When assigned to Team 7 , Sakura quickly finds herself ill-prepared for the duties of a shinobi. However, after training under the Sannin Tsunade , she overcomes this, and becomes recognised as one of the greatest medical-nin in the world.
Sakura is the only child of Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno. She had a healthy childhood, raised by her parents without any serious tragedy or complications, unlike her team members. When she entered Konoha's Academy , a few of the girls in her class started picking on her because of her broad forehead. Sakura tried to combat their teasing by hiding her forehead with her bangs, but this caused the girls to bully her even more. Ino Yamanaka , one of her classmates, saw this, and defended Sakura from her bullies and encouraged her to embrace her forehead rather than hide it.
Over the following years, Ino's guidance and friendship helped Sakura become comfortable with herself and develop into her own person. Though she felt indebted to Ino for helping her, Sakura began to feel that she was living in Ino's shadow when she, instead, wanted to be Ino's equal. At some point after she entered in the Academy, Sakura met Sasuke Uchiha and she developed a crush on him.
When she told her friends, she was surprised to learn how popular Sasuke was with the girls. Sakura heard a rumour of Sasuke being attracted to girls with long hair and she began letting her hair grow to get his attention. A couple of years later, when she learned Ino had a crush on Sasuke and no longer wanting to be in Ino's shadow, Sakura ended their friendship so that they could compete for Sasuke's love, thus beginning a bitter rivalry between them and their dislike towards each other.
After they were placed in their teams, Sakura approached Ino, bragging about being on Sasuke's team and declaring she won't lose. As a child, Sakura was insecure and highly self-conscious about her large forehead, covering it with her bangs. It was not until she met Ino, who defended her from bullies and became her friend, that she become more self-confident.
