#still had his instaheal power after sasuke used his left eye

[orangelemonart]

You mentioned in a recent post you hated the scene where Sai talked to Sakura after the Karui incident, so why do you think that?

because hes wrong. Sai basically tells Sakura "its your fault Naruto is torturing himself chasing Sasuke. If he hadn't promised you he'd save Sasuke, he wouldn't be this miserable."

More under the cut. So much more.

He convinces Sakura this is all her fault even though she knew Naruto cared about Sasuke as well, not just out of some obligation to her. He berates her and makes her cry right after she hears about the government order to kill Sasuke.

That scene where Sakura (misguidedly) tries to tell Naruto she loves him, it's pretty obvious she knows he's going to not be happy. The other characters point it out. Naruto HIMSELF is like "why are you lying? You're planning something???" she's purposely trying to convince him she doesn't care about Sasuke and is trying to also make Naruto mad so he doesn't feel as conflicted when he finds out she plans on killing Sasuke. Sai's clone literally explains one scene later that he messed up forcing her into this.

What's really wild is when you hear fans talk about the part, it's like they read/watched a different story. They seem to think Sai was correct, that Sakura was self-centered thinking she had to kill Sasuke for Naruto (despite them apparently agreeing with Sai??? Somehow???), and that Naruto was absolutely heartbroken by her false confession (did he seem heartbroken to you? He seemed mad that Sakura was hiding something to me.)

Was it a bonehead move? Yes absolutely but it can't be denied a part of her emotional state was due to Sai manipulating her and the execution order. Was it poorly written? Of course, but because her plan was both to confess to Naruto to make him think she didn't care about Sasuke AND to also make him angry so he doesn't feel as torn up about his best friend killing his other best friend.

Sakura trying to do things to protect Naruto even when she knows he would be unhappy about it is not unusual for her.

After the very first chapter where she is introduced and gets over being mean to Naruto (a lot of characters who took a whole lot longer to do that are propped up as Naruto's real best friends cough shikamaru cough),  she is pretty consistent about hiding her own pains to try and protect his mental wellbeing. The chuunin exam one parallels the confession really well. She is about to do something she knows will make Naruto upset, something that will also make Sasuke angry, but she would rather Naruto be happy in the long term. 

Turns out she's wrong both times and Naruto has really good luck and doesn't have to sacrifice the thing he cares about in either situation, but she really was looking out for his best interest in impossible situations. She was not out to save her own well-being, but his.

I think Sakura is a misguided selfless person. She can be a real jerk, she underestimates Naruto's head, but I think those flaws make her more of a real character than say, Tsunade, who once she became Hokage pretty much stopped having interesting flaws and just became another "Naruto is a very special heroic boy who is gonna change the world, I believe in him" person. Sakura gets to maintain her nuance all the way up until that stupid chapter where she confesses her love to Sasuke again just so Kishimoto could keep her out of the final battle.

btw That was so dumb. Kishimoto should have just gravely injured Kakashi or something so that she had no choice but to stay and heal him instead of follow the boys. There were better ways to keep her out of the final battle. Not character assassination like that. The later half of chapter 699 was worse, she shouldn't have been demurely hiding her true rambunctious personality from Sasuke like she did as a kid, it would have felt more like "hey maybe they would get together someday". She could have said something sassy like she would to any of her other friends, he could have said "you're annoying", and they they both could have snorted at the inside joke while Kakashi looked tired in the background, KISHIMOTO I JUST WANNA TALK I COULD WRITE THE PAIRING I DON’T EVEN LIKE BETTER THAN YOU

Anyway its time for me to stop rambling, my cat is real mad I'm typing instead of petting her. This may need some editing later to be more cohesive bbbbbuuuuuuuuttttt cat time.

#naruto #sakura haruno #the sakura rant ive been holding on to for years #actually the healing thing might not have worked I can’t remember if naruto #still had his instaheal power after sasuke used his left eye #on the tailed beasts #ninjacourse