Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hmmm... I think I'll try looking at the 'Gaara Fight' arc.




Here, we see Sasuke telling Naruto to save Sakura, saying that both of them are his 'cherished companions' or 'precious people', depending on the translation.

This proves that Sasuke does indeed care for Sakura, and that he's even willing to risk his life and, in turn, his chance at revenge, just to protect her (and Naruto). If he didn't care about her, he wouldn't have bothered trying to keep her safe.



Here, we see Sasuke catching Sakura before she falls, then telling Pakkun to protect her. This is further proof that he cares about her. Also, as he speaks, he stares down at Sakura with what I deem an expression of sadness or concern. I think this shows he's worried about her.


Uhhh... Yeah, that's all I can think of. ^.^; Add anything else you can think of, please!

Repost of different analysis:

I just want to point out that there were three panels showing Sasuke's sword to show Yamato coming in, and Sasuke's sword making a clean cut through his kunai. Showing just how powerful that sword (combined with electric chakra) can be.
I honestly don't believe it was to show his sword was going at an upward angle.

Not to mention, Sakura's shoulder may not have been in line with Yamato's, but her face still was.
Yamato came in beside Sakura from the right side of her. So, say Sasuke was aiming for her face (strange place to aim at someone with a sword, but I suppose it would be effective). As Yamato slide in, because of Sasuke's speed, I don't think he'd have to time to get right in front her. No, he'd still be a little to the right. Thus, Yamato's shoulder would align with Sakura's face.


I don't mean to sound anti or something, here. xD;;
I mean, I've always thought Sasuke never really meant to hurt Sakura. And after the whole "These are not the ones I want to kill", I do believe the whole reunion battle was a bluff. But, I think that theory is sort of stretching things, and is a bit farfetched.
And I don't even fully support what I said up there, because you-know, in a manga, it's hard to judge distance and angles, because you're not given the whole field.
We see Sasuke's sword at an upward angle when Yamato came in, but we didn't see it before that, when his target was still Sakura. So you never really know. Not to mention, Sharingan + Sasuke's speed means he can quickly adjust to fit a situation.


But that doesn't mean the theory doesn't have any good points. The fact that Sasuke stood there thinking, while Sakura was running toward him means something. Because if Sasuke was just going to kill them all off, he would not waste time standing around. He wouldn't care. And we know, even though Sakura was running at his from a blindspot at first, as soon as he turned his head to look at her, if he really wanted to kill her, she would've been dead that very moment.

In fact, I don't think it's really the upward angle of the sword that we should be looking at in that page. I think it's the fact that he gave her a chance to defend herself that's important.
If you look at Sasuke's style of fighting, it is not his style to just charge at his opponent (Unless he's angry and not thinking straight. An example would be his first fight with Itachi). He usually uses suprise attacks the most. So the point to look at really, is the fact that he didn't just jump on Sakura (Which makes for a really funny mental image. xD ), he came to her visibly and slowly, in a sense.

Another good observation was the facial expressions. Unfortunately, we cannot say what he was thinking while Sakura was charging at him.
But contrary to Renee's post, I think he was suprised Sakura was actually going to fight him. I don't think he expected it, especialy after the whole good-bye scene. I mean, does Sasuke even knows what Sakura has been doing all the time that he was gone?
Now, Sasuke's other expression is what I really look at in this page, because unlike the majority of expressions Sasuke makes throughout the time-skip, this one visibly shows an emotion.
Now, I'm no expert, but to me, he seems to look... dissapointed? Or perhaps, simply unsure.

Now, I'm going to pause there for a moment, and take a look back on something.

"These are not the ones I want to kill."

At this point, we see Sasuke is not a relentless killer like we were previously lead to believe. From this, I drew the conclusion that Sasuke only kills with reason.
Now, with Naruto, by taking facts directly from the manga, we can see evidence that might make Sasuke want to kill him (You're going to have to let go of the theory that Sasuke left the village to protect his friends for a moment to see this). But what did Sakura do that would make him want to kill her? Be annoying? I doubt it. Sasuke's not that immature.
So from this we can draw the conclusion that Sakura did absolutely nothing that would make Sasuke want to kill her.
So why did Sasuke try to attack her?

I think that answer lies in his expression.
He was counting on Sakura NOT to attack him, because he had no reason to hurt her. He was dissapointed(in her?), because he would have to attack a person that did nothing but love him (Now how ironic is that?).

(I might continue this later, I have to get off now)

*pimping thread*

Sasori mentions working with Orochimaru, and Sakura immediately makes the connection between him and Sasuke. This strengthens her resolve to defeat Sasori and get information about Orochimaru from him. This shows that, even when her goal is to save Gaara, she is still thinking of Sasuke and how she can bring him back. She'll take any chance she can get to learn more about Orochimaru and, in turn, Sasuke.

Kishi's interviews?

.... Right. XD Kishimoto hasn't said anythign pairing wise in interviews other than he likes the interaction between Shikamaru and Temari, and that he hopes Hinata, Sakura and Ino get their chance with romance, and that there will be at least ONE canon pairing.

That's it.