Why Do People Dislike Sakura?
Disclaimer: Naruto is Kishimoto's property; and as this isn't a story, so I'm not sure why a disclaimer should even be made.
Rating: Language and Humour (my kind).
AN: I saw a video of the same title (it's actually "Why People Hate Sakura So Much") and was taken aback by the number of likes it had received (it hadn't painted Sakura in a good light): forty-seven thousand plus, to be precise; so I decided that I should offer an unbiased opinion on her as I'm neither a fan nor do I dislike her. (The Lampoons on Sakura are actually aimed at her fans, not the character.)
Warning: Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi-diehards are to proceed with caution. (I remain unabashed about the pot-shots I regularly take at this lot, along with 'Solo-King' lovers.) Sensible fans are welcome to read this.
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Before I begin this, I'd like to state that Kishimoto is a damn good writer. Yes, you folks heard me. I'm well aware of the fact that slinging dirt at Kishimoto, or any other writer, and exhibiting the generally unearned pretension of being a "great writer" are the de rigueurs of this obnoxious fandom; however, nothing anyone has written (on fan-fiction) can match even the worst aspects put out by Kishimoto's narrative. (I really do mean that.)
I've wanted to say this for a very long time, and it's the truth. Pick up any story, and you'll find that it's nothing more than childish wish-fulfillment from a lot (not all) of writers who're under some strange impressions that they can actually write better than Kishimoto or, Lord forbid it, match him—they put out absolutely horrendous self-validating nonsense, a sty in which they wallow around without a shame, poorly constructed and unintentionally comedic narrative structures that make even novice editors (like me) weep, and caricatural characters that wear thin garbs of these cartoons whilst they hide underneath their (cartoons) make-believe skins and bones to . . . rattle the bones of the characters that arouse torrents of heat in their genitals—relentlessly. I mean, let's be honest, there's little purpose to obsessions with pairings, harems, and reverse-harems beyond masturbatory affairs that invite nothing but second-hand embarrassment from most sensible folks.
A lot of writers and readers also have this bizarre idea that any material they find to be problematic gives them some sort of free-license to claim that it's, here it comes, badly written—isn't that the most popular phrase these days? However, they don't stop here. No—they actually have the audacity to wrap up this childishness in a pretty plastic-wrapper and call it criticism. Now, I don't really care how many feelings are hurt whilst I state this, so you've been forewarned as I'm a very straight-forward, and generally harmless, man and I pull no punches: criticism is an "educated opinion"; an average fan-fiction frequenting hillbilly's offering nothing more than an uneducated, poorly put-together whimsical opinion (which that individual has a right to offer); reading and writing fan-fictions doesn't magically turn you into a critic; an opinion can be sensible and well-put, though it's seldom the case amongst this fandom; an opinion's very subjective; criticism has many over-arching merits that are agreed upon in academics that gives it a more objective status compared to internet opinions. The sooner people understand these differences, the better. Also, taking one or two 'extra-credit' classes in 'criticism (which a lot of Sakura-supporters vehemently claim on their profiles, without much sense and logic; some loopy Sakura-writers, like Evil is a Relative Term, feel not even a semblance of itsy-bitsy shame in comparing their awful writings so liberally to Joyce's works, as well—the horrors!)' suddenly doesn't turn you into a critic—anyone can claim to be anything on the internet, I suppose. What a tragedy.
Why did I type all of that? Because watching anime (I've personally never liked anime much—they're mostly quite awful and filled to the brim with pandering content, a practice I've always despised) doesn't bestow upon a reader a free-license and fantastical ability, with a penetrating sight, to attack a writer whose work and reputation they leech off without putting anything original of merit out in the market: let's face it, if any petty caterwauling reader or writer (who can't seem to swallow a single morsel without yipping about poor ol' Kishimoto's poor writing and how much it deeply offended him) in this fandom was so good, he (or she) wouldn't be wading through the cesspools of power and other bed-wetting fantasies, along with slurping the scum of self-validations that floats right atop this mess.
