Cherry Blossom Tora

I don't think this is right. As Kishimoto said, this is a war anime, not a romance, so you have to respect people's opinions.

I'm not pro-sasusaku, in fact I'm more of an antisaku because of how Shippuden ruined the little bond sasusaku had, and the fact that Kishi downright sucks at writing women when it comes to the emotion and personality department, proves that this was HIS fault. He said "this anime isn't about romance" then proceeded to allow the making of a NaruHina MOVIE. An entire MOVIE dedicated to this couple, while in the SasuSaku prison scene (ep386 if I'm not mistaken) Sasuke had more scenes with a DINOSAUR than his wife.

SasuSaku was something special, that was ruined in Shippuden, then was forced back together with stitches and duck tape, to make the sasusaku fans happy, but I genuinely think NaruHina is much worse in this aspect, out of the pure fact that these two barely even shared any words from the start, or had any scenes together(filler eps included).

But stating that Sasuke was FORCED into marrying someone is just a big stretch.

He, just like Naruto is stubborn, he's a much freer spirit than Naruto, never bound to one place, and is equally untamable.

So when I say "nothing can force him into anything, let alone force him into a relationship that he clearly doesn't want to be in (considering that wife is going to continue his bloodline), it means NOTHING and NO ONE can force him to do so.

In Shippuden, Sakura clearly stated that she was willing to let him go, even if it meant killing him in order to protect the village and Naruto. It was clear that despite Sakura loving Sasuke, She was not delusional when it came to it anymore. If Sasuke said no to her, she would stop her pursuit for Sasuke to begin with. She's not that 12 year old genin- who still doted over her crush, she was a respectable woman, who loved so hard, that she was willing to let that person go if they asked, even if it broke her heart to pieces.

In Sakura hiden, we see clear hesitation in her confidence, whether Sasuke really loved her or not, and if he did at all to begin with. She had doubts. (It's canon, idc what anyone says. It was written involving Kishimoto himself, it's canon.) and even Sasuke admitted his love to her in the Akatsuki Hiden: Evil flowers in full bloom.

Idc what fans say, wether this or that is canon, fully biased by their own headcanons for the character, which I love, but sometimes it's good to look at canon materials instead of just rewriting a character into becoming a complete oc without actually checking their background, at least.

The hiden novels are canon, the novels were supervised and released with Kishimoto's approval.

In conclusion, as much as I have a like and hate relationship with this relationship, nobody can say Sasuke was forced into something he didn't want, out of their personal delusions of Antisasusaku and pro SasuNaru ship, or NaruSaku ship. I love watching the writers and artists work their own ideas, but sadly, some badly-written romance is still canon in this anime, despite stating it had no room for romance, and no matter how many fics or fan animations they make, the bad romance is still going to stay canon, (again, NaruHina got a full MOVIE, just to show that they love each other and needed a while movie to give them some buildup that they lacked in 200+ episodes (minus that one time Hinata tried to save Naruto from pein, which was moving and romantic, her efforts.) and all Sasuke and Sakura got was a prison scene with... A... Fucking pre-historic dinosaur sharing more scenes w him than his wife. Some very romantic scenes were ripped out by the anime ofc, in manga, Sasuke was much more worried for Sakura than in the anime. (They basically made Sasuke into an oc with no emotions until he time travels w Boruto.)

At the end of the day, we should all support our respective favorite ships, as well as others ships. Spread positivity in the fandom to begin with 💜✨

A little side-rant below:

I genuinely believe that by the end of it, Kishimoto wanted to try his hand at romance but it looks like he gave up halfway.

I'm honestly big on NaruSaku(even tho I see them more as siblings, personally, but if it were to have happened, This ship would have worked.), despite everything, I genuinely believe this pair would've worked like Tsunade and Jiraiya or Minato and Kushina. It would've been perfect. Even Kishimoto's wife was upset when Kishimoto chose fan service over actual chemistry between the characters.

I don't agree at all with either sasusaku and naruhina ship, but canon is canon, and please do read the rest of the novels as well, before deciding on something because the anime makes Sakura look bad in general and makes SasuSaku more irrelevant than NaruHina out of pure bias and hate.

