okay...so how long have I been a fan of NS? like forever?!? yeah.... I swear I thought this was a fan made holiday. What was I thinking?
From the 2010 Shounen Jump Calendar: "April 3: The Day Naruto fell in love with Sakura-chan."
You know, despite how pathetically it was brought up I could maybe, in time, have dealt with Naruto ending up with Hinata and not Sakura (her ending up with a guy who tried to kill her multiple times, however, is a different story). But Kishimoto retconning Naruto's long-held feelings for Sakura as not-real and purely a byproduct of his rivalry with Sasuke... Seriously screw that noise.
Happy belated NaruSaku day, and a huge thank you to everyone here who has written/drawn/... anything that gives proper respect to those characters, which Kishi couldn't be arsed to do.