Good point.
The reason I brought this up, though, is that some people feel that NaruSaku, as a pairing, is not consistent with how the themes of the story have been developed, up to this point. I disagree, of course. 
Can you go into a little more detail about their reasoning? I'm very interested. What do they refer to?
I've said a couple of times that I find NaruSakuSasu a very rigid love triangle\line, since romantic positions of the characters are very dragged out and often ignore all the development (on the sidelines and even inside Team 7). We see a lot of interaction between Team 7's characters and other characters, but the romantic line feels more or less intact and solid through the whole manga. I mean, Naruto can have a lot of moments with Hinata, Sakura with Lee and Sasuke with Karin, but we have no evidence that these interaction influence them at all. We can assume, for example, that Naruto became stronger when Neji died and Hinata snapped him out of his shock. It is logical from artistic perspective. But technically this scene was not necessary, unique (as Sasuke's departure for example) and any other character could be there to cheer Naruto up. Someone said it very well: Hinata confesses her feelings to Naruto, they share a unique moment after Neji's death, Naruto thanks Hinata for her being at his side - in a moment he tells his father that another girl is his girlfriend (even if half-joking) in the confirmed hearing distance of Hinata. Either Naruto is a jerk, or this is just a sign of how little certain side-scenes matter in this manga.
We know that we can see the importance of the event when narration repeatedly returns to it (in flashbacks or words). Yet the narration rarely does it with the these sidecharacters scenes.
I would not consider a lot of NS moments impactful as well. I think they are there to remind us of what was established in the begining of the timeskip: Naruto loves Sakura and admires her great will and progress, but feels burdened with the promise \\ Sakura acknowledges Naruto, understands him more, believes in him and wants to see his dream come true. We just revisit this statement times and times again in various little interactions. And this is important not as a development per se, but as a reminder and confirmation that this is still relevant to the plot and leads to something actually story-changing.
Just like that I can see interesting stuff that developes between Sakura and Naruto in the manga (through glances, smiles and little interactions), but I don't see it as something big, something new, something story-changing. I see it as a confirmation of the theme that was established in the end of part 1|begining of part 2. Yet the main positions of the characters almost don't change. Sakura still thinks she loves Sasuke, Naruto still loves Sakura, but doesn't approach her and supports her feelings to Sasuke. From that point of view, this pairing is pretty rigid. It is dragged out, almost unnaturally, all the way till this final confrontation. Now we finally get a resolution to something that was carved and rigidly pushed into the story (love triangle) in part 1. It was all meant for this exact moment.
That is why I actually expect a lot NS-themed from this Naruto vs Sasuke showdown.
Thus, regressive = no. As long as I understand what you've meant. Rigid and somewhat immune to other developments, parallel to many other themes = pretty much yes in my humble opinion. It is almost like a straight arrow to the end which we experience now,
I am exaggerating, but to see the pairing as it is now, we could actually skip all the plot in part 2. We could see the idea that Sakura starts to acknowledge Naruto more and more in the very begining and that he admires her, then jump all the way to the end, where Sasuke is still lost, still needs to fight Naruto in the last battle, the promise needs to be fulfilled, Sakura still (thinks that she) loves Sasuke, Naruto still loves Sakura and there is no real competition. Only now it is time to really adress all these old issues.
Only please don't write me that the little interactions and scenes mattered a lot. I know that. It matters from artistic point of view and it matters, because we get the confirmation that the theme itself (Naruto and Sakura's relationship) is still important to the story and is leading towards something. I am drawing a model of the story here. What do you think?
Edited by Alessa, 12 September 2014 - 07:34 AM.