Cheyreia Lafae

Despite the claims introduced before, on the panels we were shown their previous relationship during their childhood at no point did Ino seem to downgrade Sakura -either physically or mentally-, on the contrary, she's constantly shown trying to lift her spirits, like when she complements her looks:

Let the world see that pretty face!! Strike a pose!

At no point did Ino downgrade Sakura or put herself above; telling Sakura to show confidence doesn’t automatically put her in a higher position in their friendship.

To explain myself further: providing help when someone needs it isn’t the same as putting oneself in a morally or physically superior position. Their relationship is of equals regardless of Ino supplying emotional support. The fact that Sakura inwardly elevates Ino's relevance in their dynamic isn’t Ino’s responsibility as everything Sakura thinks of Ino is never expressed (translated, Ino isn't aware of her position inside their friendship, as she's never told her relevance). Furthermore, Ino never states that she considers herself attractive or prettier than Sakura herself, every time they speak on the matter Ino tells Sakura to be more confident as she has a "pretty face".

Him! Hah! He just struts around, acting like he’s so cool.

At no moment does Ino seem upset at Sakura for liking the same boy, in fact, she chooses to lie about how she feels for Sasuke in order not to start a conflict. This is, of course, not specified in canon, but since Ino doesn't display her feelings for Sasuke and, quite the contrary, she criticizes him, it's safe to assume she lied about her feelings.

And even if Ino is upset about Sakura liking the same boy as her, something that is neither expressed nor shown, she doesn’t act around it.

Furthermore, Sakura engages in conversations with Ino about Sasuke (Hey, Ino! Sasuke seems to like girls with long hair, so I’m going to grow mine…) and it doesn’t seem as if Ino dismisses the subject out of jealousy.

Everyone says you’re after Sasuke too, Ino…

I'm aware that some fans, specifically S//S and Saku-Ino fans, claim that Sakura assumed Ino liked Sasuke and Ino, in retaliation, started to like him back to make Sakura jealous (?), however, unlike those fans who think Ino's whole character revolves around Sakura (she is, indeed, a supporting character of her, but she outgrew her role to the point where she's barely seen with Sakura after the Chünin Exams) I do believe that Ino truly liked Sasuke and that she was indeed surprised by Sakura having equal feelings for him.

[I will here say that, personally, those who diminish Ino's feelings for Sasuke to use that "lesser" type of love (there's nothing like a "lesser" type of love, there're different ways to love someone. Caring for someone romantically doesn't reflect equally on each individual), as a justification why Sakura "deserved" Sasuke are carrying a sexist view inside their reading of the manga: Cartoon or not, Ino is still a representation of a woman yet, for them, she isn't as valuable as Sakura because she loved Sasuke in a different manner she did.

They're measuring Ino, Karin, and even Sakura's value by the way they display their respective feelings for a man.

In the same manner, Karin, who shows more sexual desire for Sasuke (I will not deny her romantical feelings, but she is clearly more driven by her sexual interest in him), is not less of a woman or less deserving of being with him because of the nature of her feelings.

There's no such thing as a "suffering-meter" that determines which character suffered the most out of love and, therefore, who deserves a happy ending with the object of their affection. That not only links love's nature primarily to suffering but also measures a person's romantic value in terms of how much pain they can endure (either for their significant other or provoked by their significant other).]

Again, Ino doesn’t act around her feelings for Sasuke (in the next flashback Ino -despite knowing Sasuke likes girls with long hair, keeps her own hair short) nor around her friend's attraction.

It was Sakura the one who decided to break their friendship because someone (unspecified) told her Ino liked Sasuke in the same way she did.

This is how we learn about their breakup:

Chapter 53

If it's true... that makes us rivals!

Keep in mind that, until then, we only knew Ino was Sakura’s rival, it's Shikamaru the one that introduces the idea of Sakura and Ino being best friends once, and we have these panels to understand a little bit more about their prior relationship.

This rumor is, in fact, truthful as they do become rivals -so why would Ino allow this break-up if she truly didn't like Sasuke? It makes absolutely no sense, meaning that this theory of Ino faking her attraction to Sasuke is completely false, as she canonically is infatuated with him. Furthermore, when confronted, she chooses not to lie about her romantic interest in him to Sakura. The expression of Ino when hearing Sakura’s words is “uh-oh!”, which means she was keeping her feelings secret from her friend.

In chapter 54, we have a sneak peek at Sakura’s development as a ninja: After Naruto and Sasuke fight Orochimaru (and pass out), and Lee sacrifices his well-being in order to save her from the Oto team, Sakura cuts her hair as to free herself from Kin’s hold. Up to this point, we know this part is significant because of what Sakura thinks before doing it, but by Ino’s reaction, there’s something far deeper going on (Hey, Ino! Sasuke seems to like girls with long hair, so I’m going to grow mine…).

Her attack against Zaku isn't successful and, after barely hurting him, she has no more energy to continue (so she bites him). And here's when we have Ino’s flashback:

Chapter 54 - The flashback continues but all have been addressed previously.

