First, I have a ton of respect for Kishi. And he has always displayed a good deal of respect for the characters, story, and, yes, the fans. The story always demanded that Naru/saku must be resolved one way or another. And all Kishi is showing us now is that he isn’t afraid to tackle it head on. Perhaps subtlety would have pleased you, but it would have been unfair to his Naru/saku fans who do believe in the pairing and fully expect it to happen to just let it fade into nothing. I'd be very upset if he treated Sasusaku that way. And as much as I dislike narusaku, Kishi has put some things in the manga that could be hints for Naru/saku. Naruto's lingering crush post time skip, the POAL, Sakura's tears while going after Naruto in fox state, Yamato's unfinished sentence.... that's not much, but I also don't think, Kishi included those things for the lolz.
If you were Kishi, you would want to avoid building up a strong fanbase for the very pairing you intend to destroy. But how do you slowly and gently let down fans who support Narusaku without adding fuel to the fire? You most destroy Naru/saku in a way that doesn't leave one of them (Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, or Sasuke) looking bad or only settling for a consolation prize. The main thing that must happen is that Naruto's feelings get closure. However there are at least two major problems.
1. If that closure happened after Sasu/saku or after Hinata's confession it makes it look like Naruto is only settling. No matter how much Naruto might protest, no matter what reason Naruto gives, no matter what his relationship with Hinata becomes, some will always say he was settling and it gives people a reason to attack Naru/Hina.
Which is why I see it that he's been slowly fazing out Naruto's romantic overtures towards Sakura, and all the moments with any romantic potential have been quickly defused usually by
humor or talk about
Sasuke. I don't think it's an accident that with all the panel time and all the opportunities to be alone together without Sasuke there have been no serious moments between the two (that didn't focus on Someone else), no heart to heart conversations, and barely any physical contact (unless you count punches).
2. The next problem you face as Kishi is that Naruto's goals and the theme of the manga demands that Sakura must acknowledge Naruto. Having her acknowledge him is easy. Having her acknowledge him without turning it into fuel for Narusaku is another.
Now Kishi has clearly showed at various times Sakura cares about, and respects Naruto but before the
moment of her really acknowledging it, Kishimoto chose to add this little teeny, tiny, hardly noticeable moment. What this does to the story is to destroy any buildup Naru/saku might have had. At the worst possible moment for narusaku the confession put the spotlight on Hinata right before kishi has
Sakura acknowledge Naruto. By contrast it appears quite insignificant. And the very next panel shows Hinata, who, unlike all the other rookies isn't standing with her teammates. This focus is all on her. In my opinion this is Kishi's silent way of assuring us he hasn't forgotten her confession and he doesn't want the reader to forget about it either.
Now to address recent chapters, I still don’t think Kishi is leading us to Narusaku. What I think he's doing is killing two birds with one stone. First showing us Sakura's weaknesses in order for her to confront them so she can move past them, and two he's laid narusaku on the table to be
dissected address all the narusaku moments/theories/arguments in order to destroy them before he can move on to making other pairings cannon. I cannot see this leading to Narusaku, because there are just too many holes. It doesn't make sense as good writing. And I've learned to expect from kishi good writing.
Hinata:
Why has Kishi revealed this flashback to us so soon after Hinata’s confession? It’s not a coincidence. All of you who went “WTH?? What about Hinata?” I think that’s exactly how kishi wanted his readers to react. Even non-shipping fans will have that in the back of their mind. The fact that he hasn't resolved this yet is horrible news for Narusaku. As a writer it makes no sense to develop and then leave unresolved two pairings, only to bring in a third pairing out of the blue and make it cannon. Kishi has to either resolve naru/hina and sasu/saku first, and then make naru/saku cannon, or resolve naru/saku first and then make naru/hina and sasu/saku cannon.
The Flashback:
If the flashback is to lead to Narusaku, why isn't Naruto or Sakura involved??? Why is it Sai, uninvolved third party, who's having the flashbacks which Naruto has never even thought about.
If the flashback is leading to Narusaku, why is it only shown in a flashback? Kishi has never been afraid of reviewing things we've already seen, over and over if need be. Why didn't he show us the actual event? Why does it take place so long ago when Kishi could have inserted this moment at any time?
Sai’s mistakes:
Notice first that Sai has subtly rephrased what Naruto said. Sai implies that Naruto is chasing Sasuke because of his promise, but Naruto in Sai’s flashback said he wasn’t pursuing Sakura because of his promise. Notice the difference? All of you worried that Kishi has undermined Naruto’s and Sasuke’s bond for narusaku romantic bond in these past chapters, relax. Nothing Naruto said placed narusaku above his relationship to Sasuke. What Sai said does, even with his backtrack I still think he’s giving too much credence to the POAL. Which is why I conclude Sai is at least partly MISTAKEN.
