If SasuSaku happens in part 1 or early part 2, then yeah I can imagine NaruSaku wouldn't develop much of a bond. We can see their bond is non-existent post the ending and in Boruto as evidence for that.

Their connection and friendship for much of the series was on getting Sasuke back and as soon as Sasuke was back, they don't act much more than acquaintances. That's why I always thought the brother/sister arguments were weak arguments. I don't see one moment of them acting like best friends or brother/sister in Boruto.

Once you remove any notion of romance for Naruto and Sakura, then there is basically nothing left for their relationship for ikemoto or kishimoto to write about.

 
You really can't forget about me, can you? I never said anything like that. Since you quoted me months later, I will clarify some recent events for some delusional fans who are still mourning NaruSaku death after 9 years.
 
I stated that they would disregard the Boruto manga storyline due to its poor quality and Ikemoto's inability to craft a compelling narrative or produce decent artwork. This has nothing to do with the canon couples.
 
The producers admited that:
 

 
As you can see, they would rather create their own story instead of use Ikemoto story. 
 
- Instead of focusing on Boruto and Kawaki, they shifted their focus to Sasuke and Naruto.
- Rather than the Otsutsuki, they centered their attention on the Uchiha clan.
- Instead of the Karma power, they focused on the Sharingan.
- War and clans conflict instead of the aliens.
 
 
At this point they're just try to milk out the Uchihas and popular plots then tried to hide it by adding Boruto's character in the game.  

 
Despite your alleged popularity of NaruSaku, which led to a decline in the franchise's popularity due to fan backlash, the game producers remained oblivious and made no alterations to the canon couples. Instead of developing an alternative NaruSaku family, they introduced a New Team Special featuring Sasuke, Sakura, and Sarada. 
 
As you can see, Nanashi was just an Uchiha wearing a blonde wig instead of a NaruSaku daughter from another dimension. Let's hope that every blonde character introduced is a NaruSaku son.
 

Also today is the official couples day in Japan.
They still are using the Canon Couples propaganda and ignoring NaruSaku.
 

 
 
They released a pair of rings referencing and paying tribute to Sasuke and Sakura.
 

 
https://twitter.com/...160104464814285
 
 
A big japonese site conducted a popularity poll to find out which couple is the most popular of all mangas. Guess what? 
 
 

 
第1位は『NARUTO』のあの二人 理想の夫婦キャラTOP10。『BLEACH』『マンキン』『SPY×FAMILY』からもランクイン | numan
 
numanヌーマン on X: "【11/22は #いい夫婦の日】 理想の夫婦キャラTOP10を発表 『NARUTO』サスケ&サクラ 『NARUTO』ナルトヒナタ 『シャーマンキング』葉アンナ 4位以下も注目❗ https://t.co/DuKKxG006v 「サクラの想いが報われてよかった」 「ナルトとヒナタの長い道のり」 「葉とアンナの熟年夫婦感」 https://t.co/j042QzLF93" / X (twitter.com)
 
 
 
1 - Sasuke/Sakura from Naruto
2 - Naruto/Hinata from Naruto
3 - Yoh/Anna from Shaman King.
4 -  Lloyd/Yol Forger from Spy X Family.
5   - Ichigo/Inoue from Bleach.
 
Everybody in Japan hates the canon couples and everybody misses NaruSaku.  
 
I really admire the anger and some desilusional NaruSaku fan theories  fans 9 years after the ending.
 
 
GoodBye.
 
Let's wait. Maybe in 2050, a NaruSaku son from another dimension will appear, or Kishimoto will express regret for his canon couples decision, stating that he lost his wife based  Sakura to Sasuke due to the influence of the evil editors and Hinata fans.

Therece man you need to chill out. 99% of the NaruSaku fandom moved on and either just follow Boruto casually or dropped the series entirely after the ending nearly 10 years ago.

There's nothing to be gained by cheerleading the canon couples and kicking down on a fandom that is practically non-existant these days on here or elsewhere. Just enjoy the fact that you got what you wanted out of the series and will get more in the future and drop the rest of the drama.

There's no implied mandate by Shueisha that requires that the shonen male protagonists must reciprocate the feelings of girls that show an interest in them, regardless of onscreen chemistry and compatibility. Nisekoi (which concluded two years after Naruto) ended with the MC getting with the lead heroine, in spite of the fact that his original love interest confessed to him first.  Komi-san had its MC reject someone from his love triangle in spite of confessing first.  MHA just killed off Himiko after she confessed to Midoriya that she loved him before Ochako had her chance, and he rejected her.  Even Mashle had its lead protagonist frequently reject/ignore his self-proclaimed fiancee to the very end of the series.   I could go on.  

 

The closest thing to what you describe is in Demon Slayer with Tanjirou x Kanao, and the authoress at least establishes some rapport between them before they hooked up.  And Tanjirou had no other prospects.

 

I get that you're still jaded over Shuiesha and Pierrot influencing Kishimoto, but what happened in that title has not magically become law for all of their Shonen manga.  Especially when several newer authors seem to have taken Naruto as an object lesson to be much more prominent in establishing the main couples in a shonen title from the get-go, so that there's no confusion or debate.  Black Clover and My Hero Academia being good examples.

 

The only reasons why Shueisha pushed for Hinata as the lead heroine/love interest was because they heard about her appeal in the west and thought that would make them bank, as well as some of the editors and SP staff fetishizing her. And we've seen how that turned out.

That's good that newer authors are trying to break the old trope, but yeah you're right the way Naruto ended left me indifferent towards shipping because I can't be bothered in caring about something that could go nowhere like Naruto and Sakura. Sure they're a very extreme example but it's just the way that I felt afterwards.

