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[asvpovo33]

Before anything else, I'd just like to state that this is in no way a hate post/salt post over naruhina/the ending of the manga/the last-boruto movies. I'm actually one of the people who thought that the story'd end up with Naruto and Sakura hooking up, with Sasuke either being killed by Naruto or settling for Karin (based on character development and how events played out between the said characters). I want to raise a point that's been bugging me for quite some time now, and I'd like to gather opinions out of sheer curiosity. Nonetheless, I had no problems with how the manga ended (it's Kishi's story, after all) and I'm actually looking forward to the future of the Naruto franchise (Boruto series anyone????).

I've been following the Naruto story for a bit over 10 years now (I'm 18, and I started watching Naruto when I was around 7). Due to my recent yearning for nostalgia, as well as the unhealthy amounts of free time I have had on my hands, I decided to re-watch the whole series from episode 1 up to the latest shippuden 454, continue on with the story by reading the manga chapters the rest of the way, and cap it all off by watching The Last and Boruto movies. Needless to say, it was an emotional roller coaster filled with moments of fond reminiscence and total immersion in one of the series that I grew up watching. To keep things brief(er), I'll end it at that - Lord knows how much I could rave about my feelings of empathy with many of the characters and their feelings/situations, how each and every story arc touched me in many different ways, the overflow of emotions I still get everytime I listen to some of my favorite opening and ending songs from the anime (which I find myself often bumping on my listening devices), and everything else I love about Naruto.

Now, on to the "meat" of this post. The main reason I'm writing this right now is because of a little inference that I think I've made regarding Sakura's motives and romantic inclinations, specifically towards and based on her interactions with Naruto. I stated earlier that I actually expected Naruto and Sakura to get together at the end of whole restore-peace-to-the-galaxy x bring-back-Sasque ordeal. It wasn't really a ship, so much as it was a logical inference based on all of the character interaction Kishi wrote up for them throughout the story. Many NS shippers point to many (A LOT of) signs and events such as:

Her status as, arguably, the series "heroine", the time they spent together on the same team, Naruto's promise to Sakura, Sakura finding Naruto attractive/admiring him (watching him during the rasenshuriken chakra control thingy training being a good example)/offering to feed him ramen (something that a girlfriend would usually do, IMO) at certain points throughout the early portions of Shippuden, Yamato's unfinished sentence, her willingness to give up pursuing Sasque to keep Naruto away from harm, the post-Pain fight hug (probably a stretch), the (fake?) confession, Sakura being described as similar to Kishimoto's wife (no joke, look it up), and last but not the least, the parralels (Kushina's final words, Minato girlfriend scene) - which were the biggest indicators, IMO --

--- as evidence and basis for their belief in their ship. In my case, I didn't really hope for anything, back when I was a voracious follower of the story as it went along. Before 699/700, I simply thought that this outcome would be the more logical one - following the typical hero story format of "loser gets the girl". I thought that Sakura's crush on Sasuke was something she'd long gotten over (especially after he tried to kill her/she tried to stab him with a poisoned kunai), and that she slowly developed an attraction for Naruto instead.

Needless to say, the ending itself pleasantly surprised me (as I'm sure it did many of us). As I said earlier, I don't really have any complaints with it, and I never understood the senseless hate that it got from certain groups of fans (which still continues up to this day). I believe that Kishi wrapped it up nicely the way he did, and that Naruto kinda has a lot going for him with Hinata - someone who's believed in/ admired him since the beginning, never bore any ill will towards him, and was even willing to take several hits for him. (this world shall know PAINNNNN). For sure, they've also had their moments of development throughout the story, and I wouldn't discount that.

Going back to my main point - how Sakura truly feels about Naruto. Ever since the idea of NaruSaku was shot down (with Hina now being canon), it would make sense to now label all of the aforementioned "moments of character development" between Naruto and Sakura as being driven by nothing more than platonic comradeship. I mean, they didn't get together in the end, so that must mean Sakura never reciprocated Naruto's earlier feelings for her (presumably up until 700, of course). It would seem the most logical conclusion - yet, for some reason, I can't wrap my mind out of the thought that Kishimoto may have, through the very moments that they spent together, implied that Sakura may have actually developed a romantic attraction to Naruto at some points in the story. After reading/watching through the whole series again, it's just something that popped up in my head - what if Sakura actually wanted to get together with Naruto at some point, yet in the end, felt that he was more deserving of someone like Hinata - a girl who loved and believed in him from the start, rather than someone who initially saw him as an annoying nuisance. My guess is, she decided to stick to her original love interest - Sasuke - mostly out of a desire to finally win his affection, but partially to stay out of Hinata's way. I may be mistaken, but I believe this is why she keeps supporting Hinata in her chase for Naruto's affection throughout The Last, and even in the adventure mode of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 (not sure if this is canon, but it supposedly takes place during the interval between the final Naru/Sask battle and The Last movie). My guess is that she believes that Naruto deserves a caring, devoted woman like Hinata more than her, and that Hinata also deserves to win Naruto's heart for all the devotion that she's given him over the years.

