One arguement I never get tired of from pairing debates is how some people try to pull the UNS2 and 3 arguements for NH, there are 2 that just make me laugh to no end. First is the "secret lovers" one due to the team up of Naruto and Hinata and people think that because it says that, they think Naruto automatically just loves Hinata and that this somehow merits itself back into the manga despite it being a game derived from the manga. Yet in truth, the whole aspect of these team up names in the series is when 2 or 3 people are teammed up, a name can form based on their affliation to village, fighting style, clan, organization, rank, title, even similar traits and special cases too.
Teams in the game range from simple like: Team 7, Team 10, Best friends (only naruto and Sasuke), Jinchurki (any of the 9 jinchurki), Taka, Akaksuti, Uchiha brothers, dangerous fellows (Itachi and Kisame), sensei and student (Lee and Guy), gutsy master and student (Jiraya and Naruto), Monster strength (Sakura and Tsunade), Buyakugan (Neji and Hinata) Myangeko Sharingan (Any uchiha plus kakashi is allowed too), Rivals in love (Sakura and Ino) All set on Sasuke (Sakura, Ino, and Karin), Reincarination (any edo tensei characters), puppet masters (Kankuro, Chiyo, Sasori), artists (Sai, Sasori, Deidara), Leaf village joinin (Kakashi, Asuma, Guy, or Yamato), Root (Sai, Danzo), Cornered rats (Hidan, Kakuzu, Yugito), native village teams (any 2 people from the same village even those who never interacted like Fu (7 tails jinchurki) and Kakuzu who both come from the waterfall village), various Jiraya apprencte teams (Naruto, Minato, Pain, Nagato, Konan) God and angel (Pain and Konan) Sannin (duh) like cats and water (karin and sugetsu). See how this is just a small sample of the teams? There are practically more than 100 team names. The secret lovers one though, did it ever occur to these people rushing in thinking NH is canon or going to be that perhaps this name "Secret lovers" has to do with the fact that Naruto has a secret crush on Sakura as Hinata does on him? Its a similar trait because well think about it, Sakura's love really isn't a secret due to how Naruto knew and how before Sasuke left she displayed hers the most openly. Besides its a game, its based off the canon material not the other way around.
Most likely the biggest one of all, in UNS3 as you play the game, 2 paths are open for you to gain items during boss battles of the game, heroes and legends. Heroes is usually easier but tends to follow the canon path such as when facing the 9 tails, you can get bees help or not, legends is harder but Naruto fights Kurama alone without bee in this path. When you hit the max rank in both of these catagories, there are 2 special missions those who walk with heroes and legends, having Naruto go on a trip with Sakura and Hinata respectively. And some people think that because the legends path is harder that this should somehow consititue NH as going canon, despite the fact that the main story of canon for this game goes away near the madara fight, these missions take place after the story mode and technically they never happened. I mean even still the heroes path follows most canon stuff and thats Sakura traveling with Naruto and having a thoughtful moment with him but is it canon? No neither of these are cause they are part of the extra after game content for the player to do. The creators couldn't go further, they had to make the game cause the manga is still in progress, they had to divert the game to end with Obito saying curse you ill be back and then the villages just rebuild. I don't know why some people seek evidence for NH in other media, but thats not helping their case, all media outside the manga is derived from the manga and doesn't impact the manga itself. The anime is secondary in all Naruto media generally having at times expanding other events but thats generally what the manga didnt always have time to address. Even as it seems like certain elements of RTN have snuck into the manga as of late, its still not like this at all. The manga is first and formost the top primary source for any pairing evidence, if there truely are any cases of the anime impacting the manga, they are very very few special cases such as these:
Naruto meeting Utakata and encoutering the 3 tails before meeting son goku
the 7 swordsmen weapon the lightning blade Kiba orginated in the pre-shippuden filler arcs with the villian Raiga came to canon during the war arc with the 7 reanimated swordsmen
minor characters like Ayame, the girl who crushes on Gaara both seen first in the anime but later the manga.
A very special case is Sakura's parents, they were first seen in the anime in ep 271 but they were always around in the back lorewise, they always existed just never had screentime. Always mentioned and we knew of them just no clear image. So though we never see them in the manga, because of lore reasons for these simple mentions Kizashi and Meubeki are canon characters.
And thats it, hardly ever is the manga impacted by the anime. A game will have even less impact. Its simple fanservice. The anime does it, Naruto SD was literally a dumping ground that attacked all fandoms. The main group of creators (mainly the manga team) they don't even pay attention or possibly even care about the pairing wars, they most likely just brush it off. The anime team and espically the SD team however provoke fun at it, but thats because its not going to let some stupid fanbase delisions guide them. Its the non-canon naruto media development teams that mainly have differing activities in this stuff but when you get down to it, this whole obession with NH fans saying NH will be canon because of this game, no just no, it comes down to simple fanservice. I mean even Sakura had a mission with Naruto in UNS3, you don't see NS fans screaming canon because of that game right? We don't even count RTN as canon, even then its the closest thing to any naruto media with a derived canon base plot, in RTN we only count the NS stuff as how the pairing can work to become somehting more, not as evidence to further it in the main story. But thats what it all is, those missions were just fanservice, the name secret lovers is just referring to the fact Naruto and Hinata have a similar trait in that they secretly love someone, for Naruto he secretly loves Sakura, thats been made evident throughout the series, just so why is it so hard for people to understand this stuff? Hey all I can say at this point, if NH evidence is starting to be taken from areas outside of the anime now, they might as well give up cause without the manga, nothing is going to change espcially at this point.
I always have. It would really come in handy right about now, too. Perhaps Kishimoto intended for her to have one, but as he expanded on other characters/storylines his plans for her got lost in the crowd, so to speak...
or maybe it's just me idk.
