#kishimoto just never adds depth to that

[10000-paper-nohara-rins]

long and detailed ramblings about rin's character under the cut <3

rin is flatter than almost any other character in naruto- an impressive feat, considering how badly kishimoto hates woman. i'm not saying that everyone else was written better than rin- all things considered, the complete lack of attention focused on her means that she's probably one of the more consistent characters. no, the flatness arises from a general lack of anything interesting about her presented in an easy to understand or. um. intentional way.

fandoms take the traits that characters display and explore and expand upon them- when a character or concept is interesting but poorly executed in canon, it will often receive a large amount of attention dedicated towards giving it its due.

when a girl has no real personality to speak of and exists pretty much just to die and make two others guys sad- well, that doesn't lay a very good base to explore! it's no wonder rin is an incredibly overlooked character.  

not me tho. id never overlook my girl. this is because i am a little bjt insane and also rabid about her. take my hand. let's explore the deep rabbit hole ive been silently digging for half a year now. there's nuance to her character i prommy- let me show you it.

disclaimer before we begin: i'm aware that the amount of character depth i can extrapolate from rin was not intentionally written in. i mean, like, that's not gonna stop me or anything. but im aware of it. some of the things here have little to no canon basis- i cobbled my rin characterization together with dramatic irony, copious amounts of masks, and spite. i do think that viewing rin like this adds flavor to the canon story, though, so maybe keep that in mind?

the first, central headcanon that influences pretty much everything about rin (to me) is that she hates the idea of being misinterpreted in life or in death. despite that, she wears masks built of what people expect her to be, and makes no effort to remove them and build real connections. and then she gets mad when no one really knows her. she contains multitudes.

this also adds a delicious twist to canon- from rin's pov, obito's great fault is not the murders, the betrayals, or the longing for a perfect world; its him mis-remembering her so BADLY that he somehow mischaracterized the mask she was wearing. my guy.

part of the reason rin wears masks is because she is unsure of who she is and what she wants, and she views that as a personal failure. she has made the logical fallacy, of course, that she has an immutable "true self" who she has managed to lose. she's also 12 and living in kill people repress your emotions city, so i guess we can give her a pass on that. the real important thing to understand here is that rin views any presentation of herself that is not her "true self" (smth that doesnt exist) as equally false. therefore, she assumes that it is easier to continue on with the mask she is already wearing than switch it out for smth just as bad. she does not know that the self is something cobbled together over a lifetime of stealing thoughts, feelings and mannerisms from other people and mixing it with your experiences and innate personality. she paints her cheeks purple because her father does, and he does it because his father did, who did it because his mother did, and on and on, but she cannot comprehend that the laugh she learned from him is just as unique. lmao

another thing about personhood: kakashi and obito, from an outside view, seem very put together. they have goals, for heaven's sake, they must know what they're doing! rin doesn't have a crush on kakashi- she admires him because he looks like he's got his life figured out! (when you start thinking kakashi's put together, you know something's wrong.)

the thing about rin's relationship with the rest of her team is that it's very one-sided. rin is obito's best friend- obito is not rin's best friend. the team spirit and unity that konoha tries to impress on them is lost on rin because she interacts with them like she's on an infiltration mission, and then gets mad that they don't know the "real" her, gets sad that she doesn't know the "real" her, and then puts on more masks to make sure no one notices, and the cycle repeats. the rest of team minato is fooled into thinking that they are close with her, and rin drifts further and further away. we see this when obito "dies-" she almost unaffected by it. now, it's probably portrayed like that as to not take away from kakashi's reaction, but it feeds nicely into my interpretation that she just… doesn't really care.

after obito dies and kakashi starts falling apart, i do think he and rin get a bit closer. he's obviously not in a great mental state to be worrying over her in any manner except physical safety, but he does wonder when her smile stretches a bit too thin and brittle. he never knows rin- not by her definition- but i think sometimes he gets to see her without any masks on: a limp doll who's tired of pretending at humanity.

last point on rin's mental state before we move onto the totally-there-and-real symbolism aspects of her character: she has a very, very apathetic attitude towards death that's only exacerbated by the fact that she's not really close to anyone. she's not exactly suicidal, but she wouldn't care if she died. she's not jumping at the bit to sacrifice herself- that apathy means she doesn't really care if anyone else dies, either. she holds on until she can't hold on anymore, and then she drops it like a hot potato. rin voice: wait if there's an afterlife why are we scared of dying. and then no one ever explained it to her so she never unlocked her fear of death.

