Just goes to show the level of BS he comes up, he told his own wife that the charactor of Hinata was modeled on her. His wife apparently didn't buy that BS, sounds like Sakura was based on her charactor (something I believe Oda commented on years ago.)
When he manages to upset his own wife and a bunch of female employees at SP...he should know that he kittened up, the growth of Sakura was powerful, one of the best done in any manga to date, (except for her obsession with Sasuke which appeared to have died down then got bought back near the end of the war.) If Sakura ended up with Naruto it would have been a powerful ending, one that girls around the world could take encouragement from, a regular girl with nothing special about her, growing up, shredding her immaturity and realising her goals and meaning of true feelings compared to first lust. I really thought this was the engle Sakura was meant to go. Sakura could have been a rolemodel, instead she's a poster child of how not to grow up.
Seriously his own wife was upset with him about the end pairing.
Also half way through he realised? So far he's said from the beginning, when the anime started, hinted it was SP's idea and now the middle...make up your freaking mind.