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OK, lets get one thing straight, and since we have nice people here I'll be more relaxed. But its like this, just because Naruto, would say choose Sasuke. Doesn't mean Sakura would. Look didn't the man just try to kill them both in the last Arc.

Sasuke is and has been a character that doesn't want anyone. He's hellbent on his mission to kill his brother by any means necessary. He if he does even in the slightest love anyone besides himself, he wouldn't let those feelings get in the way of his mission. Killing his brother is the only thing he wants to do with his life.

I know what you're gonna say. "hey in the begining, he mentioned killing his brother and restarting his clan." And my reply to that is simple. That statement was made by a young naive Sasuke. Yeah, he'd naturally want to restart his clan because he'd be the last after Itachi was killed. That was when he thought his task was rather simple get stronger, be the best and then kill Itachi.

That was before the thorough beating he took, from Itachi, when they both were searching for Naruto. Sasuke realized that, his goal wasn't simple. He'd have to get his hands dirty, he'd have to be colder, merciless, to achieve what he wanted. Even if it meant abandoning his clan's village and becoming an enemy.

The moment Sasuke left Konoha, was the moment that the naive innocent Sasuke died. Regardless of what happens, he's not gonna be able to go back. And most likely he'll end up dying while trying to kill Itachi. Its not to say that in the very last moments of his life he might redeem himself, let on that Sakura and Naruto's friend isn't truly dead. But things can't go back to the way they were in the begining of the series.

Besides, Sakura's feelings have changed anyway.

Hasn't anyone noticed that since the begining of part 2, that Sakura isn't the same girl we left at the end of part 1. She's smart, more attractive *^^*, and more sure of her self worth then ever before. And her view of Naruto has changed dramatically too. Of course she knows he'll forever be an idiot and sometimes a pervert. But she's realized how much of a struggle his life has been, when she found out that Naruto has been housing Kyuubi all this time. She's looked at how the people of Konoha have treated him all this time and the fact he's still willing to smile and laugh it all off. That alone has impacted her view of him.

And frankly I'd say that puts Naruto about even now in Sakura's heart with Sasuke. That's why the girl constantly saying she wants to protect them both, be stronger so she can fight for them instead of the other way around.

Now, the situation that was stated, when everyone assumed that Naruto would be ok regardless, that's sad. Because Naruto's been ok, all his life. If anything that boy needs to be happy. Happy or die saving everyone, which I think I see Sasuke doing later on.

All right, I am very lazy about typing things out, so I'm going to copy and paste tonight. Anyway, here are some of my thoughts and theories on Sakura's character:

Now, I’ve heard some people claim that Sakura is meant for Naruto because he would have given her the exact compliment she was looking for (about her forehead). This is a good thought, but mine goes in a different direction. I think the last thing Sakura needs is someone to simply compliment her – this does not push her to become strong. Nor does this help her to resolve her actual issue with her self-confidence, which we later see was present from way back in her childhood. Basically, a compliment doesn’t get to the root of a problem this deep, and it only works while someone is still there to compliment her, but fades in absence (otherwise it wouldn't still be an issue, I would imagine). I feel that this is a problem that can’t be solved with simple compliments, that it is a safe claim to make as we’ve now seen twice her self-confidence plummet, particularly the second instance (right before the chuunin exams and in chapter 297 even after she’s grown so strong and useful a fighter that she should have no trouble realizing it had she not a deep-rooted issue). These are the only times she exposes it. The rest of the time, she’s probably hiding her true feelings (of insecurity?), as pointed out by Ino when they were kids.

I also guess this to be the reason why Sakura developed her crush on Sasuke in the first place. It wasn’t because he was the most popular and the boy who all girls had a crush on – as proven by her surprise at her friends’ guess of who it was. Rather, I think because he was always the top student in the class, she might have felt that if she could get his attention, if she could impress him somehow, that then she could finally feel confident in herself. Of course I don’t believe this to be a solution, just what I think her thought process might have been.

The Chuunin exam arc is where we finally see some major development of Sakura’s character. It reveals her backstory (which I already discussed partially), shows her decision to become strong for others, and shows resolution of her need to prove herself strong compared to Ino – a need I feel to improve her own issues of self-confidence, as well as for Ino to show that befriending her hadn’t amounted to nothing. Again, though, she looks to a concrete accomplishment (defeating Ino in battle) to measure herself. However, instead of this solving her issues of self-confidence, she sets a new measuring stick of helping others. This later truly becomes a source of strength for her, definitely, but also something concrete that she can measure failures by. She still has yet to embrace that it’s not what you accomplish that determines your worth.

