Part 1: How did Sakura even qualify as a genin?

So just to clarify, it's been a loooong time since I watched/read Part 2 of Naruto, so this is just in the context of Part 1.

So the biggest problem with Part 1 Sakura is that she is 95% Sasuke-stalker, 5% self-absorbed brat. Let's start fixing this.

Our first proper introduction to Sakura is when she joins Team 7. Kakashi asks them to introduce themselves. Sasuke and Naruto answer as they originally did, and then it's Sakura's turn.

"My name is Sakura Haruno. Things I like... Well, I really like my best friend Ino, and my parrot, Mr Feathers," she says, with a big smile on her face. "My hobbies... Well, my dad is a master pastry chef, and on weekends--" She stops suddenly, remembering that both her team-mates are orphans. She looks over to Sasuke, who is looking into the distance, seemingly oblivious as usual. Naruto is just looking at her with a big goofy grin on his face. She hesitates a moment, then continues. "My dad teaches me how to make all kinds of fancy desserts, and my mum is a master woodworker, and she's teaching me how to carve traditional figurines."

"And things you dislike?" Kakashi prompts.

Sakura looks despondent for a moment. "What I dislike is that I'm really bad at both of them."

We see a still of her standing next to her burnt and misshapen pastries, and another of her next to a hideously deformed kimekomi doll. In the background though, we see the respective parent smiling proudly at their beloved daughter.

"That's why my dream is to be a master of my craft, just like my parents are masters of theirs! I'm going to be the Legendary Lady Tsunade of my generation! I'm going to be the greatest kunoichi of Konoha!"

So here we sow the seeds of Sakura's character arc. Sasuke and Naruto already have tragic backgrounds. Giving Sakura one would be overkill, so her obstacles will be more mundane, but still give her her own challenges and chances to grow.

Sakura is aware of how skilled her parents are, and how renowned they are amongst their fellow craftsmen. The fact that she lacks talent for either of her parents' crafts has long been a sticking point for her. Her parents don't care about that -- they just want her to be happy, and are proud of what a caring and well-mannered young lady she is.

Sakura, however, either doesn't notice her parents' pride, or doubts its sincerity. Just like in the original, Sakura suffers from low self-confidence. In her mind, she will never be able to live up to her parents' expectations unless she, too, achieves their level of skill. Ninjutsu seemed to be her thing, so she channels her energy into that.

So just in this one scene, we've addressed many of the issues that fans have with Sakura. We can keep her attraction to Sasuke, but it's such an insignificant part of her, that she doesn't include it in her description of herself. She shows she is a caring friend, by mentioning Ino as her first favourite thing, and then by her hesitation in talking about her parents in front of her two orphaned comrades. She has a personal goal that's about bettering herself. She shows a level of maturity appropriate for a young genin.

[Okay, so apparently, in Part 2, we learn that Tenten had a dream to be like Tsunade. I don't remember this being mentioned anywhere up to Chapter 440, and now I feel kinda bad, but I don't see why they can't both be inspired by Tsunade, and Tenten has her weapons and scroll specialisation anyway. Thinking about it, Ten Ten was one of the better-written females in Naruto. She was the only one of the kunoichi from the Konoha 11 who wasn't always mooning over a boy, she had special skills, an agreeable personality and a good dynamic with her team. Kishimoto did her dirty. Proof that he can write good female characters if he wants to, he just chooses not to, and when he does, he gives them as little space as possible.]

In the bell test, we see her making cautious attempts to get the bells. But we see that she is always too hesitant, and her self-doubt makes it easy for Kakashi to intercept her moves even before she has a chance to start them. She looks down on Naruto's brash approach, but she doesn't realise that she herself has gone too far in the other direction.

The scene where she tells Sasuke to give up so she can stalk him for another year will be changed. Her inner-Sakura will show that she is a bit sad that she won't get to be on her crush's team if he gets the bell and she doesn't, but that's it. It would be one line, and on the outside, she will tell Sasuke that there is still some time left, and that they should all try their best.

During her interactions with her team-mates, we see her frequently playing the role of peacemaker. She tells Kakashi that at this rate, she will end up becoming a master of the art of diplomacy rather than ninjutsu, the amount of fights she's had to defuse. Both she and Kakashi are exasperated by how much the boys squabble.

