Kirisuna is so popular that it became DLC it an entirely separate series (Tales of Arise). Nobody but the most ardent Naruto fanboys gives a crap about Sasuke and Sakura (which is why the SS manga failed miserably).

 
 
 
You really can't forget about me, can you? I never said anything like that. Since you quoted me months later, I will clarify some recent events for some delusional fans who are still mourning NaruSaku death after 9 years.
 
I stated that they would disregard the Boruto manga storyline due to its poor quality and Ikemoto's inability to craft a compelling narrative or produce decent artwork. This has nothing to do with the canon couples.
 
The producers admited that:
 

 
As you can see, they would rather create their own story instead of use Ikemoto story. 
 
- Instead of focusing on Boruto and Kawaki, they shifted their focus to Sasuke and Naruto.
- Rather than the Otsutsuki, they centered their attention on the Uchiha clan.
- Instead of the Karma power, they focused on the Sharingan.
- War and clans conflict instead of the aliens.
 
 
At this point they're just try to milk out the Uchihas and popular plots then tried to hide it by adding Boruto's character in the game.  

 
Despite your alleged popularity of NaruSaku, which led to a decline in the franchise's popularity due to fan backlash, the game producers remained oblivious and made no alterations to the canon couples. Instead of developing an alternative NaruSaku family, they introduced a New Team Special featuring Sasuke, Sakura, and Sarada. 
 
As you can see, Nanashi was just an Uchiha wearing a blonde wig instead of a NaruSaku daughter from another dimension. Let's hope that every blonde character introduced is a NaruSaku son.
 

Also today is the official couples day in Japan.
They still are using the Canon Couples propaganda and ignoring NaruSaku.
 

 
 
They released a pair of rings referencing and paying tribute to Sasuke and Sakura.
 

 
https://twitter.com/...160104464814285
 
 
A big japonese site conducted a popularity poll to find out which couple is the most popular of all mangas. Guess what? 
 
 

 
第1位は『NARUTO』のあの二人 理想の夫婦キャラTOP10。『BLEACH』『マンキン』『SPY×FAMILY』からもランクイン | numan
 
numanヌーマン on X: "【11/22は #いい夫婦の日】 理想の夫婦キャラTOP10を発表 『NARUTO』サスケ&サクラ 『NARUTO』ナルトヒナタ 『シャーマンキング』葉アンナ 4位以下も注目❗https://t.co/DuKKxG006v 「サクラの想いが報われてよかった」 「ナルトとヒナタの長い道のり」 「葉とアンナの熟年夫婦感」 https://t.co/j042QzLF93" / X (twitter.com)
 
 
 
1 - Sasuke/Sakura from Naruto
2 - Naruto/Hinata from Naruto
3 - Yoh/Anna from Shaman King.
4 -  Lloyd/Yol Forger from Spy X Family.
5   - Ichigo/Inoue from Bleach.
 
Everybody in Japan hates the canon couples and everybody misses NaruSaku.  
 
I really admire the anger and some desilusional NaruSaku fan theories  fans 9 years after the ending.
 
 
GoodBye.
 
Let's wait. Maybe in 2050, a NaruSaku son from another dimension will appear, or Kishimoto will express regret for his canon couples decision, stating that he lost his wife based  Sakura to Sasuke due to the influence of the evil editors and Hinata fans.

NaruSaku represented one of the last (if not the only) bastions of truly good storytelling this series had to offer. As people have pointed out to you many times, the setup has been there since chapter 3.

This series has abandoned all attempts at meaningful storytelling, hence why Boruto is the universally acknowledged trash fire that it is. For all your sad efforts at appealing to popularity (i.e. hey guys, look at this random poll I found that ranks SasuSaku as the greatest anime pairing ever!), this is a truth you are utterly unable to ignore; your precious pairings coincide with a formerly universally popular series that has gotten so bad that an entire alternate future video game has to be released just so people might acquire some interest in the actual finished product. Whereas you see this and grow frustrated, I see this and smirk with vindication.🤣

You keep your canon trash fire (where in recognition of how awful these characters have become, Naruto and Hinata literally become fodder for the ole stuffed in the fridge trope). I'm content with fan creations (art, doujin and fanfiction) celebrating not what is, but what could have been.

 
 
 
You really can't forget about me, can you? I never said anything like that. Since you quoted me months later, I will clarify some recent events for some delusional fans who are still mourning NaruSaku death after 9 years.
 
I stated that they would disregard the Boruto manga storyline due to its poor quality and Ikemoto's inability to craft a compelling narrative or produce decent artwork. This has nothing to do with the canon couples.
 
The producers admited that:
 

 
As you can see, they would rather create their own story instead of use Ikemoto story. 
 
- Instead of focusing on Boruto and Kawaki, they shifted their focus to Sasuke and Naruto.
- Rather than the Otsutsuki, they centered their attention on the Uchiha clan.
- Instead of the Karma power, they focused on the Sharingan.
- War and clans conflict instead of the aliens.
 
 
At this point they're just try to milk out the Uchihas and popular plots then tried to hide it by adding Boruto's character in the game.  

 
Despite your alleged popularity of NaruSaku, which led to a decline in the franchise's popularity due to fan backlash, the game producers remained oblivious and made no alterations to the canon couples. Instead of developing an alternative NaruSaku family, they introduced a New Team Special featuring Sasuke, Sakura, and Sarada. 
 
As you can see, Nanashi was just an Uchiha wearing a blonde wig instead of a NaruSaku daughter from another dimension. Let's hope that every blonde character introduced is a NaruSaku son.
 

Also today is the official couples day in Japan.
They still are using the Canon Couples propaganda and ignoring NaruSaku.
 

 
 
They released a pair of rings referencing and paying tribute to Sasuke and Sakura.
 

 
https://twitter.com/...160104464814285
 
 
A big japonese site conducted a popularity poll to find out which couple is the most popular of all mangas. Guess what? 
 
 

 
第1位は『NARUTO』のあの二人 理想の夫婦キャラTOP10。『BLEACH』『マンキン』『SPY×FAMILY』からもランクイン | numan
 
numanヌーマン on X: "【11/22は #いい夫婦の日】 理想の夫婦キャラTOP10を発表 『NARUTO』サスケ&サクラ 『NARUTO』ナルトヒナタ 『シャーマンキング』葉アンナ 4位以下も注目❗https://t.co/DuKKxG006v 「サクラの想いが報われてよかった」 「ナルトとヒナタの長い道のり」 「葉とアンナの熟年夫婦感」 https://t.co/j042QzLF93" / X (twitter.com)
 
 
 
1 - Sasuke/Sakura from Naruto
2 - Naruto/Hinata from Naruto
3 - Yoh/Anna from Shaman King.
4 -  Lloyd/Yol Forger from Spy X Family.
5   - Ichigo/Inoue from Bleach.
 
Everybody in Japan hates the canon couples and everybody misses NaruSaku.  
 
I really admire the anger and some desilusional NaruSaku fan theories  fans 9 years after the ending.
 
 
GoodBye.
 
Let's wait. Maybe in 2050, a NaruSaku son from another dimension will appear, or Kishimoto will express regret for his canon couples decision, stating that he lost his wife based  Sakura to Sasuke due to the influence of the evil editors and Hinata fans.

NaruSaku represented one of the last (if not the only) of truly good storytelling this series had to offer. As people have pointed out to you many times, the setup has been there since chapter 3.

This series has abandoned all attempts at meaningful storytelling, hence why Boruto is the universally acknowledged trash fire that it is. For all your sad efforts at appealing to popularity (i.e. hey guys, look at this random poll I found that ranks SasuSaku as the greatest anime pairing ever!), this is a truth you are utterly unable to ignore; your precious pairings coincide with a formerly universally popular series that has gotten so bad that an entire alternate future video game has to be released just so people might acquire some interest in the actual finished product. Whereas you see this and grow frustrated, I see this and smirk with vindication.🤣

You keep your canon trash fire (where in recognition of how awful these characters have become, Naruto and Hinata literally become fodder for the ole stuffed in thr fridge trope). I'm content with fan creations (art, doujin and fanfiction) celebrating not what is, but could have bee.

I wouldn't say the series collapsed and lost its fanbase because NS did not happen, but I will say that NS not happening is a symptom of the reason the series collapsed and is in the miserable state its currently in. Kishimoto's original editor left the series at around the Pain arc and things slowly started falling apart since then. Perhaps Kishimoto's new editor gave him free reign? Perhaps too many hands began stirring the big fat Naruto pot (i.e. Studio Pierrot?) Perhaps all of the above? Either way, the tone of the writing post chapter 450 (perhaps arguably even several dozen chapters earlier than this) HEAVILY suggest that the Naruto steam train was slowly descending off the smoothly maintained rails it had been gliding on for 400+ chapters. I've gone over this before page by page and panel by panel in a separate thread here, but the entire fake confession sequence (everything leading up to it and everything afterwards) has to be some of the worst writing in this entire series. Characters literally contradict themselves in the span of a single chapter, Naruto's dialogue about wanting to die with Sasuke is blatant character assassination and it all ultimately serves no purpose (almost as if the author is telling us to pretend this part of the story never happened). Everything post 450 makes it abundantly clear that Kishimoto has no idea what he wants to do with this series. Sasuke is a member of the Akatsuki after the Itachi fight, but literally after the Pain arc, he spouts nonsense about no longer being a member since he upheld his end of the bargain to capture Bee. It was made clear that he was going to attack the leaf village (which would have been a better set piece than the bloated war arc) (hell, I don't even think Pain should have been given the opportunity to enter the leaf village since it undermines Sasuke's desire to do this). Not to mention all of these villains who are really being controlled by surprise surprise other villains (Pain < Obito < Madara < Zetsu < Kaguya < Aizen < Marijuana). The love, care and attention this shounen manga had been given over the course of 400+ chapters was erased and Naruto quickly devolved to same escalation/power-level/beam-spam nonsense you can find in any other series. Boruto takes these problems and makes them EVER WORSE with this whole Otsutski clan sh_t. That and Boruto is crappy and lazily written character. A lot of us grew up on Naruto because he was RELATABLE.  Boruto is not relatable. Just another edgelord gary-stu who is a dime a dozen these days. Even Boruto's entire angst angle is IDIOTIC given that it is a result of a problem even part 1 Naruto would know how to solve within ten seconds.
 
Under these circumstances, there is little wonder NS did not happen. The magic responsible for the original series' success disappeared 2/3 of the way through the original series. NS (and MANY other plot elements) needed this magic to work. Kishimoto got lazy and started getting writing advice from overseas YouTubers who have never written a single story in their entire lives. Over time, people began to sense that the magic emanating from the series they had fallen in love with had disappeared. Some of us noticed this in the form of the fights no longer having any real complexity to them and instead being glorified DBZ fights. Some of us noticed this in the form of previous plot lines either being abandoned outright or having no satisfying conclusion whatsoever (I like how all of the previous buildup about Danzo got reduced to nothing after having him quickly get killed after becoming Hokage; it's almost as if him becoming hokage did not matter). And some of noticed noticed this in the form of Naruto and Sakura's character arcs suddenly going in weird directions; if I'm reading chapter 459, 469 and 470 correctly, Naruto basically GAVE UP on his promise of a lifetime and confirmed to Sakura that he was saving only Sasuke for himself (keep in mind that Naruto's whole retarded 'lets die together' speech with Sasuke is an implicit acknowledgment that he is willing to accept an outcome where he fails to keep his promise to Sakura)---698 and 699 appear to be consistent with this, as the POAL is never referenced throughout these chapters despite it having been broadcasted as a pretty big moment for Naruto and Sakura throughout the end of part 1 and the beginning of part 2. Hell, even putting romance aside, the whole crap about Naruto being the child of prophecy and a bunch of other stuff that incidentally proves part 1 Neji right. A lot of people in the fandom saw these cracks and pipe-leaks forming in the series, but decided to keep watching/reading the series just to see how things ended or shipping. Believe it or not, even if a restaurant is bad, a lot of people will stick around and finish their meal at the restaurant. But once they're done, you can rest assured that those people will not come back. This is what happened to Naruto. People stuck it out to the end, but gave up on it afterwards and the thought of an emo gary-stu version of Naruto being the main character in a sequel didn't catch a lot of people's interest.

Villains in stories often and should be challenges to hero beyond the physical whether that be emotional, psychological, or ideological. This is often done by the villain being a dark reflection of the hero; often of a certain trait to both challenge and warn the hero.

