Why I Dislike NaruSaku

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Okay, this is going to be a very controversial rant, but I just felt like getting this off my chest, since there are still people out there who insist that their ship was "the real endgame" and that the NaruHina/SasuSaku was just "a scam to make more money".  So if you don't like people talking against your ship, feel free to push that back button.  Also, please try to understand that this is NOT a personal attack on the entire NaruSaku fandom (I might call out the more toxic fans, though, but not by name).  This is my personal opinion on why I dislike the NaruSaku pairing, and why I think Kishimoto didn't make it canon.

Oh, and don't think I'm using this as an excuse to bash Sakura.  I LOVE Sakura, she's one of my favorite characters!  This is an anti-NaruSaku rant, not an anti-Sakura rant, just so we're clear.

With the new Boruto anime out right now, it's seems that a lot of people still don't understand why the pairings turned out the way they did in chapter 700.  Though, I kind of understand where they're coming from.  Some people still believe that because Sakura shared more panel time with Naruto than Hinata did, it means that NaruSaku is "the true endgame".  Well, I personally disagree, but it's not because I ship NaruHina (I do ship NaruHina, but that's not what this rant is about).  There are much more reasons why I think NaruSaku doesn't work romantically, and here are my top 5 reasons:

1. It makes Naruto look like a self-entitled brat:  Now, before you start pointing fingers, I'm not saying that having a crush on Sakura makes Naruto "selfish".  It's perfectly fine to have a crush on someone that doesn't love you back.

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However, the things that Naruto would say or do to try and win Sakura's affections in Part 1 were....definitely not the wisest.

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Image by dark-kunoichi92

Knowing that Sakura had a crush on Sasuke, you'd think that Naruto would be happy for her, since he "loves her so much", but no...

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And this little fit of jealousy leads Naruto to do this:

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Trying to steal a kiss from Sakura, by tricking her into thinking he was Sasuke...

I don't know about you, but I find that a bit more creepy than romantic.  Oh, but that's not all.  After Naruto's little plan nearly backfired...

Image by dark-kunoichi92
He decides to go for Plan B, which is "make Sakura think Sasuke's a jerk so that she'll fall in love with me!"  Basically, he wanted to make "the cute girl he really liked" miserable, so that she would spend time with him instead.  That seemed very selfish on Naruto's part.  Luckily, that plan didn't work, because the real Sasuke escaped before he could even meet up with Sakura in his "Sasuke disguise" again.

Cut forward to the end of the "Haku/Zabuza Arc"...

Image by dark-kunoichi92

Sakura gets rejected by Sasuke (again), and Naruto takes advantage of this rejection as an opportunity to ask Sakura out himself, to which she replies, "No!"  

Not too long after this scene, we see this sort of thing happen again:

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Note the disgusted and annoyed look on Sakura's face in the panel on the bottom right.  Naruto doesn't even check if Sakura's okay!

And then this happens:

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Sakura was obviously feeling down because of Sasuke's words, but instead of cheering her up, Naruto decides to show her off by calling her his "girlfriend" in front of Konohamaru and his friends.

Of course, Sakura wasn't going to stand for that...

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One more thing I'd like to point out before moving on...

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When Naruto tries that whole "girlfriend" thing again in front of Minato, Sakura's STILL pissed off by that!  So of course she reacts the same.

And don't think I didn't notice Minato's Kushina comment in the bottom left panel, because I'll get back to that later.


2. Most of NaruSaku's moments were caused by some form of guilt tripping:  You know, it's funny how some NaruSaku stans like to accuse NaruHina of being caused by guilt tripping (particularly in The Last), because that's actually what most of NaruSaku's moments were like in the manga.

Don't believe me?

Image by dark-kunoichi92
Image by dark-kunoichi92
Image by dark-kunoichi92

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Note the "WTF?!" look on Sakura's face when Sasuke offered his bento to Naruto. 

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And then Sakura did the same, because of Sasuke (again, I'm not bashing Sakura, I'm just stating what's being shown on panel here).

Then later, after Naruto's battle with Gaara...

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Sasuke tells her that Naruto was the one who saved them, but she doesn't believe him at first. 


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The fact that Sasuke had to tell her this TWICE is very telling, but the guilt tripping doesn't end there...


