Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-27346030-20151230101117/@comment-21823483-20160109085007

TG1219 wrote: SSBBfan666 wrote: Eh, I didn't really care as I figured this was how it would end. What sucks though is that Neji was killed off just to make NaruHina canon. Though I am happy Naruto got his goal and became Hokage. Yeah I heard that rumor about Neji being killed just to make NaruHina canon, I stil don't about that if it's true or not, is it actually true. Yeah I'm happy that Naruto became the hokage after all the pain and hard ships he went through. Well, I remember reading on that little tidbit from a FF author who watched Kishimoto's latest interview before the 'Last' came out. Let me see if I can find it.

http://thelemonsage.deviantart.com/journal/My-views-on-the-Failure-that-is-Naruto-495991578

Here we go, granted this guy wrote a whole article on what he thinks of the series and Kishimoto, the little snippet where Neji was killed off for shipping sake is in there somewhere (either in the article itself or in the comments).

Also to add from the interview: To make Hinata look more like Naruto’s heroine, Neji had to die like a cupid (to which the interviewer caution, can we air this??)