ok! symbolism time! i, personally, am a huge proponent of moth/astronaut/icarus rin. there's a few threads that weave into that tapestry, so stick with me while we make our way through em.

first: remember what i said earlier, about rin hating obito for mis-remembering her rather than the whole infinite tsukuyomi gig? well, part of that is because she just really hates being misinterpreted, but the other part is that she wouldn't think infinite tsukuyomi was bad at all! remember, rin is very… nihilistic, and already has a tenuous relationship with consequences- she wouldn't see the problem with fixing things with an illusion. this slots into the moth interpretation- she's chasing the moon! 

second, there's the whole chidori thing. idk if you guys remember it, its only the most defining moment of rin's entire character in canon. the chidori looks like the sun. icarus. do you catch my drift

the rest of the points towards this symbolism are more vague and tend to lean more towards like. obscure references to the challenger crash and a reliance on my insistence that moths and icarus and astronauts ARE basically the same thing, thank you very much, but i think i've said enough to get my point across.

there's more i could say- we could explore aus where rin lives to adulthood, and how she would grow and develop, or we could dive into the fascinating relationship she has with minato and being a mednin, or how she and sasuke are 2 flavors of the same guy, but this post is already stupid long, so i'll save that for another time. just know that rin is the coolest girly ever. and she deserves to kill.

[narhinafan]

Rereading the Bleach manga has made me despise SP majority of the shipping wars in the Naruto and bleach fandom is in huge part because of SP. What I really despise about them is how they're biased towards other characters is that the expense of others. Recently with their treatment of Hinata and emitting scenes that were in the manga and the light novel family Day. Don't get me started on how they treated Orihime in the 2004 bleach anime how they basically turned her into a one-dimensional character when she has some of the most depth of any of the female characters in the manga she's a great character that was completely ruined.

I have serious criticisms of the one piece anime but at least one piece doesn't add fuel to the fire and The shipping wars yeah they may push some ships like Luffy and Nami but it's not at the expense of other characters like Naruto and bleach have done in their anime adoptions.

Honestly I don't blame them too much for Bleach, since in the early manga it was still possible, but it was obvious Orihime was going to be end game and Rukia had Renji as well, but they ended up fueling the shipping wars as the manga went on, but at least Rukia is a good character.

In Naruto however the scriptwriter was just completely bias towards NaruSaku despite how bad of character Sakura was. Even when the manga made it obvious NaruHina was end game and his crush on Sakura got greatly exaggerated in the anime as where in the manga it is like how Kishimoto intend you can tell it was never serious and that the rivalry with Sasuke was the driving force. Like come on the first chapter where Sakura shows up is literally about how Naruto competes with Sasuke, even when Naruto asks Sakura out it is always after Sasuke rejects her first as if he needs to be reminded to do so.

I 100% agree that their bias comes at the expense of others, like Hinata still got some spotlight in the original anime, but since Boruto started they have been more bias against her. I could give them a pass on the family novel and even not showing the Momoshiki fight since the show is about the next gen. However when they adapted that trash Retsuden they had no excuse for doing so other then bias cause it has nothing to do with the next gen characters. There is no defence or excuse for their actions it is entirely them just being bias towards Sakura and against Hinata. Like Sakura has little screen time, but the fact that they avoid giving Hinata any when they can especially any that shows her in a good light is just bad. Even the anniversary video lacked all of Hinata and Naruto's iconic scenes.

[mistninja]

I wish sakura and sasuke were, you know, friends :/

[maoam]

There's something I want to address and it's the claim that SS and NH are lacking or bad because Kishimoto can't write romance or can't write female characters. While I definitely agree that he doesn't write his female characters nowhere near as interesting or with the same depth as his male characters, Sakura and Hinata's characters being particularly bad and SS/NH being bad has nothing to do with his inability to write heterosexual romance. We have seen him write some.

Dan and Tsunade had a romantic relationship, and we see them bond due to similar values and similar pain. They can relate and understand each other. They have things in common. They speak like equals. Now, I will not add all of their pages together because it will make the post too long, but isn’t it sad that in three pages we have a better connection, better understanding and more believable romance between a minor character and a side character, than we have between two main characters that had 700 chapters worth of time to have a believable romantic relationship and connection? I don’t even need to add all the pages where they are touchy and happy around each other or when Dan calls Tsunade his dream and kisses her forehead.

