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I have to disagree. Sasuke may be a curt boy, and he may be rude, but he also goes out of his way to protect Sakura quite often throughout Part 1. And even after he cuts her down ("Your skills are lower than Naruto's"), he realizes she's acting weird the next day (which Naruto does not notice) and turns around and compliments her on her strenghts ("You should have noticed first, Sakura. Your analytical skills and genjutsu know-how are the best on our team."). It's because of this comment that she stopped being so worried about the Chuunin exam-- and, sad as it is to say, Naruto was oblivious the entire time.




When was this? I don't remember that at all.




Can I ask why you think that? I'm not so sure anything romantic will be stated when they meet up again. Sakura and Naruto are trying get Sasuke back to Konoha, not aiming for anything romantic right now. It would be kind of out of place for anything romantic to be mentioned at the moment, as much as I want it to be.




Hmm... I don't know about. I think the yaoi part in that scene was simply set there to give some humor because of the dark atmosphere of the manga up to that point, and probably because of some of the things that will be coming now. That entire chapter was fanservice as it was (9 pages of naked suigetsu, the knockout girls, knockout boys, and the butt and boob shot of Karin), honestly. It seemed more for fun to me.

Sasuke has not shown any real outward preferences either way, but he has shown a lot of protectiveness for Sakura, starting from the beginning during bell training when he worries when he hears her scream, to the wave arc when he jumps in front of her to save her from the demon brothers, to the forest of death when he saves her twice, to the gaara battle when he tells Naruto to get her and run because he never wants to see someone precious to him die again, to the goodbye scene where we see him speak with her on a completley different level.

I think the biggest difference is how we interpret these scenes. The two that I take the most out of are the Forest of Death and the goodbye scene. In the forest of death, after Sasuke wakes up covered with the curse seal, a power he has never used before ("Sakura, who the hell hurt you?!"), it's HER voice and her hug and her tears that make him take control of the power. We see him struggling to control it throughout the series, so the fact that the first time he'd ever used it, and having no experience with it, she was able to make him pull the power back into the seal, makes me wonder why she could affect him so much.

After this, right before the preliminary matches, he tells her that "Not even you are going to get in my way" when she tries to tell the teachers about his bruise. Placing her on a higher level than anyone else by adding the "even you".

He does this again at the goodbye scene "Even you won't stop me." And Sakura mirrors it with "Revenge won't make anyone happy, not you nor I."

And what really surprises me is that Shikamaru mirrors this too with his "Even you couldn't stop him." remark. Shikamaru saw Sakura hug Sasuke in the forest of death, so I don't think his comment was just out there.

These are things that make me wonder if she meant more to him than he let on, and a bit of the reason why I ship the pairing.





"You know, Hinata, I like people like you!"

^A quote from Naruto right before his battle with Neji.




I'm not so sure about that. Hinata is the only person in the series Naruto has openly told his fears to-- and she has always watched him. She knew he was hated, but she liked him anyway and drew her strength from him. She believes in him where other people do not. And, right before the fight with Neji, she is the one who gives him the courage and lifts his self esteem when he tells her that he's not that great and other such things. Naruto needed to hear that, and I've never heard him speak on such a personal level with any other character, par Sasuke.




I will admit that she yells at him when he does something stupid, and that she accepts him for who he is, and loves him, but I'm not so sure about flirting. People who flirt don't call someone a dumbass when they ask for a date. Play hard to get, maybe, but not call them a dumbass or tell them to practice more ninjutsu.




I have never, ever seen Naruto call Sakura out on a fault. Ever. Could you tell me a moment that he has? I may have forgotten. Other than telling her not to involve herself with his fight with Sasuke on the roof, I don't think he's ever said something negative about her personality. He sees no wrong in her.




Hints with Hinata and Kiba? Well, he is caring, I will give it that.




I don't think Hinata or Sakura are subserviant in SasuSaku or NaruHina relationships. From a SasuSaku standpoint, Sakura does speak her mind to him quite often.

In the forest of death, it's her telling him "At least Naruto's not a coward!", which is an insult to him, that gets him to start fighting Orochimaru. It's her hug and telling him to stop that gets him to stop using the curse seal. They argue about what's best for him-- to tell about the curse mark to the teachers or not-- before the preliminaries. She knows the battle on the roof of the hospital is bad and tries to stop it.

Most importantly, she tries to stop Sasuke from leaving the village. These are some of the most un-subserviant things in the manga. She goes agaisnt him, but she doesn't have to get violent in order to get him to listen to her. She does go agaisnt him, she does speak her mind and she does think about what's best for him and her. That's why I like the relationship, it doesn't hinder her from speaking her mind at all.

As for Hinata, she may not call Naruto out on his faults, but she does accept him and can speak out of her shy shell in order to cheer him up. She also takes the iniative during the written exam to help him cheat, knowing and acknowledging that he didn't understand the point of the exam.





I'm sure you can tell I'm more of a SasuSaku shipper than a NaruHina shipper, but I do believe in both pairings. I hope I haven't annoyed you with my points.