Sakura Haruno

Personality: As a child, Sakura was insecure and highly self-conscious about her appearance, in particular her large forehead, covering it with her bangs. It was not until she met Ino, who defended her from bullies and became her very first friend, that she become more self-confident. At the start of Part I, Sakura typically gave the outward impression of being polite to authority figures, considerate of her peers, and confident in herself. She had occasional moments of competitiveness around her childhood friend Ino, but otherwise appeared quite collected. This reservation, though never truly disingenuous, frequently masked how Sakura felt: in certain situations, she had pronounced feelings of frustration, anger, envy, jealousy, mischief and joy. Rather than display these emotions to others too openly, she projected them inward, allowing a manifestation of who she truly is — what is labelled "Inner Sakura" (内なるサクラ, Uchi Naru Sakura) — to have the opinions Sakura wanted to keep to herself. Inner Sakura, whose appearances were marked by an exclamation of "Shannarō!", was in a sense a personality separate from Sakura herself, a fact that even allowed her to overcome the Mind Body Switch Technique. At other times, Sakura and Inner Sakura were indistinguishable from each other, usually with regards to her teammate Naruto Uzumaki. If he said or did something that annoyed or upset her, Sakura responded with violence, a reaction that under other circumstances would have been delegated to Inner Sakura. As Part I progresses, Sakura became increasingly exposed to the cruel realities of the shinobi world, difficulties for which she cannot rely upon Inner Sakura to cope with alone. When she was an Academy student, she succeeded through studying alone to the point of pride. As a shinobi, however, this is proven insufficient as missions cannot be truly completed merely with book smarts, and it is necessary to be able to fight so that other shinobi will not kill her or her teammates. The latter makes Sakura particularly disappointed in herself, as she was unable to contribute much in battle and had to rely on others to save her. She set out to change this about herself, dedicating nearly three years of training to making herself as capable as Naruto and Sasuke; in the meantime, she was willing to sacrifice herself to protect her friends and comrades. Inner Sakura made one appearance at the very start of Part II and then is never seen in the series again. This is because Sakura is finally in touch with her feelings and is willing to express what she is thinking, a self-comfort she picked up during her years of training with Tsunade, whom she deeply admires and cares for as her mentor and leader. In Sakura's own words, she has inherited her mentor's unbending will and contempt for losing. Much like Tsunade, Sakura will place herself at risk so that others don't need to and to assure the victory of her allies, as seen during her partnership with Chiyo, showing a compassionate and self-sacrificial side as well. However, this expressive side of Sakura has also made her more emotional and impulsive at times. Her desire to catch up in strength with her teammates, her protectiveness of those she holds dear to the point of developing a habit of hiding the truth if she thinks it's too painful to say, and her need to prove her worthiness as a ninja brings forth this dark side of her more easily, which sometimes leads her to attack her opponents rashly and get rescued by her allies. Minato Namikaze, witnessing her outburst on Naruto when he asked if she was his girlfriend, noted that she reminded him of his own headstrong wife Kushina Uzumaki. However, Sakura no longer thinks poorly of Naruto, although she continues to express her displeasure and anger with him whenever his immaturity and more idiotic traits surface, often lashing out with violence, demonstrating a very obdurate and stiff-necked nature. Regardless, she particularly looks to Naruto as a model figure, inspired by his rapid growth and his determination to be there for her and all those he held dear. Despite her deep respect and trust towards Naruto's skills as a ninja, which were shown when she angrily reprimanded and threatened Sai when he - although deliberately to test her faith in Naruto - deemed Naruto weak, she is ever-worrying for his safety and well-being because she values him as one of her closest friends, to the point of easily feeling overwhelming guilt and helplessness when he is