[A lot of this often leads to awfully predictable and ready-made replies such as "you don't have to study criticism to criticize a story" or "you don't have to write a story to criticize one"; and, frankly, almost all of the writers or readers fill neither of these two criteria (singular is criterion, which is another word most self-proclaimed critics on this site can't seem to get right); hence, this much 'noise-making' from them isn't adorable—it's just funny, and that's not a compliment. Trust me, it isn't. It just makes such an individual look even more foolish than before—such a person's just carrying out a free exhibition of their short-comings in this field. It just looks like a cheap circus-show of a circle-jerking crowd that rolls around in the sticky mass of sycophancy that's targeted at each other.]
My point is that criticism is about "detachment from content", not "attachment to content". French literary criticism places emphasis on readers being "spectators", not emotionally charged individuals who feel as though they belong in the content themselves. This latest "trend", which has spread like a tumorous disease, in the social-media about living vicariously through characters has greatly ruined the arts of writing, narratology, and criticism—it's made everything too binary. Associating with fictional characters is a terrible practice, a really terrible one. You're not the characters, and they're not you. They've been created with a certain "intent" in mind; and it's that "intent" [that] you need to gauge, not what your "expectations" as a reader are (or were).
Kishimoto's intention was to present a world where "hope" is meant to prevail above all, which is why, a lot of times, many characters behave in utterly unrealistic ways. Even Kishimoto himself didn't believe in all of this; however, he wanted to write the work within the boundaries of the Shōnen genre—a genre known for its light-hearted, feel-good endings that stand on the pillars constructed from basic clichés. (Keep that in mind that the Japanese audiences adore clichés; their stories run on these engines; hence, it's a matter of cultural perspectives, as well.)
["Kishimoto Calls Naruto "Naive"! Says He Didn't Understand Sasuke!" is a video. You can search it on the internet, and it'll give you a link to the interview he gave to a French magazine in this regard. It's very informative and sheds a lot of insight into his artistic vision.]
Your opinion as a sensible reader shouldn't focus on "why Kishimoto didn't pander to my whims"; it should be that "did Kishimoto do justice to his original vision—intention?" Any author, Kishimoto or not, isn't obliged to write the story in the manner you desire. That's such a petty way to deconstruct a content. If the content isn't to your liking, you can always look for another one that suits your tastes. Expecting the author to fit inside the moulds of your highly binary opinions (which are grossly black and white and vacuous at their crux) is a reprehensible and foolish mindset.
Kishimoto had an idea about hope, friendship, and forgiveness; and as simple as this sounds, it's got its own sense of beauty and charms. You can disagree with this mindset, but you can't hurl insults at a writer whose work you read through online theft, for starters! Yes, I'm well-aware of the 'courage' of an average western reader (mostly American and Canadian)—or any other one, but such folks are usually silent and far less hostile—who has the gall to throw a volley of crass insults at a writer whose work he stole. Come on! Am I supposed to value the opinions of thieves? And then these same authors turn around and claim that they write work for "fun"; and since they write it for "fun" and put it out for "free", nobody has the right to post concrit (Constructive Criticism; one of the most idiotic clipped forms of phrases that I've ever seen!) on their works. Why? Because that'd just be really, really mean. You see where I'm going with this?
This fandom takes it upon itself to make countless Discord-Servers (dedicated to pairings which work on flagrant ideals of self-inserting), Sub-Reddits, and Tumblr Blogs to sling dirt at a writer whose work they . . . stole, or "read for free" if we're being polite and euphemistic. (I'm not suggesting that everyone's a thief, but an overwhelming majority of this very vocal group of people certainly is!)
That's just . . . pitiful and silly. Not to mention the free-use of terms incorrectly: World Building doesn't mean what you think it means. Why? If you're copying a work, you aren't building anything. Even Kishimoto's world isn't original as a lot of Ninjutsu ideals are copied from folklore traditions in Nihon no Kuromajutsu, Left-Hand Path traditions, mythical history of Ninjutsu, etc. A lot of the Shinto mythos is crafted straight from the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki texts. (With a few others from some traditions that sprung after the invasion of Confucius and Buddhist doctrines in the country.) Hence, Kishimoto, technically, hasn't actually "built" any worlds (perhaps he's done less than half of the world-building—if I'm generous?). If he hasn't, then how exactly has an average fan-fiction writer managed to do it? World Building isn't even a proper phrase (word?). Poetic-Prose and Character-Driven Narrative don't mean what you think they mean, either. After all of this, is that really a surprise that certain characters from Naruto are constantly under attack? Not at all.
