OK - all the NS doubt has brought me to de-lurk, register and blather on and on and on....... Yikes! My very first post - I've been saving it all up! So please indulge me...
So my first thoughts on reading this is that there has been some important foreshadowing up to this point:
1. She is protecting him when Tsunade is ill, though she doesn't know why. She loves him, she just doesn't know it. Really. She says so herself....She's changing
2. Naruto does not want Sakura to know what he is doing for Sasuke, and tells Sai not to tell her, specifically. He is choosing to leave Sakura out of some of his decisions about the one person and goal they share.... He's changing too.
3. She says she doesn't want to make another mistake...So she's gonna make a whopper.
Then look at the reactions of those around her: Kiba, Lee are shocked, which to me says Sakura pulled a bait and switch...told the 9 that she would talk to him, then changed her mind at the last minute. If they knew what she was going to do, they never would have let her go.
Her confession is like Hinata's, which Hinata said herself was selfish. Though no one could hear Hinata...EVERYONE will know about her feelings for Naruto. It is a selfish confession, love for the sake of a purpose rather than love for love's sake, but she's putting herself on record with everyone as loving Naruto. That act shows the depth of her feelings, where her words are clumsy.
She shows how far she is willing to go to protect him - she would put herself, physically and now emotionally, between him and the thing that would hurt him. I think that alone is the proof of a real love behind her actions (and that's going to have to keep as warm for the next 150 chapters).
Ask yourself, would she be "confessing" her love to Sai or Shika or anyone else who she's seen grow and wishes to protect? No. And everyone she's with realizes it's not so much of a confession as a trainwreck.
But she's desperate and you can painfully see she's sinking fast. We know a Sakura arc is coming sometime, I would mark this as the beginning. She has to move away from him to grow a little and fully realize why she loves him.
As for Naruto's POV, he's never handled being protected well. He is the protector. Remember when Sakura tried to tell him she was worried about him in the Gaara arc? He cut her off completely and said he'd find him so not to worry. Anything that smacks of Sakura protecting or worrying over Naruto he pushes away (well except for the feeding thing). This was probably the worst way to approach him, but she was desperate and thinking with her heart instead of how to best strategize with a teammate.
I think they're both changing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the first thing I thought when Naruto told Sai not to mention anything to Sakura about getting beaten up that it was the first time he had placed another teammate's bond over his bond with her. He's choosing to do things she would not be happy about. And he's protecting her as well...but he choosing to do things that aren't "just the two of us" as Sakura put it in her talk about rescuing Sasuke.
So cue an arc and/or timeskip to help them move through these changes then reunite later.
We see, as Naruto does, that there's something fishy about her confession. But we also see, where he doesn't, how much she has changed in regards to him, so we know there is truth to what she is saying.
Unfortunately though, whatever Naruto's response will be to her "confession" it is crystal clear that he is not going to accept her love right now.
I totally think NS will happen, even more now. Her awful confession just shows how far she's willing to go, just like Naruto. But both have to mature more and overcome their respective unresolved love interests.
Whew! This chapter was great though. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts!
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