Anyway, Kishimoto has an obligation to all of his audience, not just the ones who support a particular pairing over another. I'm interested to see how he will resolve the tension of shipping and get audience behind him in the decision.
He has painted Sakura to be rough, dismissive and possibly false to Naruto (the contested confession). Hinata has never been shown to have any flaws (excluding her own self-doubt, which only harms herself). So even though there is a lot of foreshadowing of NS as the final pairing, Kishimoto will have to restore support in Sakura before the general audience accepts it...and is happy about it.
So I guess it's not so much what's acceptable within the storyline, but what will be accepted by the fans and how Kishimoto will get to that point. Will he make people sympathize with Sakura? Or will he give Hinata another love interest? Or both?
Anyway, the more junk Kishimoto puts on Sakura (like the Naruto implying she's a liar) to keep the possibility of NH afloat, the more he will have to undo to make NS the final accepted pairing.
This is what I don't get with Kishi's decisions. Why is he going so far to crap on Sakura's character?? If he really intends to make NS the end pairing, then why does it seem he's trying to make Sakura look awful and hated in the eyes of the readers?? I'm absolutely confused. I'm starting to think Kishi is being a masochist by giving himself more work to do. Either that, or his editor's at fault and despises Sakura.
It's actually really annoying how sexist the fandom can be. If the female doesn't do anything as the main male character in action-wise areas, they're automatically useless. Emotional support is just as important, y'know. And besides, it's not like she
is useless. Remember the Sasori fight? That was easily one of the top fights in the series. Definitely one of my absolute favorites. It's not like her skills just
disappeared. They're still there, Kishi just needs to put it to use again.
Another thing that bugs me. The fandom hates the way she treated Naruto when essentially, he was
just as annoying as her. That's exactly why I disliked both of them in the beginning of the series. They were selfish, loud-mouthed, and overly hot-headed. Naruto's background is a lot more sympathetic true but Sakura's was pretty sad to me as well. She was bullied a lot and pretty much had no friends until Ino. Sakura wasn't very popular either. Her background isn't achingly heart-breaking like Naruto's but still enough to feel pitying.
Just ran across Youtube earlier and a Sakura hate comment saying "What kind of heroine is she if we don't even know a damn thing about her? Why is she the heroine? Except that she has two "parents" who look like kitten and doesn't look a damn thing like her. Plus, she cries a lot!"
I was so tempted to reply to that comment because it really pissed me off. What is wrong with the West sometimes? I mean, really.
Well, you have to remember that this is an action series. So the females are held to the same standard as the males in the readers' eyes. Let's take a look: Naruto is the hero. He's the one the readers should be admiring. To that extent, Sakura (as the heroine) needs to be held to the same standard too. Not just emotionally, but physically as well. She needs to be shown that she can be equal to her partner in all aspects. Otherwise, you won't have a hero-heroine duo that works.
Several examples of how a hero-heroine duo should work:
Natsu and Lucy: Both support each other emotionally, and Lucy, while she can be placed at the bottom tier of characters in strength, she shows that she can handle the big boys pretty well. (And now with Uranometria in her arsenal, she's probably risen to the mid-tiers, and can possibly prove to be a threat to even Natsu)
Jellal and Erza: Erza is the emotional crutch Jellal hangs onto. Not only that, she also matches him equally in the physical department.
Ichigo and Rukia: Same as above, and Rukia is not a bad fighter either.
Ed and Winry: Winry's no fighter, but she's a crucial support to Ed as his Medic. Except that unlike NS, this one actually interacts closely to make up for Winry's lack of field action. NS, as sad as it is for me to say, doesn't seem to interact as closely and as well these do
. In fact, Ed's kinda similar to Naruto too in that he keeps trying to build up a wall to separate her from him. But Winry's stubbornness keeps breaking them down. (or to be more exact, her wrench sometimes does the job of it
) And let's not forget her brilliant heroine-worthy moment: The Briggs plan.
Roy and Riza: Don't get me started on these two.....
Lastly, we have MinaKushi themselves. I believe I don't need to say anything about them.
A special mention goes to Gajeel and Levy:
Levy, as she admits, is not much of a fighter compared to the rest of the cast, but makes it up for her brains. Something Makarov even held in high regard enough to give her a shot at the S-Class exams. Gajeel, on the other hand, helps her with her lack of confidence. He also lacks some brains, to be fair. But that's why he wants her to be by his side. An interesting wall built upon them would be the PL arc. I sometimes wonder if we'll ever see deep into Gajeel's psyche about it. It's one loose thread Mashima might want to clear up.
Bonus points is that she's also his Medic.
This is something that I want Naruto to do. But honestly, I think this should've been done ages ago. I want Naruto to help Sakura with her insecurities and Sakura to help Naruto with his too.
My whole point is that, Kishi had better find one damn good way of showing why they're the heroes of this manga. The problem is, how can Kishi undo everything after what's happened. Chapter 615 showed Hinata being all heroine-like. If you see my examples above, Hinata seems to fit the role now. Minus interaction, of course.
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