 

In the latest chapter of the Mirai manga it made pretty clear the Ryuki is a dark reflection of Mirai's dissatisfaction of the current era. That they by living in an era of peace are unable to match the generation the came before them.

 

In Kotor II: The Sith Lords. The Titular Villains, the Sith Lords, are a dark reflection of the heroine the Jedi Exile. The Jedi Exile was a general in the Mandalorian War with an innate talent to create force bonds to strengthen her, during the final battle of the war she was betrayed by her leader, Darth Revan, by being order to activate a doomsday weapon the Mass Shadow Generator, the backlash of the mass death happening all at once made her cut herself off from the Force, but she in the game comes back defeats the Sith and her students go on to restore the Jedi Order that lasted for nearly 4000 years after her death. Darth Nihilus, Lord of Hunger, was an extreme of her relying on her force bond power to feed off others for strength; he became so consumed by his own power, he consumed his own body, and had to bind himself to his armor to survive. Darth Sion, Lord of Pain, is a dark reflection of her relying on the force to sustain herself; he became a walking corpse that could only survive by the Force. Darth Traya, Lord of Betrayal, both were betrayed by the Sith and exiled by the Jedi; Traya all the Jedi she trained followed Revan and fell to the darkside, she trained the other two lords in how to use their power which led to being consumed by their power, then betraying her, and she trained the Exile for revenge. Beyond the Exile, no other student survive to pass on her teaching leading them to mostly die with her beyond what the Exile taught to the Jedi. As Traya is the final boss she therefor is the greatest of the dark reflections of the Exile. IE Darth Revan's betrayal or in the game revenge against the Jedi Council for exiling her was the greatest danger that could have led to her falling to the darkside. 

 

Back to Naruto. As Obito is Naruto's greatest dark reflection he represents what is the greatest danger of what could make Naruto fall. Sakura's death at the hands of Sasuke. Why is that? Because, until the last moment of the manga he was in love with her. That's why Naruto understood and forgave him. Without Naruto's love of Sakura, the story doesn't work.

 

Beautifully written post and well said. The obvious parallel between Rin and Sakura should have been brought to light and this story and this story is criminally worse for not having even ATTEMPTED to bring this up AT ANY POINT during any of Naruto's confrontations with Obito. 

 

Oh, to think of all the things this story could have been. 

Instead we get:
"You only liked me because of your rivalry with Sasuke." and "Naruto doesn't understand love. He loved Sakura like a potato and thought Hinata wanted to eat him." completely invalidating the entire character and his motivations.   

They could have done that "Breakup" Respectfully, "I know you like me, and for a time I thought I liked you to but...nothing ever came of it and there's someone else out there who you should give a chance to." But Nah Hinata had to be HIS FIRST AND ONLY LOVE.

Obito being Naruto's dark mirror was such an interesting concept that was also ruined. Like I'm glad Obito redeemed himself but Naruto never needed to call him a "Cool guy" and proceed to copy his haircut. its just kittening weird. 

 

This. Horrendous. Horrendous. Horrendous. Horrendous storytelling. You do not set up a BLATANT parallel between the main character's love interest and the main villain's love interest and then DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. NS being endgame was plain as day.

seems a little OP to me but then again considering the how kittened the power scale became in this series--why not?   Its an interesting idea even if its not necessarily something I would write.

 

I think a post-series Naruto should be a complete OP broken monster based on all the skills and abilities they gave him throughout the war arc.  Does this mean they would need to utilize him in the story? Nah. If I were writing the sequel series, Naruto's son (Shinachiku) would be handling smaller scale threats and we would revisit the street level strategy focused combat that made Part 1 so great. Maybe every once in a while having one of these guys try to flex on one of Naruto's shadowclones only to get utterly embarrassed. Either way, Naruto is largely out of focus and storylines won't involve stopping invincible poorly written eldritch abominations every story arc. A sequel series should involve the series getting back to its roots and actually being about ninjas once again.

I always foresaw Hokage Naruto mastering the shadow clone jutsu to the extent that it was not only impossible to tell the difference between the clones and the real one (with a running gag being that Sakura was probably the only person in the world who could immediately distinguish the clones from the real one), but that Naruto would have at least 10,000 clones active at ALL TIMES. One clone in the hokage's office, one clone teaching at the academy, one clone running the orphanage, one clone helping run Ichiraku's ramen, one clone helping the guards stand post at the village gates, etc etc etc. And his mastery would be such that Naruto would've overcome the mental drain side effect we saw when this training was used during the Kakuzu arc. I also always foresaw Sakura as handling most of the administrative work in the hokage's office (with another running gag being that she was more or less the real hokage most of the time). They would certainly have time for their kids under this scenario And I don't see anything unethical about having clones do the paper work. That's just stupid Boruto writing.

Ikemoto basically shoved Naruto and Hinata into the bus folks. It's really sad. He has no idea what to do with them. As a writer myself, it's plain as day to me.

 

What makes this particularly glaring is that these are the two characters Kishimoto bet the entire future of the series on. He believed it was going to boost profits to an all time high. Nine years later, he's now having write them out the series for the indefinite future. Hilarious and well deserved.

 

Ino sees Sakura roaming the village behind Sakura. This causes Sakura to lay her head on the table and then gush about how hot Sasuke is. Ino points out that while yes Sasuke is hot, she should be used to it because they been married for years...well to be fair, Sasuke barely visits that she has probably spent more time with her creditors than she has with Sasuke. Ino ask how she can even handle a long term mission with him if she can't even stop gushing over him like a school girl over their first crush. Apparently, because he shinobi switch flips when she is on the job. Which unfortunately, when she gets back to the village he feelings return full force like they are fresh and new. Wait does the mean while she merely considers using Edo tensei on Sasuke while on mission. She actually wants to use it on him when they are in the village? 

 

For years, the most ardent SS fans have advocated that Sakura's love for Sasuke is deeper than him handsome and good looking and she fell in love with him over the course of trying to save him from his inner darkness. But now that he has been saved from his inner darkness (no thanks to Sakura by the way; so much for her promise to help Naruto save him next time!), there's really nothing there other than him being handsome and good looking. It's almost as if these characters have no chemistry whatsoever. Almost anyway . . .

I'm with you on everything but this. I think it would be as equally ridiculous and stupid of Sakura to do that as I do towards Hinata. 

