Welcome to Gaia! ::

Did the title scare you? It wasn't meant to, but it does deal with this post! I need an opinion, sicne this is for my Part 2 SasuSaku essay. I need to be sure this isn't too far fetched, but a few people really liked the idea, so I decided to pass it by you guys too.

In Chapter 308, Naruto and Sai are already injured. Sasuke's basically standing there looking like a pimp, and Sakura decides to fight him. We see her go racing, and then THREE PANELS of Sasuke's eyes and he ponders why she's doing this. the first thing that caught my eye was that his expression was soft. It didn't seem mean, and then, in the first panel with his eyes, we see a speech bubble with ".........". He was thinking. He was planning something.



We see his eyes change and he brandishes his sword. Yamato gets scared and jumps in the way. Then you see three panels of the ANGLE of Sasuke's sword. It's going UPWARD, and yet his arm is still in the same position-- the sword never changed it's angel, even when it went into Yamato's shoulders. It went HIGH into his shoulder.





I looked at this and wondered "Why did Kishimoto show us three panels of Sasuke with his sword going upward?". There had to be a reason. And then I noticed that he hit high in Yamato's shoulder. I stopped for a minute.

Isn't Yamato TALLER than Sakura? Sasuke didn't change his position at all, he just put the attack into Yamato. He didn't cahnge at all.

So, I went and found another manga page and drew a straight line from Yamato's injury to Sakura. And look at the difference!



Sasuke would have missed Sakura by 6 or more inches, at least, considering his sword was going at an upward angle.

So what does this mean?

I think he was CREATING AN OPENING. He couldnt' very well just let her attack him-- he had to do something; but he also hesitated to attack her, which he didn't do with Naruto or Sai. He waited. He had to THINK about it first. And then when you look at it, he was makign an opening-- a way for her to miss the attack, to attack the sword, or to get a hit on on him.

This is supported because Sasuke made no move to go after her once he had Yamato down. He didn't go after her once after that-- and only went after her on defense. After he hand Yamato down, even though Sakura was still a potential threat, he decided to talk to Kyubbi in Naruto's head instead. That alwasy confused me. Why let someone go when they may hurt you?

Sasuke didn't want to fight Sakura-- I dont' think it's because he thought she was weak. I don't think it's becuse he was in shock that she went after him. I dont' think he was overlooking her. I think it's because he just DIDN'T WANT TO HURT HER.

Also, the above statement was at least given REASONABLE PROOF in Chapter 342. We see a page of Sasuke surrounded by a bunch of fallen shinobi. He asks if this is it, and Orochimaru's response is:

"You're still too soft, you didn't kill any of them."

Sasuke's response "They aren't who I want to kill."

I feel this gives the entire theory from above even more credit. Think about it. He's not killing those he doesn't want to kill-- the person we know he, for sure, wants to kill is Itachi. Naruto's gotten away twice (and Sasuke even tired to talk him out of it, askign why he was following him instead of training so he can become Hokage). Sasuke's goal isn't to 'destory his bonds'. It's to kill Itachi.

The fact that he said this gives me even more of an impression that Orochimaru doesn't have a very good hold over Sasuke. We've already seen that he doesn't call Orochimaru with sama on the end of his name. We also know that he feels soem sort of superiority over him (the "You're late. You said you were going to teach me a jutsu today." comment). He doesn't seem to feel too attached/frightened of Orochimaru, nor does he seem to respect him the way that Sakura respects Tsunade or Naruto respects Jiraiya.

Anyway, this gives me the feeling that he 'pretends' to 'destory bonds' and try to 'kill' his friends, but I don't think Sasuke has any real intention to do so.


Any thoughts?

Oh my.. This is good! biggrin Sasu-chan can't come out and say he doesn't want to hurt Sakura, so he shows by his actions. Actions speak louder then words!

SOO. I read Ch 309 and 310 as well and I've come up with conclusions/hunches..
- The nine tailed fox said that Sasuke would regret killing Naruto... I have a hunch that if Naruto is killed, the fox would be set free.. But then again, I'm not sure since when that other person with a tailed demon got killed it didn't show her demon come out...
- When Sasuke says that he'd give his life again and again to kill his brother, he looked serious, but sad as well.. To me, it shows that he's not really selfish but he just wants to kill his brother to avenge his whole family.. It's his purpose in life..
-Also, when Orochimaru stopped him from using "that technique", Sasuke was like "Let go" and I think his attitude towards Orochimaru is hate... I believe that Sasuke hates Orochimaru and he's only being his vessel to avenge his clan but he hates the fact that he's being evil in order to do it... yet he puts asides his true feelings in order to kill Itachi and keep his promise!!! Ah. Am I looking too into it?? Maybe I'm just saying nonsense....?? sweatdrop

Hmm...He does kind of looked "confused".

When I first read the chapter I was kind of sad since he was about to attack Sakura, but now when I think of it, your theory does kind of make sense. Sakura was about to attack him and he could have charged at her, but it looked like he hesitated a bit.

Some NaruSaku fans say that it would become NaruSaku because Sakura's beloved Sasuke didn't hesitate to attack her. That's kind of mean, but as of now I don't think there are really any Canon pairings.

And as much as I love Hana-chan, I actually have to DISAGREE with you. I dont' think Sakura was just a speck in Sasuke's life-- and it's not just my SasuSaku fangirl speaking. To be honest. they had more bond development in Part 1 than Naruto and Sasuke-- Naruto and Sasuke's development was set through rivalry, not really friendship. Sasuke and Sakura's relationship was built through experiences, protecting one another, and emotional ties. I know it sounds stupid, btu it's true.

