Here's a thought for a Naruto fic...

[Moshulel]

Because Sasuke grew so much less then Sakura, and Kakashi required all that long period of time to make it to jounin level, etc. Face it Naruto is full of people who grow at unrealistically fast speeds.

I'll comment just on this post for now (too late and too lazy to post more).
Sasuke's growth is not realisticall either just like Sakura he seems to have evolved way too much for just 2 and a half years. Heh they're sudden Mary Sue evolution pisses me of.

[Adyen]

You know, if we had to judge based on flashbacks only, there were a couple flashbacks where you could see Iruka trying to teach Naruto stuff. Yet, it's pretty much clear that Iruka didn't HAVE time to spend with Naruto - the times when he could help him were rare and far between.

Where does it say that he doesn't have any time? Is it possible that it's Naruto who didn't go looking for help instead? Or maybe he did try to help, but Naruto couldn't absorb that knowledge because he's too busy doing something else, like pranks? (Remember - this is the Naruto who couldn't do a simple bunshin. Why this is so, we have no real idea.)

We may have seen Tsunade train Sakura a couple times. Does that automatically mean she had time to kill to train her? NO. That's an assumption, an assumption that implies she was neglecting her duty as the Hokage of a village that was recovering from a WAR. I'd like to point out how Tsunade herself mentions that even after 2 and a half years, Konoha is still recovering. So yes, she's got to have her hands full. Training a genin, riiight... At most, she could give her pointers, and if you tell me Sakura is a learning genius on par with Naruto, I'll mock you. Even she was amazed by the rate at which he learned stuff.

I never compared Sakura's learning curve to ANYONE. I stated SOLID CANON FACTS that you can look up the books and compared the ninjas' abilities - I'll mock YOU if you try to put words in my mouth.
Now, regarding a little process called "Delegating". It's when you have lots of people who can help you do things, and you let them do their stuff while you do what only you can do.
Please don't tell me Tsunade has to run around the village each day helping damsels in distress. Konoha has a COUNCIL - something that cuts the amount of workload that Tsunade has to do directly by a significant amount. True, that Tsunade still has work to do (as seen in different times), but WHAT does Tsunade actually DO other than paper pushing?
If you can't answer that, don't start assuming things and say other people are assuming facts.

And with all the progress Sakura made, unless Tsunade's been following her for hours and hours every day (I'm talking 10/12 hours per day, not a couple) and correcting her mistakes on the spot, I honestly can't see her getting THAT good.

*snipped the real life part as it has already been answered*
Who's to say that she does not have experience in such learning conditions? She could be helping out in the ninja hospital daily as part of her training, and as a medic nin's apperentence, she'll gain valuable experience in real life situations - NOT just book smarts.
Working daily on patients would give her the edge in knowledge and experience that training (like with Lee) would not give her otherwise.

It all comes down to her progress being TOO FAST. It makes no sense, it's lame and it is just a cheap copout to make Sannin MkII. You can try to spin any other way, but deep down, you KNOW I'm right.

I don't believe it's too fast, especially when every second counts - and they KNOW that.
Have you ever been in a situation where it is literally life and death between one minute and another? That's the kind of life Sakura (and Naruto) is living. They know that if they don't spend their ever waking moment getting stronger/better, they'll lose Sasuke forever (though WHY they would want him is completely above me...).

When you concentrate on one thing and cut everything else off, you do progress a lot. Sakura was juggling medical studies, medical practice, taijutsu practice AND the Chuunin Exams (she's a Chuunin now, remember?). She was nowhere near as focused as Lee, yet obtained a progression in less than 3 years that's comparable to Lee's progression in half a decade or so.

Ah. Who said she's been doing taijutsu practice? We haven't seen her in any forms of taijutsu (have YOU seen her use the Konoha Whirlwind?) at ALL, so we can't assume that she's been practicing taijutsu - and her super strength is NOT taijutsu, before you start.
Her Chuunin Exams wouldn't have intrupted her training if it was PART of her training. Medical studies and practices can easily be one thing if she was working in the hospital, so I don't see where the division of focus is (even though I can see why you'd feel she's stretching herself thin).

Since he was supposed to be in charge of her and what missions she took, it is probably safe to say that Sakura dedicated those three years soley to improving her abilities.

Actually, it's entirely possible that Sakura was taken off the active ninja list to train solely as the Hokage's apprentence. Kakashi was obviously reinstated as an active ninja and given missions (it would not make sense to leave a perfectly trained and well ninja like Kakashi when they're short on people etc). That meeting 3 years later COULD be their first reunion in all those years (Sakura being too busy and Kakashi could either feel guilty or too busy as well).
So there's unrealistic growth. I saw it coming the moment they unveiled the sharingan and its ability to copy anything. It's like that copying knowledge idea posted in the other thread - it's flawed to begin with. I'm just waiting for the Nine-Tail to break out and destroy the world. >_>

[Mitchell]

For a near omnipotent demon, the nine-tails is surprissingly weak. Sasuke has such 'cursed' chakra he can force it back into Naruto, Orochimaru can face four tails of power and win. If that were the case if the Yondamine and Sandamine teamed up with a couple of High Jounins and just chucked monsterouse amounts of technquies at the Fox there should not have been tehe desperation that inspired the sealing idea.

[Shadell]

For a near omnipotent demon, the nine-tails is surprissingly weak. Sasuke has such 'cursed' chakra he can force it back into Naruto, Orochimaru can face four tails of power and win. If that were the case if the Yondamine and Sandamine teamed up with a couple of High Jounins and just chucked monsterouse amounts of technquies at the Fox there should not have been tehe desperation that inspired the sealing idea.

Hmm... but Naruto doesn't have all of the power of the Kyuubi in his body, and if I recall correctly he was working to repress the kyuubi at that time. Additionaly I think we will be learning something about the sharingan soon that explains what exactly Sasuke did.