Hinata herself states that what she's doing is selfish and self serving and she's right. Its so unbelievably cruel to get yourself killed Infront of someone while confessing your love for them. She's "lucky" she didn't die because then that's a load of guilt only Naruto has to carry for the rest of his life.

 

 

I think Kishimoto "Originally" had the intention of there being some sort of romantic subtext between Tsunade/Orochimaru/Jiraiya since its a formula he seems to love but he never really committed himself to it. What I think's become abundantly clear is that the number one reason he edo-tensei'd Dan into the end of the story was largely to torpedo the Narusaku/Tsuraiya parallels.

Tsuraiya showed that a woman could have more than one love in her life& that some men will wait forever for their opportunity--can't have that if you want babies for a successful spinoff. 

The Minakushi/Narusaku comparison was so clear and obvious there was nothing he could do to undo it    
 

 

I don't see Sakura acting quite the same way as Hinata in that scenario. Due to preexisting development from Sakura on this, the scene would play off of what Yamata and Sakura talked about in chapter 297. I definitely didn't mean throwing in a love confession just yet. I think the only proper way to do an NS confession is to have Naruto finally correct the mistake he made in chapter 3 and simply utter those words himself without being disguised as Sasuke. In my mind, Sakura is always going to have lingering feelings for Sasuke until realizing that it was Naruto who said those words in chapter, not Sasuke.

 

I agree with you on there not actually being much of a Tsunade/Orochimaru parallel. I was mistaken.

 

 

If he's not handsome, what of him is of interest to her? Unless the thing that really turns Sakura on is fawning over people who ignore her and playing the victim of how "She barely sees her husband" Literally don't understand what SAKURA gets from Sasuke. I understand what HE gets from her, but relationships that are successful require some sort of feedback and reciprocity that these two don't have. 

 

Exactly. If Sasuke came back after the first timeskip looking like a troll, SS would've been sunk right then and there. And that's sad.   The way they interact makes it abundantly clear that it was never intended on actually being a serious relationship.

 

 

 

 

But what's is about to talk about NS when current fandom doesn't care about NS anymore?

Most people just moved on, come to accept the final pairings or doesn't give a kitten about pairings.

Sure some of you can talk forever and agreed with themselves about how good NS was before Kage Summit Arc, how Kishimoto ruinned them, imagine NS as the perfect pairing, hates everything and refuse to see any good in series or Sakura future.    

 

See, this is how I know with 100% certainty that you are not an NS fan and have likely never been one. We talk about all kinds of stuff here despite NS canon having died nine years ago. We talk about what this series could have been, we talk about fanfiction, we talk about fanart, we talk about ongoing canon and how it would be better with NS. Seriously, your logic is the equivalent to saying that the Godfather came out 40 years, so it's no longer worth talking about the Godfather. That's crazy. 

 

And why in blue blazes should the so-called "current fandom" not caring about NS affect our ability to discuss it? Because other people don't want to talk about it, we shouldn't talk about it? You need to open your mind and stop being so fixated on what other people think. Do you realize that in the entire time you've been on this for, you haven't had a single thing to say about NS without mentioning SS in the same post? I don't even think you've even once commented on why you allegedly like NS or what you think is good about it. It's as if your goal here is just to do the same concern troll routine others have tried (and failed at) in the past. The hilarious thing is that you could be a diehard SS fan but still actually want to talk about NS here and no one here would have a problem with you. I can't believe you would let your mask slip enough to say this forum needs to be shutdown. What in the world is wrong with you? It's obvious you don't like the people here; you have nothing but CONTEMPT for us and what we believe to spout nonsense like that

 

I'll let you in on a little secret: Do you see the pairing in my signature? They're from an anime called Akame ga Kill. Contrary to what is implied in my signature, this ship is NOT CANON. The author destroyed any chance of that pairing occurring with bad and lazy writing. Do you know what I did in response? I went and wrote a 300,000 word fanfic about these characters, fixed a bunch of issues with the way the story played out and ended up being pretty well received with hundreds of reviews. With even less effort, I once did the same with the Naruto ending and fixed a bunch of issues with the series all within confines of rewriting chapters 693 - 700. A bunch of fans loved the story.

 

Just because someone is canon does not mean that you can't talk about anything but the canon. A lot of times, it turns out that a lot of likeminded people are hungering for something beyond the canon. That is why this forum still stands, my friend. It is also why your calls to have this place shutdown fall on deaf ears.

 

Above all else, I reject supporting the current Naruto canon on principle. You yourself agree the current Naruto is trash. The problem, however ,is that when you support trash, you get more trash. If Kishimoto wants my readership and monetary support to his product back, he's going to have to earn it. Until then, I'm fine sitting on the sidelines and contributing to a fandom that is not supported by canon. As far as I'm concerned, the fanon far exceeds canon at this point.

 

I think its a bit silly to assume that because Hinata ended up as Naruto's housewife, Sakura would suffer the same fate in an NS ending just because Ikemoto is a POS. The difference is Hinata never had anything going for her besides Naruto, there was never really a second option for her since her only interests were him and knitting. Her own father said she lacked the will to fight and he didn't care if she died way back in part one TO KURENAI'S FACE much less. Presumably the only reason she became a ninja for even as short time was because she was forced but saw Naruto trying his best and it inspired her to do the same.

Once again I love how Hiashi being an absolute kitten bag of a father was just wiped away in this travesty of a series like so many other things.

I think SP has more control than you think considering they literally made up filler to redeem Hiashi of all this and show that princess Hinata was a hidden gem her family glossed over all along. 
 

 

Sakura is a radically different character than Hinata. If she were Naruto's wife and were written in character, the entire premise of the Boruto movie is DOA. Naruto's paper work lust will be nonexistent and he won't be out of shape either.

 

And yeah, Hinata's entire backstory was whitewashed, clearly proving that she was never intended to be anything more than a glorified filler character. 

 

 

Pierrot have nothing to do with SS/NH.  This was a solo decision between Kishimoto and his editors based in internal polls and public preferences at the time or maybe Kishimoto never lied and planned SS/NH since the beginning...

Who knows.

 

But Pierrot and their fillers has no power to influence Kishimoto and his editors.

 

 

Not a chance that Kishimoto planned SS/NH since the beginning. Unless people seriously believe the complete nonsense that the blatant parellels were red herrings. Not to mention Kishi's wife being the real Sakura and Kishimoto thinking of himself as Naruto. It's obvious what his original intentions were.

