Do you ever think about how traumatizing the Infinite Tsukuyomi would have been for people once they woke up? Because think about it—what if you dreamed a life that you think passed by for months? Years? Built a whole life? Got married, had kids, got your dream job, etc. Mentally grew up from your time in the dream as you lived a long fulfilling life?
Only to then wake up back to reality, everything you experienced was just a lie.
THIS being literally all we have abt Sakura’s parents is fucking crazy btw. Kishimoto elaborate on Sakura’s collective mommy and daddy issues and you will be reincarnated as a lotus flower
if you've grown up with emotionally immature and abusive parents, you immediately catch when her mom stops speaking to Sakura and switches to speaking about her to the audience that shes aware she has, its purely meant to humiliate her.
Ino saying Sakura isn't so tough when her moms around is kinda fucked too, especially when in the episode version she agrees that Sakuras parents are intense when they act like Sakura giving them a hug is her losing it. Theres not a lot of affection in that family it seems.
Theres also Episode 481
Where you have a Sakura that has made a forest hide out with all her little stuffies and decorations inside. When shes run through the forest to get there, she says "I'm home."
She brings Ino there first, she never actually brings Ino to her home in this episode either because of the plot or there simply was no time, but then you have Sakuras father being kinda inappropriate.
First:
You first hear him talk about her appearance, asking if she thinks her bangs are long and then telling her to cut them. Her mother says "oh dear, dont start!, if you say things like that to her, then Sakura is going to start hating you"
Her father laughs it off. Loudly.
The second time is after ino gives her the ribbon
She says she thinks she made a friend, her name is Ino Yamanaka and shes this totally incredible person. Shes cute, strong, fashionable, and really kind too.
Guess what her father latches on to?
Father: "Oh, if shes cute like you say, then i would love to meet her!
Mother: "oh dear, why would you say something like that?"
Some chatter afterwards and then Sakura mentions that ino gave her the ribbon in her hair.
Father: and it looks great on you! You know you look as cute as your mother when she was young.
Mother: oh dear, don't embarrass me. Did you actually say that I'm cute?
Father: Sakura while you're at it, you should find a boyfriend too!
Sakura: Dad stop!
It was just sorta uncomfortable all around. I remember asking myself at the time why and its was always because they had cemented the idea that she only had worth when it came to her looks. He fixates on looks, instead of being happy his daughter made a strong and kind friend, he makes it inappropriate by saying if shes cute, then he wants to meet her. Even her mom understands what that sounds like.
When he again mentions Sakura being as cute as her mother was when she was young, it feels wrong, bad even, because hes been placing value and interest into child-like or youth like qualities...while hes an adult. I'd like to make it clear that im not accusing her dad of being like, a pedophile, but he is a bit of a creep.
"you should get a boyfriend"
Again, shes like 7 or 8 here? At this point, after everything hes already said to her, its just blatant sexualization and putting adult expectations onto a young girl. I don't believe Sakura was ever really growing up in an emotionally safe or caring environment.
Inner Sakura is the result of having to keep all of what she actually wanted to say, to herself. Depending on when her psyche split, she had known something was wrong but wasn't allowed or comfortable enough to voice it.
Her little forest hideaway has a statue that may or may not be religious but can be interpreted as some sort of protection or sanctuary for her, its filled with her comfort items and decorations. If you look back on her mom asking why she cant be tidy and how minimalist their house is, its possible that she didn't allow her to have these items at home, maybe it seemed like the child crafts and play was clutter.
And while, yes, Sakura comes off as a studious, neat/tidy individual, there aren't even picture frames in the house. We really only see the picture of team 7, and in the movie the only picture you do see is one where Sakura is unhappy and with her parents smiling. An indication that once again, her feelings here dont matter, sure it might have been Sakuras achievement, but it really doesn't matter when you want to appear the supportive parent regardless of how your kid looks in the photo. They're the difficult one, not you. And to place it right at the door? Jeez.
"See, even when she doesn’t appreciate us, we still support her."
All of this to say that Sakura perhaps grew up in a fucked up household, emotionally neglected and with parents that belittled her achievements.
Imagine getting bullied at school and at home. My girls was not having a good time
RIN SHOULD HAVE BEEN SAKURA'S AUNT FROM HER MOTHER'S SIDE.
Sakura feels painfully disconnected from her team because she has the least plot relevance and family ties among all four members of Team Seven during the story. She does not come from a clan and her family has no bearing on the plot whatsoever. And that truly hurts Sakura's character because we get to meet the family members of every other character, even side characters who do not factor into the plot, but the only time we learn of Sakura's family is when she mentions her parents in the beginning and during non-canon material.
Therefore, I believe that making Rin and Sakura related would have solved some of Sakura's character problems.
I have a lot of thoughts, so as to not clog the tag, I will put a read more.
Here's what I mean:
The narrative already compares Sakura and Rin.
