Sometimes I think all that development in story and character progression was just a fortune and he didn't plan any of it. Sakura changing and starting to like Naruto was never his intention. Look, he made it very clear with Sakura's endless loyalty towards Sasuke. She didn't even change a bit.
What made her look full of flaws when she was little was her constant stalking of Sasuke, being a little brat and not really knowing him or understanding but that is "love" for you. She was mean to Naruto and their "annoying girl teammate". I think the only purpose she ever served in the story was being that girl that likes Sasuke, to begin with. It makes him appear cool and popular, but when Sasuke was going with Orochimaru, she suddenly was left without any motivation.
So she started to become friends with Naruto, since she needs to be more profound. and as Tsunade's apprentice, she became more strong. Story going on and voilá, she is not the girl that only likes Sasuke any more. She cares about her teammates, about Naruto, and BAAM, whenever Sasuke appears, she transforms into her old self. Like: Oh, right, Sakura is Sasuke's fangirl, let's not forget that. Because otherwise, she would be a terrible woman. Development? What kind of development? I never planned to make her important, to begin with.
At the current state of the debate, I totally believe that Kishi planned SasuSaku to begin with. All that NaruSaku red herring was just something that happened without really planning it. Why else would Sakura always think about Sasuke, and never growing out of her fangirl phase?
I know this sound's very anti NaruSaku, but I am only trying to analyze Kishimoto's writing here.
Because even though I feel he didn't plan on changing Sakura's character and her relationship to Naruto but it kind of "happened", this happy little accident was his greatest achievement and was brought down again by his prior intentions. If you write a story, you can decide for two way's to go: Plan out that story, from begin to end, picture the ending and make everythig move towards it - or don't plan the story at all, pick up and work with what you find, explore the characters during writing yourself. Kishi decided to go for both ways - only that he already pictured an ending he conservatively held on. So...let's assume he really planned NaruHina to begin with, to understand why Hinata has only, like, 2 panels in part 2 would be: Meh, there is still plenty of time till the ending, and drawing Hinata is bothersome so....
Edited by Kasimir38, 28 July 2018 - 07:37 AM.