Sawaii Hitomi

Sawaii Hitomi (人見サワイイ, Hitomi Sawaii) is a chūnin-level kunoichi from Konohagakure and a medical-nin. She also possesses the unique Crystal Release kekkei genkai which she inherited from her mother.

Background
Sawaii is the granddaughter of Hiruzen Sarutobi and Biwako Sarutobi, the brother of Konohamaru Sarutobi, as well as the niece of Asuma Sarutobi. Sawaii was only two months old when the Nine-Tails attacked Konoha, and her parents were killed during the attack, and Sawaii never had the chance to meet them. After the attack, she was taken in by Hiruzen, and became a member of the Sarutobi Clan. Hiruzen raised her alongside Konohamaru, who became Sawaii's playmate. He would rarely let Sawaii outside, confining her indoors to teach her the manners and essences of a ninja. Despite her relations to the Sarutobi clan, Hiruzen decided to keep her surname "Hitomi" (人見, Hitomi) in memory of her late mother. Many years later, Sawaii enrolled in the Academy, and soon became good friends with Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka, with the trio always sticking together through classes and outside of them. Many years later, Sawaii's friendship with Sakura increases so much, that Sakura names Sawaii the godmother of Sakura and Sasuke's daughter, Sarada Uchiha.

At first, her classmates would usually speak to her using honorifics and with respect due to her status. However, later, she explained to her friends that she preferred being called by her own name instead of "Honorable Granddaughter" (お孫娘様 Omago Musume-sama), since she wanted to be treated like everyone else instead of the Third Hokage's granddaughter. This results to a change of treatment among her friends which made her happy to be accepted as one of them. Her lack of height and small figure sometimes being made as target for bullies. Still, she never felt offended and paid no mind to them, responding with smiles. Moreover, she then learned that bullying helped her to grow better confidence and inner strength.

Personality
During Part I, Sawaii is seen as never serious as she likes to make funny jokes and getting into trouble with her comrades. This is because she rarely get to play outside with other kids due to her grandfather order to always stay home and learn manners. Konohamaru somehow influenced Sawaii's playfull personality as they always play together. Her lack of patience and over-confidence sometimes lead her to failure which is, according to Sakura and Ino, practically sum up her overall personality. Yet, she has a strong determination to always try and never give up that to some extent, and her will is praised by Tsunade and her comrades.

During the timeskip, Sawaii is shown to be always on the bright side of Sasuke Uchiha. Being one of Orochimaru's subordinate, she wasn't comsumed by hatred as much as Sasuke was. She maintains her cheerful yet naughty personality which sometimes happens to set a purpose for comic relief.

During Part II, Sawaii became more mature and focused in her goal. Forgetting her revenge, she wishes to continue her childhood dream of being a great kunoichi that her late grandfather wanted her to be. Upon abandoning Orochimaru's hideout, Sawaii felt huge amounts of guilt for betraying Konoha after learning Orochimaru and Sasuke's intentions. She learned her mistakes and decided to rebuilt anew during her imprisonment by Tsunade's order. She became more concerned for her team, prioritized teamwork over anything, and was protective of her family.

One of Sawaii's most prominent traits is her love-hate relationship with Ren Hibiki, being very protective of him since they were little kids, mostly because of them were orphans and experienced the pain of loss, but at many times both of them being at annoyed at each other for different opinions and/or not co-operating with one another in training, but despite this, they deeply care about one another. Their relationship became incredibly strained after Sawaii expressed her goal of exacting revenge on Orochimaru and not caring about anything else, and Ren simply stated he couldn't be around her anymore, but they make amends three years later after Sawaii returns to Konoha and Ren stated he forgave her and wanted to "make up for lost time" and spent a lot of time training together. In the following years, Ren begins having romantic feelings towards Sawaii, which Sawaii later goes on to share and the two declare their love for one another, and eventually get married.

Appearance
Sawaii is fair-skinned, with blue eyes. Her signature trait is her long orange hair, usually tied in a ponytail and with bangs similar to Sakura and Tsunade's. In Part I, Sawaii was one of the smallest of her class, along with Naruto Uzumaki, and was often bullied because of it. In Part I, her long orange hair was tied into a high ponytail with a small ribbon, both ends each had a small purple bell attached. She wore a sleeveless purple dress with gold designs, purple arm warmers and standard blue shinobi sandals. She wears her forehead protector on her waist similar to Ino.

