Sunshine Applications (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sunshineapps) wrote2014-04-08 04:08 pm
sunshineapps) wrote2014-04-08 04:08 pm
Entry tags:
Application Sakura
Name: Sakura Haruno
Canon: Naruto
Journal:notveryspecial
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Canon History: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Sakura_Haruno#Background
Canon Abilities/Powers: INTENSE CHAKRA CONTROL - She has a stunning natural talent at chakra control. Even when she barely knew any jutsu, she could use that jutsu to its maximum effectiveness more times than anyone else with her chakra pool, because she used exact amounts required. Her chakra control is the secret of her monster strength, in the anime she showed skill at sealing a tailed beast due to her chakra control, and eventually allowed her to flawlessly store up half of her chakra over three years to create her very own seal diamond - a feat only three others in the history of the manga have been confirmed to be able to do.
Genjutsu - Although never trained in using genjutsu, her chakra control gives her an incredible talent at recognizing when her chakra flow is being disrupted and either regaining control or preventing the loss of control. Her natural talent at genjutsu rivals that of an Uchiha.
Taijutsu - Although less well known, Sakura is also quite strong without her chakra techniques, able to knock people several feet through the air and even able to break off a ship's mast when given an appropriately large weapon. With her chakra manipulation, her strength is amplified many times, to the point where a single punch could crush a person's insides into pulp, and collapse boulders bigger than she is. It's implied, when her seal is complete, that she too could cause fissures in the ground just from the touch of her finger and a well-timed burst of chakra.
Beyond her monster strength, however, she's also incredibly skilled at taijutsu, able to fight for what was most likely hours while only being scratched by her opponent when she chose--and her opponent was Sasori, whose entire strategy revolved around his poisoned blades scratching/cutting his opponent. At first she received help from another puppet-master, but before long her observational skills allowed her to determine his battle strategies to such an extent that she could anticipate his moves just by watching the movements of his fingers and eyes.
This skill showed itself most prominently when she went up against Sasori's hundred puppet army and maneuvered her way through it without being touched. It goes without saying that she is fast and flexible, and able to dodge in an instant.
Medical Ninjutsu - Alongside her strength and taijutsu, Tsunade taught her medical ninjutsu. She has such skill that she can heal herself or others on the fly during combat, sealing mortal wounds and replenishing chakra quickly. Outside of the battlefield, her abilities to heal fatal wounds exceed even most other medical nin.
She is an expert at poisons (although maybe not in excess of Orochimaru's skills), and can overcome even extremely complex poisons like Sasori's, which are believed to be untreatable.
Sakura also has extensive knowledge about anatomical structure, DNA, and chakra networks, allowing her to diagnose patients and assist in exploratory autopsies.
Although rarely used offensively, she is capable of wielding chakra scalpels.
Summoning Jutsu - She has a summoning contract with Katsuyu, and has the ability to split up Katsuyu and heal an entire army of people simultaneously without strain.
Sunshineverse History:
There's nothing special about Sakura Haruno. For the first thirteen years of her life, that's what she heard endlessly, it's what she lived and fought and knew to be true. In a village with so many prominent and powerful clans, with so many kekkai genkai, secret and special jutsu, and so much importance placed on the clan you come from...Sakura was born without a clan. In a world that idolized powerful and notorious ninja, her father never exceeded genin, and her mother's shinobi career ended in her first skirmish in the Second War.
As far as any children in the Academy were concerned, Sakura was a child of either civilians or failed shinobi...and none of them would ever settle on which was worse. As a young child, Sakura had no special talents that made her stand out amongst the teachers of Konoha. Although she could easily knead chakra and learn jutsus, her ninjutsu skills were weak and taijutsu pathetic. Perhaps even worse among the kunoichi in training, Sakura's hair color stood out, while her face...did not.
The only thing important about Sakura Haruno is how big of a forehead she has. The only things that made Sakura stand out among her class were her hair, the size of her forehead, and how overwhelmingly average she was. As a child, Sakura was quiet, and followed her father's advice to try to avoid conflict...and that quiet timidity made her an easy target for the cruel children in the Academy. As time went on and the children grew more persistent, Sakura began to shy away from any physical training or jutsus and teachings that required physical demonstrations, rather being late than making herself a target for jeers and heckling. Although she focused on keeping up her grades through excelling on written tests and book learning, her jutsu knowledge became theoretical and her chakra pool remained miniscule.
All told, the bullying of Sakura Haruno lasted for three years, from when she first joined the Academy at three, until the frightening and dominant Ino Yamanaka befriended her at six. Although no longer actively bullied, stage whispers of the useless girl with the abnormal forehead continued whenever the blonde wasn't present, and the idea that Sakura Haruno shouldn't pretend to be special persisted.
