Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-4271790-20141106113847/@comment-25364614-20141111103041

(I'm wondering if any comment I make will actually mean anything 180 posts in...)

First of all NaruHina, SasuSaku and ShikaTema at least partially make sense story wise. Whether its acceptable or not is a different issue but the fact that so many people say that all of the pairings were forced or had no development (InoSai,ChoujiKarui) is just indicative of the obvious: that Kishimoto didn't write romance into the story (by his own admission). At least, any romance that is in there is pretty shallow.

Its clear that by the end of the story (Ch. 699) despite the fact that it can be interpreted that Naruto and Hinata became closer and the relationship between Sakura and Sasuke was repaired, none of these things can be taken as absolute proof that they were going to end up as a pairing in the end; because the romance wasn't there despite how the girls felt about their respective men. Whatever development that led to the romances between the various pairings obviously occurred within the timeskip, with Naruto and Hinata's one being depicted in the upcoming movie. And this development has the potential to be at odds with what is portrayed in the manga due to the fact that the manga only covers a very short period of time in the character's lives (even though its 15 years to us).

Then there's the fact that the epilogue chapter is merely a snapshot. Aside from pairings, children and various observations about the kage, etc, we can't really glean too much information about what everyone is actually doing that isn't taken at face value. In particular Sakura: is she now a stay at home mom doing the cleaning like a housewife should or is she Konoha's Chief Medical Ninja at the general hospital currently taking time off? And what is Sasuke actually doing? Is he still on his journey? Does he come back home a few days at a time? And how is his relationship with Sakura currently? We'll never know.