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I do think that after Toriyama's death; Kishimoto did some internal reflections and maybe looked at himself differently because when Toriyama died a whole world was devastated by his departure. I even cried even though I have never meet the man, nor did I have any emotional attachment to Dragon Ball like I did with Naruto. But his death affected me, something that I'm sorry to say won't affect me if I hear Kishimoto dies.

 

Kishimoto's legacy will not be known fondly like Toriyama's.

What does Kishimoto have to show for? A manga that ran for 15 years then at the very end destroyed itself and all the positive messages it tried to tell its readers. That's it.

 

 

 

 

I mean, 11 years later, and the coping never change.  NaruSaku isn't the only paying customer. SasuSaku, NaruHina, SasuNaru, and every single character fandom are all part of Naruto's paying customer base. Don't try to give more importance to the Non Canon NaruSaku fandom who still exists in other places.

 

A 15-year story was ruined just because your pairing didn't become canon and Naruto lost his "trophy girl"? 

First of all, I don't give a damn about NaruSaku anymore, and I'm not even a fan of the Naruto character.

 

But Naruto's goal and the manga's main point wasn't about him getting into Sakura's pants and making babies. His main objective was to become Hokage and to save and be recognized by Sasuke. Naruto got exactly what he wanted in the end. Families and children were just a bonus to complete the characters' life cycles.

 

A couple doesn't change anything about the manga. When Kishimoto wants to make a retcon or a bad decision, no editor can stop him. The thing is, all the NaruSaku arguments, especially the one blaming editors and popularity, don't make sense to begin with.

No editor forced Kishimoto to make Sakura's feelings for Sasuke a central part of her character. No editor forced Kishimoto to have Hinata confess in what was, at that point, Naruto's most important fight when she could have easily been forgotten. Even Neji was killed to bring them together.

 

 

Even when Naruto was just beginning and needed sales to survive, Kishimoto and Yahagi took their sweet time building everything, including pairings, despite demanding circumstances. When Naruto was selling millions just by sneezing, are NaruSaku shippers truly assuming that some supposedly biased editor or Pierrot "forced" the creator, the owner of the franchise, to do what they wanted? This is especially unbelievable at the end of the manga when Kishimoto was doing whatever he wanted. Or did some editor force Kishimoto to create Kaguya?

 

The idea that Kishimoto was forced to do anything is ridiculous. He is the creator and owner of the franchise. He had the final say on everything, including secondary plots like pairings. If he wanted to do NaruSaku, he could have. But he didn't. He chose to do SasuSaku and NaruHina because it was his plan. That was solely his decision. There are much worse things I can list besides Kaguya:

 

 

Do you care about Kaguya and other poorly written plots by Kishimoto, or is the problem just NaruSaku sinking?

Sorry, I can't take a shipper seriously who thinks a Non Canon Couple destroyed a shonen manga while ignoring much more serious plots and problems that truly affect the manga as a whole.

 

If you stepped out of your NaruSaku bubble, you would recognize that the other pairings also have a lot more development and didn't just become canon out of nowhere. So no, NaruSaku pairing isn't a universal truth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still maintain my position that one day we will get a Naruto do-over of the ending. I don't know when. I don't even know if we would care or if any of us would be alive by then. It's a truth we have to accept.

 

 

 

 

 

Let me guess... 11 years later, you still think Kishimoto will magically come back and admit he only made a mistake regarding the canon pairings? NaruSaku will get another ending, keeping everything exactly the same—like Kaguya, Sasuke vs. Naruto, Naruto still being Hokage, and (New) New Era, with the same couples and themes—but only with Sakura as Naruto's wife and Shinachiku fanmade as his son isntead of Boruto and Himawari and Sasuke alone? So yeah. It's better to move on.

 

The canon couples are heavily promoted as part of the merchandise, anime, and other products precisely because they are canon. It's time to recognize this, as these couples will remain canon for the next 10, 20, and 100 years. Kishimoto isn't going to magically retcon his own manga to please a few shippers who haven't moved on and are still mad about the ending.

 

Nobody is promoting or remembering a Fanon pairing anymore. At this point, you don't even have this old "NaruSaku"" merch anymore.

 

 

This is the oficial Merch and events since 2015.

Naruhina also have their share of merchandise, but I don't care to look for it or save it.