Quote:No, certainly not - but I think she'll be the better for it. I think that all or almost all of Sakura's real problems stem from the same source - her willingness to conform, to try and live up to other people's expectations.
Poor Sakura, seeing such a fractured reflection of herself. Nobody should go through that...
For example, she's a girl, and of course girls are supposed to be delicate and restrained, not fierce and agressive. So she locks her emotions away, suppresses them so thoroughly that she often doesn't even realize that she's doing it, and in the process she sabotages her own potential before it can even show itself - because her parents and teachers have, even if unconciously, told her that that's what she's supposed to do.
In short, I think that -every- member of Team 7 has essentially the same drive, the same indomitable will. The thing that really seperates Sakura is that, where Sasuke has been nurtured and Naruto's been provoked, she's been -smothered- every time she tried to reach for a ring, told to 'settle down and act more feminine.'
But the power's still there, and being confronted with an absolutely unimpeachable example of what could happen if she keeps living in her conditioned denial will prompt her to take a good, long, honest look at exactly -who- -she- -is-.
And, if nothing else, she's going to -know- that, if she has the will to try, she can be a hell of a lot more than the one that everyone always has to protect.
At the moment, my (highly nebulous) long term plans call for three major plot arcs, each involving one of the kids' struggle with their own personal monsters.
Guess who Sakura drew.
Ja, -n
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."