[nuclear death frog]

Additionaly I think we will be learning something about the sharingan soon that explains what exactly Sasuke did.

I agree.
We'll be learning, as we are now, that it's a twinked-out joke which Kishimoto is twinking so that he can pander to the legions of stupid fans of a pair of traitorous scumwads.

[Nekomata-sensei]

Okay, first of all, I'd like to say that Kishimoto might have no idea how difficult chemistry is to learn. On the other hand, there might be a chakra based analysis technique Tsunade invented which would allow a medic nin to find out some important aspects of the components which would allow them to create an antidote more easily.
Or perhaps Sasori's poison wasn't as unique as he thought, it has been said that great minds think alike, perhaps Tsunade or some leaf nin invented the same poison and it was one Sakura had to learn how to identify and brew an antidote for.
Sasuke's growth was not entirely unrealistic. Even during the chuunin exams arc. For one, a lot of the repetition is to put things into muscle memory, the sharingan skips that part. All Sasuke would really have to do is build up speed, it is noted that he _doesn't_ achieve Lee's level of endurance, and it's obvious he doesn't have Lee's level of strength, but what Sasuke _does_ have is the ability to use chakra properly, and since it's noted that using that level of speed is very exhausting for Sasuke, it is likely that it's based on some form of chakra use, which Lee can't perform. Sasuke's personal training was allready mostly taijutsu based, you can tell from how he fought Kakashi during the bell test, and he was probably allready driven to train hard by his goal of killing Itachi. Lee, on the other hand, was origionally poor at Taijutsu (something which Sasuke was allready excellent in) and is noted to have little talent in it (it's just that he _can't_ do the other stuff) and so what Lee achieved training with Gai for a year (likely only about half a year, because Gai doesn't start teaching him the bone breaker style and training him one on one until he'd allready been doing C ranked missions, from what I can gather), Sasuke could likely achieve in a month with the help of the Sharingan and one on one training with Kakashi.
As for Sasuke's growth under Orochimaru, the sword style was obviously copied, his power increses were obviously from rituals and drugs, (probably ones with bad side effects) he's probably copied a lot of jutsu, and perhaps he used his newfound power to create a varient on the chidori. (Note that it might be due to controlling and focusing the chakra that it's only on Kakashi's hand, the reason Kakashi might not have it over his whole body is because it would be stupid not to focus the power and waste a lot of energy, but with Sasuke's newfound reserves, he decides to cut the control aspects out of the chidori and create a full body one that is weaker than it could be focused on one hand) His pwnage of team Kakashi was due them all likely being exhausted and Naruto havign Kyuubi troubles and some weird Kyuubi burn making him weak, as well as him taking advantage of their care for one another by attacking Naruto and forcing Yamato to take a hit for him.
Sakura's growth under Tsunade wasn't entirely unrealistic either. While Kishimoto might not know a lot about medical stuff in the real world, we don't know much about it in the Naruto world (there might be some major differences, especially since chakra isn't something that I see anyone using in the real world *sarcasm*). Tsunade likely wasn't very hands on about Sakura's training, she probably gave her books and scrolls to read and tested her on the jutsu later, that doesn't require very much time, and a lot of that time could be negated by having other medic nins, such as Shizune, help Sakura with the simpler parts. The super strength is simply a trick with chakra control, probably some medical instantaneous muscle enhancement combined with releasing explosive amounts of charka instantaneously on a struck target. Sakura still has poor taijutsu skill, poor speed, and poor stamina. Sakura is _very smart_ she _was_ the only one in the chuunin exam 2nd test who answered all the questions correctly without cheating and wasn't a plant. This is out of a group of probably the best genins from all sorts of different villages. Most of what Sakura would need to do is read a _lot_ of books and comprehend and remember what's in them, as well as work at the hospital as some sort of assistant or at least observer in order to gain the knowledge. Most medical specialists in the modern world don't get the kind of individual attention and teachings from an true master that Sakura got.
Naruto on the other hand, from what I've seen so far, I'm more wondering what he was doing! I would have expected much more out of him in three years after how far he progressed since becoming genin, even with Jiraiya mostly neglecting him. Naruto's power went up by leaps and bounds in the early series, first he learns Kage bunshin, then he gets tree climbing-ified (large increase in speed, chakra control, and all sorts of neat little tricks the training teaches you to do) and then Jiraiya pops up and he can summon Kyuubi power at will and summon, and later, gets the almost Rasengan (I say almost because of the needing a clone to help bit).
You also have to remember that at no point have they been fighting at an even level with any of the Akatsuki or Orochimaru. The Itachi they fought had one third of his ability and they were avoiding his strongest techniques by avoiding eye contact, he also disregarded the others, except slightly Kakashi, in favor of trying to kidnap Naruto, he wasn't trying to kill any of them. Diedra was basically out of ammo, and was surprised by Kakashi's attack, and _still_ survived and nearly took all of them out with an exploding clone. Sasori would have slaughtered Sakura if it wasn't for Chiyo controlling her like a pupet, and Chiyo is likely also around Kage level, just retired and starting to feel the effects of age, and Sasori might not have been fighting to win, because of his past relationship with Chiyo and the whole thing when the pupets of his parents came out. He was also used to relying on his poisons, which Sakura countered. Finally, Orochimaru only plays around with 4 tailed Kyuubi Naruto and all the others at the same time, when he was in a weakened state because of nearing his body switching time.
I do however, agree with the sentiments that Kishimoto is overpandering to idiotic hoards of Itachi and Sasuke fans, and that cannon Sakura doesn't deserve Naruto. Personally, I think Kakashi should have caught Sasuke at the Valley of the End and brough him back to be executed as a traitor. The rain was _way_ to much of a convienet plot device. It's really too bad the Konoha council is so corrupt and obsessed with advanced bloodlines. (Just like idiotic fans in fact... hmm... psychology...)