Sakura adopted the tough and defiant attitude of her best friend, and copied the girl's keen sense of fashion to protect herself from the ninja failure that was Sakura Haruno, but her attention remained on the fashion and building up her self-confidence and self-image, instead of ninjutsu or taijutsu training, and so her knowledge remained only textbook.
At the age of eight, Sakura experienced her very first crush, on one Uchiha named Sasuke. Sasuke was attractive, quiet yet driven, and everything in a shinobi Sakura wasn't. Because of that, she wasn't the only one in the class to fall for the Uchiha clan's youngest heir. The disdain of the friends Ino had brought her made her cling to the idea of the young Uchiha even more tightly. So tightly, in fact, that when her friend Ino revealed she too had feelings for him, she couldn't bear to let go and accept the Uchiha heir was beyond someone like Sakura Haruno even for Ino's sake. She transformed her friendship into rivalry with all the self-confidence she'd learned to imitate.
As it turned out, the Uchiha heir really was beyond someone like Sakura Haruno.
When the Hokage-apparent hand-picked new genin for his team, the heirs of the Uchiha, Hyuuga, and current hokage were chosen. The girl without a clan was not.
Sakura Haruno never intentionally gave up on her feelings for the Uchiha heir, but she did give up hope on them. Although the end of her pursuit of Sasuke also meant the end of her rivalry with Ino, so too did she lose her self confident bravado.
In the end, Sakura Haruno ended up on Hayame Shirakumo's team, alongside Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame, clan-heirs with less pull to their names than the three in the Hokage's team, and no family legacies to secure their place like Team Asuma. Shirakumo was a strict and practical sensei who had little taste for either self-pity or heroics. The first order of business was to hand out chakra paper to each of his students and determine their nature. Sakura's paper turned to dust.
Shirakumo would have nothing of Sakura's quiet intentions of fading into the background of the team, insisting that if she didn't contribute to the team, she needn't be a shinobi at all. Once instructed, Sakura took well to kenjutsu, not requiring the years of ninjutsu training she had shirked during her years of bullying in the Academy. Although Shirakumo was one of the leaf's rare Wind users, a nature opposite and unrelated to Earth, he nevertheless taught Sakura what he could of his advanced nature transformation skills, and where his sword strikes blasted slicing air at his opponents, Sakura learned to use the sword as a shield and an imprisoning claw, enhancing her strikes in ways that allowed her creativity and intelligence to thrive.
Sakura Haruno was not among the Rookie Six who attended the chuunin exams in her first year. Sakura and team Shirakumo took the chuunin exams when she was fifteen, and passed easily.
During the finals of her chuunin exams, she caught the attention of one Shisui Uchiha, who could discern her until then undiscovered aptitude for genjutsu (or perhaps he simply admired the skill with which she used the body flicker technique taught to the team by Shirakumo, himself a renowned Body Flicker user, Sakura was never quite certain). Either way, shortly after receiving her Chuunin flak-jacket, Shisui approached her and offered to tutor her in genjutsu.
It's been a year since she's started training her genjutsu skills under Shisui, and while she has always been efficient and skilled at chakra manipulation, it's genjutsu where her true talent lies and the 'special' in Sakura shines. Combining the kenjutsu and earth release learned from Shirakumo, the genjutsu techniques studied with Shisui, and the body flicker taught by both, her skills have jumped by leaps and bounds and the 'normal' Sakura Haruno has been greatly increasing in rank and status since becoming Chuunin. Some believe, as she's given more high-profile missions due to her unique combinations of skills, that the late-blooming chuunin of her class might be one of the first to make Jounin.
Sunshineverse Abilities/Powers: Sakura won't have her medical ninjutsu, as she wasn't trained by Tsunade, and that means no monster strength or currently summoning jutsus. She also will have much more limited hand-to-hand taijutsu and dodging skills.
Instead, as her sensei is a kenjutsu master, she is excellent in kenjutsu. She carries a long katana which she's able to reinforce with either chakra or earth-jutsu when necessary, and usually incorporates it into her earth-chakra abilities. She's quick on her feet and to draw and sheath her sword, moving fast enough that the average eye would be unable to see her fastest slice. She's also incredibly agile due to her practice, able to leap and flip through the air with ease, and could potentially hold a swordfight in mid-air without difficulty if necessary.
She uses earth-style ninjutsu, exploiting her chakra nature, in a similar method to how her team captain uses his wind and kenjutsu skills. Although she's not as advanced in ninjutsu as some who came out of the academy, she's dedicated to her training and a quick learner, and has picked up several earth jutsus. She also tends to use her creative mind to modify jutsus or create techniques to augment her sword-fighting skills, or knock enemies off-balance and capture them.
Both of her senseis are not just good at Body Flicker, but known enough for it to have nicknames referencing their Body Flicker technique, and as such she's picking that up as well (a technique she takes to naturally, due to the need for specially timed and measured bursts of chakra to activate it).
