#learning medical ninjutsu so she really finds a spot for herself. she does!!! but then she KEEPS hanging onto the love nonsense

[lecliss]

Sakura gets a second point for being the first to complete the tree climbing at being better at chakra control, but at the same time it just feels like she was made good at it so no extra training segment time would have to be put into her getting good at it and it can be all about Sauce and Nart. Idk that feels too pessimistic but also could totally be true.

[bellandari]

Haruno Sakura gets more hate than she deserves.

Among all the characters, both good and evil in the Naruto series, for some reason Haruno Sakura is among the most hated – if not the most hated character and to be honest, I don’t think its deserved. There are also spoilers ahead so if for whatever reason you haven’t watched the series but are interested in this break-down, just be advised. Also – disclaimer – this is all obviously just my opinion. There are nearly 1000 episodes and nearly a dozen movies so there is a lot of information that is both cannon and filler. If you want the “TL;DR” version, it’s at the bottom.

Who is Haruno Sakura?

She’s an important main character in the Naruto series and a member of Team 7 (initially under the leadership of Hatake Kakashi) with Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. The entire story revolves around the relationship of these three young shinobi. The short of it is – Naruto loves Sakura, but hates Sasuke. Sakura loves Sasuke, but hates Naruto. And Sasuke is indifferent to both of them, focused merely on his goal of revenge.

Why is Sakura hated?

I’m not entirely sure but here’s what I can figure out based on some comments I see on Crunchyroll, YouTube, and Instagram. The general argument is that she is a useless character who always needs saving and can never do anything for herself. She’s lied to Naruto, tried to use Naruto, and the focus of her love (Sasuke) has tried to kill her multiple times but for some reason she still loves Sasuke. I’m sure there’s some more but that seems to be the general train of thought that I can find.

Why do I defend Sakura’s character?

There’s a few reasons why I defend Sakura’s character and why she deserves a spot in my personal Top 5 Naruto Characters. The biggest, and probably most important reason, is that above all else she is simply human. She isn’t perfect, she makes a lot of mistakes and occasionally has bad judgment. She doesn’t possess that main character ability of always doing the right thing.

One of the biggest arguments I see is that Sakura is “useless” and that not even the writer of Naruto likes her much (I don’t know if that’s true, but regardless, still no reason to hate her). I’m not really sure where this useless quality comes into play. Compared to her team-mates, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke – she does seem to pale in comparison.

Naruto possesses a tailed-beast and Sage abilities, becomes a student of one of the legendary three shinobi, Jiraiya, and at one point had Sage of the Six Paths abilities. Sasuke possesses the Sharingan, the Rinnegan, becomes a student of one of the legendary three shinobi, Orochimaru, and at one point also had Sage of the Six Paths abilities, effectively making Naruto and Sasuke god-reincarnates at one point in the series. Sakura has…one of those. Comparing most people to Naruto or Sasuke would make even some of the most capable people look useless.

As I stated previously, Sakura is very much your normal girl. Her parents were also shinobi but did not garner fame or crazy abilities, if I recall they were basically mid-tier run of the mill shinobi - if memory serves we only see her parents a couple times in filler episodes. Her family does not possess any special bloodlines like the Uchiha’s Sharingan or the Hyuga’s Byakugan. Through and through, Sakura is completely “normal”. At the very beginning this immediately paints her in a bad light. She immediately useless because she had a normal upbringing – she didn’t lose both her parents as a baby and become an outcast, nor was her family murdered leaving her as the sole survivor. Her upbringing was unremarkable.

So what does Sakura have?

Towards the end of the first series, Sakura becomes a student of the current Hokage, Tsunade – one of three legendary Konoha shinobi (now all three legendary shinobi have students). Under Tsunade’s tutelage, Sakura learns medical ninjutsu and undergoes Tsunade’s strength training.

As a result she becomes an incredibly capable medical-ninja credited with saving many lives both on and off the battlefield. She also has incredible strength and is routinely seen destroying the landscape around her with a single punch – even making someone as powerful as Kakashi fear her.

Finally, she learns the Strength of a Hundred Seal – spending three years storing energy in a pinpoint spot on her forehead, a feat Tsunade’s direct aid Shizune wasn’t able to complete. When this technique is released, it amplifies her medical and physical strengths allowing her to take near fatal blows with little consequence for a limited time.

However, despite all this – she is still hated. She doesn’t become a god-reincarnate. She was never a child-prodigy. She lied to the main character (gasp) and had to be saved by the main character several times. Let’s look at the main two incidents people like to bring up.

#1: Her “confession” to Naruto

About midway through the Shippuden series, there is a scene where Sakura confesses her love for Naruto. Naruto immediately sees through the charade and calls her out on her lie, saying he hates people who lie to themselves. Why is this important?

Towards the beginning of the original series, Sasuke becomes hell-bent on gaining power and abandons the villages. Naruto makes a promise to Sakura that he’ll bring Sasuke back and that he never goes back on his word. In Naruto’s mind this means that no matter how many times he fails, he’ll continue to try to find Sasuke until he’s successful.

Back to the present, Sakura has seen the damage Sasuke can do now that he’s become a full-blown rouge and criminal, and she’s seen how much Naruto obsesses at trying to find Sasuke – at points putting himself in extreme danger. Sakura believes that if she can convince Naruto (and herself) that she no longer loves Sasuke, perhaps Naruto and Sasuke won’t kill each other in the process, allowing Naruto to return to a somewhat normal life. Sakura believes Naruto is doing all this for her sake and when he turns her down she realizes that it’s not for her sake, but for his own.

I feel this is an important event to discuss. Was giving a false confession to Naruto wrong? Absolutely. Even if Naruto hadn’t seen through it, it would’ve been nothing but pain as she tried to convince herself otherwise. Was it necessary? I’d say yes. It was this event that made her realized that Naruto had more or less given up on becoming something with Sakura, and that no matter how much she lied to herself she still loved Sasuke. It is a very HUMAN moment for Sakura.

