I'd actually rather see resolution with Hinata's feelings or whatnot before or after the fallout with Sasuke before NS became canon, I mean one thing that really ticks me in just about any series is unfinished plot devices when the series itself has ended, I mean anyone here remember the story of Zuko's mom from Avatar? The creators just made a comic when another season of TLA could have wrapped this stuff up. It was kinda a stab at the entire fanbase when in the first scenes of Korra, one of Tenzin's daughters asks Katara (now 85) about what happened to Zuko's mom to which she replies "its a long and wonderful story but-" she gets cut off and does not go back to it. Same in other series which were canceled but had great storylines ahead of them like the young justice cartoon, cancelled when they introduced darkseid. Even halo got the chance to continue further beyond 3, not just by the games. Unless the games alone were played and not any of the novels were (which expand the story much more) there was always a mystery with the forerunners, the most advanced race in this universe who all vanished following the activation of the halo array, one of the good things is that with this story, they recently made a forerunner saga of books explaining what exactly happened to them and set the whole story in motion. Until 2010, people always had this question with looking at forerunner structures by asking, who the hell built this stuff? In manga, because they run one or so arch story for so long, I feel they have the time they need to tie up loose ends and satisfy the majority of important plots without much lingering behind. This is something I feel Oda from One piece better be able to do years from now when he finally decides to end one piece. Such a long story.
Anyways we knew for NaruSaku to become canon 5 critira must be met:
1. Naruto's feelings for Sakura- the main and longest lasting, with 631, its a safe bet he still loves her. No other manga moments to go on beyond 469 as many argued saying he was over Sakura, the second closest clue to him still loving Sakura is the anime ep 235 and that's a filler, but what else to associate the topic with? No fillers with him displaying some closer affection to Hinata beyond the 469 event. Point is, there is manga evidence now so we need to see where it goes.
2. Sakura's feelings for Sasuke- this is one we knew would come up, and it just may soon be upon us. The notion is there with her not trusting him, the one she "loves." But in this case it was highly speculated under due to the development she has experienced between Naruto and Sasuke and how Sasuke has just done more bad stuff over the series. Its also just due to plain simple character development 101, Sakura loved Sasuke blindly and hated Naruto, over time she saw Sasuke had his flaws and Naruto was not as bad as she thought, practically now at the point she cannot imagine him not being around. SS may be on its last knees, but for this, Sakura either gets over Sasuke or remains fixated on him. Not to change this though would have her remain static in what she desired. One thing is true though, she has matured in many senses even knowing what he became. What she does when this event occurs will show what she will go through later. This Sasuke event after 635 will impact her, but also Naruto, and one thing to consider, how will Naruto react due to Sakura? If its hit Sakura hard its always hit Naruto harder.
3. How Sakura will turn to Naruto: this is a big one, we know the reasons why NS can occur, but at this point its how will it occur? Basically what event will set in motion Sakura to gain affection for naruto beyond just friendship? Its one part acceptance and maturity on both of them, but for Sakura what is the moment of connection she would end up gaining in which she fully accepts Naruto on her own choice, loving him on her own choice. There is a lot to go on like how Minato and Kushina ended up, realization, recollection of feelings, etc. So much can be used for this, but if its a dramatic moment or even throwing in a bit of comedy like the early forehead scene being revealed to her that it was Naruto who told her that, how would she react? A combination of shocked, angry, happy, flustered, etc? Basically for the character arc or scene she would need, what would make it occur? Would obviously occur after the Jubito/ Madara crisis but most likely also before, during, or after the Naruto vs. Sasuke ordeal.
4. Hinata's feelings- I only say this because its important she is taken care of too. Despite being a minor character, yes Hinata needs her own ending as others in the series do like Shikamaru protecting/ training Asuma's child, Choji leading his clan, etc. She has her ending with the clan and fixing the relationships between the branches, like Naruto said. Neji's death for any sake could be the catalyst to start this mending of the clan. Likewise Hinata also needs the approval of her father to lead, confidence in herself is also a good ending trait. But as for feelings, if Sakura is about to break the love triangle and we get Naruto-><-Sakura type interaction, with Hinata still going -> to Naruto, something must be done. We know she is not the jealous or competitive type (like her RtN counterpart) she can simply be happy for Naruto, kinda like in chapter 450 with the hug, but if anything else, if NS becomes canon, maybe this is resolved in a simple smile from afar, or maybe there is some closure between Naruto and Hinata before anything else, most likely her at least understanding how Naruto feels about Sakura. How would anyone act if Hinata took the intiative to push Naruto towards the one thing he is scared beyond fighting Obito or Sasuke to do? Yes I mean what if Hinata pushes Naruto to confess to Sakura? How would that be?
5. The biggest thing of all: Putting all the development together, this is the biggest thing, all moments and development between Naruto and Sakura, basically what was built so far, the point is how its topped off, the big bang, the climax, if NS is the romance subplot we see it to be, how will it be put together? What and how does this all accumulate into the characters of Naruto and Sakura, while also supporting the ending of the others on team 7? How will the build up of all this come together and fit within the rest of the plot elements to create an ending to the overall story and journey of team 7 and their friends? It has all the elements there, so many ways to build it, the only question is just what to make out of it all? Basically all the puzzle pieces are there, bring it together to make one solid product and see how good it looks.
Honorary requirement: The Kushina parallel, it was not entirely required but it does help. Because Sakura=Kushina now as of 631, this enables a lot of other development to come forward. Basically just going by the "Find a girl like me" line, well with Sakura as the only girl ever compared to Kushina in the manga so far, this is who we must think is fitting Kushina's foreshadow of Naruto finding a girlfriend. Because this is not prone to change, its safe to say NS takes the kushina parallel otherwise it dies with NS if NS does not become canon. To change it though basically goes on by what others like chatte said in their post about parallels as a literary device, the parallel acts like a rhythm, we have seen this NS "rhythm" for a while with all the other parallels attributed to team 7 but for MK, its on NS. Out of all the parallels we can see in the series, not one was ever displayed towards Hinata, never has there been a comparison of her to another character by another character or a character themselves to the point its either repeated or displayed indefinitely. Basically yes there are similar lines and qualities among characters, but in this case we don't see others inputing thought on her being like someone else they know or have known. I mean like how Minato did his comparison of Sakura and Kushina, Jiraya and Tsunade doing Naruto to both his parents, others doing the Naruto to only Minato like Kakashi or Jiraya, Hiruzen doing team 7 to the sannin, Kakashi doing himself to Sasuke, Obito doing himself to Naruto, Tsunade comparing Naruto to Jiraya, Jiraya comparing Sakura to Tsunade (both of these occured at the start of part 2). Hinata is missing stuff for the parallels but this is only a secondary bonus to add alongside the development for NS which truly matters.
