Okay I'm just now realizing how hard it is to write something sarcastically.

So no more of that. 😅

Let's just straight up say that he does care about Sakura, and that he's acknowledged her strength.

Episode 437. It's a filler Tsukyomi dream, but even if it is a filler, it happened. It's a legit canon episode that Kishimoto created, and it exists in this world. That's all that matters.

Anyways. When all the teams get split from their sensei, they end up moving to find each other. Team 8 goes to find Team 10, who's just sitting and waiting for Team 8. Team Guy is out looking for other teams while Team 7 is just arguing. Eventually Teams 8 and 10 find each other and go off doing what they do, Team Guy finds Team 7 but eventually break up when Naruto and Neji get sent away somewhere, Lee is bent on finding Guy-Sensei and Neji, so he and Tenten go off looking for them while SASUKE and SAKURA head back to the village. That's the run-down on what's going on in this ep, if you haven't seen it.

So the two go walking for some time until they reach a clearing and decide to just wait for the teams to find them.

Then, of course, they're attacked by Sasori. They easily evade all his attacks, but guess who gets poisoned. NOT Sakura.

And just like she did in Shippuden...

Sakura was able to extract the poison from Sasuke's blood stream and his reaction is PRICELESS.

And so from there, he allowed her to heal him, instead of just pushing her away, like the lone wolf he always is.

Then at the sound of rustling in the bushes, his first reaction is

Then when it comes to having to fight off a bunch of puppets,

You can imagine Sasuke would ask himself, "can I take on 100 puppets?"

But his reaction was different from what I thought.

He doesn't ask about just himself, all by himself, it's Sakura and I.

Finally, the other Teams 8 and 10 find them. And while they're talking about what to do, look who's not paying attention.

Uh, hello Sasuke, Kiba and Shikamaru are the ones talking. They're not over there where SAKURA'S standing... 😂

So there you have it. Sasuke does care about her, unlike what my other chappie said. 😂