In Part II, Sawaii wears a purple jacket and a black, short-sleeved blouse underneath, a dark purple skirt with a slit in the middle, black boots with heels, and long black gloves that reach up to her elbows. She ties her hair into a low ponytail using her forehead protector. Later in Part II, she begins wearing a new outfit, which consists of a shorter purple jacket and she wears black, short-sleeved dress with a different design. During the, Sawaii wears the standard Konoha infantry flak jacket and assorted clothing.

Two years after the war, Sawaii is shown to look more mature with a striking resemblance to her mother. Her orange hair is slightly shorter (coming just above her knees) and parted to the right with her bangs pinned at the back of her head with purple hairpins in an 'X' shape. Her outfit consists of a purple kimono-like short-sleeved dress with white borders and dark grey buttons. It is held in place by a reddish pink sash with her forehead protector on its right side, and she has dark grey shorts underneath. The lower part of her dress goes on the left, leaving one of her legs exposed. She also wears dark grey fingerless gloves with reddish pink borders and guards. Her sandals and weapon pack are dark grey as well.

Abilities
Sawaii was somewhat skilled even before becoming a genin, being able to fight off some of her bullies with using taijutsu and was able to climb trees rather quickly to escape them when they outnumbered her. She was also fairly decent in ninjutsu being able to launch water jets from her mouth since a young age, and was also able to perform the Clone Technique. Sawaii is, however, incredibly skilled in shurikenjutsu and her usage of ninja tools, such as kunai and wire strings, are incredibly famous throughout Konoha.

Chakra Control and Physical Prowess
Sawaii was initially not very skilled in controlling her chakra, but throughout Part I, her skills improved to the point where she was acknowledged as one of the best in charka control by the rest of the Konoha 11, which also helped her as a medical-nin. Both in Part I and Part II, one of Sawaii's greatest reliable skills is her taijutsu, and under the tutelage of Orochimaru, Tsunade and Sakura, respectively, she is able to increase her strength to the point of being superhuman and also increase her speed dramatically.

Nature Transformation
Sawaii is proficient in using Water Release, Wind Release and Yang Release. Despite not using as much, Sawaii is very skilled in using Wind Release, being able to create powerful gusts, which are capable of cutting giant trees down, and shoot bullets of air from her mouth.

Perhaps Sawaii's greatest ability is her usage of the Crystal Release (晶遁, Shōton) kekkei genkai which she inherited from her mother. Initially, Sawaii was unable to properly train her Crystal Release because she couldn't find someone who had enough knowledge about its nature, but after training with Orochimaru, her potential with Crystal Release was unleashed, which enabled her to encase her opponents in crystals, create a long stream of sharp crystals to bind and pierce a target, create crystal dragons for either travels or battles, and create long, sharp crystals that shoot at the target at extremely high speeds.

Medical Ninjutsu
After defecting from Konoha and joining Orochimaru, Sawaii learned from Kabuto Yakushi how to perform medical ninjutsu, and was quickly able to become a very talented medical-nin, being able to prepare and counter different types of poison and obtaining a vast knowledge about its effectiveness. After returning to Konoha, Sawaii's skills with medical ninjutsu further improved after she began training under Tsunade an elite medical-nin, and later training under her good friend Sakura Haruno. Sawaii used her medical ninjutsu to her maximum effort, and reached her peak during the Fourth Great Shinobi World War, where she managed to save and heal many injured shinobi both outside of battle and during the battlefield. Although she was still below Sakura's level of medical ability, Sawaii was acknowledged as one of the best medical-nin around Konoha.

Intelligence
Sawaii was initially not a bright student, as she was very weak academically and was not interested in studying while in the Academy and usually skipped class along with the "dead last" of the class Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akimichi and Kiba Inuzuka to play around the village. After defecting from the village and learning the truth about her parents' deaths, Sawaii became determined in becoming sharper about how the shinobi system worked and after training with Tsunade, she became incredibly intelligence about how to prepare, counter and repel various different types of poison, and became an experienced medical-nin and had vast knowledge about the human body and how to perform incredibly life-risking surgeries on her patients.

Prologue — Land of Waves
Sawaii is first seen along with the rest of her fellow students the day they were to be assigned to their teams, and watched along with the other girls Naruto Uzumaki accidentally kiss Sasuke Uchiha, and along with the other girls, they beat Naruto to a pulp for it. Sawaii was then assigned to Team 15 alongside Ren Hibiki and Seimei Izanami. She and her team later appeared in a cameo during Naruto's countless D-Rank missions.