Either way, I'm not against either of these ships, despite having my own opinions on the badly written romance and forcing the characters together that either had lost the chemistry they had a long time ago, or didn't interact at ALL. In the end, it's the writers fault, writing them so badly, (I mean come on, why the hell write romance if u can't even write women right in so many aspects, and claiming that it was not a romance anime) and allowing the studio that released the anime so much autonomy over YOUR story, and how they altered half of the manga with stupid flashbacks that were 2hours long on its own as well as some very meaningless fillers. (If the artists couldn't catch up or were underpaid, they could've refused a big project OR worked on it a few weeks/montha before the initial release of the weekly anime.

Tbh the anti talking point of labeling NaruSaku as Naruto “gets the girl” just does not really make sense when evaluating their whole relationship throughout the series. Most people initially chalk up their relationship to that just simply because Naruto is the one to have feelings for Sakura and throughout part one he treats Sakura like the prize to be won over back in the original series which the way the team 7 love triangle played out and how old they all were back then (most of them being 12) it makes sense realistically that all the characters have a superficial lense on what they think love is.

However in shippuden Naruto treats Sakura just like how he would with most of his friends and they begin to act as equals within their team implying that the whole “chases the girl” talking point in Naruto’s perspective no longer stands since he’s not competing to win her heart. He grew to simply love Sakura and want her to see him as the person he has become.

If anything the canon couples have more of that vibe because both Hinata and Sakura have remained loyal and persistent with wanting Naruto and Sasuke (respectively) and in the end there efforts are rewarded which reverses the trope into “girl gets the guy” and also the same time with Naruto and Sasuke giving little to not much reciprocation on their end for their romantic endgames they also basically “won the girl” because it’s guaranteed on their end that they would get the girls who were devoted to them from the beginning

The main reason NaruSaku really didn’t fit that typical “gets so and so” trope is because Sakura herself did not like Naruto at the beginning and with that trope to work the female character typically would have to already had feelings for the male character similar to how Mario and Peach would work here (with Mario chasing Peach and Peach already showing interest in Mario and basically being the damsel who needs his saving). With NaruSaku, Naruto himself did not have Sakura’s love and was not guaranteed anything. Even when he understands the seriousness of Sakura’s feeling for Sasuke back in that hospital room when she was crying we see a slight change in his feelings where instead of viewing Sakura as part of his childish crush on hers he maturely accepts her feelings for Sasuke while also keeping his own feelings at check and not pushing any boundaries.

In order for this trope to work character A has to actively act on their feelings which Naruto does not do; instead he keeps those feelings to himself and it dosen’t blow up until Sai tells Sakura about Naruto’s feelings for her (which we all know happens after that moment since Kishimoto wants to make drama and has to have a scene to properly debunk NaruSaku in canon).

As we know, Sasuke strove to make the whole world hate him in order for his revolution to work. He wanted himself to be a symbol of the world’s hatred, so everyone could focus they’re hate on him, and would therefore be united under that premise. Sasuke thought he was very close to achieving that; he thought that he had the world’s hatred placed on him. Well, everyone except Naruto, because he was still there fighting him. He thought that Naruto was the only one keeping him from being all alone, because Naruto was the only one with the power to stop him from achieving that goal.

It’s not that Sasuke never considered Sakura or Kakashi as important, it’s just that he no longer believed that after this fight, they would still consider him a friend, and he would thus be all alone; Naruto was essentially the final hurdle:

Sasuke wanted to be all alone, and thought that everyone in the world (including Sakura and Kakashi) would hate him after the conclusion of the fight. Therefore from Sasuke’s perspective, he had already succeeded with making Sakura and Kakashi hate him (even though he was wrong). That’s why he made that comment; he thought that at this point, Naruto was the only one was still hindering his goal to be all alone, because he was the only one powerful enough to stop him. Once Naruto was taken care of, there’d be no one left to get in the way of his revolution. Yes, Kakashi and Sakura would still be alive, but they wouldn’t be able to stop him. That’s why he made that comment.

Even if Sasuke had lost, he still thought that Sakura and Kakashi would no longer want anything to do with him.

This was shown in 699 during his apology:

He’s under the impression that Sakura won’t forgive him, and now that he’s been freed from his hatred and can see clearly, he realises that this isn’t what he wants at all. He deeply regrets his actions, but thinks it’s too late. But despite this, he still persists with the apology, because regardless of whether she forgives him or not, he knows it must be said.And even when he initially says I’m sorry, he trails off, and waits for her response: