Now before you get annoyed, I am NOT a crap-author apologist. I believe whole-heartedly that it is not an author's right to do whatever they want with their story and that even if they make something happen, that doesn't automatically make it realistic. Now that being said, please proceed to the rest of the post :)
I actually believe that Kishimoto was forced into this and that he wasn't happy about it. Because SasuSaku was the most popular pairing in Japan and some people got set on making a Naruto spin-off, they decided to make Kishimoto change it to SasuSaku so more of their fans would stay for the spin-off. I mean, we're living proof of that, right? Look at us. Most of us, myself included, are shunning the spin-off. We're not going to read it. So, if the most popular ship is SasuSaku and they make NaruSaku happen, then they just alienated the majority of their fans. Not good for money. Obvious solution? Make the more popular ship happen, and we've got a bigger audience for the spin-off.
Why do I think this? Because NaruSaku was the one with all the build-up. I believe that as recently as 663, where Sakura's love for Naruto and Karin's love for Sasuke (which love we know to be romantic) was paralleled, Kishimoto was planning on making NaruSaku canon. We have confirmation straight from Minato that NaruSaku is a parallel of MinaKushi. Can't get much blunter than that! What other proof do I have that Kishimoto wasn't happy about this?
For starters, he gave NaruHina/SasuSaku little to NO closure. SasuSaku had like a page or two, where he poked her forehead (romantiku~! If anything that points to more of a brother/sister relationship since the only other person who did that to him was his BIG BROTHER) and NaruHina had one panel. Then they were all married with babies. However, even after they were married, he gave us absolutely no interaction between the two couples. In addition, he never actually killed off NaruSaku, because Naruto didn't actually ever say to Sakura he was moving on, and she never actually rejected him. They just married different people (who didn't have any interaction). IF he were happy with this and planning on it, I think he would give us more. But to me, it almost seems like "I'm being forced to make these people end up together but I'm not happy about it, so I'm just going to not show any interaction between them. And I'm not going to officially kill off NaruSaku."
Secondly, he didn't actually draw the epilogue. His assistants did. You'd think that if a mangaka loved their work that they would want to finish it himself, right?! That screams to me that he was forced into something he didn't want and instead of going along with it, stubbornly said, "Fine, you guys can crap on my story if you want, but I'M not going along with it." I know if I wrote something for fifteen years, I'D wanna finish it out. If people took it from me and ruined it, though, then maybe I wouldn't. In addition, there's his involvement in "The Last" movie, which will allegedly expand upon the NaruHina romance. Who knows how involved Kishimoto was in this movie. He created all the designs (and again made Sakura look more like Kushina), but he's not going to be animating it or who even knows how much he'll be involved in the storyline. I just know that up until this point, he hasn't been too involved in the creation of filler movies. It appears that he's just handed his manga over and is trying to wash his hands of the end.
Then there's the case of interesting little Salad Uchiha, who is an Uchiha with glasses, when neither one of her parents even HAVE glasses. I think that there are only three characters in the whole story who even wear glasses: Kabuto, Karin, and that weird girl who vibed Shikamaru. It seems supremely random that a child of Sakura and Sasuke, both of whom do NOT have glasses, would have a child with glasses, ESPECIALLY since most of the other children were obviously spitting images of their parents, attaining very conspicuous traits from them. SO WHY would he randomly change that and throw glasses on a SasuSaku kid, which makes even less sense genetically than Sai's kid having blonde hair? My theory (I don't care if it's conspiracy) is that Kishimoto already had in his mind, and probably on sketches, designs from NS and SK kids. He was planning on canonizing them. Then, when he was forced to make this stupid ending, instead of creating a new SasuSaku child, he sneakily threw in the design he already had for the SasuKarin child, either for himself or hoping that his fans would be able to pick up on it. I mean, look at them. (I tried to post the pictures but I caaaan't D:)
Her glasses are even red, like Karin's hair. I'm just saying, that's very STRANGE.
Now finally, let's move onto the SasuSaku and NaruHina families. They sure seem happy, right? With Sasuke leaving all the time and with Naruto always being gone at meetings so that he can't even spend time with his own son? Maybe Kishimoto's trying to tell us something with that, too. That they aren't happy because their families aren't what their families are supposed to be. Hm, hm, hmm... I don't know guys, I just know things are FISHY, to put it mildly. But I'm starting to think that maybe we shouldn't blame Kishi. Maybe it wasn't his fault. Maybe his editors and assistants forced him to change his manga so drastically that in the end, he couldn't even draw the last chapter himself. For me, Naruto ended in 698, because I think that's where Kis. You know how he said that he's known where Naruto was going to end since he began the story? Well I'm POSITIVE that's what he was talking about - the final battle with Naruto and Sasuke, with both of them losing their arms and Sasuke changing, etc. Not the shipping.
In all actuality, I'm starting to feel sorry for Kishi, because he was made to botch his story and now everyone is calling him the worst storyteller ever, but in reality... it wasn't his fault.
All right, conspiracy theory over.
Edited by Win-chan, 21 November 2014 - 12:00 AM.