This is also the first where Sakura shows her insecurities. I think she feels them often, but hides them, as Ino had commented that she hides her true feelings. Now, some think Sasuke was just plain being mean when he told Sakura that she was lower than Naruto. Keep in mind, though, that this takes place right after the Wave Arc where a similar insult worked really well with Naruto. I think part of it might have been trying to motivate her to be stronger. Perhaps because the words came from the person she was measuring herself against, or maybe because she had seen how she hadn’t actually helped at all in the Wave Arc (and we see how she uses her accomplishments to measure her worth), but instead of motivating her, it only brought out her insecurities. However, Sasuke takes notice of her reaction/mood (his thoughts show that he notices her behavior is off), and this time tries a compliment. But it’s not just a simple compliment, but one that brings to her attention something she is good at – intelligence. This, I feel is more effective because it addresses her insecurities in the very manner that she does herself: accomplishment. And instead of just telling her that she’s talented, he gets her to admit her own ability. (I’d also like to point out that Kishi made a panel of Sasuke smiling after he says that, and then one of Sakura taking notice of it - just helps show the intentionality of it I think). Naruto is seemingly oblivious to this exchange as well as the reason for it, but I still love him!

Now, I wrote all of the above before I had ever seen anything of the databooks. I was actually surprised when a lot of what I had proposed could be found in Sakura's entry in the databook 2. The following is what I wrote on the subject then after having read her entry, along with a little extra on the events transpiring at the end of Part 2:

I keep hearing reasons of how Naruto is better for Sakura because he encourages her all the time whereas Sasuke only did it once, and also criticizes her - I think I can do the same thing, only while using the databook to back me up. Before I read the databook, I said how Sasuke is actually what Sakura needs because she needs someone to not just shower her with compliments - she tends to hide her real feelings, so compliments aren't going to hit the root of her problem - she needs to face reality, and have someone be realistic with her to help her do that (yes, criticism can be a good thing). And here's what it says in the databook (all courtesy of Inquisitive's translation):


QUOTE
Only after Sasuke, on whom she had always leaned on, leaves does she begin to face her true self.
(Pic of Sakura leaning on door) "Gone..."



It wasn't until she had to face reality of the situation and herself that she was able to find her own strength internally to make the decision to train under Tsunade. We saw a little bit of this in the FoD when she took the first step then. Naruto's compliments/encouragement would never have motivated her to do this - he can't help her with this problem, especially since he's oblivious to it. Whereas Sasuke was at least aware of it and intentionally helped - and it did boost her confidence because he got her to admit herself her own ability to see through genjutsu. While Naruto did help during the Ino-Sakura fight, I don't think he is aware of her lack of confidence so it wasn't as specifically intentional as Sasuke's was imo.

It also mentions in the databook 2 how it pains Sakura to lose a teammate, especially when it's a person she loves (literal translation = beloved person). And then later it mentions how Naruto is someone she can truly rely on and gives her hope. I've heard it argued that Sasuke leaving gave Sakura a reason (pain) to be strong, but it was Naruto who gave her the strength to do so (horrible paraphrase, don't feel like finding it) - but the way I see it, having it that way makes team 7 more connected - this way it shows how they all need each other to not fall into the same fate as the Sannin (whereas after Dan died, Tsunade just kind of gave up). But even though Naruto gave her hope and proved someone she could rely on, he's giving her hope and stabilization to rescue Sasuke herself (and help Naruto do it) instead of not being able to do anything - and not something along the lines of realizing he's the person she could always rely on unlike Sasuke who abandoned her and caused her pain, so she's going to start falling for Naruto (imo).

And while chapter 319 isn't difinitive proof of this, it certainly doesn't hurt my case either that this is the dynamic implemented between them, and that it is still intact.

PB, I apologize if I repeat anything you've stated in your LAP (I'm going to be weird and read it after I post... instead of using it help my own post. Yes, I am insane.), but I figured I might as well get the raw details of my own support outward. This is my perception of Sakura from the beginning and to the end of her appearance and 319. Be forewarned, this may even out do PB's LAP in length, since I'm taking everything step by step.