The rivalry was started solely by Sakura. There’s no denying that Ino took up on that rivalry and started to act consequentially, but she wasn’t the one initiating it.

"I noticed your hair is lot longer, Ino" "What is it to you, Sakura?!!"

Let's acknowledge something, in this specific panel, it was Sakura who started their interaction (in a hostile manner, also) because she wanted to tell Ino about her position in Team 7.

She assumed Ino grew her hair long because of Sasuke -it isn't clear when was their fallout, but it must have been years prior to their graduation, so either they didn't see each other as much (or at all) since they went their separate ways, or Ino grew her hair long shortly after the beginning of the show, so there were at least a few years after their breakup when she still has her hair short.

It's safe to assume Ino did, in fact, keep her hair long for Sasuke's sake, yet it's not confirmed she did so to appeal to him, as she keeps growing it after his departure and it's shown how most people of her clan have their hair in a ponytail style, including her father.

So Ino, you'll never beat me now.

Despite some translations stating that Sakura said “I won’t lose to you anymore” (we were shown at no point in the manga how Sakura exactly lost against Ino), the official translation states otherwise -Sakura never exactly “lost” against Ino, nor Ino against Sakura.

Sakura's statement is based on Sasuke being on the same team as her, therefore, for this fact alone, Ino will never "win". Their whole rivalry is based on Sasuke. Now that Sakura is assigned to the same team as him, she has a better chance of winning his romantic reciprocation, therefore, Sakura's prospects are better than her rival's, which makes her the sole winner.

Yet, regardless of their mutual hostility, Ino still jumps to save her former friend, which means that she still has a deep connection with Sakura. Her face when remembering their childhood was a deeply troubled one, perhaps even mournful. In addition, by this point, Sasuke is unconscious: He isn’t able to see Ino’s heroic act, something Ino is aware of yet acts as if that is the sole reason why she jumped in.

After the fight, we have these panels:

To put some context: Naruto asks Sakura who “these guys are” when seeing Shikamaru, Chöji, Lee, and Ino; and after Sakura “thanks them”, Ino thinks that she’s selling herself short. Ino is shown constantly either telling Sakura or thinking of her as someone pretty and capable yet still self-conscious, even tho Sakura would have likely died had Ino and Team 10 not intervened, as Sasuke awoke after their tactic failed. Ino and Team 10 were saved by Team Gai and Sasuke, not Sakura.

During their fight in the preliminary rounds (CH 71), Sakura is particularly cruel:

First of all, she claims control and power of decision-making over a boy who has rejected her advances twice and who's not even present at the moment (he could, and honestly would, easily deny them both of the romantical reciprocation they sought). She starts their fight by trying to downgrade both Ino’s self-esteem (physically) and status in their “rivalry” (which she claims is now non-existent, as Sakura is the "winner" by being in the same team as Sasuke) -Ino’s words are a response to Sakura’s attitude.

[Kakashi saying that Sakura isn’t mean doesn’t make it automatically true -first, Kakashi doesn’t know Sakura that well as to claim she wouldn’t bully a person just because (she often displayed such an attitude towards Naruto during their first interactions, particularly when she told Sasuke that Naruto was annoying because he was parentless, Kakashi saw and knew none of that). Second, what he knows about Ino and Sakura’s relationship is what he read on a piece of paper -he knows nothing about how they actually interacted, nothing about their “power imbalance”, and, furthermore, he does nothing about Sakura’s insecurities -he hoped that Sakura would come around when the Chünin Exams came, but the whole reason she did so was because of Sasuke’s support.]

Sakura internally acknowledges Ino’s relevance in her life (1 and 2) yet none of that is actually told to Ino -who’s left in the dark. The last impression she possesses of Sakura is about her not being good enough to maintain a friendship outside their respective crushes on the same boy. Sakura, even without them being friends, still seeks Ino’s acknowledgment -the only one who is then made to do something for their relationship is Ino.

Personal opinion: Sakura hasn’t surpassed Ino. Much less at this point in the manga.

It’s Sakura the one who makes their rivalry just about Sasuke (here), while Ino states that she will not allow her to “show her up” (thus, for her, it seems to be more than just their shared crush on a boy, even during Asuma's last speech he tells her not to allow Sakura to win in "ninjutsu and love"), Sakura solely focuses on being on the same team as Sasuke as a signal of superiority; something she did absolutely nothing to gain as it was mere luck:

The teams are to be balanced and that’s why they put the dead last (Naruto) with the Rookie of the Year (Sasuke), there’s no canonical mention of Sakura’s part in the matter. The belief that she was put there because she was the “brightest” is a fanon belief (x). Furthermore, according to the Report Cards in the First Fanbook, Ino was behind Sasuke; making her the second-best overall and the best kunoichi amongst them (x).

However, Ino, canonically speaking, would never be put on the same team as Sasuke, as she's the Yamanaka heir -her destiny was always to be with Chöji and Shikamaru.