They're both the sole girl on Team Seven in a love triangle where she loves the emotionally closed-off and unattainable boy over the cheery dunce who crushes on her. Their appearances are somewhat similar: short hair parted in the middle with markings on their face, a medical apron around the waist, generally lithe looking. She and Rin share the same talents: not only are they healers, but they also have Water, Fire (Sakura develops this later, according to the anime), and Yang Release, and they're both resistant to genjutsu. Maybe Sakura's interest in healing, instead of being shoehorned in so that all three members of Team Seven could have Sannin mentors, could develop more naturally because her aunt had a talent for it that maybe her mother or another character could mention it, and young Sakura could become interested herself and read up on it, eventually developing a hero worship for Tsunade when she learns about her, hence why she goes to her directly at the end of Naruto's first part.
Their names are even interesting: Rin Nohara can mean Field Bracing Winter Air, while Sakura Haruno can mean Spring Field of Cherry Blossoms. Winter is often a symbolism of death, while spring is symbolised as life beginning anew. If we take Mebuki as being Rin's sister, it would be Mebuki Nohara, Field Sprouting/Shooting/Budding, and the word Mebuku usually symbolizes the end of winter and the beginning of a new phase, hence why she becomes Mebuki Haruno, a Spring Field.
Mebuki loses Rin to death, but gain Sakura in the new phase of her life when she is no longer a Nohara.
In fact, why do we never see Sakura's parents? Maybe they hate the ninja life. They certainly seem to prefer civilian life in the brief moments we see them in filler. By making Mebuki and Rin sisters, you could say that they were forced to conscript during the Third Shinobi War, and while Mebuki was talentless and relegated to doing grunt work as a Genin, Rin was talented, joined Team Seven and became a Chūnin, allowing her to go on more high-stakes missions—which as we know, leads to her death in a mission gone wrong.
And that could also be why Mebuki is so harsh on Sakura during Road to Ninja. While I am not excusing her cruel remarks (because why would you insult your daughter in front of other children and parents... scratch that, why would you insult your daughter period???), maybe she is trying, in her incredibly fucked up way, to discourage Sakura from pursuing the same path her sister took. Trying to protect her. Only she's pushing her away, and Sakura distances herself from her parents, rebels, and because of it and becomes the very thing that Mebuki feared but cannot do a thing about since her daughter is literally training under the Hokage. So, all she can do is make snide comments to deter her.
Also incredibly fucked up? Sakura's early attempts to look sweet and innocent. To hide the rougher aspects of her personality and act like an ideal girl. From what we see if Rin, she's incredibly kind, forgiving and gentle despite her profession as a ninja. Probably idealized memories, but imagine if Sakura had been trying to hide her real personality because her mother was pushing her to act more like he dead sister. That she wanted aspects of Rin to live on through her daughter, hence Sakura's "inner" personality manifesting.
And this would also "fix", for lack of a better term, her relationship with Kakashi.
Kakashi has always been more overprotective of Sakura, and yet also the most neglectful of her. He literally didn't train her during the 2.5 year time skip, and was completely unaware of the abilities she developed until the redid the bell test. For a man who preaches never abandoning comrades, it sure was shitty of him to neglect the remaining member of Team Seven while the other two were gone from the village.
By making Sakura Rin's niece, it would give more depth to his keeping away from her. Maybe he sees ghosts of old Team Seven in new Team Seven. He sees Obito (and his sensei) in Naruto, himself in Sasuke, and Rin in Sakura. He sees the dynamic all over again and is internally panicking. Fearing it will go down the same path. And as such, he'll step in always to protect her and try to keep her from harms way, but at the cost of neglecting her offensive training. Maybe he can't bear the fact he failed another Team Seven, and thinks keeping away will protect Sakura. Or maybe it's to avoid further trauma, who knows?
Maybe he and Mebuki can have an antagonistic relationship. I imagine Mebuki would HATE this man but can't do anything about it since again, the Hokage put together the teams.
Plus it would make her brief moments with Obito poignant. Imagine if while alone in the Kamui dimension with him, she hits him with "my mother said you were my aunt's best friend, I want to believe that the good she saw in you really is still there" or something.
And Sakura can have a character arc of growing as her own person, to be true to herself and branch out beyond healing and develop something unique from Rin (and Tsunade). To show that she's not Rin and will never be Rin. That she cannot be a replacement for what the people around her lost.
MAYBE SHE COULD EVEN MEET RIN SOMEHOW LIKE HOW NARUTO, KAKASHI AND SASUKE GOT TO SEE AND SPEAK WITH DEAD FAMILY MEMBERS ONE LAST TIME, AND HAVE A POIGNANT TALK WITH HER AUNT.
Yeah, anyway, those are my thoughts. It gives her a connection to the overall main plotline without taking away the fact she doesn't come from a clan (because I looked, and nowhere did it say that Nohara was a clan), and a character arc that just doesn't focus on her boys. Because the original manga had good bones with how Sakura mentioned she wanted to be out of Ino's shadow and be her own person, only to fumble by making her Tsunade 2.0 with nothing unique. I say we continue that arc by having Sakura's fears reinforced with the Rin connection, and her goal to become her own person and not just someone else's ghost.
What if Inner Sakura was a Yin-Yang technique that little Sakura accidentally created in her loneliness once she and Ino stopped being friends. Imagine, because Sakura has both Yin and Yang Release, and her little self probably thought she just made an imaginary friend but oops, turns out she's real after all. Imagine, she could protect Sakura against Yin-based jutsus and could contribute to the fight invisibly. Imagine, her being more than just a running gag. IMAGINE.