[GenocideHeart]

Not true. Kakashi's chidori was only mastered with the aid of teh sharingan. And Jiraiya said Rasengan took the fourth 3 years to MASTER. If I recall correctly we have seen no proof to say that Jiraiya didn't create the technique, and Jiraiya was the Fourth's instructer.
Also we have seen Sasuke fight for all of twenty seconds. During that time he not only displayed an entire new type of mastery over the sharingan, but swordsmanship and a complete revision of the chidori. Now if you would be so kind as to explain how that equates to ONE direction?
Meanwhile Sakura has learned one attacking trick that probably wasn't that hard for her to learn (Given that she already had near perfect chakra control, and a teacher who was incredibly experienced in using that technique) and medical jutsu. And she appeared substantially weaker then Sasuke.
Additionaly Kakashi flat out said that a signature technique takes around 20 years to develope. I can show you the manga page if you want me too.

First of all, I clearly recall Jiraiya stating about the Rasengan, that the 4th created it. Period, end of story. Jiraiya isn't a modest man, if HE created it, he'd brag about it.
Second, all Sasuke did was modify an existing technique (to make it flow outward). Naruto did the same to use Rasengan (it normally is created with one hand, he uses three and a clone, it's a modification), and it took him all of a week to figure it out. Nothing special there.
Sword fighting is supposedly part of weapon training, and on top of that, we don't see how good Sasuke is with that sword of his - his skill level with it is totally unknown. For all we know, he carries it around to stab things relying on the Sharingan to avoid counters and predict the opponent's moves. Skill needed - what they teach to Genin, likely. After all, he can OMG SEE WHAT YOU WILL DO.
*smacks Kishimoto for his stupidity*
The Sharingan was bad enough when it stole jutsu. Now it's just a load of BS.
Besides, Sasuke mastered Lee's taijutsu style in A MONTH, thanks to that stupid Mary Sue-gan. I can totally see him ripping off some guy's sword style in the Sound and mastering that as well in a month.
And don't say it's impossible. He did it with Lee, despite the Sharingan having been STATED it cannot copy seal-less moves - apparently Kishi forgot his own statement...
Meanwhile, Sakura:
-has learned how to attack in a coordinated way (see when she plays possum and blindsides Sasori - and no, it wasn't Chiyo, she was down as well, that was Sakura acting - also notice her movements are fluid - she was very sluggish in the Chuunin Exam, and it was more of a catfight with Ino...)
-has learned chemical knowledge that usually takes at least 20 years to amass, and unless she's got Superman's fast reading skills (one book in 5 seconds), it's flat out impossible, she simply can't assimilate knowledge fast enough - ESPECIALLY if she's tired from a day of training. Ever tried studying when very tired? I did. It's impossible. Forgetfulness, mistakes and bad grades are guaranteed, no matter how smart you are, because the brain's too tired to store information properly.
-has learned medical jutsu good enough to revive small animals. Notice how most medic nin have to concentrate to simply heal light wounds. That a barely-chuunin like Sakura can REVIVE, no matter how small the revived being is, is just plain stupid. It's like having a fresh graduate off senior high school treat cancer successfully.
Granted, the above may simply mean Kishimoto doesn't know jack about chemistry and biology - in which case he should DO HIS RESEARCH. Otherwise, he just draws a manga based on bad fanfiction. Research is important when the setting does not have bullcrap like a Dragon Ball set to auto-revive people...

Where does it say that he doesn't have any time? Is it possible that it's Naruto who didn't go looking for help instead? Or maybe he did try to help, but Naruto couldn't absorb that knowledge because he's too busy doing something else, like pranks? (Remember - this is the Naruto who couldn't do a simple bunshin. Why this is so, we have no real idea.)

He's an academy teacher and has several classes besides Naruto's to teach to. And if you think a teacher's life consists of free time after school hours end, think again. Who do you think checks homework and gives marks to tests? Elves? I'm sure that my old math teacher would be delighted to meet elves who can correct the homework and the class tests... she always used to moan about never having free time until late in teh evening due to the mass of tests she had to grade every day.

Now, regarding a little process called "Delegating". It's when you have lots of people who can help you do things, and you let them do their stuff while you do what only you can do.
Please don't tell me Tsunade has to run around the village each day helping damsels in distress. Konoha has a COUNCIL - something that cuts the amount of workload that Tsunade has to do directly by a significant amount. True, that Tsunade still has work to do (as seen in different times), but WHAT does Tsunade actually DO other than paper pushing?

That same council is full of power-hungry, untrustworthy individuals who have pushed many times in the past to have Naruto executed or at least exiled.
Tsunade isn't stupid, and cares about Naruto. I doubt she'd just let the Council handle any halfway important matter, just in case they pull something stupid that'll cause her no end of grief.
Also, the Hokage was the one who distributed missions over the day, in case you forgot the scene where he gave the Wave country mission to Naruto's team. And after a disastrous invasion, missions bring in vital money to rebuild - Tsunade herself stated she was stretching the jounin and even chuunin thin to take as many missions as possible when she sent Shika & co. after Sasuke. And this presumably lasted at least one year, if not more - you don't recover from what amounts to full scale war and extensive damage with loss of life in a snap. Look at the Sand - it was stated to have fallen in misery after a war gone wrong, and after YEARS they were still struggling.
Tsunade had her work cut out for her, and even pushing papers is like taking a drop off an ocean.

Who's to say that she does not have experience in such learning conditions? She could be helping out in the ninja hospital daily as part of her training, and as a medic nin's apperentence, she'll gain valuable experience in real life situations - NOT just book smarts.
Working daily on patients would give her the edge in knowledge and experience that training (like with Lee) would not give her otherwise.

So you'd trust an inexperienced nurse in training with patients who could well return home with cuts, stab wounds, bruises and internal injuries of life threatening level? Remember, those are NINJA we're talking about. More often than not, they're going to return home in need of serious treatment, unless they're lucky.