Here

I’m not your little tag-along anymore Ino

Sakura says this in order to gain an emotional reaction -Ino is shocked by the words because she's never shown to consider Sakura to be what her former friend claims she used to be. Sakura is then painting the memories of their relationship in a negative light, downgrading it. What for Ino was a real friendship, to Sakura was a relationship of power.

[This is not a negative thing per se, Sakura needed a support system that Ino provided as she was too shy to socialize with anyone. What she's saying now is that she doesn't need Ino in order to interact with others. For Sakura is a positive thing, as she probably hated being "Ino's tag along", however, that doesn't change the negative impact that it has on Ino who never saw Sakura as a burden.]

Sakura's views of their dynamic diminish its relevance in her life and put Ino in the wrong (almost making her the abusive side of the relationship). Ino never reached for Sakura in order to make her her “tag-along”, Sakura was the one who put herself in that position.

I'm not blatantly denying Sakura's views on their former friendship, but from what we can see in canon, those views are either a lie she tells Ino to emotionally drag her during their match (stated before by Kakashi, she wants Ino to take her seriously), or a twisted version of the events transpired.

Much like with Sasuke, the fact that Sakura puts the weight of her well-being on another person’s shoulders means that she’s not responsible for the outcome or what her actions might entail: That’s why she makes Ino responsible for their fallout -hadn’t Ino liked the same boy, she wouldn’t have ended their relationship.

Sakura calling Ino a witch.

At the end of their fight, is Ino who -again, reaches out to Sakura and waits for her to wake, and, again: She gives her support.

We have a new interaction between them in CH 93 -where we see both of them visiting Sasuke in the hospital and bringing him a flower, there, we get to see them talking outside a ninja setting and inside Ino's flower shop.

1) It's established Sakura doesn't visit the flower shop until then.

2) They still bicker over Sasuke, the basis of their relationship hasn't changed after the Chünin Exams, but they seem to get along better.

3) Sakura learned the flowers' meaning in order to compete with Ino.

They even sit together in CH 99 to see the one-on-one fights of the last round of the exams, and while both Ino and Sakura are equally concerned about Sasuke, it's Ino the one who tells Sakura to cheer Naruto on during his match. How is Ino this "bad person who diminished Sakura" when she shows nothing but concern for her crush (Sasuke), her former friend (Sakura), and her rival's teammate (Naruto)? Furthermore, in CH 105, Ino realizes Sakura's change in mood when she admits (internally) to being somewhat jealous of Naruto.

After Shikamaru's match, once Sasuke appears, Ino compliments Sakura's team, praising both Sasuke and Naruto; Sakura's reaction isn't shown as the main focus is Lee -who hears Ino speaking-, but it amazes me how many people try to paint Ino's character as "shallow" and a "bully" when she has done nothing but encourage and praise those around her even when they're not close enough to hear her.

Then, after Sasuke's Retrieval Arc, Ino even goes as far as to look for Sakura once Shimamaru's team returns (x), and she even prioritizes Chöji before Sasuke (who they don't know actually left, x). How is Ino such a shallow, careless monster (who doesn't truly care for Sakura) if she goes out of her way to find her and inform her of their friends' return? Wouldn't have she taken the opportunity to visit Sasuke by herself? Wouldn't she have chosen to visit her crush first rather than Chöji if she was that obsessed with him and against Sakura?

Some rando just commented on my art a few days ago saying my ship isn't even a thing. But like... who tf cares? I draw what I want. It just irked me that they had to go on and say my ship isn't valid and that it's disgusting. Bleh, ruins your day.

I like drawing rarepairs, (pairings no one really cares about) but apparently on twitter, people just wanna piss on stuff not even catered to them.

It really pissed me off so I just blocked the person. People should just do that. Block people. Zero interaction. Solid escape.

I'm ranting about it now bc... I dunno, anon asked me to draw a rarepair?

... it might seem like an outlandish statement, but it’s not. Let’s start with how Sarada’s introduced in Gaiden:

These are her thoughts on the Chunin Examinations. If you look closely, all of these are parodies of Sasuke’s insightful comments in the Chunin Examinations about the Shinobi System:

First, the written examinations:

Sasuke was quite literally the first student to not only figure it out but also provide a detailed explanation of the reasoning behind the Chunin Examinations. He further elaborated on it right before the teams entered the Forest of Death, after signing the Consent Forms:

What you’re basically getting from Sasuke is an extremely intelligent perspective on the Shinobi system and what it means to be a Shinobi ... as a 12-year-old. This is Sasuke as a child, and that’s Sarada, a girl that’s ... painfully unremarkable compared to her father. Her comments on the Examinations are misguided and mirror Sakura’s:

She got the entire purpose of the test wrong! Nothing Sakura deduced here was correct. Hinata and Sakura fans laud their attempts in regard to getting the answers right, but did they?

Are people actually under the assumption that Sakura or Hinata answered any of the questions correctly? No, they didn’t. There’s no proof in the manga that they answered any question correctly, because that was never the purpose of the test. The purpose was a small-scale “Military Simulation” to gather Intelligence from enemy territory. And Sakura, Hinata, and a few others were the only ones who didn’t get it! 