Now compare that to Sasuke and Sakura. To quote @sneezemonster15 "We are yet to see a profound, honest and emotionally touching interaction or conversation between Sasuke and Sakura". To add to that, we have yet to see Sakura say anything profound about Sasuke's character, goals or values. All we ever see her do is cry and scream how much she loves him and how much it pains her. Sasuke doesn't even treat her as an equal enough to face her whenever she pours out her feelings, like he does with Naruto. She doesn’t know anything about him because he never speaks to her. She has the nerve to compare him leaving her to the massacre of his family in terms of tragedy and loneliness, despite the fact she has a family, because she lacks empathy and understanding towards him.

Whenever she confesses, she looks angry, and her reasonings are irrational. She always tries to talk about herself in order to sway him. They never communicate, they never have deep conversations. They can’t relate to each other because Sakura doesn’t value her family and family is Sasuke’s character motivation and the most important thing to him. When Sasuke says there is no reason for him to love Sakura and no reason for her to love him, he’s right. What would Sasuke love about Sakura? He doesn’t even know her, and her values and behavior are something that irritates him. Sakura doesn’t know Sasuke either. She’s just addicted to him.

As for NH, Kishi was able to make a female character save her love interest without looking pathetic or coming off as selfish. And that character is Temari.

Again I won’t post all the images but Temari comes to save Shikamaru because Tsunade send back up, and Shikamaru starts with his usual “a man can’t have a woman defend him” nonsense and Temari is like, telling him not to underrestimate her and she proves him wrong too. She does manage to save him. Temari is a great kunoichi and always shown as one.

Now compare this to Hinata. First of all as I pointed out in one of my essays Kishimoto build up this moment by having multiple characters say no one should join the fight between Naruto and Pain because they would only make things harder for Naruto and get in his way. Hinata is also told about this. But, as she says, her motivation to join the fight is selfish. She wants to confess her feelings. She also has no strategy, she just barges in and is immediately one-paneled by Pain and needs to be saved. So not only did Kishimoto show Hinata as an incompetent kunoichi, he also showed her as selfish and only thinking about her own feelings. This is completely different from how he portrayed Temari.

My point is, Kishi can write female characters as not pathetic, even if he doesn’t give them the same attention as his male characters. He can also make them have reasonable interest in a male character. He can write them as not selfish. He can write the romantic interaction as tasteful. But he never did this for SS or NH because he never intended them to be good romances.

[animeyanderetalker]

Hi, I wanted to ask you about if you ever watched Boruto the next generations? (Naruto Character kids)..They have a load of potential yanderes there. I won't force you to watch it but it's a suggestion that I believe that you would love regardless because of potential yanderes of course..

This is a little ramble and I would like to clarify that this is my opinion, if you like Boruto, that is fine with me.

I have heard of it and have watched a little bit here and there, sadly I have to say that it wasn’t to my liking. It really might just be because I, like mostly many others, had just too high expectations since it is about Naruto’s son and considered it some sort of sequel. I would have watched it if Kishimoto would have written it at the very least himself from the beginning, but apparently he wasn’t the main writer for Boruto and that has me worried. Whilst Kishimoto did lack some deeper characterization and giving certain characters enough depth and screen time, he ultimately tried his best in some way and has the best understanding of those characters. With him not writing it actively, I fear that the new writers changed the characters somehow and made them not like they used to be in the Naruto Era. I heard that he did return now, that doesn’t take away my hesitation though and I feel in general like the whole Boruto sequel was made to earn more money after the huge success of Naruto.

Another thing that worries me is the fact that currently there is peace in the Ninja world. That is obviously great after all the fighting and death in Naruto, but that makes the story line, which is literally about ninjas and fighting against strong foes, a lot less interesting. It doesn’t make much sense in my opinion to continue this Anime with a similar concept as Naruto if there is no real conflict to solve and you’d have to add new crazy stuff to disturb the peace once again to get some fight scenes and even then it would probably come over as too inconvenient and as too pushy in order to get some fight scenes.

