Sasusaku is very popular hetero ship in China and Japan. Below are the summary:
SasuSaku is a deformed, twisted East-Asian-style tragic romance couple(from Sasuke’s perspective). For a long time, their relationship existed in an"unhealthy state". and Kishi even described it as "sticky" and complex (interview source )
After a long time, I went back and looked through some old SasuSaku posts and videos again, and I still feel that this kind of malformed, soul-tearing CP perfectly fits “our” (East Asian fans’) aesthetic.
Sasuke is like a soft-hearted but easily triggered tsundere cat. He’s severely love-deprived and lacks a sense of belonging. Ever since he was little, he was never as good as his brother; his father clearly favored Itachi; he’s extremely sensitive and a little proud (classic small tsundere). His whole “cool and aloof” act is just a shell to hide how fragile he actually is. He breaks down very easily, examples include but are not limited to: Naruto saving Sakura and Sakura paying more attention to Naruto; their reunion in Shippuden when Sai and Yamato show up and everything immediately turns into a fight; Sakura’s attempted assassination. Some of these moments make people hate on Sakura, but from Sasuke’s point of view, her actions and reactions are all catalysts that drive him insane.
From Sasuke’s perspective: he has an older brother who’s better than him at everything, parents and everyone else care more about Itachi, and then there’s this really pretty girl who only has eyes for him, who never abandons him, who boldly confesses her love, who’s even willing to die for him. If he didn’t have the weight of revenge on his shoulders, he would’ve fallen into the “dating game” so easily (lol). That’s why he never responds to Sakura’s feelings, but he also never clearly rejects her. It’s that ambiguous “I have no reason to like her, but I also have no reason to be liked by her” attitude, super vague and teasing. He could’ve just said “I hate you” and shut it down completely, but instead he keeps saying stuff like “you’re so annoying,” leaving everything hanging, keeping people on the hook. It’s maddeningly addictive.
He avoids his feelings and self-destructs internally. A lot of Sakura’s emotional reactions actually make sense in context, but they still hurt Sasuke deeply. “You were the one who liked me first, who was good to me, whose eyes were always on me, so why are you looking at someone else now? Why are you betraying me for someone else?” He constantly needs confirmation that he matters, that he is loved. He even tests people by pushing them away, tormenting both himself and others in the process. With Itachi and with Naruto, he’s actually very straightforward: “I’m going to kill you,” “I want to compete with you,” “I care about you,” “I acknowledge you.” But when it comes to romantic feelings, he’s incredibly awkward and twisted. You never know where you stand with him, and that hopeless uncertainty makes most people give up.
But Sakura’s persistence and love eventually gave Sasuke a sense of security. In the end, he was willing to entrust himself to her, yes, entrust. Sasuke is actually a bit like a girl in this regard; he carried that mindset of “A man’s love may be escaped, but a woman’s love cannot be escaped.” Finally he met someone he felt was right, someone who loved him deeply, and he “married himself off” to her.
