Plus, her hand was on his cheek already, so why slap it and then pat on her back. That would be awkward to be honest. Plus, once again, the hand holding was not that romantic version. Hell, check Chikara filler from the anime to see how is supposedly works. The point is that Naruto can transfer chakra in any ways. I should quote that one paragraph here...
no, I wasn't talking about Hinata here, I mean, I was saying that if Kishi wanted, he could have made that 'hold hands" thing be something only for Hinata while for others like Shikamaru, Ino, chouji.. Naruto could have just slap their hands, touched their shoulders or something like that.
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I'm the only one who feels that if NaruSaku does not happen at this point, it would really damage the Sakura's character?! Let me explain why I think that:
probably because of the argument most used here these days
"it's too late".
Make Naruto change his mind about such a thing at this stage of the manga would be like to say that he finally realized that Hinata is better than Sakura (at least that would be how the readers would feel IMO), because right now there is no strong reason for Naruto switch his feelings for Sakura to Hinata. For someone who is in love with a girl since the beginning of the manga and was shown having really strong feelings for her during the entire manga ... I'm sorry but a confession and a pep talk aren't enough to make him change his feelings so easily.
My problem isn't that he make NH canon, my problem is how he didn't respected his own heroine to do that. Sakura would become nothing more than a just a stone on the way of NH happen, something that Naruto had to overcome in order to find true love in the Hinata-sama's arms.
Because while Sakura is one of the few heroines who have already started the story with the love of the protagonist ,she would be one of few (more like the one, I really don't remember any other) that in the end didn't end up with the protagonist because "he found someone better".
My point is that Kishi could have worked NH without sacrificing Sakura's character in the process, he could have made Naruto interact more with Hinata... even if just a little while showing how Sakura was certain about her feelings for Sasuke and with that he would have a genuine reason for a change in Naruto's heart. But he actually showed us a Sakura that wasn't sure about what she felt for Naruto, he develops them as a possible pairing to in the end, just in the end ... destroy that and make him end up with another?!
I've seen some people talk NS That is just a "red herring" is the true pairing NH That is, But I'm sorry, I've never seen an author use his own heroin for something like that e even more for a pairing that have barely interacted.
and for Sakura's side it would belike
" I love Sasuke-kun ... no, wait, I think I love Naruto... "No, I truly love Sasuke-kun" << It's really that way that Kishi wants to portray his own heroine?!
I think if NS doesn't happen at this point, it will be the last nail in the coffin of Sakura's character. Someone could even write a book about what
NOT to do with a heroine of the story based on her.