#2: Pleading for Naruto to save Konoha during Pain’s attack

This one kind of makes me laugh. During Pain’s attack, Sakura is seen at one point on her knees screaming for Naruto to come rescue the village, and poof – Naruto appears to save the day. People like to use this as an argument for her uselessness seemingly forgetting two facts: she’s a medical-ninja, and she’s not a hero.

Tsunade drills into her from day one that the most important thing for a medical-ninja to do is stay alive. Running in to fight attacking Akatsuki is a surefire way to get herself killed and result in the deaths of any of those she could have saved with her medical abilities. The smartest thing for her to do is stay away from direct combat and heal the wounded.

The second point is – she’s not a hero. As I’ve stated before – she has no real special abilities. She possesses no special eyes or tailed beasts and family secrets. All she has is her medical abilities and her high-physical strength. Against an enemy like pain, anything short of Naruto or Sasuke’s ability would be useless – and this is shown with Kakashi, Tsunade, and many other ninja regarded as being “more powerful” (including Naruto’s teacher) than Naruto are killed or tossed around with ease by Pain. It is only natural for her to despair waiting for the one who left the village to train specifically for this moment.

If people don’t like Sakura, who do they like?

Hyuga Hinata – Naruto’s future wife and mother of their two children. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love Hinata. She’s a great character with a lot of great moments and great development. However, people don’t label her as useless for some reason. Between Sakura and Hinata, I would say Hinata is far less useful than Sakura, and much like everyone does with Sakura, I have two incidents that come to mind.

The first being when Hinata tries to rescue Naruto from Pain. She very briefly fights with Pain while attempting to free Naruto from his binds and although this is a key moment for her character development, the only thing she is able to contribute to the fight is her death. Watching Pain kill Hinata throws Naruto into a fit of rage that allows the Kyubi to take over. Eventually, once the conflict is resolved, Hinata is revived and life goes on.

The second being when Hinata talks Naruto out of his despair during the Fourth Great War after Neji’s death. Naruto, feeling responsible for Neji’s death is on the brink of self-destructing when Hinata clasps his face in her hands and speaks to him. She talks him out and gives him the encouragement and pep talk needed to get back in the fight.

And that’s it. Those are really the only two sections in the story (off the top of my head) where Hinata actually did something, and both of them had nothing to do with her combat abilities. During the Fourth Shinobi War, Hinata had a pretty small role in it compared to the “useless” Sakura who revived and kept Naruto alive at key points (literally pumping his heart for him at one point) as well as stood side by side with Naruto and Sasuke fighting the Ten Tails earning respect from both Sasuke and Naruto (granted it was only for a very short period of time before they attained Sage of the Six Paths).

Summary

All in all, I feel the hate Sakura gets is extremely unjustified and lopsided. I think some people like to hate Sakura because she’s a character that is easy to hate and the mob mentality of hating her becomes something people like to join in on. Understand her character, where she comes from, who she is and her motivations and you see that she’s far from useless. Personally, of all the characters in the Naruto series, I feel Sakura is one of the most complex characters that has a lot more depth than people think.

/////////////////////////////////////

TL;DR Version:

Compare Sakura to Naruto and Sasuke and of course she looks useless. Compare just about anyone to those two and they’ll look useless. She lacks special abilities or special family bloodlines but she still becomes a key player in the Fourth War and is able to stand side by side with her teammates afterwards.

[bushcloverprincess]

Let me explain Sai and Ino's love life to everyone who is still saying "I don't know how they ended up together": 💜

People really be jumping to Boruto series without knowing what has happened in the Naruto series after the war arc. So here is Sai and Ino's relationship throughout the entire Naruto canon timeline.

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN MANGA

First and foremost, Sai and Ino met in the very early episodes of Naruto Shippuden. Ino immediately had a crush on him because he was handsome, also noting that he looked like Sasuke. That is basically Ino, the flirty girl as we know. Having a crush and falling in love are two very different things.

Sai was introduced as a character with no emotions and feelings whatsoever. The reason why he thought Ino is "ugly" in their first interaction was because he didn't know what a real beauty is. He had no emotions/feelings, how do u expect him to understand beauty? Ironically, despite this, he called the opposite of what he thought at her, "Mrs. Beautiful" - building the foundation of SaiIno (Also Ino being the only person who didnt get insulted by Sai's nicknames.)

So, here Sai thought Ino was ugly and Ino had a crush on Sai solely because he was handsome. Two flaws, alright. Most of the fans know their relationship up to here. But that's not even close to the end of Sai and Ino's relationship before their marriage.

Moving on. As Sai and Ino are both side characters, they had almost no interactions on-screen afterwards in the manga, until the Fourth Shinobi War Arc. In the war, both Ino and Sai had each other in their Infinite Tsukyomi dreams. Ino dreamed of Sasuke and Sai fighting over her and Sai dreamed of Ino, along with his other close friends acknowledging his smile. (Sai's dream was in anime-only).

This proves that both have had interactions off-screen to the point that they were already very close friends before the war began. Morever, their Inifinte Tsukuyomi dreams reveal that by the war arc, Ino likes Sai as much as Sasuke (as she did not choose Sasuke over Sai in her ideal life/dream), and Sai likes Ino complimenting him.

During the long timeskip after the war Ino and Sai eventually starts dating. This was revealed in a spin-off manga chapter written in Akamaru's point of view by Kishimoto, where he spotted Sai and Ino together on a date and described them as "A couple totally on fire".

Around a decade later, in the very last chapter of the Naruto Shippuden manga (Chapter 700), they were shown married with a son together.

That's the end of Naruto manga contents for Sai and Ino's relationship, as expected not much because Naruto manga is NOT a romance manga.

BLANK PERIOD

Now, for those who wanted to know more about Sai and Ino's romance and the ship's further build up during the timeskip between the end of war and Boruto (Blank Period), there was a Novel series called Hiden. (Note: All Blank Period Hiden Novels are approved canon, illustrated and proof-read by Masashi Kishimoto, the author of the Manga himself). The Blank period is a part of the official canon timeline.

As mentioned above Novels are the stories of all the important events that took place during this blank period, including the romance between the characters. Get ready to hear one of the cutest love stories of Naruto series.

