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At first impression I didn't like Sakura much , which I was sad about since she was the only girl on the team which meant the main one we would get to follow.
The trio consists of : Sasuke Uchiha a prodigy child who is known for his fighting skills, and of being the only survivor of a genocide.
And Naruto Uzumaki the main character, his important traits in the beginning are of being the underdog and a prankster as well as a pariah.
But at first I thought she was shallow and vain,and that she was a bit loud which at the time was very much true. .
I at the time was also shallow. I liked my looks.When I took care of them.
But I really liked her hair ribbons when we were introduced to them. I was also learning how to braid them in my hair at the time so I found it cool.
I specifically loved my hair which is another thing we had in common.
She has an inner self that says what's really on her mind, her truest thoughts and emotions on display for the audience. She appeared here and there and it always brought more to her, sometimes giving her more depth or by making her more flat.
In episode 3 which is the analysis it is the meat of this analysis.
Early on there was a scene of Naruto trying to flirt with Sakura. He has a crush on her,that stays through the years, but here’s the thing: he is really pushy .
She has already rejected him before and so he disguises himself as her crush and then goes to ask her how she feels about ‘Naruto’ and she keep in mind, Naruto just embarrassed both himself and Sasuke in class, by trying to intimidate him and then because he was too close to him ends up kissing him by accident. When they are training to be a team of child soldiers, on their last formal day of class. And Naruto who has been apparently beefing(having rivalry) with Sasuke for the entirety of their stint at ninja schooling.
She says and I quote to her crush, “He loves interfering and enjoys it when I make mistakes,Naruto doesn’t understand one thing about me.. He’s annoying .” And she finishes this by saying all she wants is to be acknowledged by Sasuke. Which I think is a lie actually, whether she knows it is up for debate but her inner self never chimed in.
Usually her inner butts in but here doesn’t cheer her on , or comment.
She then goes in for a kiss and Naruto thinks “this is why I like Sakura so much” In response to her earlier comments about him and her being forward.
Which is hilarious to me she practically roasted him and chewed him out but with honesty and earnestly and he ate it up.
Naruto doesn’t say “She’s got me all wrong,DATTEBAYO “, and in this scene it looks like he heard everything she said he doesn’t go ‘’huh’ sorry I was looking at your face.
He is reassured in his passions.
He goes before kissing her to go to the restroom because he ate expired milk , but then the real Sasuke comes out and talks to Sakura asking if she’s seen Naruto.
You know because he just got jumped and underestimated him.
So to simplify this Sakura thinks her crush who she just had a decent conversation with is back to continue their flirting only for it to be met with him asking if she’s seen the boy he kissed a few hours back, after she gave a decent comment about him before,and so she starts wiping the floor with Naruto’s name before she gave her fair honest thoughts on him, this is her being petty because she is a child, who is probably done with Naruto for now.
So she gives a deeper analysis on Naruto because she thinks that is what he wants more of, continuing 'their’ conversation before.
And this I think is important, it is a continuation not a separate interaction for Sakura.
She’s probably thinking huh what else to say I gave you my fair and honest assumptions, do you want me to give you a theory.
And what she says is true: Naruto is unruly because he has no parents or guardian , the village hasn’t given him new groceries and they don’t pay attention to him unless it's to get mad at him. so he’s venting by doing pranks, and by interrupting class time.
Side bar here ✨ Where they are learning important things like how to hide their tracks, other ninja clans maybe , weapon proficiency.
What to do if their sensei isn't teaching them .
I don't know but I do know that he interrupts class for Sakura who is a civilian born and the only civilian born graduate her year, if Naruto disturbs class the rest of the students have family and resources to fall back on.
She and any other civilian borns don't.
Naruto has been in her class for what I can assume at least two years,
I personally would’ve drowned Naruto if he fucked up my education, when we’re learning how to be mercenaries, at ten.
(End Bar)
The only issue is she said it to someone who has no more family, Sasuke, who takes offense because she has parents, which by the way how was she supposed to know.