Are you understanding what I’m getting at? Kishimoto showed Sakura as highly misguided, naïve, and by-the-book girl from the start. Sarada’s showing the exact same signs. She isn’t like her father, no. She’s a parody of him; and that’s how she’s introduced. This is literally the second page from Gaiden, and the look into her mindset is very unflattering. There’s no in-depth stance on anything save for a juvenile frustration children her age would exhibit: “Tests?! Oh, come on! That’s so lame! What’s the point of tests, anyway?!” She might as well have said that and the panel wouldn’t have changed one bit.

Then further along the story, the manga provides more weight to the idea I’ve presented: she is Sasuke’s parody! Chocho talks about her “Elite” status as an Uchiha, but Sarada’s got no idea who she is (the library’s right there, honey):

If you remember, Sasuke’s “elite status” was talked about quite often by pretty much every one; from teachers (even Jiraiya mentioned it) to students, even feudal lords came over from all across the world to see his matches. While there it built up to a massacre, here it built up to ... this:

An adolescent boy’s picture (he’s barely about 15 years old here, just barely) is next to a thirty-something-year-old woman’s who claims to be his wife when she’s old enough to be his mother. The fact that Sarada thinks that that’s quite normal on daily basis is fucking absurd! 

I actually chuckled at this as everything about Sasuke’s childhood is watered down to the point of parody. Sasuke was slowly driven towards Orochimaru and Akatsuki; but here, we see Sarada stumbling on her father’s picture alongside her mother’s; and the fact that she isn’t bothered by the fact that a grown woman (who’s in her very-late-twenties or thirties here) is smiling next to an adolescent boy is fucking hilarious. I was in stitches when I saw this. I mean, is it only now that she’s thinking, “wow, I’ve never seen this guy before. Where could he be when he looks super-young here?” despite the picture of him being not much older than she herself is? Shouldn’t it be something along the lines of, “man, he looks really young! Why’s there a picture from his adolescence next to my mother’s?” 

This is remarkably stupid on her part. Extraordinarily stupid, in fact. It does her no favors as a character. Quickly, she decides to confront Sakura as if that picture hasn’t been there for ages, and her question doesn’t center on her father’s child-like appearance, but the absence of glasses (remember this point for later): 

Sakura responds quite violently to the question, which is no different from how she acted with Sai when he made fun of Sasuke (she punched Sai); the response here is exactly the same:

(Keep this “our feelings are connected” point in mind for later.)

Then Sakura faints, and apparently, she’s been fainting over Sasuke for ages (a lot like Hinata getting flustered and fainting, no?):

Basically, Sakura’s so desperate to have anything of Sasuke in her life that she’s been doing the following all this time: he took no pictures with her, so she took his Hebi picture (yes this is Hebi picture, not Akatsuki Taka picture, and I’ll explain this below) from Karin and stuck it next to her own; he doesn’t visit, so she plasters the house with his signs; he’s utterly disinterested in her, but she remains bullish and passes out at his absence (basically, she’s just like Hinata now); she didn’t know anything about him before they fucked once, and their relationship remains the same as a simple question about glasses trips her up to the point that she gets violent. This is very funny. I’m sorry, but it’s very, very funny. I don’t know what kind of “Tragedy” people see in Sakura’s (or Sarada’s) character here and write self-indulgent stupidity-filled essays on her “Tragic-Heroine Life”, but I was laughing my titties off while reading this. Even now, she can’t seem to take the hint! 

So Sarada decides to go back to the house and get the thing of “sentimental value”, and lo and behold, she’s shocked to learn that a boy’s picture wasn’t a genuine thing, after all! (She’s very smart and the best Uchiha, you see, or so many anti-Sasuke people tell me!)

I don’t understand: how’s Sarada shocked that her mother had stuck her own picture over Sasuke’s? Just ... how?! This is a ridiculous level of stupidity. If you look at the top-most panel, Sasuke’s face doesn’t look much older than Sarada’s. Reason? He was barely 15 years old here. A little digression, but people claim that this picture is from his Akatsuki days, but it’s not (even if it is, he’d be only 16 as Taka Sasuke, too). Sasuke wore a black cloak when he travelled around with Hebi:

See the white collar? The Akatsuki cloak had his shirt’s white collar sticking way out:

It don’t know why the anime showed this as Akatsuki Taka-Sasuke, and the hair-style’s strange, too, but I’d stick to my argument. Regardless of this strange nit-picking on my part, he’s still a child here himself, not much older than Sarada (about 2 years at most). Sarada never bothered asking her mother before this that why’s her father so young here? It’s only after the house breaks down that she freaks out that this picture’s fake and her mother never took it with him? Come on! Her family issue is parodical from the get go. There’s no substance to her quest when the picture was in plain sight and she never bothered raising any questions before. 