troubled. She does whatever she can for her old friend, trying to support his decisions concerning Team 7, helping him bear the challenges of being a jinchūriki, and fighting at his side whenever possible. Despite violently reprimanding Naruto and Konohamaru Sarutobi for their perverted tendencies, Sakura herself has a perverted side which she often keeps hidden. When Konohamaru showcased his Sexy: Girl on Girl Technique, she seemingly displayed her disgust at the technique, but he quickly countered by quickly creating the Sexy: Boy on Boy Technique to spite her, and instead of admonishing him for it, she was immediately drawn to the technique, responding with a pleasured screech upon seeing the technique, with the two cloned individuals resembling Sai and Sasuke. However, she is embarrassed of her own perverted nature, and upon realising her reaction was noticed by the rest of Team 7, she quickly tried to make an excuse, but Konohamaru's suspicions that Sakura is just as much a pervert as he and Naruto are is all but confirmed. This side of Sakura is seen again during the Fourth Shinobi World War, when she almost fainted due to blood loss after seeing Naruto's Sexy Reverse Harem Technique, despite the fact that she and her team were fighting one of the most lethal enemies in existence. Despite her pervert side, Sakura has only been in love with one person since her childhood: Sasuke. Her initial infatuation for him was rooted in his good looks, prodigious skills and calm, collected attitude. She had certain moments of bashfulness around Sasuke and initially focused on getting his attention above everything (and everyone else), with his rejections failing to deter her. It was Sasuke himself, however, who made her realize that she had been rude to other people such as Naruto, so she started treated her other teammate a lot better, which leaded to the start of the Team 7's friendship. As teammates, she came to appreciate Sasuke's bravery and protectiveness towards his loved ones, genuinely falling in love for him and worrying as he fell into the darkness due to the pain of his family's tragedies. After she confessed to stop him from defecting from Konoha, he rejected her once again but genuinely thanked before leaving. Sasuke's defection deeply upset Sakura, driving her to plea for Naruto to bring their dear teammate home and, when he failed, motivating her to become stronger so that she could help bring Sasuke back. Her love for Sasuke sometimes clashed with her duty as a ninja; for example, she tried to separate herself from her feelings when Sasuke became a criminal, even attempting to kill him to prevent a war on a suicidal scheme, but her love for him proved to be too great for her to harm him and she had to rely on Naruto to stay alive. Even during their shaky alliance during the Fourth Shinobi World War, she still held out hope that she may mean something to him. Despite his crimes and their mutual betrayals, she was able to forgive him after he sincerely apologised to her for how much he hurt her and others.

Physical Appearance: Sakura has fair skin, green eyes, and pink hair. In her childhood, she wore her hair as bangs in order to cover her large forehead and fend off her classmates' calling her "Forehead Girl" (デコリーン, Dekorīn, English TV: Billboard Brow). Ino encouraged her not to do this anymore and wear her hair back instead, so that others could see her face. Later in her Academy years, she let her hair get longer because of rumours that Sasuke was attracted to girls with long hair. During Part I, when she realises that long hair is a vulnerability in combat situations, she cuts her hair and keeps it under shoulder-length from that point onward, which she sometimes pins up in a ponytail while working. As she gets older, Sakura is noted to become quite beautiful and attractive, with Jiraiya likening her looks to Tsunade's own. In Part II, Sakura’s chest and legs had gained curves similar to Tsunade’s due to her training, Sakura's typical outfit consists of a red top with the same design as the upper-half of her Part I outfit. Accompanying this are black gloves, low-heel, knee-high boots, black shorts underneath a short grey apron skirt, and grey elbow protectors (her skirt and elbow protectors are pink in the anime). The cloth of her forehead protector is changed to red and she starts carrying a medical pouch. She also gains the Strength of a Hundred Seal — in the shape of a violet rhombus — on her forehead, which remains visible thereafter.

