Is Sasuke able to love?

I don't know. Sasuke did not let or (suppressed) his feelings to achieve his first goal: killing Itachi. What happened after did not make things better. Now he is back, but he has now his own ideas about peace... To me, Sasuke's feelings were always a mystery. Some think he is "asexual" etc., some think he won't end up with anybody but that would go against his goal to restore his clan.

If you want to discuss anything about that, then share your opinions. I'm sure your perspectives, points and comments will enlighten my ignorance regarding this mystery. Thank you.

Sasuke does everything because he loves his family & clan above all else. There's no question that Sasuke loves.

If you are referring to romantic love, he's never given it a chance as the massacre happened before he probably would've truly thought about it. However, considering his ability to suppress his feelings (to an extent anyway), that's not really all that surprising. He'll give it a chance once his other goals are satisifed--not before.

Of course, there's always the possibility of something that happened before the massacre when Sasuke was a much happier child. IF something happened then, we won't find out about it until close to the end of the series unfortunately.

Maybe Sasuke can go do Konoha a big favor and just go play in traffic and try to make friends with cars.

But to be completely objective about this though, SS has received pretty much the same amount of attention as NH, so it's only fair that it becomes canon as well.

I'm thinking once the war is over he starts behaving like a regular 16 year old and starts worrying less about avenging his family and more about getting high and picking up girls (he's already got the second one covered for christ's sake).

If anyone needs to chill out it's him, seriously.

Rofl, I agree. Sasuke, put down the sword, pick up a blunt and relax already.

engetsu wrote:Maybe Sasuke can go do Konoha a big favor and just go play in traffic and try to make friends with cars.

But to be completely objective about this though, SS has received pretty much the same amount of attention as NH, so it's only fair that it becomes canon as well.

I'm thinking once the war is over he starts behaving like a regular 16 year old and starts worrying less about avenging his family and more about getting high and picking up girls (he's already got the second one covered for christ's sake).

If anyone needs to chill out it's him, seriously.

I agree that SasuSaku had cute moments in Part 1 but Part 2 lacks some developments regarding these two, unless the majority of the moments which happened were more confrontations and attempts to kill each other, mirrors the Eros/Thanatos concept. The game of Love and Death and their constant interaction.

^There's more to SasuSaku in Part 2 than their attempts to kill each other. One of the reasons SasuSaku gets underestimated is too many people ignore Sakura's clear moments of showing her interest in Sasuke because she's being a lot more mature about it--even though she stopped being "immature" about it early on during the Chuunin exams. Reducing SasuSaku moments to only "big instances" is one of the reasons some constantly argue that NaruHina doesn't have "enough development." Most pairing moments are subtle regardless of the pairing.

Yamasaki Akaiko wrote:^There's more to SasuSaku in Part 2 than their attempts to kill each other. One of the reasons SasuSaku gets underestimated is too many people ignore Sakura's clear moments of showing her interest in Sasuke because she's being a lot more mature about it--even though she stopped being "immature" about it early on during the Chuunin exams. Reducing SasuSaku moments to only "big instances" is one of the reasons some constantly argue that NaruHina doesn't have "enough development." Most pairing moments are subtle regardless of the pairing.

And the other around? What about Sasuke? What are his true feelings towards Sakura? I need some answers that could make this pairing believable to me. So, please could you enlighten me? Thanks!

Sasuke is capable of love though hatred blinded him to it for a long time. He however has given up on revenge so given enough time I see no reason he couldn't or wouldn't want to love. Before that though also begs the question How many are actually willing to love him and trust him. Relationships go both ways. He has already tried to kill two women that love him. Both of which I think have trust issues. I do not think even Ino would over look everything else he has done at this point even if everyone was told the truth about Itachi. Though Ino did go fan girl on him when he returned to the battle field so maybe she is that stupid who knows. Some girls like the bad boy image I guess.

Irielo wrote:

Yamasaki Akaiko wrote:^There's more to SasuSaku in Part 2 than their attempts to kill each other. One of the reasons SasuSaku gets underestimated is too many people ignore Sakura's clear moments of showing her interest in Sasuke because she's being a lot more mature about it--even though she stopped being "immature" about it early on during the Chuunin exams. Reducing SasuSaku moments to only "big instances" is one of the reasons some constantly argue that NaruHina doesn't have "enough development." Most pairing moments are subtle regardless of the pairing.

And the other around? What about Sasuke? What are his true feelings towards Sakura? I need some answers that could make this pairing believable to me. So, please could you enlighten me? Thanks!

No one knows Sasuke's "true" feelings towards Sakura. Anyone who says that they do is taking their interpretation to be "fact" when it can't be considering Sasuke is meant to be the "ambiguous" one of the team. She's clearly on the same level as Naruto & Kakashi in terms of care (there's a reason that Sasuke always thinks of all of the members of Team 7 and if he does only think of two it's Naruto & Sakura with Kakashi missing). Sasuke's care for each of his teammates is different though as there's a reason why Sasuke "sized up" Naruto when they started fighting after Naruto's show of strength but smiled/smirked for Sakura's show of strength instead without any form of possible dislike about it.