1- SHIKAMARU HIDEN NOVEL

Ino lost her crush on Sasuke long back and is pretty much not into any relationship. This was until in Shikamaru Hiden events, Ino read a letter which describes Sai's tragic life. Since then Ino wanted to know even more about him than she already does. Ino was sent on a mission with her fellow ninjas to help Shikamaru and save Sai, who has been caught in a very strong enslaving genjutsu by some enemies. Her top priority after reading the letter was nothing but to save Sai.

As they confronted the genjutsu-controlled Sai, for some reason Ino believed that she is the only person who could save Sai. Ino risked her life and used her Mind Transfer Jutsu on Sai, in other words, Ino's soul entered Sai's body. Ino dived deep into his mind but all she could see was darkness. She didn't give up and tried to find his soul by diving even deeper into his mind despite the fact that it could be a threat to her own soul too. Ino finally found Sai's soul crying deep inside, covered with his memories and darkness. Ino learnt about him (in the novel it says "She knew all about him so much that it hurt her"). Ino called out for him and showed his soul the path out of the darkness. Ino cleared his mind hence saving him from the genjutsu, also giving colors to his colorless soul. Ino's soul then hugged Sai's soul with a heartfelt smile ~ A hug between two souls.

This is the point where both of them fell deeply in love. The point Sai achieved his dream, the point where he got his emotions and feelings completely back. This is the first time he felt this much kindness from someone and learned what a true beauty is. When Sai is successfully saved by her, the two wake from Ino's jutsu and Sai finds himself resting on Ino's laps. Sai instinctively reaches for Ino's hands and he expresses his gratefulness to her, as her eyes begin to tear up, by affectionately calling her "Thankyou, Miss Beautiful". This time, he truly meaning this unlike the first time he called her beautiful. "Idiot" - replied Ino. And this time, Ino fell in love with Sai, not because he resembles Sasuke unlike the first time they met. This interaction was the complete opposite of the first time they met. This is how their love story began ladies and gentlemen. *Tears because how beautiful this is*

2- SAKURA HIDEN NOVEL

Later, while Ino and Sakura was on their way to Sand village to participate in an international Medical Ninja Conference, Ino reveals her love for Sai to Sakura after what happened. She was thinking of confessing her love to him properly but was unsure which flower to give him: Flower Dogwood or Lavender. Ino, the botanist explains that in Flower language, Dogwood means "Accept my feelings" while Lavender means "I'm waiting". Sakura tells that Ino was more of Flower Dogwood type, as she wants a direct answer from Sai. Whilst for Sakura herself, Lavender will be the best because she is willing to wait for Sasuke.

When they returned back to Konoha after the conference, Ino finds out Kakashi has sent Sai alone on a dangerous mission. Ino gets worried and questions his safety, and is angry that Kakashi let him go alone. After Sai returned and Sakura got kidnapped, Ino ran to Sai's place to inform him about Sakura's disappearance. When she arrives, she becomes flustered to see Sai only in his underwear, as he was taking a shower right before she came.

Following the crisis, Sai and Ino together goes on a mission alone to save Sakura upon Hokage's orders. They are the only couple besides Sakura and Sasuke who did a mission together alone in canon. Sai and Ino flew on a Choju Giga Bird, and Sai comforted Ino as she was afraid flying and had a difficulty maintaining the balance, causing her to feel a sweet warm sensation well up within her heart. They both together infiltrated a hideout. The Saiino duo's teamwork was amazing and flawless.

After Sakura is saved, they had to fight the enemies. Ino, who has been usually positioned near the back lines during close ranged combat situations was now instead supporting Sai with her taijutsu and healing Sai's injuries with her medical ninjutsu. Sai and Ino confronted a very powerful enemy, Magire who was drugged with Tailed Beast chakra, but their flawless teamwork and bond strength lead to their victory. Sakura, and Sai himself compliments Ino on how well she works together as a duo with Sai, getting Ino blush even more. Later Sakura prompted Ino and Sai to have a date dinner together, where Ino possibly confessed him with flower Dogwood and that is when they started dating.

3- KONOHA HIDEN NOVEL

As usual, Sakura and Ino keeps on fighting and competing, and now Ino takes a lot of pride with her blossoming relationship with Sai, claiming she has better love life than Sakura and that she will get married before her, much to Sakura's infuriation. After some days, Sai and Ino attended Naruto and Hinata's wedding ceremony as a dating couple holding hands, with everyone around them admiring their relationship. (Bonus: SaiIno is the only couple that was featured in The last opening of Naruto, Opening 20 (Karano Koroko).)

4- SASUKE SHINDEN: BOOK OF SUNRISE NOVEL

Later, after Ino was hospitalized due to the injuries she had after stopping an invasion, Sai was with her at the hospital all the time. Shikamaru and Chōji decide to visit Ino at the hospital and find that Sai is watching over her whilst she sleeps as he sketches a flower that Ino's mother brought her. Shikamaru and Chōji asks Sai to come with them for some investigation, but Sai remains, claiming that he will leave as soon as he has completed his drawing, however, Shikamaru notices several of Sai's already near-completed sketches in the trash as he exits. Sai intentionally made many half-complete drawings and discarded them before completion because he doesn't want to leave Ino. Shikamaru and Chōji realize that Sai did not want to leave Ino's side and begin discussing how much he has changed from the emotionless man he used to be after he met Ino.

Ino and Sai then got married, and had a wonderful wedding ceremony where Shikamaru and Choji were both so happy for Ino that they cried and wished their sensei, Asuma was there to see Ino. Sai and Ino's wedding ceremony is the only ceremony to have been mentioned after Hinata and Naruto's wedding. Well, that's the end of their relationship's details in the Blank Period Novels. Sweet, right?