That leads me to the next thing in general. The foes. With Naruto and Sasuke basically having the powers of god by the end of Naruto and the beginning of Boruto, every villain would be finished instantly if they would cross paths with either one of them. So what is the solution to get some long fight scenes if a bad guy faces one of them? To have them on a Madara or even Kaguya level. The power ups in Naruto were already questionable at times and I know that is often the concept of Shonen Anime, but if my theory is right about this, it really comes over as cheap in my opinion since you have to take all the strength and power to the next level and continue that concept even stronger than in Naruto.

From what I’ve heard, the foes in Boruto are the Otsutsuki. But isn’t it the goal of those guys to eat the chakra fruit and be finished with it? If the villains in there are mainly from this clan, the ambitions of them are all the same and would get boring after a while as well since it would be too one-sided. Naruto had interesting villains with intriguing goals. Pain with his ideology of peace against Naruto’s idea of peace, Sasori and his view on art and obsession with becoming the perfect puppet and many others. What made them interesting are their different dreams, their motives and their desires which were all different. Having the same motive over and over again can get too plain and predictable after a while and it has the villain losing the connection to the viewer which is the moment they lose what could make them interesting.

I also really was sort of disappointed when I found out that Hinata became a housewife. She never got much fight scenes in Naruto and I hoped that this might change in Boruto, instead she apparently just stays at home now. Sakura is sort of similar as well, though I’ve heard that she at least had her awesome fight against someone named Shin (?).

I greatly hesitate to add that show for those reasons concluded above. I feel like the main problem for many really is that they compare it too much to Naruto and the fact that it is about Naruto’s son makes it all the better to do exactly that. I just feel like the show lacks the mysteries in Naruto and since the Otsutsuki were the only real mystery left, the writers went with that and other new crazy powers. I wish they could have explored other villages a little bit more since there are still things we don’t know about them. Someone from my closer circumstances told me that they don’t really enjoy Boruto because of the straightforward plot. We just know everything about Konoha, it’s history and the shinobi now and that leaves holes how to add something new and interesting from the shinobi world, leading us to the aliens.

Opinions about that Anime are mixed in general and I tend to shy away from it. I just don’t appreciate what they made out of some of the Naruto characters in Boruto. When I heard that Kishimoto started returning to the story, I was thinking about watching it completely, but then I got caught up with other Anime and then this blog so it started slipping from my mind a bit. I really don’t know, what would you say about this Anime.

[by-the-power-of-kuriboh]

Danzo is awful but is one of my favorite examples of body horror in the series. His reveal is right up there with Kabuto turning and showing his half grafted face. Imagine if Kishimoto teamed up with a horror author! He's already halfway there with anime filler being lifted straight from Lovecraft stories like the Color out of Space and the night gaunt in the Blood Prison movie.

Yes!! See also: Orochimaru's weird ass snake form, where he's simultaneously one being consisting of many snakes, which erupts from his previous body - or, you know. Just Orochimaru in general is so, so fucked up and I love every nasty, gross second of it.

And horror isn't even a central theme in the story! That's just some flavouring! Some parts of Naruto really read like a horror-enthusiast tried really hard not to write horror but instead some classic shonen adventure story. Which, I think, is a shame: we have all these absolutely amazing set ups for the genre of body horror specifically, but it never goes further than that. It's all a bit superficial - just a physical transformation, a power up even. It rarely, if ever, gets examined, or reflected on, and sometimes there's not even a proper reaction to it (how many times do you see a character being disgusted or horrified of these scenes?)

I personally would have loved to see a more in depth exploration of the trope that is already being used - how the manipulation of the body can come with unexpected side effects, where the line between "mine" and "other" is drawn in regard to your own (transplanted) body, any of that sort, you know?

But then again, that's not the goal of Naruto. It's a shonen adventure comedy manga intended for mostly children and young teenagers. And that's cool - if I wanted good horror, I'd have picked a different manga. But it does add a nice flavour to Naruto.

Anyways, sorry for the long post, I know you didn't really ask my opinion on this. Also, looks like I really need to watch the Blood Prison movie. Thank you for the ask!!

