Naruto is well-known for its action, drama, and intense storylines following the rising ninja Naruto Uzamaki and his friends, Sasuke and Sakura. It is one of the most beloved ninja anime ever to exist. However, many fans also care a great deal about the relationship aspect of the anime. After all, by the start of Boruto, most of the main ninja are paired off and have children. Fans have debated couplings for years, speculating who fits best together. One of the most notable, and most talked about, is the marriage of Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha.
Sakura spent most of the series infatuated with the Uchiha heir, but he seemed to have little interest in her. By the end, though, he seems to have changed his tune and become much softer towards her. Eventually, by Boruto, they have married and have a daughter, Sarada Uchiha. However, fans talk a lot about this coupling for more reasons than rooting for them. Many also question the logic of their pairing. After all, they have a lot of history, and not all of it is good. Some were even surprised to see them marry at all. Sasuke was a fan favorite anti-hero/rootable villain with little time to worry about romance. Yet here he is, married to the girl who loved him for far longer than he deserved. The idea of it sounds kind of romantic, so why do fans remain skeptical?
Updated on December 22nd, 2021 by Amanda Bruce: Fans of the Naruto franchise might love a good fight sequence, but they also have no problem debating the merits of the romantic relationships in the series. Many fans have found themselves questioning if Sasuke even loves Sakura, or why the two get married in the first place. Their relationship certainly seems to have an imbalance of interest and affection that begins with their first interactions in Naruto and continues into the Boruto series.
Sakura Dumped Her First Best Friend For Sasuke
Sakura Haruno grew up bullied and alone. Her first best friend was Ino Yamanaka, someone who defended her and encouraged her to be stronger. The two cherished their friendship. However, as they aged, boys started to interest them.
When Sakura discovered that Ino liked the same boy as her, Sasuke, she discarded their friendship and declared them rivals. This broke both girls' hearts and was an overreaction to the situation. They didn't need to lose their friendship over a boy. It never made any sense for Sakura to chose Sasuke, who she barely knew, over her best friend.
Sakura Asked To Join Him When Sasuke Was Evil
Despite her adoration for Sasuke, Sakura dedicates herself to becoming a great ninja. However, during the Five Kage Summit Arc, she asks to join him. At this point, he's ended lives and done terrible things.
Her love for him eclipses her morals and beliefs. Sakura wants to do good and help others, yet she was willing to forgo that for him. That kind of devotion is unhealthy and shows how senseless her feelings for him were. She was willing to give up who she was to be with him. It's hard to think any relationship can recover from that level of twisted.
Sasuke And Sakura Only Have One Child
While it's said Sasuke and Sakura married for love, there was another big reason for him to marry: children. By the end of Naruto, Sasuke is the last surviving Uchiha clan member. If he wants his family to live on, he has to produce children.
Regardless of their marital issues, if this was important to Sasuke, they should have had many children, but they didn't despite his desire to return the Uchiha name to prominence. It'll be hard for a whole clan to regrow from the shoulders of one daughter - especially if she takes her future husband's name. It's illogical for the couple to have stopped at one child if they wanted to give the Uchiha clan its best chance at revival.
Sasuke Showed No Romantic Interest For Years
Sakura shows affection for the young Uchiha heir from the second she meets him. Sasuke, though, shows little to no interest in her. His first serious interactions with her, when they first became Team 7, involve him calling her annoying.
For years, their relationship stays friendly at its best and antagonistic at its worst. His focus becomes his revenge and his quest for power. Sakura is irrelevant to all of that. It isn't until after the Fourth Shinobi War that Sasuke shows any interest, and even then, it's minimal. It makes little sense for that to be enough to constitute a marriage.
Most Of Their Relationship Has Been Long-Distance
Even though Sasuke and Sakura do marry, they spend little time together. The longest time they are in the same place as a couple is when Sakura follows him on his atonement. During this, they supposedly fall in love, have Sarada, and get married. After Sarada's birth, Sakura goes back to the village to raise her safely. Other than thaT period, approximately a little less than a year, the couple is almost always apart.