NEW ERA: BORUTO ANIME, MANGA AND NOVELS

Sai, now married to Ino is the only male known to have taken his spouse's surname upon marriage, being now a part of the great Yamanaka Clan, finally having a family of his own. This family confronted gossips and prejudice from the villagers, and Ino's relationship with Sai was not well received by the Yamanaka Clan, all due to Sai's dark past in the currently disbanded Anbu Root. Despite all this, they managed to be as happy as ever. It is when he married to Ino and got to hold Inojin in his arms, Sai finally felt free and got control over his own life after years of being a puppet to Danzo.

As Boruto series is the story of the new generation, it's main focus from the Yamanaka Family is obviously Ino and Sai's son, Inojin Yamanaka. (Trivia: It is believed that Inojin's name is a mixture of Yamanaka Clan's customary name prefix "Ino" and the suffix "jin" is reference to Sai's late brother Shin). Sai has already told his son Inojin how his mother, Ino saved him with her shintenshin and how they fell in love, and Sai uses the same method (a hug or an affection) to calm Ino down when she gets upset or angry now. Boruto notes that Sai's only weakness is when it comes to Aunt Ino. According to Ino, Sai has never forgotten their anniversary throughout more than a decade they have been together. Although Ino remains as boisterous as ever, Sai is the sole person that gets Ino to fluster despite how angry or upset she is since beginning and even now.

According to Kakashi, Sai and Ino is the most beautiful couple he could imagine, and they both are so close that it seems they are glued to each other, noting that they are like a peculiar picture. Sai and Ino also often gets teased by their friends because how close and affectionate they are even in the public. Ino takes pride in Sai's ninja abilities and Sai takes pride and is proud of Ino's abilities. Ino is thankful that she moved on from Sasuke (Her childhood crush), because according to Boruto Manga, Ino now she feels bad for Sakura, whose husband, Sasuke visits her only very rarely, noting that she has been living such a perfect love-life that she cannot even imagine having a husband who is hardly at home. She is thankful for Sai, so is Sai for Ino. In one of the Boruto Novel it is stated about Ino:

"Because her husband was the one she knew was the best in the world" ~ 💜

SO,

I do not think this much of content, especially for a side-couple is less at all. It's more than enough, It's explained perfectly well. Only people who aren't having an idea on Naruto complete series will question or doubt SaiIno's relationship. So "Random couple", "Ino likes Sasuke because he looks like Sasuke", "Sai is a Sasuke rebound", "Ino lost to Sakura in love-life becuase she couldn't marry Sasuke" arguments are all total crap ~ 💕

AND FOR THOSE WHO SAYS SAI AND INO DOESN'T HAVE CHEMISTRY...

Sai was an emotionless and socially awkward boy who worked for the Root Section, meanwhile Ino was an emotional and lively sociable girl who works at a flower Shop, what else do you see other than the raging chemistry between this root and flower? The flower that baths in sunlight and the roots that grow in the dark! It has everything. They perfectly fits into the Yin (Sai) and Yang (Ino) philosophy Kishimoto seems to have considered when making the couples and friendships. As mentioned above Sai is the only man who can make Ino blush since beginning and even now! Ino had no problem with glomping on Sasuke and hugging him, but Sai calling her "Beautiful" makes her blush - See the difference? They both are perfect for each other. Ino gave colours to Sai's black & white life. Ino was a rainbow when Sai was colour blind. Not to mention they both wear crop-tops with exposed midriff. In addition Sai and Ino is the most affectionate couple who has shown most PDA (Public Display of Affection) content and closest moments together so far. I'd argue they have the most chemistry and couple symbolisms.

There, its done.

I hope its clear how they ended up together now 💕 So again, saying SaiIno is forced or random / Calling Sai a Sasuke Rebound / Saying Ino settled for Sai because she didn't get Sasuke as a plan B / Ino lost to Sakura in love life / Sai and Ino don't have chemistry- is making yourself a huge 🤡, actually an entire 🎪

Thankyou 💜

[depressedhatakekakashi]

TMS au

Itachi

Shizune

Ino

Itachi

(When it comes to Itachi I will always revert to @itachi-uchiha-deserved-better because they are the best with him, so if I have anything here wrong just let me know)

Although Itachi is no longer part of Konoha, he still likes to check in on his baby brother once in a while. even if Sasuke thinks he was the one who murdered their clan, and would likely attack him if he were to spot him, Itachi thinks it's worth the risk to know his brother is alright, and it breaks his heart to see him so lonely. Hating the only family member he has left because of Danzo's lies. The one thing Itachi wishes he could do is to tell Sasuke the truth, but he has long since accepted Sasuke's anger and decided to become his little brother's catalyst to reaching the peak of power through the Mangekyo Sharingan.

When Sakura is struggling to get used to the new training regime and wondering if her place is really here with strangers instead of in the village, Itachi is always there to support her and remind her of her goals. Pushing her to be the support that Naruto and Sasuke need and not to give up on the goals she has set for herself.

During the Pein arc, Itachi is away on a mission of his own to find his little brother and speak some reason into him if possible. He's angry that Tobi has used his brother's anger towards him and redirected it to all of Konoha, when Danzo should be his target. His hope is to convince his little brother out of being in the Akatsuki, and to redirect his energy onto the task Itachi is aiming to achieve. Taking down Danzo.

Shizune

Although Shizune doesn't make a habit of visiting the graveyard every day like Rin, she does visit it at least once a month. With flowers in hand and a cloth to give the gravestone a quick clean, she sits there and talks to Kakashi. tells him all about the things he has missed while he has been gone. She never realizes that Kakashi has learned her pattern and started to hang out nearby. not close enough to be seen, but to hear what she's saying. To know what's going on with the friends he misses so much.

Shizune was the one to ask Rin out on their first date. It was only a few months after Tsunade returned to Konoha to take on the mantle of the fifth Hokage, Rin didn't understand what she was asking for at first, so Shizune asks again just to clarify. She doesn't mind though. In fact, she thinks it's rather cute seeing Rin looking so surprised by her request.

