chatte-georgiana:

So, as I was saying in an earlier post, that little finger thing had a meaning we all didn’t knew about it, until now. Thanks to Miiami @ Heaven & Earth Fanclub on narutoforums, I found out something really interesting.

What Konohamaru

And Gamakichi’s

finger sign meant, we…

Development that Naruto DOESN’T see, therefore he doesn’t know about Sakura’s feelings

swirls-and-curls-kun:

The thing about Sakura is that most of the her development has happened at a time/place in which Naruto was unable to witness it:

1. The Chuunin Exams

Sakura is seated behind Naruto, therefore, he couldn’t see her begin to raise her hand. Not to mention this was an inner dialogue, so he wouldn’t have heard it anyway.

I wonder how he’d feel if he knew about that last statement she made. It’s clear she supports his dream since she knows how important it is to him.

2. Her initial impression of him at their reunion following the time-skip:

Even this early, Sakura is throwing looks of admiration and interest his way. But of course, he missed it and then he went and ruined it by kidding around with Konohamaru.

But even after just seeing each other after two years, Sakura begins to notice Naruto’s attractiveness and blushes quite a lot.

He’s soooo oblivious…

3. Going out of her way to learn about why the Akatsuki was after Naruto (Sasuke played a role in her reasoning too):

Naruto wouldn’t have known about this had she not told him.

She could have gotten into a lot of trouble for this, but she did it anyway.

4. Tenchi Bridge

Confrontation of the Kyuubi

Selflessly, she runs at Naruto in an attempt to bring him out of his self-destructive state, even offering to take on the Sasuke matter by herself.

Wanting to learn the Jutsu to bring Naruto out of the Kyuubi state:

No one told her she had to learn this jutstu, but she wanted to anyway. Such a powerful technique she wanted to be able to use only for Naruto’s sake.

Lamenting over her inability to help Naruto more:

Luckily Yamato was here. He not only shifted the entire mood of the moment (Sakura feeling useless), he also gave some insight about Sakura’s feelings:

Which we all still use to this day as a valuable, viable piece of evidence about this pairing.

The Tenchi Bridge part of the series was where Sakura’s feelings really came to the light. It also caused a lot of people to start shipping NaruSaku.

5. After seeing how hard Naruto pushes himself, Sakura realizes that she could stand to be a little nicer to him in casual situations:

She remembers this moment when Naruto surprised her with his dedication. We wouldn’t have seen this moment had it not been for her. flashback.

The memory caused her to want to show some kindness to him.

I don’t have much else to say about this moment but damn. This was really romantic. The fact that Sakura offered to feed Naruto his favorite food is quite a bell ringer for me.

6. Konoha Destruction Arc

Lemme start off by saying this arc was pretty big for Sakura (pairing-wise).

1. When people call Sakura useless for being able to do nothing but scream for Naruto:

Really? REALLY?

By that logic, everyone else in Konoha is useless. Hinata especially because she threw out her most powerful technique and was tossed aside like an empty soda can.

2. From a pairing standpoint:

Anyone competent can see this was a big moment, pairing-wise or development-wise on Sakura’s end. She screams for the man she believes can save them. They had been completely defeated in literally one fell swoop.

It also showed that she believes in Naruto’s abilities. She knew he had the power to save them and I don’t doubt her. She’s the person who has been next to him all this time so she was the perfect character to use in this way.

Pairing-wise, I can’t say more than I already have. Sakura now shows that she believes in Naruto. Plain and simple.

I might add that him arriving right after this cry was pure gold. It was even in color:

The Kyuubi shakes her to the core:

Again she is confronted with the dark power lying inside Naruto.

It was much more epic in the anime though:

… Even though they made Hinata’s confession seem much more important than it actually was. A whole episode, her going for the rods, and flashback? Really?? That’s stepping over some lines… It was barely a few pages in the manga -_-

Also, Sakura couldn’t see what was happening:

Only the Hyuugas could see since they have the Byakugan.

That’s what some people seem to forget when they give everyone else in Konoha, Sakura in particular, hell for not jumping in.

I’m glad we didn’t see her tossed around… but she probably wouldn’t have run at Pain anyway. Knowing her, she would have destroyed the battlefield around them, thus freeing Naruto form the rods.

7. Another tender thanks:

(The hug was something he actually witnessed so I, unfortunately can’t count it)

He looks when he knows she’ll be upset, but not when she’ll be thanking him. Damn you, Naruto! Notice her affections! They’re so obvious! (he is kinda dense though…)

8. Trying to cheer Naruto up leads her to questioning why she wanted to do so in the first place:

Another internal dialogue on Sakura’s end.

But this one proves she doesn’t even realize how much she cares about Naruto because she needs to question herself.

Unrelated note:

This panel showed me that Kishi likes to point out Sakura’s attractiveness:

Again:

9. Sakura’s turning point: Sai telling her Naruto loves her:

This is when it is brought to Sakura’s attention that she causes Naruto such pain. Especially the promise between her and him.

