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Like has already been stated:

Hinata still has feelings for Naruto after 2.5 years.
Naruto is still crushing on Sakura after 2.5 years.

Why can't Sakura still care for Sasuke after 2.5 years? Seriously?

She's already shown us COUNTLESS times in Part 2 just how dedicated she is to him. She's threatened and beat on Sai more than once for speaking badly of him. She gets depressed when something doesn't work right in their trek to get him. She feels useless in trying to retrieve him. She is willign to give her life for small shreds of information on him. She spent 2.5 years studying and researchign anything to find ways to get to him.

As soon as they lost him the 2nd time, she started researchign ways to figure out how he got so strong.

Sakura is beyond dedicated to Sasuke still. She hasn't changed hre feelings at all-- she's become more accepting of other character (specifically Naruto), but that doesn't lay it out in a romantic context. Screen time does not equal romance. It's character development and the emotions and actions of the characters toward someone-- and the fact that she still reacts like she does to someone who's not even there right now, that speaks VOLUMES.

Sakura and Naruto have like brother/sister relationship going on.
Plus it's way obvious Sakura still has feelings for Sasuke.
I really don't think you can just stop loving someone after everything you've been threw together. Well in Sakura's case.

Sakura might not show it as much as before, but she still does have feelings for Sasuke.
They possibly couldn't be as strong as before or could they ? *ponder*

If Kishi can allow feelings to transfer over from Part I to Part II, why should Sakura's romantic feelings be the exception?


She's not WITH Naruto in that way to begin with, and if Sasuke comes back, they'd all be together in Konoha on the same team so I don't really get your reasoning that she'd be "leaving" Naruto. If Naruto's steadfast and willing to bring Sasuke back in an instant based on his love for him, why can't Sakura be the same? Sasuke hurt Sakura and Naruto BOTH by leaving, but we haven't had feedback on Sakura's part in regards to Sasuke's "thank you" to her. It was such a powerful scene that I can guarantee it will be referenced. I can totally see Sakura saying she still loves Sasuke. Not saying that she will, I'm just saying that to me it does not seem out of place or impossible. I also don't think much rebuilding is necessary if the foundation is still there for them all. We see Sasuke reminiscent of his team 7 days. That and based on the current chapter, I am REALLY eager to see Naruto and Sakura's reaction to learning that Sasuke plans to "bring peace and safety to the world." That's going to trigger that he really still is the Sasuke they know and love.


Yup. Not going to deny that. She definitely loves Naruto. But as you say, the context and how it will be cemented is still iffy.


If herself is included, it's still partially selfish though.

Nope, she's more mature, but she can still love him dearly. She just doesn't need to be quite as fangirly about it. Genuine love doesn't need that.


I believe it's not impossible, but each instance has been countered with another interpretation that goes the more platonic route.


I still don't see why she'd need to re-do her love for him. I think their relationship would need to be redefined more so if she no longer loved Sasuke romantically. And based on the recent chapters, he's seeming more and more like the old Sasuke we've known before. I'm actually noticing more and more how things from Part I are relatively the same in part II and not drastically changing, like goals and bonds. However, if this were early 300s Sasuke, I'd agree with you. But now it seems like that was all an act, and you'd better believe Sakura and Naruto are going to dissect every moment of that encounter to come to that conclusion based on what they will hear about Sasuke now wanting to save the world. It's extremely powerful that the love Naruto and Sakura both had for Sasuke in part I made them stronger and more motivated to bring him back. That they are working together doing it strengthens their bond even further too. Knowing that love never faltered all this time for their tortured teammate is so incredibly beautiful to me. Sakura no longer loving Sasuke romantically DOES equate to loving him less.


Perhaps. But he already left once. I could see Sakura not allowing his a** to leave again telling him she's strong for a reason and will support him. Also, we don't know how strongly Naruto's feelings for Sakura were in a romantic sense and I don't think Sasuke left to not be a problem for Naruto and Sakura's romance. We know Naruto grew to care for Sakura immensely, as a teammate. I haven't seen his romantic feelings go beyond anything but a crush personally.