Shizune does not chase Tsunade around as her assistant but instead takes up the position of Head of the hospital during Tsunade's run. It's only when Rin becomes Hokage that Shizune decides to become the Hokage's assistant, wanting a step back from the hospital life (though she still does shifts and has a huge say in any changes made). During her time as the head of the hospital, Shizune creates a mental health ward focused on helping those with PTSD. (Ino is still the one to make the children's mental health ward to help those who have lost people in war and have suffered because of the shinobi system)

Ino

Although Sakura leaves the village to train under the Hound masked shinobi, Ino chooses instead to approach Shizune about training. She recognizes that Shizune isn't as skilled in medical ninjutsu as Tsunade-sama, but also knows there are still things that she can learn from her. Things that will be useful in the field.

While she's learning under Shizune, Ino also continues to work with her team and actually takes on more of a leadership role. Shikamaru is still the one who does the mission planning, but all three of them agree Ino is best suited for actual leadership. Shikamaru likes that the responsibility isn't on him, and Ino gets to really work with the role she's best suited for. Ino-shika-cho flourishes more than any of the predecessors because of shikamaru's plans, Choji's support and Inos leadership.

During the fight against Kakazu, Ino actually gets a shot to take down one of his hearts herself. While he's fighting against Rin-sensei, he ends up exposing himself to ino. She quickly uses her mind transfer jutsu, and cements him in place. taking Rin's attack dead on and destroying one of his five hearts.

[sufferthesea]

Headcanons for Konoha 11 kunoichi as study buddies/sparring partners? :)

Thank you so much for the request! I hope I did okay with this, and sorry it took so long. I’ve never really had a study buddy before?? I eitherstudy by myself or don’t study at all. (it’s really ?? a miracle?? I graduated college Summa Cum Laude?? I’m assuming the more tears you cried, the higher the grade you got.)  

I hope these aren’t too redundant 💖 Under the cut because it’s 3.3k words, sorry. Someone should just tie my hands so I can’t type anymore. 

KONOHA 11 KUNOICHI AS STUDY BUDDIES & SPARRING PARTNERS 

SAKURA 

Study Buddy: Sakura arranges to meet at the library - either theschool one or the public one, and has all her supplies ready (books,markers, highlighters, notebooks, Post-It notes, literallyeverything).She carries everything in a sturdy shoulder bag that she has a fewkeychains on. She texts you to remind you the week before, 2 daysbefore, and the day of so you don’t forget - and she texts you alist of things you should bring.

Will study far intothe night if she needs to. She’ll also stay with you until you’recomfortable enough with the material to move on or call it a night.She really wants you to pass because, 1) she wants you to succeedand, 2) it makes her feel good knowing that she helped you to dobetter and improve!

She has two moodswhen studying - it’s either “WE POWER THROUGH THIS LIKE WOMEN ANDSTUDY FOR 8 HOURS STRAIGHT, NO BREAKS” or, “I’ve read thisthree times and it doesn’t make sense, so I think we should grablunch to give our minds a break, but then IT’S BACK TO THELIBRARY!”

Thisgirl doesn’t sleep the week before exams, which means she won’tlet you sleep either. It’s all-nighters cramming over your notes,downing caffeine, and keeping each other awake (she punches you tokeep you from falling asleep and she forgets how strong she is so itusually ends up in you covered with a lot of bruises and taping youreyes open so she won’t think you’re falling asleep - please,Sakura stop PUNCHING ME).

Ifyou both do well on your exams, she’ll arrange a celebratory dinnerfor both of you. If she did well and you didn’t, she’ll let youknow that you did your best and she’ll help you keep studying (andshe’ll definitely buy you your favorite food/rent your favoritemovie to cheer you up). If you did well and she didn’t, she’d bereally disappointed but hide it so she could be happy for you - andthen she’d take you out to a bakery to get desserts because sweetsmake all sad things better, right??? She’shonestly so great but super intense; she doesn’t mess around withstuff like studying.

SparringPartner: Sakura hates being the “weak” one of the group and shehates being a burden. If she has someone to spar with and work withher faithfully and honestly, she would train until the sun goes downand well into the night. Having an actual sparring partner is a dreamfor her - everyone else seems too busy or disinterested in workingwith her, so when she finds you it’s like a blessing.

Sakuradoes not hold anything back when she trains or spars with you. Hergoal is to become stronger and to make you stronger as well - and itdoes no one any good to only exert 80% of your energy or strength,when you’d be using 100% of everything you have during a realfight. She doesn’t want you to go easy on her and she doesn’twant you to treat her differently than any other opponent justbecause she hasn’t had as much training as the other shinobi. Ifshe even gets a hintthat you’re holding back on her because you’re afraid she’s tooweak or unskilled, she will come after you with everything she hasand make it known that she - is - serious.

She’ll definitelyask you to try out new jutsus and fighting styles with her. She’llalso want to strengthen both her offensive and defensive moves so shecan be prepared for anything. While she partially wants you toexplain/show how a move should work, she also knows that she needs tolearn on the fly to read an opponent’s moves and will just let youcome at her so she can learn from observation/action.

Afterward,she’ll definitely practice her medical ninjutsu to heal any cuts orbruises you’ve received. She likes doing this because it’s “liketwo separate training sessions in one day!” Even if it’ssomething minor, she’ll eagerly patch you up or give you some typeof medicine to take (some of it seems pretty shifty, but you don’tsay anything). She’s incredibly grateful that you’re willing totrain with her (and continue to train with her even when she getsstronger and stronger and … oh my gosh, sparring with awoman trained by Lady Tsunade is not a good idea I’M GOING TO DIE)and she considers you one of the reasons she becomes successful andhas her true potential realized. (Somebody please pay attention tothis girl, she HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL.)

HINATA

Study Buddy: Hinata is very smart but she’s unsure of herself asa study buddy. She doesn’t want to be a tutor, because she alwaysfeels like she is teaching her pupil incorrectly. She doesn’t wantto be responsible for them failing and then getting angry at her.You’d most likely have to approach her, but if you were alreadyfriends/friendly to her then she may ask you if you’d like to studytogether.

Hinata prefers tostudy at quiet places outdoors. She doesn’t like studying at herhouse because she feels like her family is judging her for “needinga study partner”, and she doesn’t mind the library but it alwaysfeel too formal and awkward there. So she’ll find a picnic table ata park, or a outdoor table at a cafe to study with you. She 100%brings snacks and drinks to the park, or buys you a drink and treatat the cafe because she’s happy you’re there with her to study.