It's understandable for Sasuke to be gone on important missions, but it seems ludicrous for him to barely take the time to come home. It's a detriment to his relationships with his wife and his daughter.
Sakura's Desperation for Sasuke's Approval
Strong-willed and determined as she is, Sakura bends a lot of her opinions and goals to fit Sasuke's approval. She only ever started to be kind to Naruto because he disliked her talking badly about him. She also only ever tried to work on her abilities to show him that she was strong. Her beliefs in becoming a good ninja were powerful, but they all warped to include Sasuke.
What makes least sense of all is that Sasuke was a terrible, selfish shinobi. She never should have placed her worth on his approval. She only had long hair because she thought he'd like it. Yikes.
Sasuke And Sakura's Relationship Was Rushed
After the Fourth Shinobi War, Sasuke finally concedes to Naruto's pleas to come home. This is the first and only time he shows any deeper affection towards Sakura. Though their reconciliation is tender, their becoming a couple was terribly rushed.
There were a lot of terrible things and painful feelings between them, even if love was there, too. They never got time to deal with these feelings. Sakura just forgave him, and Sasuke just suddenly loved her. Then they were married, had a kid, and that was that. It barely made any sense to many fans.
Sasuke Made Decisions for Sakura Without Asking Her
Once Sakura marries Sasuke, a lot of her life is decided for her. Her husband often makes decisions that will harshly affect her without telling her. For example, he keeps taking very long missions away from home without her input.
Also, he leaves her alone with their daughter, Sarada, but expects her to be happy with being the sole caretaker. He refuses to let her come anywhere with him for a very long time. Even if these decisions are meant to protect her, Sasuke stifles his wife's individuality by making them. This behavior hardly makes sense in a marriage.
Sasuke And Sakura's Daughter Questions Her Parentage
Sasuke is away so often and for so long that Sarada often questions if her parents are really her parents. First, she questions if Sasuke is her father because of his absence. Later, she questions if Sakura is her mother because of the lack of affection between her and her father.
Eventually, she's convinced of her parentage, but it's still a startling issue. Even in unique couplings, children don't often question their parents so whole-heartedly. It becomes a serious point of contention for Sarada. They try so little in their relationship that their own daughter is unsure about it and is ready to believe that someone else from her father's past is her mother.
Sasuke Attracts Admirers Despite His Cruel Indifference
More women than just Sakura loved the Uchiha heir. The most important rivals were Ino and Karin. Despite their devotion, Sasuke gave all three women the same treatment: cruel indifference. He's known to insult them, ignore them, and rebuff their advances. This becomes more extreme, though, when noted that Sasuke has violently attacked both Karin and Sakura. Yet both women still loved him.
Their level of devotion is absurd, particularly when it isn't just one woman so attached to him. It's several. It's difficult to understand that they still adore him despite such terrible treatment. Even years later, Karin still holds affection for him in the Boruto series.
Sakura Forgetting What Sasuke Looks Like
When Sasuke is away, Sakura does struggle with missing him. Unfortunately for her, he's away far more often than he's not. This becomes even more heartbreaking when she reveals that she hangs up pictures of him not just because of her love. It's so she doesn't forget what he looks like.
While depressing, it becomes a new level of sadness when realizing that she spent years obsessing about his looks. His appearance was a huge part of why she first became interested in him. For her not to remember that only clues fans in on how ridiculously long Sasuke stays away from home.
Sasuke And Sakura Aren't On The Same Page As Parents
Sakura is quite devoted to parenthood, while Sasuke isn't. This comes to the extreme that when running into his 12-year-old daughter, he doesn't recognize her. Sakura tries to spend time sharing information about her father without revealing the grueling, traumatic parts of his past to the young Sarada.
