Your characterization of Sakura feels natural and not overly mature, which is amazing because writing kids is a lot harder than writing adults. I feel invested in her growth and I definitely look forward to more

Amazing this fic gave me shivers. I love how the characters act their age the tone of the writing matches well. The character development of sakura is best and the emotional investment placed on her thoughts and dreams make this fic so damn addictive. Thank you for an amazing four chapters I will be waiting faithfully for more no matter how long.

In all my years reading fanfiction I have come across many stories of this type and I want to tell you that I honestly think this is one of the best stories I have read and if it continues like this it will probably be The Best I have found so far IMHO.
For me Sakura in this story is quite realistic, she has both physical and psychological difficulties to overcome and it is totally exciting to see her work on them, with the determination to get to be the way she thinks a ninja should be. There is also his family and social environment, I love the relationship with her parents and how she realizes that both of them are strong in their own way, that shinobi and civilians have their weaknesses and strengths.
I absolutely adore Shikamaru, I can't imagine someone better than him to be her first friend, I really can't wait for the next chapter and I'm looking forward to see what could happen, my mind is blowing up with all this scenes (an encounter with Shikaku? Maybe a move to end the situation with Ami instigated by her threatening Shikamaru?
A discovery of a chakra-enhanced strength?
Get caught spying on the advanced classes?
Winning a Taijutsu match?
Play Shogi?
Making Shikamaru feel a little embarresment for her gift in front of his parents?
(For some reason the first thing that occurred to me was a pillow with the image of a deer or clouds or an eyepillow ... lol)
Anyway.. I really love your story and can't wait to have more.
Stay safe ~

gahhhhhhh i cant waitttttttttttt!

AHHHHHH I love the whole shika saku interaction. SO AWESOME. I love what u did!

One of the best Sakura centric fanfics i ever read.

and your usage of detail in unparalleled.

Just WOW !

Keep up the amazing work and take as much time as you need.

Since you post chapters at long intervals, could you add a summary of the one before at the start of each chapter?

Hi! Thank you for the chapter it was lovely as always

Yasss I really loved this! Hohohoho is this a KagaSaku story? I wouldn’t mind they seem cute together! Anyways I sooo look forward to Sakuras progress as a shinobi and I totally want to see her beat Setsukas face in to a pulp! I decided I still don’t like her at. But I won’t bash her I’ll just encourage Sakura to do that to her literally lmao anyways I’ll be looking forward to the next update!

CORRECTION TO MY PREVIOUS COMMENT: I meant Shikaku* and not Shukaku! Since the latter is the ichibi's name!

I am quite eagerly to see Shikamaru's parents (aka Shukaku and Yoshino) about his tests scores AND the fact that he is willing to train more outside of his clan training! Priceless.

Sakura is from a civilian's origin. Is understandable that she doesn't know this kind of things. Sometimes, just sometimes, the things that are considered normal knowleadge to shinobi is totally otherworldly to civilians. And what would their reactions be? They would be flabbergasted to this very fact that the civilians does not know about this tidbits of common information among shinobis. The shinobis or the children with shinobi heritage? Such as one Hatake Setsuka? They would be so self-absorbed to this fact that they end up blaming the civilians kids in training for their lack of knowledge. Knowleadge that btw, is NOT EASILY public to the common people. For all the sass of a self proclaimed "genius", her insight is narrow minded and quite inconsiderate to the people that she is supposed to protect. Setsuka is being quite bratty. Quite annoying. Srly. Hopefully she can mature to being someone that thinks of others and values each of their abilities more in their own right. Btw, I am quite enjoying Shikamaru and Sakura's interactions. And the fact that Sakura can be beautiful as she is strong, is totally right. Appearance should not matter at all. If she wants to be beautiful and baddass at the same time? Go for it! This fact never prevented other heroines of the Naruto series to achieve their goals! Yuhi Kurenai? Senju Tsunade? Uzumaki Mito? They are beautiful as they are strong! All that bullshit about care for one's appearance is already a preconception of a patriarchal mindset. Why in the world a woman should not care about one's appearance in order to get as strong as any man? Why such condition has to be established in the first place? She has to change and not care for oneself because of such petty notions of genres? Srly. This sort of mindset just enforces this inequality between them.

I am cheering for the pair Shikamaru x Sakura. Utterly precious.

I am not to convinced about your Sakura's justification behind her lack of physical developpements. The reasons are :

1. In canon, Sakura was a trash in all physical skills because she was a fan girl who never trained. But in your story, Sakura is serious..Is she even training outside of the academy ? Strengh and speed aren't that difficult to train independently if she really try (running around Konoha, dodging people for agility, and other physical exercices). Even though I can admit her reasoning with her taijutsu's level, I hardly believe in her argument regarding her physical skills. You train or you don't train. There's no reason she would be so weak appart if she isn't training.
2. In canon, it was revealed in the Shippuden arc that Sakura has never been talentless in taijutsu, she just didn't have the drive and people (aka. Tsunade) to teach her. So the argument about her lack of skills in taijutsu is wrong.

The "I am a paper ninja" argument seems to just be an excuse to justify her lack of motivation in all physical trainings.

Sakura monologue is really interesting. I'm glad that Shikamaru is with her. I believe that Sakura can be great. After all, she learn a lot by her own, now with Shikamaru helping her, I'm sure she would learn faster. I absolutely favor Sakura's parent. Not only they are supportive, but they are strong in their own way. Sakura would be able to learn a lot from them regarding business and politics. Btw, your effort are really shown through your writing. I can't believe how amazing and patient you are in writing each scene. Keep update!