Sakura only had development in strength, but mentally, her relationships with other characters, it's the same, that's what I don't like about her. She punches Naruto in both Naruto and Shippuden. She is obsessed with Sasuke in both Naruto and Shippuden. She is a bad friend to Ino in both Naruto and Shippuden. To me, strength doesn't mean much if a character has a shitty personality.
I apologise for my bluntness Anon, but that’s an utterly stupid argument, I’m not even gonna bother sugarcoating the silliness of what you just said because the fandom has been getting on my nerves lately, and this isn’t helping.
I could go on for ages giving example after example of how Sakura’s relationships with many of her peers improved greatly over the course of the series, but I’ll limit it to just the three people you mentioned.
You’re literally basing your entire argument on the fact that Sakura still sometimes hit Naruto in Part 2, which is already enough to discredit your entire point. This is a very common trope that’s played for laughs in shounen anime and is never to be taken as an accurate depiction of their actual relationship. I would have thought this would be common knowledge but I suppose not. I myself absolutely despise the trope, I don’t find it funny at all, and it is indeed one of the things that I don’t like about Sakura’s character, but I can at least acknowledge that it’s not at all used to signify anything regarding the strength of her relationship with Naruto.
In case you’ve forgotten some of the very obvious ways her relationship with Naruto improved over the course of the series, let me give you a reminder.
She went from flat out stating that she hated Naruto:
To sincerely worrying about him and trying to cheer him up because she though the nerves of the Chuunin Exams were getting to him:
She went from rudely treating Naruto as nothing but an obstacle she had to manoeuvre around in order to get to Sasuke:
To being willing to put her own progression as a ninja on hold all for Naruto’s sake, because she didn’t want to see his dream get taken away from him:
She went from thinking that Naruto ruined everything, enjoyed tormenting her, and how she didn’t want to be anywhere near him:
To recalling that very moment, regretting her words deeply because she knew how close Naruto and herself had gotten, and thanking him for all he had done for her, because she now knew that Naruto did indeed understand her:
Why? Because their relationship had improved enough for her to be able to see and acknowledge this.
So no Anon, there was far more to Sakura and Naruto’s relationship than simply her hitting him for laughs when it wasn’t warranted.
If you honestly think that the genuine desire to save your loved one from a very dark place can only be considered to be an “obsession”, then I think you need to re-familiarise yourself with the term. What exactly demonstrated that she was “obsessed” with Sasuke? Please elaborate, because I can already see how easy it’s gonna be for me to disprove whatever answer you choose to formulate.
Something also tells me that regardless of your answer (if you even choose to give one), Naruto is gonna be far more guilty of it than Sakura is, and yet Sakura is somehow always the one who is labelled as obsessive, despite Naruto chasing after Sasuke a lot harder, but that’s a separate issue.
The issue here is you thinking that Sakura’s relationship with and her feelings for Sasuke stayed the same. In which case…
Please explain the apparent similarities between Sakura staring at Sasuke with hearts in her eyes:
And her risking her life to protect him without an ounce of hesitation:
Please explain the apparent similarities between Sakura barely being able to contain her fangirl tendencies:
To her having stayed by Sasuke’s side everyday, helping to nurse him back to health, and demonstrating sincere concern for his well being, and relief when he finally woke up:
Please explain the apparent similarities between Sakura shouting how cool Sasuke was with hearts in her eyes once again:
To her demonstrating to him that she took his words regarding the pain of loneliness to heart, and not only signifying to him how that was the last thing she wanted for him, but also that if he were to leave, she would also experience loneliness:
So no Anon, Sakura’s relationship with Sasuke most definitely did not remain the same throughout the story, nor should it be considered an obsession.
Now what exactly do you constitute as being a “bad friend”? Sakura and Ino were rivals at the beginning of the series so they obviously weren’t going to be on the best of terms. However, before you go and tell me the typical nonsense about how Sakura “abandoned their friendship over Sasuke”, I’ll save you the trouble and say that no she didn’t. What Sakura did was distance herself from Ino because she no longer wanted to be under her shadow.
Ino knew that Sakura had the potential to bloom into a flower more beautiful than the cosmos, but she had become too conformable with the dynamics of their relationship - with her being the undisputed alpha, saying things like how Sakura was still just “a bud”, and it was these sentiments that eventually led to Sakura deciding to step away from Ino and allow herself to grow as a person:
Their rivalry over Sasuke only gave Sakura more incentive to do what she had already wanted to do for a while. She said it herself, she was no longer her little tag along, and Ino knew exactly what she meant, because the rift between them wasn’t about Sasuke and it was never about Sasuke. That’s why she thought to herself that she got it:
But even after they made up following their fight in the Chuunin exams, their rivalry would of course still continue, because that’s just their relationship; It’s vitriolic in nature, but there’s no malice, only endearment. “Forehead Girl” and “Ino Pig” will always try one upping each other, but that doesn’t mean that one of them is being a “bad friend” to the other:
I can only assume that the only reason you think Sakura was apparently a bad friend during Part 2 was because she was looking forward to hearing Sai say something that would get Ino riled up when they were getting to know him, but that was just another example of them trying to one up each other for bragging right purposes. There are plenty of other examples in the story of both of them trying to do this, with an example from Ino’s side being shown in the image above when they were getting flowers during Part 1, and she stated that she didn’t want to let Sakura get a leg up on her.
However, despite the best friends being vitriolic on the surface, they were still indeed best friends, and they spent a lot of time together following their reconciliation as an indication of this:
And this continued throughout Part 1, Part 2, the Novel arcs and even well into the New Generation. They may bicker, but they’re the best of friends:
So no, Sakura wasn’t a bad friend to Ino at all.
I’ll even give you a bonus example, just because I can…
Sakura went from being made to cringe at the sight of Lee winking at her, and making fun of his hairstyle and eyebrows:
To deeply caring and worrying over him as he was pushing himself too far on the road to recovery:
So much so that she went out of her way to also get him a flower in the hopes that he would get better soon:
So please Anon, I’d ask that you reconsider labelling all of Sakura’s relationships with her peers as having been stagnant, and downplaying her as having a shitty personality because in terms of the growth of her character, she went from being obnoxiously ignorant towards the beginning, to a very caring person, and this was before even halfway through Part 1. By no means was her strength and her skills as a Kunoichi the only things about her that developed over time.
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