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Yes, Naruto KNOWS and ACCEPTED Sakura's feelings. That's why I don't understand why some NaruSaku-ers ignore that. It can be debated but come on you know it's true. Naruto: Sakura-chan likes Sasuke very much!
or was it "Sakura-chan, you really like Sasuke huh?" *SMILE* .....-.-
Yes well when he smiled it was fake. He often does that when he doesnt want people to know that he's sad. Poor Naru-kun!!!
-ahem- Anyway yes he DID acceppt/know her feelings and that's what makes it so bittersweet. He gets torn because he thinks that she still loves Sasuke and he doesn't want to fall in love with her. The only problem is that he does love her and he can't deny it.
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Psh.. PLEASE. There were NO hints of NaruSaku in part 1. Just the fact that Naruto liked Sakura. There were points where Sakura ACKNOWLEDGED Naruto, but it wasn't freaken love! Hello, end of part one... To Sasuke: "I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!"
Okay either you aren't reading the same manga or you're to caught up in SasuSaku to see. There were quite a few hints about NaruSaku. But yes she didn't LOVE him int part 1 but she liked him. And that friendship is another reason why they're good for each other. And about that Sakura yelling that: Well for one she is
TWELVE When a person is twelve they dont LOVE someone, they LIKE someone. Kids just often mistake like for love. It happens.
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I dont think he said "thank you" out of love. I think that Sakura's speech to him LEFT him speechless. He probably wasn't sure what to say. So instead of totally rejecting her, he left her with a word of gratitude.
Speechless?! SPEECHLESS?! God how dense are you? Yes it was out of gratitude but not the way you think. (I think I 've said this like 5 times already) "Thank you" meant Thank you for loving me when I treated you like c**p. (etc cuz I'm too lazy to write the rest.) Still he wasn't speechless.
Wow I love this thread! So much debating!
Ah and guess what I found? An essay. A SasuSaku essay:
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Sasuke/Sakura is without doubt the most despised pairing in the Naruto fandom, great part of said fandom also share a visceral hate for either Sasuke or Sakura or both; this ship manifest is also a defense of them separadtely and as a couple, for I´m really quite tired of all the bashing going around two of my favourite characters. Of course it doesn´t help that the fan base of this ship are 12-year-olds, so I´ll try to give voice to the more mature, saner part of the fandom.
Given the big fandom that Naruto is I didn´t stop to explain the main plot and characters; I´ve supossed that anyone reading a ship manifest has certain degree of knowledge of the series. Re-reading the character introductions I´ve realized that they wouldn´t make much sense for anyone completely ignorant of the story, but well, sorry about that, there wasn´t just space to explain more.
Shakespearean Tragic Hero: Sasuke Uchiha
Our first impression of Sasuke, as everything in the Naruto world, is through the main character´s eyes. He comes off as the best student in the ninja school, the most popular guy among girls and an altogether seemingly perfect figure. This vision of Sasuke has the potential of making the character a know-it-all, pretosterous, smug. But, thought he truly is a bit cold and arrogant at times, Sasuke is none of that. We soon feel that he is not the average Popular Guy whom the hero resents. And he is not the hero´s nemesis that later becomes his best friend. Everything in Naruto is a little more complicated that all that.
Sasuke is a loner, we learn soon. For all of his popularity he seems to have few if not no friends at all, he despises the attention he gets from girls and from fellow students, and he is not interesed in pursuing Naruto´s idea of them being rivals. Sasuke mainly wants to be left alone.
During the turning point conversation with Sakura in which he tells her she is a bother for thinking Naruto lives better without parents Sasuke betrays his façade of coolness a bit and lets us see how he understands and symphatizes with Naruto´s solitude, sharing his yearn for a family. The difference is that whereas Naruto seeks people to put away his loneliness Sasuke avoids human touch; he longs for company yet he refuses it when it´s offered. This is one of the principal traits of Sasuke, which we could label in existencialism terms as "the pain of just being"; the boy is contradictory in his need of love and his unwillingness to accept it.
