Dattebayo

My two cents worth-

I don't think the Naruto/Sasuke showdown can possibly happen in this chapter. Its just not possible. Max will be that Naruto and Sasuke have a we-used-to-be-friends type convo where Naruto's all "Sasuke...what happened to you?" and Sasuke goes all emo saying no one understands him and his entire clan was lost and he just wants revenge...just when things look like they're gonna pick up Madara will appear and magic his minion away.

Totally in agreement with what naruto-z said a while ago...we just have to admit that yes, Sakura has feelings for Sasuke- but at the same time she has STRONG FEELINGS FOR NARUTO. The thing is, what's love (the real thing) based on? Obsessive hankering after a guy because he's hot and always tops his class at ninja school?
Or caring so deeply about someone ("in a friendly way") that you
a) spare him from the all-important truth ONLY because you know it will devastate him
b) weep while healing him from grievous wounds because you wish you could do more
c) realizing how blind you are for not knowing he was in love with you all along
d) acting upon this realization by attempting to unburden him from his soul-consuming promise to you in the fastest way possible
and e) know that mere words on your part are not going to stop him, so taking it upon yourself to do what HE PROMISED YOU THAT HE WOULD DO ALONE and save him the bother =)

She OBVIOUSLY cares much more deeply for Naruto than she cares about Sasuke- all that has to happen (and it will take some time) is for her to reflect upon her old feelings for Sasuke and realize that those were adolescent pangs and not real love, and to realize with a shock that the undefined feelings she had for her other teammate Naruto were ACTUALLY the real thing. Cmon, she TOLD NARUTO SHE LOVED HIM EVEN THOUGH SHE THOUGHT SHE DIDN'T. To Naruto (had he believed her) this would be the ultimate gift. She wanted to make him happy so badly that she denied her feelings for Sasuke, whatever they are at this stage of the manga. If that isn't deep feelings, or love- then I really don't know what is! Sakura started off as an extremely selfish person, but has made the transition to being selfless. She is trying to put aside what she wants/hopes for and make Naruto happy, because in the end she cares about him more than she does about Sasuke.

Furthermore, people fail to remember that Sasuke is part of Akatsuki now. Whatever his motives, his goals are ultimately what Madara wants him to do, and Madara wants him to nab Naruto. Do you REALLY think Sakura is going to stand aside and let Sasuke kill Naruto because of her "romantic feelings" for Sasuke? NO WAY. She'd stick by Naruto and fight to the death to save him if she had to- regardless of her feelings for Sasuke.

Anyway, just my opinion.

Tricksie: My feelings exactly. I don't think this has anything to do with Sakura wanting Sasuke back, she's clearly realized that, however much she wants it to be like the old team 7, Sasuke's just too far gone and it too evil and does nothing but spawn cycles of hatred. She wanted Naruto to see that too, but when she sees that he clearly doesn't agree, she decides to do it on her own...she agrees with Shikamaru.

Miss Soupy- Thanks =) Yeah I agree with you, I do think her confession was genuine- just that the time she chose to confess, as well as the way she worded it, showed that she was using it to manipulate Naruto, in order to protect him. She knew he'd be safest in Konoha and used the best leverage she had at the time. However she also has a plan B (meaning she is so intent on protecting Naruto that she is prepared to use any maneuver possible to keep him safe. Instead of trashing her for it though, I am glad she is finally taking things into her own hands instead of standing around waiting for Naruto to give up on Sasuke. I also love that she's preparing to deal with Sasuke herself to save Naruto from more pain- it shows that she truly does love Naruto.

Ryrinea Haruno- I didn't mean that she was doing it for selfish reasons- as I said earlier I believe her feelings are genuine, and that she does love Naruto. But she was being manipulative- the strange choice of words she was using, and the line about "women being as fickle as the autumn sky"- gave the whole thing a very fake air. Leading people to assume (wrongly, in my opinion) that she was lying about her feelings.
Think about it, if she was confessing ONLY to make her feelings known, would she have done it in that time and that place? Surrounded by all their friends and their teachers? She DID have an ulterior motive. But ultimately its to protect Naruto, so I don't think she was in the wrong. I admire her for doing what she did.

Man, I love Sakura.
Seriously.

Even if she's being manipulative with her confession (although I believe that her feelings are genuine, I feel that the words she used to express them were carefully articulated- she WAS being manipulative. Just not sure what she wanted to achieve though. Perhaps she was measuring how set Naruto was on bringing back Sasuke?) she has a plan. After Naruto tells her that "its weird that she'd come all that way just to say something like that", and tells her that he still wants to save Sasuke, Sakura has a "I knew it'd come to this...now onto Plan B" expression on her face as she formulates her find Sasuke plan.
Her intentions are good. I think she's doing the right thing- she knows that Naruto will stop at nothing to bring Sasuke back. I'm sure she knew that Naruto wanted to bring him back regardless of her feelings for him, but wanted to use her feelings as leverage for Naruto to just drop it and come home. However when she sees that he's not giving it up, she decides that she's going to go take Sasuke down (as the rookie 9 decided, in Konoha) by herself, and that she doesn't need his help. No doubt she'll try to save Sasuke first (though not cos of her feelings for him, cos if she hadn't realized by now that Sasuke couldn't give a rat's ass about her, then she's WAY too stupid to be a main character) as a teammate and for Naruto's sake. If it doesn't work though, she won't have any qualms about killing him.