Abilities: As a genin, due to her focus on her studies, Sakura lacked any particular combat skill, other than the basic skills she learned in the Academy. This greatly limited her role in missions, to the point where she frequently noted how much she relied on her teammates, Sasuke and Naruto. On one occasion, she is even stated by Shikamaru to be: "A kunoichi with no particular talent". Determined to change herself, she undergoes intense training with Tsunade for two-and-a-half years. Upon further improving her combat skills, many renown shinobi have noted that Sakura had the potential to surpass Tsunade. Upon completing the Strength of a Hundred Seal during the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sakura had finally caught up to Naruto and Sasuke at the time. While Sakura has rarely been seen using taijutsu in Part I, she was able to hold her own against Ino, one of the top students in her class, and her strikes likewise could launch people as seen from reprimanding Naruto. In Part II after Tsunade's training, Sakura's taijutsu improved tremendously. As taught by the Sannin, Sakura's taijutsu skill was mainly gained for the goal of evading harm on the battlefield to better ensure her duties as a medical-nin. To which, she showed remarkable reflexes and efficiency of movement. Against the Akatsuki member Sasori, both he and Chiyo were amazed at Sakura's ability to steadily read the flow of battle and dodge without taking damage. Her offensive skills are equally impressive, as by the time she becomes a jōnin, she is able to fend off dozens of Toneri Ōtsutsuki's autonomous puppets with ease. As seen in Part I, Sakura's most defining skill was her proficiency in chakra control,[38] which is considered the best among her generation.[39] Even as a genin, she could mould the right amount of chakra needed to perform any technique with maximum efficiency, which she demonstrates by sending chakra into her feet to greatly augment her speed, impressing both Naruto and Rock Lee, as well as Kakashi, who noted that her proficiency in this skill had already surpassed even Sasuke's.[40] Training under Tsunade for over two years refined Sakura's already impressive chakra control, becoming a vital part to many of her abilities. By rapidly building up chakra and concentrating it into her fists or other body parts, she can utilize an unique taijutsu style that is commonly referred to as "monstrous strength".[27][41] Another goal of Tsunade's training was to increase Sakura's available chakra supply via completing the Strength of a Hundred Seal, which is something that took three years to accomplish.[42] In the anime, Tsunade explained that building up the seal substantially drains one of their chakra, making it dangerous to heal or fight, but Sakura developed a way to divert a small portion of that built-up chakra back into her normal reserves. After completing the Strength of a Hundred Seal, Sakura's attacks are increased with even greater input of chakra and become strong enough to destroy entire buildings and upend the earth. Similarly, her enhanced strength allows her to lift great mass and free herself from formidable constraints. With her enhanced physical prowess, she could even get behind Kaguya Ōtsutsuki and damage the legendary being with a single blow, breaking off one of her horns. These feats made Hashirama Senju praise her as having greater raw power than even Tsunade. Two years later, Sakura figured how to use the chakra built up in her hands to catch and repel incoming ninjutsu Kakashi once noted that Sakura's excellent chakra control is well-suited for genjutsu. While never actually seen using genjutsu, due to her affinity for it, Kakashi taught her a jōnin-level method to deal with being caught in genjutsu that involves abruptly stopping the flow of chakra. She has frequently been shown to quickly identify when genjutsu is being used, and release herself or others from it. During her training with Tsunade, Sakura has developed advanced skill with fūinjutsu. Upon contact, Sakura can skilfully implant a cherry blossom-shaped seal on a target and, on command, these seals release red chakra threads that completely restrict body movement. By the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sakura has completed the Strength of a Hundred Seal. When the seal is released, she has access to all the accumulated chakra, totaling a so-named hundred-times her usual chakra levels, and since she doesn't need to waste any of it on maintaining a youthful appearance like Tsunade does, she is able to perform techniques on a much greater scale than she is normally able to. She can also transfer the chakra to others, either to replenish or amplify their own. Sakura can summon segments of Katsuyu, a slug from the Shikkotsu Forest. Noted to be an incredibly impressive feat by her fellow disciple Shizune, especially after just activating the Strength of a Hundred Seal, Sakura can have Katsuyu split apart and attach itself to others so she can then remotelymonitor many allies at once, heal their injuries and replenish their chakra as needed. Sakura's natures include Earth, Water, Fire, Yin, and Yang Release. By adulthood, she