If this theory can be proven, I believe that it adds a new dimension to the character and personality of Sakura, as well as further showcases Kishimoto's ability to create engaging characters and stories with multifaceted personalities and motives, as well as different possibilities. Despite Kishimoto himself allegedly labeling these plot devices and parallels between Naruto and Sakura as "misleading", or red herrings, I really don't want to believe that he went through the trouble of writing all this just to troll fans. For some reason, I get the feeling that Kishi wanted us to look deeper into it - that there was actually a deeper meaning or reasoning behind all of his Naru/Saku alluding throughout the story, and his choice of Hinata as Naruto's partner over Sakura in the end. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't all due to pressure from NaruHina shippers/Pierrot/SJ (as some people claim). To emphasize my point, I will be making use of two prominent events which I believe influenced Sakura's decision to continue pursuing Sasuke instead of falling completely for Naruto.

The first event which I will cite would be the Pain attack - specifically the instance wherein Sakura began to heal Hinata, who had just attempted to protect an incapacitated Naruto from being captured by Pain. Earlier, Pain proved to be too strong an opponent for her to handle, and the brief battle between the two left her unconscious. I think, however, that it was at this point that Sakura saw how far Hinata was willing to go to express her love for Naruto. Prior to this, it was already implied that Sakura had some form of affection or attraction towards Naruto (see above). I guess this event served as a turning point of sorts for her - she must've felt, at this point, that only Hinata would be willing to go this far for Naruto's sake.

I think that this is further reinforced by Sakura's line, which goes something like: "You really love Naruto..."

It could be taken as a simple comment or observation made by Sakura, but I think that with the way Kishi kinda showcased Naruto's relationship with both Hinata and Sakura throughout the fight with Pain (Hinata doing what she did and Sakura crying out for Naruto to come thru after Pain trashed the village), there must have been a deeper undertone that came with this comment. I believe that when Sakura said this, it was partially meant as an admission that, yes, Hinata does love Naruto - more than she does. More than a simple observation, I believe that Sakura, through this line, expresses a little regret over not being able to do the things Hinata does for Naruto. Her facial expression at this point hints at feelings of regret and dismay (over the damage Pain did to Hinata's body), perhaps alluding to the fact that she looks to Hinata as being a better match for Naruto than she is. By the end of it all, she accepts it by hugging (instead of kissing?) Naruto - a sign of platonic friendship, signifying that Sakura may have began to see Naruto in less of a romantic light AFTER this event. I say this because in most action films I've watched, wherein a romantic relationship is involved, the girl usually voraciously makes out with the hero after he defeats the big bad. In this case, the big villain at that point in the story was Pain - the "God of peace", and the hero was Naruto (of course). I'm not necessarily putting Naruto in the same boat as those kinds of stories (it is a Shounen manga, after all) - I'm just saying. Furthermore, I'm not even entirely sure of my points, this post being a theory post in its entirety - I'm just voicing out my thoughts and feelings towards how everything played out.

The other event which I want to point out is the "fake" confession that occurred some time during the 5 Kage Summit arc. Many people perceive this to be the death of NaruSaku, and in more ways than one, it actually did do a lot to disprove it as endgame. From the way the confession was executed to the way Naruto reacted to it, it seemed to many of us that what Sakura told Naruto was an outright lie - a statement conceived to prevent Naruto from trying to protect an international criminal (at the time) like Sasuke any further. Many of us dismissed it as nothing but that - but what if we were wrong?

Kishimoto himself stated in a previous interview that he intended for Sakura to be an honest character. It was part of a response to a question regarding the fake confession, I think. If you look it up, Kishi actually implies that the confession wasn't fake - that Sakura actually did love Naruto, to a certain extent. Maybe this is why she was blushing the whole time she made the confession, or why she reacted the way she did when Naruto turned her down (lol). She was actually willing to take care of the whole Sasuke situation herself at one point, rescinding at the last minute only due to her inner conflict. (she couldn't bring herself to kill someone she obviously cared about) I guess it goes to show that Sakura was actually considering a relationship with him over Sasuke at one point. She loved Naruto - maybe not as much as she did Sasuke, seeing as she still couldn't kill him when she had the obvious chance to (the kunai), but she did.