Of course, all the notes (chapter covers or databooks) that always said that Sasuke couldn't let in Sakura's romantic feelings is one of the reasons why I don't think it'll be farfetched to find out that Sasuke cared for Sakura more than anyone other than Naruto realizes. The reason I say Naruto is that ironically Naruto was the one who witnessed most of Sasuke's shows of deep concern over Sakura (and Sakura was usually unconscious or not able to see it for some reason which is why she's never been exactly sure).

However, there's no way to make a pairing "believable" to anyone. Either you like it or you don't, unless you meant believable in terms of its extremely high chances of becoming official by the end of the series.

Yamasaki Akaiko wrote:

Irielo wrote:

Yamasaki Akaiko wrote:^There's more to SasuSaku in Part 2 than their attempts to kill each other. One of the reasons SasuSaku gets underestimated is too many people ignore Sakura's clear moments of showing her interest in Sasuke because she's being a lot more mature about it--even though she stopped being "immature" about it early on during the Chuunin exams. Reducing SasuSaku moments to only "big instances" is one of the reasons some constantly argue that NaruHina doesn't have "enough development." Most pairing moments are subtle regardless of the pairing.

And the other around? What about Sasuke? What are his true feelings towards Sakura? I need some answers that could make this pairing believable to me. So, please could you enlighten me? Thanks!

No one knows Sasuke's "true" feelings towards Sakura. Anyone who says that they do is taking their interpretation to be "fact" when it can't be considering Sasuke is meant to be the "ambiguous" one of the team. She's clearly on the same level as Naruto & Kakashi in terms of care (there's a reason that Sasuke always thinks of all of the members of Team 7 and if he does only think of two it's Naruto & Sakura with Kakashi missing). Sasuke's care for each of his teammates is different though as there's a reason why Sasuke "sized up" Naruto when they started fighting after Naruto's show of strength but smiled/smirked for Sakura's show of strength instead without any form of possible dislike about it.

Of course, all the notes (chapter covers or databooks) that always said that Sasuke couldn't let in Sakura's romantic feelings is one of the reasons why I don't think it'll be farfetched to find out that Sasuke cared for Sakura more than anyone other than Naruto realizes. The reason I say Naruto is that ironically Naruto was the one who witnessed most of Sasuke's shows of deep concern over Sakura (and Sakura was usually unconscious or not able to see it for some reason which is why she's never been exactly sure).

However, there's no way to make a pairing "believable" to anyone. Either you like it or you don't, unless you meant believable in terms of its extremely high chances of becoming official by the end of the series.

I meant this exactly because I have nothing against SasuSaku. I find this pairing ok. But I could not imagine Sakura following Sasuke if the latter tried to kill Naruto.

Sasuke has already done that. It happened in Part 1. To some extent, it happened in Part 2 as well at the same time that Sakura & Sasuke had their attempts at killiing each other.

Sakura has already chosen to not follow Sasuke, but she still loves him. Sakura loves Sasuke while not condoning his actions (similar to how Itachi told Sasuke that he'd always love Sasuke even if Sasuke chose to do things that go against what he wanted at the end of the day--fortunately for Itachi, Sasuke is going to eventually do what he would've liked though it will take awhile).

At the end for Naruto to be able to save the world he and Sasuke are going to have to end up not only on the same side but able to work together. There's a reason Kishimoto had Madara tell Hashirama that part of the all important tablet in the Uchiha's shrine spoke about two opposing forces needing to work together. Madara rejected that idea when he chose not to trust Hashirama anymore & left Konoha which was the beginning of his current plan. Kishimoto couldn't have made the ending of the series more obvious if he tried considering the main point of the series is that Naruto & Sasuke are going to have to become willing to work together & see each other as equals unlike all the others in history before them (including the sons of the Sage which are currently the ones "credited" for "starting" the problems).

Yamasaki Akaiko wrote:Sasuke has already done that. It happened in Part 1. To some extent, it happened in Part 2 as well at the same time that Sakura & Sasuke had their attempts at killiing each other.

Sakura has already chosen to not follow Sasuke, but she still loves him. Sakura loves Sasuke while not condoning his actions (similar to how Itachi told Sasuke that he'd always love Sasuke even if Sasuke chose to do things that go against what he wanted at the end of the day--fortunately for Itachi, Sasuke is going to eventually do what he would've liked though it will take awhile).

At the end for Naruto to be able to save the world he and Sasuke are going to have to end up not only on the same side but able to work together. There's a reason Kishimoto had Madara tell Hashirama that part of the all important tablet in the Uchiha's shrine spoke about two opposing forces needing to work together. Madara rejected that idea when he chose not to trust Hashirama anymore & left Konoha which was the beginning of his current plan. Kishimoto couldn't have made the ending of the series more obvious if he tried considering the main point of the series is that Naruto & Sasuke are going to have to become willing to work together & see each other as equals unlike all the others in history before them (including the sons of the Sage which are currently the ones "credited" for "starting" the problems).

Thanks for this great answer because I really hope to see that happening. Naruto and Sasuke do make an excellent team and if they achieve that, they will surpass the former generations. And that's an important concept in Naruto.