Most notable of her skills, however, is her great talent for genjutsu. Even when she's untrained in it, her skill is almost comparable to a trained and talented Uchiha, allowing her to fight and dispel most genjutsu targeted at her, and detect when she is under a genjutsu. When Shisui recognized her talent in the Chuunin exams a year ago, he immediately took her under his wing and began training her in genjutsu. Due to her chakra control, and the great flexibility and creativity allowed in it, it's a skill that she has taken to the most out of all of her training. She has exceeded in her genjutsu training, and already has formidable genjutsu skills, able to ensnare even small groups of people in genjutsu quickly, and maintain that genjutsu with minimal distractions easily. Her primary genjutsu opponent/partner/teacher is Shisui, so it's reasonable to assume that for her age and time practiced, she has both quite strong genjutsu, and an even greater ability to resist it than before.
Although she can still read movements, it's not to the advanced skill she could have had under other teachers--instead she usually attempts to recognize and anticipate handsigns rather than subtle movements and attacks--and while she has the chakra pool and control that would allow her to potentially summon a powerful creature, she has no summoning contract and no current contacts with which to receive a summoning contract from.
Appearance: She has pink hair, which falls down to the bottom of her thighs when free-hanging. Usually, though, she keeps her hair tied high or tightly braided so to keep it out of her way. She's five-two and lithe, with tightly compact muscles from her taijutsu and kenjutsu training. She has fair skin and light green eyes. As a shinobi, she has many scars tracing her body, both from her training and from her battles. Although she is meticulous with maintaining her appearance, her combat outfits are always practical and efficient, and she usually keeps her chest bound if she's going to be moving around much. When she doesn't bind it, she still only has b cups.
Personality: Sakura Haruno is more than she appears. The same is true of most shinobi, but few take it to such an extreme as Sakura. On the surface, she has always been nothing more than a clanless girl with nothing special and nothing notable about her other than a slightly larger forehead than normal. No one important ever paid her any mind as a child, all her teachers were more focused on the clan geniuses and children of important people than on the studiousness of a quiet and unremarkable girl.
Underneath the meekness and the quiet, however, Sakura is loud, emotional, and impulsive. When she was younger, the disconnect between her calm and flighty exterior and her passionate and charged inner psyche was so significant that her consciousness splintered into two, her quiet and polite shell housing the violent and loud 'inner Sakura'. The dissonance between the two was profound enough that at the time even mental domination jutsus like the Yamanaka clan's would have difficulty completely controlling her.
In the reverse, Sakura's confident and dominant facade cloaks the insecurities and inferiority she feels underneath. The bullying from her contemporaries and constant neglect from those in authority above her took its toll on her self-image and self-confidence, and the failure of her first crush was a further blow to her place in the world. Her training with Shirakumo and being recognized by Shisui has given her a boost of confidence and purpose, but their influence is still new, and the insecurity and low self-confidence is still present underneath.
Deeper than her self-esteem issues, however, is her strong will and her compassion. Sakura has a strength of will and character that defies self-images impressed upon her. In her youth, this manifested as her 'inner Sakura', but since she's found a harmony with her stronger side and an outlet for it through Team Shirakumo, it manifests through stubbornness and a temper that she disguises only for those she respects. Even in her shows of submissiveness and respect, her steel will can be seen, by her determination to stick to her own beliefs and expressing her respect in her own ways, despite what anyone--even a Hokage--might say. In more positive aspects, this will of hers can be turned toward determination, such as to succeed as a shinobi despite her disadvantages and be a contributing member of Team Shirakumo, and in courage, such as her ready willingness to sacrifice herself in any form necessary for those that have earned her loyalty (particularly those that Shirakumo has taught her to protect)
Due to Shirakumo's beliefs and influenced by the bullying she received as a child, she has a strong belief in the good of the team, and those under her authority, over her own. In fact, beyond her respect for those above her, she has very little regard for jounin, kage, or lords. Instead, her focus is primarily on protecting fellow teammates, genin, and civilians who can't protect themselves instead. In her opinion, no worthy leader allows those in their care to die in their stead.
Despite her general disregard for much of those in authority over her, Sakura is in fact a very loyal person. To those who show her compassion and respect, or give her opportunities she feels undeserving of, or show her attention and favor usually denied her, she is unwaveringly devoted to. Her jounin sensei, her friends and teammates, Ino, and her new teacher are all people she would sacrifice almost anything for, and who she would often follow without question. Once loyalty and devotion is given, it's very difficult for her to retract it, no matter the circumstances, and no matter how much she is convinced that she should.
Even those she isn't loyal to, however, can see the softer and more compassionate side she keeps hidden behind her confident and occasionally clipped exterior. Sakura is naturally a healer. When she sees hurting and suffering, her first instinct is to reach out and offer comfort or healing. Although she's no medical nin in this version of history, she still offers emotional and psychological support and comfort to those she can, and would never intentionally wound an ally, or hold something of herself over them.