Think about it, imagine an extremely hypothetical situation wherein Naruto decides to bite Sakura's bullet and respond differently to her confession. Instead of "I hate people who lie to themselves.", what if Kishi decides that he wants to write it in a way that Naruto response went along the lines of: "oh lul aryyyyyyyt ilyt Sakura, let's go stop Akatsuki and kill Sasque nao then make plenty babies-ttebayo!"? If this was the case, then we may have seen a very different outcome to the Naru-Saku dynamic than what was canonically presented to us. Chances are, Naruto - having been "freed from the promise" in this case, decides to give up pursuing Sasuke, seeing the preservation of peace as well as the lives of his friends as more important. This turn of events would have put Sasuke in really deep shxt, and he might have met his demise mid-way through Shippuden at the hands of any of the 5 great countries' ninja/kage/hunter-ANBU (he was a wanted missing-nin at the time with a bounty on his head), members of the Konoha 12 - the combined might of the Allied Shinobi Force, generally. More likely, team 7 itself would take out Sasuke - each of its members having their own personal business with him (Sai was actually angry with him bc of the suffering he inflicted on Naruto, Kakashi probably would want to redeem himself for his failure to dissuade him from the path of revenge in part 1, Naruto would hypothetically decide to stop trying to bring him back as he would value the preservation of peace especially between Kumo and Konoha at the time over the life of Sasuke, and Sakura might have even pushed through with the poisoned kunai attempt deciding that she cares more for Naruto over Sasuke).

It is doubtful that Kishimoto would have even considered having things play out this way, as Sasuke is a pivotal character to the story of Naruto - kinda like his "Vegeta". On the off chance that Sasuke IS taken out of the picture, however, it's not hard to imagine a scenario wherein Sakura and Naruto would enter a serious relationship together. Without Sasuke, I can guess that Sakura would decide to devote her entire affection to Naruto - she did confess her love to him, after all. As earlier stated, Kishimoto himself said that Sakura was honest - she wasn't the type to lie to anyone, much less herself. Throughout Part 2, we actually see this development as Sakura grows into a strong character who isn't afraid to speak her mind. She surely knew of the consequences of her action before approaching Naruto with her confession - she knew that, if Naruto decided to reciprocate her feelings, they would probably have to get into a relationship at one point. If she isn't the type to lie to herself, then the prospect of entering into a relationship half heartedly would something she wouldn't even consider - yet she still confessed to Naruto knowing full well that it may mean sacrificing her childhood crush Sasuke for the sake of his wellbeing, as well as the prevention of war between nations over revenge. Her willingness to be held to her admission of love proves that she actually meant what she said - she was very much willing to get together with Naruto at that point in time, probably because she truly did love him. As stated earlier, this whole thing may have given Sakura more resolve to kill Sasuke, and perhaps she would have stabbed him with the poisoned kunai, all in an effort to ease Naruto's pain and finally free him from the burden of stopping the cycle of hatred that Sasuke was fueling at the time. No one would get in the way of their romance, and they may have even gotten married, with Naruto never getting the chance to acknowledge Hinata's feelings (prior to The Last, it's good to note that Naruto remained oblivious to Hinata's affection towards him). My point is, she was very close to entering a relationship with Naruto - had Naruto only accepted her confession/given up on Sasuke, and she seemed to be perfectly fine with it despite her personality. That, if anything, proves that Kishimoto wrote her character with the intention to portray romantic motives that would never really end in an actual formation of an intimate relationship.

Having said all of these, that doesn't mean she doesn't love Sasuke. On the contrary, she probably loves him more than she does Naruto - I don't feel like I have to explain why, seeing as they're happily married and have a kid by the time Part 3 came around. How I perceive this is a case of a girl liking two guys at the same time, yet realizing that she is more meant to be for one over the other. She loves Sasuke, but that doesn't mean she doesn't see Naruto in a romantic light as well. I guess she just decides to push for Naruto and Hinata to get closer with each other in the end because she believes that Hinata, who had loved Naruto since childhood, would be a better match for Naruto than she is. By the time the war came around, Sakura had already probably decided that she would not give up in her pursuit of Sasuke, having realized her mistake through Naruto's rejection of her confession and being emboldened by his resolve to save his best friend. This is possibly a factor in her reasoning of choosing Sasuke over Naruto in the end, aside from the fact that she simply had the hots for him since they were kids. Despite this, I still believe that Kishimoto wants to imply that a small part of Sakura would always love Naruto, and vice versa. Furthermore, I truly believe that if Sasuke got taken out by some weird twist of events, then NaruSaku would have most likely become endgame.