She is really scaredof giving you false information, so she’ll ask you what answers youwrote down/what your notes say before she tells you anything. Shealso corrects you gently. If you say something that’s wrong, she’llsay, “Actually, I think this is what it is …” or “You’rereally close! But, um, this is the correct answer. I can see whereyou went wrong. If you want, I can show you how to get the rightanswer …” She’s super sweet about it all and is afraid ofhurting your feelings but you don’t really care - you just need topass this exam.

You’ll probablyonly study for a few hours (2-3) before Hinata decides to call it anight. She could easily study for much longer (and usually does byherself), but she doesn’t want to push you into burning out andgiving up. She’ll schedule your next study session for the next day“if that’s okay with you” and she’ll meet you at the sameplace every day until you’re both comfortable enough with thematerial.

She’ssuper happy for you if you do well and she credits your success toyou 100% - she “didn’t do much, it was you studying so hard!”She happily joins you after the exam for lunch/dinner and notes thatshe thinks you two make a pretty good study-buddy team, and would behappy to keep studying in the future. She’s so sweet ommgg, even ifshe won’t outright slap your pencil out of your hands and say,“YOU’RE DOING THIS WRONG, LISTEN TO ME OKAY? THIS IS NOT THECORRECT ANSWER SO STOP WRITING IT.”(that’s much more Ino tbh…)

Sparring Partner:Hinata will train with you as long as you’d like her to. If youwant to spar for a couple of hours, then that’s awesome. If you canonly do an hour or so, then that’s fine too. But if you only wantto spar for ten minutes, sporadically throughout the week she may geta little annoyed and finally tell you, “I really don’t mindsparring with you but … you’ll need far more than ten minutesonce every week to get better. Is your schedule really busy? I canwork around it, but I think we should set some days where we can sparfor at least half an hour.” (She’ll be very kind about it andfeel a little bad afterward for being so “confrontational”, butshe knows that improvement only comes with dedication and hard work.)

She wouldn’t mindtraining at her family’s house with you, but she can feel thejudgment from her family watching her train with you. She doesn’twant to subject you to the awful comments her relatives make, andshe’d really rather be away from home if she can be. So she’ll goto the training fields or to someplace you’re comfortable with. Shemight agree to let other people join the two of you, but she’drefrain from going out of her way to invite other people.

Hinata would commenton your fighting style and take note of how you hold yourself, howyou block, and what weapons/techniques you use most. She’d let youknow which ones work and which ones don’t. She’d use her Byakuganduring training and could easily deflect most of your moves, but ifyou happened to find her blind spot and hit her a few times, thenshe’d encourage you to “find the blind spot” in any futureenemy. (You’d also inform her exactly where her blind spot was andhelp her learn to always be on alert in regards to that weakness.) Ifeel that she’d be too afraid to use any of her stronger moves onyou so she doesn’t get to really practice them on a real person,but she does get a lot of defense practice in which she isappreciative of.

TENTEN

Study Buddy: Tenten doesn’t like people who are too dependent, so shewill be immediately turned off by someone throwing themselves at herdesperately, freaking out because “You haveto help me pass this class!” Uh … no thank you. But if you arepretty chill about it (whether you are doing poorly or not), thenshe’d be more than willing to help you. She loves helping herfriends and she’d be willing to do any type of study session thatbest suited your learning abilities - short sessions, all-nighters,snack breaks, going for walks every hour, whatever it was you needed.If she knew you were studying for a class with a fairly sexist orunfair teacher/student, she’d definitely make it an opportunity tostudy hard to get better grades just to prove the teacher/studentthat girls were just as smart.

Tenten likesstudying at teahouses or at outdoor restaurants. She likes to have aplace outside of the house and school to be, and doesn’t want thedistractions of other people from school - especially when loudgroups of students or school athletes pass by. Plus it’s nice to beable to order a hot drink or some dumplings whenever the mood strikesher. (And no one except for like 3 other kids at the school knowabout this restaurant so you won’t have to worry about running intopeople you don’t like.)

Honestly,she may get distracted by some small paragraph in your textbook thattalks about some obscure medieval weapon used oncein a battle that had absolutely no significance to the grand schemeof things, and she’ll get lost talking about this weapon for theentire study session. If you try to keep the conversation moving inthe right direction, she won’t even notice and she’ll probablybranch off to other weapons used during that time period, how theywere manufactured, what type of metal was used, who had access tothem, what they were the medieval ancestors of … Oh mygosh, Tenten, we aren’t even covering what’s on the test, WE’REGOING TO FAIL JUST STOOOOOP.

She likes to do“closed book pop quizzes” at the beginning of your studysessions. You’ll arrive, sit down, and the first thing she does isgrab your book and shout a question at you like, “Who was the nieceof the first Hokage’s great-grandson?” And you’d be like, “Uh- wait, what? I just got here.” And she’d sigh and say, “Youneed to study more … If you can’t answer questions like that offthe top of your head then we aren’t doing enough.” Honestly, youprobably knew it but it just caught you so off-guard. Still, shestudies with you until you can answer those “pop quizzes” withease. She’s pretty proud of herself for teaching you so well, butalso proud of you for studying so hard.

Sparring Partner:Hardcore. Tenten loves working with all of her weapons and anyopportunity to not only improve her skills, but to show off hercollection, will not be wasted. She’d be more than happy to trainwith you, no matter what ninjutsu or taijutsu you use because sheknows that she needs to improve her attacks and defense against anytype of enemy.

Be prepared forliterally everything in her arsenal to be used. Tenten just can’timagine sparring and not throwing everything she has at you. She’dalso want to try out new things - whether it’s what weapons shesummons, how she throws shuriken, or what position she’s in whenshe uses her kunai, she’ll be experimenting until she getseverything right. The point of sparring is to get better, learn howto block another shinobi’s attacks, and adjust your own fightingstyle. It’s her goal to fight flawlessly and defeat any enemy thatstands in her way, so the more unpredictable and unique your sparringstyle is then the more likely she’d be willing to spar for severalhours a day.

