____________//INFO: THE STORY: EPISODES 1 - 9 ♥

 
 _____//FIRST OPENING: ROCKS [♥]

Okay, I have to talk about opening sequences because they all hint at SasuSaku. By this, I mean there is always a few shots of them together. Why not Sakura with Naruto or Sasuke with Kakashi? Perhaps it is because SasuSaku is meant to be and the creator of Naruto (Kishimoto-san) worked with the anime and told them to work it in. Anyhow, in the first song, whilst the guitar is twanging, there is a large shot of team seven on a hillside and it looks as though Sasuke and Sakura are standing side by side, awww, just like a couple.

At around 22 seconds, once Naruto has been introduced he turns around to see Sasuke and Sakura. See, they're together again! Later, they're in a fight sequence together (before Kakashi and Naruto turns up) at around 47 seconds. At the line "fighting and loving another" (~1:08) they are in pictured together again (okay, Kakashi's there too). Yes, you probably think I am reading waaay too much into this, but that's what couple shrines are meant to do. They read much too deeply to please the fans with every tiiiiny possible hint :P

 _____//EPISODE 1

The first shot of Sasuke that we see is his back as he sits at the rear of the classroom. Due to Naruto's immaturity, the students have to do the "henge" test again and first up is Sakura who does it with ease. We first see her liking for Sasuke at the end when she asks him if he saw it. He ignores her and performs the henge himself. That is all the Sakura/Sasuke action we get to see for now..

 _____//EPISODE 3

Of course Sakura and Sasuke are going to be on Naruto's team. Just by watching the previous episodes' opening and ending credits you can tell :P Plus, the title doesn't give anything away either. (PS I think it's sad Naruto's birthday isn't mentioned on his own calendar!) After Naruto's morning routine, we are treated to some Sakura-ness.

The first shot of her room reveals a robe with "fighting spirit" written on it, giving us clues to her fiery personality. Sakura is in her room getting ready for the explanatory meeting when he mother pipes up. Sakura gets annoyed and responds aggitatedly and wishes she wasn't treated as a child (ohoho, recurrence later on). As Sakura begins her walk to the academy, we meet Ino and discover their rivalry as we watch taunting each other and racing to the building.

In the classroom, Naruto is seated next to Sasuke. Strange, seeing as how Naruto sees him as a rival. We also discover that Naruto has a crush on Sakura whilst Sakura likes Sasuke, who merely looks at her when she greets him. Sakura and Ino now argue about who gets to sit next to Sasuke, which leads to Naruto being all jealous and him glaring at Sasuke. This just leads to a Shikamaru lookalike's accidental bump which leads to the SasuNaru kiss. This leads to Sakura and all the other girls becoming rather angry at Naruto.

Throughout all this, the jounins and Hokage are watching the pupils through some magic crystal ball. Iruka-sensei then comes in and talks about being genins and them being divided into teams of three. Naruto wants to be with Sakura, Sakura is determined to be with Sasuke and Sasuke thinks being with others will only burden him. Basically, team seven is born, yadda yadda.

Finally it is breaktime and Sakura is looking for Sasuke so they can eat lunch together. As it happens, Naruto has the same idea with Sakura but she shoots him down and calls him annoying. Later.. Naruto sees Sasuke and attacks him. And.. Sasuke is the winner?! Sasuke then proceeds to find Sakura, alone on a bench dreaming about Sasuke. She looks up to find Sasuke staring at her and then he acts out her daydream :O Except he is dreaming. Then he sits by her and asks her what he thinks of Naruto to find she thinks lowly of him, she only wants to be accepted by Sasuke.

But! Sasuke is tied up and we see how Naruto tricked him. Elsewhere, unfortunately for Naruto (now "Sasuke") his drinking expired milk has come with its consequences just as Sakura is leaning in for a kiss so he runs off, which makes Sakura think Sasuke is a shy guy. When the real Sasuke comes by, she puts her foot in it when telling him to forget about Naruto by mentioning that he doesn't have parents and how he can act so carelessly and selfishly because he will not be scolded.

This obviously hits a nerve with Sasuke when he comes back with "The solitude.. you can't even compare it to the level of where your parents get mad at you... You're annoying," before walking away. This gets Sakura thinking and she decides that she will be nicer to Naruto from now on. Aw, Sasuke has taught her a lesson.

 _____//EPISODE 4

Team seven are waiting for the arrival of Kakashi, who is late. Naruto decides to lay a trap for the late teacher and Sakura pretends to nag at him but secretly spurs him on. Sasuke, however, thinks a jounin couldn't fall for such a basic trap. He was wrong. They then go to some place where they introduce themselves and here we first learn things about Sasuke. For example, of his ambition to revive his clan as well as kill a certain man. Apparently Kakashi had these suspicions all along, so what does this tell us about Sasuke's past, hm?

Team seven are told about the survival training so they leave and meet in the specified spot way before the sun comes up at 5am. They wait. And wait. And wait. By 11pm, only Sasuke has the will to continue standing when Kakashi finally arrives. (Episodes four and five are probably where Kakashi is more emotional with his voice) They are told about the details of the task of getting a bell from him in order to truly pass as a genin. So off they go.

Sakura and Sasuke are well hid, like good little ninjas as they watch Naruto (unsuccessfully) tackle the jounin head on. They watch in amazement and see just how highly skilled their would-be sensei is, with Sasuke giving us a running commentary about the kawarimi no jutsu. Finally, whilst Kakashi is lecturing Naruto about falling into obvious traps, Sasuke sees his chance as Kakashi has let his guard down and throws a bunch of shuriken and kunai at Kakashi and apparently, he's right on target. (Anime-Sasuke looks a lot like manga-Sasuke whilst in the tree)

 _____//EPISODE 5 [♥]

Lo and behold, Kakashi tricked Sasuke with the kawarimi no jutsu so Sasuke needs to run as the attack meant revealing his location. Sakura realises this as well and chases after Sasuke. She first spots Kakashi standing there.. until a voice behind her tells her that the one she is seeing is a replication and the real one is behind her. He then disappears and.. a voice cries for Sakura. She turns around to see a bleeding and broken Sasuke with a bunch of weapons stuck in his body. She screams and faints. We then find out that it was only a genjutsu technique by Kakashi.

