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3rd Naruto Epilogue Novel's Title, Story, Cover Unveiled

I mostly agree up to her showing psychopathic behavior (I liked Sakura's personality... and she's selfish for sure, but psychopathic? Granted I've only read up to vol 52 so far, catching up!) But I'd like to extend this to all of the females on the 3-man teams. Every one of them was either a one-trick pony (Ino) or vastly inferior to their male counterparts (Hinata). If there were ever characters that were victims of their writer it's the Naruto girls (especially Sakura). I remember Kishimoto wrote in his early notes about how Sasuke and Sakura were suggested by his editor to give Naruto a rival and love interest; it's obvious he would have gladly written the entire series with nary a female ninja if it weren't for his editor(s) saying, "This manga needs some pretty girls!"

The thing that baffles me about Sakura is how Kishimoto spent a whole arc at the beginning of Shippuuden establishing that Sakura wasn't useless anymore, that she was both an esteemed medical ninja and could pack a punch, but where did that go? I can't think of a single instance after that arc where Sakura used her super strength except for comedic effect. It's like Kishimoto doesn't know how (or want) to write her any way other than a mostly-useless healer.

I'm really hoping this novel gives her a final opportunity to actually shine, and provides some actual romantic buildup to Sakura and Sasuke's relationship. I always liked the idea of them as a pair but thought that ship sailed long ago... I was legitimately surprised to hear they got together in end.

I disagree about Hinata, she's probably the strongest one out of her own team. I see your point though.

To be fair, once you get past the Akatsuki arc, that pretty much happens to EVERYONE (except Naruto and Sasuke). Heck, in the Ninja war it kind of felt like Kishimoto HAD to spoiler[bring back the ghosts of all the kages] because EVERYONE (except Naruto & Sasuke) was pathetically "weak" in comparison. I'd be more inclined to agree if the end showed off Rock Lee or Kiba or one of the other guys, but you reached a point where even Kakashi and Gaara and such seemed pretty superfluous. The one "upside" of the later chapters is that the "power level escalation" seemed to keep accelerating so at least you didn't spend an eternity building someone up just to make them obsolete, instead in the "end game" people started getting obsolete almost a few chapter after getting introduced.

Yeah, it seems that Kishimoto hated the idea of putting females in the series. Basically every woman in Naruto gets the shaft in one way or another.

Any chance these novels get anime?