I doubt Konoha goes around yelling oh yeah we lost our entire clan of dojutsu user, you know our police force, just gone, Like bro if the village is still functioning I doubt Sakura or Naruto even know your parents are dead, because it's probably rude to be like Hey Sasuke’s entire fam was murked by his older brother heck I bet it wasn’t mentioned to the civilian children .They just sort of faded out because of the disgrace and ‘shame’ the nation felt.
Sakura promises to try to be nicer to Naruto because she feels empathy after analyzing him and she sees him before the episode ends.
But when I saw this scene all I felt was Sakura’s emotions run deeper than both of the boys on her team realize. Naruto treats her like an achievement and now he has a deeper understanding of why she doesn’t like him.
Good reasons in my opinion.
But he also has been bugging her to go out with him and will continue to do so for a major chunk of the series, and has been interfering in her studies in a literal life and death scenario, because she has no other resources than the school.
“He enjoys it when I make mistakes.“ Is a line that I always was astonished by, because that isn’t love that’s bullying or teasing if lightly done.
We also get to see some of Ino’s and Sakura’s rivalry, they race to class and apparently live /work very close to each other, Ino steps out of the flower shop, which to me is very deliberate, Ino wouldn’t live there it’s not safe, for clan children, so she must have gone from her compound to the flower store and then go outside to run into Sakura as a routine.
Also Ino’s eyes are weird so they’re probably also a dojutsu or could be mistaken for a dojutsu if seen off hand. For example having a clan compound can boost your defense on home turf seals, and extra defensive items. The Uchiha’s were ordered not to help because sharingan, and it increased public hatred against them.According to the wiki they evacuated as many kids as they could behind a barrier, Iruka wasn’t lucky and lost his parents who saved him.
But none of those kids are clan children. They were in civilian areas.
So Ino who apparently already lost at least one relative to danzo would not be allowed to do something that risky.
All the clans probably have a district or a compound where they try to lower costs, and the flower shop is probably there to gain information and present a clean public face among civilians.
When I was in middle school there was a boy that always pestered me to date him, and all I could feel at the time was anger, and fear because I was afraid because he always asked me when I was alone.
And so one day he asked me in front of people and I caved in I said sure and asked if he could buy me some gummy bears at the concession stand and I broke up with him right then and there, not because I hated the guy, but because he was pressuring me and I wanted to make sure he would be too embarrassed to try that again.
I wanted to be seen as mean, when I was known for being a push over, so this wouldn't happen again.
But I felt seen when Sakura blocked Naruto off and didn't end up with him, she came around to him and he became more mature and less of a menace.
The story didn't say persistence gets you the girl.
That if you keep asking she'll have to say yes, and then treat the entire ordeal like a great hunt or victory.
It also didn't treat Sakura's feelings for Sasuke in that superficial manner for long; they became deeper and more meaningful, and more importantly respectful of both parties. Until it wasn’t. E.e
Also they need to come up with better seals it’s been like ten years since you were attacked and its going to always hit the civilian sector because it's in the goddamn middle of the city do something, spread it out a little, make better effing seals, and come up with better evacuation routes. You have the akatsuku up your ass. Get the Nara’s on it, Throw the pervy sage at your cities infrastructure.
I admired Sakura's character because I realized I don't want to be like her to keep my emotions bottled up when they hurt to spare feelings when they don't deserve to be spared.
I liked what I saw when she let her emotions be and I truly felt I wanted respect because she wasn't getting any. I wanted to be acknowledged and she brought that out for me to see and her journey only brought out more implications and questions that I also had to ask myself.
The decision to put her getting used by both boys to answer questions that they can ask themselves and Sakura was the only one with a new outlook afterwards she self reflected. The boys didn't really learn anything, not really.
It happened pretty fast in the show and early on too, it was technically very short but the impact and implications go forth into the future episodes and she never did find out that this disguise debacle happened so she still has feelings for Sasuke and it does help make her feelings seem less irrational.
If I remember that, she thought they had something.
I could go one about her role in this show. She's my favorite character of all time and a role model. Actually, she means a lot to me because of the little implications in world building, and so there's wiggle room and interpretation room that I really enjoy because I get to see her in a new light.