I know this thread is mostly over, but I was writing some tentative ideas for my fanfic that I am probably never going to update, and I started to think about another reason why it's so screwed up for Naruto to not be with Sakura and for Sakura to be with Sasuke.
Sakura was written as being the prize. In the manga of Naruto there is only one female that is ever presented as being the prize and that is Sakura. The hero should get the prize, for obvious reasons.
What makes someone a prize as opposed to just another face in the crowd? A lot, but it's easiest to just focus on two things. Desirability in general, ie personal value/accomplishments, and their being desired by other people.
Sakura was the clear romantic interest of both Lee and Naruto. Not to mention the love letter guy (hard to find a scene more pointless in retrospect. Other scenes are outright offensive/contradictory, but that one is just pointless.) What other female in the K11 has any male show interest in them? None. Does anyone have a crush on Hinata? No.
Sakura kept advancing and became very strong and capable. What other female in the K11 do we see them advancing and getting really strong? None. They are all weak and they stay that way. You can try to object to this, but really, it's true. Hinata is weak and helpless.
So Sakura was objectively the most desirable female i.e. "best girl" that was available for Naruto to be with, in the world of the manga. She was only undesirable in the view of fans. This is true absent the massive amount of character development that exists. You can take all that out, Kishi being one of those mangaka who says romance is too hard to write and he doesn't want to write it(liar) and it's still clear that Naruto has to be with Sakura at the end.
Naruto was not only denied the prize, it was given to his rival. Terrible.
I could have gone into more detail on this but I don't really think it's necessary.
Edited by DrK, 14 July 2018 - 04:37 AM.