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Image by dark-kunoichi92
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Image by dark-kunoichi92

And let's not forget about THIS:

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Image by dark-kunoichi92

Which led her to lie about her own feelings to Naruto's face:

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Image by dark-kunoichi92

And we all know how well THAT turned out...

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3. What Naruto had for Sakura wasn't really love:  Hillary is Triggered Hillary is Triggered Hillary is Triggered Hillary is Triggered Hillary is Triggered Hillary is Triggered


Yeah, I know that's a little hard to take in, but it's true.  I mean, if Naruto actually "loved" Sakura, do you think he would actually say something like this? 

621ec437-98b4-4527-b9a5-58085b274370 by dark-kunoichi92

And if Naruto had "loved" Sakura so much, wouldn't you think he'd be the first to notice her depression right here?

7de7738a-96af-4ea3-bf18-cf86bd7d5816 by dark-kunoichi92

A9727829-9a14-4d7a-8936-fb1a84d8661f by dark-kunoichi92

And if Naruto was SO in love with Sakura, wouldn't you think he'd be the first to notice and worry about her injuries right here...

813e35e1-228f-4162-8a5a-582e7c6e82cc by dark-kunoichi92

...instead of worrying about her hair?!

718a1552-d847-44cf-9b07-56e1d3464441 by dark-kunoichi92

Also, if Naruto had "loved" Sakura so much, wouldn't you think he'd be more humble and believe in her strength after her match with Ino in the Chunin exams?

5ad6a4b5-4859-49dd-ae3f-efdf1a857f8b by dark-kunoichi92

"BUT NARUTO EVENTUALLY CAME TO BELIEVE IN SAKURA'S STRENGTH IN PART 2!"

Oh yeah?  Well, if that were the case, then why does Naruto look he's about to shit his pants in this scene while Sasuke's the one smiling?...

45c3e63c-dfb0-4a37-b341-7fe814343dfd by dark-kunoichi92

Also, wouldn't you think Naruto would be a bit more concerned for Sakura after THIS, if he was so in love with her?...

Adc1a42f-6b23-4e69-9778-ea5e13f7ebda by dark-kunoichi92   35e7c6ec-6dce-4bd9-add5-809d7a72e412 by dark-kunoichi92


By the way, there's a very interesting contrast between that and his reaction after he went six-tails...


C770fddc-1e20-4499-8e00-354976c73bc1 by dark-kunoichi92

Notice how Naruto only refers to Hinata by name, while referring to everyone else as "the rest of the villagers" in this scene, combined with the fact that he shed tears of relief when he learned that he didn't kill her...

Ca808d1e-7b2c-4a85-9df3-f8b961f17710 by dark-kunoichi92

And in case you thought I was being biased there, here's a few panels from chapter 490 to remind you of that. ;)


Ed9fa81c-1814-4ec5-bed9-4fdc1e2c0c6a by dark-kunoichi92 Efc66e44-f04c-4acc-a4a7-e95d4de7b3ec by dark-kunoichi92


And if you STILL thought Naruto was in love with Sakura after that, here's what he was thinking about after hearing her "confession":

438e9a4a-9bfc-4b37-9bcf-7b03b8d6e761 by dark-kunoichi92

He remembers that Sakura loves Sasuke, and knows that this sudden change of mind isn't like Sakura at all!

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, NARUTO WAS DOING ALL OF THAT FOR SAKURA!  IT WAS THE PROMISE OF A LIFETIME!!!"

Well, Naruto disagrees...

08217180-a8e6-4335-8181-e2d26e49e59e by dark-kunoichi92
9f5c4cae-d089-42fb-879a-ea4ad5346060 by dark-kunoichi92

"BUT HE STILL WENT AFTER SAKURA AND SAVED HER JUST WHEN SASUKE WAS ABOUT TO KILL HER!!!"


Yes, that's true.  Naruto DID eventually go after Sakura, and he DID save her.

Eae5c321-0933-4efa-aee8-e932b53df587 by dark-kunoichi92

Wanna know who else he saved, a couple arcs later?...

Ac48e207-c142-46c5-9ec1-77ac57968c89 by dark-kunoichi92


And what's more...


Bca99773-42c6-4649-be8d-9fa7a6db73ca by dark-kunoichi92

...is that he was thankful that Hinata stood up to Pain for him!  So he wasn't avoiding Hinata's confession (like so many NaruSaku fans claim).


