Hello everyone!
Wow, it's been a long time since I was here, although I read the forums from time to time. I'm basically new haha. So I'm sorry to intrude on this close knit, intricate circle. I hope you'll accept me!
For me, the anatomy of NaruHina or NaruSaku is quite close and the fans of both are rather similar. Let's take a look at this, and how their lives and the lives of the characters in Naruto showcase reflect upon their choices of OTP and other miscellania.
Naruto is the main character, and as such, readers and viewers will see things from his point of view almost all the time. His experiences as a relatively lonely child, one viewed upon with disgust and disinterest, matches many of those who read the manga growing up. I personally remember picking up the first volume a few weeks after it was first being sold in my country back in the early 2000's, whilst I was hiding from some unruly classmates, to give a personal example. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this was the case for the majority of us. Thus, we associate well with Naruto who also had to face similar issues of social acceptance, avoiding derision and dissatisfaction with our status quo. We too desired to be the Hokages of our own reality, and finally earn a modicum of respect after years of nonchalance.
Along with that came the desire to be liked. And here, we see the primary buliding block of the NaruHina fan. Hinata already had a crush on Naruto. As unsatisfied individuals, NaruHina fans viewed this as a magical concept, and were immediately attracted to it, perhaps viewing it as something they desire, something we all desired, to have some love us or cherish us.
Along with that came the desire to be loved with the person that we loved in return. To have our love acquiesced is one of the warmest things a human being can experience, and this is what the NaruSaku fan is built on. THIS IS NOT THE MAIN REASON I SUPPORT NARUSAKU, no not at all indeed, there are plenty of reasons to do so, mostly the fact that it has the greatest amout of actual development in the series, and the fact that it makes sense for Naruto, an individual who does not give up to be paired with the person who he did not give up on. But it is the foundational block for the NaruSaku fan. We all have intense desires to be with the one we love and to have the love returned is, I think, the greatest treasure someone can possess.
Anyway, that's just my two cents on that issue.
One thing I utterly despise is how people hate or bash or understate Sakura and her contribution or overstate Hinata's contribution in order to downplay Sakura.
NaruHina fans will consistently state how powerful Hinata is/was, without ever giving any evidence showing that fact other than a few fights, in which she doesn't seem to perform that well. At the same time, they castigate Sakura, for the simple reason that she isn't shown to be as powerful or as meaningful in some cases as Naruto or Sasuke. But what they fail to mention, is that Sakura came from a civilian family, and had to train basically on her own or with academy instructors, whilst Hinata was given first hand Shinboi training at the hands of one of the heads of the most famous clans not just in Konoha, but in the world as well. And to top it off, she possess a Dojutsu, a visual kekkai Genkai in the byakugan, granting her 359 degrees of vision and the ability to see through solid objects, something the hidden cloud were willing to go to war over.
Sakura, did not possess those advantages, yet in her own right became one of the most powerful Kunoichi ever, and one of, if not the greatest medical ninja ever, and was undoubtedly one of the most influential shinobi of her time.
Yes, she was trained by Tsunade. But that only came towards the end of part 1, whilst Hinata had been trained privately her whole life.
Let's view the battle with Pein. Whilst Hinata diving in to "save" Naruto was admirable, in the Manga it played the role of motivating Naruto to re-engage with Nagato, thus Hinata took on the role Naruto usually played, which was to re-ignite the fires in Shinobi in which the desire to keep going had perished. And in the Manga, it was short. The anime stretched it to a full quarter of an episode, and exaggerated her impact greatly. NaruHina fans look upon this with great fondness, because it was Hinata's confession of course, but at the same time, they look at sakura with disgust, because she did not do this, preferring to sit back and let Naruto fight.
But Sakura was not in the position to do so, because she was busy rescuing and reviving the villagers and the Shinobi who had been injured in Pein's annihilation of the Hidden Leaf.
It disgusts me when NaruHina fans, or indeed anyone, says Sakura was useless here. As if being essentially single handedly responsible for saving the lives of countless Shonbi/Civlians isn't admirable, or isn't exactly what Naruto wanted her to do.
I'd also like to add that when it comes to risking your life to save someone, Naruto did that with Sakura plenty of times, like when he battled an insane Gaara to save both her and Sasuke. And when he ran after her and took a giant shuriken for her when she went after Sasuke on her own. Or how about when he saved her from Sasuke's Raikiri by lifting her up princess style or how about etc....
NaruHina fans view the Chuunin exam fight between Hinata and Neji as an important event in their lexicon, because Naruto stood up for Hinata and because the fight exhibited the incredible powers of the Byakugan. Whilst viewing the Sakura fight with Ino with contempt and disgust, because it was a draw and didn't appear to showcase much Shinobi skill.
But again, both Hinata and Neji possessed the Byakugan, an exclusive Hyuuga-only technique which granted them extraordinary abilities. Sakura and Ino...did not possess this.
Whilst Sakura and Ino's fight was not as intricate as Hinata and Neji's, it was a perfect example of character development. Sakura decided that her decision to enagage in the life of a shinobi was more than just to get closer with Sasuke, she decided to engage with Ino, a foe who possessed the ability to enter her mind and force her to submit. She decided to gain strength and to move forward and to make herself worthy of wearing the headband of a ninja of the hidden leaf. That's why she put it on with much pride during the fight and in other subsquent fights she was in.
We see this same attitude earlier on, when confronted with Zaku and the Sound ninja, and that even if the rumours of Sasuke liking girls with long hair were true, it didn't matter, because she would need to cut her hair to win that fight in order to, oh you know, single handedly defend Sasuke and Rock Lee from three separate shinobi of unknown skill. Not bad for a "useless" person right?
She manages to scrape a draw, when pretty much all the odds were against her. Meanwhile, Hinata's highlights include.....getting curbstomped by Neji.
Remember at this point, Sakura does not possess any abilities that make her stand out from her classmates and compatriots, who possess kekkai genkais like Sasuke, Neji and Hinata, tailed beats like Naruto, and their own Clan techniques like Kiba with his animal techniques and Akamaru partnerships, Shino with his insect controls, Ino with her mindstalking, Shikamaru with his shadow walking, Chouji with his expansion jutsus, Lee with his gates and taijutsu, and Tenten and her weapons.
And as for Naruto promising to avenge Hinata's defeat, that was moreso because Neji beat her up way more than he needed to, humiliating her and seriously hurting her in the process whilst insulting her throughout the whole fight.
And Naruto was cheering for Sakura wholeheartedly during her entire fight. Something NaruHina fans forget to mention.
Oh, yeah, one thing that made me despise Kishimoto was that he admitted having Neji killed off so that Naruto and hinata would get closer. Forgetting how ridiculous that idea is, the fact that he had to have someone killed in order to make NaruHina happen, hilarious as it is, is disturbing. Imagine being in a relationship because your cousin died to save your life, it doesn't even make sense. And to top it off, that wasn't apparently enough, because they had to retcon an entire movie in order to make it remotely plausible. So Neji's death was essentially for naught.
Excellent post and welcome to the boards! 
Also, Naruto had no obligation to make that promise in the first place, so don't go acting like Sakura forced that on him.