Sasuke simply says nothing to her about it. Also, the few times Sasuke does train Sarada, Sakura has no clue and just gets surprised by her daughter's new abilities in action. While 12 years apart takes a toll, Sakura and Sasuke should be nowhere near this disjointed as parents. They could at least trade pictures and give each other updates. Other couples in the series, like Shikamaru and Temari, openly discuss training their son with one another throughout the Boruto series.
The Emotional Weight of the Head-Poke Gesture
The Uchiha head-poke gesture is an important part of Sasuke's life. After all, it was something dear to him from before he lost his family. However, his use of the gesture with his own family is overstated. The head-poke has become his only go-to sign of affection.
While well-meant and meaningful, it hardly makes up for his negligence and resistance towards being a present husband and parent. It's framed as such a monumental, sweet thing for him to do, but it is just a small way to say he cares. A cute head-poke doesn't replace the years he chose to not be with his family.
Sasuke's Cool Reactions to Sakura's Confessions
Sakura confesses her feelings to Sasuke twice. Once, when he first tries to leave and join Orochimaru. The second is during the Fourth Shinobi War, to encourage him to stay. Her confessions are always said in desperation, trying to protect him or get him to stay. Sakura pours out her heart to him.
Sasuke, however, often reacts to them coolly or with malice. The first one he reacted to by calling her annoying. The second time, he calls her annoying again and then literally crushes her heart with his hand. Later, the show tries to tell fans that Sasuke does love her, but after these terrible displays, it's hard to believe. Sasuke's motivations in the Naruto series change so much though, that it's hard to track when his feelings for her actually begin and whether his malice is just pushing her away to protect her.
Sasuke And Sakura's Relationship's Lack of Romantic Contact
Though Sakura and Sasuke are married, their displays of affections are stunted at head pokes and side-hugs. This behavior makes sense with his personality, but hardly hers. Nontraditional methods of affections make sense for them, but there is a level of nontraditional that verges on platonic.
To be believable, the couple needs a few more ways of sharing their love and feelings, even if they are unique. Otherwise, they seem instead like friends with marriage and a kid. This hardly matches up with the deep levels of affection Sakura feels for Sasuke.
Sakura Treating Naruto As a Replacement Boyfriend
At the beginning of Naruto Shippuden, Team 7 has disbanded to train on their own terms, each with a different Sannin member. Sasuke remains with Orochimaru, but Sakura and Naruto reunite after two years apart. The two rekindle their friendship and recreate Team 7 with Sai.
Without Sasuke, Sakura spends most of her time with Naruto. She uses him to fill the void in her life, to the point she goes on dates with him. She knows his feelings for her and knows she doesn't reciprocate them but does it anyway. With Sakura's devotion to loving Sasuke and Naruto's friendship, she shouldn't have done such a mixed-signaled, cruel thing to her best friend.
Sasuke Never Writes Home While Away on Missions
Sasuke leaves his family for 12 years to go on missions. While he's protecting their village, he is neglecting his wife and daughter. The least he could do is write, send pictures back and forth, maybe know what his daughter looks like nowadays. However, Sasuke doesn't even do that. Messages might be hard to send and at some times could jeopardize missions, but there had to be times that communication was possible.
After all, he must be sending word back to Naruto about missions. It makes no sense that Sasuke couldn't have sent his family sparse letters to show them his love and affection.
Sasuke's Poor Communication Skills
Though they love one another, Sasuke and Sakura have severe communication issues. Between parenting, going on missions, expressing feelings, all of it, Sasuke doesn't often say the things he should. This communication issue comes to a head during a moment in Sakura's Hidden Novel. There are rumors circulating that Sasuke could be evil again.
She wants to defend him, but she has to be honest that she doesn't know. She hasn't heard enough of him to answer the question honestly. Sakura's inability to know if the man she loves is evil again reveals a glaring flaw in their relationship, one that doesn't make much sense.
