Naruto is a manga and anime juggernaut, and easily one of the most well-known franchises in the world. After running for fifteen years, the Naruto manga finally ended in 2014, putting an end to one of the most successful runs in Weekly Shonen Jump. The anime would end three years later, marking an end of an era, although a sequel series called Boruto: Naruto Next Generations would immediately appear to fill the void.
After the manga ended, a slew of supplemental material came out to fill the gaps between the end of Naruto and the beginning of Boruto. Included in these are the Naruto Hidden books, a collection of light novels that take place after the end of Naruto. Instead of focusing on main character Naruto Uzumaki, the novels instead on the many supporting characters that have appeared throughout the series. Sakura Hiden (known as Sakura’s Story in English) is a novel that focuses on Sakura Haruno, Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha’s teammate and close friend. As Sakura does not get as much attention in the main series as Naruto and Sasuke do, this novel gives her a rare chance to stand in the spotlight.
As the story begins, Sakura is working on developing a therapy center for children’s mental health. At the same time, she worries about her relationship with Sasuke, who is constantly on the move and rarely makes contact with her. When she goes to Sunagakure to explain her medical findings with the therapy center, she learns from Gaara that a man appearing to be Sasuke has been approaching people asking them to help him in overthrowing Konohagakure.
At the same time, mysterious attacks on high-ranking officials puts sixth Hokage Kakashi Hatake on alert. As these two mysteries are investigating, Sakura and her friends start to uncover an insidious conspiracy being conducted under the surface by ninja from their own village involving drugs that allow its users to utilize Tailed Beast Chakra. As the plot is eventually discovered, Sakura and her allies must move fast to keep Sasuke from getting into harm’s way.
As the main character of the novel, Sakura naturally plays a very large role in the story. As the viewpoint character, the audience is given a lot of insight into Sakura’s thoughts, particularly towards her work with the medical center but also towards her relationship with Sasuke. The novel provides a perspective towards their relationship that isn’t really explored in the main series, and it showcases a lot of Sakura’s struggle with being in love with someone who isn’t around. This insight rounds out Sakura as a character in terms of her personality and her thought processes.
Sakura is also active in helping to uncover the plot within Konohagakure, especially once it turns that Sasuke might be involved. She eventually ends up in conflict with the main villains of the novel, and is forced to fight for her life. When it turns out that the conspirators are trying to target Sasuke, she goes all-out in order to protect him and even manages to defeat the main antagonist in a solo one-on-one fight. Overall, Sakura is seen as a much more active character than the version of her that we see in the manga and anime.
In the main series, the audience rarely sees Sakura playing an important role, even though she is a member of Team 7 along with Naruto and Sasuke. For most of the manga and anime, Sakura is often sitting on the sidelines, or even more often just not present for major fights. In addition, compared to the ridiculous powers that Naruto and Sasuke obtain over the course of the series, Sakura is much more underwhelming in terms of strength and ability, even if she is much stronger than the average ninja. Her relevance in the main plot is also heavily reduced as the narrative focuses more on Naruto and Sasuke and their rivalry. Ultimately, despite being a major character early on, Sakura is quickly relegated to a side character undeservedly.
In general, Sakura gets a lot more time to develop in the novel, and she is responsible for defeating the main villain. This gives Sakura the spotlight that she was sorely missing throughout the original series, and allows fans to see a lot more of a character that should have gotten more screen time. Of special note is the fact that Sakura was able to defeat the main villain all on her own, without needing any help from her friends. In comparison, Sakura in the anime has very few fights, and most of them have her fighting in a duo or a group. This shows Sakura in a much stronger and more capable light, which is more than what she gets in the main series.
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