Even though on the outside she moderates her emotions, Inner Sakura allows us to see just how passionate and fired up she can get.

Her outer disposition is cheerful and always encouraging others to try their best, but Inner Sakura also allows us to see that unlike Naruto, her optimism is only a veneer. Inside, she is frequently plagued by self-doubt. This is going to be her biggest weakness. She also makes it a point that she will never allow herself to cry in front of others. No matter how sad she feels, she will only ever cry in private. This makes her team-mates think she is strong and calm, but inside she's anything but. This means she lacks the support she needs, pushing her self-esteem lower.

Now we come to the Zabuza arc. Here is where we will get to address Sakura's uselessness. Sakura will get to fend off some of the attacks from the Mist Chuunin in the forest, but her skill level is still obviously lower than the rest of her team.

She'll show her excellent chakra control during the training segment as before. She's happy that she has something she excels at, and assumes that once they've finished this mission, it's something that Kakashi will use to elevate her skills, and teach her some awesome new jutsu, maybe even a specialisation. She can't wait.

Then it's the showdown with Zabuza and Haku. During Sasuke's fight with Haku, Sakura is tasked with staying next to Tazuna.

But she feels uneasy. What did Kakashi say after the bell test? Those who disobey orders are scum, but those who abandon a comrade are worse than scum. Sasuke seems to be holding his own for now, but she can see how dangerous Haku is. Kakashi can protect Tazuna, she decides, and she can help Sasuke finish Haku off right now. All she has to do is get him from behind. She runs off, ignoring Kakashi's order to get back.

She and Sasuke fight side-by-side for a moment, but it's clear just how big of a skill difference there is. Now Sasuke is also having to watch out for Sakura instead of focusing everything on attacking Haku. Sasuke has to leap in front of her to protect her from a lethal blow. "Get out!" he yells, getting up. She can see he's bleeding, although the wound isn't serious. "This is not your fight! Protect Tazuna!"

Haku hasn't got time for this nonsense and literally kicks Sakura back towards Tazuna. Kakashi orders her to never disobey an order on the battlefield again, or she's out of Team 7. She's to stick with Tazuna. That's her priority. Sakura has to push back her feelings of hurt and embarrassment for now. But this incident will haunt her for a long time.

Haku casts Crystal Ice Mirrors, Naruto arrives and things continue as before.

At the end of the adventure, Sakura does a lot of soul searching. Her academy instructors always said she was a good student, one of the best, yet why has she been even less than useless so far? She used to look down on Naruto's ninja skills back at the academy, yet without him, they might never have released Kakashi from Zabuza's water prison. It was Naruto who inspired Inari to start an insurrection, it was he who defeated Haku, and even got Zabuza to find his humanity. She always looked at Naruto as a slightly annoying, hyperactive joker, but she realises that being a ninja is more than just being good at exams. There is something more to Naruto than just his physical skill, and she develops a new found respect for him.

Chuunin exams! I don't think anything in the Forest of Death segment needs to change. That was the one time that Kishimoto gave Sakura any kind of growth and it fits in with this new narrative. It's just a shame he was like, "Yeah, that's enough of that, kthxbai."

The next part is the preliminaries. Okay, so in this version, Sakura and Ino are best friends. Sakura cares for Ino deeply. She knows she owes so much to the girl who helped her find some confidence, and is fiercely loyal to her friend.

So when she is matched with her for a fight, she is scared. She doesn't want to fight her friend. But she will not be able to achieve her dream unless she gets through this round. She knows that Ino, too, isn't happy to be fighting her. But she doesn't want Ino to hold back. A victory based on pity is no victory at all. She needs to prove fairly that she is a better ninja than Ino.

She remembers a time, about a year ago, when there was a boy that Ino really liked, but he was already seeing another girl. Then one day Sakura heard they'd broken up. She relayed this to Ino, who was not one to waste time. Ino sped off to find the boy and ask him out. Sakura eventually caught up, and lurked behind a tree, watching, silently cheering her friend on. She heard Ino asking the boy if he'd like to go out with her sometime. "Go it, Ino!" yelled Inner Sakura. "You're such a catch! That's one lucky boy!"

