Its unfair to say 'If Sakura doesn't end up with Naruto in the end then she's a terrible character ' . How is this any different from NH fans hating on Naruto because of the one reason that he likes Sakura more than Hinata? 'Hinata deserves Naruto'' they say. Is what some are saying here the NS version of this? 'Naruto deserves Sakura' is it ?
Nobody deserves someone's love. It has to come from the heart. If love is not sincere it leads to events like the Kage arc confession. If you remember, Naruto wasn't very happy about that incident. After recent chapters though its safe to say Sakura has started to love Naruto more than she ever loved Sasuke so its highly unlikely she would choose Sasuke in the end.
I trust Kishimoto to make the logical choice. If he makes Sakura end up with Sasuke, I'll completely lose my respect for his writing. It would be ridiculous to hate on Sakura because of Kishimoto's bs. I'll never do such a thing. She'll always be my favorite female character.
Who Sakura ends up with, depends on her choice. It has to do with Kishi's choice, but it also has to do with Sakura as a character, that Kishi took his time developing. Sakura loving Sasuke isn't a problem, because her love for him gets weaker throughout the whole show. The difference between Naruto's crush and Sakura's crush is that Naruto's crush is a positive one. It gets stronger and more selfless throughout the series. Naruto is a part of Sakura's life. Hinata isn't. It's a positive-positive.
Hinata and Sakura's crushes were negative in some way. Sakura was a part of Sasuke's life, but she liked him for wrong, shallow reasons. Sasuke never reciprocated - so no development. Hinata loved Naruto for all the right reasons, she loved him selflessly, but she was never a part of Naruto's life - so no development.
The reason why Naruto's crush works is because there is reciprocation on Sakura's side. His crush is real and selfless. He's developed with her, their relationship grew. That's why NaruSaku works. I also hate it when people say someone "deserves" someone else's love. It's onesided and unfair. It has to work on both sides. They have to deserve each other. That's what NaruSaku has.
The reason why I wouldn't like Sakura is because her being with Sasuke would illogically negate all that development Sakura had in Part 1 and in Part 2, that Sasuke wasn't ever a part of. Her being with Sasuke would ruin her character. If she was single or with Naruto, nothing bad would happen to her character. It would be positive. Sasuke is her childish and selfish side. Naruto is her mature and selfless side. She can care for Sasuke as a friend, but if she looks at Sasuke romantically, it gets in the way of her thinking clearly. It affects her negatively, and it affects the people around her negatively.
The reason I love Sakura is because of the development she had. Because of how caring and selfless she can be. Sasuke is the one thing about her character that I disliked. It was the part of her character that I wanted to see her move past. And to this day I would still like a confirmation of her moving past it. Everything that's going on in the manga right now seems to point that direction anyway, so I'm not really worried... But whatever. What happens happens. Kishi's a good writer, he won't be crazy to make SS canon.