Sakura's natural observational skills give her an innate talent for recognizing the suffering of others. While she doesn't have shared suffering to sympathize with others, she has the ability to understand and empathize with those she doesn't, a counter-argument for Pein's belief that understanding of another can only come from shared suffering. However, Sakura usually doesn't bother to note that suffering unless it's a person important to her (be that a friend or a client of importance), or she intends to use genjutsu to turn that against her enemies (a rare instance of turning her healing and compassionate nature into a weapon instead).
Despite her compassionate nature for her friends, and her intense loyalty to her team, on a personal basis her childhood bullying and...assertive childhood role model lends toward a certain selfish nature. Although she has mostly grown out of her more egregious selfishness, she is still often driven by her own interests and goals, rather than the interests of others, unless her loyalty or her compassion interferes.
While she was preoccupied with beauty and chasing boys when she was a young child, following the lead of the other girls in the Academy, the bitter disappointment she suffered when her dream of winning Sasuke Uchiha fell apart, and the reality of the shinobi world she's faced out on missions with Team Shirakumo, has mostly driven away this interest. Although she still keeps up her appearance both because of her renewed friendship with Ino and for infiltration purposes, and at times she will gossip and chat with Ino about the relationships of other shinobi, the concept of romance of her own is so far from her mind that even were she approached with it she would probably be oblivious to it.
Sakura has learned to be greatly adaptable, first to avoid and then to prevent bullying, and then to catch up as a genin and excel as a chuunin. Because of this, she is often easily influenced by those close to her. Her teachers can often reshape her personality into variations of themselves over time, and her teammates and friends can either soften or sharpen aspects of her personality due to exposure to them. Unfortunately, this adaptability can also lead to malleability, and just as her loyalty could be potentially manipulated by the wrong person, if she were surrounded by certain influences, it's possible she could reshape herself to mirror those regardless of how different they might be from her original beliefs (although certain aspects of her personality, such as her compassion, would always remain underneath that changeable surface.)
Sakura is an individual who is difficult for the casual observer to pin down. She often hides her true feelings around any who aren't already close to her, going so far as to channel things into anger or offense instead of their true form, and burying concern, sadness, and fear whenever necessary around enemies. The hidden depths of Sakura hide both her great potential as a shinobi and studious intelligence, and the steel, unchanging core of her personality underneath a false shell that shifts according to need and surroundings, whether that shell be quiet meekness, flighty girliness, or stoic humility.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
+ Excellent chakra control
+ Genjutsu talent comparable to Uchiha
+ Determined
+ Compassionate
+ Strong leadership skills
+ Great observational skills
+ Quick learner
+ Mental fortitude
+ Excellent kenjutsu skills
+ Creative
+ Earth chakra
+ Kind
+ Keenly intelligent
+ Adaptable
+ Values other lives over her own
+ Very loyal to personal mentors and teammates
+ Brave
- Insecure
- Extremely dim self-image
- Limited self-esteem
- Need to prove herself
- Only one chakra nature
- No medical skills
- Stubborn
- Selfish
- Weak general ninjutsu skills
- Preoccupation with beauty
- Need for validation from others
- Inability to read romantic intent
- Physically weaker that taijutsu specialists
- Lonely
- Malleable
- Very low self-importance
- Limited loyalty to the village
- Limited inter-personal skills
- Sometimes reckless
Village Affiliation: Konoha
Rank: Chuunin
Prose sample: http://sunshine-ooc.dreamwidth.org/8966.html?thread=248326#cmt248326
Bracket sample: [Okay, she doesn't like these at all. She understand why they're useful, it's just...she prefers face-to-face conversation or long-term scrolls. This strange mix of the two is just unnerving.
However, Kiba is missing and they're going to be late for their mission if they wait or she goes wandering the village looking for him. Shino did offer to set his bugs to the test of searching the village for Kiba, but neither Sakura nor Shirakumo-sensei thought it was a good idea to set a plague of locusts ("They're not 'a plague of locusts', why do I say that? Because they are Kikaichuu, which is a type of beetle, not Acrididae." he said, which didn't bode well at all) on the town that hired them.]
Damn it, Kiba! Where are you?! We were supposed to leave to meet the contact fifteen minutes ago! If we wait any longer on you we're going to be late! You do know who we're going to meet, right? Do you remember the explicit instructions not to be late? There's not even anything to do here to be late for!
[She sighed, glancing over at the judgmental sunglasses of Shino Aburame, who stood a short distance from her, hands in his pockets and emanating an aura of offense that his offer was so quickly shot down.] If you don't get your butt over here, Shino's going to sic his bugs all over the village and drag you out with those.
Missive Sample:
Shirakumo-sensei,
The package was delivered successfully. Shino seemed surprised, did you neglect to inform him ahead of time? There are now dead bugs all over my sheets. The princess seems to be as ornery as we were warned, and it might be wise to recall Kiba. I'm afraid he may drop her off of a cliff before we make it to the city
Please send the peanut butter.