Does Naruto have narrative issues? Minor ones, because they don't generate any narrative-breaking paradoxes; and I'll get to them if I ever decide to dig up one of my assignments on characterizations in media. (I'd, shamelessly, chosen Uchiha Sasuke.)
For now, I've decided to dissect a character in Naruto, and Sakura appears to cause quite the controversy amongst the fandom. In fact, she's disliked far more than she's liked—for some really bizarre reasons.
Personally, I don't care much for Sakura's character; in fact, I'm indifferent to almost the entire cast of Naruto's characters. Her fan-base, save for some individuals, is fairly problematic—like Naruto's fanbase. They're two sides of the same coin: each of them is equally unpleasant. My parodies are written to poke fun at the common tropes that are used and abused by certain fandoms; and Lord (albeit I'm no deist) bless Tumblr activism and internet feminists (who adore projecting onto this fan-fiction version of Sakura that doesn't exist in canon and don't actually do any practical activism or feminism; they just remain perpetually stuck in the make-believe world of the media; and as a far-left individual, I find this mindset absolutely abhorrent—heck, I've never considered most Liberals to be progressive in any manner, given the so-called progressive political parties and their followers' full support of the systematic Palestinian genocide through AIPAC, capitalism, and absolute nonchalant attitude towards the meat-industry and very real environmental issues; but that's a discussion for another day, which clearly doesn't belong here; I might frighten the man-and-woman-children who think that Sakura's life was so incredibly tragic that they couldn't stop weeping at her victim-hood!) popping up from Tumblr, and alt-right keyboard warriors (your everyday garden-variety, eternal virtue-card-holding, young men whose prospects in the matters of the heart—mostly genitals—are forever very . . . very limited) from 4-Chan. (Sakura's the voice of the feminists, mostly female versions of every insult these fans throw at Naruto fans who also happen to be Sakura haters, and Naruto's your poor mouth-piece for a pimply virgin who was bullied at school!)
Sakura, quite often, gets crammed between these two extremes: either she's this prodigy who got the short-end of the stick from Kishimoto; or she's this irritating banshee who abused Naruto (it's a recurring joke that's taken to be a word of Gospel from your Naruto wankers). And, frankly, both of these "extremes" are equally and canonically false. Sakura, as a character, lies smack in the middle of these two perspectives.
I'm going to briefly touch upon Sakura's character from the start till the end, provided that I find more spare time on my hands. All of the dialogues in this analysis are taken from the Viz (official) version of the manga; so nothing is being fabricated here.
Naruto's Beginning
Naruto: Sakura Haruno. A total babe, but that's the problem . . .
Naruto, in the start, introduces Sakura as an attractive young girl he has a crush on. She, on the other hand, thinks that he's a nuisance, and her heart is set on Sasuke:
Sakura: Today is the day Sasuke will be mine.
Inner Sakura: The Mission Goal—First kiss!
Naruto: Sakura looks like she's in total ecstasy. What's so great about him (Sasuke)?! I just don't get it.
(Naruto starts bickering with Sasuke.)
Sakura: Naruto, you jerk! Leave Sasuke alone!
(This ends up in that in-famous and accidental kiss between two young boys, and Sakura ends up hitting Naruto.)
Sakura: Naruto . . . You make me sick!
The manga introduces Sakura as this . . . naïve young girl who's got a serious crush on a boy, who Naruto begrudging calls a "pin-up boy" whilst sitting on the toilet during one of the unfortunate incidents of an upset stomach.
She's fairly shallow, very self-centered, and has very little regard for any other person but herself. She's brash with Naruto, rude even, and often gets very physical that leads her to smack him on the head when he gets in her way; but she's absolutely smitten with Sasuke and tries her hardest to catch his attention, constantly.
Keep that in mind that this is a 12-year-old young girl. A lot of readers take issue with Sakura's attitude here, but I find it very unjust as she's just a child. Her so-called abuse is nothing more than scattered incidents of comic-relief. It isn't meant to be taken seriously. Why? Because Naruto himself doesn't consider it physical abuse despite the fact that he's very sensitive to the cold attitudes and hateful stares from the villagers. This means that he isn't oblivious to any form of abuse; so a Naruto-diehard's forceful introduction of this "shocking abuse" is just projection on his part—it doesn't exist in the manga, and it certainly isn't real.
