While there are those who are pro-NS but still debate over the exact meaning of Sakura's actions in 469 and Naruto's reply to Minato in 631. There are a few clear answers to go about it:
1. Relating to 469, we know the exact purposes of why she did what she did in 470 after Sai told Naruto everything, even Sakura was hurt from having to lie, its not like she wanted to. Sakura was in a tough situation, she didn't want to be a burden or cause pain to Naruto. Its not merely a matter if what she said was real or not. It has to do with her motive, sacrificing her happiness for Naruto so he could be free of the promise. On what she said, dialouge wise yes it makes sense, but Naruto didn't want her lying to herself or forcing herself to say just love him because its what he wants. Even though its just a filler episode, shippuden 235 really did throw in sense with that senticne "I would never force her to love me" This is the deal many haters always tend to miss, they thought Sakura just "lied or tried to manipulate him" well she did so under the pretenses for his well being, this event didn't end NS as they claim either for reasons in 631 I'll soon mention. But the deal is, remember many people or haters just bypass the fact her actions were based on the promise. Naruto had his own reasons to save Sasuke even before he made the promise, Sakura's sadness over it was just piled up on it, Naruto had reasons for himself and her to get Sasuke back, but after all Sasuke did and made Naruto go through, for Sakura (for what she understood at the time with the whole ordeal between Naruto and Sasuke on her part) was what caused her to go, remember Sakura has a good picture, but not the full picture of the conflict between Naruto and Sasuke, she is highly integrated on it for the team 7 situation and also for the dynamic between her, Naruto and Sasuke but hers isn't at the top priority as it is directly only with Naruto and Sasuke. Her role is important thats for sure. Anyways back on the 469 stuff, from Sakura's actions, could naruto have been mad? Yeah possibly, until Sai told him. Besides it not like he would honestly just get over her all at once even when Sai told her she was being that selfless and sacrfical to his own wellbeing even if it made Naruto hate her. Naruto dreams of Sakura loving him yes, but only on the aspects of if he could have finished the promise and work the courage to tell her or if she came to him on her own choice because she wanted to.
Biggest deal of all over 469, was kishi's response to fan input over the event, even he said he decpted sakura as an honest girl with good intentions but her actions at times could be "uneven or unintended" and that she is close to Naruto, but this was back in 2009 or 2010 and yes a lot of time has passed since then. 630 even acted as a development event off of these events with Sakura learning not to depend on Naruto alone or leave him with everything, that was the whole reason for her speech. Was she honest? To a degree, the stuff she said made sense, but did she honestly come to love Naruto yet at that time? No not yet but its practically at present possibly closer to that point. Think of it in a story design point, its to give Sakura a mental conflict, what Naruto had done and what she thought of Sasuke and what he became. It put her in a hard position, her ideals against the reality of things. Yet the grey factor here was also her maturity. Every other character has been maturing, Shikamaru stepped up as a leader, Gaara forgave his father, Naruto isn't going to handle everything alone after what Itachi told him to do. A key for Sakura is yes, that aspect of her maturity. This is why we see the potential seeds of that maturity starting in 635 with her not trusting Sasuke. She may overcome her ideals and as we still see, things just remain up with her view on Naruto, never having diminished. At this point it would be better to say Sakura is in a limbo between Sasuke but also thinks practically the world of Naruto, ever since 628 and beyond, her focus has been on him more than Sasuke, only times she focused on Sasuke were his return and 635. Other than that she has been thinking of Naruto more. Did she love him at 469? No but at this time, after she may be moving closer given the concern from 628, her speech from 630, the funny moment and hint from 631, her advocation to him to fight, and yes now this one with how highly she thinks of him. In this string of time look at the positive corrleation naruto put on her compared to Sasuke, its like a light is Naruto, Dark is Sasuke impact on her. This isn't even the end though, Sakura has remained highly part of Naruto's activities in the ten tails revival arc even though they are not directly fighting together. Case in point is, she thinks highly of Naruto but the time of her moving towards Naruto is very likely and potentially higher each new thing that comes between them. The head point would yes be around the Naruto vs. Sasuke fight when this mental conflict hits the high mark but would she turn to Naruto? A lot hints this, basically yes it could be a she subconciously likes him type deal, but she doesn't realize it yet, you know think if OVA 2011 occured but like in the manga.
As for 631, a funny moment? Yes, a joke to his father? Yeah we can say it like that but its not a joke about his feelings. This is because if he really had gotten over her, then this is also due to the fact that the other half of this arguement, being that in all the time between 469 and 631 that other half of the arugement of Naruto being over Sakura would have also been him building up for Hinata yet this has not even occured in the slightest, the short war reunion between his clone and Hinata occured and he remembered her actions at pain and then 615 came but guess where we are, nothing built on it, hardly anything. The NH interaction of the time has not provided anything as in consistent buildup needed for Naruto to go loving Hinata, 615 itself with hand holding, thats not even enough I mean 631 alone poses a big problem aside from the lack of development NH has to overcome, but in all this time we at least got a filler saying Naruto still loves and is still in love as the keyword "IN LOVE" with Sakura, until 631 came, what was our notion? to just assume he spontaniously loved Hinata? Thats the harder arguement to try and prove. Its harder to prove he loves Hinata now than him being over Sakura. Even then the events of 631 had 2 sides to it.