-Sakura
Canon: Naruto
Journal:
notveryspecialGender: Female
Age: 16
Canon History: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Sakura_Haruno#Background
Canon Abilities/Powers: INTENSE CHAKRA CONTROL - She has a stunning natural talent at chakra control. Even when she barely knew any jutsu, she could use that jutsu to its maximum effectiveness more times than anyone else with her chakra pool, because she used exact amounts required. Her chakra control is the secret of her monster strength, in the anime she showed skill at sealing a tailed beast due to her chakra control, and eventually allowed her to flawlessly store up half of her chakra over three years to create her very own seal diamond - a feat only three others in the history of the manga have been confirmed to be able to do.
Genjutsu - Although never trained in using genjutsu, her chakra control gives her an incredible talent at recognizing when her chakra flow is being disrupted and either regaining control or preventing the loss of control. Her natural talent at genjutsu rivals that of an Uchiha.
Taijutsu - Although less well known, Sakura is also quite strong without her chakra techniques, able to knock people several feet through the air and even able to break off a ship's mast when given an appropriately large weapon. With her chakra manipulation, her strength is amplified many times, to the point where a single punch could crush a person's insides into pulp, and collapse boulders bigger than she is. It's implied, when her seal is complete, that she too could cause fissures in the ground just from the touch of her finger and a well-timed burst of chakra.
Beyond her monster strength, however, she's also incredibly skilled at taijutsu, able to fight for what was most likely hours while only being scratched by her opponent when she chose--and her opponent was Sasori, whose entire strategy revolved around his poisoned blades scratching/cutting his opponent. At first she received help from another puppet-master, but before long her observational skills allowed her to determine his battle strategies to such an extent that she could anticipate his moves just by watching the movements of his fingers and eyes.
This skill showed itself most prominently when she went up against Sasori's hundred puppet army and maneuvered her way through it without being touched. It goes without saying that she is fast and flexible, and able to dodge in an instant.
Medical Ninjutsu - Alongside her strength and taijutsu, Tsunade taught her medical ninjutsu. She has such skill that she can heal herself or others on the fly during combat, sealing mortal wounds and replenishing chakra quickly. Outside of the battlefield, her abilities to heal fatal wounds exceed even most other medical nin.
She is an expert at poisons (although maybe not in excess of Orochimaru's skills), and can overcome even extremely complex poisons like Sasori's, which are believed to be untreatable.
Sakura also has extensive knowledge about anatomical structure, DNA, and chakra networks, allowing her to diagnose patients and assist in exploratory autopsies.
Although rarely used offensively, she is capable of wielding chakra scalpels.
Summoning Jutsu - She has a summoning contract with Katsuyu, and has the ability to split up Katsuyu and heal an entire army of people simultaneously without strain.
Sunshineverse History:
There's nothing special about Sakura Haruno. For the first thirteen years of her life, that's what she heard endlessly, it's what she lived and fought and knew to be true. In a village with so many prominent and powerful clans, with so many kekkai genkai, secret and special jutsu, and so much importance placed on the clan you come from...Sakura was born without a clan. In a world that idolized powerful and notorious ninja, her father never exceeded genin, and her mother's shinobi career ended in her first skirmish in the Second War.
As far as any children in the Academy were concerned, Sakura was a child of either civilians or failed shinobi...and none of them would ever settle on which was worse. As a young child, Sakura had no special talents that made her stand out amongst the teachers of Konoha. Although she could easily knead chakra and learn jutsus, her ninjutsu skills were weak and taijutsu pathetic. Perhaps even worse among the kunoichi in training, Sakura's hair color stood out, while her face...did not.
The only thing important about Sakura Haruno is how big of a forehead she has. The only things that made Sakura stand out among her class were her hair, the size of her forehead, and how overwhelmingly average she was. As a child, Sakura was quiet, and followed her father's advice to try to avoid conflict...and that quiet timidity made her an easy target for the cruel children in the Academy. As time went on and the children grew more persistent, Sakura began to shy away from any physical training or jutsus and teachings that required physical demonstrations, rather being late than making herself a target for jeers and heckling. Although she focused on keeping up her grades through excelling on written tests and book learning, her jutsu knowledge became theoretical and her chakra pool remained miniscule.
All told, the bullying of Sakura Haruno lasted for three years, from when she first joined the Academy at three, until the frightening and dominant Ino Yamanaka befriended her at six. Although no longer actively bullied, stage whispers of the useless girl with the abnormal forehead continued whenever the blonde wasn't present, and the idea that Sakura Haruno shouldn't pretend to be special persisted.
Sakura adopted the tough and defiant attitude of her best friend, and copied the girl's keen sense of fashion to protect herself from the ninja failure that was Sakura Haruno, but her attention remained on the fashion and building up her self-confidence and self-image, instead of ninjutsu or taijutsu training, and so her knowledge remained only textbook.