The parallels, in their own way, actually reinforce this fact. With the exception of MinaKushi, how many of these pairings actually got involved in a serious relationship? Jiraiya-Tsunade? Obito-Rin? None. They were close to happening, though - just as NaruSaku was indeed very close to happening. In the case of Jiraiya, it was actually implied that it was possible for him to have tried having a relationship with Tsunade, had he been able to survive the Ame infiltration and not gotten his ass handed to him by Pain. In Jiraiya's situation, there was also a "Sasuke" - another man who essentially prevented the pairing from happening: Dan (Tsunade did have feelings for Jiraiya - as for Obito, we aren't exactly sure if Rin would have gone for him even without Kakashi). I guess it goes to show that Kishi never really intended for these "hero gets the heroine" types of pairings to solidify - what he did want to do was present situations with a clear possibility of these pairings coming together. Contrary to popular opinion, I also don't think he did it to troll fans. Rather, I think he wrote these situations the way he did to get fans to look and think deeper into the story - to realize that some things are more than what they seem, yet may not be meant to happen at the same time (wtf?). It's also nice how he's able to write complex characters who don't necessarily stick to one motive, or have one-track minds. This speaks volumes about his skill as a mangaka imo, and explains why Naruto has become one of the greatest generational works of art in our time.

The last minor reference I can cite would be the CPR scene, which involved Sakura and Karin. We know that Karin had feelings for Sasuke, having even made sexual advances towards him throughout the series. Why then, was Sakura chosen as Karin's parallel to Naruto for this scene (besides the medic-nin factor)? I may be reaching, but I guess that It's probably because Sakura did indeed love Naruto, and saw him as something more than a close friend. In the Gaiden, we see Karin as a character who obviously still loves Sasuke, yet feels happy for him despite the fact that he chose to marry Sakura over her. She feels happy to see that Sasuke is happy with a family of his own. I'm sure that Sakura is meant to parallel this to Naruto - she loves him and feels happy for him, seeing as he is happily living with a loving wife and family. I think that the Gaiden was partially meant to imply this message to us. Of course, she loves her own family as well, and was overjoyed at finally getting Sasuke to reciprocate her love. As I said earlier though, I believe that she actually also loved Naruto during the series, and Kishimoto himself was able to show this through all of the character development, parallels, and implication throughout the whole story. A small part of her still loves him now, and is happy to see how Naruto finally achieved his dreams, and is being tended to by the woman she believes is most suited for him - Hinata.

To end things, I'd just like to say that I am in no way a NS shipper or an NH/SS hater. In fact, I think the only chance NS has of happening at this point would be Sasuke and Hinata somehow dying at the same time, maybe trying to protect the village from some new threat in the Boruto next gen series. Then maybe Hokage Naruto and Sakura could decide to rekindle things late-game, Jiraiya-Tsunade style. In all honesty though, I'd much rather have Naruto and Sasuke turning to the dark side and ruling the shinobi world as the super Rikudou bros than events playing out this way - it seems too pander-y to the NS fans, and essentially turns Boruto and Sarada into step-siblings shutting down the possibility of BoruSara. IMO, the NS ship has long sailed (or sunk, depending on which way you look at it) and I'm sure even the characters themselves (imagine them in their own little manga world thinking about what could've been lol) realize it.

The entire point of this post isn't to perpetrate NS and bash the ending (which I loved), it was to raise a question/theory with regards to how one character was written, that character being Sakura. I was motivated to raise this due to the fact that, whenever I scour forums or comment sections of many reviews of the last few chapters, Gaiden, or the last 2 movies, I notice that many people still argue over which pairing - NH or NS should've been made canon, with shippers of their respective ships vehemently arguing. NS fans often complain about how Kishi "trolled" the fan base and threw away 600+ chapters of development between Naruto and Sakura, while NH fans claim that Sakura herself was never written in a way to show affection towards Naruto (also that NH is canon yay). What I'm trying to do now is raise another perspective - another way of looking at this whole thing, kinda like a "middle ground". Perhaps Kishi never meant to troll all of us and is trying to send us a deeper message by making the ending the way he did. Stay with those who were with you from the start? Remain loyal even to those who sometimes you hurt you? Idk really, but I'm just saying that I wouldn't put it past Kishi to use Sakura and Hinata's feelings for Naruto as a plot device. Plus, he wouldn't go through all the trouble of writing up so much development and parallels for Naruto and Sakura just to pass ALL of it off as a red herring in the end.

There we have it! Sorry everyone if this post is too long, and I understand that many of you would love for me to just shut up right now HAHAHA. It just crossed my mind that maybe Sakura and Naruto's relationship wasn't entirely platonic, and that they still love each other to an extent now but have their own lives and more important relationships (i.e. things didn't work out). Please out your thoughts below, what do you guys think? Do I kinda have a point, or am I just talking out of my ass and trying to make baseless conjectures? If I had the chance, I'd really want to bug Kishi and ask for his thoughts on this. What were his thoughts as he wrote the manga? The ending? The character development? What hidden signs and/or messages did he want us to get? All of it is so intriguing, ugh. This being my first post on here, I hope I was able to entertain you guys even a bit. I sure did have lots of fun writing this (I have way too much time on my hands) :( HAHA peace!

[starlitestarbrite]

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