And you knew what the sad thing about this? Ryo posted a tweet that apparently someone made a comment from Japan on Twitter that they knew someone from Shueisha. That persona leaked confidential information that explains the editors of Shueisha hated Sakura and ran an anti-Sakura campaign because of all the hate and death threat mails. And Kishi was easily manipulated and persuade of that rumor lol.
smh....Kishimoto was just a coward man. I know Oda wouldn't let editors control his characters like that.
He develops any character he wants , whenever he wants. No kitten pairing fanmail will ever corrupt his manga.