At the age of eight, Sakura experienced her very first crush, on one Uchiha named Sasuke. Sasuke was attractive, quiet yet driven, and everything in a shinobi Sakura wasn't. Because of that, she wasn't the only one in the class to fall for the Uchiha clan's youngest heir. The disdain of the friends Ino had brought her made her cling to the idea of the young Uchiha even more tightly. So tightly, in fact, that when her friend Ino revealed she too had feelings for him, she couldn't bear to let go and accept the Uchiha heir was beyond someone like Sakura Haruno even for Ino's sake. She transformed her friendship into rivalry with all the self-confidence she'd learned to imitate.
As it turned out, the Uchiha heir really was beyond someone like Sakura Haruno.
When the Hokage-apparent hand-picked new genin for his team, the heirs of the Uchiha, Hyuuga, and current hokage were chosen. The girl without a clan was not.
Sakura Haruno never intentionally gave up on her feelings for the Uchiha heir, but she did give up hope on them. Although the end of her pursuit of Sasuke also meant the end of her rivalry with Ino, so too did she lose her self confident bravado.
In the end, Sakura Haruno ended up on Hayame Shirakumo's team, alongside Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame, clan-heirs with less pull to their names than the three in the Hokage's team, and no family legacies to secure their place like Team Asuma. Shirakumo was a strict and practical sensei who had little taste for either self-pity or heroics. The first order of business was to hand out chakra paper to each of his students and determine their nature. Sakura's paper turned to dust.
Shirakumo would have nothing of Sakura's quiet intentions of fading into the background of the team, insisting that if she didn't contribute to the team, she needn't be a shinobi at all. Once instructed, Sakura took well to kenjutsu, not requiring the years of ninjutsu training she had shirked during her years of bullying in the Academy. Although Shirakumo was one of the leaf's rare Wind users, a nature opposite and unrelated to Earth, he nevertheless taught Sakura what he could of his advanced nature transformation skills, and where his sword strikes blasted slicing air at his opponents, Sakura learned to use the sword as a shield and an imprisoning claw, enhancing her strikes in ways that allowed her creativity and intelligence to thrive.
Sakura Haruno was not among the Rookie Six who attended the chuunin exams in her first year. Sakura and team Shirakumo took the chuunin exams when she was fifteen, and passed easily.
During the finals of her chuunin exams, she caught the attention of one Shisui Uchiha, who could discern her until then undiscovered aptitude for genjutsu (or perhaps he simply admired the skill with which she used the body flicker technique taught to the team by Shirakumo, himself a renowned Body Flicker user, Sakura was never quite certain). Either way, shortly after receiving her Chuunin flak-jacket, Shisui approached her and offered to tutor her in genjutsu.
It's been a year since she's started training her genjutsu skills under Shisui, and while she has always been efficient and skilled at chakra manipulation, it's genjutsu where her true talent lies and the 'special' in Sakura shines. Combining the kenjutsu and earth release learned from Shirakumo, the genjutsu techniques studied with Shisui, and the body flicker taught by both, her skills have jumped by leaps and bounds and the 'normal' Sakura Haruno has been greatly increasing in rank and status since becoming Chuunin. Some believe, as she's given more high-profile missions due to her unique combinations of skills, that the late-blooming chuunin of her class might be one of the first to make Jounin.
Sunshineverse Abilities/Powers: Sakura won't have her medical ninjutsu, as she wasn't trained by Tsunade, and that means no monster strength or currently summoning jutsus. She also will have much more limited hand-to-hand taijutsu and dodging skills.
Instead, as her sensei is a kenjutsu master, she is excellent in kenjutsu. She carries a long katana which she's able to reinforce with either chakra or earth-jutsu when necessary, and usually incorporates it into her earth-chakra abilities. She's quick on her feet and to draw and sheath her sword, moving fast enough that the average eye would be unable to see her fastest slice. She's also incredibly agile due to her practice, able to leap and flip through the air with ease, and could potentially hold a swordfight in mid-air without difficulty if necessary.
She uses earth-style ninjutsu, exploiting her chakra nature, in a similar method to how her team captain uses his wind and kenjutsu skills. Although she's not as advanced in ninjutsu as some who came out of the academy, she's dedicated to her training and a quick learner, and has picked up several earth jutsus. She also tends to use her creative mind to modify jutsus or create techniques to augment her sword-fighting skills, or knock enemies off-balance and capture them.
Both of her senseis are not just good at Body Flicker, but known enough for it to have nicknames referencing their Body Flicker technique, and as such she's picking that up as well (a technique she takes to naturally, due to the need for specially timed and measured bursts of chakra to activate it).