Sakura's Initial Obsession With Sasuke
Sakura started loving Sasuke when she was a little girl. The crush sprang from his looks and his abilities. She saw how he was in class and became infatuated. The crush became nonsensical, though, when she chose to reject her best friend over him - when she obsessed about being on his team, his opinion, his growth and strengths as a ninja, and her thoughts always lingered to him.
Young Sakura even keeps her appearance how she thinks he might like it, not how she'd prefer. Her crush grew into a deeper, more balanced love, where Sakura starts to think more on her own. But her love for him did begin as obsessive, possessive, and nonsensical.
Sasuke And Sakura's First Date Only Lasted 2.5 Minutes
In Boruto, Sakura and Ino go to hang out at an overlook by the ocean. Her friend mentions that she knows this is where the Uchiha couple had their first date. Embarrassed, Sakura says it was only two and a half minutes. However, she admits the place brings back fond memories of him.
The place clearly means a lot to her, just because she was there with Sasuke. Yet, their first date barely lasted a few bits of dialogue. After war and the world nearly ending, fans would think Sasuke might want to enjoy the company of his new love. Sasuke never seems to grow a romantic side, though and remains distant as ever.
Sakura's Detrimental Insecurities In Their Relationship
Sakura has a hard time, raising their daughter alone while Sasuke is far away. Though she insists their love is strong and they show their intimacy differently, she clearly struggles with several insecurities. At the mere suggestion that she's not his wife, Sakura breaks down her own house with a punch to the ground. The question isn't even from some rival or enemy - it's from her frustrated and confused daughter.
If their love is as strong as she insists, Sakura shouldn't be so easily sensitive about their relationship. However, she clearly is, and it shows how fragile her connection sometimes is with Sasuke.
Sasuke Never Puts Sakura First
Throughout Naruto, Sakura puts Sasuke before everything. Before her friendships, such as Ino and Naruto and ahead of her safety, trying to bring him back home and, later, to end his madness. She put him in front of her future, even, as she sacrificed her shinobi lifestyle to become a good mother to his child.
On the opposite end, Sasuke never puts Sakura first. He may love her, but his priorities lie first and foremost with protecting the village and succeeding in his missions. Their love and marriage are painfully uneven, and it doesn't make sense for a lasting union to be that way. Though, it seems to be the way they have decided to do things.
Sakura Gave Up Her Konoha Life to Follow Sasuke
After the Fourth Shinobi War, Sasuke leaves town to atone for his sins. The first time, he tells Sakura thank you and says he will come back home. Off-screen, he comes back to visit and this time Sakura joins his journeys.
Though, to follow Sasuke, Sakura had to abandon her life as a Konohakagure shinobi and follow whatever missions he might decide to be on. She spent years training for her work and position, only to drop it all to be by his side. As dedicated as she was, it makes no sense for her to give up her life to follow him. Especially when, later, he only leaves her all over again.
Sakura Continued to Love Sasuke When He Was Evil
At one point, Sasuke was an international criminal being hunted by almost all shinobi. He had committed heinous crimes against others, including attacks, theft, deception, and taking lives. Despite this, though, Sakura loves him. She says it's because she sees the real him underneath it all, and hopes the person he was will return.
Even though it comes true, that belief is senseless. Sasuke cruelly attacked, insulted, and undermined her as a ninja and as a person during this time period. Sakura loving the old Sasuke makes sense, but the new one should have destroyed her romantic interest in him.
Sasuke Tried to End Sakura's Life
The most alarming and troubling fact about their relationship is that Sasuke tried to destroy Sakura. When he was knee-deep in his quest for power, no one mattered but him and his brother. Neither of his two closest friends, Naruto or Sakura, would be allowed to get in his way.
When Sakura begs for a second time to come back, that they could be happy together, he quite literally tries to crush her heart. If her love for him hadn't shattered before, that moment should have done it. However, the couple married regardless. True love conquers even purposefully endangering a partner's life, it seems.