Sasuke & Sakura: An Analysis

There is a lot of development between Sasuke and Sakura in the Forest of Death. In some ways, you could consider the Forest of Death arc a SasuSaku genin arc, since their relationship develops so much and has a surprising amount of focus in this arc.

We see that Sasuke is aware of and reliant on Sakura's intelligence, as he makes a long password code in the Forest of Death, relying on Sakura's ability to flawlessly remember it word for word (meanwhile he relied on Naruto being too stupid to remember any of it). It shows Sasuke's faith in Sakura's strengths and memory skills, trusting her in potentially lethal scenarios to be a quick study.

The Forest of Death is where Sakura starts to witness firsthand that the cool, unshakably brave and calm Sasuke isn't as infallible as she used to think. Sakura's infatuation of Sasuke as the perfect cool guy is stripped away as she realizes how human he is. Sasuke and Sakura experience many hardships together, a harrowing experience that brings them closer together. While Naruto gets split from the group and is largely out of things, Sasuke and Sakura are put through the ringer, being repeatedly attacked and experiencing the paralyzing horror of Orochimaru's genjutsu. They experience the pain and fear of death so intensely that it freezes them in their tracks. Sasuke has to injure himself just to be able to move again in time to save himself and Sakura in the nick of time.