One of the very reasons I dislike Narusaku is because it's way too easy, it's too convenient. It seems to me Kishi thinks so too because he has purposefully defined it through Sai in terms of the level of happiness it brings. Sai’s whole basis of understanding Naruto's feelings for Sakura were that happiness (ie: smiles) equal love. This is contrasted very sharply to their bond with Sasuke just as it's becoming harder and which promises no rewards of happiness and is in fact a source of pain. In a perfect world love would always lead to greater happiness, but things aren't perfect. It’s been emphasized over and over that love is a two edged sword. Love isn’t rainbows, and skipping off into the sunset. Real love is often the source of pain and suffering. It's the mother who gets up at three to feed a crying baby every night, the parents who cry over a runaway child, or the pain of loosing someone precious. If the message kishi is trying to get across is that love should be dropped when things get hard and painful then they should give up on Sasuke. But I don't believe it. It's through the storms and the fire that their bond with Sasuke is strengthened because it demands a complete and utterly selfless love from them, agape love. If that's bad then their bond with Sasuke is bad too. They should just forget him and be happy together.
Sakura's reaction and development:
A lot of you might take offense to this next point but Sai is NOT responsible for Sakura’s reaction. You can’t blame him for making her feel guilty. People feel guilty only if there is something for them to feel guilty about, real or imagined. If Sakura had a completely clean conscience Sai’s words would no more unnerve her then if he was accusing her of being the third hokage in disguise. When people attack her for her reaction or attack Sai for making her react this way you miss the point. Her reaction, as I see it, is about Sakura’s own feelings of guilt about Naruto's promise to bring Sasuke back. Sure, she's heard Naruto defend going after Sasuke based on other reasons, but she worries that Naruto is doing it for her on some level. This isn't the first time that we've seen Sakura feeling guilty about the poal. This is the
first and the second time is
this oft misconstrued scene when Sakura saw Naruto in fox mode for the first time while chasing Sasuke. That guilt has never been addressed, only buried. It seems like digging it up was the first step to Sakura's development. In order for Sakura to grow she must face this. In one move kishi has taken the exact same theory narusaku used in support of its pairing, that Naruto is doing everything for Sakura's sake, and made it into something negative if true. In fact, far from bringing Naruto and Sakura closer together the POAL has become a source of guilt and separation between them. On Sakura's part, she feels guilt that he might be doing the very thing Narusaku hopes he is.
And on Naruto's part feeling like he failed her. Laying to rest any silly notions that the Poal was narusaku development. Now the beauty of it is, if right, and this
scene was about guilt and not because she suddenly felt a burst of romantic love for Naruto, then that destroys the narusaku
misinterpretation of this
scene. Yamato couldn't possibly have been referring to love, he was only trying to assuage her guilt.
Sakura's reaction and development cont:
Even though I disagree with some of what Sai said, I think he got some things right. It's not that Sakura hasn't tried to save Sasuke, but has she given it her all like Naruto? It isn't that Naruto told the others he'd take care of everything, but that they let him. If people allowed him, I really think Naruto would try to do everything by himself. It's the same problem Sasuke sometimes has. IMO because of their similar backgrounds of growing up with no one to rely on Naruto and Sasuke became very independent. They both like to take things in their own hands. But at least Sasuke constantly pushed Naruto and Sakura to improve. Naruto doesn't ask the same thing of Sakura and Sai, content to do everything himself. But that doesn't mean the others are free to sit back and let Naruto. Hinata didn't. Some hold her in contempt for it, I think Hinata will be validated for that choice as people see the others follow her lead. It seems Shikamaru is already thinking along these lines.
Final Thoughts
Kishi is free to do whatever he wants. It's his manga. If he does make NS cannon I'll be disappointed, but I fully admit that most of the preceding is based on guessing kishi's intentions which rests on my interpretation of the manga. If my interpretation is wrong, then most of my points are moot. My interpretation requires that not only is kishi attempting make two pairing with characters who get very little interaction cannon, but all the while having one member of each pair of the opposite gender interact together on a daily basis without giving rise to romance. Few writers would stack the deck so strongly in their disfavor. However, despite the fact that Sasuke and Sakura have only seen each other once in all of part two, and despite Naruto and Hinata's lack of panel time both pairings are very alive and strong. Narusaku for all of its panel time and interactions isn't near as big as it ought to if that was really the writer’s intention. But perhaps this just says something about the inherit weakness of the pairing itself, (like katang) proving that it just doesn't work. Or perhaps it's because we're interpreting the story the way the author intended.
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