I personally don't really see how you can be in love with someone and then one day decide "oh, you know what? All that time, I suppose I'll redefine that love and make it brother/sisterly." That just doesn't make sense to me personally. Now if she were actually WITH Sasuke these three years and their relationship evolved to that, then that's one thing. But to just change what was already established seems like bad writing and unlikely imho.


Not really. You can start out just thinking of someone as an acquaintance, then a friend, and as time passes they become important to you like family or you can fall in love with them. Most relationships I notice tend to not have the friendship part in it. Or if it is a friendship, it's the with the plan to have more later. Personally, I don't like to use real life when it comes to fiction. I mean how likely would it be for someone like Naruto to go about like he does to save Sasuke in real life after what happened? Not very. Anything can happen really and Kishi can define a relationship however he wants from whatever angle he wants.


Hinata and Naruto's relationship doesn't really have a definite establishment. Kishi still has a LOT of leeway where they are concerned and we haven't seen Hinata back and in action. Kishi's retained her feelings for a reason and I'm sure we'll see why. Naruto's crush is childish, but his love for Sakura I don't believe is built mostly on a romantic sense, so I don't see why Hinata would be an issue if he loves Sakura too. Just like I don't see why SasuSaku is an issue if Sakura's love for Naruto is more platonically based in the end.


Naruto's ultimate goal is to become Hokage. It's just that these things fall under the umbrella of that. Like in the early 300s when he told Sasuke "as if someone could become Hokage if they couldn't save a friend."


They don't do it all the time, but it's not unheard of. I've seen love declarations in plenty of animes. Then some are more subtle. It's is quite uncommon though to change someone's feelings after a major revelation of love. When it's established, they usually stick to it till the end in shounen series.


That was an order from Sasuke who pretty much wanted to sacrifice himself in the situation. He didn't want Naruto to worry about protecting him. But once Naruto actually does fight Gaara, he says something along the lines of how he will protect his precious people which INCLUDES Sasuke in the mix. That was all about team 7 imo and not moreso NaruSaku.



Don't apologize. For it seems I've now done the same. whee

Awww *glomps* sweatdrop

Kishi's already shown that Sakura definitely has strong romantic feelings of love for Sasuke though. I'm not saying that guarantees a pairing in the end or 100% establishes her feelings today, but with this series I've found it more reliable to go with what's been established until it is confirmed otherwise. Since he hasn't had Sakura say outright how it is, I'm going to assume it's the same context as it was before.

Sasuke's a great example of why I could stick to this. I wasn't going to go with the idea that he was all evil until there was no reason for doubt. Everything he did that seemed bad and was, you could find a way around it to explain. And low and behold we see that me and my fellow Sasuke fans weren't delusional and kidding ourselves. Not saying that Kishi's going this same route with SasuSaku, I'm just saying that he's presented the angle as possible. Something may seem like it's no longer or changed, but it really is still there.

That doesn't mean that I'm not preparing myself for a conflicted Sakura later down the line. For all we know, it can be confirmed that she DOES feel for both boys in a strong romantic context and may decide not to go with either. That way nobody wins NaruSaku or SasuSaku (though no NaruSaku is still win for me because I'd take no SasuSaku so long as there's no NaruSaku either). The SasuNaru in me would also be happy. However, SasuSaku keeps the bonds balanced a bit more than NaruSaku. NaruSaku as friends can be strong enough based mainly on what's happened in Part II. It would be stronger than SasuSaku as friends, IMO because while she cares for Sasuke, we haven't seen her relationship with him build as friendship all this time, part II especially. SasuNaru doesn't need to be mentioned because we know that bond would be strong (likely the strongest). However, SasuSaku romantic gives that bond a bit more strength and that way each bond is significant and strong in its own way. But now I'm rambling... xp

I've posted my thoughts on all of this in a different thread on a different forum. I don't feel like posting it here. mrgreen