Board Thread:Naruto Gaiden/@comment-26904721-20150819175325/@comment-26567684-20150820010342

Up until chapter 700 was released, I thought that Sasuke never cared about Sakura, or at least in a romantic sense in part 1 and he didn't care about her at all in part 2. He was always brushing her expressions of love and made it clear that his quest for revenge was more important than anything, including his bond with her and the rest of the team. But, I think that he did develop feelings for her when they were still genins because of how much he protected her and allowed her to hug him sometimes, and wanted to get revenge on the Sound ninjas who hurt Sakura in the Chunin exam. I don't know for sure if this accurate but I saw a quote that supposedly came from a novel where Sasuke admitted to being half in love with Sakura when he left the village. It was his bond with her and the team that he blamed for making him weak and promted his decision to sever that bond in order to get stronger, and after 3 years of separation, he was willing to kill her if it meant severing the bond permenantly. I was amazed that despite of what Sasuke had done to her, Sakura still defended him and continued to love him, but her feelings had gone from infatuation aimed to make him solely hers to true love that stemmed from her desire to save him from darkness and revenge. I guess that's the meaning of true love. When I read chapter 699 and saw Sasuke poke Sakura in the forehead, I was in awe that he would consider being with her after insisting he had no reason to love her. But now, after reading Gaiden, its obvious that Sasuke loves Sakura, as he tells Sarada that she wouldn't exist if he didn't love Sakura. Even though he spends most of their marriage on a mission, Sakura never complained and was very happy with her marriage and family because Sasuke loves her and their daughter, and Sasuke does the mission to keep his family safe. I still think its a complicated relationship, and I still don't understand why Sakura can forgive Sasuke so easily after the terrible things he did to her.