Sasuke hears the scream and realises it's Sakura. Yes, Sakura is the most likely to scream but him knowing it is her tells us something. Right? Kakashi and Sasuke talk about genjutsu (really, explaining it to the viewer) and then Sasuke takes Kakashi on, who is surprised by Sasuke's skill. Sasuke, of course, is no real match for Kakashi and ends up stuck in the ground with just his head sticking out.

Whilst Kakashi is off tending to Naruto, Sakura runs by and sees Sasuke's head. (Sasuke makes such adorable faces in this scene) Upon hearing Sasuke utter her name, she faints because she still believes he was injured earlier and this is a talking severed head. He somehow gets out of the hole and he waits for Sakura to recover. Okay, this either points at SasuSaku or just tells us that Sasuke is not entirely heartless. She is elated to find he isn't hurt and hugs him :P

Sasuke then decides to try getting a bell again but Sakura tries to persuade him to just leave it but we see the determination in Sasuke as he begins to tell her a bit about his past, but it's still a little cryptic. He even tells her that he cried, that's what real men do, admit that they've cried. (Okay, he was eight..) The bell rings, signalling the end of the mission. (Attention fanfic wrtiers, see, Sasuke DOES talk, he isn't a mute!)

Kakashi sort of pretends that team seven have passed (apparently Sasuke can only convey happiness through smirking) but then he punches them in the face by telling them that none of them should become ninjas. He decides to give them one more chance after lunch to show him that they can work in a team (the answer to the test) but warns Sakura and Sasuke not to feed Naruto otherwise they will immediately fail. Sasuke's nice (well, he could just be doing it to pass) side is shown when he offers his bentou to Naruto. Basically, they pass because they proclaim themselves as a one.

"Ninjas who break the rules are considered scum. But ninjas who betray their friends are even lower than scum." GO KAKASHI!

 _____//EPISODE 6

This episode opens up with team seven on a mission.. not a very exciting one. They appear to have completed many missions like this so Naruto begins to complain and after a lecture, they are given a C rank mission, much to his delight (and Sasuke's). Team seven are to guard the bridge building expert, Tazuna, on his journey home as well as during his time building the bridge. And so they set off.

Before they know it, they are attacked unexpectedly by two ninjas from the village of the mist (we saw them a bit earlier hidden in the trees) and Sasuke kicks their asses easily (let the fangirling ensue). The two enemies are released from being bound to the tree by one of Sasuke's kicks and they then begin to rush head on towards Tazuna, who is standing behind Sakura. She wills herself to defend him and leaps in front of him with a kunai in her hands.

Sasuke notices and leaps in front of... Sakura... or Sakura and Tazuna (that is for you, the SasuSaku-er to decide)? Kakshi then comes in and saves the day with Sasuke making another adorable face (he only displays such emotion in the first few eps :/) calling Kakashi a show-off (pot calling the kettle black?). Kakashi praises both Sasuke and Sakura for doing a good job at defending the person they were hired to protect.

 _____//EPISODE 7

They finally arrive in the Country of the Wave, without many interruptions. Tazuna lets on about the true story; someone is after him because they don't want him to complete the bridge which will join Wave to other countries as this man wants all the money he can get from Wave.

Whilst travelling once more, they run into Zabuza and Kakashi feels it is time to reveal the Sharingan. But what is this Sharingan? Sasuke explains. How does he know? The Sharingan is a special trait that only appears within the Uchiha clan.. so how did Kakashi get it. Zabuza makes the whole area thick with mist so it is difficult to see (Zabuza is an expert in silent killing). As the two jounin prepare for battle, Sasuke senses the urgency to kill and this actually scares him, but Kakashi reassures him.

 _____//EPISODE 8

It seemed as though Kakashi had the upperhand but he was tricked and gets trapped in a hydro prison. Kakashi tells them to run, but Sasuke realises that they'll eventually be killed anyway so they have to stay and the only way to survive is to rescue Kakashi, so he runs in for the kill, only to get thrown back. After a scene with Naruto getting worked up, he tells Sasuke he has a plan. They don't even need to exchange words for Sasuke to catch on, see how awesome they can be in a team?

But first, words need to be exchanged and Sasuke needs to get beaten up before Naruto intervenes with his shadow replications and put his plan into action by throwing a giant shuriken at Sasuke, who immediately understands the idea. He then uses the Fuuma Shuriken (Shadow Windmill) which appears to miss, but there was a second one in it's shadow (shadow shuriken technique) which is easily dodged by Zabuza. HOWEVER, this was actually Naruto...

 _____//EPISODE 9

This leads to Kakashi being released from his water prison and Naruto's plan is explained (it's a wonder Zabuza doesn't attack during this long speech). Sasuke thinks this is all just luck and Sakura wonders how two rivals could pull off such great teamwork. Sasuke fears for Sakura/worried about Tazuna and tells her not to let her guard down (then he stares at her [Tazuna] a lot). They then watch as Kakashi proceeds to beat Zabuza, but the final blow is dealt by a mysterious masked BOY, who takes him away. "In this world there are kids younger than me and stronger than me," says Kakashi. Now why does that hit a nerve with Sasuke? :P

Episodes 10 - 19