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Okay, I'm not saying that these are horrible couples etc, but I don't think either NaruSaku, SasuSaku nor SasuNaru will ever be canon.

I have this written in livejournal, but recently some idiot bashers have made me want to throw this in public. I'm going to regret this sometime later...

BE ******** GLAD I'M NOT ARGUEING MY GAASAKU VIEWS, BITCHES!

(I need a life.)

-Introduction-
The thing is I really dislike teammate pairings, why? Because of the seesaw effect, what is the seesaw effect? Let me explain it to you in a story
Team #99 is consisted of Boy #1, Boy #2 and Girl. They were walking in a playground when Boy #2 spotted a seesaw and wanted to get on it so Boy1 and Boy2 get on two ends of the seesaw. The boys ask Girl to come over too because she's part of the team. Because Girl is friends with both of the team, she decides to sit in the middle:


Now, Team #99 is all happy playing on their perfectly balanced seesaw when suddenly Girl decides she has a crush on Boy1. After all, he's cool, he's handsome, way more attractive than Boy2 who can get really annoying. She's going to want to get closer to Boy1 on the seesaw.

What happens? The seesaw became unbalanced, and poor Boy2 was left all alone.
Now substitute Team #99 with either Team7, Team Gai or Team Kurenai and you will catch my drift and what I'm saying.

I came to realize this effect back a while ago when I was first starting to get into NARUTO but already had all my OTPs listed. One in particular was InoCho, it was hinted at so much (not bluntly though), that I really came to love that pairing, of course, me being an opposites-attract fanatic also was a factor. However, when I got into the internet and I thought I was well enough into the series to do so so I wouldn't have to worry about spoilers, I realized that ShikaIno was really popular. Why? It really puzzled me. By this time I knew that ShikaTema was one of the best hinted pairings in the series and InoCho wasn't far behind. I later came to realize that it was mostly because Chouji isn't skinny, and the more I dwelved into it I realized this seesaw pattern and why ShikaIno is just not fair, and not just because its a teammate pairing.
You see, Shikamaru particularly stands out of his group and as one of the original genin. He's a genius, he was the only one to become a Chuunin in the fake exams and he went to attack the Akatsuki without the aid of Chouji and Ino. In conclusion, the current situation of Team Asuma looks like this:


Okay, look what happens if ShikaIno became canon:

You might as well kill Chouji off!
In turn, if InoCho happened, there would be some balance added to the team.

The more I dwelved in this, the more I hated teammate pairings. Yes, I'll mention it again, but this time it applies to me: "Intolerance is the result of looking at oneself in the mirror". I hate most teammate pairings because of the only teammate pairing I like. I know it, but I have explained why with logic.

When I rant about SasuSaku and NaruSaku, keep the seesaw effect in mind.

Is this all? No. I'm pretty sure Kishimoto represented each character's immaturity in their childhood crushes: Lee's for Sakura, Ino's for Sasuke, etc. When they lose the crushes, they lose their immaturity from Part1.

-Against SasuSaku-
You see, Sakura's immaturity was especially shown on her relationship with Sasuke and Naruto. How the heck is she supposed to mature from that stage of insulting Naruto and favoring Sasuke if she's going to end up with Sasuke? She can't, it just doesn't make sense.

Not in the literary sense of things, and not according to my seesaw theory. Its not good symbolism. Sakura's character development really does revolve around getting over Sasuke. Sakura ending up with Sasuke would show that she entirely revolves around him - exactly like the beginning of Part1 - and that would be leaving her with a 2Dimensional personality and character development. Excuse me, the main girl totally revolving on getting a boyfriend? Sexism ahoy. neutral

Several things. For one, she accepted going out on a date with Naruto. Last time I checked, friends hung out, not dated. If she still liked Sasuke in a romantic way, she would have not accepted going out on a date with anyone, I know I wouldn't go out on a date with a guy if I was in love with someone else as it would just be leading them on. That's not all, there's also the scene where Sakura cut her hair. Remember why she grew it out? For Sasuke. And what? She cut it. In a way, she is cutting away her feelings for Sasuke. Sasuke kept Sakura immature.

Stronger possibly, but not mature. Let's look at the bit after Naruto's battle with Gaara.

Sakura to Sasuke (not exact quote): "Don't be modest! You're the one who saved me, Naruto couldn't have done that.

^That is NOT a mature statement. Even after cutting her hair, with Sasuke in the way Sakura is unable to mature. She's degrading Naruto in favor of Sasuke like she used to.
Proof? Sakura's character development did not start until after Sasuke left.