[xmonday-mintx]

“The Exact Copy of the Parents’ look”

After getting an ask about how Inojin and Sai are looking alike, it made me want to talk something about the anime troupe called “The child is the carbon copy of parent”  or should I say “The mash-up of the mom and the dad look”  lol

     Last time , I saw a post about it and people agreed that they didn’t like that troupe at all. Especially when that’s not how genetics work. But for me I think I don’t mind that at all? I think it is a really easy one for the narrative to follow too. Especially when you only have a chapter to introduce the new kids into the story. (you can call it lazy writing too)

  You can see new gen InoShikaChou are all mash-up versions of their respective parents and we never seem to question who their parents are ...because.. like can it be any more obvious??

   But now unfortunately, let me talk about Sarada. In the Naruto Chapter 700, we see the black haired girl with the glasses who was following around Boruto and observing him, later on we found out that it is Sakura and Sasuke’s daughter.

 Uchiha genes seem to be taken over in Sarada and we don’t see any trait of Sakura in her at all, even more she is wearing the freaking glasses that no uchihas(sasuke) nor sakura seems to be wearing!!!  As far as I remember, in the initial sketches of new gen kids which is on Sarada’s profile, Kishi put a description that Sarada was wearing glasses because she didn’t want to look like her dad (in the end he never bring that concept back into the narrative). But then after Chapter 700 came out ,the audience got mind-blown and left with huge confusion. 

>>“Who’s the Mom?”

like what?? Why are you asking a question like that when Sakura is next to her at the end of Shippuden, pfft of course Sakura is the mom! Shouldn’t you be asking the question of “Who’s the Dad?” instead, since Sasuke isn’t even around the village??

>>But Sarada has dark hair and dark eyes! She is an Uchiha for sure!THere is no Sakura’s trait on her and most of all she is wearing “tHE gLAssES” 

“pftt! It is just the glasses, why would it matter?” 

......No.... It matters..... It matters so much that Kishimoto had to write 10 chapters long of Gaiden explaining why Karin isn’t Sarada’s mom. lmao. 

......You get what I mean? 

 To be honest even thou I am like saying “it is essential in the narrative part for the kids to have some obvious traits of both of the parents to avoid confusion”. My fav new gen Kid’s design is Sarada afterall (and Mitsuki) They stand out so much and they are very unique.

So continuing on this, Something like Boruto/Himawari having “marking” on the face will make you immediately know who their parent are without even adding any information at all. Let’s see Boruto without having any markings or blue eyes, and give him Red hair and purple eyes (Yes exactly like Kushina)

That’s kinda Cool!  His Spiky hair seems to be giving the vibe of Kushina’s Nickname (Red Habanero)  It’s not so bad really. But do you guys think it will work on the narrative part without anyone saying “Did Naruto cheat with Karin?”. But well, the answer is  Kushina did have a lot impact on the readers and she is an Iconic character (Red Hair Uzumaki) in “Naruto”. so It will probably work and I think it would be quite interesting path for the authors to follow since the story has provided all the facts And it seems to add on a lot of depth of the character’s background too!

 But it just make me think about the characters who didn’t have enough facts (the uchiha wearing glasses) and development. I don’t think it will work. Just imagine If Inojin didn’t have any trait of Sai or maybe just exactly like Sai (Black hair dark eyes) or something out of like Sai’s parent trait?  I am like 100% sure people are gonna say Ino cheated with Sasuke or someone else .lmao since My girl’s reputation seem to be bad and saiino wasnt real before 700  But unless Kishi wish to give all the gaidens to newgens. xD

   So considering, if the mangakas didn’t plan to have a sequel of new gens but just to introduce the kids of the Characters out of blue, “The child is the exact copy of the Parent” troupe is not really bad at all. Clear and Clean cut explanation.

[interplanet--janet]

cosmicwarden replied to your post: sometimes i forget that my naruto oc is such a...

Do you mind taking about her, or do you have a tag or something? I love hearing about people’s ocs

My naruto oc is unfortunately just in my head haha! Buuuut here’s some word vomit about my oc under the cut because... its probably A Lot lol

Oh god ive never actually explained how much ive fucked up naruto canon before so uh. Her name is Hideyo Ueda, and like. I thought it would be interesting to add Avatar: The Last Airbender dynamics to naruto? So she’s basically the avatar because why not. So it’s sort of intertwined with how elemental chakra works, and some of the ATLA lore and Naruto lore go nicely together because some of ATLA has Japanese inspired elements? 