It'd be a really interesting turn in the story if Sakura fought Sasuke and defeated him (physically not emotionally)- first of all everyone expects a Naruto-Sasuke fight but we haven't really considered Sakura in terms of her abilities. She's more than a match for Sasuke now, and when you think about it she has many, MANY good reasons to kick his ass- all the pain he's caused Naruto, etc. I foresee a "I'm protecting what's precious to me, and that's the only reason I'm bothering to kill you" type scenario happening. So while he's lying there defeated, Naruto will come along and no doubt make him see the light, and tell him that they'll help him avenge his clan, thus defeating Sasuke mentally.
Also it'll be a complete contrast of what happened the last time- the last time, Sakura used her feelings as a ploy to get Sasuke to stay in Konoha, and it didn't work. Naruto physically went after him (and tried to appeal to him on an emotional level but that failed epically, so the main battle was a physical fight) and also failed. This time I think Sakura should pwn him, and then Naruto can step in and talk to him as a broher/teammate/friend.

Also we must keep in mind that Sakura doesn't know why Sasuke is in Akatsuki. She isn't provided with much info, which is surprising given her closeness to Naruto and the fact that Kakashi is her sensei, but I guess it all comes down to what someone else said earlier- that everyone underestimates Sakura, including Kakashi- and even Naruto to some extent. Naruto has only actually seen her in battle a few times- he knows she defeated Sasori but he wasn't WATCHING it happen. Thus subconciously he still must think of her as someone to be protected, rather than someone who does the protecting, much like he sees Hinata.
In Sakura's mind, Akatsuki is an organization that kills jinchuuriki. Naruto is a jinchuuriki. Sasuke is a member of Akatsuki, which means that Sasuke's out to kill Naruto, while Naruto wants to save Sasuke- meaning Naruto's life is in danger from Sasuke, while Sasuke is in no danger at all. So, of course, Sakura wants to kill Sasuke to protect Naruto from harm. This is part of the reason Naruto said "Its not because of the promise I made to you". Of COURSE he's still trying to keep his promise to her- but what's he supposed to say now that Sakura's taken it away? He can't respond to her confession because then in her eyes he'd have no reason to save Sasuke. And yet he can't tell her why it is HE wants to save Sasuke. So he gives her what seems (to her) an irrational answer ("I want to help Sasuke"). She has no idea why he still wants to.

Pah, long winded explanation...I hope SOMEBODY understands that, cos I don't xD

oh, and does anyone else think that Sai's staying behind to tell Naruto and Kakashi what Danzou plans to do with Naruto?

I think a lot has been overlooked about the general direction of the manga in the wake of 469 and others. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura are the new Sannin. The entire point of the manga, and Naruto as a character, is to SURPASS THE PREVIOUS GENERATION. This is a recurring theme, and has been stated by Jiraiya, Kakashi, Tsunade, Iruka and even indirectly by Yondaime Hokage on several occasions. We were reminded of this in the chapter where Jiraiya died, as he flashbacks over his life. He sums up his own goals as being failures (in his eyes); he couldn't bring back his friend, Orochimaru, when he left the village to be consumed by his own darkness and his greed for power. He also couldn't win the heart of the woman he was in love with, Tsunade. And his own student, Pein, had surpassed him in terms of ninjutsu (meaning he killed him basically).
So let's look at all the comparisons between the New and the Old Sannin:

1. Sasuke=Orochimaru, obviously. Orochimaru couldn't give less of a kitten about his teammates and friends, therefore he left Konoha. Jiraiya tried to bring him back and failed. The old Sannin were permanently broken and did not reunite, ever. In fact, Tsunade and Jiraiya had no qualms about killing him every time they had the opportunity to because they felt nothing but contempt for him anymore. They didn't waste their whole life on regrets. However the whole love triangle thing wasn't present, as it is in Team 7. This is one of the factors that will enable the new generation to surpass the old. Naruto cares about Sasuke deeply as a brother- his feelings for Sasuke are much deeper and more meaningful than Sakura's infatuation with him. Naruto is therefore not only pursuing Sasuke for Sakura (to whom he swore he'd bring Sasuke back for her) but for his own sake too. The double whammy of their regard for Sasuke makes them MORE determined than Jiraiya and Tsunade to bring him back- and also Naruto and Sakura feel that Sasuke isn't as far gone as Orochimaru, so they won't give up just yet. In all likelihood, they'll bring Sasuke back, or he'll at least realize that he cares about them AS TEAMMATES before he gets killed in some epic battle to protect them from Akatsuki, or whatever. So as far as Sasuke is concerned, Naruto and Sakura will succeed (NOT romantically though, in Sakura's case...but they'll manage to restore their friendship once more I feel). Either way, Sasuke WILL return, or see the error of his ways blah blah blah and die as a member of Team 7, OR he will surpass Orochimaru's evil and thus Naruto and Sakura will decide to let him go and just kill him already. Either way he's going to go a step further than Orochimaru somehow, which will be his way of surpassing the old generation. Personally I think his death will be similar to Pein's (comes round to Naruto's way of thinking right before he dies, laments his sins etc).

2. Naruto=Jiraiya. That much is obvious. Jiraiya taught Yondaime, who became Hokage in his time. And since like, the 1st page of the manga, its been clear that Naruto will end up Hokage someday. Also Naruto mastered the Futon Rasengan, which the 4th didn't manage, and also perfected Sage Mode which Jiraiya never did. He's in love with his teammate, LIKE JIRAIYA WAS, but UNLIKE Jiraiya he will prove himself worthy of her (not that Jiraiya didn't try or anything!! I love Jiraiya, but y'know he never actually confessed to Tsunade which is what I mean) without even meaning to- because for almost the whole manga, he's pretty much decided that he can never have Sakura's love. However the irony of it is that in his unselfishness, Sakura is slowly starting to fall for him- something he never expected to happen, EVER. But ultimately WE, the READERS, know that Narusaku is canon, because Naruto will surpass Jiraiya and achieve his goals. The whole manga is named after him for gawdsakes. He's GOING TO GET EVERYTHING HE WANTS.

3. Sakura=Tsunade. In order to surpass Tsunade, Sakura must become a better ninja- which she is well on her way to doing, as she has perfected the art of chakra control just like Tsunade has, has great taijutsu, is an exceptional medic, is extremely intelligent and has genjutsu abilities too which she hasn't even tapped into yet. She was the 1st ninja to kill an Akatsuki member which shows us how much she's grown. Also she's no longer the selfish, snotty-nosed brat that she was before her rigorous training. Sure, her motives might still be selfish, but she is slowly falling for Naruto, as we have seen unfold over the past 200 or so chapters. Sakura also has to surpass Tsunade in her personal life- Tsunade (again no offence to her, she's friggin awesome) spent most of her life mourning for the man she was in love with, who she couldn't be with because he was killed in battle. However instead of seeing what was right in front of her (Jiraiya) and opening herself up to the possibility that it is possible, and indeed PROBABLE, that you will love more than 1 guy in your life, and loving someone else after the 1st dude does NOT make him the "rebound guy" or a "shoddy replacement" or a "sloppy second", but that your next romantic choice could very well bring you complete peace. Chasing after an impossible dream only made her unhappy- which is exactly what Sakura has been doing. Even in the event that they somehow bring Sasuke back to Konoha, Sasuke is not magically going to fall in love with her. He's just NOT. He's had AMPLE opportunities, he's not just going to wake up and smell the daisies now. And no doubt Sakura will realise that she's in love with Naruto BEFORE they convince Sasuke to come home. In accepting that she loves Naruto more than Sasuke and thus finally feeling complete, she will have surpassed Tsunade.

So yeah, Naruto and Sakura will somehow get it together. Its a shonen manga called NARUTO. After the main character, Naruto. And Naruto ALWAYS gets what he wants.

Not that I have anything against Hinata (she's a lovely gal) but she's only a 2ndary character- and even so, she's less of a 2ndary character than even Shikamaru, Neji etc. She's barely appeared in the series even to help out with the rookies' missions. Yeah she loves Naruto, but she's not selfish- and her admiration of him as a person will still continue even if she doesn't manage to nab him from under Sakura's nose. Her goal isn't to be with Naruto for the rest of her life, her goal was to confess to him and show him how much she cared for him, and in doing so develop herself as a person. She had purely unselfish motives, but that doesn't mean Naruto is going to fall in love with her just for that. Yeah that might be selfish of him, but the poor guy's got his own emotions, and he's loved Sakura for his whole life. So even if Sakura DOES act selfishly, he still adores her and is willing to do anything for her.

So yeah, 469 was a bit awkward and unsatisfying, but its most telling about the direction Sakura's feelings have changed to. She's willing to put aside what SHE has wanted for so long just to give Naruto peace of mind. Is that love or isn't it? Guess we'll just have to wait it out for the next 20 chapters for Sakura to realize what her putting Naruto first ACTUALLY means.

anyway. On with the discussion.