-combatant, this would have been more acceptable, but the fact that she's supposed to be a highly trained ninja makes this all the more insulting. It isn't until the first arc after the Time Skip that she becomes more involved in battle.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Despite her good intentions in the Five Kage Summit arc, due to letting her emotions getting the better of her and underestimating Sasuke and the affair concerning him, the only things Sakura managed to do is nearly get herself, Kakashi and Naruto killed—with Naruto from both facing Sasuke and being cut by her own poisoned kunai that Sasuke tried to used on her when the former saved her.
- In Chapter 674, Obito pleads for Sakura to destroy his Rinnegan eye so that Madara wouldn't be able to take it. She completely hesitates out of fear, resulting in Madara taking back his other eye from Obito and bringing about the beginning of the Infinite Tsukuyomi. The fact that she doesn't reveal her mistakes to Kakashi when he asks her what happened in the following chapter doesn't help her case.
Not Good with Rejection: Sasuke rejecting her Anguished Declaration of Love in Part I really depresses her, sends her to tears, and eventually causes her to make rash decisions, most notably in the Five Kage Summit arc.
Not Helping Your Case: On the first chapter of Naruto Gaiden, to an almost tragicomic level. When her daughter asks if Sasuke ever needed glasses, she don't know. She then tries to hide Sasuke's betrayal of the village by saying that "he was away a lot when he was younger." As Sarada's doubt increases and she even asks if Sakura is really Sasuke's wife, Sakura breaks in a fit of rage. A fit of rage so big that breaks the ground and destroys her own house. Naturally, a lot of things inside the house fall off and break. One of them is a portrait of Sasuke and Sakura. The problem is that it's a montage, and Sarada discovers that there was a photo of Taka (except Jugo) hidden behind the frame. The chapter ends with Sarada looking at the figure of Karin, probably beginning to doubt even if Sakura is her real mother.
No Sense of Humor: Although she enjoys taking jabs at Naruto's intelligence, as a teen, humor is more likely to set off her temper than it is to grant her enjoyment or relaxation. Her Nervous Wreck mentality plays a part in her Fatal Flaws during her teenage years, leading and/or adding to escalating situations, particularly when Naruto and/or Sasuke are involved. By adulthood, however, she learns to mellow out.
The Not-Love Interest: For Naruto, especially in Filler episodes and most notoriously the Filler movie Road To Ninja.
Oblivious to Love: In a weird way. Kishimoto has stated that he fashioned Sakura as a girl who cannot understand men, much like how Naruto says he does not understand women and romantic love. She had to have Sai telling her how Naruto suffered from his one-sided crush on her to take it seriously.
Official Couple: With Sasuke.
Oh, Crap!: She has a silent one when she notices Kaguya suddenly standing a few feet away from her.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Part I, Sakura would almost always agree with what Sasuke had to say. However, when Sasuke was about to give the scrolls to a disguised Orochimaru during the Chunin Exams, both she and Naruto are shocked. This also led her to giving him the first "The Reason You Suck" Speech since they've been a team.
Opposites Attract: Sakura is the loud, brash healer from an ordinary family who starts the series quite weak, and she loves the calm, broody Uchiha prodigy Sasuke, who finally reciprocates her feelings at the end of the manga.
Overshadowed by Awesome: Downplayed. By the end of the series, Sakura is one of the most powerful kunoichis (or even ninja in general) alive, potentially even more powerful than her teacher Tsunade, but she is still far below Naruto and Sasuke who managed to reach near god-like levels unattainable for her. And since she is often around them she tends to end up faced with opponents she has little chance against. When faced with powerful but still "mundane" enemies she fares much better.
Parents as People: Sakura, by all accounts, is a loving parent and supportive mother. But her inability to openly communicate with her child (and in fairness, Sarada did keep the worst of her doubts to herself) about Sasuke, as well as presenting her with what she thought Sarada would want to see rather than admitting the truth, she inadvertantly causes Sarada to feel alienated and uncertain about herself, something that only increases when she finds a manipulated photo of her and Sasuke together.
Petal Power: In the first movie, she used a technique called Sakura Blizzard that involved a large number of tiny explosive tags and cherry blossoms mixed in for good measure.
Pink Girl, Blue Boy: The Pink Girl (pink-haired, dresses in pink and red) to Sasuke's Blue Boy (blue-black hair, dresses in shades of deep blue).
Please, Don't Leave Me: She cries out "DON'T LEAVE ME!!" to Sasuke when he leaves to join Orochimaru.
Plucky Girl: See her fights vs Ino (where she deliberately angers Ino to avoid getting sympathy and broke Ino's Mind Switch Jutsu, albeit with a little help from Naruto's cheering) and Sasori (where she got serious injuries and kept fighting anyway).
Poisoned Weapons:
- Thanks to Shizune's tutelage she has acquired some poisonous weapons and Knockout Gas as well.
- She's also Carrying the Antidote. She is a medic, after all.
Poor Communication Kills: She has this in spades with the rest of Team 7, and it's often in conjunction with Locked Out of the Loop:
- During the second bell test in the Kazekage Rescue arc, Sakura shatters the ground with her Cherry Blossom Impact, something that makes both Naruto and Kakashi look like they're about to wet their pants. While this is Played for Laughs, Kakashi clearly had no idea she knew this technique. Considering that both she and Kakashi had been in Konoha for the past three years, this means that Kakashi rarely checked in on her progress, even though she was the only one of his students who was still in the village during the Time Skip.
- During her infamous fake love confession in the Five Kage Summit arc, she withheld from Naruto that the rest of the Konoha 11 had decided to kill Sasuke themselves, and that she herself was taking it on. Then when Kiba tells Sakura to tell Naruto the truth, she stomps on his foot and leaves. In turn, Naruto, Kakashi, and Yamato completely failed to tell her about their meeting with Tobi and the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre, something that might have changed how she approached Sasuke. Though Naruto was about to explain only to stop at Kakashi and Yamato's partly justified insistence in order to avoid further chaos until they knew more.
- During their fight against Madara in the Ten-Tails Retrieval arc, Sakura charges in to make a distraction, in order to give Naruto and Sasuke an opening. This fails in two ways: first, by not talking about it to her teammates before rushing in, Sakura distracted her own team more than Madara. Second, despite the minutes they had before Madara's return, Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi all neglected to tell Sakura about Madara's shadows, something that might have changed her approach had she known. This is increased later when Sasuke outright says that both she and Kakashi are now useless and that the whole fight is in his and Naruto's hands, which is further cemented when Naruto agrees with him two chapters later, so there's no point in informing her on what's next.
- Notably, this is not something she's managed to outgrow by the time of Gaiden, as Sakura's decision to tell Sarada only the bare minimum about her father has left her child with growing uncertainty about her parentage, which only grows once Sakura presented a manipulated photo of herself over the photo of Sasuke with Team Taka. Thanks to Sarada's own example of this trope, this only ends up shaking Sarada's sense of identity so bad she wonders if Karin is her real mother and even has a DNA test to be absolutely sure about who her parents are and severely shaking the bond mother and daughter had.
Power Tattoo: The Strength of a Hundred Seal, a diamond-shaped mark in her forehead that, when activated, spreads markings across her body and greatly amplifies her strength.
Prone to Tears: When it comes to Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura sheds tears almost as easily as she breathes. As the series continues up to the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War and things grow more dire for her original teammates for multiple reasons, Sakura becomes more of a sobbing wreck.
Red Is Heroic: One of her Color Motifs is red, her main outfits consists mainly of red, and she's a heroic Combat Medic.
Red Is Violent: Red is her signature color, and she can be very rough, especially toward Naruto.
Relative Button: Something she has in common with Naruto: do not badmouth Sasuke in front of her. If you do, she'll first appear calm and collective, before punching you in the face. Just ask Sai.
Releasing from the Promise: Subverted when out of guilt and shame of having hurt Naruto's feelings in the past and fearing that he will die, makes a false love confession to him in a desperate attempt to release him of his "Promise of a Lifetime" to her: bringing back the guy she loves, Sasuke, to her. Naruto sees right through her fake confession, calls her out for lying, tells her that he hates people who lie to themselves, and says that even if she releases him from his promise, he has his own reasons for wanting Sasuke to come back.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Hinata's Blue. Whereas Hinata is a Shy Blue Haired Nice Girl who can barely talk to Naruto until Part II, Sakura is a Hot-Blooded rose-haired Tsundere who is ready to inflict unnecessary damage on Naruto. By Part II, even their fighting styles became total opposites to each other's: they both use chakra, but Sakura is using it to increase the strength of her punches to monstrous levels, making her a Cute Bruiser, whereas Hinata is using the Pressure Point-based Gentle Fist-style of the Hyuga clan, making her a Lady of War. Furthermore, as a result of their respective personalities and body figures, Sakura has A-Cup Angst whereas Hinata is hiding her buxom figure in baggy clothes. Also, according to the anime, Sakura is a Lethal Chef whereas Hinata is a supreme one.
Romantic False Lead: As Kishimoto has stated in several post-series interviews, she was always going to be this to Naruto, even as far back as the early stages of the manga. Not that it matters, since she always loved Sasuke and only ever saw Naruto as a teammate and younger brother.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Loud, cheerful Energetic Girl to cold, silent Sasuke's Savvy Guy.
Seen It All:
- After going through all the god level craziness of Obito, Madara and Kaguya during the Fourth Shinobi World War, she is not even fazed by seeing the Sage of the Six Paths in person.
- In the New Era, she isn't surprised by Shin getting betrayed by his clones and having his philosophy turned against him, given what happened to previous villains like Obito and Madara.
Shipper on Deck:
- It's Implied that she supports Naruto/Hinata in Chapter 80, when she happily agrees with Lee that Naruto and Hinata are very similar to each other. By The Last, she becomes the full-fledged captain of the pairing, as shown by her encouraging Hinata to give Naruto the red scarf she knitted for him, and then helping Naruto realize that Hinata didn't actually reject him because Hinata always loved him, which helps Naruto get his Heroic Second Wind. She also doubles as The Matchmaker in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4.
- Also in Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, Sakura is shown thinking that Shikamaru and Temari make a good couple.
Shrinking Violet: Only as a child.
Single-Target Sexuality: She never developed romantic feelings for any other man except one: Sasuke Uchiha. Even though his Face–Heel Turn hurts her so much, and even though she goes back and forth between wanting him to return or wanting to kill him, overall she cannot bring herself to stop loving him.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man:
- Subverted and Exploited with Naruto. In Chapter 469, she makes a blatantly fake love confession to Naruto that lists all of the reasons why he is better for her and Sasuke isn't, so that she could play into his one-sided shallow crush on her and get him to stop chasing Sasuke for her. However Naruto sees right through her, because he knows that she only loves Sasuke, rejects her outright, and says his promise to her is not the sole reason he wants to rescue Sasuke, but for his own reasons.
- Played Straight with Sasuke at the end of the manga, who makes his definitive Heel–Face Turn after Naruto finally knocks some sense into him and he becomes The Atoner.
Smitten Teenage Girl: Deconstructed. Yes, she loves Sasuke, but her feelings have brought her many problems, considering how she can't let go of her feelings despite knowing that he's too far gone. This also doubles as Love Makes You Dumb. On the other hand, given that Sasuke actually tries to kill her twice when they're enemies, it's rather bizarre that her crush survives into adulthood. They even become an Official Couple and have a daughter together.
Squee: During Team 7's introduction to Kakashi, when asked about the things she likes, she squees while looking at Sasuke.
Stepford Smiler: Sports one identical to Sai's when asked if Sasuke can be trusted after his Hazy-Feel Turn.
Stone Wall: By the end of the series, much like her mentor. Taijutsu against her would be suicidal, except for the very few who could block her super strength, and she could just instantly heal off any damage done by ninjutsu. Even more so in adulthood, as it's been stated that, by then, she finished training to resist genjutsu, meaning that literally the only way to kill her is by outlasting her (rather large, thanks to her Yin seal) chakra reserve. Not that she's particularly slow, she isn't, but it's not her forte and the speed training she has, like for all medics, is for avoiding hits.
Strong Family Resemblance: She has her mother's facial features, but her father's pink hair.
Summon Magic: Slugs.
Surpassed the Teacher: By the end of the series, she is considered stronger than Tsunade.
Super-Strength: During the Time Skip, Tsunade teaches her to use a specialized version of this, allowing for a powerful strike. Especially when she uses the Strength of a Hundred Seal.
Tears of Joy: When Sasuke sincerely apologizes for all the ruckus he caused in the penultimate chapter. She responds with this:
Sakura: You'd better damn well be... Shannaro... You jerk...
Teen Genius: Before the Time Skip, being a good student with precise chakra control and enough knowledge to not need cheating in the written part of the Chuunin exams differentiated her from any other kunoichi. Afterwards, it's what makes her such a good apprentice and medic.
This Loser Is You: Kishimoto has stated that both she and Rock Lee were meant to symbolize human weakness.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Sakura's loud, abrasive, and generally tomboyish, but as shown in Part I, she's also a huge romantic who is very conscious about her social standing, leading to her trying to put on a more girly pretense in front of Sasuke.
Took a Level in Badass: Feeling she was a burden to the team and that she was weak compared to Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura spent the time-skip between Part I and Part II/Shippuden studying medical jutsu under Tsunade. As a result, she became able to greatly augment her strength — to the point she can create massive earthquake-like shockwaves with simple taijutsu attacks. Coupled with her embracing her fiery temper, this led to her becoming a more active and competent combatant, though even when she attained the Strength of a Hundred Seal she still wound up being overshadowed by Naruto and Sasuke.
Took a Level in Kindness: Starts in the beginning of the Chunin Exams arc and continues all the way to the end and is cemented in Part II, towards Naruto essentially.
A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Sakura is often easily driven by guilt when comes to Sasuke and Naruto, to the point where she acts rashly and makes impulsive choices, with nearly fatal results.
- Sakura's guilt over Naruto's perceived suffering leads to her impulsive actions during the Five Kage Summit arc, from her fake confession to Naruto to trying to face Sasuke alone. This all results in nearly ruining her friendship with Naruto and getting him, Kakashi and herself killed.
- Sakura's impatience in trying to confess her love to Sasuke and unwillingness to listen to her teammates' advice leads to Sasuke explaining that he has no feelings for her in Chapter 693.
Training from Hell: Tsunade subjects her to this during the Time Skip so that she can develop Super-Strength and medical ninjutsu.