If you also happento use a lot of weapons, she’ll be ecstatic because fightingagainst someone who uses techniques and weapons like herself isreally exciting. She’ll also undoubtedly gush about the tools youuse afterward, and admire them as you pack them up. She’d also bewilling to exchange tricks on how to sharpen kunai or shuriken,discuss new tool designs, and how to maximize the lethality of yourchoice of weapons.

Tenten also likes togive verbal instruction if she sees you’re failing at a certainmove or struggling to block a certain attack. She’ll show you whatyou’re doing wrong and say something like, “You hold your armsdown here when I do this - but you need to hold them up here. See?But you have to wait until I’m this far from you, or else I’llsee your defense and attack easily around that. You have to take meby surprise! If I can read your moves before it’s too late todivert my course, then there’s no way you’ll win against me.”She’s got a lot of great advice and it’s smart to listen to her,but don’t be afraid to give your own advice to her. Sparringtogether is a unique opportunity to evaluate one another’sstrengths and weaknesses and point them out. The village is strongestwhen shinobi from different teams work together to fill in the gapswhere each one is lacking; pointing out weaknesses is the best way ashinobi can take care of their comrade.

INO

Study Buddy: Flashcards, all day every day. She thinks they’resuper helpful and a great way to stay organized. Plus it makes studysessions really easy. Just pull out your flashcards and go throughthem - bam! That’s five minutes of intense studying done! (Plus shebuys super cute stationery and glittery markers, and she putsstickers on them and everything. Go big or go home, right?)

Ino is usually busyhelping her parents out at their flower shop, so any chance to getaway from the store is great for her. She’ll suggest somewherethat’s sunny and warm, preferably away from crowds (and annoyingclassmates), and somewhere that is still conveniently placed for aquick snack break (c’mon, everyone needs snacks) - not to mention aplace that’ll have optional shading so she won’t get a sunburn ortoo tanned. She may even suggest the roof of one of the buildingsthat has a table and chairs (of course, Shikamaru tends to be upthere and while it may annoy her because, “Such a lazy bum neverstudies even though it’d be really easy for him!” she doesn’tmind having him there because occasionally he’ll throw out sometrivia or mnemonic to help you remember a topic you’re strugglingwith.)

Inois a good friend and all, but sometimes you just really test herpatience. If you’re still struggling with something she thinks youshould’ve gotten by now, she’ll slam her hands on the table andsay, “What aren’t you getting about this?! It’s so simple! I’veexplained it three times already! I know you’re smart - you’vegotten everything else correct - so what is it about this?!” Shecan be a little cruelwith what she says when she’s frustrated, but she’ll never callyou stupid or say studying with you is useless. But she may need afive minute break to scream into the void, collect herself, and comeback to calmly tell you what you’re doing wrong. When you finallyget it, she’ll probably cry with joy and shout, “Yes! Finally!”And then she’ll call it quitsfor the day and suggest that you and her (and Shikamaru if he wasthere for your breakthrough) go out to eat.

SparringPartner: Ino doesn’t mindsparring, but she feels like there are better things she can be doingwith her time. It seems that she’s either training or working ather parents’ shop. Doesn’t she ever get a break? But if sheneeded to train or you approached her and asked if she’d spar withyou, she’d agree and set a day and time for you to meet.

Ino’s most usedjutsu is her mind control/transfer jutsu, so she’d definitely wantto try it on you. However, it’d be easy for you to point out theflaws in her jutsu (the opponent has to be standing still and indirect line with her for it to work), so you’d try to work with herto come up with a way to make the jutsu more effective. Either youhelp her learn concealing techniques so she can hide more effectivelyto do the jutsu on unsuspecting victims, or you suggest ways tochange it up. You’d also gratefully train with weapons such askunai and shuriken, or using ninjutsu and taijutsu because it’simportant to be able to understand how these fighting styles work andwhat to expect.

Ngl,she’d probably trash talk during sparring. “You think that’sgoing to work on me? You’re forgetting that I’m on a team withShikamaru and Choji! Not to mention, I’ve gone on amission with Naruto before! If Icould survive that,then this is nothing. You’re going to have to try harder thanthat!” And don’t mention how you’d trained with Sakura beforeand how she was stronger than Ino. There’d be fire in her eyes andshe’d balled her hands into fists and start screaming, “Oh yeah?!You think that Billboard Brow is stronger than me?! Let me prove toyou who’s actually stronger!!” And if you aren’t prepared forthe pure wrath that will come out during the sparring session, thenyou’re probably not gonna last long, rip.

[swiftkick404]

Appx II  Be What You Be

(i/iv)

(ii/iv)

(iii/iv)

o o o

Sakura ran her eyes over her newly reformed hand, a few minutes old, and waited. She had broken her last record and the medical ninjutsu she was using with her good hand appeared to be noticeably more effective at containing – ah, nope, there it was! Orochimaru's chakra broke through her defenses and its invasion was as potent as ever.

Disappointed but not entirely shocked, she grumbled a mildly bothered sound and cut off her treacherous hand. Again. It had been weeks and she still hadn't resolved how to regenerate her hand without the foreign chakra of the Snake Sannin. He persisted like a venomous fang long lost from the mouth.

“Complete ass,” Sakura said of the man as she destroyed her severed appendage. She concentrated her chakra into a temporary set of digits stretching out from the fresh tissue at the end of her arm. She could hold the shape and use it for certain tasks, namely picking things up, but it was a work in progress. More functional than the single protrusion or the clawed shapes with which she had started.

Her other tasks had gone better.

After the battle against Konan of Akatsuki and the invasion forces of Sound and Cloud, she had made her way to Otogakure and started her infiltration. The goal was to find those with the Curse Mark and to destroy any remaining chakra and influence from Orochimaru. He had found a means to immortality with the technique, but now that she knew of it, Sakura made it her personal mission to cleanse the land of his lingering presence.

