they had three options in that regard.imho. kill her during the Pein arc with her noble sacrifice being a motivating point for the rookie 9 and naruto in particular. her confession causes Naruto to really search his own feeling son Sakura and reach out to her to let her know how he feels and that while he wants Sasuke back so she can make her own choice hes willing to wait but didnt want her to not know.
this leads into the land of iron arc and the disagreement caused by Sakura attempting to protect him by letting him know she returns his feelings but doing so in an awkward way which hides that she and the rookies decided to take sasuke out and worse she decided to do it by herself. this creates some conflict between them but lets them work it out as they talk afterward and each comes to terms with their rapidly growing affection
the other option is not to kill her because quite frankly she JUST ISNT THAT IMPORTANT her sacrifice just goes by the way side as it did in the manga and is left behind with no one discussing it again as she slips into the background
of course there is a third option which was never taken which was to use that moment as a matter of personal growth where she acknowledges narutos feelings for Sakura and begins her own journey to let go of him and move on which would have been a fundamental character growth moment
And Sakura completes HER character growth by acknowledging, that while her feelings for Sasuke were genuine, it was not love because she did not know him and he didn't let her in at all emotionally. There was no real connection. the most insulting part of the couples is not, again, because of shipping preference, but because character development had to be derailed and completely reversed for the couples to be canon. Naruto acted like all the bridges he built don't matter ands would happily burn them if Hinata didn't return his "retconned and forced" affections in the retconned and forced movie. and Sakura acted like the obnoxious, airheaded, bimbo-like 12 year old she was at the start of the series in chapter 698 and Sasuke married her out of pity, sources say. They didn't even provide closure or a proper resolution to Naruto and Sakura's relationship either. They just said Naruto doesn't know what love is and he pursued Sakura as a shallow attempt to one up Sasuke, negating all their emotional bonding not just of romantic interest but that their very friendship is also a shallow farce. Not to mention that NARUTO of all people, doesn't know what love is, despite wanting friends and family for his entire life and crush blushes around Sakura consistently? Anyone with any actual emotional attachment to this series and always kept the story dear to them can never acknowledge these messages as a good thing or even true. But of course any pro ender that I have ever met is of one of 2 camps 1. that they only care about Hinata and her wants to the exclusion of everything else or 2. they just like imagining that Naruto is boning Hinata vicariously for them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Even chapter 700 did not feel like a proper ending because sure Naruto became hokage, but has he changed anything like he said he would? Nope, he is just continuing the same mistakes as his predecessors without a care in the world. so much for being the chosen one that would end all world conflict.
Edited by Phantom_999, 16 January 2022 - 11:49 AM.
