I hope this doesn't start a flame war. Anyway, I would like to know why you consider NaruSaku's development romantic, or if you don't, why is it platonic? I don't consider it platonic because of the way the series framed their relationship, it always seemed that there was more to the relationship than just a friendship with one person in love with other.
*All shippers welcome*
hmm.. i like them both romatic and platonic because their bond grew naturally.
sakura grew from hating him for being a nuisance, to acknowledging him and wanting his hokage dream to succeed more than her infactuation for sasuke-kun and her own growth as a shinobi.. even obito the villest of all could see it (albeit in a nakama, platonic way). other characters can also easily see them as something more as just friends, like konohamaru/toad summon/tsunade/jiraiya/yamato/sai/minato..
she willingly runs towards naruto's jinchuriki state when she felt a deep ache for his pain.. and later on she only smiles and assures him that she'll be fine, just like the smile naruto put on when he gives her his promise of a lifetime, even though it hurts him to see her in her helpless, sobbing state. when sai asked about his love, the way he value his promise of a lifetime to her.. it's really their selfless love to each other that sucked me in they're not perfectly good characters who does everything right, but their ways of doing things for each other touches me.
also, i like the relationship parallels throughout the story, like the strict/fierce girl with a soft heart inside with the laid back/idealistic/funny boy.. e.g. mito/hashi, tsunade/jiraiya, rin/obito(even though i don't like the guy ) kushina/minato(a confirmed parallel by author, albeit a red herring as he claimed ) even though antis say parallels mean nothing, it's really fun to see their similarities, and it makes it seem like saku/naru are meant to be (who cares what they say, i ship what i want )
(arghh why am i still shipping them so heavily i don't understand )
Edited by Hanabi, 24 October 2015 - 09:57 AM.