The world is a strange and amazing place

So I am reading the Naruto manga and I've gotten part of the way through the chunin exam arc and Sakura has abruptly turned into one of my favorite characters. DID NOT SEE THAT COMING.

I wouldn't say she is now a badass (by manga standards, anyway: among ordinary human beings she would be considered incredibly lethal), but she has achieved the realization that standing around screaming "SASUKE!" at random moments is not a good use of her life. And then she got into a fight where she showed cleverness of tactics and steely determination. I was immensely gratified. And then in a later chapter Inner Sakura kicks the ass out of [redacted] during an exam fight and I cheered big time. She's still crushing badly on Sasuke, but that in and of itself doesn't bother me: young love isn't (necessarily) a bad thing.

I'm now interested in seeing where this goes.