"BUT NARUTO STILL CALLED SAKURA HIS GIRLFRIEND RIGHT IN FRONT OF MINATO, AND MINATO THOUGHT SHE WAS JUST LIKE KUSHINA!!!"

Yes, and that was followed by Sakura's look of disgust, and Sakura hitting him for lying to the Fourth Hokage (see Reason #1)!

39d722ea-2072-4210-ac93-fe6660f4dcc2 by dark-kunoichi92  5fe188cb-2814-4bd2-9c36-cd97499aa9e5 by dark-kunoichi92

Also, Minato's little comment about Sakura's temper reminding him of Kushina doesn't even matter, once you realize it was followed by this moment...

141cf201-0ab7-41f4-9efd-7d66d31e1c21 by dark-kunoichi92

...and THIS moment.

2f8f0bab-9da4-483d-8971-135773f2cca3 by dark-kunoichi92

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about Sakura in the left panel there.    

There's a few more NaruHina moments from the manga I'd like to point out, but since this is a rant about NaruSaku, I'll hold off on that for now.  

Anyway, my point is there's a big difference between love and a crush, and what Naruto had for Sakura was only a crush, and crushes usually fade over time.  So I really hate it when some Naruto fans and critics say that Naruto was "in love with Sakura" or "chased after Sakura throughout the entire manga", because the manga panels above prove otherwise, which leads me to my next big gripe with the NaruSaku pairing...


4. The Nice Guy Entitlement:  Now, Nice Guy Entitlement is basically when a guy thinks a girl should love him or go out with him either because "he liked her first" or because "he was nice to her".  There's nothing wrong with being nice to your crush, but you should NEVER use that as an excuse to make your crush fall in love with you (this is my problem with ObiRin and Kataang as well).  It really irks me when some NaruSaku fans (not all) say that Sakura "lost all her character development" because she didn't get over Sasuke or move on to Naruto, because they make it seem like Sakura's feelings are invalid, or that she's a "bitch" for not falling in love with someone that isn't Sasuke.  Unfortunately, there's still some NaruHina fans who see Sakura that way too, so they're not entirely blameless either.

Speaking of which, I read this one comment from a NaruSaku fan while looking at a really cute KibaHina fanart (I'm a KibaHina shipper too, by the way), and while they weren't exactly being "rude" or "mean", what they said there still kind of bothered me: "I'm really glad Hinata's protecting Kiba instead of Naruto."

Umm...excuse me?!  I'm pretty sure Hinata's allowed to protect whoever she wants to, thank you!

There's a lot of misogynistic hypocrisy towards Hinata as well, unfortunately.  I even made a little rant about that not too long ago:

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5.) The way the western side of the NaruSaku fandom acted after the manga ended:  I know it's not fair to judge a ship by its fandom, and I know that everyone's entitled to ship whatever they want, but here's the thing:  I would've been far more forgiving to the western part of the NaruSaku fandom if it weren't for all the obnoxious and toxic things they've said or done since the manga ended! 

From editing and recoloring the final chapter of the manga...

6509fad5-6a6b-415b-8f2d-2f159e72bbf8 by dark-kunoichi92  

6bb46517-51c5-4d87-a8cc-9a3f774ab9b5 by dark-kunoichi92

To editing and recoloring the NaruHina kids, scenes from The Last, and promotional NaruHina material...

9582716a-2e76-4389-a588-486155b0bd2a by dark-kunoichi92  A6b315f2-94cf-4332-b8c6-3358ba73c10f by dark-kunoichi92 
Ed899006-dab7-4999-b4f6-e16b4b0ea41e by dark-kunoichi92 58cbf702-b678-45d2-a262-0295661eaf43 by dark-kunoichi92 8d433ec3-6719-4bc1-b518-d3eb8b0fe7bc by dark-kunoichi92
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To creating fake interviews about Junko Takeuchi (and nearly jeopardizing her career in the process)...

F174f673-41b9-4540-8453-14b5018e31dd by dark-kunoichi92

To spreading nasty rumors about Nana Mizuki (Hinata's Japanese voice actress)...

2ef1b6a9-070f-451b-9c71-3400a0068508 by dark-kunoichi92

To insulting Kishimoto's wife...