When he is assigned to Team 7 with Sakura and Naruto in it Sasuke sees them as a bother: one of his stupid fangirls and a loud, good-for-nothing brat that claims to be his rival. He is not thrilled by the whole idea, understably (who wouldn´t wince at being teamed up with Naruto at first, even if the boy proves worthy later on?). Their new teacher, unorthodox and laid-back Hatake Kakashi doesn´t make a good first impression on him, either. It´s strange how Sasuke, despite being the best student in his years, has a deep disrespect for all forms of authority, and the only positive relationship with those comes in the form of Kakashi, whom Sasuke will truly admire and care for as he begins to know him.
From the first glance we suspect there is something wrong with Sasuke, something lurking underneath. We see it in his sad eyes, in his proud face, in the utter uninterest he shows for everything and everyone. When Kakashi asks Team 7 what are their dreams for the future Sasuke comes up with an unexpected answer: his ambition (he doesn´t call it "dream", we are later to know that Sasuke´s dreams will always remain in the past) is to kill a man.
Sasuke´s story unfolds throught the manga in various glimpses and two devastating flashbacks and we learn how, when he was a little boy, six year old, his older brother Itachi killed each and every member of his family, the Uchiha, but him. His family was one of the most powerful and respected of Konoha and Sasuke has a bloodline limit, special ninja ability in the form of the sharingan, a scaringly powerful eye technique. Sasuke has thus become obssessed with the idea of revenge and how Itachi chose him to be his avenger; Sasuke´s only objective in life is killing Itachi.
Itachi Uchiha is one the strongest ninja portrayed in the manga and the only way for Sasuke to catch up is to become stronger and stronger each day, fight and survive, living through hatred only. But something changes inside Sasuke since he is in Team 7. Even Orochimaru remarks how he has softened and he is beginning to forget his goal. Sakura and Naruto were beginning to bring to the surface the best things in him, things Sasuke didn´t know he has or always considered a weakness: his natural goodness (he is the first one who gives Naruto food when Kakashi has said it went against the rules, a little gesture that says a lot about Sasuke as a person, capable of sympathizing with those he doesn´t like), his sacrifice (during the Wave Country arc he was willing to die any second for Naruto, defending him from Haku) and his kindness (remember his subtle and encouraging words to Sakura before the Chuunin exam, when he knew she needed them most, complimenting her for her talent for seeing through illusory techniques).
Of course, Sasuke is no fool and he sees this change in himself, too, and at a certain point he even welcomes it, for during his confrontation with Gaara he openly admits that he cares for Naruto and Sakura and that he won´t let them die in front of him. This is a great step from the isolated, ice-cold boy he has been all these years.
But all this progress goes to hell when Itachi comes back to Konoha and Sasuke sees for himself how the rift of power and strength between Itachi and him; his brother reduces Sasuke without sweating, saying that Sasuke doesn´t hate enough. And Sasuke has always, until recently, equaled power and hate, and he retreats to this belief once more after Itachi´s apparition. The impact of his brother´s visit mixes with the discovery of Naruto´s growth as a ninja, a power that almost equals his. Sasuke feels like he hasn´t made any progress at all, that he is further now to killing Itachi than he was when he graduated from the Academy.
In this troubled state of mind Sasuke makes a difficult and polemic decision; Orochimaru´s promise of power seems like the only way out and Sasuke leaves for the Sound Village to train under the Sannin´s guideance (or so Sasuke thinks, Orochimaru has other plans). Because he doesn´t want nobody to be caught up in his tragedy he leaves in silence, preventing Sakura (in the single most heartbreaking scene of the whole manga) from telling anybody. Unluckily a small group of ninja (Naruto among them) follow him to try to take him back (ignoring Sasuke´s desires, by the way, he didn´t ask anybody to save him), with almost tragic consequences.
Sasuke and Naruto´s final confrontation marks Sasuke´s departure for darkness and ironically, at the same time, a glimpse of hope Kishimoto offers; through a flashback we learn that one way for Sasuke to achieve more power (though developing a new state of the sharingan) would be killing his best friend. Sasuke, cold as we have never seen him, and murderous intent in his eyes turns to Naruto and tells him that he has become someone very important, his best friend. But in the end, though he is able, he decides not to kill Naruto (he declares he won´t be his brother´s puppet anymore), leaving him just wounded and uncouncious. This choice, for me, tells us that no matter what happens Sasuke will not walk a path of damnation (despite similarities between the Sannins and Team 7, he will not become a new Orochimaru) but one of redemption.
