However, there would be other problems.
Summary:
- A lot of Naruto fans hate Sakura.
- The main issue seems to be the fake confession scene, and it wouldn’t have been a problem if Sakura actually loved Naruto.
- This would have created a lot of other issues.
During the very early episodes of Naruto, it was easy to assume that the main love interest for Naruto himself was Sakura. After all, Naruto liked her, and although she liked Sasuke, Sasuke himself wasn’t interested in romance at all.
Later on, the romantic focus shifted to Hinata instead. Sakura went from a main character to a supporting role. Further into the series, Sakura was being disliked more and more by the fans.
While there are good reasons to dislike her, she is still overrated — and part of that is because she simply didn’t love Naruto.
[БЛИЦ]
Sakura Is Actually a Good Character
In fact, Sakura is actually a pretty complex character. She isn’t like clan ninja — she doesn’t have any abilities or clan techniques that she was taught since an early age.
She’s a completely normal person who has to fight along with (and against) literal monsters, and the power creep in the series certainly doesn’t make it any easier for her.
As such, she obviously makes some wrong decisions, but she definitely cares about her teammates — even though for Naruto, it’s obviously not in a romantic way. However, fans are upset about one particular scene.
Why Fans Wanted Sakura to Love Naruto
Sakura’s fake confession to Naruto was a huge topic of controversy. That said, it was pretty obvious that she didn’t actually love him, and that Naruto wouldn’t take it at face value.
Sakura hated herself for supposed suffering she inflicted on Naruto by being weak, and wanted Naruto to hate her as well. Yes, that’s stupid, but you can’t really expect everyone to make fully rational decisions.
This scene, of course, would never have happened if Sakura loved Naruto in the first place. That’s something a certain subsection of fans actually wanted, but that would have created additional problems.
The Issues
Yes, if Sakura loved Naruto, she wouldn’t have behaved rudely towards him — which was the case for most of the first part. That way, fans would hate her a lot less, but that would also make the series a lot different in nature.
This, essentially, would have made the series a love triangle, with two girls who are major (albeit not main) characters liking Naruto. The series is already infamous for shipping wars, and pretty much all fans agree Kishimoto isn’t good at writing romance.
This would have made the situation even worse, and also made Sakura less complex — liking Naruto would remove a lot of her complexity, as she’d be defined by simply liking the main character instead.