War of the Second Place Ships

Seeing as how both Bleach and Naruto are done and I finally finished the Bleach anime, coming across various fanfics who hated the canon pairings, and the upcoming Naruto vs Ichigo Death Battle have inspired this little thing.

Why the Ichigo/Rukia pairing makes more sense than Naruto/Sakura.

If you read my profile you know I despise Sukera Whoreno and I know that even plenty of Kishimoto's staff hated her. In fact, the vast majority of Naruto fans hate her and the only really good thing she did in my opinion was give birth to Sarada who before graduating the Academy is far more powerful and competent then her bitch of a mother. She was so hated that even when Kishimoto tried to save her character it was too late. He tried to make her relatable to girls in real life yet he would get comments from girls that they hated her. He tried to make her popular on purpose but failed.

When both Naruto and Bleach ended the Sakura and Rukia shippers hated that their pairing was dead. However, I find that comparing these two is insulting the Ichigo/Rukia shippers and as such I have taken it upon myself to explain why the Naruto/Sakura shippers never stood a chance.

I will be evaluating these two females in the categories of

Abilities

Personality

Impact in the story

Relationship with the main character

Relationship of who they ended up with

Abilities

Sakura:

Not even the most diehard Sakura fan can deny that saying in Part 1 she was a two-bit hack would be complimenting her. Only once in Part 1 was she any kind of useful and yet not even a minute later she needed rescuing. In 27 books she was only useful once says something about her. She is the weakest of the females in the Konoha 12 in Part 1 while Hinata is the strongest of the Kunoichi. When Part 2 came around yes, she did get stronger however she is still weak not so much in body but mind. If it weren't for Chiyo she would have died against Sasori easily. Even when she was at her strongest she was easily swept aside like nothing. Also she fails at doing simple tasks such as destroying the Rinnegan before Madara could get it and she had plenty of time to do it but just stood around being useless like she always has been.

Rukia: Yes, Rukia was weak in the beginning however that was due to Ichigo absorbing nearly all of her power in addition to what Urahara did however she still tried to fight in her condition instead of just staying back which shows she was no coward nor someone who just cried and begged someone to do something about a problem. When she returned after getting her powers back she immediately killed one of the Arrancars and killed one of the Espada on her own with no help. It was only because of her brother that she wasn't a seated officer considering she was at the level of a Lieutenant. Eventually she became a Captain which is a very big deal.

Personality:

Sakura: She is selfish, arrogant, greedy, manipulative and has an annoying voice. She played on Naruto's feelings for her to convince him to bring Sasuke back. She tried to fake that she loved him however Naruto didn't buy it but still threw Naruto for a real loop. She has a quick temper and hits Naruto for even small things. Not to mention she has a habit of crying every little hard thing comes her way.

Rukia: Rukia is a modest person even after being adopted by the Kuchiki's. She cares about her friends and those she holds dear and won't hesitate to go help them like when she willingly infiltrated Las Noches to help rescue Orihime. She is more than willing to jump into the fight.

Impact on the Story:

Sakura: She had no impact in the story and any times where she was useful Hinata could have easily taken her spot and done a better job 10fold if she had trained by Tsunade. Really her never existing would help the story as Hinata would take her place and another female like Yakumo could have been on Team 8. Naruto would never be burdened by her pathetic presence and able to focus on getting stronger and advancing his relationship with Hinata and this naru/hina and naru/saku war would have never come to pass.

Rukia: She was the one who introduced Ichigo to what was really happening and got the ball rolling. When Ichigo was down in the dumps it was her who helped him get back his fighting spirit. As mentioned before she killed one of the Espada who were Aizen's top men and she killed one in single combat. Plus, she was the one who got Ichigo his Soul Reaper powers back after his Fullbring was stolen.

Relationship with the Main Character:

Sakura: She would constantly abuse and put him down. She mocked him for being an orphan. Yes, it got better but not anywhere close enough that it could possibly lead to anything romantic. Even Tsunade told her that a relationship between her and Naruto could never work.

Rukia: First she started out as his coach in teaching Ichigo how to cut it as a Soul Reaper. Over time they became good friends. When Ichigo was battling Ginjo it was revealed that only Rukia believed that Ichigo would make the right choice after he found out the truth.

Relationship of who they ended up with:

Sakura: She has been chasing Sasuke ever since the academy and even when he tried to kill her she still loved him. Also, he basically abandoned her and their daughter after Sarada was born. He has knocked her out multiple times, attempted to kill her more than once and this clearly shows she has Stockholm syndrome.

Rukia: She and Renji were childhood friends from their time in the Rukon District. Even though they drifted for a while they still cared about each other. Renji fought Byakuya in order to save her and refused to give her up to Aizen even when he was beaten and bloodied. Rukia was distraught when she thought he died. They clearly had a strong bond.

This is nothing but the bare basics but I think I've gotten my point across as while Rukia had a decent chance to be part of the main pairing Sakura had literally zero chance to be with Naruto especially when she worshiped the Uchiha psycho. If Sakura never existed and Hinata was on Team 7 she would have been a much bigger help and with being near Naruto, she would get stronger then she already was and she could have studied under Tsunade and adding Medical Jutsu, monster strength and Summoning Jutsu to her Gentle Fist and Byakugan would make a very scary combination.

Now to do a little skit to make sure this can't be taken down.

Both Naruto and Ichigo were at a bar having a good chat.

"So, you excited for out battle" asked Naruto?

Ichigo replied "Yeah, but I hope they do both our abilities justice and stick to canon abilities which means no Hollow or Quincy powers for me. Honestly if you bring out your stronger power like your 6PSM and the Truth Seeking Balls there is no doubt I'll be dead."

"Yeah I still haven't forgiven them for that screwup with Garra vs. Toph seeing as how he would have crushed her easily" said Naruto.

"True that" Ichigo replied.

They clinked their glasses as a toast and got a deep gulp. They were silent for a while until Naruto got an idea. "So, what do you think of our second-place ships"?

Suddenly Ichigo started coughing as the alcohol went down the wrong pipe and when he got it under control he could only say "What"?

"You know how Sakura is hated by everybody and even Kishimoto regrets creating her, so I really can't see why people think we could make a couple and to be honest me and Hinata had been seeing each other since the beginning and he admitted in an interview that people can read on saiyanisland earlier this year that me and Hinata would be together, so Sakura fans never had a chance. I mean seriously she hit me all the time for often no reason or if there was a reason she should have just said something instead of just going straight to violence and she constantly manipulated my feelings even going so far to lie and say she loved me which is messed up."

He paused to take a breather before asking, "So, what do you think about people saying you should have been with Rukia"?

Ichigo pondered for a moment before answering, "I can understand why they think that way considering Kubo was never focused on that and didn't have your pairing from the beginning. Plus, both girls had their ups and downs in equal measure, so each side had an equal chance. Though I feel sorry for you having to put up with that howler monkey for all these years it really would have been better if she didn't exist. However, my series got worse because Kubo got sick and depressed which I feel sorry for the guy."

Naruto nodded and said, "Yep, our creators have it hard having to please millions of fans, but hopefully they'll be able to relax."

Ichigo agreed, "I heard that." They both clicked their glasses and drank the rest before going back to their trailers.