And Kishi has been repeating the past a lot recently 
Are you talking about kisses in the manga or anime? The only near kisses I remember are the bench scene.
I'm probably mistaken. The anime however had lots of harem fillers..... sigh. 
Absolutely, and that's why I'm really interested in this. He really is a phenomenal storyteller who knows how to wrap even the littlest of things up, especially the thematic material.
I'm strictly speaking about the manga, since that's the material with which I'm more familiar and I take it more seriously as canon material. To be honest, I'm so behind the anime material and legitimately only place importance on the manga. Meh. I'll catch up on the anime later.
The other scenes that come to mind are:
1-The accidental NaruSasu moment, which obviously impacted Sakura and Naruto. It just opens up the possibility for this, I think.
2- Naruto talking to Yagura, during the Bijuu/Jinchuuriki hangout in the middle of the war. He went on about he feels for the poor kid, since he wasn't ever able to kiss a girl, which Kurama hilariously shot down by reminding him of his lack of fortune in the romance department. XD
3- The CPR scene. It's still that kind of contact and has a deeper emotional meaning for Sakura. Plus, there's a huge thing about lip-on-lip contact in Japanese culture, if I'm not mistaken, that even applies to accidental/indirect kisses, which kind of also makes CPR a bit of an intimate act. Somebody brought in a panel from Nisekoi that also seemed to imply that, and it seems to be the basis of many a joke in quite a few series that are more focused on romance, which makes me think that even the slightest touch can bear importance. Obviously, this is somewhat speculative, since I'm by no means an expert on Japanese culture.
There are probably other moments that I'm missing, but these come to mind rather quickly. Of course, I suppose that any talk about a committed relationship, especially marriage, also brings up that possibility, by default.
Ugh! Tell me about it! I really hate those kinds of episodes. Blech!
Edited by TheQueenB, 28 October 2014 - 07:20 AM.