Shikamaru and Sakura: Rivals?

[Kakooli]

Shikamaru and Sakura have similar levels of hype when it comes to intelligence.

Shikamaru was recognized as a genius with an iq of over 200

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and Sakura was recognized as the brightest in the village (so presumably her iq exceeds 200)

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Shikamaru demonstrated his intelligence in battle

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As did Sakura

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But Sakura's intelligence wasn't limited to strong analytical skills in battle situations. She was also book smart, something which Shikamaru (whose grades were similar to Naruto's in the academy) could not claim.

Notice how Sakura was the only leaf genin shown to be able to answer the Jonin-level intelligence questions during the chunin exams.

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Shikamaru was probably aware of this, which explains his unflattering views of Sakura

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He knew that she was a rival in the one field (intelligence) that made him stand out from the crowd, so he tried to knock her confidence.

Here we see Sakura outsmarting Shikamaru by shutting down his bogus theory on the identity of Pain

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Sakura schooling him here is Kishi subtly showing her get her own back on Shikamaru for ragging on her in part 1.

We even see how Shikamaru fears Sakura's strength, as shown by this scan

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Look at how he closes his eyes in fear, he can feel Sakura's killing intent and all he can do is hold his breath.

To sum up:

-Shikamaru and Sakura started off with similar intelligence hype.
-They both displayed intelligence in battle (Sakura has more feats though).
-Sakura was shown to be intellectually superior in terms of book smarts (something which Shikamaru resented her for)
-The rivalry continues in part 2 and Sakura gets her revenge by outsmarting Shikamaru.

By the end, Sakura is not just someone Shikamaru recognizes as her intellectual superior but also as someone to be feared. The ninja with "No special ability" he was ragging on 3 years prior ace medical school, outsmarted him on numerous occasions and took down an akatsuki on her first try. The rivalry was one-sided but a rivalry nonetheless and it's something that many people overlook while reading the manga.

 

[To Whatever]

They aren't rivals whatsoever.

He barely acknowledges her unless she directly does something that has to do with him. And that's in the form of praise or insight.

His only rival was the woman he ended up marrying.


Stop being a Dumb ass bitch, Kakooli...

 

[Angelic.]

Well the focus was on shika during the war while sakura was staring at sasukes ass

 

[kimb]

You know the Naruto series is over when the Sakura fanbase starts comparing Sakura to Shikamaru. lmao

 

[lndra]

You know the Naruto series is over when the Sakura fanbase starts comparing Sakura to Shikamaru. lmao

My thoughts exactly lmao

 

[Reboryushon]

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[Kakooli]

I'm summoning femme to the thread to back me up. Be patient!

 

[InfiniteMugen]

Yea no, shika purposefully slacked on the tests, try harder

 

[Kakooli]

Yea no, shika purposefully slacked on the tests, try harder

That was just an excuse.

 

[90sKids98]

I'm summoning femme to the thread to back me up. Be patient!

Good, log off alt ^_^

 

[00Rinne]

If anything Shika dumb himself down so that he wouldn't be called apon so much for his brain power.. That Shikamaru is on the pink haired girls lvl.. THE Shikamaru Nara is far superior to the pink haired girl in intellect an battle strategy & everything except power.

You just put Shikaku under the pink haired girl aswell an that's just insane!!!..

 

[Melanin]

Shikamaru is quite good at developing strategies and analysing a situation. As far as Sakura is concerned I am more inclined to say she has a crystallized intelligence which is defined as “the ability to use learned knowledge and experience”. However, in some instances, she showed some fluid intelligence, for example when she was trying to heal Kankurou at the beginning of part 2, where she had to find a counter to Sasori’s poison. And then you have the war-arc, where she analyzed the information about Zetzu and its Hashirama cells, and impressed the weird being. Not only that she also managed to find out whether Neji was real or just a fake copy. But these moments are likely a result from the knowledge she gained over the years. She’s just good at applying them when being faced with a new problem.
It’d be far more easy if we had more moments so that we can judge them better. But I would claim Shikamaru is more intelligent than Sakura because his fluid intelligence is more superiour than her’s. Plus, it isn’t dependent on the knowledge.

Sincerely, a observation

 

[FemmeFatale]

Shikamru is overrated, skura has replicated almost every intellegence feat he had and shown more. her reading sasoris puppet attack by watching his hands seems more advanced that reading tayuyas movement via sound

 

[Bad Touch Yakushi]

It's just different kinds of intelligence. Sakura like Kabuto & Tsunade are specialists...in the same way Neji is a genius of learning, Itachi is a genius of acting or the Uzumaki geniuses at sealing- doesn't mean bonafide genius. There's many instances in the series where Sakura has made mistakes and planned poor decisions because of her heart.

I don't think either really care anyway.

Shikamru is overrated, skura has replicated almost every intellegence feat he had and shown more. her reading sasoris puppet attack by watching his hands seems more advanced that reading tayuyas movement via sound

Maybe if you read any of the manga that doesn't feature a female character then you would've seen the rest of his feats. God you better not make mod.

 

[InfiniteMugen]

That was just an excuse.

But it says it, so it must be true right? Your taking someone's comment about Sakura as a child being "bright" true then I'll take shika slacking it as true, plus given his nature in pt 1 and in general it's believable. They're not rivals, shika outsmarts Sakura any day any time, your better off wanking sakuras (CES)strength :sdo:

 

[InfiniteMugen]

Shikamru is overrated, skura has replicated almost every intellegence feat he had and shown more. her reading sasoris puppet attack by watching his hands seems more advanced that reading tayuyas movement via sound

It's easy to watch hands and signals when you got someone controlling your movements and dodging for you :sdo:

 

[Natsu Shazneel]

Oh how low the Sakurabase has fallen.

 

[Guntah]

You know, just because two people are at "similar levels", it doesn't mean they are rivals.

 

[roark]

sakura is book smart, is studious, has good grades but need formulas, in the battlefield she's not so smart that's why probably she turned a medical ninja, an area that's better to apply stabilished concepts

shikamaru is smarter but even sasuke, kakashi and naruto are smarter than her

 

[Nick01]

No.

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