Just trying to make sense of the ending is probably whats making how he delivered this ending an even worse pill to swallow.
I mean lol, just looking at it from a non pairing perspective this is just wow.
The Naruto in that chapter isn't the Naruto I came to cherish as a protagonist. It was like a completely different person the way he was treating his son.
Our last images of Sakura in a home after the progress she made since part 2 was like looking at part 1 Sakura, no progression, no change. We should have seen her acting as the head of the medical division or by Naruto's side helping him run the village.
None of the characters were done any proper justice in the ending. The previous kages illustrated in terrible states after being revered for their positions, older character either looking like kitten or just plain miserable while being relegated to "pair the spares" fodder for the sake of this dumb New Era Project. No real insight into the state of the world, the villages and where everyone is now, just panels of hideous kids and a whole lot of nothing happening.
NS not happening is just part of a bigger problem I have with this chapter.
I genuinely loved Naruto / Sakura interactions and to see absolutely nothing happen between them during these past 2 chapters is just unacceptable. What happened to the promise? confession? Not even a thanks from Sakura after he played the part of delivery boy. Once Sasuke is back time to ditch the orange baboon lmfao.
In the end we got miserable characters, ugly kids and lack of real conclusion.
Naruto is hokage but is neglectful and tells his son to suck it up. Was not even given the chance to confess about how he felt about Sakura, couldn't succeed where his godfather who he loved failed and couldn't even fulfill his dead mother's wish and find a girl like her. His dead left with the memory of him finding the girl but having issues and doesn't know in the end he failed.
Sakura is depicted as a housewife detached from her friends and family. Progress wiped away in one panel.
Sasuke is as I suspected a deadbeat that got everything for nothing.
The characters were betrayed. And the acceptance of this terrible execution just cause the OTP happened pisses me off royally pairing preference aside.
It just further drives my point that they never gave a kitten about the characters and because this war happened for a decade became a matter of who was right.
I was 16 when I got into Naruto. Believed NaruHina / SasuSaku was the way to go till I got to part 2 and realised Sasuke was a kittenhead. I am in my mid twenties now and wasted years for a half-baked conclusion.
Man this hurts. Conclusive ending be damned.