The last we see of Sasuke is his walking into the dark woods, leaving his friendships, his childhood behind. The new part of the manga (set two years after Sasuke´s departure) has not yet featured Sasuke but we know that Kishimoto is just delaying his apparition because of the great expectation about it. After all, for many of us, Sasuke´s tragedy makes the most interesting of Naruto´s plotlines (and for some of us it´s even the main reason for reading the manga).
Kishimoto´s thesis has always been that what makes people strong is not hate but love (this is beautifully explicited in the character of Gaara, and his complete change) and this is the lesson Sasuke will someday remember and that will be the beauty of his story.
Lovelorn: Sakura Haruno
What I love most about Sakura (and I never imagined that she´d become one of my favourite characters) is that she has always made a point that loving Sasuke is her choice (even ardent anti-shippers have concede this). It might have all began with a childhood crush (or not so simple as a childhood crush, see Twinbells´ pondering of this) or hero worshipping but she really fell in love with Sasuke later, when she came to know him well. Kishimoto makes a very beautiful and subtle comparsion between her friend Ino (also self-proclaimed in love with Sasuke) and Sakura: Ino doesn´t know Sasuke at all so her first impression of him, her shallow crush remains whereas Sakura sees Sasuke as he really is, she knows his weakness, his darkest places and loves him because of that (see rhoddlet´s comment or kittu9´s fic).
This growth and her progressive appreciation of Naruto as a friend despite his faults makes for a truly remarkable character development. There are many who defend the simplistic view that because she hasn´t learned new jutsus or become a killing machine (until recently, at least, she is now scaringly powerful) there hasn´t been any character development but for me she has embarked on a exciting journey: a journey of self-discovery (her strength in the forest during the second chunnin exam, protecting Sasuke and Naruto), of self-afirmation (her fight with Ino) and how she walks a whole new path under Tsunade´s guidance.
When we meet Sakura she is obssessed with getting the highest marks (in Sakura underlays a need to please everyone always that I connect with her lack of self-confidence, thus her will to be the best) and getting Sasuke.
But I fell in love with Sakura during the Wave Country arc, when I realized that she was much more than meet the eye and that Kishimoto-sensei had a keen eye for teenage emotions. There is a defining moment for the character in which (though she doesn´t voice it in the way Naruto does but they came to the same conclusions) Sakura decides that she´ll, too, find her own way of the ninja. And it´s because of Sasuke. Sakura believed him to have died from Haku´s needle hits and, amidst the battle, she runs to him, to his body, to mourn it. She remembers studying in the Academy how a ninja must never show emotions and then she cries on Sasuke´s chest, erasing all that ninja rules with her simple gesture.
From then on Sakura tries to reconcile her natural feelings with her tasks as a ninja, but never blindly accepting the heartless shinobi code but rather searching for a way of becoming stronger while remaining human.
Sakura goes from the kid that let her hair grow long for a boy she had a crush on to the girl who cut her hair with a kunai to protect those she loved. She, who has a loving family, couldn´t understand at first the terrible kind of loneliness Sasuke and Naruto have been through, but little by little, her contact with the two boys (whom, each in a different fashion, express their longing for a home, for love and acceptance) makes her grow and change into a more considerate person (I particulary like the warmth and kindness she shows towards Lee, though she knows she can´t return his affection) and she realizes that the worst solitude is being without the one she loves, as she tells Sasuke, she´ll be devastated by his absence, no matter how many friends and family support her.
(I have to add here that Kishimoto has always make loneliness, its different kinds, a theme of the series: we can see it specially when Naruto tries to convince Sasuke that he knows exactly his pain because he, too, has been alone all his life, and Sasuke argues that Naruto never had anything to start with whereas he had a family, love, dreams, everything and that he lost it in a moment and nothing can compare to that pain)
When she sees Sasuke leaving and begs him to take her with him we understand her commitment is complete: she is willing to give up the life she has, an easy life full of friends and family and love, to stay with the man she loves, no matter how dark is the path he chooses to walk (she declares that she´d even help to avenge the Uchiha tragedy). This is how serious are the sacrifices she´ll do for Sasuke.
One of the things that had been hinted from the beginning and that fandom is just starting to apreciate now is Sakura´s potential as a ninja; in just a couple of years training with Hokage Tsunade she has made impressive progress and is now a reliable medic ninja, and, as Kakashi commmented once, she has it in her to surpass Tsunade in power.
