I am frankly sick of this.
Ok, this is a good, thoughtful and interesting thread but... what about Kishimoto putting some of HIS thoughtwork on this character?
I'm not one to criticize Kishimoto's writing usually, as it would mean spitting in the plate I'm eating from, I never was critic about Sakura's character in itself which I like enough, nor I am among those who seem to think that Sakura's only functions is or should be to end in Naruto's bed.
But let's be honest, why in the heck do we need to break our brains thinking about "what Kishi has in store for Sakura"? We've written pages over pages on the matter, what the hell Kishi? Show us something that comes from you, the actual source, instead of letting us do guesswork for years.
It's not that I don't appreciate this culturally and philosophically advanced thread (or other similar threads) but I seriously can't get what is Kishi waiting for. This is an extremely unjust treatment of a character with interesting personality and abilities, Sakura is what makes the charm of team 7, Sakura has a wider range of abilities and specializations than most ninja in the series and, more importantly, Sakura is supposed to be the heroine of the story. There are YEARS of clues and foreshadowing that Sakura is the third sannin, why nothing was shown when she went against Sasuke?
Dang, Choji had more developement than her... CHOJI! Why this?
And yet Kishi keeps hinting in interviews and covers that Sakura is part of the trio (which was obvious anyway) without never getting to the point. And we write beautiful pages of threads on this.
As I said, I'm not eager to criticize Kishi but... this is seriously a flaw in storytelling.