 

And Pierrot has plenty of influence over Kishimoto and his editors. Your own posts spells it out as far as what happened with Sakura and Hinata's popularity. NH was a poorly thought-out (though hindsight is 20/20) business decision and nothing more. Now that that business decision has clearly failed, they've packed both Naruto and Hinata onto a bus. It's embarrassing AND hilarious really.

So it's better just closer this forum or let this place die because sadly NaruSaku is finished in canon and there's nothing to talk about them. Kishimoto/Jump are hardly receiving feedback from NaruSaku fans in Japan.

If you don't like talking about NS, why are you even here? 🤣

Her wanting to edo-tensei Sasuke and herself is just par for course for the fanfic tier writing that is SS. I wonder how Sakura would feel is Sasuke was morbidly obese (but maintained all of his other qualities).🤣

 

NS would have the same fate of bad writting fate after the Fake Confession and the massive backlash.

 

 

Nah. NS is easy to write. Bring chapter 3 full circle. Automatically justifies every crappy thing about Sakura's character since then. The fake confession could be spun as either being "real" after all (with not even Sakura having realized this at the time) or the misunderstanding caused breakup that happens in every romance story before the the male lead comes back in the end right before the female lead is about marry or go away with someone else. NS is idiot proof.

 

 

SS is garbage. Even part one. Kishimoto lampshades the reason why SS is garbage in chapter 693 with the "love does not need a reason" speech. The author is flat out acknowledging that he never bothered giving a reason for Sakura to love Sasuke. And he didn't because when it's all said and done, there wasn't supposed to be one. There is LITERALLY no difference between Ino liking Sasuke and Sakura liking Sasuke. NONE. From the getgo, Sakura was simply one of MANY girls chasing Sasuke and it is heavily hinted at being because of his good looks, academic success and being a bad boy. It had nothing to do with legitimately loving him for his who he was as a person. We see this paralleled with Rin and Kakashi, Tsunade and Orochimaru and so on and so on. This is part of the reason Sakura was hated. She was shallow. We NS fans supported her to great lengths because the story kept hinting that she wasn't shallow, that she slowly growing up and that with time and effort, she would blossom into the mature young woman she was always meant to be. At times, we saws sparks of this potential. From Sakura nearly raising her hand to during the Chuunin exams, to Sakura realizing that Naruto has always understood her, to Sakura's amazing development during the early part of the first timeskip. But for whatever reason, after the Kakuzu arc, it's as if Kishimoto simply lost interest in giving any serious growth to this character. Honestly, the whole "jump in the way of Pain and try to protect Naruto" thing should have been Sakura's moment (romantic or not) simply because we had already had some buildup with Sakura hating the fact that she could not do anything for Naruto. It would have only been natural for her to jump in and fruitlessly try to stop Pain from killing him instead of sitting on the sidelines while some GLORIFIED FILLER character did the job.

 

I will NEVER accept NH and I will NEVER accept SS regardless of canon. I support good storytelling. If the canon story isn't going to deliver in that department, I will merely continue give my time to avenues that will.

Kishimoto wanted to use this moment just to show how Sasuke cared for Sakura. Kishimoto pratically builded this moment  since when Sakura was sad because Sasuke aparently didn't  cared about her against Madara.

 

I doubt this. But even if that were Kishimoto's intention, its AWFUL writing, because this is the same Sasuke who was willing to let Sakura fall into a pool of lava at about this time. The only way to justify the "eye smex" despite this is with rose tinted pairing goggles. Which is what you're wearing.

 

 

 

The story ended 8 years ago. There's no point to have NS  goggles anymore to deny everything.

If Kishi really wanted to show a uncaring Sasuke or kill SS, there's no reason for the physical and eye contact.
Sakura would fall on the ground or be traped in Kaguya's desert in Sasuke's place.

And there's no point in denying common sense either. If Kishimoto's goal in this scene is "eye smex", why would he simultaneously have Sasuke allow Sakura to fall to her doom in a pool of lava at about this time? You know why? Sasuke did not give a SH_T about Sakura at this point. It's only after the ultimate talk-no-jutsu from Naruto that Sasuke is converted in reciprocating Sakura's feelings. The eye contact is nothing more than eye contact. If it meant anything, Kishimoto would have drawn Sakura blushing as he did when Sasuke did the headpoke on her.

 

Anyways, it doesn't look like you have any interest in talking about writing. Perhaps you realize SS is badly written and just don't care?

Ok. let's pretend Kishimoto made the entire 685, Sasuke cathing Sakura, the ridiculous  eyesmex for nothing and this moments has no importance for SS. This is just a ramdom page.
Just like NS hug in Pein Arc or the Yamato comment's has no importance for NS second the NH fans.. 
 

The whole eyesmex meme is nothing more than headcanon and fanfiction. Sasuke catches Sakura. No romantic connotations whatsoever. The narrative enforces this several chapters later when Sasuke mocks and belittles Sakura's feelings and both Sasuke/Kakashi confirm that Sakura's love for Sasuke is baseless ('love doesn't need a reason!). If the name of the game is to see which characters have the most scenes together (romantically ambiguous or otherwise), SS and NH lose that battle badly. But like I said, I don't give a rat's @ss about popularity. I don't give two sh_ts what other fans (NS, NH, SS or otherwise) have to say about the subject; I'm talking to YOU and addressing some of the comments YOU MADE with respect to how SS makes sense. I disagree. It does not make sense. It's a joke. It's bad writing.

 

No, popularity is utterly worthless. Argumentum ad populam. Appeal to popularity.  Maybe popularity meant something to Kishimoto and his editors, but considering the way Boruto turned out, that just goes to show you fixate too much on what they think is popular.

 

SS is just awful. You can make an evil character (who has done evil and detestable things) redeem himself through the love another character expresses for him (see the romance between Viconia and the Bhaalspawn in Baldur's Gate II and Baldur's Gate Throne of Bhaal). Many series have done this. The problem is that Naruto does not even try. There is literally NO RHYME or REASON to SS. Chapter 693 confirms this when Kishimoto (correctly) has Sasuke state that Sakura has no reason to love him, only for Kakashi to retort that love does not need a reason. And don't bother retorting with headcanon nonsense like "Sasuke was mentally unhinged" or "Sakura's love for him sprouted from X." That's all fanfiction. If it's not in the manga, it didn't happen. SS is lazy. SS is boring. It's bad writing on parade. Boruto doesn't just fail because fail because Naruto and Hinata got together. It fails because the ending (or rather last third) of the previous series was an unhinged hackneyed mess not even fit for a creative writing contest with participants consisting of 12 year olds) and Boruto is simply a continuation of the unhinged hackneyed mess the gave birth to it in the first place.