Sakura is a very complex character with different layers-- she is also the only character with humanisitic flaws and faults, which is why I think so many people hate her-- out of all the characters in the story, I think Sakura reflects the imperfections of humans best. When we first see her, it seems like she is completely sure of herself, and that she knows what she wants out of life-- she seems to be very confident in her skills and her smarts. The first things that should have ticked to show this was a farce is her lack of friends-- if you can still consider Ino a friend, that's about all she has. She has a judgemental attitude and a fairy tale dreams. Who doesn't? I know, at 18, I still have daydreams and hopes concerning the boy I love-- no matter how farfetched my thoughts my be, they still exist. I won't lie and say I don't judge people, either-- there isn't a person on the planet who hasn't passed judgement on someone before truly getting to understand them.

Which are, ironically, the two major aspects of Sakura's character that everyone seems to hate-- the fact that she's human.

Her crush on Sasuke appears to be fueled by her rivalry with Ino-- which truly, it's her rivalry with Ino which is fueled by her crush on Sasuke (and her pride to no long walk in Ino's shadow, but by her side and eventually surpass her as a kunoichi). This is where the 'shallow crush' comes from-- although you could say the same about Naruto's crush for Sakura, considering he thinks she's a 'total babe'... stating toward appearance. He didn't understand her when he started liking her, the same as she didn't understand Sasuke.

Another aspect that seems to be hated is her 'uselessness'-- which really, think, isn't her fault. How can you blame Sakura for not fighting or for being weak when she isn't given the chance to fight? She was trained from the beginning to rely on the men in her 4-person team, whether she wanted to or not. The first chance she really had to be included in battle-- when the Demon brothers appeared-- she had her kunai and stance ready to attack, when Sasuke ran in front of her. After this, we discovered that she was the best with chakra control on her team-- what she already knew took Sasuke and Naruto days to achieve. When the battle on bridge began to take place, Kakashi didn't want her out of his sight-- he trusted Sasuke to fight Haku on his own (which then ended up with him trapped inside Haku's bloodline limit), and then decided that Naruto had a better chance with Haku (who had already basically defeated Sasuke) than Sakura would have if she tried to hold of Zabuza. Which, in and of itself, makes some sense-- but at the same time, hindered Sakura was from fighting at all during the battle. She ended up standing off to the side doing the nothing the entire time.

Obviously, she was taught through these actions to stay in the background, which I think probably contributed quite a bit to her next character flaw- low self esteem. Although she seems to be pretty confident, we found out she doubts herself quite a bit (one of her reasons being she does the least on all the missions, although, as I pointed out, it wasn't her fault), and that she knows she's not as great as she makes herself out to seem. Although she has acknowledged this fact, ironically, the only person to notices her down in the dumps mood is Sasuke-- Naruto doesn't realize it in the slightest. So with a confidence boost and compliment from Sasuke, she gets the courage to enter the Chuunin exams out of her own free will.

During the Chuunin exam, we find out just how smart she is with the written exam. Sasuke doesn't know any answers-- it's Sakura, and the rest of the Chuunin disguised as Genin who know the answers. Of course, she doesn't realize she's mentally on par with ninja who are in the rank she is attempting to obtain-- but it is a small tidbit of information for us to tuck away.

Now, we see a very different side of her as the final question comes into play during the written exam-- selflessness. After hearing that a failure on the final question will strip everyone of their genin title and they will never allowed to be ninja, Sakura deals with an inner battle concerning Naruto's dream of becoming Hokage. She wants him to reach his goal, and is willing to sacrifice her face in front of her team and the rest of the people at the exam to be sure he gets that chance. Of course, this is also a good example of how she doesn't understand Naruto's character-- he is far too determined to win to give up there.

Once we get to the forest of death is when things start to change drastically. In the beginning she doesn't do much fighting, but at the same time, she wasn't being attacked either-- expect for when Orochimaru paralyzed her with his vision of death. After that, she actually manages to save both herself and Sasuke by fighting against him to let his hand off her mouth to alert him to the snake he was ignoring in his fear.

This is when we first see determination in Sakura, and her willingness to protect and save her teammates. She throws a kunai to pin Naruto to a tree and keep him from plummeting to the forest floor-- which, obviously, takes precise aim, timing and coordination-- if she had just thrown that kunai haphazardly, she would have injured Naruto-- and I'm positive that feat is not something that could have been done by any 'so-so' ninja. The fact that the kunai was embedded deep enough and hard enough to withstand Naruto's weight should give you an idea of how hard she threw the knife.

