go back | Why Sasuke & Sakura?

I've seen plenty of people judging this pairing as a teenybopper-y kind of ship. Probably since it involves a young girl and a boy, both attractive and both main characters. If you add Sakura's initial fangirly behaviour towards Sasuke, fans are sometimes too fast in wrongly label it. The truth is, it's not that hard to see why some of us are inevitably attracted to this ship, if you get rid of your prejudices, that is.

For me, Sasuke & Sakura are painfully dysfunctional and involve totally raw feelings, that evolve and change with time. The start for Sakura is almost taken out of a shoujo manga -- she's got a crush on the mysterious popular guy in his class, just as lots of other girls. While Sasuke starts out as plain indifferent, he feels the same about everyone (except about his brother, of course).

The two represent growth and discovery. Sakura finds herself falling in love (for real this time) with the person Sasuke really is. With his fears, his insecurities, his strengths and weaknesses, and also his mistakes. The more she knows him, the more her devotion and her desire to help and protect him grows.

And Sasuke has his own share of discovery towards his team mate. His feelings are harder to verify, but I believe it's obvious that Sasuke watches her with intent, finding out who she really is behind the "annoying fangirl" label. She undoubtedly becomes one of the few people he considers important to him, and learns to trust her completely even despite his serious trust issues caused by his brother. Not only that, but we've also seen Sasuke open up and show his fragility especially towards her. It's no wonder Sasuke would become uncomfortable with this closeness.

Sasuke & Sakura also represent hope for me. Because I'm a sad sad romantic at heart and I believe that, no matter all the hurt they go through, they could still make it through.