 

I don't give a rat's @ss about which "pairing" is the most popular. I only care about good writing. Naruto MISERABLY failed in that department. But the potential it had not to fall to the depths it ended up falling to makes for good conversation. Also . . .

 

lol whut? Dude, you're a card carrying pairing goggle SS shipper through and through; you've NEVER supported NS for a single instant. You sound like someone else who got caught doing this exact same routine a few years ago. Drop the act.

 

This is a little too far.
Thats why SS fans never was friendly and despise NS fans like they do with Naruto Fanboys. They hates  be judged as a persons because their preferences over a fictional pairing. They have  Sasuke/Sakura as a favorites characters and consider their moments and the appeal  better than NS.

 

 

 

I'm only calling delusional people who thinks the franchise went into decline because NaruSaku died or thinks NaruSaku was the peak of sales. The current Naruto fandom and Sakura fandom couldn't care less about NaruSaku... Most of the  Boruto complains are about the kitten story, battles, poor story pacing,alliens and Sasuke/Naruto nerfs.

 

Honestly if you people wanted some type of discussion in this forum it's better to accept contrary opinions. Not Just:

"Sakura was ruinned"
"SasuSaku is abusive and their fans sick people"
"Boruto is bad and Kishimoto is ruinned because Naruto didn't got Sakura at the end"

 

At least  the Hinata popularity ghost proved wrong now.   
 

 

 

 

We have some few Sakura Fans from NS side. But now they are inside SS fandom , multishipping SS and helping SS fans to hate Hinata... if one of these "NS fans" dares to call Sakura a fangirl, stupid for loving Sasuke over Naruto or SasuSaku abusive like in this forum. They are simply expelled/canceled  from the Fandom and more attacked than Hinatards and Naruto Fanboys.
 
SS has thousends of contents, fanarts, SS Artists and pages with 20/40/50/100K of followers etc.
Most the NS artists and content simply stopped after 2014. LadyGT the most famous NS artist simply abandoned Naruto.  I only see Chatte and some few small NaruSaku and when they dare to attack SasuSaku. SS fans come in mass to attack them. SS fandom still has plenty of Hatred against NS fans who call SS abusive.

Most of the "pure blood" NaruSaku fans simply moved on, didn't care about the series or even hates Sakura. Sakura is ruinned and the series is dead to them. I know that because Sakura received a massive hate back in 2014/2015 in this forum and most of these NS fans abandoned the series and the forum.

Give this type of comment:

 

"Just because you're a fan of Sakura doesn't mean you have to follow a kitten cashgrab after an equally sloppy and disgusting ending. Read. Other. Things. Turn to fanfiction. Don't throw money into a trashcan."

 

I think hard to believe the few old NaruSaku fans helped too much in this votation when is very hard to to find them outside here.

 

 

 

SS is objectively toxic and abusive. Prove me wrong.

Amazing that the dude actually believed Sakura was hated because she didn't give into her mindless obsession with Sasuke.🤣🤣🤣

So much for Sasuke Retsuden selling better than Boruto lol 😂

https://twitter.com/...QtDU2AGoQ4KMgYg

Gee, a manga about the "romance" between a glorified single minded groupie and a dinosaur riding unapologetic domestic violence edgelord is not doing well. Shocker.

I guess all that talk about SasuSaku being popular was just that: Talk.

They are hardly even having sakura interact with Naruto in the boruto that its even hard to call them friends, the only time I saw it it was in the time travel arc where they had her beat him because he was doing the sexy jutsu only to have hinata come and defend him.

 

While there may be a few NaruSaku fans that want them to get together just because naruto wanted it, from what I have seen most narusaku fans are sakura fans who want them to get together because naruto is better for her and doesn't treat her like crap. Plus their dynamic is much better.  Naruto literally stated that he likes sakura in chapter 3 and and confirms to sai that he likes. Fans who hated sakura and narusaku just ignored it or diminished it like the kushina parallels, when it didn't for their agenda or narrative.

 

Sasusaku sakura fans just don't want to admit that the biggest reason Sakura got hated was because of her relationship to sasuke and the best thing for her is for it to not happen and move on from him, as it was never portrayed in in their self insert version of a good girl trying to rescue a bad boy. Plus they don't want to admit that having NH and SS canon has reduced Sakura's role over the years, despite warnings from other Sakura fans who did not want them to get together.

 

Yeah, I saw that clip of Hinata defending Naruto from Sakura. That sh-t NEVER happened. Almost as bad as them making up a scene of Naruto's using shadow clones prior to chapter 1 to save Hinata (someone who was considered royalty) from bullies. It's so stupid. Same reason the POAL never gets referenced again after Sakura's confession to Naruto in the land of iron arc even though the POAL is what ignited the chain of events leading to the climax of part 1. It was not enough to keep NS from happening; they had to SCRUB away all of the blatant indicators that it was going to occur. Can't say I'm surprised Naruto and Sakura are not allowed to be around each other. I'm reminded of the greek parable of the emperor's new clothes; it only takes one voice for people to wake up and see the lie for what it is. Also explains why they decided to give Hinata Sakura's characteristics (i.e. scary mom, kicking Naruto out of the house, etc).

 
Of course the forehead scene is important it literally shows us Sakura's biggest insecurity about herself and that Naruto likes that part about her! Yes she might hit him at first, but she is a tsundere she will at first get mad at him then show affection that's how those two work. It was also paralleled with how kushina fell in love with minato when naruto met his mother, which anyone can see if they paid attention and not dissmiss it as a NS fan theory! Heck sakura thinking that sasuke said it is the only reason why I think she could possibly like him, which just shows she has a false idea of what he is like and that naruto is the ideal guy for her. 
 
