I'm so fed up with people using Sasuke putting Sakura under genjutsu as an example of why Sasusaku is supposed to be toxic.
Sasuke had to fight Naruto; Sakura would have gotten in the way. He knew that because it had always been like that - on the hospital roof when they were still genin, for example. And as per usual, SP downgraded genin Sasuke's reaction to Sakura jumping between his Chidori and Naruto's Rasengan. In the Manga, he looks absolutely horrified by the prospect of actually ending up killing Sakura in his attempt to defeat Naruto:
In my humble opinion, he almost looks more horrified than Naruto. Given that by that point, Sasuke already saw a shadow of his family in Team 7, we can easily understand how the prospect of killing innocent Sakura, of all people, upset him. They were about to kill Sakura, a comrade Sasuke had learn to protect and care for, a girl who had only shown him love and kindness - unconditionally, despite his shortcomings. Sakura, who did not, unlike Naruto, remind him of Itachi, was, by that point, as close to a loving, untainted familial bond as genin, post-massacre Sasuke Uchiha could get.
So yeah, Curse of Hatred Sasuke might have cared about fighting with Naruto first and foremost, and maybe that really was the only reason why he put Sakura under genjutsu. But those who really understand Sasuke's characterization know that a part of his reasoning was guided by his desire not to harm her because of what happened on that hospital roof.
This panel, a few chapters before, proves my point:
Sasuke instinctively protected Sakura and Kakashi from the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and it goes to show that by fighting side by side with Team 7 again during the war, Sasuke was already starting to break the Curse of Hatred. He was coming back to his true self by reestablishing the bonds he had so desperately tried to severe.
It's almost ironic that his last attempt to break his bond with Sakura is also a testament of how much he deeply cares - a testament of the fact that his bonds will actually never really be severed on his part because of who he truly is.









