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heres a title for you ""read what kish said its sasusaku fools"" or The Truth of Kishis Words
Thanks for the suggestions.

But I kind of wanted to put "Jump Fiesta" since they're having a party over it

(Does that make sense?

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I'd have to disagree with you and shall sum up the bad writing quickly and concisely:
NaruHina: Has been completely one-sided through the entirety of the manga. Naruto has been given no reason to possess any interest in her. Even recently, we've learned that Naruto loves Sakura. I'd argue that the chemistry is poor, but more along the lines an opinion, so I won't get into that. Anyways, the point here is that for Naruto to suddenly turn around and receive Hinata's feelings makes no sense whatsoever. It'd be one thing if we were to have gotten budding seemingly romantic moments between the two here and then like how we have for NaruSaku, but that simply isn't the case and I'm sure everyone here realizes that.
I think I phrased that wrong... When I said NO PAIRING would be bad writing, I was trying to get across that Kishi's been spending a lot of time on pairings - namely NaruSaku - and it would be bad writing to abandon that. I wasn't saying that NaruHina or SasuSaku would be GOOD writing. Sorry for the confusion.

Other than that, though, I agree with this.
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SasuSaku: Like NaruHina, it's onesided and there hasn't been any development. From the beginning, Sakura's feelings for Sasuke were represented as a school girl crush no different than Ino's or any other girl who has gone out of the way to fawn over the Uchiha brat. There is no real rhyme or reason to this potential romance. At least with Naruto, we know that his feeling for Sakura stimulate from just how similar she is to him (as we can see in chapter 3 when makes the remark "Now I know why I like Sakura so much). Lack of development is the key here, but even worse than NaruHina, there is no actual reason to it. Sakura's feelings are silly and a sign of immaturity. And to have Sasuke SOMEHOW go through a massive character shift and return those feelings by the end of this manga is equally atrocious and would have to at very least be done with a time skip.
Agreed 100%
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I remember those just as I remember lots of hints (some expressed on this very forum) indicating that Sakura no longer had any feelings for Sasuke. Heck, I even remember people on this very board arguing that it was obvious Hinata was dead during the Pein arc or that NaruSaku was going to become canon in chapter 469-470. At the end of the day, I think we all have to realize that our arguments and rationalizations of things only go so far.
I didn't really think Hinata was dead (which it wouldn't have mattered if she was or not, since everyone got revived later anyways) and I always hoped that Sakura didn't have any feelings for Sasuke, but knew in the back of my mind that it should be resolved first before anything NaruSaku could occur.
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That right there is putting more effort in romance than I've seen many shounen mangaka do.
Only time will tell I suppose. I'd certainly like to think that this is what Kishi is doing, but it wouldn't surprise me for a moment to see him go all "ha ha! That was all to throw you off and surprise you in the end. I really meant NaruHina/SasuSaku. ."
I actually think it's the opposite; In recent chapters, he's made people doubt the possibility of Naruto and Sakura. So NaruHina and SasuSaku seem like the red herring here. Inless he decides to cut corners and just go with it. If he does, well, I'll take back everything I said about him being a good writer.
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Yeah, that happens alot in anime. Code Geass is a good example.
True, but in this case, the pairing somewhat determines how the plot goes along; in a nutshell, pairings are actually important here.
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He also knows that he'll keep more fans if he pisses no particular part of the fanbase off.
He's leading us on for as long as possible. That's why I argue that all the NaruSaku drama as of late was for a good purpose. Does anyone want their pairing to just HAPPEN? (Well, dumb question, of course they would, but I think you get my point. I want NaruSaku to come out of
development.)
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Well firstly, he didn't need to kill Kakashi off like that. He could have just been severely wounded and we fans could have been left wondering whether or not he was dead. Secondly, I don't see the need to make Kakashi the Hokage. There were more certainly other routes he could take in handling this Hokage business in the current arc. If done right, I'm sure it could have turned out with Naruto being substitute Hokage for the time being . . . or he could simply keep Danzou around a bit longer rather than exposing him as a villain so early, hence allowing him to be Hokage (a Konoha civil war arc would have been interesting, but Kishi seems to want to wrap Naruto up quick, so . . .).
Again, drama. Besides, we don't know what unique purpose Kakashi might serve in the future, something that can only happen because of a character with his particular life experiences or his particular knowledge, etc. He could serve a purpose that, say, Yamato never could, or perhaps Shikamaru, and so on.
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As for Naruto sulking, that wouldn't necessarily have to be the case. Learning that people die if you're not strong enough to protect them could have been a lesson Naruto learned during his battle with Pein. In fact, after the battle, Naruto could have boastfully said something along the lines of "AS LONG AS I LIVE, I WILL NEVER LET A SINGLE MEMBER OF THIS VILLAGE DIE EVER AGAIN!", hence strengthening his resolve, and perhaps building upon the tension of whether or not he'd be able to save Sasuke in the end (as he still considers Sasuke a member of the village)
More people dies than just Kakashi. Shizune is another example. Not to mention all of the other nameless shinobi. You've seen lately how... Not resilient Naruto has been. I'm not quite sure he could have handled it.
Besides, Kishi wrote things the way he did for a reason. He has things planned. God knows what, but everything he's done up to this point leads towards it. We can only hope it leads to NaruSaku. (Though, given the evidence...

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I'd say both. First, it was too soon. Second, he went down against a couple of throwaway characters. What happened to that rivalry with Gai? And here I was hoping it would get carried over to Rock Lee, hence finally giving him a redeeming canonical moment.
Throwaway? I thought he was killed by the Raikage and the Raikage's jinchuuriki's brother? They're more important of a character than he is. Second, I'm not even sure he's dead. We've learned that in the Ninja world, things like being impaled or decapitated don't always mean death

Third.... I never thought of it as a "rivalry," so much as them fighting each other twice upon coincidence. Kind of like how Naruto and Itachi have met more than once.
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I agree; Sasuke is a main character. But this story shouldn't be so much about him, especially when there is SO MUCH RAW POTENTIAL elsewhere. Others may disagree with me when I say this, but I think Nagato was killed too soon. A rivalry between both him and Naruto as a running theme for many chapters would have been pretty good, given that their goals are the same. In fact (and I'm willing to give in on this one), I'd even say Nagato would have made a better final villain than Tobi. Instead, Nagato's goals, characterization and resolution was crammed into a couple of chapters. What's worse, Naruto's desire single handedly bring about world peace was simply summed up by a flashback (based on a scene which we have never seen before) rather than developed from past experiences (again, raw storyline potential which is wasted). That'd be like us never having seen Aokoji or Rob Lucci owning luffy in One Piece, only to see a quick never before seen flashback of Luffy realizing that he'll lose all of his nakama if he doesn't get stronger, hence why he decides to develop Gear 2.
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Again, I highly disagree when people say a certain character was killed "too soon." It isn't like Kishi accidentally killed them off. It was their time. Sure, maybe they did a lot less than people were expecting them too, or they were a total disappointment, (Konan, anybody?) but they died because they need to die, for the plot. It's almost like claiming Naruto should have paid Hinata more attention. Um,
no, he paid her as much attention as Kishi intended him to, nothing more, nothing less.
Though I have to agree that Nagato would have made a better antagonist

Unlike Tobi/Madara, he didn't have that cliche "take over the world" goal; No, it was much more original. But, oh well, he wasn't the main antagonist for a reason *shrug*