Remember what I said about maintaining "distance" from characters? Well, this is why I said that. A person who sees himself (herself—he/him is a gender-neutral pronoun in formal writing in such contexts; therefore, I'm going to use it from now on) in characters tends to go with the abuse angle, which he may have faced in his own life. The characters aren't you, and you aren't the characters; the sooner people realize this, the simpler their lives will become.
Moving along—then we come to know that Chūnin Cells (Teams) are being formed. Team-members are selected on the basis of the students' performances in the class; and Sasuke's got the highest grades in this year's Rookie class, not Sakura. Last year, it was Neji, another prodigy. I've noticed that a lot of Sakura diehards tend to "spin" a lot of facts in their favour, but Sakura wasn't even the second-highest scoring member in the Genin Academy: it was Ino! You can state that Shikamaru didn't have a high-score, either, but he was never motivated in class. Furthermore, he also looked up to Sasuke and explicitly stated that he was better than him in every way (something that's easily proven by facts and Sasuke's speed at grasping concepts and learning techniques that shocked almost every single teacher!). His words, not mine. So this is a rather poor excuse to put Sakura on a pedestal.
Hence, canonically, Sakura's an intelligent girl, but she was never a genius or a prodigy at any point in the manga. Her fans need to drop these made-up facts and embrace canon. Suggesting that Sakura had a lot of "potential" and Kishimoto could've done this and that with her . . . is just a silly opinion. Reason? Whatever isn't shown or implied in the manga, doesn't exist. Shocking, no?
If I'm to make this even simpler, then Sakura's Kishimoto's character, not yours; her potential's what Kishimoto decides, not you. Sakura, or any other character, was never meant to be anything more than what she was in canon; and her out-of-the-world Chakra-Control's also blown out of proportion by her fanbase, which I'll get to in the Wave-Arc in detail. (It's not even close to Naruto's, let alone Sasuke's who shocked Kurama with his Ninjutsu skill, talent, and control over bijū, along with regular, chakra that he was left with no choice but to explicitly state that Sasuke's skill is at the level of the Sage of the Six Paths—but I'll explain this when we get there; remember, Sakura couldn't handle even a "tiny" amount of bijū chakra from Naruto in the early part of Shippūden, something that's explicitly stated by Yamato.)
When the cells are announced, Sakura's on cloud eleven, but she becomes gloomy fairly quickly: Naruto's been assigned on the same team, too. Now, this team was formed on the basis of strongest to the weakest Genins; Sakura's the middle-man in this regard—she's basically just mediocre:
Sakura: It's perfect! I know they'll team me up with Sasuke.
Sakura: Oh yeah! (Naruto's name is announced for cell-7) Rats!
After the cell-members are announced, and seeing Sasuke's disinterested attitude, she's seen day-dreaming during the recess-break (This is when the comic-scene of Naruto tying Sasuke up and masquerading as him happens):
Sakura: How can I ever overwhelm him with sex-appeal when I got so short-changed in the T&A department (she's talking about tits and arse)? The only part of me that's over-sized is my stupid forehead!
This shows that, contrary to Sakura fans' claims, Sakura was never interested in becoming a Shinobi for herself or to prove something to her parents. No, her primary goal was always Sasuke—always. And this never changed at any point in the manga. Her fans can claim that she was in the academy before she even met Sasuke, but they forget that she herself claims many times that she isn't cut-out to be a Chūnin. In fact, she tried dropping out of the Chūnin Examination's various stages many times! She actually almost quit as soon as her team couldn't get the bells! Without Sasuke, she'd have just quit (many times over), and that's a fact!
We can see here that the cell-members are announced, but Sakura isn't fretting about her poor prospects in the coming Chūnin tests; no, she's worried about how she'll impress Sasuke. As I mentioned earlier, she's very naïve, shallow, and generally childish compared to her classmates like Sasuke, Neji, and Shino, especially the former two.
Sakura: But it's Sasuke—he's looking at me with bedroom eyes like he can see right through me!
Inner Sakura: If I'm dreaming, don't wake me! Dreams do come true.