First. Was the side of Naruto's feelings, a joke, sure it was to make a comical moment between him, Sakura, and Minato. Yet its also the only time in the manga since 469, any feelings he could have to a girl are hinted, basically saying sakura is "more or less" his girlfriend well, if he really considers her like that, chances are he still loves her or rather he likes the prospect of her being his girlfriend and hopes that one day she could be that to him. They are as close as any friends pre-intimate relationship could be but Naruto still liking the ideal of Sakura as his girlfriend is credience enough to lend to the fact that he likes the idea of being in a relation with her, in any case, yes the ideal of loving her. Naruto basically still loves Sakura, thats the idea this statement would be pushing. In all truth, it would be harder to try and prove that he was just simply messing with her in a life or death situation or just playing with her feelings, even if he was seriously set on Hinata at this point, what would be the purpose of a scene like this? You don't play with feelings like that, if anything then yeah if Naruto did this despite loving Hinata, it would just be a stupid action towards Sakura's feelings in the midst of a warzone, but see how stupid that sounds? The best case in this situation is that Naruto still loves Sakura, the prospect of her being his girlfriend is still something he hopes to happen, just because of the slight delay in his reply to minato, its harder to say he paused just to think of how to react to mess with Sakura rather than display his own view to his father. If Naruto more or less considers Sakura his girlfriend then chances are, he still loves her.
Second, its just plain again the Kushina moment, one simple often overlooked factor was how Sakura is still the only girl canonically compared to Kushina. Even Naruto's comparisons to Kushina, well again in all cases yes Naruto is like both parents but we see the Minato one more and as the one Naruto strides to be like in terms of hokage ideals. Despite the limited Sakura=Kushina moment, Sakura is still the only girl compared in any canon way to Kushina. Not like we need to include RTN here, but the manga itself has enough for any sane fan to see the similarities between Sakura and Kushina just from the confining the Jinchurki arc. Kushina said find a girl like her, and with minato's statement of "This girl is similar to Kushina." Well I guess I should say this: What the hell are we honestly supposed to go on? Hinata or any other girl isn't being compared to Kushina now are they? Kushina had many similar early interactions with Minato as Sakura did to Naruto so what are we honestly expecting at this point? Either Kishi was lazy in both personality design making Kushina easy and predictable or him and his editors just used the Minato resucing Kushina scene off the same template as Naruto saving Sakura from Sasuke because it saved time or its all to "mislead the readers to think NS is going to occur." Sorry but no, this foreshadow building element is enough of a hint just to consider NS as a possiblity, 631 did one major thing people can debate about the first factor all they want, it doesn't change the fact that the Kushina=Sakura stuff is the closest thing to that foreshadow and everything Kushina said well Naruto had done it already or was in the process of doing it. Kishi hinted at least one pairing years ago, he brought it forward with Kushina's foreshadow, so look at Kushina and Sakura, the aspect that it can be NS as the end one, is that so hard to believe? Rather the change in dynamics between Naruto and Sakura and how much they grew, again its been through so much, its been given the majority of the screentime, its had good and bad moments, people just expect NS to end as friendship, its not. At this point hoping for NH or SS is just expecting too much off of too little, its not going to have as big a chance or make as much sense when NS greatly outweighs the others just by story content. Hey these things were written for a reason, remember this in the order I say it:
1. 631 with Sakura=Kushina with Minato's statement built of of Kushina's find a girl like her speech
2. Kushina's foreshadow had many story elements already occur or in the process of doing it. Naruto found a dream, to be hokage. He stared to change some of his ways after Kushina left, he did other stuff she said though like beware of Jiraya and enjoy bathing etc, as for a girl like her, well Naruto found Sakura now didn't he?
3. Kushina's past with Minato was errely similar to the early interactions Sakura had with Naruto, another parallel from the Sannin and team Minato ones.
4. Parallelism is nothing new in the story when Kushina came in and showed her past, team 7 was long paralleled to the Sannin and team minato at this point.
5. Look at the change and flow of character development of Naruto and Sakura's relationship how it began as rocky and less than stellar but it became ultimately inseperable friends who would do anything for the other's happiness even at the cost of their own, who even despite the hardships they share together to endure or cause on each other, they still come out strong with their relationship as friends, isn't a good relationship for something more based upon one that can withstand even the greatest hardships? Naruto and Sakura towards each other are just friends yet they think highly of each other.
Seriously the development is there, many forms of progress, many forms of development, many flows and actions that lead from one to the next, all that NS stuff has been going consistencly and moderately with the story, its well incorperated into the series and events like 469 and 631 are just 2 in the larger whole of it. NS is part of the story and has a lot of poential to come forward, the story allows it due to what we have seen, even with Naruto not changing and Sakura actually viewing Sasuke differently, its not the same as it was in the start, Naruto still loves Sakura and Sakura likes Naruto a lot, she could possibly advance her feelings for him soon in the future. Its all there, its not impossible. Naruto still needs to confess and Sakura is going to have a situation in the final battle between Naruto and Sasuke over the aspect of losing them. But for now she is thinking solely of Naruto, hardly Sasuke. She will see Sasuke again but under all this, her feelings for Naruto have increased and thats not a thing up for debate, she thinks highly of him and is concerned for his wellbeing. She is proud and respects him. She is thankful for so much he does, its just part of her character to want to have always done somehting back or not leave him with all the work. Sakura is doing for Naruto what she always had done for a while, being his friend and compassionate towards him. This compassion can go further, as Yamato said, how strongly she feels for him is all that matters, and those feels for Naruto, they may just be increasing. 
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///I guess the point is that yes, Sakura has realistic aspects. But I don't think that is a main feature or something unique to her character.
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