To me the whole thing was dead in the water since the time jump but what blew it out of the water was when Sakura went to kill Sasuke assassinating her character in the process as she confesses her 'love' for Naruto and he tosses that bullshit right back in her face. Arguably the worst chapter in the series.
Naru/Hina has been in the cards forever as many have pointed out and the Pain arc more or less made it a guarantee. The only frustrating thing about it (could have been bad translations) was Kishi teasing otherwise with Sakura and Naruto's father pointing out how much like his mother Sakura was. Naruto's mom was a much better character despite being in the series less than 5 chapters ironically.
Hina made big strides to show her affection for him and did shit (which is huge in a manga where girls are constantly pushed aside) when it counted. She really should have been the third member of Naruto's squad so they could have more reason to interact naturally. God knows Sasuke has enough annoying fangirls and adding one to the team didn't help any.
In short girls really got screwed character development wise in this series. Sad this is common in most shonen I read.
