Bail o' Lies

I was following a pairing thread on Twitter and saw several fans mocking  NaruSaku because their relationship blossomed primarily due to Sasuke's absence.

 

Despite many NaruSaku fans hating Sasuke for being an obstacle to the couple and his return definitively crushing NS's chances.

Ironically, Sasuke was the character who helped NaruSaku the most. Not Sai, Yamato or Minato's comment about Kushina.

 

it was only during his absence that Sakura and Naruto started to grow closer, with the goal of bringing him back. The Promise of a Lifetime (POAL) was made, etc.

Along with his entire transformation into a major antagonist force trying to destroy the village, including trying to kill Sakura, which gave the NaruSaku fandom hope that Sakura would eventually abandon her feelings for him and fall for Naruto.

 

However, this wasn't meant to be. Sasuke returned to help during the war, was redeemed, apologized, and Sakura jumped into his arms, effectively ending NaruSaku.

 

Here's the question:

 

In a scenario where Sasuke stayed in the village and continued to develop his bond with Sakura without events like the Uchiha clan massacre, Orochimaru's cursed seal, Itachi's mind raping , or Tobi's revelation about the village and the Uchiha massacre.

Essentially, Part 2 without the drama of saving Sasuke and his descent into Darkness.

 

Would Sakura have still developed some kind of bond with Naruto, with Sasuke closer to her like in Part 1? Or is NaruSaku entirely dependent on Sasuke's absence and actions to change Sakura's feelings?

 

SasuSaku was a very strong couple in Part 1, while NS was almost nonexistent. It was only in Part 2 that NS started to gain traction in the story and by fandom due to Sasuke's absence and crimes.

Well, here is a question you should have been asking: "Why are they mocking a pairing that lost Ten years ago or never existed for Twenty-Five Years?" The answer is the same reason as, why most people will still talk about the Star Wars Prequels but not the Sequels? The Golden Era of Naruto was when NS was the official pairing is the one people still care about while the nH/SS-Boruto era that has came since is of lower forgettable quality.

NS chances were crushed because outside the story people were convincing Kishimoto to switch the Heroine to Hinata because they thought Sakura was too unpopular. Sasuke had very little to do with it beyond putting Sakura somewhere once she lost her original status. Sasuke's original existence, beyond his role as Naruto's rival, was to be a wedge between NS so they didn't get together till the ending. He existed so they would bond without getting together till the end.

...Naruto and Sakura were growing closer since the moment they became team members. Do you really believe there was no development between them at all in part one?! 

Your Question: If the massacre never happened Sasuke would likely want to marry an Uchiha born girl like his Father did and Brother would.

As for any scenarios with Sasuke beyond what I posted above. Sasuke only got together with Sakura because he felt guilty about how he treated her. That only happened after Naruto beat him up. That doesn't happen. No reflection. No getting together with Sakura out of guilt.

Naruto and Sakura were always developing a bond. He went from someone she openly hated to a friend she put her faith in by the end of part one. That bond didn't just form the second after Sasuke left.

Right. Let's get to it. Before anything else lets look at how Sasuke and Sakura got together.

He had just lost his arm, reflected on what he had been doing, and admitting defeat. When Sakura appears after some pondering he apologizes to her for how he behaved. Then he leaves for his wandering to find atonement and implies to start a relationship with her.

Sasuke felt sorry for how he treated Sakura, so he got together with her to make up for it. That doesn't mean he ever fell in love with her.

What happened after they got together? Well, he kept on wandering to the point he spent 12 years going out of his way to not see his wife or daughter. After he stopped doing that, while he cares for his daughter, he never mentions his wife Sakura. Seriously, after Kodaichi left she cease to exist in the manga.

Now. Lets look at Sasuke's thought and behavior around Sakura.

The Bench scene he chewed her out for her rude comment.

Before the Chunin exam, he chewed her out for focusing on trying to get a date with him, instead of training as she had fallen behind Naruto as far as he was concern.

Him leaving the village, he makes it clear, he doesn't have feeling for her, while he did enjoy the time he spent on team 7, she is not that important to him, and he only cares about revenge and is willing to abandon everything to get it.

After leaving the village he doesn't comment often on his feelings towards Sakura. However, both times he meets her he tries to kill her and people around note he has no hesitation in his attempts.

693. Kakashi asks why Sasuke mistreats Sakura so much when she loves him. Sasuke makes it clear he doesn't love her, doesn't understand why she loves him, doesn't understand what she see in himself to make her like him, and think she is just delusional.

So Sasuke doesn't hide the fact that he doesn't like Sakura and he thinks she should stop chasing after him. He doesn't say it all the time when they are teammates because its rude, but he will say his peace if he feels prompted. Once he leaves the village, he just stops caring about Sakura seeing her as nothing more than a deranged annoyance.

