Sakura Stopped the Best Naruto Fight We Never Got

Sakura Haruno gets a lot of flak from the Naruto community for being a useless ninja and not adding anything to the story. Generally, these complaints tend to be bad-faith takes that make generalized sweeping statements about the Kunoichi that often don’t even ring true. Naruto and Sasuke both needed a balancing force, and by the end of the series, Sakura had become an integral member of Team 7 and a respectable kunoichi in her own right. However, even with all of this defense towards Sakura, there are still a handful of valid complaints to be made about the pink-haired ninja. For instance, in much of Naruto and early Naruto: Shippuden, she frequently made ill-advised decisions that led to her or her teammates ending up in compromised positions.

The big frustration with this specific instance from Naruto: Shippuden is that Sakura led to the end of one of the best possible fights we never got to see. It’s not often early on that Naruto gets to look cool and like the one controlling the flow of a fight, but in his confrontation with the Cloud ninja, things were looking good. Team 7 all showed off their fluency with teamwork however, Sai and Sakura were shown at the time to mainly be slowing Naruto down, and it became glaringly obvious when Sakura got kicked away by Omoi, causing Naruto to dart after her and catch her, giving up his advantageous position. The fight then ends at this functional stalemate, robbing fans of getting to see Naruto combat a ninja of a higher caliber and look good doing it.

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The Taijutsu Showed Promise of an Electrifying Fight

The early portions of this fight were incredibly well-choreographed and showed the hand-to-hand combat abilities that Naruto had honed throughout Shippuden. This confrontation kicked off when Omoi and Karui overheard Team 7 talking about Sasuke, whom the two were seeking information on. The hot-headed Karui then draws her sword and points it at Sakura, saying that Team 7 appears to be Sasuke’s friends and they can tell them everything they know. Naruto quickly reads the situation and kicks into action, showing off his quick thinking and reflexes by drawing Sai’s sword and moving Sakura out of the way while obscuring the space between Sakura and Karui using his body and parrying the cloud kunoichi’s blade.

As Naruto makes his motion towards defending his team, we get an example of their growth as a team in the fact that Sai drops down when Naruto grabs his sword to allow Naruto to better draw the sword and get directly into the parry. After Naruto’s expert maneuvers, Omoi begins attempting to draw his blade and defend his teammate from Naruto. As Naruto still has momentum from his parry swing, he sees Omoi attempt to make his way to an offensive stance and quickly prevents him from doing so by elbowing the pommel of Omoi’s sword and preventing the ninja from drawing it. Simultaneously, Naruto then makes the hand sign for shadow clone jutsu as Karui rolls over Omoi’s back and attempts to attack with the backside of her katana.

Naruto’s clone is summoned and quickly double-handed catches and locks down on Karui’s sword, preventing her from engaging further. Team 7 now springs into action as both members flank the two ninjas. However, Omoi performs a similar move to what we had seen Karui do, where he springs over her back and uses it as a vault to perform a spin kick while simultaneously dodging Sai and kicking Sakura away. This short moment of combat comes to an end when Naruto rushes to protect Sakura, and the two teams stand in opposition but begin a dialogue.

What Could Have Been

This fight’s potential was through the roof, and it was truly unfortunate that we didn’t get to see more of what could have been some of the best taijutsu in Shippuden. Sakura isn’t necessarily the only one to blame, but it is a shame that we didn’t get to see her or the rest of Team 7 show any more teamwork maneuvers to face down these Kumogakure interlopers.

At the end of the day, this fight and scene were of little consequence and served their narrative purpose to inform Naruto and Sakura that their old friend Sasuke was in cahoots with the Akatsuki. Sure, there could have been a little more love and attention paid to small scraps like this within the ninja world, and maybe next time, Sakura won’t get swatted away, but as of now, this scene could have given fans just a little more Naruto flair.