I don't believe it's too fast, especially when every second counts - and they KNOW that.
Have you ever been in a situation where it is literally life and death between one minute and another? That's the kind of life Sakura (and Naruto) is living. They know that if they don't spend their ever waking moment getting stronger/better, they'll lose Sasuke forever (though WHY they would want him is completely above me...).

That goes for every ninja in the village. They're NINJA. They could DIE themselves if they don't train to their best.
Yet I see no one else making as much progress as Team 7. So I guess they don't care about being killed, or having their teammates killed, eh?
Add to this that it's a war situation in Konoha right now, what with the Sound looming at the horizon... I could understand if EVERYONE made as much progress as Sakura - after staring death in the face between the invasion and teh Sound 4, it'd make sense to get serious - but so far, what we've seen is the same Team Gai, and a vastly improved Team 7... even though both Neji and Lee seriously risked their lives in the chase mission.
I suppose they failed to learn the lesson.
...yeah, even I can't believe that.

Ah. Who said she's been doing taijutsu practice? We haven't seen her in any forms of taijutsu (have YOU seen her use the Konoha Whirlwind?) at ALL, so we can't assume that she's been practicing taijutsu - and her super strength is NOT taijutsu, before you start.
Her Chuunin Exams wouldn't have intrupted her training if it was PART of her training. Medical studies and practices can easily be one thing if she was working in the hospital, so I don't see where the division of focus is (even though I can see why you'd feel she's stretching herself thin).

Taijutsu is hand-to-hand fighting in general, not necessarily an OMG SPECIAL FLASHY MOVE. The taijutsu basics are what even Naruto worked on in the timeskip - he is less of a brawler and more of a refined fighter.
Sakura used to catfight, not 'fight'. The fact she can actually attack in a fluid and coordinated way proves she's been training in taijutsu, at the very least the basics.

Actually, it's entirely possible that Sakura was taken off the active ninja list to train solely as the Hokage's apprentence. Kakashi was obviously reinstated as an active ninja and given missions (it would not make sense to leave a perfectly trained and well ninja like Kakashi when they're short on people etc). That meeting 3 years later COULD be their first reunion in all those years (Sakura being too busy and Kakashi could either feel guilty or too busy as well).

And she made Chuunin how? Only active ninja can take the Exams. It was stated more than once. In fact, I'd bet it's why Naruto is still a Genin - in order to be allowed to leave this long, even with Jiraiya, he'd have to have been taken off the active duty roster. Otherwise, he'd have been branded a missing nin.
Sorry if I come across as hostile, BTW. Teeth hurting, have a hard time staying calm. For what it's worth, I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at Kishimoto.
EDIT: polished the post. Too many typos. Typos make Hulk sad.

[Adyen]

First of all, I clearly recall Jiraiya stating about the Rasengan, that the 4th created it. Period, end of story. Jiraiya isn't a modest man, if HE created it, he'd brag about it.

Ya, I think I remember him saying that it was the 4th technique as well.

Besides, Sasuke mastered Lee's taijutsu style in A MONTH, thanks to that stupid Mary Sue-gan. I can totally see him ripping off some guy's sword style in the Sound and mastering that as well in a month.
And don't say it's impossible. He did it with Lee, despite the Sharingan having been STATED it cannot copy seal-less moves - apparently Kishi forgot his own statement...

>_> Probably. But then again, he also stated that the Sharingan can look at the miniscule hints on the body and predict what they're going do. It's what Kakashi did in the Wave Arc.

-has learned how to attack in a coordinated way (see when she plays possum and blindsides Sasori - and no, it wasn't Chiyo, she was down as well, that was Sakura acting - also notice her movements are fluid - she was very sluggish in the Chuunin Exam, and it was more of a catfight with Ino...)

That, I can't agree with. Regardless of how BAD Sakura was, she still has basic ninja training. During the exam, her movements in the beginning were quite fluid, but they became more and more sluggish as she wore herself out.
Everyone can play possum. Naruto sure can!

-has learned chemical knowledge that usually takes at least 20 years to amass, and unless she's got Superman's fast reading skills (one book in 5 seconds), it's flat out impossible, she simply can't assimilate knowledge fast enough - ESPECIALLY if she's tired from a day of training. Ever tried studying when very tired? I did. It's impossible. Forgetfulness, mistakes and bad grades are guaranteed, no matter how smart you are, because the brain's too tired to store information properly.

I won't directly say anything against this point because if she DID gain that amount of knowledge, it IS unrealistic.
However... it is NOT unrealistic if she merely tested out counter-agents off a list of possible mixtures on the poison itself.
Poisons, especially biological ones, has a basic group of chemicals that will identify what type of plant/animal/etc that it came from. If you have the actual poison, it is MUCH easier to create an antidote as you can test it directly against the poison itself. Even Sakura said that she was not taught to cure specific poisons, but rather create anti-biotics that can counteract any poison.

-has learned medical jutsu good enough to revive small animals. Notice how most medic nin have to concentrate to simply heal light wounds. That a barely-chuunin like Sakura can REVIVE, no matter how small the revived being is, is just plain stupid. It's like having a fresh graduate off senior high school treat cancer successfully.

That's just stupidity of the Naruto world. If anybody can learn jutsus like the Rasangan or Chidori, it's just a matter of knowing what jutsu you know.
Though I think it goes more like this: The fish has very little energy within it, so anyone who knows the proper jutsu could revive it (until it dies again).
We see that Chiyo has a kinjutsu to revive people as well, but it's a 1 for 1 cost. So it can easily be explained that the amount of chakra required to revive a being is equal to what kind of being it is.

He's an academy teacher and has several classes besides Naruto's to teach to. And if you think a teacher's life consists of free time after school hours end, think again. Who do you think checks homework and gives marks to tests? Elves? I'm sure that my old math teacher would be delighted to meet elves who can correct the homework and the class tests... she always used to moan about never having free time until late in teh evening due to the mass of tests she had to grade every day.