The reason Sasuke and Naruto had a bond was because of Naruto naming Sasuke his rival. Sasuke thought he had somtehing over Naruto, until Naruto got stronger. Then he wanted to beat him. It was a never ending battle for both of them to be better than the other. Although they were friends and they did care about each other, the underlying tone was that they were rivals, plain and simple.

As for Sasuke and Sakura, the relationship was different. He didnt' feel the need to be rivals with her, even though he knew and admitted she was better than him at things (asking Naruto what Sakura told him about the chakra control to climb the trees, and him saying to her that she had the best analytical and genjutstu skills in the squad). Sasuke didn't make this relationship into a rivalry, and neither did Sakura. She just wanted to keep up, not overcome. Sasuke, for his part, was constantly PROTECTING her. Constantly, and I don't think it was because he thought she was weak. He was protecting her and worrying about her from the Bell Training onward. He never had a chance to SEE her fight. Sasuke doesn't know how she fights. He's never seen her do it.

NEVER.

Which is why it's stupid for him to think she's weak when he has no evidence to base it on. He's seen her AFTER a fight and seen her take all her courage and jump in the way of an attack for his sake that was coming from someone even NARUTO didn't want to fight (and Sasuke knew could kill him), but that's the extent he's seen her power. He's never actually witness Sakura fighting.

And being that he's from sound and a missing nin, I would think he could assume that she must have grown. Tsunade wouldn't send genin after a missing nin in Orochimaru's lair-- which means she had to have grown (as well as Naruto). He probably also knew that Yamato and Sai were both ANBU (since Orochimaru had the ANBU files). The fact that she and Naruto were teamed up with ANBU would have been enough to show that they had grown and gone up in ranks-- and considering that Sakura's already projected to surpass Tsunade (and Naruto's already surpassing a HOKAGE), I think she is capable of being higher than Chuunin right now as it is, and I think that would have been safe to assume.

The Hokage, even TSUNADE, would not have sent the two people who are closest to the target on a mission if they weren't at least PHYISCALLY prepared for it, and I don't think Sasuke is stupid enough to overlook that fact, just egoticistical enough to think he's better.

But the whole point is, I dont' think he thought she was still weak, and he DID hesitate, no matter how you look at it. The fact alone that Sakura is willign to attack him should tell him that she has reason to think she CAN hurt him and would be able to defeat him. Also remember she has already seen the power of the curse seal alone and she saw how he defeated boy Sai and Naruto at that point. She saw and understood his power-- and the Sakura he knew wouldn't have been brave enough to try herself. That in and of itself should have made him realize she was different from before-- after seeing such blantant examples of his power, she STILL felt she could defeat him and STILL came after him. Sasuke, who had no problem beating the crap out of Naruto (who he supposedly has a way better relationship with and a way deeper, stronger bond with), but he still hesitated when it came to Sakura.

That's why I dont' think he was like "Oh, it's not worth it. She's too weak." He knows she's smart enough not to get invovled where she'll be no help. He also knows she smart enough to know her limits-- because he admitted that she IS smart (analytical skills), and she was complimented by Kakashi as such (when he was listing the strenghts of his team by person). It's not a hidden fact, and he knows that.

That's why I think he hesitated. If he found it so easy to hurt Naruto, who didn't even try to fight back (remember this), why would it be so hard to do the same to Sakura (especially after seeing how she could easily surprise and pin an ANBU member to a wall by his neck)?


And, just to add to this, I found the confirmed spoilers for the new chapter. If you don't want ot know, don't read but it PROVES what I said before.

場面変わる
*Scene change

「ガッ」地面に刀を刺す音
*GAAAA as a blade is stabbed into the ground

サスケ「これで全部か?」サスケの周りには十数人の忍びが倒れている
Sasuke: Is that all of them? *Around Sasuke there are at least a dozen fallen ninja.

(「いてェー」「あ・・」「う~」と地面に伏したまま呻いている。)
*All the ninja are moaning in pain on the ground.

大蛇丸「全員にとどめはさしてないわね　まだまだ甘い」
Orochimaru: You haven’t finished them all off. You’re still too soft.

サスケ「殺したい奴は他にいる」サスケのアップで終わり
Sasuke: I have other people to kill. *The chapter ends with Sasuke.

And why:

Becuase, think about it. Orochimaru said "You haven't finished them off. You're still too soft."

Sasuke doesn't want to kill people he doesn't have too-- the people he NEEDS to kill, in his mind, are Naruto and Itachi (mostly Itachi). He's not goign to kill those he doesn't want to.

Hahaha XD I think my posts are so long because I'm so used to debating with NaruSakuers, so I've learned to look at details and draw them out with explination XD

That is a good *applauds* and it clears out some of my [wonderment] of why Sasuke would attack Sakura. Yes the opening does make sense. I always though Sasuke would never hurt Sakura like that, forget killing her >__> It doesn't make sense why he would injure Sakura like that. And yeah, like you guys said I don't think Sasuke would be able to bring himself to hurting Sakura like that. Their relationship, Sasuke/Naruto and Sasuke/Sakura, are very different. For once Sasuke is not afraid to hurt Naruto. He's a boy/man, just like Sasuke, and portrays the potential of a big threat to Sasuke's goal of defeating Itachi. Sakura, on the other hand, isn't much of a threat, I believe so, to Sasuke at least.

I don't think Sasuke thinks Sakura is weak though. Maybe her fight skills were not as high, but weak is definitely not what he would truly think of her. Weak in physical strengths, to him, maybe. ninja