Because frankly Naruto doesn't believe there is any point in pursuing Sakura or telling her how he feels while he was unable to bring Sasuke back to Sakura. This statement was given to you before, if with different diction.
Okay, so just to be clear here, you are admitting that on those panels, Naruto telling Sakura how he feels IS tied to bringing Sasuke back to Sakura, correct?
As an aside, I will concede after re-reading and going through several others analysis that the Karin -> Sasuke angle is one-sided love, my error there. Double Aside, Karin is a pretty cool character.
No need to read any other analysis. There was never anything in the manga to indicate that Karin didn't love Sasuke. Glad we're in full agreement now then. So, back to the original point, Karin loved Sasuke (suki), Sakura loved Sasuke (suki) and Naruto loved Sakura (suki). Agreed?
On the meat of this, first thing, Sasuke is a driver, as in, -events- happen literally, because of him. The Fake Confession would not occur without him being around. Chapter 3 wouldn't happen without him really being there either. In contrast Obito would have done his moon -eye plan regardless of Kakashi's existence. Obito isn't actively doing things because of Kakashi's continual existence. Your statement to wave this point away doesn't work.
That's a bit too literal of an analysis and self-defeating if we follow that reasoning to it's logic conclusion. Sasuke was NOT the driver of events since Obito would have started the 4th shinobi war regardless, Pain would have invaded the village regardless, Pain would have killed Jiraya regardless, Madara would have planned the infinite tsukiyomi regardless and Naruto would've responded to these events with the intention of protecting the leaf village regardless. Kakashi drives ObiRin in the sense that WHILE Rin is alive, Obito goes from trying to spite Kakashi and win Rin's affections to entrusting Kakashi to protect her. In both NaruSaku and ObiRin, we have a third party who the girl is in love with and who the man goes from having a bitter/jealous relationship to a genuine close friendship. That's really all there is to it. Any interpretations to the contrary are disingenuous.
And I say you are ignoring canon, or perhaps missing something, because you cannot reconcile that perhaps it is your interpretation that is invalid. For example, you are arguing that it is not about Naruto wanting to compete with Sasuke, but on bringing up the panel about Naruto wanting Sasuke to look like a jerk, you cannot refute that Naruto -is- competing with him in this moment.
If you could show me how my interpretation was invalid without requiring me to perform mental gymnastics with unambiguous scenes from the manga and databook, perhaps I would believe you were onto to something. Nonetheless, the fact of the matter is that in chapter 3, we have ample indications of Naruto having genuine affections for Sakura and everything you've told us has been seen in other mangas/animes/series where there was a love triangle (I gave multiple examples, each of which you've glossed over for some strange and mysterious reason). Clearly, the mere fact that Ryoko takes efforts to make Ayeka look bad in front of Tenchi is not indicative of any notion that she does NOT in fact love Tenchi, but that she is simply childish. The fact that Kaoru partakes in similar conduct with Megumi does not mean she does NOT in fact love Kenshin, but that she too is simply childish. And the fact that Helga G. Pataki partakes in a wide range of immature pranks of convoluted schemes in other to made rivals like Lila look bad does not mean she does NOT in fact love Arnold (instead, the show uses such scenes to confirm just how much she DOES love him). So when I see you beat your chest about the fact that Naruto planned to make Sasuke look like a jerk, I cannot help but chuckle.
I think you also fail to see that the Hospital scene, in retrospect at least, is a sort of end to that.
I think you fail to see the hole that puts in any notion that Naruto never loved Sakura and was simply competing with Sasuke the whole time. ANY indication of genuine feelings tears that notion apart.
This isn't saying the Sasuke competitive bits were the sole reason or drive.
That's what the movie tells us. It's not enough that you want to ignore the manga. But do you have to ignore the movie too?
Triple Aside: The manga and the mangaka are flawed.
Absolutely. So when we see something suggested in one chapter and the the opposite suggested in a different chapter (or film), we don't need to play mental gymnastics or use 10 page tumblr glorified fanfiction essays to understand the inconsistency. We can attribute the inconsistency to the agreed upon fact that the manga is flawed and the mangaka is also flawed. Glad we can agree on that!
You -still- fail to address how the acknowledgement aspect doesn't hold. Your smug attitude and arrogance still haven't wrestled with that.
Because you say so . . . your desire and ability to hit the reply button for eternity notwithstanding. And I may be smug and arrogant, but at least I'm honest about it.
If everyone is so against Analyzer being here, then don't feed her with replies. Over the months, it has been proven time and time again that she is not a NaruSaku fan that believed it was very real like the majority did. She's not here to delight in NaruSaku or grumble about the ending like the rest of us, so...yeah.
