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It’s been said before, but that’s really what it boils down to. Sakura screwed up, but not in the sense that she lied to Naruto. She may be telling the 100% truth about her feelings for Naruto, but she made two huge mistakes in my eyes. 1) She brought Sasuke into it her “confession”, and 2) She made the POAL all about her, either ignoring or forgetting that Naruto’s resolve on bringing back Sasuke isn’t solely based on the feelings she had/has for Sasuke but also his own bond with Sasuke.
Had Sakura not brought up Sasuke herself in this part of the conversation and, should Naruto have asked, better articulate her feelings toward Sasuke I think Naruto would have had a much different reaction to all of this. But, for whatever reason, Sakura saw it necessary to bring Sasuke into this when she should have let Naruto bring him into this equation if he wanted to. If I were Naruto, I would question the sincerity of her feelings too if she felt the need to bring up her feelings for Sasuke in her confession of sorts. That shows some insecurity and it definitely doesn’t show the closure she claims she has with her feelings for Sasuke, and even good ole’ dense Naruto sees that and is rightfully calling her out on it. So when he says she’s lying to herself he’s basing that off of what she’s just shown him, and in my opinion that’s fair.
I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that Naruto is a bit offended by this either. As I said earlier, Sakura either just completely disregarded the other half of Naruto’s wanting to bringing Sasuke back (his personal reasons) or she just assumed that the half of the POAL that involved her outweighed the part in which Naruto wants Sasuke back as his best friend and comrade. That alone, if that’s what’s going on, says a lot about how important Sakura thinks she is to Naruto and if this is her trying to exploit that then that’s just gross. I don’t think that’s what this is because that would throw out countless chapters of Sakura development and would negate everything she just said about not wanting to screw things up anymore. But Naruto doesn’t know about the talk between Sakura and Sai, so how else can he look at this other than either Sakura’s lying to herself or she’s trying to manipulate him via his feelings for her?
I’m sure we could all think up ways this could have gone better, but in the end I would consider this chapter a turn in the right direction. Maybe not a step, but definitely a turn, more specifically a turn away from SasuSaku (which I think is long dead anyway) and NaruHina (which I still consider only a few notches above a decent crack pairing). Actually, I’m quite happy to see that it’s taken so long for this “confession scene” to happen because it’s the final of the big three. SasuSaku’s confession scene came first in Part One when Sasuke was leaving the village and NaruHina’s came second right before Hinata attacked Pain. That’s why I think out of the three SasuSaku is the most unlikely (even though I like it soooo much more than NaruHina); because out of the three it's gone the longest without having anything definite coming up to support them. Hints, sure, but nothing definite… until now when Sakura brings him up, of course. And there’s really been nothing going for NaruHina since Hinata's confession unless you count Hinata standing by smiling as she watched Sakura hug Naruto, which if acknowledged is hard to see as anything other than pro NaruSaku.
Now, the pattern thus far has been confession then nothing, confession then nothing. But if you remember all the evidence NaruSaku has accumulated over the course of this manga, even though it undoubtedly has the “worst” confession scene out of the Big Three it’s really the only pairing that had its unsure factor (Sakura) confess. We’ve got Sakura, who’s feelings for Naruto up till now haven’t been made perfectly clear while Naruto’s feelings for her have been consistently obvious, confessing. This is significant because it’s the only confession in the whole manga made by a character who’s feelings for the opposite character weren’t perfectly known until the confession. We all knew Sakura’s feelings going into the SasuSaku confession while Sasuke’s were at best ambiguous, and we all knew about Hinata’s feelings going into the NaruHina confession while, again, Naruto’s feelings at best were vague, and look how well those two pairings have been doing thus far. Again, no true mentions towards SasuSaku had been made since the confession until this chapter and it’s a renouncement of feelings no less (far from a pro for SasuSaku), and nothing for NaruHina since Hinata’s panel on the NaruSaku hug page.
If that weren’t enough, NaruSaku is the only pairing to have true mutual hints leading up to the confession. There have been scenes for both Naruto and Sakura hinting at romantic feelings for each other, while, as I said before, SasuSaku and NaruHina were both rather one sided up until their respective confessions. Also, in this case, we had the whole Sai-Sakura talk just a few chapters before this one, so there was indication that this confession was coming while both the SasuSaku and NaruHina confession scenes came as a surprise and out of desperation. Sakura confessed to Sasuke so he wouldn’t leave the village and Hinata confessed because she thought she was about to die.
So the long and short of what I’m saying is that this confession and everything leading up to it has completely set NaruSaku apart from every other pairing in the manga, specifically NaruSaku’s two biggest opponents. Why is this significant? Because, in my opinion, the confession of both SasuSaku and NaruHina were the closing number of both pairings. NaruSaku has been left standing as the major pairing without a confession until now so I can’t help but look at this as "Saving the best for last." The way I see it, there are three ways this whole pairing situation can end now. 1) Something happens after this to convince Naruto of Sakura's feelings for him, meaning NaruSaku, 2) Sakura realizes she really is lying to herself about her feelings for Sasuke and Naruto and two forget about this whole ordeal, meaning either SasuSaku or no pairings at all, or 3) For whatever reason, either Naruto or Sakura (more likely Sakura) dies, and while I can't be sure what that would mean I'm going to guess that would mean no pairings sooner than I'd guess SasuSaku or NaruHina.
I’d also like to note that:
-We don’t even hear Sakura confess the first time. We cut in with Naruto saying, “"Wha..?! What did you just say, Sakura-chan?! I think I misheard you, say it again.” All the other confessions we’ve seen from beginning to end. This is the only one where we don’t get to see the most pivotal part of it. Again, this sets NaruSaku apart from everything else… A big plus in my eyes.
-Unless Naruto storms off right after saying he hates people who lie to themselves, this is the only confession scene thus far that is going to take more than one chapter. Again, this is differentiation from everything else thus far and if that’s not significant than it’s pointless and I doubt Kishi would go through all the trouble of making this pairing so different if it were all for nothing.
Now what I want to see is Sakura get over her shock and fight back immediately. Like a lot of people have been saying, she's got to prove her feelings to Naruto and I think her best shot at doing so is to not wait or let Naruto walk away from this thinking what he's thinking. I'd love to see her convince him right then and there because if she doesn't that means this drama is just going to be prolonged and I don't want to see it build up to anything like a death, something I've been thinking about and hoping against for a little while now. My guess is that nothing is going to be certain for a while, and though I most certainly wouldn't start celebrating just yet I'm having a rough time believing that this could all turn out any other way than in our favor. I'm more anxious to see how everything plays out between them in the midst of Madara’s war than the actual outcome, even though I'm obviously pulling for NaruSaku canonization. I don't think this chapter should give any of us reason to worry but rather reason to just keep reading to see how this all goes down between the two, even though my guess is that this isn't going to be settled any time soon. In the mean time, all we can do is enjoy the story as it gets all the more promising (and dramatic, unfortunately
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