8dbe23ca-21a8-4afb-bccf-f22c2b568149 by dark-kunoichi92
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3a6e89f6-884b-465f-9502-000144bf6db5 by dark-kunoichi92

To insulting, threatening, AND harassing Kishimoto himself...

Eb7a9200-6875-4986-ba25-baeb5e885b36 by dark-kunoichi92
Ca4eecbd-466a-4ac4-aa9e-a8748b698d3e by dark-kunoichi92

24175a73-f06e-42c0-904a-246bdb1a881f by dark-kunoichi92
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Hell, one NaruSaku fan in particular actually posted Kishimoto's home address online, and used it to encourage others like him to dox the man!

95f2e5d8-3f09-470c-847b-856d7c0738e1 by dark-kunoichi92

64adc6b9-658d-454e-a415-a52fe1d40f56 by dark-kunoichi92

647bb724-b4b7-430c-8c01-372cfcb20ac0 by dark-kunoichi92
75068423-d139-425b-955c-60571cbabc2c by dark-kunoichi92
Ac93ec45-0f06-44c4-bee4-775558dfa889 by dark-kunoichi92

Did I mention that they also tried to sabotage the ratings for The Last on YahooJapan and IMDb, way before the camrips were available to watch online?!

B299122a-f57d-4c3b-9b02-5eeb1ce02005 by dark-kunoichi92
F520bc9e-328f-448c-a59e-0a69eae6ef3c by dark-kunoichi92

By the way, this "Chatte" person is the same person who said all of these things, before the manga even ended:

97cc121f-81c9-400f-b6e8-b4702d0b1a9c by dark-kunoichi92
33760055-dd41-40b5-9c4d-12aee0172f54 by dark-kunoichi92
74c3504a-7671-4169-ac3a-cfcb03f834ff by dark-kunoichi92
06c5202c-8e99-4d93-9b93-c1cbd68773a3 by dark-kunoichi92

In fact, here's some more examples of stuff that some NaruSaku (and SasuNaru) fans thought were going to happen in The Last, before finally realizing that it was indeed a NaruHina movie:

0623991f-7a62-442b-8c7c-3a3c4bab8649 by dark-kunoichi92 4f6a83b5-31bb-4605-bb03-476845fdc7f3 by dark-kunoichi92

2ad17ea8-2a11-47c7-af72-1681b322a8c3 by dark-kunoichi92 9d74d6cd-67d4-400d-bb1b-5c1c3054915e by dark-kunoichi92
E3f5bf56-d692-4017-a8b7-760dc32d732f by dark-kunoichi92 A673f274-9f57-4348-a518-e9a66a4ce49c by dark-kunoichi92
33d931dd-7210-4cca-a842-0acdf5f746a8 by dark-kunoichi92 55cd02c5-91c6-4f75-a14a-00519f7f678e by dark-kunoichi92
C3d00015-65a2-48f9-b5a1-b66dc1d7b2ec by dark-kunoichi92
5d413a5b-2738-41fc-96d8-de79790ad068 by dark-kunoichi92
8fbb2c38-49ef-489b-937a-df367a7bc33b by dark-kunoichi92
9f1a9762-db3d-4f27-8bee-c4f3f2cf63f5 by dark-kunoichi92

By the way, I used to be a regular user on IMDb, and here's what I noticed, once those hopes were dashed:

www.imdb.com/user/ur57013557/

www.imdb.com/user/ur56989803/

www.imdb.com/user/ur25702447/

www.imdb.com/user/ur58860325/

www.imdb.com/user/ur55903017/

www.imdb.com/user/ur15476492/

www.imdb.com/user/ur56974470/

www.imdb.com/user/ur62958134/


These "IMDb users" have created fake accounts just so they could rate and review that one particular movie and nothing else (despite some of their profiles saying they've been members for 5-13 years, or so)!

Speaking of which, here's what you should know about those "ratings" on YahooJapan: 

B9a38103-8404-4060-b647-467c5f00cfad by dark-kunoichi92
Da138902-ca28-4681-98aa-e640d8e08866 by dark-kunoichi92
39e12c25-b142-4668-aa2e-bb4f1a18b7e2 by dark-kunoichi92

The funniest thing about this, is that SasuSaku and NaruHina fans (from what I remember) have NEVER tried anything like this when Road to Ninja came out.  Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it?  