Naruto, using Substitution-Jutsu to pose as Sasuke (he even states that he can use Sasuke's image to make Sakura hate Sasuke; so he wasn't so innocent as his fans claim him to be—he can be a complete arsehole, at times), asks Sakura as to what she thinks about Naruto; and she launches into this obscenely long and parodical melodrama that every sensible person knows is fairly hyperbolic (and false):
Sakura: If he ever had his way, I'll never find love or happiness. He ruins everything . . . he enjoys tormenting me. Naruto doesn't understand me at all. I can't stand to have him anywhere near me. In fact, the one person whose opinion I value . . . the only one I really want to be close to . . . is you, Sasuke.
I'd do almost anything to win your attention, your respect. Because I have a crush on you. I'm desperate.
Now, as irksome as this may be, you needn't forget what I said earlier: Sakura's a naïve and silly child, foolish even. All of this should be expected of a young girl who's led a very sheltered life with her parents and friends. Sure, she was bullied a little for her forehead, but she found solace in Ino's company fairly quickly; hence, all of these foolish ramblings of an unwise child shouldn't be held against her.
She also tells Naruto (who she thinks to be Sasuke) that it's Sasuke's "respect" and "attention" that she desires; and this is another thing that never changes at any point in the manga: she always wanted "validation" from Sasuke. No matter which way her fans try and warp this fact, it's not going to change.
When Sasuke frees himself from the ropes and appears before Sakura, she's under the impression that he's too shy (an assumption that stayed in her mind till the very end) and has come to resume the kiss—initiation of it, anyway. Here, she said something that made many readers dislike her:
Sakura: He always comes between us. It's because he was badly brought up. You know, because he never had any parents? He doesn't have to answer to anyone, ever. And it's made him completely selfish. If I did the kind of things he gets away with, my parents would ground me for life.
Don't you envy him being alone, not having parents nag at you all the time? (She, surprisingly, doesn't even know that Sasuke's an orphan, which shows that her so-called love's very, very superficial.)
Sasuke immediately doesn't take kindly to her flippant and outrageous remarks:
Sasuke: Kids without parents always grow up selfish.
That, and lonely.
Being scolded by your folks doesn't even compare.
You make me sick!
Before I say anything else, it's interesting to note here that, despite the massacre, she's got no idea that Sasuke's an orphan (she actually thinks that he's got parents who "nag at him", so he can understand her feelings!) when many of his classmates knew that he was one (we're actually shown that during the flashbacks at the first Valley of the End, Vote, battle between him and Naruto)! It just goes to show that how superficial her attraction to Sasuke is. She doesn't care about what Sasuke's been through; she's never invested herself in actually knowing anything about him; what his feelings are; why he acts the way he does; so on and so forth. So far, everything surrounding their one-sided relationship's about Sakura, not Sasuke.
The orphan remark can be chalked up to her ignorance and being interested in her own life and feelings. I don't believe that it makes her a malicious person, as, after Sasuke rightfully reprimands her, she does start to change her attitude, starting from this half-hearted personal-reflection:
Sakura: I make him sick? I wonder if Naruto feels that way, too . . .
Maybe, from now on, I could try being a little . . . nicer . . . ?
When Sasuke talks about "killing someone", Sakura still has little idea as to whom he's referring to. She just thinks he's cool! and reverts back to being the same attention-seeking brat like before:
Sakura: He's so cool!
I am Haruno Sakura. My favourite thing is . . . well it's not a thing, it's a person. A boy . . . and that boy is . . . uh, let's move on to my dream.
I hate Naruto.
My hobbies are . . .
And again when Kakashi announces the first challenge, Sakura's got little desire to become a Shinobi for herself. No, she wants to impress Sasuke! It's his approval that she desires; it's him that she wants to impress (another aspect that draws projections from many Sakura fans):
Sakura: I can't fail it . . . that would mean leaving Sasuke. This is like a test of my love!
. . . I have been on a diet . . .
When the test begins, Naruto rushes at Kakashi, thoughtlessly, whilst Sasuke and Sakura look on. This same image is repeated far into the future when Sakura rushes at Jūbi-Jinchuriki (Jūbi-Jin) Madara without a single thought and Sasuke and Naruto look on. Now, why would Kishimoto do that? Food for thought, no?