Although we don't see exactly how Sakura gets Naruto and Sasuke out of the forest canopy, I believe it is safe to say there was quite a bit of work involved on her part. First off, she needed to get Sasuke and Naruto out of the forest canopy-- unpin Naruto from the tree, and then carry both of their unconscious bodies down. After that, she had to scout out a safe place to hide out for the night-- obviously somewhere near a river, since she had wet rags to place on Sasuke's head over his fever. She also took the time to arrange some traps for added protection-- all without the help of anyone else. They're important shinobi skills that shouldn't be overlooked. It was at this point that Sakura was the most desperate out of the entire series-- she had two unconcious people on her hands, and since they always protected her, she wasn't sure what to do. It was now up to her to find shelter, a safe place to hide, set up a defense, make sure they were near water and had the ability to escape if needed, and then take the time to keep a close eye on both boys and then have the mental capacity to be able to fight should the need arise. There was a lot of growth for Sakura in this scene-- and she actually adjusted to the role pretty fast and aptly for someone who was always protected and sheltered from the reality of being a shinobi by her teammates.

That was the first step to her growth.

When the Sound ninjas attacked, Sakura was left with yet another person to protect-- Lee. With three injured shinobi as her responsibility to protect from 3 ninjas who were, without a doubt, far more capable of fighthing that she was, I'm surprised she actually found the courage to grab her kunai and cut herself off from one of the things we learned she cared about the most-- her hair, and her appearance. At that moment, she stopped being selfish. She stopped being superficial. She stopped being obsessive over Sasuke in an insincere fashion-- because the whole reason she'd grown her hair out was for him. This was when she truly bloomed into a kunoichi-- because she learned to sacrifice in order to protect those who were important to her. After this, although she was no where near capable of defeating any of these Sound nin, she fought. She kept trying, and she allowed herself to be injured, beat, and hurt in order to keep them from hurting the people she was protecting. This was a HUGE step forward for her character in every since of her personality and development-- many things changed in her life at that moment.

Another point to say with this scene is her change in opinion of Lee. Originally, she had a very biased vision of him due to, yes, a very superficial opinion of 'good guys'. She immediately disliked him because of his appearance-- but after watching him fight to protect her, Sakura gained respect for Lee-- and eventually ends up protecting him from criticism from Naruto. This is another piece of proof that she lost the superficial facade and started accepting people for the qualities they held and not the outward appearance. This is later further proven by her buying flowers for Lee when she visited him or stopped by his room in the hospital-- where as, she would probably not have thought twice about visiting him or watching to see that he was getting better.

It's during her fight with Ino that we see her final transition-- we learn that her crush on Sasuke had not started out as a 'fad', because she didn't know anyone else had a crush on him, nor that Ino did. We see the stupid decision she made to become rivals with Ino over Sasuke, and how it evolved from Sasuke to having the ability to surpass her and become a true kunoichi-- to surpass someone she looked up to and had pulled her strength from. She was surpassing the first person who ever protected her and helped her. She made a bold stand by saying she was not going to fight over Sasuke, and that she wanted it to be a fair, all out fight. Seeing that she tied with Ino and had the ability to nullify Ino's main attack proved that she had developed, grown and was at par/better than Ino at that point. It is also the start of their friendship returning-- the minute Ino told her she couldn't believe she had tied with Sakura and then handed her back her headband was when both girls began to see each other in a new light and began to regain the friendship both thought was lost (yet they both held dear and close in their hearts).

There isn't much development for Sakura between the prelimanary and final Chuunin exam-- but during the final exam, we see how she's grown concerned for both Naruto and Sasuke. She realizes the danger of the curse seal, dispite Kakashi's promise that it was alright. We also discover another one of Sakura's strenghts-- Genjutsu. Considering she was able to notice the danger coming and release the jutsu while the rest of the crowd, sparring Jounin, ANBU and Shikamaru, were bound in the spell, we saw that she had a keen eye for genjutsu attacks. This is also the first time Kakashi trusts her with a mission-- A ranked mission-- of finding Sasuke and bringing him back. She gathered Naruto and Shikamaru, and they were sent out on a mission that probably would have killed them had it not been for Pakkun and his nose. With Sound nin all around, Gaara's Shukaku form unfolding, and Temari and Kankuro on the lose, it was definently not the safest mission.

