Viral 'Naruto' Post Questions the Validity of Sasuke and Sakura's Relationship

One of the reasons Boruto: Naruto Next Generations has been such a success with fans is that it [...]

By Nick Valdez

One of the reasons Boruto: Naruto Next Generations has been such a success with fans is that it revisits many original Naruto favorites as adults that have confirmed many of the relationships teased during the predecessor series.

But Sasuke and Sakura's relationship has been divisive among fans as he never quite showed affection for Sakura, and a new viral tweet making the rounds highlights one of the many reasons why fans don't quite accept this canon pairing.

In the moment highlighted by @chilliefries on Twitter, Sakura noted that her "date" with Sasuke lasted only "two and a half minutes" and even notes that Sasuke's forgotten all about the moment that's so special to her. This specific scene comes from Episode 17 of Boruto, which was an original story in the anime version of the series. In this scene she talks with Ino about her and Sasuke's first date, and it's as tragic as this batch of images suggest. The scene ends with her staring out to the ocean, holding back a swell of emotion.

One of the first major arcs of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations was all about Sasuke and Sakura's distant relationship and how it effects their daughter Sarada. Sasuke had been so distant at that point, Sarada didn't really have any knowledge of her father (or even meeting him at all in the manga). It gets so bad that Sarada even believes Sakura isn't her mother in the first place, and leaves home in search of her "real" mother.

The end of the arc sees the three of them get closer (even showing a tender moment much later in the series), but nothing quite changed after that in the series. Sasuke said he wouldn't be so distant anymore, yet he's spent more time training Boruto (and Sarada to an extent) than be with Sakura.

This is a problem stemmed from the way Sakura and Sasuke's romance was written in the original series as Sasuke never returned any affection for her (even attempting to kill her at an integral point in the series). Her love usually seemed one-sided, and in the end it really just became another way to reflect how damaged Sasuke was. Sakura could not quite get over the boy prince she fell in love with as a girl, and chased that feeling all the way into adulthood. And loving the damaged man her crush became might have, at that point, seemed like something she absolutely had to deal with.

It's a big bummer, and a reason to not always pair two characters together just because it seemed like a good idea at one time. Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump for 700 chapters. The story follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and features the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.

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