One thing. You said free time after school hours. Now, that means that Ikura is busy on his own stuff, so therefore it leaves Naruto to look for him. WOULD Naruto do that?
And in case you've never taken College or University, you should know that most teachers ARE avalible whenever they're not in classes teaching. So while Ikura may not have singled him out to help, Naruto could have gone to find help if he had wanted to.

That same council is full of power-hungry, untrustworthy individuals who have pushed many times in the past to have Naruto executed or at least exiled.
Tsunade isn't stupid, and cares about Naruto. I doubt she'd just let the Council handle any halfway important matter, just in case they pull something stupid that'll cause her no end of grief.

Like what? They can't do anything against Naruto since he's not in the village, and if they want to declare him missing nin, then they'd have to declare Jiraiya a missing nin as well since he's the one who took Naruto. They can take care of the day-to-day stuff easily: Because that's councils are made for, you know.

Also, the Hokage was the one who distributed missions over the day, in case you forgot the scene where he gave the Wave country mission to Naruto's team. And after a disastrous invasion, missions bring in vital money to rebuild - Tsunade herself stated she was stretching the jounin and even chuunin thin to take as many missions as possible when she sent Shika & co. after Sasuke. And this presumably lasted at least one year, if not more - you don't recover from what amounts to full scale war and extensive damage with loss of life in a snap. Look at the Sand - it was stated to have fallen in misery after a war gone wrong, and after YEARS they were still struggling.
Tsunade had her work cut out for her, and even pushing papers is like taking a drop off an ocean.

Ok, I'll admit that I forgot the Hokage hands missions as well. However, I don't believe for a second that Tsunade would not play hookie and go teach Sakura instead of doing all the paperwork. And leaving poor Shizune to do her work for her.
Tsunade knows that Sakura would be going up against snake-head one day - she'd trained Sakura for that single reason.

So you'd trust an inexperienced nurse in training with patients who could well return home with cuts, stab wounds, bruises and internal injuries of life threatening level? Remember, those are NINJA we're talking about. More often than not, they're going to return home in need of serious treatment, unless they're lucky.

You said it yourself: Konoha is short on people. Anyone who can be of any use would be used. And besides, this is Tsunade's apprentice! The legendary medic nin! You should count yourself LUCKY to have someone like that there!

That goes for every ninja in the village. They're NINJA. They could DIE themselves if they don't train to their best.
Yet I see no one else making as much progress as Team 7. So I guess they don't care about being killed, or having their teammates killed, eh?

Actually... you don't see the complete combat situations of any other teams, so there's nothing to compare to directly. They COULD have grown just as much, but their screen-time was so short that you couldn't see much.
For example, Shikamaru learned how to use shadows to physically damage things, as well as move off the ground. We can guess that there are other varients of such an ability, but we don't get to see much more of it.

Add to this that it's a war situation in Konoha right now, what with the Sound looming at the horizon... I could understand if EVERYONE made as much progress as Sakura - after staring death in the face between the invasion and teh Sound 4, it'd make sense to get serious - but so far, what we've seen is the same Team Gai, and a vastly improved Team 7... even though both Neji and Lee seriously risked their lives in the chase mission.

You don't really see much about the fights with Team Gai, but generally I'd say they came out BETTER than Team 7 in that fight.
Then again, they had to fight clones of themselves or something silly like that.

Taijutsu is hand-to-hand fighting in general, not necessarily an OMG SPECIAL FLASHY MOVE. The taijutsu basics are what even Naruto worked on in the timeskip - he is less of a brawler and more of a refined fighter.
Sakura used to catfight, not 'fight'. The fact she can actually attack in a fluid and coordinated way proves she's been training in taijutsu, at the very least the basics.

>_>
Right. Catfight. I'd love to have seen her catfight in her best condition, as it would come out a lot like Surien's fight against Ino.
Most of the 'catfights' you're talking about happens when she was out of chakra/exhasted. Her fight against the Mist-nins during the Second exam shows that she CAN fight, but it's not her best points. I bet you only remembered the Sound fight - the one where she was exhasted by staying up all the time after carrying Naruto and Sasuke as well as setting up the traps?
The point is, Sakura can do the basics. If she couldn't, then she wouldn't have been graduated (the first time). Now, is it so much to ask that she refined her fighting style during the course of three years just by becoming more physically fit due to her medic nin training?

And she made Chuunin how? Only active ninja can take the Exams. It was stated more than once. In fact, I'd bet it's why Naruto is still a Genin - in order to be allowed to leave this long, even with Jiraiya, he'd have to have been taken off the active duty roster. Otherwise, he'd have been branded a missing nin.

She's an aspiring medic nin. I'm sure there are ways for them to become Chuunin. And there's no way they can brand Naruto a missing nin without pulling Jiraiya into this - since they KNOW Naruto is with him. They'd probably have an 'apprentice' title or something to prevent that sort of problem. Something that could be used for Sakura as well.
But until we see them say specificly about their ranks, we'll never know.

Sorry if I come across as hostile, BTW. Teeth hurting, have a hard time staying calm. For what it's worth, I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at Kishimoto.
EDIT: polished the post. Too many typos. Typos make Hulk sad.

That's ok. I had a tooth pulled out recently, and stiches to the side of my mouth.
And it's ok to be mad, as long as you don't lash out incoherently.

[GenocideHeart]

>_>
Right. Catfight. I'd love to have seen her catfight in her best condition, as it would come out a lot like Surien's fight against Ino.
Most of the 'catfights' you're talking about happens when she was out of chakra/exhasted. Her fight against the Mist-nins during the Second exam shows that she CAN fight, but it's not her best points. I bet you only remembered the Sound fight - the one where she was exhasted by staying up all the time after carrying Naruto and Sasuke as well as setting up the traps?
The point is, Sakura can do the basics. If she couldn't, then she wouldn't have been graduated (the first time). Now, is it so much to ask that she refined her fighting style during the course of three years just by becoming more physically fit due to her medic nin training?

...physically fit? Theres a reason why medic-nin tend to not be very good in combat - they spend the majority of their training ON BOOKS.
If you assume Sakura became more physically fit, it means she had to take time OFF books to train her body. Meaning that, no matter how you spin it, she gained TOO MUCH in TOO LITTLE time.
You're hinting Sakura is a genius. However, I'd liek to point out that even teh Naruto 'geniuses' train for ungodly amounts of time in what they do best - you think Sasuke had it easy learning Jounin level Katon jutsu? Well, he didn't - at the time, his Sharingan was dormant, so he likely trained day and night, first to impress his brother, then to get strong enough to kill him. He's obsessed, something Sakura isn't quite there at.
Same with Neji, his whole destiny nonsense drove it in his mind that he just HAS to be the best, so he plays the part, even training to the point of finally mastering a technique that in all the Hyuuga clan, we only saw the CLAN LEADER use - Kaiten. And all of this with NO POINTERS WHATSOEVER besides what he may have read and/or seen.
The kind of dedication those two give to training far exceeds any motives Sakura may have. She just wants to be stronger. Those two made their entire LIFE revolve around it.
And yet, you see her outdo both in an incredibly short period of time, as far as progress goes. Not to mention Sakura had to build herself up from scratch. She was basically beyond useless in all serious fights, having woefully neglected her own skill in favor of chasing Sasuke. Personally, I think it's a miracle she graduated at all, as she's shown more physical ineptitude than Naruto - slower, weaker, less accurate and generally with no redeeming qualities in an actual fight situation.
Did you SEE how she reacted to kakashi's illusion of Sasuke? She PASSED OUT. If she's so intelligent, she should've realized something was seriously off.
When the two Mist nin attacked Tazuna early on, she was paralyzed with fear. To be fair, so was Naruto, but...
When Orochimaru attacked later on, Sasuke could at least stand under his killer intent. Sakura crumpled like wet paper.
In the Chuunin exam prelims, everyone rants about Naruto beating Kiba through pure luck, overlooking that he:
-actually caused a Sannin to notice him by stomping his summoned snake physically;
-got cut off from his regenerating chakra by the seal said Sannin put on him;
-sustained at least 50 Kage Bunshin with henge on them for several HOURS against an endless stream of opponents in teh Forest of Death, while cut off from Kyuubi chakra;
-THEN actually managed to put up a fight with Kiba, despite being probably the most smashed in his team.
Sakura, on the other hand, won through a convenient plot device represented by Inner Sakura, who BTW hasn't appeared at all in the timejump - obviously a plot device that was discarded after its usefulness was expired... as if a split personality could do something like that.
She should've horribly lost the fight with Ino, and being tired was no excuse, as Ino also was roughed up by those Sound nin (the damage she took in Kin's body, if you recall, transferred to her own body).
If you pay attention to it, Sakura has been totally incostant in the series - she was either dead weight or won fights she had no business winning at all through some super cheap plot devices that are only second to the Sharingan.
Now, in the timejump, she first shows enough power to be of use against Sasori (and I should add that an infamous criminal like Sasori doesn't survive that long by making stupid mistakes like assuming someone's dead and falling for an idiotic ploy like Sakura playing dead), then gets caught deer-in-the-headlights mode by Kabuto's body being flung at her - never mind that with the speed and reflexes she showed before that (even sans Chiyo), she could easily have dodged Kabuto's body. But no, she gets hit by him and conveniently knocked out by a bump to the head.
I suppose we discovered the true power of Naruto. BRIDGES. They are more powerful than any Akatsuki. </sarcasm>
And following that, Sasuke TRIES TO MURDER NARUTO UNDER HER EYES. And she STILL calls him 'Sasuke-kun', is fangirly about him and wants him back.
The only credit I give her is that at first she wanted to punch him, but even after Yamato stopped restraining her, all she could do was watch while Sasuke was clearly showing the intention to kill Naruto.
I'm sorry, but my respect for her, which was low enough as it was already, dropped to ZERO after that. If Kishi sets her up with naruto, I swear I'll go to Japan and personally torture him to show him how displeased I am with all the BS he pulled.

[Moshulel]

I'll just add one little detail that everyone overlooks:
LEVELS!
Yes dear posters levels. People tend to forget that before the time skip:
Sasuke had:
Katon Jutsu's
Three Tomoe sharingan
Chidori
Naruto had:
Kage Bunshin.
Rasengan
An emerging style involving the KB
Like you see they had other stuff in they're arsenal than just the basics.
What did Sakura have?
I'll answer you: NOTHING
She already was behind them a lot and you are trying to tell me that she improves faster than Naruto aka the mister i learn Kage Bunshin in one night and Rasengan in less then a month? Or faster than Sasuke aka the copy cat bastard? (I reframe to flame the whole Mary Sue Sasuke since Mary Sue seems to be his family name rather than Uchiha.) I think NOT.
Regarding the issues with Tsunade, do you think that the leader of a over taxed village would have time to train a GENIN? Leting Shizune handle the paper work and leave the village without a precious med nin? You forget that Shizune was on missions as well so i doubt she spent too much time in the village.
Also about Sakura improving psyhically... thoise books read themselves no? I don't recall where it said that a med nin needs to have psihically improving high on the list: Academics and Chakra control.
Resource wise Tsunade's time with Sakura would be VERY limited.
Also to adress the issue of Naruto theoreticly receiving little training because he was on the road.
A question for you: How much did he traveled? He surrounded the world a few times? It takes just three days to reach Hidden Sand so unlless they surrounded the world a few times the time they spent travelling was very limited.
Also to adress the training issue.. you think Jiraya who knows about the Akatsuki and they're threath to Naruto would have wasted time? I think NOT! And keep in mind that he was 24/7 with Naruto not like Tsunade with Sakura. Add to this Naruto's leaning curve the fact that he can train 16 hours a day and then start over again and you realise how ridiculous the statement of Sakura improving so much is.
I'm a little upset now due to Kishi's lame attempts to make Sakura of any use...