Naruto was most likely to confess his feelings to sakura after he recused sasuke, but even then he confirmed to sai that he does love sakura so it should of been obvious at that point how he feels about her. The only problem with the NaruSaku confession is that we don't get a follow up to it, because it was clear that the part about not caring about sasuke was false however that doesn't mean what she said about loving him wasn't a lie and was actually the part of the confession that was true. Could it have been handled better yeah sure, but it is not as bad as fans made it out to be, which mainly end up being mostly nh and ss because it fits their agenda and narrative. Heck naruto doesn't seem that mad with sakura afterwards and even said she was his girlfriend to his dad when he asked about that. 

Frankly the ss and nh confession aren't really that impressive when you think about it. Hinata's was a suicide charge that nearly got her killed and even she admitted that she was being selfish. While I have already said that the SS feels more like a rejection, as Sakura is desperately trying to get sasuke to stay but like sasuke says she is not like him and doesn'y truly understand him and calls her annoying, heck the same thing in 693 and after that their is no way they should of gotten together after that.

The reason that we never got to see a second narusaku confession was because kishimoto gave up and listened to his editors and did bad writting to make ss and nh to be canon rather than NaruSaku. But if you won't listen to me why not hear what Chatte has to say about the confession which you can find on the video 24 minutes in https://www.youtube....oLKlFGIiDI&t=2s
 
As for Heronie = love interest while yes doesn't mean that the 2 are the same they are often tied together, mostly because they tend to have the most screen time together between boy and girl. Which unfortunately us and the girls in Naruto that was how the fandom in Naruto mainly the shippers sees it and so did studio Pierrot and the jump editors and they pushed hinata to replace Sakura starting with the Last movie only for it to backfire on them.

https://chatte-georg...tion-of-hinata/

https://chatte-georg...arity-neji-hyu/

 

I appreciate you posting this and Chatte's video as I had never seen it before. I watched the entire thing last night and I feel like it clears up everything and was perhaps the last piece of information I needed to know definitively what killed NS. Like many, I had always chalked Sakura's false confession up as being a "false confession." But when you think about it and consider Kishimoto's at the time, it has become glaringly obvious to me that it was not a false confession. In Kishimoto's own bumbling way, he was trying to give Sakura a big moment. I've sat down and analyzed chapters 457, 458, 459, 469, 470 and 471 before panel and panel and have even posted a thread here demonstrating how Sai is basically three different people over the course of these chapters. Now that I've viewed Chatte's video, it all makes sense.

 

Here is what I believe happened. Kishimoto was pressured to give Hinata her big moment in chapter 437 during the Pein fight. I'm guessing that either that moment was originally going to be reserved for Sakura (which would make sense given her previous comments about being not being able to do anything for Naruto and just the way she acted around Naruto prior to the Pein arc) or Hinata was set to die there (unlikely, but it would make sense). Chapters 450 was a complete retaliation towards the outside forces that wanted Kishimoto to make Hinata the heroine; it was an FU to those trying to pressure him to ditch Sakura; Kishimoto not only has here display a tremendous level of affection towards Naruto in open public, but even takes the time to draw Hinata acknowledging and smiling at this scene. Still hellbent of putting NS front and center, Kishimoto has Naruto get the tar beaten out of him over the course of chapters 455 and 456 and immediately has Sai rightfully draw the conclusion that Naruto is ultimately going this far because of his love for Sakura in 457; this is Kishimoto driving home the point that 437 did not mean sh-t and he is about to put NS front and center. 458 comes along and Sai corners Sakura about how Naruto feels about her and Kishimoto makes certain to point to numerous flashbacks that many pairing obsessed have tried to dismiss as not being romantic on Naruto's part.  458 ends with Sakura's reaction confirming that Sai's comments are legitimate and that it is as plain as day that Naruto loves her. We then get chapter 459 where both Sai and Shizune make some pretty weird uncalled for remarks. Shizune tells Sai that Naruto isn't simply saving Sasuke just because of the promise he made to Sakura and Sai not only agrees with this, but claims that his overall reason for being there is to let everyone know that they rely too much on Naruto; its subtle, but Kishimoto is slowly diminishing what he had Sai say in the previous two chapters. We then jump to 469 where Sakura confesses to Naruto and Naruto immediately sees through it upon hearing Sakura claim that she has given up on Sasuke (notice that he doesn't explicitly reject any part of her comments until she says this). For some reason, Yamato expresses disgust at Sakura's remark DESPITE heavily implying that Sakura was in love with Naruto in chapter 297 (another subtle instance of Kishimoto walking back on whatever he was trying to establish here).  Sakura gets pissed at Naruto's claim that she's lying to herself (which is odd if her confession is indeed false) and then leaves. Sai then spends the following chapters walking back on everything he said in chapters 457 and 458 and never mentioning the L word again.

 

Here is my deduction: Between chapters 458 and 459, someone or some group of people had a sit down with Kishimoto. Whether it was studio pierrot or his own editors briefing Kishi on the sheer OUTRAGE people were having about Sai's remarks in chapters 457 - 458, I cannot say for certain. However, it's pretty clear that Kishimoto had some ideas in chapters 457 and 458 that he never got to execute. In fact, it's possible that the man simply kept getting whittled down then afterwards until he eventually jumped on board with NH. With the amount of hatred and vitriol Sakura kept getting online, the mounting pressure from Studio Pierrot and his editors and the indications that NH = huge cash cow in the west, he may very well have just given up accepted NH as the inevitable. We will never know for sure. One thing is for certain: Throughout at least two thirds of this manga, NS was endgame and Kishimoto had been determined to make it happen.

 

Also, it would appear that in Kishimoto's mind, replacing Sakura as the heroine meant making someone besides her Naruto's love interest. From that standpoint, he supported NS throughout nearly the entire manga.

The Forehead discussion again. Please no.
I already said in the previus topic the reasons why i don't consider this moment important. At the best scenario Sakura would punch hard Naruto  if she ever discover he tried to deceive and kiss her disguised as a Sasuke. The PoaL and Yamato's Comments was much more powefull and true NaruSaku Moments.

 

 

Sounds like you're looking at the forehead scene in a vacuum as opposed to considering it in the context of the followup moments you mention. I would agree that Sakura would punch Naruto hard since that's what tsundere characters do, but we can get into tons of tsundere romances akin to what was being showcased with Naruto and Sakura if you prefer.

