Oh, its already started. I had the misfortune of stumbling across a one-shot where Naruto and Sakura were getting married, but the whole story focused on how sad Hinata was about it. They portrayed Hinata as a selfless love martyr for suffering through attending Naruto and Sakura's wedding. They made a bunch of the rookies attending the wedding angry at Naruto and/or Sakura for making Hinata sad, and made Naruto and Sakura feel guilty and ashamed when they interacted with Hinata.
The bolded is what makes some of the positive exaggerations regarding Hinata seem so unbearable to me. I already disliked the character quite a bit, and while I'm of the opinion that fanfictions and headcanons are a sort of free space, an arena in which it's more than OK to bastardize actual canon, it bothers me when headcanon or filler is used in debates/discussion about the actual manga. When sometimes it seems as if I'm debating with someone reading Hinata instead of Naruto.
As to the sort of fanfictions and pairing wars that'll continue after the end of the manga, well with fanfictions I understand it. It's a space for people to be creative, a space for people to enjoy stories in a slightly different manner. That's fine, let people have that space. If I had the dedication, attention span, creativity, and eloquence I would totally write a story about and older Naruto being forced into a political marriage of convenience (most probably with Konan or Konan's love child with Tendo Pain/Nagato), a story about some of the sacrifices he's forced to make, in what ways he has to settle in order to achieve his dream. As to the continuation of the pairing wars, honestly, unless there's an open ending the pairing wars won't matter. Once the last chapter/volume has been published and read, what if won't really matter. What could happen or what might happen won't matter. The only think that'll matter will be what happened, and what the last chapter indicates. Maybe if the story ends with an unhappily wedded NaruSaku it would matter, but that won't happen, that's not the story Kishi's writing.
As to whether NS will happen or not, considering Kishimoto's writing style, considering how much more panel space Naruto and Sakura have had compaired to any other pair (including the most important pair --Naruto and Sasuke), considering Sakura is the most dynamic character of the series (most other characters who change, change suddenly, they have an epiphany moment, Sakura's change has been slow...she'll probably still have an epiphany but that won't negate the slow changes she's been making since Chapter 3), I think it would be incredibly bad writing for these two to not have some sort of closure. Don't get me wrong, I've always felt that this couple is inevitable, but since becoming a shipper I realize that my opinion could now be biased, so I'll put it this way at this point in the manga I think the worst possible outcome for NS-fans is an open ending that heavily hints towards NS. One that has those two essentially confess their feelings but realize it's too early for that sort of a commitment. But my previous non-shipper self would say even that would be a sign of bad ending if it wasn't followed up with some sort of "future" epilogue that included showing Naruto and Sakura happily married, raising a child, and perhaps with one on the way; that is important, even though this isn't a romance-oriented manga, the Naruto-centric romance is important for a couple of reasons:
- The parallels: I know that many of us are tired of parallels, we want some real development over more "closure of the parallels" (and yes, I am one of those people, though I do love the usage of parallels, haha), but still if Kishimoto doesn't follow up on the parallels that he has built up, parallels he's worked hard to mimic the NaruSaku and Team 7, so much would have been a waste, and it would be bad writing. After all the build up, after exemplifying that Naruto and the genin team that Naruto was a part of will succeed where his predecessors fail, how would it make sense for Sakura not to realize her feelings before it's too late, for Naruto not to confess to Sakura before it's too late, for Naruto and Sakura to not be able to get together, have a child, and actually raise that child together? If these aren't closed, it would just be excessively bad writing, it would be in opposition to Kishimoto's style, and it would have been a waste of panel space and brain power on Kishimoto's part.
- How would it make sense in this manga, considering the style of this manga for Naruto fail in "getting" the girl (I hate that phrase "getting the girl/guy" but that's what this is) that he has desired. Had Naruto's feelings been shown to change, that would be one thing, but Naruto's feelings have been steadfast. He hasn't shown the potential to change, and it has been reinforced multiple times that men stick by their women, even if their women don't want them. It's also been reinforced that Naruto doesn't give up, he doesn't stop, he doesn't change. As written, Naruto would stand aside if Sakura loved someone else, he would do so for her happiness (and he's oblivious enough that he wouldn't understand that the guy she loves might not love her back), but he wouldn't fall for someone else (unless maybe it's after he's confessed and been rejected).
- How can Naruto not get a family. A family out of love, a legal, official family. His greatest pain is loneliness, he tries to find family anywhere he can, everyone now adores him, they feel his heart, he's become a hero, he'll become some sort of messiah, he's willing to do anything for the world, and the world is now willing to do nearly anything for him. But is that the same as having someone who'll just squeeze his hand, ask him to take out the trash or weed the garden, someone who'll be willing to get out of bed to get him a pair of socks because his feet are cold etc etc. I'm just making things up, but the thing is Naruto's never really had that. He might have to some degree while travelling with Jiraiya, but other than that ever when he was a child who did he have to ease his nightmares, to do little things for him, to allow him to do little things for them. It doesn't have to be shown explicitly, but I think this is the sort of loneliness that Naruto still hasn't been given the opportunity to overcome yet, and it would be odd if there wasn't a major indication that he's finally going to have the opportunity to have a real, tangible, legal, and emotional family.
I hope that made sense, I'm dozing off as I type this...so...