This is where we see the defining point of Sakura's feelings for Sasuke, in my personal opinion. If her feelings for Sasuke were truly false, then she wouldn't have jumped in the way of Gaara's attack. Naruto wanted them to run because he was scared; Sasuke had already been injured and was incapable of battle. She knew both of them were stronger than her; where as she would have normally sat to the side and looked on in horror, she jumped in the way, kunai poised for attack with a large scowl on her face-- there was no fear in her eyes, only determination and anger. Had she not had genuine feelings for Sasuke, she would have stayed off to the side or just screamed for him to move. But she didn't. She took the brunt of the attack, obviously knowing there wasn't much that she could do.

This is also the turning point of her offical opinion of Naruto. When Sasuke tells her it was Naruto who saved her, she looks toward Naruto with appreciation-- obviously accepting the fact that he had grown, and being thankful he hadn't given up during the battle with Gaara. There is a new found respect for someone she had stated originally as detesting-- again, a new step out of 'superficial'.

Our next scene involves the hospital-- where we see her buying flowers and bringing them daily to Sasuke's room. This isn't obsession-- and even Tsunade does not precieve it as much. I think the comment on the flowers being picked on different days and that meaning Sakura had been there every day was to show her loyalty and concern for Sasuke outside of the 'superifical crush' everyone seems to believe she had. She spent hours with Sasuke, no doubt wondering if he'd live and trying to figure out ways to help him out. Her gratitude to Tsunade for coming to help and then her tears upon Sasuke's awakening show deeply rooted emotions of all sorts in her character, and somehow makes me feel as if she's matured emotionally and mentally by this scene.

Nothing too character-changing happens again until Sasuke's depature. She ends up doing something for Sasuke's own good and breaking a promise to him to tell Naruto about the curse seal-- something he hadn't been aware of, even after seeing Sasuke covered with the marks during the Gaara fight, and it's appearance during the Chuunin preliminary matches. Then, with a better understanding of Sasuke that she's gained through being his team member (and again, something Naruto didn't realize), she goes to the street Sasuke will have to take to leave the village, and intercepts him there (with the arguement of Sasuke being closer to Naruto and he and Naruto understanding each other better, the fact that Sakura knew he was going to leave and Naurto didn't kind of blows this out of the water-- only Sakura realized that Sasuke was leaving), and starts talking to him. She admits that she knows Sasuke isn't too fond of her and gives her reason why (which he denies), and then she starts telling him about the things Team 7 did, tells him that she loves him. He tells her she's annoying with a smirk, and it is after he starts to walk away that her desperation falls into play with the threat to scream out loud.

When she wakes up and is alone on the bench, she ends up begging Naruto to bring Sasuke back after Shikamaru says he can't bring her on the mission because her part was already done and (quote:"Even you couldn't stop him.", which I felt was a foreshadowing of the mission's failure). Here she is completely relying on Naruto, and acknowledging his power outright-- showing her respect for someone she had stated before as 'hating'. It's obvious here that she doesn't hate him, but also that he is the only person she has left now-- and his importance shines through in that.

After the failed mission, we see her cover up her feelings and come in to visit Naruto. Again, he doesn't realize she's upset-- he's angry with himself-- but her cherriness ends up rubbing off on him. It is after this we see just how much she had been paying attention to Tsunade's strength and how her determination has affected her-- she requests to become the pupil of the Hokage, despite being told of how harsh the training would be and how she had a great probability of failure. She took the task, and instead focuses her energy and heart into training with one goal: Become stronger to bring back Sasuke.

We have the lovely two year gap here, and then we see the new Sakura that has developed throughout the years. Obviously she's matured and has learned to respect people-- she still treats Naruto roughly and hits him quite often, but holds a great deal of respect for him. During bell training, we see just how strong she has become-- much to the shock of Naruto and Kakashi. She is capable of working together with Naruto, where as before she would argue with him. All signs of maturing mentally, teamwork-wise and physically.