Chūnin Exams
Sawaii and her team took part in the Chunin Exams along with the other Konoha 11. During the test, Sawaii and her team were attacked by Team Oboro after Ren got separated from them, leaving Sawaii and Seimei wide open to be attacked. Seimei tried to protect Sawaii, but was severely injured in the process. Sawaii tried to use her Crystal Release to defend herself, and despite gaining the upper hand early on, she was defeated and beaten to a pulp, before being saved by Ren. Team Oboro retreated afterwards, and Sawaii's were later seen having successfully passed through the Forest of Death with her team.

During the preliminaries, due to the lack of many contestants, Sawaii was forced to compete in a three-way fight against other two kunoichi and despite gaining the upper hand early on, Sawaii was defeated and eliminated from the exams. She later watched the finals of the exams, and was one of the few who weren't caught in the genjutsu cast by Kabuto Yakushi and alongside many other Konoha shinobi, battled against the invading shinobi from Sunagakure and Otogakure. After the death of Hiruzen, an emotional Sawaii cried during his funeral, and paid her respects for him by leaving him a bouquet of flowers.

Sasuke Recovery Mission
Sawaii eventually learned about Sasuke's decision in leaving Konoha after eavesdropping the conversation between Sasuke and Sakura. Wanting revenge for Orochimaru murdering her beloved grandfather, she decided to join him in leaving Konoha. Before leaving, Sawaii was seen walking around the village with Ren, but Ren noticed Sawaii being way too quiet, and asked if something was bothering her. Ren became shocked when Sawaii said she wanted revenge on Orochimaru for killing her grandfather, and would exact her revenge no matter the cost. Ren became incredibly disappointed with Sawaii, saying he didn't recognized her, and couldn't be around her anymore, and walked away while a saddened Sawaii looked on.

Later that night, Sawaii met Sasuke after his meeting with Sakura just outside the gate of the village. Initially, her reasons weren't able to convince Sasuke. He pushes her out of the way, and she confronts him and tells Sasuke she has her own reasons for joining Orochimaru and wouldn't allow him to leave unless he allowed her to join him, and Sasuke reluctantly allows her to join him. The next day, Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, was informed about Sasuke's defection, although there was no mention of Sawaii joining him, and sent Naruto, Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka and Neji Hyūga after them. By the time Naruto had finally caught up to Sasuke at the Valley of the End, Sawaii was nowhere to be seen, and it was later revealed she had went ahead of Sasuke, and therefore wasn't present during his fight with Naruto. She was later encountered by Ren, who had followed her and told her to not join Orochimaru. Sawaii, however, stated she couldn't and begged Ren to leave her and began walking off. Ren, however, stated if she wanted to get to Orochimaru's, she would have to go through him first. Sawaii reluctantly encased him inside one of her crystals. Realizing Ren would escape eventually, Sawaii was forced to launch a crystal dragon towards Ren to knock him out unconscious. Sawaii looked at the unconscious Ren for a moment, before whispering her apology, and heading off to Orochimaru's location. Sawaii's defection was informed to Tsunade after the fight by Naruto, who was told about it from Sasuke during their fight, and Tsunade then branded Sawaii as a missing-nin.

Interlude
During the three-year timeskip, Sawaii's abilities had increase drastically from training with Orochimaru and Sasuke, while also learning how to perform medical ninjutsu and also learned how to perform chakra scalpel from Kabuto. She, along with Sasuke, kept going from hideout to hideout with Orochimaru, and became to get frustrated with the constant moving, but was stopped from outbursting by Kabuto, who warned her Orochimaru wouldn't show her mercy if she went against him, and despite growing frustrated, she remained in silence.

Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission
While resting in yet another of Orochimaru's hideouts, Sawaii was alerted by the intruding Naruto Uzumaki, who had been sent on a mission to retrieve information on Orochimaru, but managed to hide her presence while Naruto kept cheking on every room in the hideout while looking for Sasuke. Seeing Naruto's determination in wanting to save his friend made Sawaii remember her childhood, playing alongside Naruto and the others, and living with her surrogate grandfather, and began having regrets of defecting from Konoha. Subsequently during Naruto and Sasuke's encounter, Sawaii prevented Sasuke from killing Yamato by binding him with her crystals, which shocked Naruto and the others as they didn't expected to encounter Sawaii, although Sasuke easily broke free from her technique. Declaring herself a proud shinobi of Konoha, Sawaii declared the end of her association with Orochimaru and Sasuke and told him he would help Naruto bring him back to the village.