Then we’re shown Sasuke with another child who appears to be an Uchiha, and Gaiden introduces the “biology (or genetics) versus bonds” argument here for the first time:

What does she do afterwards? She goes to Shizune and confronts her about her birth-records, and she talks about having checked the records before:

So records are a thing. How about checking more on your father yourself, Sarada? No? I guess not. Then Kishimoto ... poked fun at Sarada’s whole quest: he calls her someone who’s suffering from the “Tragic Heroine Syndrome”, very much like her mother, and trying to find her identity in the world (the biology versus bonds, remember?):

Kishimoto raises two important points here: should children resemble their parents in appearance or in blood? This would prove to be a valuable argument later, but let’s move on for now. Here, we’re introduced to Naruto for a the first time, a workaholic man who takes little interest in his family life and his face absolutely brightens up at the mention of Sasuke (look at the stark difference between the top-right and bottom-left panel; I’m not even making this up):

He doesn’t answer Shikamaru, but as soon as Sasuke’s hawk lands, he drops all work (which isn’t something he wanted to do before) and decides to meet up with him himself:

Shizune’s last remark is very interesting: at first, Naruto wasn’t even letting go of meticulously typing out “Headband details” despite Shikamaru’s protests, but all of a sudden, the possibility of missing out even the Graduation Examinations (of his son) doesn’t seem to bother him one bit. He literally hightails out of there and tells Shikamaru to apologize to Boruto on his behalf:

This shows a side of Naruhina (NH) that NH Fandom doesn’t want to admit: Naruto doesn’t go home when he’s fully capable of leaving his Kage Bunshin to finish up the mundane tasks in the office. No, he prefers to do every little thing (even fixating on headbands of all the things) all by himself; however, as soon as Sasuke’s in the picture, he wants to run away. Now, many will give this a romantic spin, but I won’t: this shows Naruto’s desire to feel happy. Sasuke’s presence made Naruto happy; their friendship (you can feel intense love towards many relationships) made him happy. His marriage seems to make him miserable. So much so that he doesn’t want to give up work no matter what; however, with Sasuke, it’s childhood nostalgia and bickering and fighting and making up all over again. You know, everything close friends do! 

Sasuke is Naruto’s nostalgia, his past when he felt happy and full of hope and promise! There’s a reason why there’s a sharp contrast between when he’s talking about Sasuke and when he’s talking about everything else. I’ll elaborate more on this later. Coming back to the story, well, Shin gives the Shin clone the order to bring Sarada to him, but the way he gives the order is something to be noted:

She’s not referred to as an Uchiha, but as someone who happens to be Sasuke’s daughter with glasses and wears a crest similar to Shin’s Uchiha crest. This creates a strange association here: she’s Sasuke’s daughter, but why’s her crest not treated as something that’s associated with her, and why are her glasses given so much value to the point that they define her? It means that Kishimoto wants to highlight the fact that her wearing the glasses is quite odd!

Now, Naruto meets up with her and here we see a direct contrast between Sakura’s remarks on Sasuke and Naruto’s:

Naruto’s monologue shows that he’s never bothered to interact with Sakura, either; otherwise, he’d have known this.

Look at his face compared to this one right here:

You can’t tell me that there’s no difference between the two facial expressions: the difference is night and day. Naruto’s making faces like he used to when he was a Genin: big grin, squinted eyes, and nosy-child demeanor. He’s basically behaving like a child! His comment on Sarada’s appearance is of special importance: he states that Sarada’s like Sasuke “around the eyes”, but this is what he says about Chocho:

He doesn’t say that about Sarada, which means that her face isn’t like Sasuke’s, not one bit; and I’d prove this later; another important thing is the manner in which Naruto and Sakura talk about Sasuke: Naruto remembers many details about him when Sakura’s struck dumb when Sarada asks her to tell her something about Sasuke--anything. When she can’t answer, her response is to lash out just like she used to in the past. This shows that she didn’t spend much time together with Sasuke even after she chased him down somewhere out there in the wilderness. Gaiden, so far, has done the two pairings no favors: Naruto’s a dejected workaholic whose face only brightens up when he tries to get away from his family and Hokage duties (I’ve known many men and women in life who behave exactly like this as they’re unhappy in their marriages), otherwise, he sticks to his work to the point of exhaustion; and Sakura knows nothing about Sasuke even after she’s married him. 

Anyhow, Sarada tries to sneak out, and nothing good comes out of it:

(She thinks her father has an arm, so the “memories” claims of Sasuke helping her walk have always been false.)

(A lot of people claim that Sasuke tried to kill Sarada here, and I’d never stop laughing at these people; Sasuke doesn’t need to “try” to kill Sarada; he’d have done it with ease; he was intimidating her as he thought that she was a Shin clone.)

Also, can we all appreciate the fact here that Sasuke’s still a very beautiful and youthful man (without resorting to “Byakugou’s” chakra enhancements, ahem) as Sarada’s never seen any picture of him but the one in which he’s 15 years old, but she’s able to recognize him instantly (she even states it)? And Chocho’s swooning all over him! Ah, my boy’s such a heart-breaker!