It is during the Rescue Gaara arc that we see Kakashi and Naruto finally putting some trust into her skills and allowing her to do things on her own (after she proves her medic abilities by creating an antidote to the poison infecting Kankuro) when Kakashi allows her to fight Sasori with the help of Chiyo. Some will say that Chiyo held the strings, but the tactical aspects and the fighting were all done by Sakura. She was the one who was willing to get hurt-- she let herself get poisoned in order to get in for a better attack, she let herself get stabbed in order to protect Chiyo. When poisonous gas was her enemy, she let an explosive tag go off near her to push the fumes away and release her from Sasori's trap-- which, obviously, would have caused a great deal of injury to her body. But she let it happen, with the determination that this was her battle-- this was her chance to prove that she could do something, and that she could win. This was her chance to take a step forward in finding Sasuke and protecting Naruto from the Akatsuki.

To this point, Sasori is the only Akatsuki member to be killed-- by Sakura, who was supposedly the weakest character at the beginning of the manga. To give you an idea of just how great of a feat this was-- Kakashi and Naruto chased after Deidara, who admitted that Sasori was stronger than he was. They didn't have the capabilities to defeat Deidara-- who is still alive and in active duty. But Sakura was able to defeat someone stronger than Deidara. This should show just how much she has developed.

After this we have the meeting with Orochimaru's spy-- and we see her fall back into her old background character position. She ends up getting the courage to stop Naruto in his Kyuubi form (because she said "We will save Sasuke-kun together!"), and she ends up getting injured and then healing the injuries of the Kyuubi's chakra that were obtained by Naruto. She is able to lie to Naruto and make him believe he didn't cause the injury on her arm-- not letting him know he had hurt her (which, is actually pretty amazing. Jiraiya said he was close to death twice in his life-- when he was peeeping and got the s**t beat out of him by Tsunade, and when Naruto went into the 4-tailed Kyuubi form). It takes Yamato telling Naruto the truth for him to realize she was lying-- again showing how much he doesn't understand her.

Another growth point for Sakura is the fact that she was willing to fight Sasuke. Instead of breaking down into tears as soon as she sees him, she realizes she needs to use her own strength to defeat him. When he leaves, we hear her words of "Crying isn't going to help.". She cries too, but that's a major point in her mental development-- she's learned that crying doesn't fix things, but sometimes you need to cry.

After this we don't see much for Sakura when it comes to development-- other than her ability to pick herself back up and immediately go back to looking up things that will help them on their next try to go after Sasuke-- the pills. Then we have chapter 319, which supported my suspicions that Sakura is definently not over Sasuke's departure (she's crying over the loss of Team 7/Sasuke, however you wish to precieve it, it's still Sasuke. There is not Team 7 without him), and shows that she's learned to cover up her emotions almost to a tee.

This took me about 4 hours to type up XD Hope it helps.

I'm still siding with PB on this one (but your interpretation made me stop and think!!). This is just because Naruto knew Sakura had been worried about Sasuke-- he made the announcement when he brought Tsuande into the room, "Dont' worry Sakura-chan, I brought someone good!"

Also, it's kind of hard to ignore the fact Sakura was crying you could hear it in her voice when she jumped onto Sasuke to hug him. Naruto had to of heard her crying before he started his comment-- as she was quite loud-- and simply took her tears and tears of relief, which they were. He didn't change his look until after opening his eyes in mid sentence, saw Sasuke (not Sakura's face/her tears). Then he stopped, smiled lightly, and left the room, taking Tsunade, Shizune and Tonton with him.

Sakura's crying was loud enough that if Naruto's facial expression changed for that reason, it would have switched before he said anything-- because she was crying before he said anything.

When I view the image of Naruto's smile in the manga, it doesn't appear as sad as his smile in the anime did. It almost looks like a 'It's about time' or a proud smile. At least that's what it looks like to me. It looked sad in the anime though

Except that he could see/hear Sakura crying before he started talking, and THEN he stopped in the middle of it. And the cause I don't think is the panel before, but it is revealed in the panel after for dramatic effect - we are held in momentary suspense at why Naruto suddenly stopped (and it was kept hidden prior because we saw Sasuke from behind in the prior shot of them); it was already know to both us and Naruto that Sakura was crying and hugging Sasuke before then.

Actually... it was Sasuke who inspired her to become a better ninja, not Naruto.

And if we have to get really techinical, her change started the moment Lee came to the rescue in the forest of death. After his fight, she decided that she couldn't hold back. She needed to protect her friends, and she needed to fight too. She couldn't always be protected.

