True and fake confession.

WARNING: VERY LENGTHY ESSAY

Many antis still argue that “Naruto had his focus only on Sakura in the manga, Naruto was in love with Sakura, His feelings were true, deep… Blah” but I disagree.

The problem with some people is that… they cannot accept this fact: Naruto did not fully understand what love is. He may have some idea, but it’s limited. He cannot categorized the love for friends, food and romantic feeling.

It is true that Naruto had a crush/puppy love for Sakura. We are not denying it.

But ask yourself, why Naruto likes Sakura? Well, there are 2 reasons:

1. Sakura is beautiful
2. As The Last movie stated, it’s also because of his rivalry with Sasuke.

Yes, that’s it. Very shallow, indeed.

Some antis may say “Kishi is pathetic. It’s a lame excuse that Naruto liked Sakura because of his rivalry with Sasuke"

Well, NO. It’s actually acceptable. Remember, when Naruto had his crush… He was only 12. He’s not that mature. Yes, childish really.

Also, Naruto is a orphan. He did not have friends. He somehow envious of Sasuke’s popularity. So, it’s natural for him to want what Sasuke have.

As Naruto grows old (more mature), he eventually left his crush for Sakura.

In an interview. Kishi himself said that both Naruto and Sakura never (as in, not even a single second) see each other romantically:

“Later, Sakura and Naruto mutually recognize that they are not romantically interested in each other, and it’s also their parting scene, where Sakura is speaking on behalf of Hinata’s feelings to Naruto. I also like that scene.”[x]

You may argue again, "why it always brought up repeated in the manga that Naruto like Sakura? Naruto always has his focus for Sakura?"

The answer is no. He did not. He’s actually more focus on bringing Sasuke back to Konoha. He is more focus on fulfilling his dream. Hence, being in a relationship with Sakura was not even a priority.

The "crush” thingy was brought up repeatedly (esp. in the early part of shippuden) to keep the story more interesting in terms of the pairing.

Kishi purposely did those red herring moments
—-
And as we all know, crush can lead to love.
But how can we say that we are in love?

Well, these are some of the signs:

- you love/accept him/her beyond physical appearance. You accept him/her for who he/she is:

- you are happy with that person

- You will do anything to protect that person.

See? Hinata’s admiration for Naruto turned to love (the same goes with Sasusaku).

But in Naruto’s case, his supposed “feelings” for Sakura never turned to love. There is no defining moment in the manga that shows that Naruto fell in love with Sakura.

Ironically, Kishi showed Naruto'growing feelings for Hinata.

Let’s restate the signs of love again:

- you love/accept him/her beyond physical appearance. You accept him/her for who he/she is:

- you are happy with that person

- You will do anything to protect that person

Yes, it is mutual love.

Hinata’s feelings for Naruto (and Sakura’s feeling for Sasuke) never used as a joke.

NH development happened in a VERY serious situation.

Kishimoto made chapter 437 to address the following:

- Hinata’s character resolve
- Hinata’s feelings for Naruto
- Naruto’s true feelings.

I remember, when the chapter was released , the fandom gone crazy. It’s not that the confession came as a surprise. As we all know, Hinata’s dilemma in part 1 is confidence. To resolve this, she had to confess her feelings for Naruto (because she was shy when he was around.)

Remember Hinata used to do this:

But now, she’s like this:

Hence, Kishi made this chapter to show Hinata’s character development.
But even the confession is expected, why did the fandom (esp. antis) reacted violently? Well, because this also happened:

They did not expect that Hinata can trigger the worst feeling that Naruto had in his life.

As we all know, Naruto can only transform into kyuubi if he felt a high level of rage:

You notice something? He only transform when he lose someone precious to him (in 4-tails case, Naruto transformed because Orochimaru was talking about Sasuke, who is a precious friend). As Pein said “Love breeds hate”

Action speaks louder than words:

He was angry because Hinata is important to him.

So, Kishi also made this chapter to address Naruto’s true feelings. Naruto is not in love with Sakura. He loves Hinata.

You may say “Anyone could trigger that, especially Sakura because Naruto loves her blah blah blah” BUT NO.

Remember when Pein killed grandpa frog in Naruto’s front, but he did not transform:

Naruto even know that Kakashi and Jiraiya were dead… But he did not even transform.

So, the argument “anyone could trigger it” is invalid.

Naruto only had a crush for Sakura. Again, crush. If Pein attacked her, maybe Naruto would transform (they are teammates after all). But I doubt it would go as far as 6-tails… because again, Naruto’s feelings for Sakura are not that deep. Sakura is a precious friend. But only a friend.

The point is: Kishi used Hinata in that chapter, not Sakura, not Shikamaru, not anyone.

Hinata is different. She is Naruto’s only love. Its very obvious since the beginning. Also, Hinata is Naruto’s weakness (which was again, said in The Last Naruto):

So Kishi made it crystal clear that its only Hinata can trigger 6-tails. Chapter 437 also address that NH is the endgame. Its inevitable.

Antis may say, “but Sai said Naruto was in love with Sakura. Even an emotionless boy can tell that. Naruto even said that he cannot confess because he could not kept his POL"

But the point is this: Sai did not understand Naruto. He thought he can, but no. Sai also did not know what romantic love is. He just took Naruto’s words of "how can I (confess), I could not even kept my promise” as the truth. But remember, Naruto himself did not know what love is. Therefore, Sai took a wrong information about Naruto’s feelings.

Then Sai told Sakura about this supposed feelings of Naruto. Sakura took it also as the truth. But as Naruto said, he wants to save Sasuke because he is his friend (not because of the POL) In other words, Sakura herself did not understand Naruto.

Naruto’ line of “how can I (confess), I could not even kept my promise?” also has another purpose: It is a red herring.

But since chp. 437 already address Naruto’s true feeling… Kishi used Sai flashback (before the failfession) to further establish that Naruto did not see Sakura as a romantic interest.

In the end, Naruro fulfilled his POL. Despite that, he did not confess to Sakura (because there is nothing to confess)

In the last, both Sakura and Sai able to fully understand Naruto. That’s why these scenes happened

Sakura NOW knows that Naruto did not fully understand love:

Sai NOW knows that Naruto only love Hinata:

The Last purpose is the further develop NH relationship (I said further, meaning it’s already develop in the manga. The movie just add some info to solidify NH.). The bond between Naruto and Hinata unfolded in the manga, not in the Last. The movie was used to tie the lose ends.

And if Naruto really loved Sakura…then why he did not even mention her name when Edo-Minato was fading?

Eventually, Naruto realized what love is. That helped him realized his true feeling for Hinata. It’s a fact. The manga, the last, the hiden, movie guidebook, and kishi’s interview supports this idea.