Although, despite giving the movie a low score on YahooJapan, these NaruSaku fans forgot that it still has decent ratings on other Japanese websites...

D11f8c3f-59f4-459a-9ee4-39f5387cb7e6 by dark-kunoichi92   77243d1e-001c-416d-aa10-384db42dd3df by dark-kunoichi92

Plus, remember that "Ban Naruto in the United States" petition that everyone claimed to have been made by a NaruHina fan?  Well, there's a funny story about that too...

1e56ebab-c9bc-4844-b3c4-8ed569c08cdb by dark-kunoichi92

First, let's talk about the words circled in red.  If a NaruHina fan made this petition with the full intent of tricking people into thinking it was made by a NaruSaku fan, why would that "NaruHina fan" publicly admit that on a social media site?  Wouldn't you think that "NaruHina fan" would want to keep it a secret?  Also...

42155430-2fdf-48b3-b9d5-7be6e9a59d31 by dark-kunoichi92  2123ecb8-bb4a-4e3b-b37c-d9fe367fa303 by dark-kunoichi92

The tag at the bottom of this post is obviously blurred out and has "anti-narusaku" scribbled over top of it.  In fact, here's what the original tag said, before it got blurred out:

01c6c6b1-d0cc-4ffe-b76e-54225195557a by dark-kunoichi92

ALSO...

48275030-9a65-4896-b931-6637063de863 by dark-kunoichi92

So, yeah, there's NO WAY that petition was made by a NaruHina fan.

AND it's gotten to a point where even Kishimoto's assistant told them to fuck right off, in English, TWICE!

E23c042d-0b38-4d3c-9790-49495683739e by dark-kunoichi92

Unfortunately, the salt doesn't end there.  Ever since the Boruto movie was announced, certain NaruSaku stans have deliberately tried to make Naruto seem like an abusive or neglectful parent and husband.  It's really funny how some of these NaruSaku fans claim to be for Women's Rights and always say things like, "Sasuke's too abusive to Sakura", yet they have NO problems wanting Naruto, or Sasuke, to be abusive to Hinata...

2f77d99a-fdea-4934-97f1-00c2747f1a71 by dark-kunoichi92

And they expect me to believe that they're same people who said THESE THINGS before the manga ended?...

A6634c3a-c89a-41fb-9333-85e7419bd6de by dark-kunoichi92 60d5eb40-5262-4c65-ba9d-81b256407366 by dark-kunoichi92

What's more disgusting is that one famous NaruSaku fan on Tumblr (I won't say his name, because he knows exactly who he is) claimed that Hinata was "sexually attracted" to Boruto because of that one scene in the movie where Boruto tries on Naruto's old jacket and headband and it reminds Hinata of Naruto when he was 12.

REALLY?!  You're so butthurt over your ship not being canon, that you'd go as far as making Hinata look like she wants to fuck her own kid???  YOU SICK, TWISTED, PERVERTED BASTARD!

Now, I know that not all NaruSaku fans act this way, and I know that some NaruSaku fans would never say or do anything like this, but once stuff like this is made public on the internet, it's really hard to forget.  I'm not trying to make any of you feel guilty for shipping NaruSaku.  If you do happen to ship NaruSaku, that's totally okay. I know that the NaruHina fandom isn't perfect either.  In fact, some people in the NaruHina fandom can be downright cruel!  I remember one NaruHina fan made a petition to send NaruSaku fans to a mental hospital (shortly after the "Ban Naruto" petition was made)!  There's also some NaruHina fans here on Deviantart that ship-police NaruSaku fans, just because NaruHina is canon, not to mention the ridiculous amount of Sakura hate art (not saying there isn't any Hinata hate art, because there is, but Sakura hate art exists too)!  Don't even get me started on the YouTube NaruHina fans...

Anyway, I'm well aware that there are a lot of nasty NaruHina fans out there too.  I just hate how some NaruSaku fans (not all of them) act like their fandom is completely blameless, when they've done a lot of nasty things too (especially in the past couple years following the manga's conclusion).
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Shockwave199's avatar

Out of all the people I could try respecting to, you ideas and thoughts here are not for the best. No one dares call NaruSaku a bad name and gets away with it.