Most notable of her skills, however, is her great talent for genjutsu. Even when she's untrained in it, her skill is almost comparable to a trained and talented Uchiha, allowing her to fight and dispel most genjutsu targeted at her, and detect when she is under a genjutsu. When Shisui recognized her talent in the Chuunin exams a year ago, he immediately took her under his wing and began training her in genjutsu. Due to her chakra control, and the great flexibility and creativity allowed in it, it's a skill that she has taken to the most out of all of her training. She has exceeded in her genjutsu training, and already has formidable genjutsu skills, able to ensnare even small groups of people in genjutsu quickly, and maintain that genjutsu with minimal distractions easily. Her primary genjutsu opponent/partner/teacher is Shisui, so it's reasonable to assume that for her age and time practiced, she has both quite strong genjutsu, and an even greater ability to resist it than before.
Although she can still read movements, it's not to the advanced skill she could have had under other teachers--instead she usually attempts to recognize and anticipate handsigns rather than subtle movements and attacks--and while she has the chakra pool and control that would allow her to potentially summon a powerful creature, she has no summoning contract and no current contacts with which to receive a summoning contract from.
Appearance: She has pink hair, which falls down to the bottom of her thighs when free-hanging. Usually, though, she keeps her hair tied high or tightly braided so to keep it out of her way. She's five-two and lithe, with tightly compact muscles from her taijutsu and kenjutsu training. She has fair skin and light green eyes. As a shinobi, she has many scars tracing her body, both from her training and from her battles. Although she is meticulous with maintaining her appearance, her combat outfits are always practical and efficient, and she usually keeps her chest bound if she's going to be moving around much. When she doesn't bind it, she still only has b cups.
Personality: Sakura Haruno is more than she appears. The same is true of most shinobi, but few take it to such an extreme as Sakura. On the surface, she has always been nothing more than a clanless girl with nothing special and nothing notable about her other than a slightly larger forehead than normal. No one important ever paid her any mind as a child, all her teachers were more focused on the clan geniuses and children of important people than on the studiousness of a quiet and unremarkable girl.
Underneath the meekness and the quiet, however, Sakura is loud, emotional, and impulsive. When she was younger, the disconnect between her calm and flighty exterior and her passionate and charged inner psyche was so significant that her consciousness splintered into two, her quiet and polite shell housing the violent and loud 'inner Sakura'. The dissonance between the two was profound enough that at the time even mental domination jutsus like the Yamanaka clan's would have difficulty completely controlling her.
In the reverse, Sakura's confident and dominant facade cloaks the insecurities and inferiority she feels underneath. The bullying from her contemporaries and constant neglect from those in authority above her took its toll on her self-image and self-confidence, and the failure of her first crush was a further blow to her place in the world. Her training with Shirakumo and being recognized by Shisui has given her a boost of confidence and purpose, but their influence is still new, and the insecurity and low self-confidence is still present underneath.
Deeper than her self-esteem issues, however, is her strong will and her compassion. Sakura has a strength of will and character that defies self-images impressed upon her. In her youth, this manifested as her 'inner Sakura', but since she's found a harmony with her stronger side and an outlet for it through Team Shirakumo, it manifests through stubbornness and a temper that she disguises only for those she respects. Even in her shows of submissiveness and respect, her steel will can be seen, by her determination to stick to her own beliefs and expressing her respect in her own ways, despite what anyone--even a Hokage--might say. In more positive aspects, this will of hers can be turned toward determination, such as to succeed as a shinobi despite her disadvantages and be a contributing member of Team Shirakumo, and in courage, such as her ready willingness to sacrifice herself in any form necessary for those that have earned her loyalty (particularly those that Shirakumo has taught her to protect)
Due to Shirakumo's beliefs and influenced by the bullying she received as a child, she has a strong belief in the good of the team, and those under her authority, over her own. In fact, beyond her respect for those above her, she has very little regard for jounin, kage, or lords. Instead, her focus is primarily on protecting fellow teammates, genin, and civilians who can't protect themselves instead. In her opinion, no worthy leader allows those in their care to die in their stead.
Despite her general disregard for much of those in authority over her, Sakura is in fact a very loyal person. To those who show her compassion and respect, or give her opportunities she feels undeserving of, or show her attention and favor usually denied her, she is unwaveringly devoted to. Her jounin sensei, her friends and teammates, Ino, and her new teacher are all people she would sacrifice almost anything for, and who she would often follow without question. Once loyalty and devotion is given, it's very difficult for her to retract it, no matter the circumstances, and no matter how much she is convinced that she should.
Even those she isn't loyal to, however, can see the softer and more compassionate side she keeps hidden behind her confident and occasionally clipped exterior. Sakura is naturally a healer. When she sees hurting and suffering, her first instinct is to reach out and offer comfort or healing. Although she's no medical nin in this version of history, she still offers emotional and psychological support and comfort to those she can, and would never intentionally wound an ally, or hold something of herself over them.