[Nekomata-sensei]

Has anyone considered that medical ninjutsu might not require as much knowledge and training as becoming a real doctor? Perhaps they are just pushing wounds closed with their chakra and creating chakra that has traits that makes healing speed up or causes a sort of regeneration? Maybe if you have good enough chakra control it takes a whole hour to learn the most basic medical ninjutsu? Perhaps it's only advanced techniques like the seal array used to regenerate Neji's wounds that require such large amounts of book knowledge. All Sakura has shown is ability to counteract poisons and heal mostly superficial wounds.
If I remember correctly, the base medical ninjutsu starting technique was called mystic hands. Medical ninjutsu is _not_ all chakra based surgury and cellular reconstruction. It's turning your chakra into healing light and pushing it into people's injuries at it's most basic level, at least from what I've seen in Naruto.
Also, a ninja like Sakura allready has vast amounts of medical knowldge taught at the basic academy, she knows a lot about vitals, what to do when you're hit in one, where they are, what the point of them is for the body, and how to target them on an opponent. She knows a lot about the body because she's being trained as an assasin essentially. Even _Naruto_ knows where the vitals are enough to try and turn killing blows into non-killing blows. For all we know, Sakura could have been spending her free time (when not chasing Sasuke) reading up on genjutsu and medical stuff in the library even before she asks to become Tsunade's apprentice.
And then of course there is the chance that there is some weird learning jutsu she used. Perhaps all ninja are taught some sort of perfect retention meditation technique they can activate to help them memorize passwords and stuff like that, and Sakura allready had near superman level reading ability, she just didn't have the basic tutoring to put her knowledge to use. You've got to remember that Sakura not only can remember all the obscure things Iruka taught at the academy, but re-phrase them and simplify them to help Naruto understand them. That means she only has to hear something once to get perfect comprehension. If I remember correctly, someone who is a normal genius has to hear something three times, meaning just in the pre-chuunin exam arc Sakura is proved to be a super-genius of some sort, admittedly, she's a shallow one with confidence problems and a bad Sasuke obsession, as well as MPD confusing her.
You are vastly underestimating Sakura. She's not the dead weight you make her out to be. Even pre-chuunin exams, you have to remember that unlike Naruto, she reacts properly when Kakashi 'dies' and pushes Tazuna out of the way of an attack while drawing her kunai to stop the enemy, then goes on to expain chakra to Naruto in a way that all of us can understand. But at the time, she's 12, she's got MPD, she's got a Sasuke obsession, she's a really shallow person in general (still is), she grew up badly teased and doesn't feel confident about her own inteligence, even though she's a 'genjutsu type' she was tricked by Kakashi's genjutsu and did nothing during the bell test, which would have wreaked more havok on her confidence, and she's had nobody to teach her more than book knowledge on genjutsu and whatever medical skills she might have.

[Shadell]

And one more thing to add. Before the time skip, Sakura never really does any special training. While this could be used as a point towards unrealistic growth, think of it like this. Sakura's potential and learning ability haven't been shown. For all we know she had the potential to rival Neji or Sasuke in terms of the genius thing, and simply hadn't grown to use it at all yet. Thus any logical amount of growth can be made realistic simply by the fact that this is the first time Sakura has had any real motivation to train hard, and obtained a willing teacher.
You constantly reference that Naruto learned KB and Rasangan very quickly. Yet Sakura hadn't been given a chance to learn those techniques. The one chakra manipulation technique she did learn, she was able to reproduce PERFECTLY after having seen it once and a short explanation. Even given that she has a small easily manipulated chakra that is almost ridiculous developement. Thus the one technique we have seen Sakura learn, she learned much more quickly then Naruto learned ANY of his special Jutsu.

[GenocideHeart]

*sigh*
First of all, if medical jutsu are so easy to learn, why are attack jutsu so HARD to learn?
In case it hasn't occurred to anyone here, the human body is a DELICATE THING. You can't just call yourself a medic nin because you can shove a wound closed with some chakra. You also need to know how to properly clean and disinfect it so that it doesn't develop into an infection that could cause the whole interested body part to be lost, or worse, into necrosis that could kill your patient.
You also need to be able to heal poisons that are already inb the bloodstream.
And, most important, you need to be able to heal INTERNAL WOUNDS, while working basically blind. Not everyine has a Byakugan, and that's the only thing that allows a medic nin to exactly see where he should operate. The others must work blind, so they need to be able to KNOW what they are doing, not just shove wounds closed and GG.
You're suggesting Sakura is a beginner. If that's the case, why does she have poison knowledge that most masters won't attain in DECADES? Anyone who studied here knows that it's important to advance evenly in studies, or you'll just be very, very unbalanced. Sakura is unbalanced big time.
Also, the following points Nekomata-sensei makes are very, very bad.

Perhaps they are just pushing wounds closed with their chakra and creating chakra that has traits that makes healing speed up or causes a sort of regeneration? Maybe if you have good enough chakra control it takes a whole hour to learn the most basic medical ninjutsu? Perhaps it's only advanced techniques like the seal array used to regenerate Neji's wounds that require such large amounts of book knowledge. All Sakura has shown is ability to counteract poisons and heal mostly superficial wounds.

Also, a ninja like Sakura allready has vast amounts of medical knowldge taught at the basic academy, she knows a lot about vitals, what to do when you're hit in one, where they are, what the point of them is for the body, and how to target them on an opponent. She knows a lot about the body because she's being trained as an assasin essentially.

And then of course there is the chance that there is some weird learning jutsu she used. Perhaps all ninja are taught some sort of perfect retention meditation technique they can activate to help them memorize passwords and stuff like that, and Sakura allready had near superman level reading ability, she just didn't have the basic tutoring to put her knowledge to use.

