I was pretty surprised the rest of the NH family didn't even have a cameo in this last chapter. And can someone explain why we had I put up with an entire ten chapters of ChouChou's stale "are you my dad" joke?
I'm not. I think it's a sign of how little he cares for that pairing. Hinata was a side character elevated to a plot device to get people to see a movie. After her usefulness had been served, she's put back in her side-character box.
Think it's a fluke? Kishi is an manga artist, he knows that someone will sit down and read through all the mangas at one go. But they will be highly unlikely to reach out and watch the movie again. The mangas will stand on their own, but the movie (The Last, in particular) will be something a reader will have to make an effort to see, either through renting or streaming online. So someone coming to the franchise later on is likely never to see the movie, or have any interest.
Kishi doesn't care about Hinata, and he doesn't care about NH.( There was no romantic anything between them, except Hinata's stalkerish behavior on the battlefield. It just ends NH.) The point of the Gaiden is the continued story of Sasuke, not Naruto, as it has always been in the past. That's why NH is never shown...and that's why, I think, Sakura ended up with Sasuke instead of Naruto. Because Sasuke was Kishimoto's favorite.
In the end of the Gaiden, Naruto becomes the side character in his own story. Just like Hinata after the Pain arc, he has to watch the happy couple with the same empty speech bubble Hinata had when Sakura hugged Naruto.
The story is all about Sasuke, but it doesn't work quite right because Kishimoto can't let go of their old characters. So in the Gaiden we see Naruto still overtly caring about Sakura, Sakura still worried about Sasuke, and Sasuke still spurning them both. The triangle was never resolved, he just married off the main players.
So ignore the movie. As Kishi himself said, the movie stands alone (you don't need to read the manga to understand the movie). It will never be part of the canon material, in the same way the filler episodes aren't a part of it.
This is the takeaway from the whole series: There was no resolution to the triangle. The wrong couples got married, settling for relationships that didn't make the main hero and heroine better people, but that satisfied the desire of the author (through Sasuke) and the fandom (through Hinata). But the old feelings are still there. How do we know? Because Kishimoto tells us they are, through Naruto's speech about deep down feelings being stronger than facts.
I think that's Kishimoto's way of saying "Believe what you want! Peace out!"
That's why there's no overt love from any of them, no overwhelming commitment. Naruto doesn't spare a thought for his family. Sasuke is never shown in domestic bliss. Sakura still tries her hardest and is still shut down in the end by Sasuke. And there never will be happiness for them in the manga. They're in relationships that don't suit them. Kishimoto never broke them out of their triangle.
edit: Oh yeah, I forgot: that little army of Uchiha clones means that the clan has been restored without Sasuke needing to be a baby-daddy anymore. That's the end of Sasuke need to be a family man. So in the end all of Sasuke's goals have been met, while none of Naruto's ever were. (With the Hokage goal only getting resolved after going to someone else first.)