Oh, and by the way, only the exact same could be mentioned for Lee's feelings for Sakura. Sakura also made Lee stronger and all. Is LeeSaku considered canon or mainstream? No. And just to stick this in here, Kishimoto mentioned that both Lee and Sakura represented human weakness in Part1.

For one, never trust translators, especially when it comes to such a general word like 'love'. Why? Because its easy to argue that Sakura's "genuine" feelings for Sasuke was just caring for a teammate and having a crush at the same time. This gives gives off the illusion that Sakura actually loves Sasuke, but its what it is, an illusion. Genuine love as a friend and teammate, yes, genuine romantic love, no.

Its been hinted at over and over again that Sasuke's savior will be Naruto, and mainly Naruto and I will argue why later.
The thing is, Naruto was unconscious, Lee was unconscious. No one else could have done it, in fact, they ALL had to be unconscious for Sakura to have that important hair-cutting scene I mentioned before. Either way, Sasuke was needed because at the time Sakura had stronger feelings for him than Naruto and Lee and therefore provoked a stronger reaction.
Besides, the scene happened before Sasuke chose to go with Orochimaru, and I'll get back to that later.

I think that proves only even more that that crush is immature because ALL of us are willing to do the same for our first love/crush, I know I did. How many do we actually end up with him? Very, very few, why? Because we mature. In fact, if Sakura was mature by then, she wouldn't have fallen for Sasuke to begin with. If you read A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov you'll understand what I'm talking about.
And no, I'm not comparing two works of two different artists, I'm using it as an example, just like I learn in my IB Junior year English class. wink
(Mah skool is bedar dan urs lolol!1)

No it wasn't. A team7 moment? Yes. A one-sided SasuSaku moment? Yes. A SasuSaku moment? No. If Sakura would have stopped Sasuke, then it would, but she wasn't able to. And even so, when Sakura tried to reason with Sasuke, she used the team as a whole, and I already said that because of the seesaw effect, pairing two teammates together is not good teamwork. Don't try to tell me that it was because Naruto wasn't there. In fact, the reason why Naruto wasn't there was so that there would be more emphasis in the battle between Sasuke and Naruto. Also about Sasuke hesititating, he only did so to the words 'I love you', hell, it could have been anyone, but because of his loneliness he really reacted to that. Even so, if Sakura saying that did have meaning to him, they simply weren't enough.
Sasuke left. End of story.

Just because there's an emphatic moment between Sakura and Sasuke doesn't make a couple canon.

Naruto's reaction was exactly the same. However, the reason why Sai was shocked from Sakura's reaction was because she used the same 'smile to conceal intentions' tactic he uses, and that surprised him. The reason that scene was important was to show how bad Naruto felt on how he couldn't stop Sasuke from betraying the village and because of that couldn't defend him against Sai's insults.

The last time she had seen Sasuke was when she declared her supposed feelings for him, and now she saw Sasuke attempting to kill Naruto behind Orochimaru, hey, that's stressful you know. Anybody would have been shocked if only out of fear. Besides, even if you look for deeper meaning, it could only too easily mean that she gave up on him at that moment. We really don't know, so no jumping to conclusions.

Yes actually, its called maturing and character development.
Hell, NARUTO is all about friendship between the three teammates. Kishimoto isn't going to throw that away in exchange for romance. This isn't a shojo manga.

Lets look at that bit again, shall we? wink


Close, but no cigar. Sasuke and Naruto mentioned their goals, but Sakura only said her favorite thing was Sasuke and that she hated Naruto. She never mentioned it was her goal to be with Sasuke. Besides, I think it was mentioned later that Sakura's goal was to become a strong kunoichi, not end up with Sasuke.

I don't think Kishimoto would put any sort of interruption on such an important scene for no reason.

No, its not. Why? Well, because the so called love triangle that was shown to us when Sakura and Sasuke were introduced. Naruto having strong feelings for Sakura would be one side. Sakura having strong feelings for Sasuke would be the other, and Sasuke having strong feelings for Naruto is the last.

I am not necessarily argueing that Sasuke had romantic interest in Naruto, but that he had stronger feelings for Naruto than Sakura which prevented him from crushing back on Sakura as she was always insulting Naruto. Naruto degraded Sasuke and favored Sakura. Sakura degraded Naruto and favored Sasuke. Sasuke degraded Sakura and favored Naruto.
Proof:
Sasuke: "Don't you envy him being alone, not having parents nag at you all the time... You make me sick!"
Sasuke: "You're just as bad as Naruto. Why waste your time flirting when you should be practicing? Even his skills are better than yours!

