I usually don't give a damn what NH/SS says, but there was one comment that irritated me to hell.
So right now Sakura's popularity amongst the Japanese readers are increasing mostly due to her bangs. Every chapter with a Sakura panel has lots of comments on the chapter thread saying that Sakura is cute. (It's a general chapter thread, not a pairing one.) Recently we had the same Sakura cute comments for chapter 654.
"Sakura is cute again this chapter!"
"The bangs really fit her."
"She looks great on the cover!"
All was going fine and dandy, until one guy commented,"That's because there's Sasuke. Sakura looks cute when Sasuke is nearby."
WTF!? Nobody was talking about pairings until this guy had to put in his biased comment. What does Sakura's looks have to do with Sasuke's appearance? Does he think that Sakura went all like, "Sorry, alliance members. Now that Sasuke is here I must be gone for one hour to curl my eyelashes." ?
I don't know why and I am probably overreacting, but this comment annoyed me more than all those pathetic NH/SS arguments ever did.
This was from several pages back, but I wanted to say that I heard this from a SasuSaku fan, too. They were talking about 631 and how Sakura looked pretty now that Sasuke was there, and that she looked like a man the previous chapters (and, just a side note, they pretty much ignored Minato thinking Sakura was Naruto's girlfriend/parallel confirmation, simply brushing it off lol).
Personally I don't think she looked so nice in 631... But yeah, she barely talked to Sasuke in 631. Saying that she's cute cause Sasuke's there is silly. I mean, I thought Sakura looked beautiful in 469, and she was gorgeous in 540, neither having to do with Sasuke (I mean yeah that one panel in 540 where she thought of him but she looked like she was about to toss her cookies, fo' real).
@bolded: 
I think that people thinking Naruto moved on from Sakura is a good thing for us. I mean when something actually happens to show Naruto loves Sakura imagine the meltdowns waiting to happen. I'm sure there will be loads of Naruto hate judging by the fandom. (See Rin...that poor girl)
LMAO I know right? When I first read 631 I was like, "Well, this should get the Anti's to stop saying Naruto isn't in love with Sakura anymore." ...I should have known better. :\ But yeah, it's going to be pretty funny tbh. I'll laugh, and of course there will be (more) denial.
And, about the Naruto hate - already happened. When 631 was released people (NH fans, actually) were calling Naruto a jerk for saying Sakura is his girlfriend, cause what about Hinata!?
It's not like he gave anyone ANY reason to believe he was even a tiny bit romantically inclined toward Hinata, they have no reason to kitten on him like that.
When it comes to Naruto and Sasuke's friendship, it's certainly important, obviously, since much of the manga revolves around it. However, from my perspective, they never seemed really close, not like Naruto and Sakura have become, though that just might be my bias speaking. Sasuke and Naruto had barely become real friends before Sasuke decided to cut his bonds, and I think that is way their bond comes across forced to me, they just didn't grow close enough before Sasuke defected for it to feel genuine to me.
I agree with you that Naruto's platonic bond with Sakura is deeper than with Sasuke, but I personally don't like to speculate on which one he may or may not care for more, or whether he cares for them 'equally', because, as you pointed out, his bond with each is fundamentally different. He and Sasuke are bound by common pain and loneliness, while he and Sakura have formed a bond based on interaction and their gradually coming to understand the other (mostly Sakura). But of course that is just my interpretation, and I will admit I've never been in favor of the SasuNaru bond.
The bolded: I very much agree. I know 'saving' Sasuke was important to Naruto, but I would rather it were not the bulk of focus in part two. I would have loved to see more insight into the other jinchuuriki and Akatsuki, and I think Naruto's character might have been better developed if some of the focus were taken off Sasuke.
Very much agree with these two posts. That is my biggest grievance with Naruto's character: his obsession with Sasuke. Like you, I never liked the SN 'bond' (I even don't like calling it that), I don't find it believeable, they were barely friends, and yet Naruto's willing to give up his dream if he can't save Sasuke (saying that he recognised his worth more than anyone? REALLY? Where's Iruka in all this? poor guy). It's forced. Naruto & Sakura have become much closer than Naruto and Sasuke ever were (yeah I'm biased, but if you take away all the parts where their beautiful, speshul relationship is shoved in your face then it should be clear to see which pair of characters are closer, imo). And like Darkrest said, it took the enjoyment out of Shippuden, with Naruto chasing Sasuke around and being all mopey about him like gotdamn. Funny, Sasuke brings out the worst in my favourite characters.
Excuse the rant, I just feel quite strongly about this. 