All these "This pairing was so obvious" posts are such disingenuous bullshit. They were obvious to you, were they really, even though the rest of the fandom were debating the merits and likelihood of said pairings for over a decade?
Yeah, it was so obvious how Naruto was going to end up with Hinata even though barely spoke to her and pined for Sakura right up until the epilogue. Kishimoto doubling down on Naruto and Sakura with yet another parallel towards the end by liking Sakura to Kushina was such an obvious feint.
I suppose "Just business" can join the long list of excuses for Sasuke's douchebaggery, right under "he was crazy that time."
Yeah, in the context of the manga, they barely interacted. But I think this is a case of quality over quantity. I reminisce over Naruto and Hinata's interactions, and just about all of them are portrayed in a romantic manner. And are positive (or at bare minimum, neutral) encounters on both sides. For Naruto and Sakura, there are lots more interactions, but they are mostly of teammates going on missions and the few romantic implied encounters were mostly negative for at least one of them. Sakura never once made it known that she thought of Naruto in a romantic way. And outside of the Minato/Naruto joke in the war, Naruto hadn't stated his love for Sakura in a long while. I don't think he stopped loving her, I can agree on that. But I also don't think he was going to pursue her after that confession, either. I think after that, he knew it was a fool's errand. If Sakura knew of every bad thing Sasuke had done up till that point, and she still loved him through all of that, how in the hell could Naruto compete with that?!
And the "just business" isn't an excuse; it's an explanation. And it makes total sense. Sasuke never outright said that he hated Sakura and that he wanted her dead. He only hurt her when she was trying to stop him from doing what he wanted. That isn't a good thing, but it doesn't prove that he had no feelings for her. Though he didn't confess this until 698, we now know that Naruto and Team 7 reminded him of family. Meaning he felt they were a family to him. But in order to do the things he thought he should do, he needed to cut those ties. Cause if he didn't, he would never have the strength to follow through with his plans. It was a cold calculation, not done with true malice. He wasn't enjoying trying to kill, like an Orochimaru would've; he did it as an means to his end. If Naruto and Sakura could've been converted to Sasuke's way of thinking and agreed to join him, then Sasuke probably would've been fine with it. But they wouldn't, so he tried to cut ties with them. Again, not a good thing, and I'm not saying that I would have written the story in the exact same way, but this doesn't mean that he didn't care at all. Just that he was making a VERY bad judgment call.
Kishimoto also said in an interview that Sakura was a lot like his wife (because Oda of all people made the connection) and that Naruto was like himself.
Naruto was supposed to succeed where Jiraiya and Obito and failed, but in the end he, of all people, the one guy that never gives up on anything, gives up on reaching the girl he loved, just like Jiraiya and Obito. The fuck was the point in setting up those two other relationships to mirror Naruto and Sakura?
This. NaruHina never got the development it should have. If it was the intended pairing all along, then the manga would reflect that, but it doesn't.
The parallels between Kishi/his wife and characters in his manga don't mean anything. I hadn't read that before, but that just seems anecdotal more than anything.
Now, about Jiraiya and Obito. This seems silly. Comparing Obito to Naruto in any way is foolish. They might have seemed similar, but that was up until Obito "died". Anything after that, and they are absolutely completely different characters; not to be compared in any way for parallel anything. Jiraiya, on the other hand, can be compared to Naruto, but not with regards to Tsunade, but to Orochimaru. Jiraiya wanted to save his best friend, but couldn't manage to do it. Naruto wanted the same thing, but managed to do so, finally succeeding where his master didn't. While it would've been cool for Jiraiya to get with Tsunade, she had loved someone else for so long that it didn't happen, much the same like Sakura and Naruto. And much the same, Naruto didn't wait around for Sakura to change her mind. And we all know Jiraiya probably has hundreds of little Jiraiya babies all throughout the ninja lands with how many ladies he was hitting up.
Hey, maybe Naruto and Jiraiya can have romantic parallels after all! They both abandoned their first crush.
I think we need to stop with this idea that Naruto either deserved Sakura (like she is some kind of prize) or that he shouldn't have given up on her (like she was some sort of mission). This isn't Sasuke trying to commit mass murder. You try to stop that, no matter what. This is LOVE. You can't force someone, through sheer willpower and repetitiveness, to fall in love with you. That would be a horrible lesson to try to teach kids. If your crush isn't feeling you, then you let it go and move on. I think Naruto will always love Sakura, to some degree. But that doesn't mean you can't find someone else who you not only fall in love with but is in love with YOU! He isn't "settling" with Hinata. He deserves someone who reciprocates his feelings. In all honesty, he upgraded from being in an unrequited relationship into a healthy one.
Well it's been a very very long time since I have reread Naruto, I remember Naruto and Hinata getting more romantic development then Naruto and Sakura. Not a lot mind you, but it is a battle manga for 10 year olds, so it's not exactly surprising.
When Naruto and Hinata interacted it was usually played straight, with her showing how much she loved him, and him liking and respecting her as a person.
With Sakura, it was usually always comedic, and a lot of him teasing her. The only time they had serious moments was when it was about Sasuke, or during that awful confession.
I guess it can be kinda weird because of the Jiraya/Tsunade parallel, and his mom being a creep.
To be honest, I remember Naruto getting over Sakura in like the middle of part 1, when he realized how weirdly devoted Sakura was to Sasuke, and realized he had no chance. Since then, they just had a brother/sister type relationship, and he just really enjoyed teasing her.
Then again, I'm not exactly an expert on love, especially when it's written by someone who understands it even less then I do.
I recall it much like this as well.
But stuff that happened in the manga made it obvious to me. The paralolz was the only thing keeping the NS ship afloat during part 2, NH got a lot more pivotal scenes and Naruto didn't outright reject her like Sasuke with Sakura.
There aren't any moments between Naruto and Sakura that can compare to Hinata protecting Naruto from Pain, Hinata slap to Naruto, or the holding hand moment.
And when Minato is fading away when the edo tensei techinique is wearing off in the final arc after the fight with Kaguya, Naruto tells him that he didn't follow Kushina's advice by the letter, that he did stuff differently. Implying that NS was not happening
This too.
Let's totally ignore the fact that Sakura LITERALLY held Naruto's heart in her hand to save his life by any means necessary.
Yeah, a teammate to whom she knew the importance of keeping alive, for the sake of winning this war. Especially since being a medical ninja is her JOB, and with her being the second coming of Tsunade, the best medical ninja out there, she better damn well be good enough to do her job.
Again, nothing that she has said or done had any indication that she had actual
romantic feelings for Naruto. Any time she showed any romantic feeling outwardly in the manga, it was directed towards Sasuke. Every time. We can argue whether that was a good thing or not, but that is another argument.