I call it a turning point because from this point on, Sakura starts thinking about Naruto’s well being, about his safety, his feelings, and how important decisions will affect him.

She begins thinking about him over herself, and over Sasuke.

Look how torn up she is about the whole situation:

Holy crap. I mean, I don’t think Kishi showed her this upset when Sasuke left.

10. After her confession, she shows how much it pained her to keep the truth about Sasuke from Naruto:

She is THINKING ABOUT HIM AND HIS FEELINGS. Is that not clear to some people??

11. Another sincere thanks to Naruto followed by an internal dialogue after his speech to Sasuke:

I made this point before, but Sakura has gone from wanting Sasuke back for her own sake to wanting him back just so Team Seven can be happy together again.

I’d like to note that this follows this statement from Naruto:

Side note.

Kishi used Sakura in the Team Seven reunion as an element of changing the scene/introducing Kakashi and Naruto, but he also snuck in the biggest MinaKushi parallel:

Well played, Kishimoto. Well played.

12. One of the smallest, but sweetest looks Sakura gives Naruto:

Unfortunately, he’s asleep so he doesn’t catch her giving him such a warm look.

13. War speech:

Instead of selfishly thinking of her own desires, Sakura puts Naruto first.

She wants to relieve his burdens.

I love this speech because it says she loves him without needing to literally spell it out.

I also love that her speech came last of all the rookies. I’m fully expecting some Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Sai, and Kakashi (maybe Yamato? if anyone remembers he’s still alive lol) interaction. Since the secondary characters have pretty much been concluded, I hope Kishi focuses on Team Seven and Taka.

There’s a lot surrounding those two groups that still needs resolving. Primarily Naruto and Sakura’s feelings being addressed and Sasuke and Karin reuniting and discussing his murder attempt.

Sakura has a shit ton of development involving Naruto, some that actually occurs at Naruto’s side. I hate to involve Hinata in this more than I already have, but her developments don’t compare to this. She has a few pages in a few chapters, but Sakura’s is a fraction of the story, falling short only behind Naruto and Sasuke.

She’s far too important to forget about to me. And her feelings about Naruto are the same.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that him missing the aforementioned moments is a bad sign. I feel the opposite really.

We already know Naruto loves Sakura. That ain’t changing. Kishi has stressed Sakura’s feelings for Naruto through development, unbeknownst to him, over the course of this story. When Naruto tells her how he feels and she reciprocates, this is just a bit of the proof which says she didn’t “suddenly” fall for him. That’s been happening for forever!

I lol at Naruto because the reason for him to admit his feelings has been standing next to him this whole time, punching him senseless, lecturing him, resembling his mother like none other, laughing at/with him, making fun of him, thinking about his well being, healing him, and so so much more this whole time.

I don’t blame him for missing all these things though. You can’t catch all hidden things, especially if you’re not expecting them to be there (hence, hidden). I definitely wouldn’t expect him, for as dense as he can be, to notice them lol

fox-kurama:

I just wanted to point out something that I’ve always noticed in Naruto, but I never see it being talked about. I think I have once a while back.

First off, we all know Naruto lives in the Leaf. It is his home. He wouldn’t rather live anywhere else. The Leaf means as much to him as his friends. He’ll do anything to protect it, and one day wants to be the Hokage. Which explains how much the Leaf means to him.

Skipping ahead. I noticed, whenever Naruto has his mind really focused on something, whenever it’s a big moment for Naruto, (other characters as well) everything around him disappears and goes white besides the one thing he is focusing on. Not only that, but leaves are flowing around.

In most parts I notice this, are NaruSaku moments. Examples below.

• The hug.

In this moment, everything around Naruto disappeared besides Sakura and the leaves.

Here is the manga scene.

As you can see, it was in the manga as well. So it is something to pay attention to.

• Another scene would be when Sai brings up Naruto’s feelings, and the promise.

Only around Sakura and Naruto do the leaves show up, and everything around them disappears. As if all his focus was only on Sakura in this moment. (Sorry, I couldn’t find the gif for this, but this was pointed out in the anime as well).

Here is another moment.

• During Naruto’s promise of a lifetime.

There are more moments of this in the manga/anime. But I’ve seen it the most when it’s involving Naruto and Sakura.

I would also like to bring up some screens I took from the new game.

Note: There could be semi spoilers for some people.

And what else flows in the wind like leaves? Cherry Blossoms, also called sakura

Like I said, moments somewhat like these I have also noticed with other characters. In this case two.

Minato and Kushina.

When Kushina is looking at Minato, she is only focusing on him, thus the atmosphere around them disappears.

Anyways, I’m sure the whole cherry blossoms deal doesn’t really count. But my point of this post was to point out

The leaves dance around them

(Personal note: None of the gifs are made by me. If I happened to take your gif, I’m sorry. I couldn’t find anything out and I just wanted to point these things out.)