Many might have thought that in the current saga of the manga, as it´s been years since Sasuke´s dissapeared, Sakura has got over it. But no. Sakura´s obstination in taking Sasuke back and helping him fight his inner demons is ardorous as ever. Sakura herself proves as much when she thinks about Itachi in terms of the man "who has hurt Sasuke-kun" and the resolve in her face speaks volumes about her refusal to give up on Sasuke.
The most vivid picture of Sakura, the one I will always carry, is that of a girl quietly peeling apples by Sasuke´s bedside, not knowing exactly how to make it better for him, and trying the best she can to help him heal, even with something as seemingly unimportant as peeling fruit perfectly. This contrast I love in Sakura: her manners may be childlish still, but her love is passionate and mature as of an adult.
A chance to bloom (Sasuke/Sakura)
Truth to be told I never thought I would become such an extreme Sasuke/Sakura supporter; at first sight the pairing seemed just the kind I´m not usually attracted to, it seemed too clear, too easy, too clichéd. But I was dead wrong about it all.
I´m a firm and passionate SasuSaku shipper; but that doesn´t mean I kid myself. I don´t defend that, as of today, Sasuke is madly in love with Sakura. What I see is rather the bright, beautiful possibility that he might love her someday. Sasuke is too scarred, and his life is too full of Itachi to have room for anything else. He has to heal first, and in that healing process I think Sakura will have a very important part. Sasuke´s long winter will end someday and Sakura would be waiting in the warmth of the next spring.
Even if Sasuke is not exactly in love (but rather with the chance for loving inside him) with Sakura is undenialable that Sasuke cares deeply for her, beyond the bonds of companionship between teammates, he cares for her more than for anyone in the world, expect maybe Naruto. But Sasuke makes concessions to Sakura that he doesn´t allow anybody else. He has what he´d considered a dangerous weakness towards Sakura. He tends to talk too much (well, too much for him, anyway) around her: after all she is the first one he speaks to about Itachi, very early on (volume 2) and with a phrase ("I was crying then") that reveals his vulnerability (Sasuke seems to let only Sakura see him at his weakest).
It´s really meaningful the way Sakura seems to affect Sasuke in unexpected ways. In their confrontation with Orochimaru, just before Sasuke was given the seal by the Sannin, it was Sakura´s objections what woke him up. He was paralized by fear, desperatedly seeking a way out of the fight, trying to keep everybody alive and it was only when Sakura called him a coward that he reacted and came back to his senses.
For me one of the turning points that made me an obssessive Sasuke/Sakura fan ocurred just before the preliminary fights, in the chuunin exam. Sakura wants Sasuke to quit the exam, seeing how he is obviously in pain and weakened from Orochimaru´s curse seal. But he can´t quit. He has to achieve his goal, become stronger. Sakura raises her hand to let her seniors know about Sasuke´s state but he stops her, grabbing her arm. He tells her that he won´t allow anybody to come between him and his ambition, not even her. It´s the not even her that won me over for the shipper cause (though I was sold much earlier I think, with Sakura´s speech in the Wave Country arc), because Sasuke lets on, unknowingly, how important Sakura has become in his life.
I´ve always thought that Sasuke keeps a safe distance from Sakura because he is aware of the great danger he is in of falling in love, if he gets too close, and love is a luxury he cannot afford.
And when Sasuke's cursed seal awakes for the first time in the forest it's Sakura the only one able to stop his brutal and heartless behaviour (he breaks Zaku's arm even while the enemy was pleading compassion) and hugging him Sakura returns Sasuke to his normal self, and the curse seal retreats. Very meaningful, considering that when Sasuke woke up in the forest and saw Sakura wounded he demanded to know "who has done this to you?" and this is what prompts him to attack the Sound gennins mercilessly, fuelled by the new power brought by Orochimaru's seal; a power that tranforms him, and Sakura watches horrified, realizing "this is not Sasuke-kun" and he alone manages to bring the real Sasuke back.