They are essentially baseless assumptions, without even a shred of backing in the manga. The second one is especially baseless, as we are NEVER shown once what they were learning in the Academy beyond Henge and Bunshin.
Kakashi himself flat out stated that the Academy training was only to see who had the POTENTIAL to become a Genin, not to prepare them for being one. And most Genin don't even kill until waaaaay later in their career, since they start wth unimportant missions like gardening.

But at the time, she's 12, she's got MPD, she's got a Sasuke obsession, she's a really shallow person in general (still is), she grew up badly teased and doesn't feel confident about her own inteligence, even though she's a 'genjutsu type' she was tricked by Kakashi's genjutsu and did nothing during the bell test, which would have wreaked more havok on her confidence, and she's had nobody to teach her more than book knowledge on genjutsu and whatever medical skills she might have.

And whose fault was it? Kakashi's for drooling over Sasuke or Sakura's for not asking him to train her seriously?
Furthermore, she proved to work poorly in a team setting most of the time, and was actually INFERIOR to Ino from all points of view, and Ino's arguably the worst of the Rookie 9 besides her, had an even worse sensei than Kakashi in the incredibly lazy Asuma, was if possible even MORE shallow than Sakura and... well, you get the point.

[Moshulel]

You constantly reference that Naruto learned KB and Rasangan very quickly. Yet Sakura hadn't been given a chance to learn those techniques. The one chakra manipulation technique she did learn, she was able to reproduce PERFECTLY after having seen it once and a short explanation. Even given that she has a small easily manipulated chakra that is almost ridiculous developement. Thus the one technique we have seen Sakura learn, she learned much more quickly then Naruto learned ANY of his special Jutsu.

Excuse me? EXCUSE ME?
The only reason why she learned that tehnique so fast is because her chakra control wich is a direct result of her small chakra capacity. Her learning the KB or the rasengan? Ya right. <_<

Has anyone considered that medical ninjutsu might not require as much knowledge and training as becoming a real doctor? Perhaps they are just pushing wounds closed with their chakra and creating chakra that has traits that makes healing speed up or causes a sort of regeneration? Maybe if you have good enough chakra control it takes a whole hour to learn the most basic medical ninjutsu? Perhaps it's only advanced techniques like the seal array used to regenerate Neji's wounds that require such large amounts of book knowledge. All Sakura has shown is ability to counteract poisons and heal mostly superficial wounds.

Oh if becoming a med nin is so easy then why is it said that few can become one? And a friendly reminder... Chiyo statement seems to be forgoten by you...

And then of course there is the chance that there is some weird learning jutsu she used. Perhaps all ninja are taught some sort of perfect retention meditation technique they can activate to help them memorize passwords and stuff like that, and Sakura allready had near superman level reading ability, she just didn't have the basic tutoring to put her knowledge to use. You've got to remember that Sakura not only can remember all the obscure things Iruka taught at the academy, but re-phrase them and simplify them to help Naruto understand them. That means she only has to hear something once to get perfect comprehension. If I remember correctly, someone who is a normal genius has to hear something three times, meaning just in the pre-chuunin exam arc Sakura is proved to be a super-genius of some sort, admittedly, she's a shallow one with confidence problems and a bad Sasuke obsession, as well as MPD confusing her.

Super-genius? Excuse me but it's stated that she worked hard because she wanted to impress Sasuke it's not stated that she's a fast learner. All we know so far points to her being a geek. Don't confuse intelligence with memory.

Also, a ninja like Sakura allready has vast amounts of medical knowldge taught at the basic academy, she knows a lot about vitals, what to do when you're hit in one, where they are, what the point of them is for the body, and how to target them on an opponent. She knows a lot about the body because she's being trained as an assasin essentially. Even _Naruto_ knows where the vitals are enough to try and turn killing blows into non-killing blows. For all we know, Sakura could have been spending her free time (when not chasing Sasuke) reading up on genjutsu and medical stuff in the library even before she asks to become Tsunade's apprentice.

Then why there is no clue in this regard? No proof at all before the time jump, all she does is fawn over Sasuke and you know it.

[Shadell]

Furthermore, she proved to work poorly in a team setting most of the time, and was actually INFERIOR to Ino from all points of view, and Ino's arguably the worst of the Rookie 9 besides her, had an even worse sensei than Kakashi in the incredibly lazy Asuma, was if possible even MORE shallow than Sakura and... well, you get the point.
Furthermore, she proved to work poorly in a team setting most of the time, and was actually INFERIOR to Ino from all points of view, and Ino's arguably the worst of the Rookie 9 besides her, had an even worse sensei than Kakashi in the incredibly lazy Asuma, was if possible even MORE shallow than Sakura and... well, you get the point.

Not really. Your forgetting Ino had special techniques taught to her by her family. Sakura at that point had none, yet the result of that fight was a draw. Even factoring in Sakura's luck and DID she managed to defeat a jutsu that is supposed to be pretty much the ultimate spying technique through sheer willpower.
Also you can't argue that Asuma was a bad teacher as we have never seen him teach. IE: That is as you said, an essentially baseless assumption. In fact there is evidence contrary to that fact. Asuma understands his team and knows how to motivate Chouji. And more notably managed to discover Shikamaru's genius (Something that no one knew about until then)

Excuse me? EXCUSE ME?
The only reason why she learned that tehnique so fast is because her chakra control wich is a direct result of her small chakra capacity. Her learning the KB or the rasengan? Ya right. <_<

That... is not what I said at all. I pointed out that we have never seen Sakura attempt to learn a higher level jutsu like KB or Rasengan. I did not say she could learn them. I pointed out that until the timeskip the only evidence we have of Sakura's learning ability is her mastery of tree-walking on the FIRST attempt. Now KB is suited to naruto's abilities perfectly, yet it still took him several hours to learn. So it stands to reason that Sakura is a VERY quick learner.