 

 

Of course this evidence it's famous here because we are in NaruSaku Place full of NS fans. But if we bring this theory in a neutral place most of the others fans simply will laugh or ignore thats why i consider this a "underneath" evidence. it's hard. 

 

If people are inclined to laugh about a canonical event in the series, doesn't sound like a neutral place to me. Sounds like what you consider 'neutral" is stiff necked mouth foaming pairing goggle fans. And if we were to bring your position on this subject to 12 random people off the street with no knowledge or preconceived biases about the series, I don't think you'd be able to convince a single person that the author planned any of this stuff out and that he didn't simply change his mind his mind about Naruto and Sakura's relationship.

 

 

But outside here are many people who root for Sasuke, Sakura with Sasuke and Hinata.

 

A problem with a lot of your arguments here is that you keep going back to what "many people" allegedly think and believe. Who cares? Argumentem ad populam. Many people once elected Adolf Hitler to become the leader of Germany. If we're talking about the objective merits of a fictional story, it makes no difference what many people alleged to think or believe. 

 

Which chapter Naruto made a confession to Sakura?

If Naruto actually have confessed his love to Sakura like Sakura did to Sasuke in 181 and Hinata in 437. NaruSaku would a have a much more powerfull support.

 

Naruto never confessed his love to Sakura. He said he loved Sakura. That's chapter 3. That's chapter 457. And if Naruto actually had confessed his love to Sakura, it certainly would be a more powerful expression on the author's part. As it stands, however, we have Naruto's statements, we Sakura's statements, we have parallels. What's more, unlike Sakura and Hinata, Naruto is the main character. His thoughts/goals/ambitions take precedent over anyone else's since the story is about his life and goals.

 

But unfortunately all we got was Sai getting the wrong ideia about PoaL and declaring Naruto's love in his place.

 

I've gone over this before in another thread here, but Sai's comments are pretty inconsistent. He gives two separate explanations on why he decided speak out. Whatever ideas Kishimoto had in mind throughout the course of chapters 457 and 458, they got scrapped in 459 and definitively got scrapped over the course of 469 to 474. 

 

Speaking of the POAL, it never gets referenced again after these chapters. Please justify that from a writers perspective and do so in a manner that does not acknowledge it was scrapped.

 

 

Sakura feeling guilty. Naruto saying he was chasing Sasuke for himself not Sakura.

 

Why would Naruto say that? Why would the author not instead have him say he is doing it for himself and Sakura (which would be consistent with the POAL)? Do you see where I'm going here?

 

 

Sakura confession to Naruto was the only of the three love confessions in manga who was painted as a False .

This moment serious damaged the entire growth of Sakura's feelings  to Naruto through part 2 and the PoaL for NS. 

 

Which was the intention. If NH and SS were the endgame from the beginning, there would be no need for this scene. Do you see where I'm going here?

 

 

 

Thats why i think Naruto didn't declared his love for Sakura when Sasuke come Back and Sakura simply didn't care about Naruto's feelings at all when she wanted to leave the Village with Sasuke AGAIN.

 

 

Agreed. As you have assisted myself and others in establishing, the author changed his mind. 

 

During the Pein arc the new editor that replaced Yahagi had Kishimoto give Hinata that moment with the intention of making her the heroine. Which led to a the mess that came after it.

 

The whole scene with Hinata does not even make sense. She's nowhere the entire fight leading up to this. Sakura's the one seen screaming for Naruto to come back. Sakura is the one seen giving Naruto a hug after the battle. Sakura is the one who spent the previous arcs fretting over how little of an impact she has on things and how little she is able to help Naruto. Everything points to SAKURA being the one to leap into a hopeless situation to save Naruto from death's door as opposed to Hinata (who has been NOWHERE throughout the entire timeskip leading up to that moment).  Hell, is it ever even explained why Sakura did NOT jump down there to help her teammate in this situation?

In a discussion in another thread here, the point was made that Hinata had stated her love for Naruto and Sakura had stated her love for Sasuke, so Kishimoto had no choice but to let Hinata get with Naruto and Sakura with Sasuke. The user who made this argument is entitled to his opinion, but I have seen this argument made so many times over the years, that I figured it warranted its own thread. Every single time people bring this up, they never appear to acknowledge Naruto's own stated feelings. What I'm not getting is why the feelings of a glorified side character and a so-called "Kiba level character( Kishimoto said it, not me) are given greater preference/respect than the feelings of the MAIN CHARACTER? For pete's sake, this is the TITLE CHARACTER we are talking about. This manga isn't called Hinata. This manga isn't called Sakura. This manga is called NARUTO. It would be one thing if Naruto's feelings for Sakura were strictly played for gags as we see with Asta liking Sister Lily in Black Clover, but that's not the case here. There are various occasions where Naruto's feelings for Sakura are not only taken seriously, but to further demonstrate his virtue, his nindo and his determination. I fail to see why Naruto's stated love for Sakura is simply treated like an afterthought by a lot of fans (and I'm not just talking about the people with pairing goggles on 24/7 or intellectually dishonest hacks at studio pierrot). 

 

This just shows Kishimoto learned to don't turn the "red herrings" pairings more famous than the supposed Main one and don't make unnecessary and long love triangles in a Shonen. Only Hardcore NS fans will see these "underneath" evidences like the ForeHead thing while most of the casual readers will think otherwise with Sakura/Hinata declaring their love to Sasuke/Naruto.

This turned in a point he was forced to make SS/NH canon and ignore his plans if NS was really his original pairing.
 

 

Sorry, but the forehead thing is not "underneath" evidence. Naruto and Sakura literally communicated the forehead thing in the 3rd chapter of the manga. Maybe don't ignore your own source material? And Naruto sincerely declared his love for Sakura (and was repeatedly displayed as being virtuous because of this love), so you'll forgive me for rooting for the title characters wants/ambitions over that of anyone else's (especially that of a side character who is largely irrelevant throughout the course of the story). The "red herring" is a garbage argument on par with claiming Sakura is a "kiba" level character. What happened is really simple: Kishimoto and his editors made a profit oriented decision on the financial product known as Naruto. This decision resulted in him taking the story in a direction other than what he originally intended. By no means was he "forced" to do anything. Writers/editors/producers do this all the time. There are numerous ideas in this manga that got abandoned for one reason or another (anyone remember the akatsuki rings?). Only people with overly fogged pairing goggles refuse to understand this.