Obviously, Sasuke reacted to Sakura the same way Sakura reacted to Naruto.

Also:
Neji to Naruto (not exact quote): You have better eyes than mine. Only you can save Sasuke from darkness now."

Naruto, not Sakura. That means that Naruto has stronger power over Sasuke than Sakura does.

I'm not saying Sasuke has romantic feelings for Naruto, but I do believe that his feelings, friendship and brotherly, are much more stronger for Naruto than for Sakura which affected the Sasuke-Sakura relationship from becoming a romatic canon pairing.

Moving on...

-Against NaruSaku-
Warning: Yes, you guessed it, it is very pro-NaruHina.

I would agree. But remember my statement about how crushes wore off in Part 2? Lee's crush wore off, Ino's crush wore off, Sakura's crush wore off, Hinata's crush did not wear off. If Kishimoto would want to put NaruSaku instead, he would have taken Hinata's crush away instead of complicating things. He didn't. Maybe he has planned doing something with them? Its sure been hinted at.

No, he doesn't. I won't argue on Sakura loving Naruto, but if that's the case, then its not requited. Naruto knew and accepted that Sakura did not like him back in Part1 right before the the Sasuke Retrieval ARK:

Naruto: Sakura-chan likes Sasuke very much!
Naruto: Sakura-chan, you really like Sasuke huh? -smile-

Remember when Sasuke was hospitalized and when he woke up Sakura jumped to embrace him leaving Naruto pensive? I'm pretty sure that it was more or less that moment when Naruto gave up his feelings on Sakura before the time jump which is what? 2 or 3 years? That's a long time. I'm pretty sure he'd give up his feelings by then.

Sometimes part of learning is accepting that you lost and moving on. Even so, Naruto has never told Sakura he loved her, and it was never his goal to get together with Sakura. Naruto's goals are to be acknowledged, to become Hokage and to bring Sasuke back. Besides, why would he need to work to be acknowledged by Sakura when he is already acknowledged by Hinata? Let's look at Hinata's theme: "Believe in yourself." How would that theme fit if Naruto ends up never acknowledging Hinata and rejects her for Sakura, someone who rejected him throughout most of Part1? That's not fair.
Oh, and not to forget, Naruto's nindo is "never take back my words", not giving up. He has never mentioned he would get Sakura to love him in Part1, so I don't see what the problem is.

Again, I'll refer to the manga;

No, and he never did romantically. Why did Naruto like Sakura to begin with? Because she was like him, looking for acknolwedgement. That's really it. And guess what? They already have it.
And by the way, Hinata's theme is exactly the same. domokun heart

Have they told eachother they love eachother? No. Have they kissed? No. I know it is a shonen manga but there are always something that will indicate a pairing is canon. Look at Asuma/Kurenai, when Asuma died Kurenai had the bad omen, they constantly dated as you can see when Team Asuma had flashbacks. Asuma/Kurenai was canon. NaruSaku is not, if it were I wouldn't be argueing this.

Prizes? Sexism alert! wahmbulance rofl
Look people, it wouldn't be the first time the main character would get paired up with a side-character and it certainly wouldn't be the last.
Women aren't prizes to be won. neutral

You guys jumped too fast to conclusions. Yamato for one did not finish the statement and Sakura did not answer it. Hell, he could have meant "In reality you are monstruously strong" or "In reality you're in love with someone else". We really don't know.
Oh, and talking about Ch297, guess who was on the cover of that chapter?


You guessed it, Hinata Hyuuga.
No, it wasn't a coincidence and I'll go more into it later.
(This is probably Kishimoto's way of saying "You guessed wrong! blaugh " rofl )

Not necessarily. Sakura already acknowledges Naruto, she already knows about Kyuubi, she knows him probably better than most people. If the above is the case, then why hasn't NaruSaku happened yet? They already know eachother well, you'd think they'd be totally over on eachother by now but they're not. Makes you think, doesn't it?

I'm no hypocrite. I think Kishimoto put the date as his own way of showing us that Sakura forgot her feelings for Sasuke without having to put actual important romance in it and adding to us that ShikaTema hint. Hell, Naruto hadn't even said the word 'date' yet so I don't think it counts in this category. Naruto only teases Sakura, trying to cheer themselves up and doing it for 'old time's sake' and Naruto hasn't mentioned any romantic intentions to Sakura since then. As I mentioned before, Naruto no longer has a crush on Sakura. Oh, and by the way, according to what's translated, Kishimoto mentioned that the date was not romance. No, I am not a hypocrite, love is a general word, romance is not.