 

But speaking of Oda in particular he is part of the old school and that's why I think he will either go down the traditional route, like his peers did, or if he doesn't want to do that he will just sidestep the pairings issue all together. If I am wrong about that that's cool though, so I'll be satisfied either way in regards to One Piece.

I think it likely if the end pairings becomes an issue Oda will just avoid it all together. He was seen what has happened to his colleagues. He stated in interview before he doesn't want to focus on romance too much.

Yes, he could side step the pairings all together but he already made Boa completely in love with Luffy and I would assume he would want to resolve that plot point. Or maybe Shonen Jump as an organization has some sort of influence and it is not strictly Oda's decision to make.

 

But I personally would prefer no pairings at this point in One Piece. It created too much bitterness and resentment for other series, and would do the same with One Piece.

I haven't seen anything to indicate that Luffy and Nami are a possibility because I doubt Oda is going to go against the well established rule in Shonen that the girls get to decide who they marry.

 

We have too many examples of that we can go through in Shonen where the girl gets with the guy she liked. Ever since Naruto ended I have just assumed that will be the case going forward for any series.

 

So if it's going to be anyone with Luffy I think it will still be Boa, because I don't think Oda has the guts to her be rejected in the end. Where things stand now with their relationship doesn't matter; the only thing that matters is what Oda decides to do at the very end, and it will be easier for him to write Luffy accepting Boa than any other option.

The "rivalry" line from the Last always struck me as very odd because it answered a question (in a very poor way) that really didn't need to be answered at the time.

 

NaruSaku was already 6 feet under at the time and all it accomplished was making Naruto look petty and puts all their interactions in the manga in a worse light. 

 

It was a throwaway line that was never brought up again, so why even bring it up to begin with?

Who knows what is true from the interviews Kishimoto gave around that time. He was saying all kinds of ridiculous things to drum up more drama amongst the fans in those interviews, like Sakura would be a terrible woman if she moved on from Sasuke and that Sasuke was like a drug to her.

 

Also, we don't know how much his wife actually cared about Naruto and it may have been just one off hand comment she made to him about Naruto and Sakura, and Kishimoto thought it would make for good discussion/drama in an interview. Like, I can't see fictional characters and how he wrote them causing any real serious rift in their household, but it is really impossible to know one way or another.
 

Hullo everybody, its been a very, very long time. Good to see people are still here!

Ive been feeling nostalgic recently and Ive jumped back into reading about NS. Just some thoughts:

1. I cant help but feel like Sakuras increased popularity was partially because people have become more sympathetic. Her daughter has issues. Shes in limbo, both a single mother, but not technically single (so it isnt like shes free to find someone in her life). Naruto lied to her about liking her. She came from nothing and ended up with nothing. Maybe that kind of life resonates with the now older fandom?

Meanwhile, Hinata seems like shes currently living a privileged life with everything. People dont feel bad for her anymore, shes no longer the poor girl in the background. The stuff that made her seem interesting isnt there anymore.

2. Theres always been an undercurrent of misogyny, but its more apparent after the ending. Kishmoto saying how a woman who changes who she likes is terrible. Wait, what?

Hi there,

 

I am not sure if it is sympathy that is driving Sakura's popularity in the Naruto fandom. I thought that it is more so Sasuke fans that are sticking up for their favorite character's girl more than anything else; as if there is going to be a heroine in the story they'd rather it be Sasuke's love interest than Naruto's.

 

You could be right though it is hard to say for me as I am completely out of touch what the larger fandom is talking about anymore.

I think it is in part because NaruSaku is a dead pairing so they think there is no way anything could be paralled to a dead pairing. Everything in this series has to have a parallel so the only choice for them is NaruHina, and they aren't going to get any pushback on that either because most of what remains of the Naruto fandom is pro-NH or neutral.

After all these years I think people deep down know that NS was supposed to be but they prefered another shipping.  Like is been so long since the ending and people are still trheatened by a dead ship. Any NS content on tiktok that I see the comments are filled with:
 
"Soul mates (Best Friends)"
 
"Besties"
 
"They truly belongtogether as best friends"
 
And the scene could be explicitly Naruto saying he loves Sakura to Sai or the fmale ninja lmaooo9

The just "best friends" or "siblings" arguments never held any water and the proof is in Boruto where there isn't a single moment of them acting that way with each other.

Their interactions are kept to a minimum because their old relationship dynamic simply no longer exists and had to be buried.

Wow, color me surprise. Minato's story was on point. Masashi, you had one job. Where was this writing during the end of Naruto?!

Right. For some reason he is just comfortable writing Minato and Kushina.

Compare this one shot to how he wrote Sarada Gaiden (I think it was his worst performance as a writer) and the difference is astonishing.

I saw some NS fans talk about her on twitter and theorizing maybe she was a NaruSaku child from a multiverse. But its only natural they won't throw NaruSaku a bone in any way, shape or form. The staff at Studio Pierrot would rather see their company go bankrupt and drown in endless debt than give up NH. 

They were even thinking she'd be portrayed as a villain if so. Guess they were half right.
Either way, sounds really stupid, even if it she were a NaruSaku child. Hard pass.

Yeah it always sucks to say but NaruSaku is a dead pairing it'll never get a crumb going forward, even if there is a reboot one day.

The two of them aren't even really allowed to interact anymore in the manga/anime as friends, so not a chance they'd have a multiverse kid.

According to leaks, that girl in the trailer is an Uchiha (yep another one) named Nanashi and is from the online game Boruto plays. She is able to mind control people and some new evil organization wants to use it to brainwash the world by using her eyes to create a reflection off the moon, or something like that...

So not anything remotely interesting.