"Naruto says he won’t joke around with Sakura ever again. Heavily implies he was joking in his response last chapter which disproves this idea that he’s still “in love” with Sakura and that the hand holding with Hinata was totally platonic. So NH isn’t dead like NS is so desperately trying to claim it is."
What do you guys think of that?
Yeah, and he said in front of the world, which Hinata was there, whereas Naruto don't joke around feelings as he had a normal face, not a comedy face or something you would see back in Part 1. Plus, it wasn't necessary to have that moment because it doesn't further the plot, rather pretty much gives the huge edge to NS that is claimed to be the endgame. When it comes down to it, the chapter was about Team 7 and we started off with NaruSaku about love and will be the endgame. Then, NaruSasu (wait) happens with Naruto determined to fix him up completely. So yeah, that's why it happened to begin with.