So how would if Sasuke didn't leave the village go? Well, they were only on an active team for a short amount of time before Sasuke left. The time between Sasuke leaving and the end of the War arc is about 3-4 years. While that may be three to four years to bond and fall in love...That is also, three to four years for Sasuke to get tired of constantly telling her, "leave me alone, I don't like you, and I don't want to date you." Till he finally snaps and ask her why she even likes him. She tells him about the bench scene. He tells her that it was Naruto.

Also Naruto held himself back for all those years due to his promise of a life time. No promise, means he is free to try and win Sakura's love.

The difference between Naruto and Sakura in this scenario. Is that Naruto will continue course of training and growing stronger. Sakura will likely languish as while she has the desire to grow stronger, she only got the drive after seeing Naruto injured trying to fulfill his promise to her. That doesn't happen, she likely won't go to Tsunade for training and languish in mediocrity. Which will keep making her look worse in Sasuke's eyes. Making it less likely for him to grow fond of her, but more disgusted with her.

So the answer is No. NS was suppose to happened but the pairing changed at the last second. Sasuke always dislike Sakura and didn't want together with her till a mandate order them to get together. Leaving or staying wouldn't have changed anything.

I'm not sure he even realizes that they did this with naruto

You may be right and it is always good to look at all possibilities. However, I lean more towards they do know, as even if he doesn't. SP's and Naruto's reputation in Japan is that it...was The King of International Sales. The most likely reason nH/SS happened was that what they thought the international fanbase wanted, while the domestic wanted NS. Here, he is saying ignore the international and just focus on the domestic fanbase.

So what do you think most of the Japanese anime/manga community would take from that?

Of course they do, that's why this statement is both ironic and hypocritical.  It's why they keep trying to bait old fans back with NaruSaku subtext in Boruto, or even why they had Naruto insult Hinata in an episode for choosing to fight beside him over protecting their children and even dedicate an episode to illustrate that there's little to no romance in their relationship. However, they're never going to outright admit that they made a poor decision (based on their own bias as well as their misread of the western audience investment in this ship) that drastically affected the series' quality, popularity and profitability.

I guess your are talking about the anime. The manga outside of Salad becoming all but the official love interest of Bolt hasn't do really anything NS like. Sakura has not appeared at all in part two so far.

Sunk Cost Fallacy.

https://boundinginto...asingly-boring/

"‘Naruto’ And ‘Bleach’ Anime Studio President Rejects Idea That Anime Should Conform To Western Standards: “If You Make Animation With That In Mind, It Will Become Increasingly Boring”

In adding his voice to the increasing number of Japanese creatives who have found themselves unhappy with the ever-growing demands that their works be altered in order to accommodate Western sociopolitical standards, anime production studio Pierrot Co. Ltd. President and CEO Michiyuki Honma has warned that, should his respective medium change its core identity in order to attract overseas audiences, the results will “become increasingly boring”.

Honma, who during his thus-far tenure at the studio has overseen the production of such anime series as Bleach/Bleach: Thousand Year-Blood War, Naruto/Naruto: Shippuden/Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, and Kingdom, offered his thoughts on this hot topic while speaking with Japanese entertainment news outlet Comic Natalie for their anime studio-staff centric interview series, Anime Studio Chronicle.

Huh. Well to be fair they are the perfect example how trying to appeal to a Western audience backfires.

Also 30% of their earnings are oversea meaning international sales. That means 70% of Naruto-Boruto earning's are from The Domestic Japanese Market. So when we see it doing bad (below average) over there, that is most of their earnings already.

Also SP hasn't released an anime movie since Boruto. So they haven't gotten any new movies that would eclipse it like other series have. http://www.narusaku....showtopic=16678

Another issue that Ikemoto has to deal with is the unpopularity of Nail/Kawaki.

In Part One, he was one of the most powerful and competent person in the main cast, with only Madoc and Bolt being able to come close to him. Completely outstripping the rest of the cast due to the favoritism Ikemoto bestowed upon him. As well as ultimately being the focus and core of the story Ikemoto was telling.

In Part Two, he is the biggest Jobber of the entire cast, possibly the worst I have ever seen in a story, constantly losing his fights and screwing everything up. It is even implied that some of the cast besides Bolt are stronger than him, at the very least Cups. As well as, instead of being the focus of the story who is making most of the decisions; it is more the cast is working around him. So he doesn't interfere and make everything worse.

Now you could justify it in story. His decline in power is because unlike everyone else, he doesn't have a dedicated mentor to train him. So while he didn't stagnate entirely, he didn't improve as fast as the rest of the cast. For his decline in competence, it is because of the guilt and stress of blaming Bolt for Naruto's "death," trying to kill him to cover it up, and an obsession with destroying the Otsutsuki within him to justify his actions.

But It is more likely, that during the break between part one and two. They went through the data and realize Kawaki was too unpopular to have such importance in the manga. So his importance in the story has been reduced drastically. So what happened to Sakura but this time it is the actual data instead of skewed numbers to make Hinata the heroine. Oh, the irony.