Moving on, Naruto’s smiling again at the sight of Sasuke, and his face in the next panel is like that of a child’s, a sharp contrast to his business-like, haggard face behind the Hokage desk. His dialogue implies that this isn’t the first time they’ve met like this. Also, keep this thing in mind that Sasuke’s just outside Konoha’s bounds as Shikamaru gave Sarada the permission to take the bento on Boruto’s behalf. He wouldn’t have allowed the Genins to tread too far away from the village, without supervision! Then Sarada launches into a hilariously awful lecture (which I couldn’t care less about):

(By the way, the full picture Sarada’s showing of Sasuke doesn’t have the trademark Akatsuki cloud pattern.)

(Sasuke, my boy, save yourself and put her up for adoption; I don’t want to see you lose your luscious looks and locks over this asshole while another one waits for you at home.)

Sasuke promptly shuts her down, and again, we’re shown the fact that Sasuke took this mission after Sarada’s graduation, and Naruto wanted to leave the village with him in the past, too; it’s Sasuke who tells him not to:

Naruto doesn’t interfere because he knows everything (another important point that needs to be remembered here) and tries to calm Sarada down. Then Shin shows up, with Sakura at his heels:

When Naruto gets injured, we see visible worry in Sasuke’s expression:

And then we’re brought back to the biology versus bonds argument: “peace keeps people from evolving.” Another important argument for later. 

(Chocho’s still going on about Sasuke’s “woman swooning” looks, I see.) Naruto’s deeply concerned about Sasuke’s “safety”, a Rinnegan wielder’s safety. Then Sakura shows up, and this is literally the first thing Sasuke says to her:

(The you is strangely highlighted in the “what’re you doing here?!” question from Sasuke.)

If you look closely, Sasuke doesn’t look happy to see her. He usually smiles when someone, not just Sakura, shows off in the battle through something impressive; however, here, he makes an almost embarrassed expression at her theatrics, and the biggest surprise of all is that Naruto doesn’t look happy to see her, either. He doesn’t even speak her save that one time when he states, “I’m here, too, you know.” That’s it, and he wasn’t even talking to her at that point. When she’s taken away, neither Naruto nor Sasuke show any concern given the gravity of the situation, especially since both of them were just beaten up by Shin: 

This is pretty funny, actually. Naruto’s more concerned about the fact that both of them were beaten. He doesn’t even talk about Sakura; and Sasuke? He’s analyzing the technique like he used to in the past. Sakura? None of them seem to give half-quarter of a fuck about her. It’s almost as if they’ve grown weary of bailing her out of tough spots. Third time isn’t exactly a charm when it comes to battles. Naruto’s utterly dejected that he couldn’t help Sasuke and fight as a team like they used to. Again, he’s like a little kid: he wants to join hands and fight like they did against Obito, Madara, Kaguya, etc.; but Shin showed them up, and he’s saddened by it. Is Gaiden even about Sakura? Let me reserve this argument for a bit longer.

The biology versus bonds argument’s back again: Sakura’s fervently speaking against genes and talking about giving more importance to the bond itself, not the biological connection between children and their parents, which is outright bizarre. The deep connection between parents and children is solely due to biological changes inside the body: the mothers develop Oxytocin in massive amounts during the various stages of pregnancy, labor, and breast feeding. It’s this hormone, together with few others, that strengthens the bond between mother and child. Studies have shown that the animals whose Oxytocin levels are chemically lowered abandon their children a lot earlier than others; and fathers testosterone levels are reduced when the children are born; so what the fuck’s she talking about? The whole idea of this bond’s rooted in biology, and I’m not even talking about some “deep” biology here. It’s pretty basic stuff; however, Kishimoto’s deliberately placed Sakura in the bonds section rather than the genetics section. He’s actually placed these concepts against each other.

Then Sasuke meets Orochimaru, and something very peculiar happens:

(You is highlighted again in Orochimaru’s dialogue: “Oh my ... I never imagined you’d ever come a-calling to me, Sasuke.” This you is a you of endearment, unlike the other you’s Sasuke used.)

If Sarada looks just like Sasuke, why didn’t Orochimaru notice it? Literally no one in Taka takes note of her appearance, so she doesn’t look like Sasuke. Then she goes to Suigetsu, and the whole “Umbilical Cord” business happens, and Suigtesu states, “I didn’t know Sasuke was that much of a pimp (the Viz cut out the sexual connotation, of course).” It means that Sasuke did sleep around during his time in Taka from the looks of it: there’s a difference between “a pimp” and “that much of a pimp”. Sorry to burst everyone’s bubbles, but it isn’t the first time it’s been hinted at. In Naruto manga, Suigetsu teased Karin about “doing something to Sasuke” after they got Jugo out, as well, so this isn’t the first time this thing has been talked about. Did they fool around? Was Karin the insistent one? Did it go all the way to sex? It’s left up to the interpretation, but if you’re over the age of 12, you can tell that whatever happened was sexual in nature. (It’s like that “Itachi had lovers”, not lover, panel in Viz; it’s there, but there’s no elaboration on it.)