All she had to do was discover the location of his bases and eliminate the results of his experiments. Every Curse Mark had to go, but finding those affected had been more difficult than she first thought. When not activated, the chakra Orochimaru hid in his Curse Seals was impossible to track.

Sakura had sought a different means of honing in on the labs, and with the revelation of her most recent 'bug's' location, she now had a likely location for her first target. Three of the people she had tagged had returned to the same point before she lost their signatures, and she had an idea it could be a base of operation.

From her hollowed out hiding spot in a tall hardwood, Sakura could see a distant mountain peak in between the leafs and boughs of the canopy. As she had approached the landmark earlier the day, she had finally started to discern uniquely shinobi chakra signatures. It was there she would get some answers and begin her real work.

After some rest, of course; activating her seal and regrowing a limb wasn't the best precursor to breaking into an enemy compound.

Sleep had been difficult for her. It might have started back in Iwagakure after the incident at the opium den, but lately her body's reaction in her sleep had become more visceral. It wasn't nightmares plaguing her. Instead she would wake up from a black sleep, chest heaving and her ribs aching from a shadow of a mortal injury. It seemed like she would only have just shut her eyes before it was like the Chidori was ripping out from her again.

She'd feel it –that ghostly spear of an arm pierced through her chest– she'd feel it and it would jolt her physically from her sleep. Blind in a moment of white panic and the birdsong cries echoing in her head.

Not very enjoyable nor very good for recuperating energy, but she was learning to cope and recover from the attack.

There were very few things she actually had to be anxious about. She had fought and defeated so many powerful people – she was finally a capable kunoichi. Sakura could handle things.

She slept and the phantom attack hit her. Sakura caught herself at the edge of her makeshift shelter and gasped two breaths, told herself it was only a dream – before being knocked again through her back and rocked clear from her perch in the tree.

'An actual attack.'

She thought frantically, from whom? And how? No one was near her.

Sakura twisted in her fall in order to catch herself on a lower hanging branch, swung herself right-side up and immediately made for cover on another tree. She couldn't see very well and nothing in her field of vision caught her attention, but she listened. She breathed deep and tried to pick up any telling scent. She sharpened her awareness of any chakra in the area that felt out of place.

And then she promptly stopped because it hurt. Something in her middle throbbed, bowed her inward and to her knees, and kept her from trying to focus on sensing chakra. Her hand groped at her front and back, trying to find an injury that wasn't there.

“The hell,” she cursed, the words stinging and hoarse. She couldn't see anything wrong, either, but she'd been struck by something. Something was crippling her system.

White movement in her peripheral vision and Sakura snapped her arm up to block what looked like a hit aimed to slam into the crown of her head.

Nothing. The blurring image passed through her arm, snapped down her body and her insides rattled with bubbling pain. She lost her the wind in her chest from the shock of the pain, stumbled in her kneeled stance despite being certain nothing physical had hit her.

Her chakra responded well even with the pain, and Sakura tried a genjutsu to obfuscate her location as she retreated to the base of the tree.

“That won't work on me.” The voice was almost beside her, and Sakura's response was quick and precise. The hit would have shattered most things, but her arm didn't connect as it swept through the figure next to her.

Sakura followed her momentum and tucked into a roll before jumping to her feet to spin around and face her opponent.

“Those hits won't work, either,” the girl said. At least it was an image of girl –glowing light and barely opaque, a strange and empty three dimensional tracing of a person. Nothing about her told of an Oto affinity, but the vague hint of her expression was less than friendly.

“Ghost,” Sakura yelped, and like the accomplished, fearsome kunoichi she had become, she pivoted and fled. If she couldn't block the girl, couldn't hit her, and genjutsu didn't work, then evasion and escape was the best course of action.

Sakura was fast – not the fastest, but she was pretty good.

She was slower than her ghost enemy, who caught her immediately from her pivot in a jab straight through her lower ribs. The intangible arm reaching into her body stuck there like hot tar seeped into her veins and slowed everything to a standstill. Sakura could still breathe, could move her eyes, twitch some of her limbs with enough effort, but she was stuck. Deep inside, as if the roots and the core of her energy were under siege.

“Where?” The girl demanded, and then tacked on for good measure, “you unwashed, wool-eared, degenerate heathen.”

Nothing of that really made any logical sense to Sakura, so she ignored it in favor of figuring a way to spring from the girl's hold. ...If she could just first figure out what the technique was and how the hell it worked. The girl wasn't a chakra entity or illusion – she was something like that but...different.

Shaking Sakura enough to make her want to get ill, the girl asked again, more pointedly, “where is she?”

Which finally allowed for some clarity in their situation, Sakura thought. After a short groan, and stuttered some with pain, she said, “I don't know what you're talking about...”

A long answer to stall the girl as Sakura pieced together observations and stubborn memories, but a possibility finally came to her.

“...and if you're looking for someone,” she continued saying, “the last person I even spoke with is about two countries south of us right now...”

Not chakra, but rather more than that – life energy. The girl was a projection of her life energy and she was trapping Sakura by the very same thing. Holding her in place by the soul.

Hell, if she weren't just a bit impressed. And curious...

'Two streams of executive function in the brain does not equate to separate souls, so, no. I can't help you.'

Well, that was disappointing; the dead man in her head only looked the ghost of soul of a departed.

“...He's a bit of an ...overeager artist ...with loner tendencies, so I doubt you're looking ...for him...” Sakura couldn't speak very easily and her words left her with the grace of rusted gears ground together.

She needed another way out.

“Someone from Otogakure took who you're looking for,” Sakura prodded, hopeful to employ one of her tried and true tactics.

“I've tracked the person who took my master to this country. And I had felt that same energy from you earlier. But now...I can't seem to feel it any more...”

Choking out a small laugh, which was a very sore thing to do, Sakura was almost relieved. “Right. That. Yeah. That's the energy of a dead man trying to steal my body, I'm pretty sure.”

And if the girl were looking for that same energy, then she was definitely after a person with a similar amount of Orochimaru chakra-injection.

“The man you're looking for is Kabuto. Good news for you, I'm here to kill him.”

o o o