Within the Naruto franchise, Sakura Haruno never really lived up to her narrative potential, however, an alternate reality where her dad became the Fourth Hokage proves how she could have had a bigger role. While Sakura started out important, as the series’ lore grew in scope, her plot relevancy quickly faded. Road To Ninja: Naruto the Movie, however, shows how an early tweak to her design could have better utilized her potential.
The 2013 Naruto movie provided non-canonical “what if” takes on the backgrounds and characterizations of the cast; in Sakura’s case this led to some significant changes. While these could perhaps be attributed to the blank-slate status of her design, it emphasizes Sakura’s limited foundations.
With a lack of relevant or compelling backstory, Sakura had little means to affect the plot like Naruto or Sasuke could.
Sakura’s Father Could Have Been Hokage Material
The movie’s premise is that Naruto and Sakura are trapped in an illusion of an alternate history, where their parents swapped roles. As a result, Naruto gets the family he wants while Sakura becomes an orphan after her father dies protecting the village as Fourth Hokage. It’s a Wonderful Life-esque plot, where the protagonists learn to appreciate what they have in the real world. However, the vision of Sakura’s father, Kizashi, as Konoha’s leader only serves as a reminder that, despite starting as a protagonist, she lacks strong narrative connections to her own story.
One of the largest letdowns about Sakura was her lack of relevance as the manga’s cosmology expanded and centered on Naruto and Sasuke’s expansive lineages. Even the secondary cast and their families tied into Konoha’s existence in some way, including Sakura’s ex-rival Ino, who at least has inherited a family technique. Sakura and her family, meanwhile, remain enigmas, and never feel tied to the world of ninjas. Sakura merely scored well and somehow wandered into an epic clash between millennia-old bloodlines without affecting either, or even Konoha. Even her murkily canon parents show how little thought was put into her wider role in the world of Naruto.
Sakura’s Lack of a Backstory Hurt Her Relevance to Naruto
While it may be an over-correction to claim that Kizashi should have been the Fourth Hokage, the idea of him being a potential candidate – along with its political ramifications – would have let Sakura remain visible in the story. Besides giving her a foundation to keep her relevant in fight scenes, it would have been a unique backstory, unreliant on elaborate clan histories. That a movie was able to dream this plot of Sakura’s dad as Fourth Hokage up only highlights a common criticism with Naruto, if not shonen as a whole, about how its women seem to exist more as filler: acknowledged, but unnoticed.
Naruto Shippuden: Road to Ninja is streaming on Funimation!
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Naruto: Shippuden
Set two and a half years after the events of Masashi Kishimoto’s original anime, Naruto Shippuden continues the titular hero’s attempts to become the best ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village and bring his former friend Sasuke Uchiha back to the light. The 500-episode series features the return of allies such as Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki’s mentor Jiraiya, as well as the villainous organization Akatsuki.
