Sakura Haruno
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BackgroundLittle is known of Sakura's background other than her friendship and rivalry with Ino. She used to be shy, but is now social and likable. She possess no identifying traits other than her bubble gum pink hair.
Sakura seems to be a determined and clever fighter, but she has not seen much real combat. She seems to be destined to become a genjutsu user considering that she knows nothing but basic ninjutsu. Despite her lack of skills, she is extremely talented, skilled, and efficient in her use of chakra. Kakashi sets her as the example that Sasuke and Naruto should strive after.
Sakura spends her time thinking about Sasuke. During the early missions, she hated Naruto and loved Sasuke. In the Land of Waves, she did little but stand by the bridge builder. Once they had arrived home from the Land of Waves, Sasuke told her that she was worse that Naruto. Despite the anguish that this caused her, she knew it to be true.
During the second of the chunin exams, she pushes Sasuke to action by saying that Naruto isn't a coward unlike Sasuke. Whenever the Sound genin came for the asleep Naruto and Sakura, she laid a few mildly effective traps. After these had failed, Lee arrived to help. The Sound genin used their attacks to defeat Lee so that Sakura was forced to fight viciously to defend her team mates. Using several replacements, she managed to confuse and attack Zaku. She ended up biting his arm and holding on despite repeated blows to her head. After this, Ino and her squad came to her aid.
During the preliminaries, Sakura fought Ino. In an extremely emotional battle, the two kunochi were evenly matched and were both knocked out in a draw.
During the attack by the Sound and Sand villages, Sakura's skill in genjutsu allowed her to release herself and Naruto from Kabuto's sleep. Kakashi then assigned those two, along with Pakkun and Shikamaru, to stop Sasuke. When they eventually caught up with Sasuke and Gaara, Sakura stood in Gaara's way to the beaten Sasuke. For this, he pinned her to a tree with a huge amount of sand. For the rest of the battle, she served as a reminder to Naruto of what he was fighting for. Every time that his strength seemed to falter, the image of her bound to that tree gave him the power he needed to win.
