Hm.. Really? If there is confirmation on Naruto's part that he loved her because of the rivalry, I will wholeheartedly support Sakura. Before that, no.if he didn't confirm why did he remain silent about it?
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I heard stories he was supposed to confirm in the original script but Junko Takeuchi refused to voice that part
so either way the intent was to show Naruto agreed with what she was talking
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And even before this moment you could see Naruto acting horribly OOC on the last, I mean Toneri got Hinata,and he stays sulking around because she "rejected" him? I mean, c'mon Naruto you have 19 freaking years old, the fate of the world is in the hands of our team and you get like that? It was forced to make him give up like that considering what was at stake at the moment and makes Naruto look even more like a selfish jackass
Actually, Naruto is a pretty sulky guy. His motivations for fighting generally come from his emotions about the situation. A big example was when he almost gave up against Juubi when Neki and others were killed. The last Naruto's trait matches up with the canon one's in that regard.
And yeah. I know that the ending was destroyed. I posted some rants on this board about that too. But I just can't see why people hate naruto and the others and not Sakura based on the ending.