@ Miss Soupy
Very interesting argument,
We can't really denied that this confession was tricky.
However, I do believe that, her expression when she said that she love him and when she hug him was sincere. She didn't have the fake smile like when she said the 'autumn skies' excuse.
For the rest, I totally agreed with you
She did love him, I have seen so many manga/anime confessions and comparing them to the one of our NS case... it matches in some points where anybody can tell it is completely sincere. I would say whenever she tries to convince Naruto that she loves him, she thinks the best way to erase any traces of Sasukes relationship (if there was one, which I doubt a lot) is expressing the reasons why she doesnt love Sasuke anymore (either Sakura is very unexperienced in love scenes or she is freaking nervous) instead of expressing why she loves Naruto without thinking backwards about sasukes doings.
Lets be honest here, I am not a girl but you can feel how tense a confession is (bc is normally made by the guys side) so pretty much I understand her. In a confession you dont know what to say, Sakura was ready to tell him that she loved him... but when she realized Naruto wasnt believing anything of what she was saying, she became speechless to the point of lacking valid arguments to backup her own feelings (dont get me wrong, probably she thought he wouldnt believe her, but if you know its gonna rain and you are outside with an umbrella, lightnings might happen also and you didnt foresight it at all.. at the end the umbrella may not be enough).
I think the worst thing about the confession was that if she really was in love with him, she should of at least said it to him alone, of course she loves Naruto, but I don't think she was necassarily ready to say she loved him she should have at least resolved her feelings for Sasuke; I would have found the confession more personal between the two if they were alone and if she was actually ready.
U know, that is something I dont get... why did she do it when they were surrounded by half of ninja-academy-shinobis who were with them almost all their students-life-time. I would be freaking embarrased...