As Sasuke was prepared to kill them all with his Kirin, he was stopped by Orochimaru, who told Sasuke they needed Konoha to destroy the Akatsuki for them, before abandoning the hideout and escaping once again. As Naruto began to cry over his failure in saving Sasuke, Sawaii apologised to Naruto and Sakura for defecting Konoha and accepted her imprisonment, although Sakura told her it was alright and they forgave her because she realized her mistakes, and they all returned to Konoha. When they reported the mission to Tsunade, she was highly suspicious of Sawaii's sudden change of heart, and despite protests from both Naruto and Sakura, Sawaii was locked in prison for some time in order to be investigated, which Sawaii also thought it was proper due to her actions, but was soon freed after Tsunade confirmed her story and was welcomed back to Konoha and was no longer branded as a missing-nin.

Invasion of Pain
After Pain destroyed Konoha while looking to capture Naruto, Sawaii and Sakura are saved from death by Katsuyu, who managed to protect them from the blast. With the crater caused by Pain's assault, and Konoha completed oblirated, Sawaii and Sakura look around in disbelief and begin losing hope until Naruto suddenly returns after having mastered senjutsu. Sawaii, Sakura and the rest of Konoha could only watch as Naruto battled all Six Paths of Pain by himself, and later became extremely worried as Naruto entered his Six-Tailed State and began losing control of his own mind. Sawaii and Sakura are later seen healing Hinata Hyuga after she had saved Naruto from Pain, but was struck down as a result and was severely injured, but they were able to save her life, and later watches as all those who died during the assault being brought back to life by Pain after being redeemed by Naruto, and later celebrates Naruto's victory along with the rest of Konoha.

Past Arc: The Locus of Konoha
In the anime, Sawaii, Naruto, Sakura and Ino are sent in Jofuku Forest to deliver a message to Furofuki. On the way there, they were petrified because an old lady from the village's inn said that the place was haunted. Naruto managed to take a sample of Jofuku flower for Rock Lee's recovery. They also fought a deity representing Gaara, but Naruto managed to defeat him. They arrived at Furofuki's house and completed their mission.

Five Kage Summit
Sawaii is seen along with the rest of the Konoha 11 discussing Sasuke's recent invasion of the and his status as a international criminal, and agree that he is beyond salvation and are determined to eliminate him to prevent a war with Kumogakure. She later is along with her friends talking to Naruto about their decision, and, along with the rest of the Konoha 11, was shocked to hear that Naruto had battled Sasuke after the summit and wanted to know his strategy against him, but Naruto only told them to believe in him before walking away and leaving them confused and worried.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Confrontation
Sawaii participated in the against the Akatsuki, and was assigned to the, along with several other medical-nin to aid in healing their comrades in battle. In the anime, Sawaii battled against the reincarnated Sound Four along with Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji, until the Sound Four trap the members of the Sasuke Recovery Team inside a powerful space-time ninjutsu. After having Ino connect her with Shikamaru, Sawaii helped Shikamaru plan an escape by amplifying the Sound Four's hatred for them, attracting Naruto to their location and allowing him to release the Recovery Team, and defeat the Sound Four once and for all. She was later seen running alongside the rest of the Allied Shinobi Forces to Naruto, Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy's location, where they were fighting Tobi.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax
Sawaii and her friends later arrive at Naruto's location and help him fight off Obito Uchiha and Madara Uchiha, and using her Crystal Release, help bind the Ten-Tails by using her crystals to encasing the Ten-Tails' legs before having the rest of the Allied Shinobi Forces bind it under cement, although the beast was later able to easily break free.

Birth of the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki
After Obito became the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki, Sawaii managed to protect herself from Obito's attacks by encasing herself inside one of her crystals and unsuccessfully trying to attack Obito with her crystal needles. Sawaii, along with the other Konoha 11, assist Naruto in removing the Tailed Beasts from Obito. Despite Obito being defeated, the Allied Shinobi Forces still had problems with another Zetsu overwhelming them, and Sawaii was standing by Tsunade, Sakura and Shizune as Gaara brought a barely alive Naruto, who had the Nine-Tails extracted from him by Madara, and along with Sakura, helped heal Naruto on their way to the Fourth Hokage. When they finally arrived at Minato and Kakashi's location, Sawaii watched in fear as Madara, who became the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki, arrived. Being prepared to die protecting her friends, Sawaii attacked Madara with her Crystal Release, but was easily sent miles away by Madara, while her friends looked on shocked. Sawaii survived the impact and began healing herself, before being stopped by Shikamaru from returning to Madara's location and silently cursed herself for being useless in helping her friends. Sawaii then began aiding Shikamaru and the rest of the Alliance in battling Tobi, and watched in shock as multiple meteors were dropped at Madara's location and assumed something terrible was happening there. Sawaii, along with the rest of the world, was later trapped inside the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki Strikes
In her dream, Sawaii became the Sixth Hokage and watched as the entire village, her friends and her still-alive grandfather watched on proud of her accomplishments and she celebrated her ceremony. Naruto and Sasuke eventually release the Infinite Tsukuyomi, freeing Sawaii and the rest of the world and thus ending the Fourth Shinobi World War.