IDK I could go more in depth with that but I basically explained it like. So the Sage of the Sixth Paths created/mastered all of the nature chakras, and so like the avatar that innate ability is then passed through generations? If that makes sense? But thats more of the lore based stuff

SO Hideyo has her 3 man squad except theyre all girls (well one is nonbinary) because fuck it, and they’re all from the Nadeshiko village which, i didnt watch that filler episode but its the village made entirely up of women. its the gay village. 

And like. for a ninja i guess she’s very peace-oriented? Like she has a really strong sense of morality and wont hesitate to fuck someone up, like on a mission, but really her goal as this “avatar” is sort of a counseling role? especially during the 5 kage summit arc/the war arc. in the sense that like “hey my past lives told you to shut up and sit down” kind of thing. I blame Kishimoto being unable to write strong women because Hideyo and her other two squad members are all really kick ass girls really. 

None of my specific headcanons are really coming to mind right now but this is already a 100 word essay whoops. Also do you have any OCs? Because i also love hearing about other people’s OCs!!!

[sasusakuotpuniverse]

Why I think Sakura is a Feminist Character

The thing about Sakura is that the style Kishimoto wrote her character in subverted the heroine trope, which is especially prevalent in action genre media. We all know that superhero/secret agent/sci-fi/fantasy action movie, book, or comic. It’s the typical overcoming the monster, quest, or voyage and return story plots. The male protagonist is your average guy, nothing special - until he meets super hot, sexy mysterious woman who saves his ass from this newly discovered evil the protagonist encounters. She is so strong, smart, witty, etc. She is a combat master in judo, has great aim with her weapons, and/or supernatural powers that dazzles our hero. He eventually enlists in the Forces of Good to battle the evil because the World as We Know It will be destroyed. He trains under the heroine. He slowly becomes stronger than our heroine after only a faction of the time the heroine has trained for. She falls in love with our hero and suddenly is now a damsel in distress. 

THEME: Love is our heroine’s downfall. She becomes weaker because of it.

Then there’s the other kind of heroine - the teen girl in the young adult sci-fi/fantasy genre. She, like our male hero, discovers an evil foe beyond the likes of anything she could ever have imagined. The Forces of Good realize that she has innate abilities that could help defeat their enemy and save the world. She meets Tall, Dark, Hot, Mysterious, and Brooding - her love interest. Her abilities wax and wane in relation to his. Either she is weaker than him or equally strong. He loves her more than the sun, moon, and stars, though at first he resists for some idiotic reason. She is constantly thinking about him. Her reason for fighting is because of the Big Picture or for some touching, profound notion or memory - or because, well, she just has to. A/N: This is a relatively common trope for YA fiction, particularly apocalyptic and/or oppressive government in theme.

THEME: Love ties into our heroine’s development maturity-wise, but it doesn’t give her her power. She does not fight for the sake of love, but it overshadows her potential.

What Kishimoto does is characterize Sakura in such a way that her love for her companions is her source of strength, much like Naruto. Her love for Sasuke is a catalyst for her development. It’s her constant reminder of WHY she needs to be stronger - so she and Naruto can bring him back. Together. She actively works on becoming level with her comrades. She despises the thought of losing easily. She curses at her shortcomings. And unlike the action movie heroine, she isn’t objectified or there for sexual appeal. 

In contrast to many young adult novel heroines, she embraces her femininity. She likes the color pink, happily takes care of her body and grooms it within reason, enjoys flowers, and celebrates her body with flattering clothes. Her profession is in the medical field, yet this isn’t necessarily feminine. Her proficiency/genius in the field doesn’t designate her solely as caretaker, though this is still an aspect of her character that is just as important. Her monstrous brute strength, which is stereotypically a masculine trait prided by male heroes, balances and even adds an element of diversity to her. (She’s got brains and brawn). Her quick temper, also a cliche masculine trait, is a contrast to her compassionate nature. Her combat clothes are practical and well-suited to her fighting style and medical profession. Her hair is kept short for easy maintenance, as well as mobility and evasion. She is quick, nimble, physically strong, intelligent, temperamental, caring, logical, impulsive, and most of all, human. 