Tsundere: Primarily in the anime, but it was present in the manga as well, of the tsuntsun version half the time, even if she became a type B after the Time Skip, unfortunately for Naruto.
The Un-Favourite: Downplayed with Team 7. Kakashi doesn't dislike her, so much as neglects her. Pre-timeskip, he devotes special training to Sasuke; post-timeskip, he has turned his full attention to Naruto. While it could have been justified by Naruto and Sasuke needing extra help in controlling their overwhelming powers, Kakashi never makes any attempt to find an alternate tutor for Sakura. This is particularly notable during Naruto's training: both he and Yamato are leaders of Team 7, so you might expect one of them to work with Sakura and Sai and the other to work with Naruto. Nope - they both work with Naruto, informing Sakura of this when she asks what they as a team can do next (during Kakashi's hospital stay post-encounter with Deidara and Sasori).
Unprovoked Pervert Payback: Towards Naruto once or twice, but occurs more often in the anime Filler.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She fails to destroy Obito's Rinnegan eye, even after he pleaded her to do so, because she completely freezes and hesitates out of fear. This results in Madara taking back his other eye from Obito and subsequently casting the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Use Your Head: Does this against Naruto in episode 372 of Shippuden (chapter 631 of the manga) as a response to him telling Minato that she is his girlfriend.
Violently Protective Girlfriend: Smashed Shin Sr Uchiha very hard because he harmed her husband (and their daughter).
Waif-Fu: Sakura learns it from Tsunade, who also breaks the ground with simple punches - Tsunade in her true form is actually a frail elderly woman with even less muscle size than Sakura. This Super-Strength is apparently achieved by perfect chakra control.
We Used to Be Friends: Instigated this with Ino prior to the beginning of Part I. They resumed their friendship after their Designated Girl Fight in the Chunin Exams arc.
What Does She See in Him?: Invoked by Sasuke out of all people; he bluntly states that she has no reason to love him after all he did.
Worf Had the Flu: Apparently the reason for her lacking performance after the first post-Time Skip arc. She's spent the last three years building up chakra in her forehead like Tsunade does, and it isn't until the battle with the Ten-Tails that she finally has enough to use the technique to augment her abilities.
Yaoi Fangirl:
- Just watch her reaction to one of Konohamaru's jutsus that included shadow clones of the naked Sai and Sasuke.
- Her reaction to Naruto’s trump card against Kaguya, the male version of the Sexy Harem Jutsu, is a severe Nosebleed.
You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Seriously, as others, especially Naruto, have learned the hard way, getting her worked up can be disastrous.

Characters / Naruto - Sakura Haruno

Sakura Haruno

Voiced by: Chie Nakamura (JP), Kate Higgins (main series), Dorothy Elias-Fahn (Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth) (EN), Christine Byrd (Latin America), Pilar Martín (Spain), Maia Baran (French), Nathalie Hugo (French, replacement voice), Anisa Dervishi (Albanian)

Debut: Naruto Chapter 3 (Manga), Naruto Episode 1 (Anime)

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Characters / Naruto - Sakura Haruno

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Sakura Haruno

Voiced by: Chie Nakamura (JP), Kate Higgins (main series), Dorothy Elias-Fahn (Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth) (EN), Christine Byrd (Latin America), Pilar Martín (Spain), Maia Baran (French), Nathalie Hugo (French, replacement voice), Anisa Dervishi (Albanian)

Debut: Naruto Chapter 3 (Manga), Naruto Episode 1 (Anime)

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