The Last: Naruto the Movie
Two years after the war, Sawaii was seen alongside Sakura teasing Hinata about her feelings for Naruto and encouraged her into giving him the gift she was making for him. She, along with the rest of the world, later celebrated after hearing the worldwide announcement of the moon's crisis being averted along with many other villagers. She was later seen attending Naruto and Hinata's wedding, where she was holding hands with Ren, implying they were already on a romantic relationship.

Sakura Hiden: Thoughts of Love, Riding Upon a Spring Breeze
Sawaii appears as Sakura's close friend and assistant. She, Ino and Sakura opened a clinic within the Konoha Hospital that would assess and treat children's mental health. Later, she invites Sakura out to a tea with her, but Sakura declines because she has paperwork she wants to do. Sawaii is later seen at the end of the novel, where she accompanies Sakura to Sunagakure to meet with Suna's medical-nin, while telling Ino to go and have lunch with Sai instead of joining them.

Konoha Hiden: The Perfect Day for a Wedding
Sawaii is seen walking around Konoha looking for a gift to give Naruto and Hinata for their wedding, and after panicking for not being able to think about anything good to give them, she becomes inspired to make a sweater for both of them, with the logos of their respective clans on the front, and thinks to herself that her gift would be the best out of all the other guests and runs back home to prepare them.

Epilogue
Several years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sawaii and Ren's feelings for each other increases and they eventually get married. Sawaii is seen alongside Hinata and her daughter, Himawari Uzumaki, placing flowers on Neji's grave, and is also later seen watching Boruto Uzumaki defacing the Hokage's faces on the Hokage Rock and along with her brother, Konohamaru, scolds Boruto for doing so.

Boruto: Naruto the Movie
Sawaii is seen sitting alongside Sakura, Ino and Temari during the finals of the Chunin Exams, and helps save the civillians from Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki and Kinshiki Ōtsutsuki's invasion. In the aftermath of the attack, Sawaii helps healing many injured people while informing Sakura of more patients arriving. Sawaii is later present when Sasuke and Boruto Uzumaki depart for Momoshiki's Planet to save Naruto and watch on proud as Boruto reminds them all of Naruto when he was younger.

Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie
Sawaii is first seen battling with her friends battling several Zetsu clones disguised as deceased Akatsuki members. After the battle, Sawaii notices Naruto alone while their friends were being congratulated by their parerns, and approaches him, and the two began walking together around the village and the two bond over the fact they never had the chance to meet their parents.

Later on, when Naruto and Sakura are transported to an caused by Madara's genjutsu, a different version of Sawaii is present. The alternate world Sawaii was introverted and incredibly sensitive. She would cry easily over something so bad or even so good. Unlike the Sawaii that Naruto and Sakura knew, she was more careful than playful and daring. Unlike the real world's Ren and Sawaii, the alternate versions of Ren and Sawaii couldn't stand one another, always bickering with each other and shouting that they hated each other.

Trivia

 * Sawaii's surname, "Hitomi", can mean "pupil" (瞳).
 * Sawaii's name is derived from the Japanese actress Miyuu Sawai.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Sawaii's hobbies include eating, teasing others and training.
 * Sawaii's favorite foods are ramen, onigiri, and takoyaki. Her least favorites are vegetables.
 * Sawaii has completed 50 official missions in total: 15 D-rank, 12 C-rank, 10 B-rank, 9 A-rank and 4 S-rank.

Quotes

 * (To herself) "I do not lose! I want to be strong!"
 * (To herself after her grandfather's death) "Why does everyone I love leave me?"
 * (To Ren) "I'm sorry... but I simply cannot stay put. I need to leave. I hope you'll forgive me one day..."
 * (To herself about Naruto) "Naruto! I will be strong. I won't let you fight alone anymore. Wait for me!"