The Real Reason Naruto's Creator Cut Sakura's Role is Just Heartbreaking
While Sasuke might be Naruto's most divisive character, his eventual wife Sakura is not far behind. Naruto's female shinobi are key to its success, but Sakura has always been in an awkward spot. She is supposed to be one of the series' main characters, but many fans of the series noticed that her role was dramatically reduced towards the end of the manga's run. Series creator Masashi Kishimoto explained Sakura's reduced role in an interview, and his reasoning is heartbreaking.
It's fair to say that Sakura had her ups and downs throughout Naruto. In the series' first part she mostly played a supporting role with only a handful of moments that developed her character. Unlike many of the series' other shinobi, Sakura lacked a distinct powerset and was mostly relegated to pining for Sasuke. Things improved for Sakura in the beginning of the series' second part though. As a result of training with Tsunade, Sakura developed unreasonable strength, learned medical ninjutsu, and even got an impressive battle against the Akatsuki member Sasori. After that one arc though, her relevance diminished over time. Sakura is easily Naruto's most disrespected ninja. While Naruto and Sasuke were developing incredible transformations, epic new jutsu, and heartbreaking revelations about their backstories… Sakura barely got any development. While many just chalked that up to the story not having room for her, Kishimoto hinted at another reason her role was reduced.
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In an interview with FujiTV released in the lead-up to The Last: Naruto the Movie, Kishimoto explained that he tried to write Sakura as a realistic girl, but that fan response was so overwhelmingly negative
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