Don't you do the same when saying NaruSaku should have happened, when the manga for years has told us Sakura loved Sasuke, and not once did her love waver towards him? The same manga that has never shown Sakura showing the same affection towards Naruto, and the same manga where after the "confession" scene, the one time a NaruSaku moment is brought up, it's played for laughs?
Sure, this manga has a lot of wasted development, but the guidelines were there. Sakura could not give up her love for Sasuke, Naruto had a "crush" on Sakura, but realizes that his crush loves another. Hinata loves Naruto, and Naruto has always been a guy who gets over any obstacles, can get through any issue, and what would be the one thing that impedes Naruto from having a happy ending? An ending with a SO that loves him and not another?
Dropping his first crush and getting with someone who truly loves him.
NaruSaku was never going to happen.
Also, the whole parallel crap is just crap. When the entire point of Naruto was that you make your own destiny, you really think Naruto was going to follow at least one parallel?
Naruto was different from his dad, from Asura, from Nagato, from Obito. Those "parallels" existed for Naruto to break. So when his mother told him to find someone like her, did it not cross your mind that would be another parallel for Naruto to break? Naruto the character has never followed a parallel.
I suggest you read up on the link about hindsight bias TactialFox supplied.
Sakura's love for Sasuke did waver. In the love whatever-you-want-to-call-it consisting of Hinata > Naruto > Sakura > Sasuke, only Sakura's love was ever put into question.
She loved Sasuke, and yet at the same time she had feelings for Naruto that were hinted at in the manga and the data books, and with those ambiguous feelings in mind, so many more of their interactions could have been construed to have romantic connotations.
No one else in that weird paradigm of unrequited love ever changed how they felt until the very last minute.
Whatever argument you bring up in favour of NaruHina and how it was supposedly "obvious" all along is weighed down by the mere fact Naruto was never attracted to her in the manga, and the fact that pairing needs a movie to explain how it came to be two years after the events of 699. You'd have to disingenuous to disregard that.
As for the parallels, Kishimoto uses them as a crutch. The manga is absolutely rife with them. They are not at all meaningless. You can choose to interpret them in whichever way you'd like, but I believe the more obvious interpretation is that Naruto was meant to succeed where Jiraiya and Obito had failed. He was meant to succeed in redeeming his friend and returning him to the village, and he was meant to get the girl in the end. Somewhere down the line, Kishimoto changed his mind, and I've made as much peace with that as I'm ever going to be able to.
Just for the sake of the argument though, Naruto making his own destiny was thrown out of the window when he was revealed to be the Child of Prophecy and the descendant of a demigod.
This is all missing the point of course, the biggest point anyway, which is: if NaruHina was meant to happen from the very start, then surely the manga would reflect that, surely there wouldn't have been a need for a movie, surely Naruto would have at the very least been hinted at being attracted to her in some kind of way in the manga, surely Kishimoto wouldn't have made her feelings so one-sided, and surely he wouldn't have chosen Sakura to call for him when the village was in danger or to embrace him when he returned after the battle. If it were Hinata all along rather than Sakura, then surely she would have been the one to play intermediary for what he was thinking and feeling during the war when no one else understood, and surely, that late into the game, Kishimoto would have written it so Minato drew the connection to Hinata rather than Sakura?
The biggest giveaway is the lack of closure for both Naruto and Karin. Their feelings were swept under the rug. Naruto was paired up with Hinata in a movie, and Karin disappeared, never to be seen again after she awakened her chakra chains to come to Sasuke's aid.
It's not that I haven't accepted the ending for what it is. I have. NaruHina, for all the shit I may gave it, is still a fine ship. I'm disappointed NaruSaku didn't become canon, but I don't mind it as much anymore. But I do mind the lack of closure for the ship I supported, and I do mind the fact NaruHina shippers suddenly possess the confidence they never had before to declare how it was obvious all along despite the fact the lion's share of development between potential couples was undeniably with NaruSaku.
I don't begrudge you being pleased with the ending even though I hate it, but I'm still going to criticise it, I'm still going to poke holes in it. Call it a difference of opinion, call it being salty or whatever, I honestly don't care though I do you the courtesy of responding to your posts anyway because just maybe you'll see things my way, or maybe you'll open my eyes to something I overlooked. I can't say I appreciate the blatant hindsight bias though. It's weak.