I never expected to ship Sasuke and Sakura but they have reduced me to a puddle of fannish squeeing, jumping at any small chance of having a shippy moment from them. I´ve angsted all throught their scenes together and tasted the joy of their happiest moments; I´ve shivered every time they touched, so I´m glad Sakura has this tendency to touch Sasuke every chance she gets (who can blame her?) and Sasuke has a tendency to let himself be touched by Sakura as he lets nobody else. We see it when Sakura learns he is alive even after the fight with Haku and she desperatedly embraces him: Sasuke protests (she is hurting him) but does not stop her, and when a mirror scene happens much later in the manga, when Tsunade heals a wounded Sasuke (right after Itach uses his unbelievable power on him) and Sakura once more hugs him and cries, this time Sasuke does not even protest, he quietly lets her hold him, if that´s what she needs he is not going to refuse.
This hospital (it´s a rule in any and each fandom: the shippiest moments happen in hospitals) scene is also remarkable because Naruto finally gives up on his childish illusion that he likes Sakura. We see his face and how it quickly and finally sinks in the realization: Sakura´s feelings for Sasuke are not a fleeting infatuation, Naruto cannot fight against it. When Sakura, after the pivotal chapter 181 and Sasuke´s departure, begs Naruto to take Sasuke back, to promise it, Naruto tenderly comments that she "really like Sasuke-kun" there is no bitterness in the remark, he has become a SasuSaku shipper just as us. Welcome, Naruto.
Sasuke´s fight with Gaara goes from a matter of self-assertion and pride (the using of the chidori is a brilliant, joyful moment in Sasuke´s life) to matter of life or death, of protecting the ones he loves. When Sasuke tells Naruto that he would be able to hold Gaara back for a little while and that Naruto in exchange has to "save Sakura no matter what" he is telling a lot about what his priorities are. Compare this with the boy who declared that there were many things he disliked and none he liked specially, whose only feelings were of hate and bitterness. Of course Itachi´s later appearance will crush all this progress and Sasuke will have to seek his answers far from Konoha, far from the people he has come so close to loving.
But before leaving Sasuke gives us one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the history of manga.
Sakura: I know all about your past Sasuke. Even if you get revenge though, it won´t bring anyone happiness, not even you, Sasuke. Nor me.
Sasuke: I already know. I´m different from you all. I can´t be following the same path as you, guys... Up until now we´ve done everything as a group. But there is something else I must do. Deep inside my heart I´ve already decided on revenge. For that reason only do I live. I´ll never be like you or Naruto.
Sakura: Do you really want to go back to being alone? You told me how painful it was to be alone! Right now, I know your pain! I may have friends and family but... if you were to leave...to me...to me I would just be as alone as you.
Sasuke: From now out...we all begin new paths.
Sakura: I love you with all my heart! If you were to stay with me there would be no regrets. Because everyday we´d do something fun and we´d be happy... I swear! I would do anything for you! So please, just stay with me. I´ll even help you with your revenge. I don´t know what I could do but I´ll try my best to do something. So please...stay with me. Or take me with you if you can´t stay here.
Sasuke: You really are annoying.
Sakura: Don´t leave! If you do I´ll scream.
Sasuke: Sakura... thank you.
I couldn´t help myself, I had to include that whole part from chapter 181. It broke my heart when I read it, it broke my heart when I heard in the voice of Sasuke´s very gifted seiyuu (voice actor) Sugiyama Noriaki, and it breaks my heart as I type it down now. I challenge every person that says that Sasuke/Sakura is "uninteresting" or "without justification" to read this exchange and defend that position with the same conviction.
For Sasuke saying "thank you" is about the most meaningful phrase he can utter, like saying "I love you" for many people, the hardest thing to say. Just a few sentences before Sasuke has declared his rejection of the kind of life he was leading with Naruto and Sakura but right now he is thanking her for the time and memories they have shared, he is thanking Sakura for the love she has given him, a love he has never wanted to return but that has helped him through the hard days, and he lets her know how much he appreciates it deep down, Sasuke decides that she has the right to know that.
This scenes have the main reasons why I like the pairing: Sasuke´s darkness, his fight against his own feelings, Sakura´s stubborness, how deeply wounded Sasuke is and how Sakura could be the one to heal him.
Their love might not be a reality but rather a promise; like the first, shy flowers to bloom are a promise of spring, of how the cold will always pass.
Debates anyone?
This topic is locked
not by much...comical crush? partly...develop Hinata/Neji story? yep...hmm...
