Sakura Haruno

Sakura Uchiha, formerly Haruno, is a kunoichi of Konohagakure. When assigned to Team 7, Sakura quickly finds herself ill-prepared for the duties of a shinobi. However, after training under the Sannin Tsunade, she overcomes this, and becomes recognised as one of the greatest medical-nin in the world. Sakura has fair skin, green eyes, and pink hair. In her youth, she wore her hair as bangs in order to cover her large forehead and fend off her classmates' calling her "Forehead Girl". Ino encouraged her not to do this and wear her hair back instead, so that others could see her face. Later in her Academy career 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 Sakura gets older, she is noted to become quite attractive, with Jiraiya likening her looks to Tsunade's own. In Part I, Sakura wears a red qipao dress — at various times either with or without short sleeves — with slits along the sides accompanied by a zipper and white circular designs. She also wears tight dark green bike shorts with a shuriken holster around her right thigh, blue sandals, and the standard Konoha forehead protector worn as a hairband. Colour illustrations from the manga tend to depict her using nail polish and eye-shadow in Part I, both of which are not present in the anime. In Part II, 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. Sakura wears the standard Konoha infantry flak jacket and assorted clothing during the Fourth Shinobi World War. She also gains the Strength of a Hundred Seal — in the shape of a violet rhombus — on her forehead, which remains visible thereafter. Two years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sakura wears a sleeveless red qipao dress that reaches her upper thighs, with white trimmings and a white circular design on the back similar to her Part I attire; it is tied with a black obi. She wears black shorts underneath the dress, black gloves, and pink elbow and knee protectors. She has also changed her previous boots to regular black, high heeled ninja sandals. In adulthood, Sakura's attire consists of a red sleeveless qipao top that exposes her navel, the back of which carries the Uchiha clan crest and falls to her knees. She also wears light-coloured pants and high heels and a red headband. For battle, Sakura wears a red top similar to her Part II one, with the Uchiha clan crest on the back, elbow protectors and flatter sandals. At home, she often dons a long white apron and keep her fingernails long and well-manicured. She also wears white bracelets on both her wrists. As a child, Sakura was insecure and highly self-conscious about her large forehead, covering it with her bangs. It was not until she met Ino, who defended her from bullies and became her friend, that she become more self-confident. At the start of Part I, Sakura typically gives the outward impression of being polite to her superiors, considerate of her peers, and confident in herself. She has occasional moments of bashfulness around Sasuke and competitiveness around Ino, but otherwise appears quite collected. This reservation, though never disingenuous, frequently masks how Sakura feels: in certain situations, she has pronounced feelings of delinquency, jealousy, and anger. Rather than display these emotions to others, she projects them inward, allowing a manifestation of who she truly is — what is labelled "Inner Sakura" — to have the opinions Sakura wants to keep to herself. Inner Sakura, whose appearances are marked by an exclamation of "Shannarō!", is in a sense a personality separate from Sakura herself, a fact that allows her to overcome the Mind Body Switch Technique. At other times, Sakura and Inner Sakura are indistinguishable from each other, usually with regards to Naruto. If Naruto says or does something that annoys or upsets her, Sakura responds with violence, a reaction that under other circumstances would be delegated to Inner Sakura. As Part I progresses, Sakura becomes increasingly exposed to the realities of the world, difficulties for which she cannot rely upon Inner Sakura to cope with alone. When she was an Academy student, Sakura succeeded through studying alone to the point of pride, able to avoid physical trials and thus allowing her to focus on her physical appearance in a bid to appeal to Sasuke. As a shinobi, however, this is proven insufficient as her long hair can become a liability for opponents to exploit. 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 is unable to contribute much in battle and must rely on Naruto and Sasuke to save her. She sets 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 becomes willing to sacrifice herself to protect them, coming to value them both very deeply. She looks to Naruto as a model for this goal, inspired by his rapid growth and his determination to be there for her and all those he held dear. When Sakura realises that she is as rude to Naruto as Sasuke usually is to her at his urging, she starts treating him better, cheering for his accomplishments, and confiding her hopes and fears with him. Inner Sakura makes 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's thinking, a self-comfort she picked up during her training with Tsunade. However, this has also made her more emotional and impulsive at times. Her desire to catch up in strength with Naruto and Sasuke, her overprotectiveness of them, and her need to prove her worthiness as a ninja, brings forth this dark side of her more easily which often leads her to attack her opponents and get rescued by her comrades. Her violent and/or loud outbursts are, as in Part I, uncontrolled and often directed at Naruto, usually as a reaction to his variations of the Sexy Technique, whenever he asks her out on a date, or anything she feels is out of line, along with when anybody does something to offends her. Minato, at one point, witnessing Sakura's outburst on Naruto when he asked if she was his girlfriend, noted that she reminded him of his own wife. However, Sakura no longer thinks poorly of Naruto despite thinking he is an idiot and her earlier stern disparaging opinion of him that flares at times. She now holds his abilities in high regard, angrily reprimanding and threatening Sai when he, although deliberately to test Sakura's faith in Naruto, deemed Naruto weak. Yet, she is ever-worrying for his safety and well-being to the point of easily feeling overwhelming guilt, and values him as one of her closest friends. Despite criticising Naruto for his perverted nature, Sakura herself has a perverted side, enjoying something even Naruto thought was disgusting. Sai eventually points out that he believes Naruto knows Sakura too well for his own good, constantly placing himself in personal peril out of his feelings for her so that Sakura will be happy. Sakura is moved to tears by this, feeling unbearably guilty for what she feels she had put Naruto through. Despite her attempts to take responsibility for herself during the Summit by trying to deal with Sasuke herself, she still finds herself relying on him due to her shaky resolve, nearly costing Sakura her life. She ultimately settles for doing whatever she can for him, trying to do more in supporting him and his decisions concerning Sasuke, trying to do more to help him bear the challenges of being a jinchūriki and fighting at his side whenever possible. She is helped in this goal by Tsunade's influence, who trained her to have a contempt for losing and an unbending will; she will place herself at risk so that others don't need to and to assure her allies' victory. Sakura has been in love with Sasuke since childhood and initially focuses on getting his attention above everything else. Her initial infatuation for him was rooted in his good looks, and calm, collecting attitude, and his rejections failed to deter her. Despite being grateful of her loving him after she confesses to stop him from defecting from Konoha, Sasuke rejects her but thanks her before leaving. This rejection deeply upsets Sakura, driving her to plea for Naruto to bring Sasuke home and, when Naruto fails, motivating her to become stronger so that she can bring Sasuke back herself. She tries to separate herself from her feelings when Sasuke becomes an international criminal, attempting to kill him to prevent a war, but her love for him proved to be too great for her to harm him. Even at the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sakura holds out hope that she may mean something to him. Despite Sasuke's crimes, Sakura was able to forgive him after he sincerely apologised to her for how much he hurt her. She was also surprised when he exhibited a much softer point with her and began poking her on the forehead, an affectionate gesture he picked up from his brother. After marrying Sasuke, Sakura became very loyal to him and even refused to leave his side while she was pregnant with their daughter, Sarada. Sakura raises Sarada on her own due to Sasuke being away on his mission for many years, and she frequently reassures Sarada that Sasuke loves them both and will return home once his mission is over. She is also very patient and wise as her love and patience for Sasuke never faded even though Sarada was barely a toddler when he left. As a mother, Sakura is loving and protective, and has a very close relationship with her daughter and will praise her for her achievements just as quickly as she admonishes her for wrongdoing. Although Sakura is very supportive of Sasuke's duties, she is disappointed when he teases her by refusing to show her affection.