Kishimoto has described Sakura as probably the most human character in the series for a reason. Her actions and thoughts are sometimes irrational, but have good intent. Her personality traits described above are on opposite sides of the spectrum - because her character is exceptionally dynamic. Her love for Sasuke may be well a large motivational factor in her training and growth, but this is eclipsed by her own reasons - since from the beginning of the academy days, she’s wanted to be her own person. In other words, Sasuke doesn’t make Sakura stronger. He rather inspires her. Perhaps her love for him is irrational, but since when is this a factor in love? Kakashi states that we don’t need a reason to love. She explicitly thinks solely about Sasuke himself and her love for him maybe somewhere above 10 times total in a 700 chapter manga, and even that might be pushing it. Most of these moments largely consist of her missing him as a person and worrying for his well-being and especially his happiness. This is almost exactly Naruto’s concerns in regards to Sasuke, but unlike Sakura, these thoughts are a prominent theme of the manga - they are constantly mentioned with flashbacks to boot. Both Sakura and Naruto wanted to save Sasuke by killing and dying with him.

Sakura knows that the likelihood of Sasuke reciprocating romantic feelings is dismal at best or so she believes. She’s constantly reminding herself of this, especially in part 2, i.e. her confrontation with Sasuke with the intent to kill him, and her second confession to him in an attempt to stop him from fighting Naruto. During the battle against Madara, Sakura charges forward as a decoy and is stopped by Madara’s invisible clone and effectively skewered by the real Madara’s sword. Afterwards, as she is held by Naruto, she glances at Sasuke, who looks unaffected as usual. She believes he doesn’t care about her at all, which would be painful considering just how much she cares for him, and this speaking not strictly romantically, but as a person, an old comrade, or equal. In effect, Sakura believes Sasuke looks down on her, is uninterested in her well-being, and holds no respect for her. She is convincing herself of this because there are no obvious signs that he even feels a fraction of what she feels. 

I won’t go in depth here about this, but there are many very good comprehensive analyses of Sasuke’s body language, words, and actions that actually make sense and ultimately confirm that he cared deeply for Sakura. Sasuke was never a man of many words or a man of outspoken physical affection either. It would only make sense that his reactions were just as subtle as the rest of him is. It would also actually discredit Sakura as a character in such analysis in regards to romantic dynamics. If Sasuke were the doting boyfriend seen in most of today’s YA books, not only would it be out of character, but Sasuke would be much more heavily involved in her life - readers would see Sasuke and Sakura, not just Sakura, or just Sasuke even, for that matter. Their relationship would not be as complex as we’ve seen in Gaiden. Because of the lack of understanding and miscommunication seen in part 1 and 2, they must learn to navigate and grow in the relationship not just as partners, but also as people. In essence, perhaps a more realistic and healthier reflection on relationships.

Lastly, but most definitely not least, Sakura raises her daughter alone without resentment for Sasuke, but rather thinks only of his love for his family, Sakura and Sarada, and Sakura and Sarada’s love for him. She misses him and regrets his absence with a quiet longing and that he’s the only one who could do the mission. There is no bitterness, but a love waiting to welcome him home. First, the rarity of a powerful, main couple having a girl for their first and only child is a large contrast to the vast majority of classic literature/stereotypes. In these cases, an infamous man almost always breeds an even stronger son, i.e. Dragon Ball Z, Zeus and Heracles, Prison Break, Odin and Thor (from ancient Norse paganism), etc. Female protagonists tend to have sons, most likely because the family name will continue to the next generation or the bias for men as heroes, i.e. Jane Eyre, Bleach, Naruto (Hinata gives birth to Boruto as the oldest child and only son), Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. Additionally, children of whichever gender will tend to carry on their father’s legacy, such as Hunger Games, Lion King, Superman, Raven (from Teen Titans), etc. However, Sarada is born of Sakura and Sasuke as their first and only daughter. While she inherits her father’s Sharingan, her true display of strength in the end against the army of Shins in Gaiden is the inheritance of her mother - precise chakra control in the manifestation of brute strength, Sakura’s signature style. The story itself left no doubt that she was an Uchiha and would activate the Sharingan. The true question was of Sarada learning the love/power of her mother and using it in a bout of desperation - another typical theme for heroes unlocking their powers/legacies inherited from their fathers.

To conclude -

THEME: Love is the heroine’s strength and weakness. It enables and discourages her in her actions and motivation. Her determination and loyalty stems from it. She becomes more three-dimensional because of it and more relatable as a character.