Only then she heard the boy laughing with contempt. "Ha! As if I'd go out with you. Stupid Ino Piggy!" Sakura froze. She wasn't expecting that. Ino was awesome, why would anyone hate her? Sakura crept away. She knew how embarrassed Ino would be to know she'd heard this. Later, she met up with Ino, who told her that actually, he's not her type after all, so she didn't ask him out in the end. She much preferred the strong, silent type, like Sasuke. "Yeah, Sasuke's cute, huh?" laughed Sakura. She knew it was better for Ino if she pretended she didn't know.

Back to the present. Sakura is determined to win on her own merit, not out of pity or sentimentality. She puts on her forehead protector.

Ino stands shocked for a moment, a look of hatred on her face. Then she too ties her forehead protector. Sakura knows that she's successfully riled Ino. Inner Sakura cries at what she just said. She makes a mental note to apologise to Ino after. But that's for later. Now the fight will be fair, and Sakura is determined to win.

The fight will happen again pretty much as before. When they wake up, Sakura apologises for what she said, and Ino said she gets it. In fact, she was about to insult Sakura's forehead in an attempt to do the same. They laugh, and everything's good again.

After the prelims, Sakura thinks back to the training session in the Land of Waves. She expected that Sensei would have taught her some new jutsu by now. Excellent chakra control is great, but if all you can do with it is climb trees and jump higher, it's not really all that big a deal. All Sensei seems to care about these days is Sasuke. Even Naruto got fobbed off to Ebisu-sensei, even though he was through to the finals, too.

Since good chakra control is required for genjutsu, that could be what she focuses on. Hand to hand combat isn't her forte. That incident with Haku showed her that. But if she could specialise in genjutsu, that will add a whole new layer of skill to their team.

She seeks out Kurenai-sensei, asking if she could spare maybe just a couple of hours a week to train her in genjutsu. Kurenai says she would love to, but she has her own students to train. Sakura feels lost and let down. She tries to do some self-study, but she really needs a teacher to show her how it's done. Iruka-sensei can spare a little time for her here and there, and she's grateful for it, even though his skill isn't as high as Kurenai-sensei's. However, she learns enough to easily release herself from the genjutsu at the end of the Chuunin Exams.

During the fight against the Sand ninja, she is again painfully aware of how lacking she is in skill compared to her peers. They all have either a bloodline ability, or a special jutsu, but she has nothing. She's just average at everything. How is she supposed to be the best ninja of her time when she is excelled by everyone around her? How will her parents ever be proud of her? She starts to withdraw even more, finding it hard to even look her parents in the eye. She feels ashamed, but her parents can't get anything out of her. And now with Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei and Lee all badly hurt, Sakura is at her lowest point. She wonders if she should just give it all up.

When Tsunade returns to take her place as the Fifth Hokage, Sakura is in awe. The Legendary Lady Tsunade! Here in the flesh! She just knows now that everything will be better! She has a little fangirl moment, then makes up her mind that Tsunade will take her on as her student. Sakura will NOT take "no" for an answer!

Now she can also learn medical-ninjutsu. She will no longer be the one holding the team back. She will hold her own. She will be invaluable to her team. And what better way to be the Tsunade of her generation, than to be trained by THE Tsunade? Inner Sakura goes hyper.

Tsunade isn't sure at first, but Sakura's determination -- she becomes almost as annoying as Naruto -- wears her down.

Then comes the night she sees Sasuke leaving the village. She had trouble sleeping, and so she,s looking out the window where she catches him sneaking off. She doesn't have time to fetch Kakashi-sensei, so she goes after him herself. She calls out to him, and tells him she can't allow him to leave. As a Leaf Ninja, and a fellow member of Team 7, she will stop Sasuke defecting, or die trying.

Sasuke laughs. "Yeah, right," he says scornfully. Sakura hits the ground unconscious, before she even knows what's hit her.

When the retrieval squad is assembled the next morning, Naruto tells Sakura she has to come with them. Sasuke is her team-mate, too. But Sakura is acutely aware of just how little use she'd be. In fact, her presence would only increase the risk of failure. Last night showed her that. She tells Naruto that her leg was injured by Sasuke last night when she tried to stop him, and she's still walking with a limp, so they should stop wasting time, and just go now. Naruto thinks it's weird. She didn't seem to be walking with a limp just now, but whatever. Sakura's right, and Sasuke is getting closer to Orochimaru every minute. Sakura watches them leave, determined that when Team 7 is back together -- and they will be back together -- she is going to be worthy of being called their team-mate.