It’s silly how Naruto’s very upset that Sasuke didn’t tell him about the whole situation, not the situation itself (he hasn’t learned to mind his own fucking business, either; grow the fuck up, man!). He lectures Sarada again on the merits of non-familial bonding:

Sarada has flashbacks of her bond with Sakura, together with the fact that Sasuke’s never kissed her: 

(See? The picture’s the very same!)

Here, Kishimoto uses that “forehead poke” to poke fun at Sakura: she still doesn’t know what it means when it symbolizes “distance”, not “love”. We know that for a fact from Itachi’s last interaction with Sasuke. This shows Sakura’s perpetual ignorance about Sasuke’s life and her lack of regard for his clan-history. During all these years, she’s tried to learn nothing about him, and as a result, she knows nothing about him, either. 

Before they head out, Naruto bickers with Sasuke, like a child, but he doesn’t even mention the whole affair nor does he admonish Sasuke in any manner. He wants to “discuss” things with him first:

(Kishimoto stops to take a stab at the fact that Sasuke could’ve gone to Sakura any time he wanted as his eye, which he used against Shin earlier, has recovered completely, which means he chose not to.)

(This topic is legitimately never brought up by Naruto ever again, haha!)

Sakura gets her ass kicked as all of the Shin clones were alive when the crew showed up to save her; and there’s another important contrast here: Sasuke was embarrassed by Sakura’s antics while he smiled at Sarada here:

Chocho again comments on the fact that it’s only the eyes that look like Sasuke’s, because of the Sharingan:

Then she poses the “connection” question, and we’re finally shown Sasuke’s answer:

When Sarada asked Sasuke this, he said nothing at first as though he’s at a loss to say something. Then he doesn’t say, “because we’re family”, the easiest answer. No, he states that because “you” exist (and you is highlighted, by the way, just like it was highlighted when Sakura first came face to face with him after about 12 years). So his connection to Sakura hinges on Sarada and Sarada only. If she’s not there, they’re not connected. Sasuke puts extra emphasis on “you” both times: first, it makes his question almost interrogational; second, it over-emphasizes on Sarada’s importance in their so-called connection and gives Sasuke’s statement a profound element of resignation as Sarada’s birth/existence is what holds this bond together. Both of them highlight “distance”, not “closeness”.

And this is driven home by the fact that when they all arrive home, Sarada’s defensive of any woman approaching Sasuke. Did Sakura say to Sarada that her father might be ... moving around? If not, why would she suspect that she’s not Sakura’s daughter? Why would she behave this way with Ino? 

(He’s come back home after twelve long years, and boiled rice, with standard fish, is all this woman can manage. Seriously, fuck off, Sakura. You can’t even cook or show basic hospitality, can you?)

The distance between Sakura and Sasuke is further highlighted by these images. He isn’t looking at Sakura, but only at Sarada, while Sakura’s looking at him. He’s never kissed her. He hugs Sarada, but he outright rejects any kind of physical closeness Sakura offers. He’s completely disinterested in her:

This image below is especially concerning as Sasuke’s smiling when he’s looking at Sarada, but his expression instantly changes to complete seriousness when he’s looking at Sakura:

Then she acts like a little love-sick girl (ha-ha, Sasuke-Kun’s gonna poke me, too! It’s my turn! It’s my turn! It’s my tuuurrrrrrnnnnn!):

He leaves, and there’s literally no smile on his face. What “teasing” do people keep yapping about? I don’t see it. Then we have the final images in which Karin, apparently, kept the Umbilical Cord of Sakura ... somehow? 

When Suigetsu asks Karin that has she moved on, she doesn’t say she has. If she hasn’t written him off, then it means that she thinks that she and Sasuke are still a possibility, no? Why would she even hold on to a possible relationship between the two of them if he was happy with Sakura? I shouldn’t even have to spell this out. It’s pretty simple. Also, she says that Suigetsu won’t understand the nature of hers and Sasuke’s relationship. She also informs us that Sakura, literally, chased Sasuke down and that she also kept sending Sarada glasses. Now, why would anyone do that? The last image of the manga is this:

Before I begin the last remarks, this is important: Sasuke, quite deliberately, chose to stand on Sakura’s right, not her left. This way, he doesn’t have to place his hand on her. He chose to stand in a manner that his side that doesn’t have an arm touches Sakura.

Now, what did we learn? The Umbilical Cord is never kept by anyone other than the child's mother. Why would Karin even have it? Why’s Karin sending gifts to another woman’s child and keeping her Umbilical Cord? It's shameful for a woman to travel while she's pregnant in the manner Sakura did in the Japanese culture; but she not only did that but also chased Sasuke down. She placed Sarada’s life in jeopardy to meet up with Sasuke? If genetics are important, then Sarada’s Umbilical Cord is discarded by Sakura in her mad chase of Sasuke? If bonds are important, then Sakura’s only connected to Sasuke through the daughter that might not be even hers? She basically loses both ways! If it’s the genetics, then Sakura showed no regard to an unborn child’s life and kept madly pursuing Sasuke to court him; if bonds are important, then she only ever gets to meet him because of the former; she placed her own picture over the woman who helped her establish this bond and kept sending gifts to the child; she spreads malicious rumors about other women that they might try to come between Sasuke and her? If Naruto manga buried this pairing six feet under, then Gaiden absolutely urinated on it. I can’t imagine how anyone would view this to be as anything positive ... for any pairing. 