Anyhow, it's Sasuke here who analyses how and why Naruto failed, not Sakura; so that's one point (and right in the beginning, too) that goes against the claims that Sakura's highly insightful compared to Sasuke, which is factually untrue; and you'll see much more of that as the story progresses. Sasuke's also the one to analyse the arts of substitution Ninjutsu (and why Naruto failed in his attack) and Genjutsu, perfectly—he didn't even witness the second one, but he guessed it appropriately. Sakura analyses literally nothing in this small test of skills set-out by Kakashi.
It's to be noted here that Sasuke actually fooled Kakashi with his trap, something Sakura couldn't do despite having a lot of time on her hands in The Forest of Death. (Another parallel from Kishimoto here that shows that who adapts, and who doesn't; who's good at tricks, and who isn't; who shows inventive cleverness and prodigious talents on the battlefield, and who doesn't—Sakura never quite grows out of this, I'm afraid.) The Sound-Nin Genins, which aren't Elite Jōnin like Kakashi (Sasuke calls him that during the bell-test), didn't fall for both of her traps, Kakashi did. In fact, Kakashi states the following:
This one's not bad. I can't even read make-out paradise while fighting. (Sasuke used Kakashi's own tactics against him and nearly grabbed the bells—he managed to touch them, actually.)
I'll admit it, you're not like the others.
(Sasuke starts to use Fire Style! Fireball Technique!) That skill is beyond the capacity of any novice! His chakra shouldn't have developed enough yet to perform it! (Keep this conversation in mind for the Wave Arc.)
(I'll add more to this when we get to the parts, but notice that Kakashi uses the term "skill" here.)
When Kakashi declares that they'll lose the test because all of them did their own thing, Sakura tries to push her intentions onto Sasuke again that they should withdraw from the test (something she does repeatedly throughout the course of the Chūnin Examinations), which greatly irks him:
Sakura: . . . even if we couldn't manage it this time, I'm sure, next time, if we give it our all . . . (she stops talking immediately when Sasuke glares at her.)
Sasuke: Only I can kill him.
Sakura: You mean, Master Kakashi?!
Sasuke: He made me cry . . .
Sakura: You cried . . . ? (She's making a strange face whilst she hears this, which showcases her complete lack of empathy and an inability to look at things beyond her.)
Sakura wears a strange expression (accompanied by sweat drops): she can't believe Sasuke can actually cry! This just shows that she's a girl in her own little world, who's got no idea about the realities of the village and Shinobi life; and that's perfectly fine because that's how her character was written and meant to be.
And when Sasuke, despite Kakashi asking them not to, hands Naruto his lunch, she mimics his behaviour and does the same!
Sasuke: You're no good to me if you're just going to be a liability.
So it's technically Sasuke who wins them the cell-7's first test, not both of these buffoons. Sakura offers Naruto her lunch after Sasuke offers him his; however, you can see that she's trying to change—if not for Naruto, then for Sasuke's sake!
And with this ends the first analysis . . .
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EN: If anyone's that curious about the claims and really wants a "serious (these quotation marks are very deliberate)" debate, because we all must be passion-filled world-changing key-board warriors like Miss. FineIllSignup and Evil is a Relative term and their culture-shaking views over anime from time to time (the real issues in the world about portrayal of cartoons, especially the poor, poor cartoon women—making the world a better place through Sakura, one Tumblr post at a time!), then they can always contact me by logging in on fan-fiction or joining Discord. It literally takes about ten seconds to do the latter. Aren't I nice?
My views remain the same as they fully align with canon: Sakura was never even hinted to be a genius or a prodigy at any point in the manga, and that's just canon (she can be anything in head-canons, of course, because even Naruto's got a Rinnegan popping out of his colourful, divine anus in many a story); her accomplishments are grossly underwhelming compared to Sasuke, Tobirama, Orochimaru, Madara, Neji, and even Kakashi, especially Sasuke who beats everyone with a stick when it comes to skill and talent (save for Tobirama)—he achieved in his teenage (he's only seventeen) what Sage of the Six Paths did in a feeble old age; and without any help whatsoever, he completely innovated and reversed Sage's best Ninjutsu (Creation of All Things, with which he created the bijū by giving them form and breathing life into them) in a matter of seconds, a Jutsu Sasuke had never even heard of, nor seen! So he created Reverse-COAT with Rinnegan, a completely new Ninjutsu of the highest calibre, with a Raiton affinity to boot! I'm not even counting Indra's Arrow (another technique he invented out of the blue!) here, which makes his simultaneous COAT reversal absolutely insane! And I haven't even touched upon the number of Raiton techniques he invented or how he took Ninjutsu to a complete new level with Kirin!
