I have to admit, this is the more tolerable rival ships out there, but I still have to say it won't work out. Hinata's entire character has been centred around Naruto. He was her inspiration and she admired him from afar. But rather than act on this and attempt to fill his loneliness, instead she watched him from afar while he suffered. Personally, I don't use that argument much because there are deeper problems with the ship.
Kishimoto has made it a point to parallel relationships of people of the past to those in the present. This sort of tactic gives us insight into how characters are and how they might end up. He's used this with pairings especially, by paralleling characters like Obito, Rin and Kakashi to Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. The set up was the same, Obito/Naruto the clumsy idiot, Rin/Sakura the medic and has a crush on the best member, and Kakashi/Sasuke, the lone wolf who excels in combat and doesn't have much of a bond with the other two. The idiot and lonewolf have a rivalry, where the idiot want's to win the heart of the medic who likes the lone wolf.
The entire set up is a direct parallel to Team 7. The idiot (Naruto/Obito) wants to be acknowledged, become the hokage and win the hearts of the love of their lives (Sakura/Rin). The medic wants to win the heart of the lone wolf (Kakashi/Sasuke) who is not interested in that sort of relationship. In a manga where the previous generation is meant to surpass the last, that there already puts NaruHina into the dangerzone because neither Obito nor Jiraiya (whose team is directly parallels Team 7 to some extent) managed to win the hearts of the girls they loved, yet never stopped loving them anyways. When you remember that particular theme, then it's also reasonable to assume that Naruto will achieve all goals he set out (become hokage, gain acknowledgement, save a fried and win the heart of the girl he loves). Hinata doesn't factor into this because she was never anything Naruto had to fight for. She was not a goal.
You cannot tell me he has given up and moved to Hinata because there has been no indication that he made such an action. Tsunade loved Dan but that didn't stop Jiraiya from loving her. Loving Sakura is just one aspect of Naruto's character and winning her heart is a goal he has set out to achieve. His feelings have been made perfectly clear from chapter 3 and for the most part has no wavered.
The conditions needed for Naruto to move would have to be for her to reject him in part 1 or for Sasuke to love her as she (selfishly) loves him. Now that he's rejected, he can then begin the process of moving on, so in part 2, Kishimoto will gradually build the relationship with him and another girl (Hinata) which will lead to a moment where he will place the girl he's meant to be beside him at his darkest hour.
Naruto has never been rejected by Sakura because he has not confessed to her, with his reasons for not confessing being made perfectly clear from the start. Naruto loves Sakura and that aspect as been consistent throughout the manga.
From a narrative perspective, Hinata's relationship with Naruto has not progressed beyond that of friendship. The entire ship, like SasuSaku has been carried through two parts by the girls, but because the girls like the guys, their feelings are given priority so the guys will eventually fall for them, despite there being no manga evidence to support the shift.
Another parallel that works against them is MinaKushi. This character was also created to give insight into who Naruto might end up with. Kushina's mannerisms, past and opinion of the guy at the beginning for the most part, mirrors Sakura. There is an aspect of both girls they hate, they both have a hot-headed temper and they both had low opinions of the blonde guys. The guys compliment aspects those characters hate and both save them from certain doom. There is also Kushina's words that he should find a girl just like her, who we've seen is Sakura.
I'm going to be honest, despite what translations you follow, they all mean the same damn thing. "Don't fall for the first girl that comes your way" "Don't pick the first girl that comes your way" and "Try not to pick the weird one" all mean the same damn thing within the context of the story. First girl that comes your way means the first girl to show affection towards you, but instead for YOU to find a girl JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER. Sakura's temperament and past is the same as Kushina's, and there is no doubt she loves, cares for and supports Naruto's dreams. This shouldn't get anyone scared/worried, nor should rival ships hail this as a victory for their crappy ship. This is classic NaruHina spin/NaruSaku fear and paranoia taking over, where people abandon all reason and observation and then twist the manga to suit their pairing agenda. If Hinata was meant to parallel Kushina, then tell me why Minato was put in the same scene with Sakura and Naruto, where he right there though Kushina and Sakura were alike? If Kishimoto planned for this parallel what was the point of using Sakura? kittening lol.
Trying to analyse the situation in a way that enables you to make excuses about why this and that really happened is useless because this is a story where Kishimoto controls the situation, what the characters see and what they say and react. So if Kishi intended that scene to play out like that, with Minato MEETING Sakura, who was established to BE the MAIN CHARACTER'S LOVE INTEREST ON CHAPTER 3, making excuses like "he didn't meet Hinata so he assumed that Sakura was his love interest" or any other garbage along those lines makes you look foolish and desperate.
Kishimoto's intent was for Sakura and Naruto's relationship to develop and eventually lead to the new MinaKushi. Hinata is not Kushina 2.0. THat;s not her character. She is a supporting character with little relevance. Why didn't Kishimoto put her next to Naruto on his deathbed? Why did Sakura hug him tenderly in front of everyone instead of Hinata?
And why is it that Hinata's deepest desire is to be with Naruto, but that desire is paired with everyone's else in the IT. None of those desires will come to pass, we all know that, so if Kishimoto's intent is to do NaruHina, why spoil it and why place it alongside other dreams that have no chance in hell of happening?
So why create Hinata? If Naruto ends up with Sakura what is the point of her character?
It's for fanservice and pairing tension to keep that (small) crowd interested. Characters like her appear in stories all the time, and very rarely do I see them get the main character when he already has a love interest.
Shamen King had a character just like Hinata and someone like Sakura. The main character chose the Sakura of the cast in the end, leaving the Hinata single. Just because the character was made to love the main character doesn't mean the author has any obligation to pair that character off with him.
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