Sakura's natural observational skills give her an innate talent for recognizing the suffering of others. While she doesn't have shared suffering to sympathize with others, she has the ability to understand and empathize with those she doesn't, a counter-argument for Pein's belief that understanding of another can only come from shared suffering. However, Sakura usually doesn't bother to note that suffering unless it's a person important to her (be that a friend or a client of importance), or she intends to use genjutsu to turn that against her enemies (a rare instance of turning her healing and compassionate nature into a weapon instead).
Despite her compassionate nature for her friends, and her intense loyalty to her team, on a personal basis her childhood bullying and...assertive childhood role model lends toward a certain selfish nature. Although she has mostly grown out of her more egregious selfishness, she is still often driven by her own interests and goals, rather than the interests of others, unless her loyalty or her compassion interferes.
While she was preoccupied with beauty and chasing boys when she was a young child, following the lead of the other girls in the Academy, the bitter disappointment she suffered when her dream of winning Sasuke Uchiha fell apart, and the reality of the shinobi world she's faced out on missions with Team Shirakumo, has mostly driven away this interest. Although she still keeps up her appearance both because of her renewed friendship with Ino and for infiltration purposes, and at times she will gossip and chat with Ino about the relationships of other shinobi, the concept of romance of her own is so far from her mind that even were she approached with it she would probably be oblivious to it.
Sakura has learned to be greatly adaptable, first to avoid and then to prevent bullying, and then to catch up as a genin and excel as a chuunin. Because of this, she is often easily influenced by those close to her. Her teachers can often reshape her personality into variations of themselves over time, and her teammates and friends can either soften or sharpen aspects of her personality due to exposure to them. Unfortunately, this adaptability can also lead to malleability, and just as her loyalty could be potentially manipulated by the wrong person, if she were surrounded by certain influences, it's possible she could reshape herself to mirror those regardless of how different they might be from her original beliefs (although certain aspects of her personality, such as her compassion, would always remain underneath that changeable surface.)
Sakura is an individual who is difficult for the casual observer to pin down. She often hides her true feelings around any who aren't already close to her, going so far as to channel things into anger or offense instead of their true form, and burying concern, sadness, and fear whenever necessary around enemies. The hidden depths of Sakura hide both her great potential as a shinobi and studious intelligence, and the steel, unchanging core of her personality underneath a false shell that shifts according to need and surroundings, whether that shell be quiet meekness, flighty girliness, or stoic humility.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
+ Excellent chakra control
+ Genjutsu talent comparable to Uchiha
+ Determined
+ Compassionate
+ Strong leadership skills
+ Great observational skills
+ Quick learner
+ Mental fortitude
+ Excellent kenjutsu skills
+ Creative
+ Earth chakra
+ Kind
+ Keenly intelligent
+ Adaptable
+ Values other lives over her own
+ Very loyal to personal mentors and teammates
+ Brave
- Insecure
- Extremely dim self-image
- Limited self-esteem
- Need to prove herself
- Only one chakra nature
- No medical skills
- Stubborn
- Selfish
- Weak general ninjutsu skills
- Preoccupation with beauty
- Need for validation from others
- Inability to read romantic intent
- Physically weaker that taijutsu specialists
- Lonely
- Malleable
- Very low self-importance
- Limited loyalty to the village
- Limited inter-personal skills
- Sometimes reckless
Village Affiliation: Konoha
Rank: Chuunin
Prose sample: http://sunshine-ooc.dreamwidth.org/8966.html?thread=248326#cmt248326
Bracket sample: [Okay, she doesn't like these at all. She understand why they're useful, it's just...she prefers face-to-face conversation or long-term scrolls. This strange mix of the two is just unnerving.
However, Kiba is missing and they're going to be late for their mission if they wait or she goes wandering the village looking for him. Shino did offer to set his bugs to the test of searching the village for Kiba, but neither Sakura nor Shirakumo-sensei thought it was a good idea to set a plague of locusts ("They're not 'a plague of locusts', why do I say that? Because they are Kikaichuu, which is a type of beetle, not Acrididae." he said, which didn't bode well at all) on the town that hired them.]
Damn it, Kiba! Where are you?! We were supposed to leave to meet the contact fifteen minutes ago! If we wait any longer on you we're going to be late! You do know who we're going to meet, right? Do you remember the explicit instructions not to be late? There's not even anything to do here to be late for!
[She sighed, glancing over at the judgmental sunglasses of Shino Aburame, who stood a short distance from her, hands in his pockets and emanating an aura of offense that his offer was so quickly shot down.] If you don't get your butt over here, Shino's going to sic his bugs all over the village and drag you out with those.
Missive Sample:
Shirakumo-sensei,
The package was delivered successfully. Shino seemed surprised, did you neglect to inform him ahead of time? There are now dead bugs all over my sheets. The princess seems to be as ornery as we were warned, and it might be wise to recall Kiba. I'm afraid he may drop her off of a cliff before we make it to the city
Please send the peanut butter.
-Sakura