He's got the largest and the most versatile arsenal in the entire manga, and the most Susanoo weaponry (regular and Enton reinforced, which makes his arsenal triple compared to Madara and Itachi): he's got Bow and Arrow, Magatama, and Swords. Itachi and Madara only have the latter two, and the former doesn't possess Kagatsuchi; the latter doesn't possess Amaterasu, at all. In fact, Sasuke's so skilled with Enton chakra-control that the smartest guy in the manga, Tobirama (I don't even like the guy, but he's on another level compared to the other prodigies; however, Sasuke's less than half his age with most inventions in the entire manga under his belt!), said that he's never seen an Enton control this good before, and he's fought against Uchiha in wars for nearly all his life! Where does Sakura stand compared to a guy (a mere 17-year-old at that!) who invented two techniques on the spot, both of which are at the Sage of Six Paths' level? Nowhere.
Tobirama's invented Edo Tensai and The Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags to go along with it, Flying Thunder God (FTG slash, too), which is more versatile compared to Minato's awful use of it as his marks can travel and he can mark random objects at will (Minato can mark people, too, but he's not that versatile in this regard as he can't mark various weapons like Tobirama at will), and Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, along with the entire political infrastructure of Konoha. As I mentioned earlier, I don't like the guy, but I'm not biased enough to say that he isn't insanely smart. You'll have to be a serious stone-age wanker to say otherwise. Where does Sakura stand compared to Tobirama? Nowhere.
Orochimaru invented the Jinjutsu (a transformation-based cursed seal, basically), Eight Branches Technique, Regeneration ability and snake Jutsus (part of his White Snake arsenal), Immortality Jutsu, and improved the Edo Tensai (though it was perfected by Kabuto; Tobirama's ET is very rudimentary from the looks of it); he even transformed his own body into that of a snake. Tsunade doesn't even remotely compare to what this guy's accomplished, let alone Sakura who's invented nothing.
I'm not going to highlight Madara and Neji; however, whilst they didn't invent anything, they learnt things on their own. Something Sakura couldn't do. And whilst Kakashi did invent Chidori, his use of Raiton pales in comparison to Sasuke's. Even his Chidori's lack-lustre compared to Sasuke's who cut-off a fully formed Tailed Beast's (Hachibi's) Whirlpool-creating tentacle with it; his S-Rank Raikiri was easily cancelled out by a C-Rank Raiton technique from Kakuzu (Raiton mask), and he had to use both of his hands there, too! Heck, Sasuke can focus the Raiton chakra on fewer fingers, like the Third Raikage (something Kakashi can't do), and he can change the shape and form of the Raiton with a single hand (Chidori spear that further transforms into a star-shaped form) whilst Kakashi can't do that with a single hand, either: for instance, his Raiton Beast (a dog form) is a mere C-Rank technique, and he does it with two hands; his Raikiri-Chain is done with a clone (he can't make a long spear like Sasuke with a single hand); it's commented on by Jiraiya when he was training Naruto for Rasengan that the formation of a Ninjutsu technique, which needs to be made with a single hand, with two-hands shows a lack of skill (Naruto could only make Rasengan with a single hand after gathering the experience from Lord knows how many millions of clones that amounts to about two decades worth of experience, at least!).
But they're prodigious in their own right. Kakashi invented Jutsus and the former two learnt things without assistance. Though very intelligent in her own right, Sakura really isn't all that special on this front. I do place Shaikamaru below her, because her feats far outshine his. I might do an analysis on that, but Shikamaru's a very feat-less and dull character compared to the people I've mentioned. He's literally at the bottom of the barrel here; and before you scream "he won against Hiden", then it isn't that simple; he literally lost and poorly analyzed every other battle, and even in this one, he got the whole cell killed (thankfully, Naruto showed up in the nick of time to save dear ol' Kakashi's arse). I'll explain when we get there . . . if we ever there.