Gaiden isn’t about Sakura: it’s about her lack of importance in Sasuke’s life in regard to genetics and bonds! She’s utterly unimportant to Sasuke either way! 

There isn’t a shred of proof in Gaiden that Sarada is Sakura’s biological daughter because of the manner in which her “bonds” theme is framed. None. In fact, there’s overwhelming evidence that points in the opposite direction as she stands against the “genetics” theme: Sakura’s unrelenting chasing of Sasuke, with the sole purpose of making him court her; travelling while she was pregnant; and casual discarding of the umbilical cord, both of which are very shameful acts in the Japanese culture, paint her in an even more unflattering light than Shippuden. It seems that her obsession has developed in interesting ways as, every time Sasuke shows her a hint of kindness, she becomes abnormally aggressive in her sexual pursuit of him. And if Sarada is her biological child, despite all the evidence that suggests to the contrary, it means that her obsession is quite wicked as she’s unconcerned about her unborn child’s safety, along with their connection in the shape of the umbilical cord, in the face of her obsession with Sasuke. 

Remember, the Umbilical Cord is the symbol of biological connection, and guess what? She discarded it! Pregnancy is a symbol of biological connection, and guess what? She showed little regard for her unborn child’s safety. So if Sakura herself is discarding the “genetics” symbols, then she loses in that theme; and the manner in which she treated the “bonds” symbols (lying to Sarada; putting up her own picture over Karin, a woman who’s been nothing but kind to her; spreading malicious rumors about other women coming in-between Sasuke and her; not understanding Sasuke’s character, past, and clan history; etc.) paints her poorly in that theme, as well; so Sakura spectacularly loses out in both themes. Where does she stand in Sasuke’s life, themes, and narratives? Nowhere! She’s as irrelevant to him as she always was, and that’s not Sasuke’s fault. That’s squarely on her shoulders as it was her decision to chase down Sasuke and try and give a meaning to the grossly skewed obsession that she harbors.

Besides, evolution is what makes genetics important and that arises from conflict; so in times of peace, the Uchiha turn into parodies of their previous manga; or so Kishimoto showed through Sarada. Very unflattering if you ask me. Gaiden absolutely tears Sakura and Sarada apart, along with the pairings. It isn’t a pretty sight as it means that every new generation is a parody of the former. (I’m looking at you, Boruto and Himawari.) Imagine being Hinata’s parody. Let this concept sink in for a moment.

Also, has Sasuke written off Sarada to Sakura because he’s absent for long periods of time? Are they even together? In Japan, there’s no such thing as “joint custody” save extremely rare cases. The fact that he doesn’t come home at all, considers Sakura to be a nuisance, and pulls out all stops to distance himself from her (look at the manner in which he took the family-picture), it isn’t out of the world to imagine that he considers Sarada to be a case of “accidental birth” that came after much pestering, hounding, and chasing from Sakura, which would explain the haphazard discarding of the Umbilical Cord after Sarada’s birth, which is of profound cultural importance to the Japanese. 

And Naruto? He’s dejected, longs for nostalgia with Sasuke whom he loves very much (I’m not talking about sexual love here), and acts chirpy only when Sasuke’s around. This basically shows a barely functional marriage. (Shikamaru even asks Naruto this in Boruto manga, “having marriage problems again?”) Kishimoto didn’t show happy marriages. No, he showed compromise from Sasuke and Naruto towards their spouses. Sasuke barely tolerates Sakura whenever she’s around, because of Sarada. He slept with her once, but he isn’t interested in her in any manner, even though he does appear to be in touch with Karin (how else would he have readily taken Sakura to her hideout?). Naruto exhausts himself with office-work but doesn’t go home. 

I remember an NH wanker posting a meme that made fun of Sasuke that how Naruto’s tired of Sasuke’s bullshit and would like to go home to his beautiful wife or something; and I couldn’t help but laugh at that: Naruto practically ran out of his office at the chance to get away from the village and his family. When Sasuke wasn’t in the picture, he was nitpicking over fucking Chunin headbands of all the things. Shikamaru asked him to leave the issue to him, but he didn’t. No, he only left when Sasuke came in the near-vicinity. Then he left his clone behind to do the office-work. He couldn’t have done that before? Isn’t that the sole reason why Boruto whines about his absence? He tried to do that in the past, as well. What was stopping him? Certainly not Sasuke. The way people blame Sasuke for other characters’ lack of interest in their own self-projecting pairings is a sight to behold. This self-inserting culture for pairings is pitiful.