#pro sakura

Yeah

I spent more time making this meme than I probably should've

Original under the cut!

LIVE FOOTAGE OF SASUKE AND NARUTO EXPERIENCING HETEROSEXUAL ATTRACTION FOR THE SECOND TIME IN THEIR LIVES.

CAPTURED IN HD

Old ahh SasuSaku AMVs

every time i check the anti-sasusaku tag it’s either sakura getting dogpiled because, apparently, she’s the perfect scapegoat. somehow she’s the biggest villain in the series who would’ve personally killed baby naruto if given the chance (that’s genuinely how some of y’all sound). or it’s sasuke getting dragged and reduced to this one-dimensional misogynistic abuser who’s solely at fault for never reciprocating her feelings. and don’t even get me started on the sns shippers… pot calling the kettle black. y’all are just as bad, if not worse.

my actual problem with ss is that they barely know each other, and the writing never gives their relationship the narrative importance it needed. their moments are a mess, and this becomes painfully obvious in shippuden.

sakura never gets to learn the truth about itachi or the uchiha massacre, despite that being fundamental to sasuke’s character and the driving force behind almost everything he does. instead, kishi regresses her character and repeatedly uses her as a victim within an already unbalanced dynamic, to the point where sasuke is constantly humiliating her. meanwhile, sasuke never reciprocates her feelings, barely interacts with her, and never properly learns why she tried to kill him during the five kage summit arc. for a pairing that’s supposed to be romantic, kishi does a really poor job at actually developing it.

part 1 actually laid a decent foundation. yes, sakura was infatuated with sasuke, but she was also willing to call him out on his bs. for example, when she calls him a coward. sure, it was a little ironic coming from her at the time, but the point still stands. then during the five kage summit, kishi finally gives sakura an arc where she has some autonomy and decides she’s going to kill sasuke herself. and what does he do? drops the ball. like he usually does with her character.

sasuke, on the other hand, clearly cared about sakura in part 1. he was willing to risk his life for her, saved her during the chunin exams, and stopped himself from killing the sound ninja because she begged him to stop. right before leaving the village, he thanks her for everything she’d done for him and acknowledges the time they spent together as team 7. those moments mattered.

then shippuden happens.

sasuke becomes almost entirely cold towards her. and whenever kishi does try to show that he still cares, it’s either through crumbs or moments that are immediately overshadowed by the overwhelmingly negative interactions between them. and when i say the negative moments overshadow the positive ones, i really mean it.

the war arc somehow makes it even worse. when sasuke tells sakura there’s nothing she can do, she just… accepts it and sulks. which feels completely out of character. sakura has always been headstrong and stubborn. she has no problem calling out naruto, sai, or literally anyone else on their bs, but when it comes to sasuke in part 2 she just takes whatever he says. and don’t even get me started on the genjutsu. ss fans, i’m sorry, but there really isn’t any defending that.

then we get chapter 699. sasuke apologises and gives sakura the forehead poke. yes, it’s a nice moment in isolation, but there’s barely any build up for it. especially when you consider that the forehead poke was an incredibly personal gesture between itachi and sasuke. we’re never really shown, from sasuke’s perspective in part 2, how his feelings towards sakura actually changed. it almost feels like kishi forgot about team 7’s interpersonal dynamics during the war arc.

and i genuinely don’t know what kishi was smoking when he wrote gaiden because it was such a disservice to both of their characters.

the uchiha have already been explored extensively throughout the manga, so he easily could’ve taken a more interesting direction with sarada’s story by focusing on what it means to be one of the last surviving members of her clan. instead, what do we get?

we get sakura’s motherhood being questioned for cheap drama (which was just misogynistic writing, like wtf?), and sasuke, whose entire character revolves around family and the loss of it, gets turned into an absent father. then, instead of sarada having those important conversations with either of her parents, she gets them from naruto.

you honestly can’t convince me kishi doesn’t constantly position naruto as the character who “does things right,” while using sasuke and sakura as contrasts to reinforce how correct naruto’s methods and worldview supposedly are. it genuinely starts feeling like a self insert fantasy.

what kishi should’ve done was have sasuke and sakura actually participate in each other’s character arcs while naturally developing their friendship and eventual romance throughout shippuden. instead, he keeps them emotionally disconnected for most of the story and then expects the audience to accept the relationship because he says so.

and honestly, this isn’t just an ss problem. it’s a consequence of kishi dropping the ball with almost all of sasuke’s relationships outside of naruto and itachi.

his dynamics with sakura and kakashi lose their narrative importance, while his bond with taka gets sidelined too, all so the final fight can happen and naruto can become sasuke’s end-all be-all. and you can’t tell me that was always the intention because part 1 proves otherwise. og naruto worked so well because characters like sakura and kakashi actively moved the plot forward, highlighted sasuke’s positive qualities, and helped build towards the VoTE 1 fight. by shippuden, almost all of that gets sacrificed.

because instead of the usual "sakura is so useless omg" comments that ive heard for over a decade, my friend recognizes that she is 12 and is commenting on how "kakashi should have trained her. shes underprepared and its all the adults fault."

because she is neglected and she is not taken seriously by kakashi. even though she is the weakest member up until she meets tsunade. she shouldnt have to be weak if he helped her.