Well for one thing, around chapter 540 there was still a lot more to come. It also would not be as good for sakura to just get over Sasuke all at once. Not like Kishi could have just had sakura loving naruto after that event, otherwise it could have downplayed the aspect of the promise and his own reasons for her as well.
Not to mention, remember the interview that followed this Kishi did say the whole she says she loves Sasuke but naruto is close to her heart.
With sasukes redemption though people are going, he will suddenly return Sakura's feelings. Just 2 things wrong with this, Sasusaku was well, minimal, the whole crush was just selfish and for the longest time proved to be a weakness for sakura. For it to suddenly have merit is just defeating Sakura's purpose in the journey. Also it's just too hard to imagine it after the land of iron event only for this to be referenced as "a tough moment in their relationship.
Also sakura is not just going to abandon naruto, we know it, others try to say she cares nothing, but she shows she cares a lot for naruto, even with the land of iron events and the recent chapters, this just proves she cares for him. Heck she was worried about the prospect of him dying when he said the stuff to Sasuke.
If there is anything left for sakura, it's simple maturity, realizing what's important, as easy as it sounds, she just needs some gradual shift. Even in the next chapter, if minato makes or thinks of something ns-mk related, that can still lead somewhere. As of right now, Sakura's feelings are up in the air, but this can become either very good for her development, overcoming Sasuke or just nullify her purpose in development. It should be more towards the fact that it was naruto who changed her, not Sasuke. If anything, I'd expect the final reveal of ns before, during, or after the fight with Naruto vs Sasuke, basically he comes back with Sasuke but everyone including him thinks she will go to Sasuke but instead goes to naruto, something like that after all this time. He can even leave 540 up in the air for all purposes too until a moment like this.
We may get an answer next chapter but it seriously defeats the purpose to just have something so long having been bad just suddenly be good, namely Sakura's crush on Sasuke has long been a negative trait on her. Maybe this is why some of us are hopeful, that minato could thank her or just do a small joke of him and sakura being together or naruto listened to his mother about a girl like her, don't know but the fact still stands, SS and nh have a lot less development compared to narusaku, there are just too many loose ends right now with narusaku that need to be answered and resolved before nh and SS could even occur like naruto and Sakura's feelings towards each other and also how they will react when Sasuke comes back, yet we need to see more on sasukes side too. Just many story reasons drive the relation between naruto and sakura unlike the others. I mean the other 2 have them, it's just not as common or as mutual or developed.
Finally it's just plain and simple character development, I cannot think of a reason why sakura should keep her crush trait on Sasuke when naruto and Sasuke had their faults but changed.
Naruto vowed to never give up again after the demon brothers ambush, became talented, respected, and changed a lot of people who previously thought things in life sucked. Among the most important are his own teammates sakura and sasuke who he still has not fully accomplished things with. Also he and kurama were bitter enemies, always giving naruto a literal external and internal battle, now they are buffs.
Sasuke was all revenge this and that, now look at him, he got a wake up call and is trying something else.
Sakura was only smart, but not talented, she became very talented in advancing her own skills. But why should she keep the crush on Sasuke? This just does not make sense, even if Sasuke comes back, no promises he will just love her back.
It's as I said before, sakura getting over Sasuke, all the development she really needs is maturity, so many factors can push her to this, minato, tsunade (as some farewell speech) and even Sasuke himself can give her a Kakashi-rin speech about how they basically did the selfish stuff and did not care for the other, basically a I cannot do this for you, etc. it's again just that cycle of success team 7 should get, where team minato and the Sannin failed, team 7 should succeed, this includes naruto getting sakura, why should naruto succeed in everything else yet still fail with sakura? Well if has been a curse for the other 2 naruto has sought to break curses before now hasent he?
Just things may be looking up for ns and there is still a lot to come, especially when Sasuke comes in, we can rest easy knowing sakura will still support naruto as much as she does now. It really does make a better story in the end with ns too, simply because of character development and development for sakura coming full circle, hating naruto in the start to loving him in the end. SS, simply ends with her loving him but not sure how Sasuke would treat it and it all occurred merely because she hoped, that really downplays it all sadly. Ns has growth, interaction, effort, and sacrifice while SS occurs while it was only hoped on. Nothing built, it just simply happend. Don't know about the rest of you, but the ns story makes more sense since it also correlated with the main story. I have faith ns will happen, the potential has never been greater in recent times, something good can come from this, here's hoping it does.
First of all, going with Sasuke has nothign to do with abandoning Naruto.
Sakura needs maturity but her development since when Sai told her that Naruto loved her, tells more about her getting over Sasuke.
She does have a couple of reasons, Naruto loves her, Sakura did bad stuff to her, Naruto's acknowledgement, Sakura acknowledging Naruto that she cna see him on a romantic light, also her appearances on the war arc were more likely to romance driven plot, when the summit ended people even asked Kishimoto if she loves Naruto, this never happened with Hinata,Naruto,Sasuke or whatever.
Her development since the Sai speech, was about getting over Sasuke, then why dont make her doesnt love Sasuke anymore, it's kinda illogic and bad writing.
Example is this chapter.
She didnt have development to give the speech however she closed her eyes and looked for the answer deep inside her heart it means that deep on her heart there are things that she doesnt acknowledge on Naruto, that out of there are two Sakura's a conflicted girl who says that loves one guy(Sasuke) but is deeply in love with another one(Naruto).That speech was more like her own feelings towards Naruto than her thought about the alliance or whatever, she got touched because of Naruto's efforts more importantly about him acknowledging her from the bottom his heart as his comrade, that she's not the useless that she thought she was.
Edited by Dαrkrєrsŧ, 18 May 2013 - 03:38 PM.