True. But why did the animators necessarily put NaruHina in the fillers? Why'd they do that if they knew it could end some other way ending up with loads of dissapointed fans on their asses? It would be ridiculous and unprofessional. Its absolutely normal for manga authors to tell animators how they're going to end the manga or at least what they have planned. I don't think the animators are stupid enough to put NaruHina in if they knew NaruSaku would or could happen.

One; It has NEVER been mentioned that the Hyuuga's intermarry and I believe that's just NejiHina fanon speculation. Two; Its been foreshadowed that the Hyuugas will have a family reform and three; I don't think they'd mind an exception to that rule with the future Hokage. wink
Angst just makes it all better. heart

If anyone were to ask me this, I'd applaud them for being a good debater, but it won't work on me. Hinata's source for inspiration? Naruto, Hinata's reason to grow? Naruto. Unlike Sakura's crush for Sasuke keeping her immature, Hinata's crush for Naruto did the opposite, made her mature, made her stronger, how would that fit if Hinata ends up giving up? Yes, Hinata can become acknowledged by her clan and become strong, but it wouldn't resolve her feelings for Naruto. I already proved how Sakura's feelings for Sasuke had resolved, how Naruto's feelings for Sakura had resolved, but Hinata's - maybe being a minor character - feelings have yet to be resolved. Hell, its even be foreshadowed that Hinata will eventually confess her feelings for Naruto, let's look at the second databook:

Oh, and let's look at this picture Kishimoto himself drew, this is not fanart. This being the rough draft of the cover of the so on the familiar chapter of 297:

"She sets out for the sun, the golden light her beacon"
This golden light is only too obviously Naruto.
Oh, and just to stick it in here, Hinata was the one that saw Naruto leave Konoha, not Sakura.

More on anti-NaruSaku:
- There's no reason for Naruto and Sakura to be lovers as they're perfectly fine as friends. Sakura already has a good portion of the spotlight, especially in a shonen manga. However, everytime Hinata gets the spotlight it has something to do with Naruto. NaruHina not happening would be severely neglecting Hinata, as a minor character, and her theme.
- The Seesaw effect.
- If Kishimoto wanted NaruSaku he would have made Hinata's feelings fade, but he didn't.
- If Kishimoto wanted NaruSaku, he would have probably made it canon by now, they're all alone without Sasuke, so why hasn't it happened?
-The NARUTO manga is all about friendship. Kishimoto is not going to throw that away to pave way for a romantic relationship between Team7 and/or Sai. He's going to want to either leave them single or pair them up outside of the team. More reference to the seesaw effect.
- Naruto already gave up on Sakura at the end of Part1. It would be pointless to bring back his feelings; it wouldn't help the plot, and it certainly wouldn't help his character development.
-Sakura knows about Hinata's feelings for Naruto, it wouldn't be very nice on her part to still chase after him.
-Continuing from the last point, both Kiba and Shino know very well of Hinata's feelings for Naruto and support her. If NaruHina didn't happen, it would not only bring down Hinata, but also all of Team 8/Kurenai. Hell, it seems like all of Team 8's purpose revolves around Hinata's feelings for Naruto. I could use how Shino wasn't included in the Sasuke Retrieval ARK as evidence for it.

EDIT: Before you scream SasuNaru fangirl at me, I hate that pairing too. wink
EDIT2: This is an arguement supported with facts like anything you write in school. It is not a fact and I'm not saying that SasuSaku nor NaruSaku will never happen in the future, I'm argueing against SasuSaku and NaruSaku being canon now. I'm not claiming all I say is a fact, its an opinion where I use a theory. Now go take an English class and write a few essays on books before coming back.
-kicked out of the AMC-

Its true, but for now there's really little. I'm just starting to get annoyed how they claim both the couples are canon. rolleyes

That's what I'm best at. wink
@Lian: Exactly.
@Lili: I haven't been in the AMC for a while, and I have a habit of doing that. -changes title and pms moderator-
You'd be surprised; there are things even I hadn't seen yet until directly pointed out to me. He's not particularly sneaky, he's a normal author.

Unfortunately. crying

I don't think that its bad to like those pairings, what irks me is when people start to argue that pairings are canon and that other pairings have no chance of happening and that's why I got pissed off.