hope u don't get this question too often.
But I am curious how do u see the ladies.
I am especially curious about Sakura, Hinata, Ino and Temari.
If it isn't obvious from my blog, Sakura is one of my favourite characters. I love her so very much. Her character is one of the most human of the entire series, I think, with her motivations being so deeply rooted in love.
She made mistakes, yes, but she was a child—she shouldn't be gauged based on the things she may have said when she was twelve. That's insane. Also, people like to argue that Sakura's love for Sasuke was fake. I disagree with this sentiment wholeheartedly, in truth 😭. Her love, be it platonic or romantic depending on your interpretation (I personally view it as a sort of comp-het situation, as she idolised Sasuke), was real. It's what motivated her to help rescue Sasuke, even if she was insecure and believed herself to only be a detriment to the team, no matter what.
Sakura is highly intelligent. This gets brushed over pretty severely due to the often misogynistic writing of Kishimoto's work, but she is easily one of the smartest characters in the entire work. She advanced to be an expert in medicine in only four years as a child, in itself that is insane. Much of her actions are influenced by her severe self-consciousness, by how much she hates her perceived weakness. She views herself that way, and other people view her that way because she's a woman. She's constantly undermined solely on the basis of her being female, which has permanently deconstructed her self image.
A lot of her insecurities and desires are so obnoxiously human, too. Insecure about her body in comparison to other people, insecure about her emotions, about her work, about how she compares to the people she loves. She's heartbreaking. I deeply agree with her being the "earth" to Sasuke and Naruto's respective moon and sun, because of how real her character is.
Also, her friendship with Naruto deeply impacted him, and motivated him to keep fighting in his darkest moments. Sasuke, also, by no means hates Sakura. I don't?? Really know where that came from...??? Sakura doesn't have as big of an impact on him as Naruto did, true, but that doesn't mean he hated her. He very clearly didn't.
Hinata I have mixed opinions about, mainly because of my dislike for the Hyuuga and how much I love Neji. Her story is at its core about overcoming hesitance and anxiety, somewhat similar to Sakura's strive to push past her insecurity but not exactly the same. Her familial relationships were absolutely awful, too, no doubt. And to say she didn't have character development would be a lie, she exhibited an insane amount of growth throughout the series. Despite this, she did still benefit from systems akin to slavery. It's a similar thought to how I feel about a lot of Konoha shinobi, having directly benefited from the oppression of the Uchiha (good example here is Kakashi, renowned for his Sharingan, but any Uchiha's Sharingan was viewed as an "unfair advantage;" see how Lee speaks of Sasuke's early in the series). She's a victim, too, given her familial situations didn't allow for her to "stand up" exactly, and she was punished for her kindness, but the systems within the Hyuuga didn't really die out. Hell, Neji's death was ultimately a sacrifice for Hyuuga's sake, in which he never truly escaped the curse of being born to the Hyuuga branch family.
Despite this, while I'm not a NaruHina shipper myself, Naruto and Hinata's dynamic was probably one of the best shows of Hinata's character development. It exhibited her gaining confidence and losing much of her anxiety. I also can admit that a lot of issues with Hinata's character definitely stem from Kishimoto's poor writing of women.
Temari is the loml. Her and Shikamaru's relationship is also one of the only established relationships that I think had good chemistry and were written well.
I'd argue Temari is probably one of the best written women in the series, at least in my opinion. A lot of her character is based in learning to be more human, to express more of herself past that strong persona she had to put on to be taken seriously. She's learning how to care for her brothers, how to care for herself, how to care for others, while still training and being (frankly) one of the strongest of her village. Temari took everything extremely seriously—a direct opposite to say Sakura and Ino who grew into their emotional maturity—to the point she lost much of her individuality and emotional depth. She had to take it back for herself, learn to be who she is at her core again. Not to mention, she doesn't even really seem to have a mentor??? She seemingly learned everything she knows by herself, which probably contributed to why she is so strong-willed and why she put on a hardened persona (again—the Narutoverse isn't exactly known for its proper treatment of women, and she was shown to be undermined in canon, namely by Shikamaru which allows him to develop further, too).
Also, she compares well to Shikamaru in strategy. She was noted by Asuma to be extremely strategically intelligent, which is another reason her and Shikamaru work so well together. She's beautifully intelligent in her own right, truly the beauty, brains, and brawn in one woman, and her strengths are supported (not carried, supported) by Shikamaru's efforts.
I love Ino a lot, but I do unfortunately think she has a lot of missed opportunities when it comes to her character. Again, because Kishimoto sucks at writing women. Like, abysmally bad.
I also dislike the whole Ino vs Sakura for Sasuke thing. I think it demeans their friendship. Sakura and Ino’s dynamic is meant to mirror Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship in them being rivals. Sakura and Ino progress individually because of their influence on each other (Sakura being motivated to get stronger because of Ino, Ino being motivated to get stronger because of Sakura). The foundation of their relationship is trust and understanding of each other, no matter if they might be at ends or pulling at each other's hair.
Unfortunately, her combat is never really shown to surpass Genin-level, due to her lack of proper fight scenes. Despite this, I think she’s probably one of the most versatile shinobi, due to her insane chakra control (being a sensor-type and medical nin both requires it).
Ino loves with her whole heart, also. Her dynamic with her friends proves this. She cared about Sakura so much that she was willing to let their dynamic devolve into rivalry, because it’s what Sakura wanted.
She’s also extremely brave, confident, and outspoken. She might not be the strongest shinobi, but her bravery and willingness to stand up for the people she loves makes up for it easily, I’d argue especially earlier in the series that she's “braver” than Sakura. She never forced anyone into anything, rather being deeply understanding and kind to everyone around her. And extra importantly, she has probably some of the most trust in her teammates. Despite her jutsu not being necessarily adapted to combat, she trusts her teammates wholly to pick up what she can’t complete.