has learned how to use Fire Release. In addition, Sakura has become a highly skilled sensor through her unique mastery of chakra manipulation which allows her to roughly map out entire structures by channelling her chakra through inorganic materials; doing so allows her to detect threats, traps, and hidden rooms. The major purpose of Tsunade's training was to teach Sakura medical ninjutsu, which demanded Sakura's refined chakra control and intelligence. Tsunade remarks that her talent for healing is exceptionally rare. Under both Tsunade and Shizune’s tutelage, she quickly grew to become the best medical-nin in all of Konohagakure. As such, Sakura can heal even the most fatal of injuries. Even when she was heavily injured, she demonstrated the ability to quickly heal herself to halt further blood loss, managing to do so with the weapon still lodged within her body. By her early adulthood, after anticipating an attack, she can send chakra throughout her entire body to nullify the damage of normally lethal blows. In the anime, Sakura can perform a highly difficult operation alone to regenerate a missing section of a person's body. If traditional medical jutsus prove ineffective, Sakura can make incisions in her patients to try and directly treat the vital organs of her patients. Sakura can cure those who have been poisoned by extracting the toxins from their bodies, while simultaneously repairing the damage — something which even poison-experts like Chiyo cannot do. Besides Tsunade, Sakura is the only medical-nin who can use Creation Rebirth, the most advanced medical jutsu; it puts the user's body in a state in which it heals itself so that she doesn't need to stop to treat herself or even be fazed by injury. Her dominion over this jutsu exempts her from many of the laws that govern the modern system of medical-nin, for example, allowing her to fight in the frontlines. Though Sakura rarely uses her medical ninjutsu in combat, she is more than able to do so. When dealing with an enemy with an extremely resistant body, she can combine her chakra-enhanced fists with her medical ninjutsu to heal the resulting damage from her strikes, eventually killing the affected cells from over-replication, as shown when she single-handily defeated Kido Tsumiki, an Anbu empowered by a Tailed Beast Drug. Sakura's medical expertise extends to more standard medicine as well. She is able enough to perform autopsies and examine cells, demonstrating her keen knowledge of genetics. She also can perform emergency techniques such as manually pump hearts and carry out respiration via mouth to mouth resuscitation, as shown during the Fourth Shinobi World War when, after Kurama was removed from Naruto, she was able to prevent his permanent death through these techniques until they were able to reach Minato and eventually saved him. Sakura was even taught by Tsunade how to create an effective antidote after analysing the poison's contents, even for poisons that Sasori did not believe anyone but himself could make antidotes for, and how to blend powerful fast-acting sleeping gas. She was similarly taught by Shizune on how to concoct poisons that, when coated on weapons, could debilitate or paralyse a person with a single scratch. In the anime, Sakura even created her own version of Military Rations Pills, intended to have more medicinal purposes and be easier to consume. While she was at the Academy, Sakura always got perfect scores in all of her tests. It is because of her diligence in her studies that she initially struggled in combat situations, for this reason, she was added to Team 7so that she could benefit from the more battle-oriented Naruto and Sasuke, while in turn, they would benefit from her knowledge. She was able to answer the written portion of the Chūnin Exams all by herself without needing to cheat, something that genin were not expected to be able to do. Sasuke deemed her analytical skills to be superior to his Sharingan, as well as for her remarkable memory and observational skills. She is capable of immediately memorising and understanding large amounts of information, including minute details, a skill very useful for ninja missions and medical studies. Sakura's intelligence is consistently useful, making her observational enough to guess an opponent's tactics from a brief scan of the battlefield and pick up on otherwise minor inconsistencies in conversation. In her battle against Sasori, a few observations were enough to learn his attack patterns. Upon her brief encounter with Tobi, she was able to quickly and accurately deduce his unique abilities. During her time in the Logistical Support Division, she demonstrated the ability to quickly piece together multiple pieces of information she's previously come across in order to form a hypothesis when she figured out the White Zetsu's Substitute Technique. In actual combat, Sakura shows herself to be rather cunning because she frequently relies on misleading her opponents, either by letting them think they have outsmarted her so that they lower their guard, or letting them think they have defeated her so that they will approach her, and she can defeat them with a single punch