That was the first step in her changing into a better ninja.

The second part that made Sakura's mind up to become a better ninja was after Sasuke left. When he left, she was lost and didn't know what to do. She knew she wanted him back. After Neji, Naruto, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Kiba returned, she realized she would have to try harder and become a stronger ninja herself before they would stand a chance at bringing Sasuke back.

So with that in mind, she asked Tsunade to teach her. She went back and told Naruto that "Next time, we'll go after Sasuke-kun together.".

Thus, she became stronger because of Sasuke.

I wouldn't say that one situation is worse than the other - I think the severity of perception depends on the person's personality. For example, I personally could take growing up alone better than I could grow up happily with a family and have it taken away by the person I looked up to most. But other people are different and may feel the opposite and that growing up in isolation and with animosity is the worse of the two. What we do know, though, is how things turned out, and we also know that in the case of Naruto - (as you also mentioned) he said himself that he could have ended up like Gaara if not for finally receiving that acknowledgement and love.

The difference between the two situation, however, would still be that Naruto would have a general hatred where Sasuke has a very specific goal and person - so everything is dumped into that one person. As long as that one person still exists, then the person who caused the pain still exists. For Naruto, having some people acknowledge removes that pain because it's a general one - that's the solution to his problem; it's not the same with Sasuke because he has something specific to avenge, so creating bonds isn't a solution to that, but it can be a distraction (and keep in mind that in the ninja world, avenging one's clan is most likely normal and acceptable, and Itachi is an S-class criminal and so killing him is in line with Konoha's justice system - it is his means he is willing to go through that's the conflict, which includes abandoning Konoha). And I think it was that one person showing back up that had the most negative impact and reversed all the progress he had been making in accepting new bonds into his life along side his revenge, and even putting those precious people above his revenge by being willing to die for them and losing the chance to ever fulfill his revenge. And then I already posted about the other factors that all came into play right before Sasuke's decision to leave.

Kishi is not a black and white writer - he writes characters in a way that their choices are understandable in their specific situations. It's still bad choices, but it's not so simple to say, "He messed up, he doesn't deserve X now."

I don't see how the possibility of SasuSaku is dead. Sasuke has been the forefront of Sakura and Naruto's growth and training for the past two years-- and the two of them were seperated during that time period. In a sense, that could potentially halt the NaruSaku relationship growth, just as it did Naruto and Sasuke's friendship and SasuSaku. What didn't change was their determination to retrieve Sasuke.

The first time Sasuke is mentioned after Naruto returns to Konoha, the affects of his name are taboo for Sakura and Naruto-- showing deeply rooted feelings. If I were to guess anything, I would say the feelings the two of them held for Sasuke remained the same throughout the years they trained. He was their-- in a way-- guiding light.

As for the SasuSaku relationship, most people have been bringing up Sakura's willingness to attack Sasuke, and his unhindered response to fight her as well. Sakura is determined, just like Naruto, to bring Sasuke back to Konoha-- even if this means fighting with him and attempting to beat the s**t out of him. Sasuke, obviously, isn't going to just let Sakura beat him-- he's going to defend himself and fight back as well. This scene just showed her determination-- with what I believe is fueled by her feelings for him.

The second argument is "Sasuke is too far gone for redemption". I don't believe this for some underlying reasons. Sasuke said he was going to sever his bonds, yet again, with Naruto and Sakura. He had a the chance to kill them all-- he could have killed Naruto, Sai, Yamato and Sakura, he he truly wanted to. Instead, all he did was injure them and keep them from being capable of fighting with him (minus Sakura). He had the chance to mortally wound Yamato-- instead, he hit him in a non-vital area. He could have killed Naruto and Sai when they were down, but instead he chose not to.

He could have killed or harmed Sakura, but instead he conversed with the Kyuubi. The only reason he had any harmful intent was because she charged at him.

If Sasuke was truly beyond redemption, he would have killed them all-- or killed all of them and left one alive to tell of it, something along those lines. When he stated he was willing to give up his body in order to kill Itachi, it was just a repeat of things he said in Part 1. In truth, that shows no change in Sasuke's character. If he is thinking logically, which I hope he is, Sasuke will realize that just because he gives his body to Orochimaru, that does not mean he will be able to defeat Itachi.

*shrugs* This is just my opinion. Don't kill me guys.