Naruto's Confusion
Even though the Last was a rather il-concieved movie(don’t get me started on that), what Kishimoto said in his interview did apply for Naruto even before the Last. His character song even refered to it. He was confused about the way he felt about about Hinata. Despite what the antis say about Naruhina’s fandom for not considering Naruto’s feelings at all, a lot of the fandom noticed Naruto’s some what different behavour towards Hinata in part 2. As shown here
He became more aware of Hinata’s feeling, and mangaged to cheer her up, knowing that she was worried about not being good enough
Or here where the signs of his different behaviour are obvious af. He was both shocked and surprised that Hinata could light him up again. And he thanked her for being at his side.
They also noticed that Naruto’s romantic feelings for Sakura had started to reduce and he had started to regard her as more of a sister, as show below, he understood when she was lying to him about her feelings, just because he knew her too well. He wasn’t angry about her telling him that she loved him, only to be lying like a cruel joke of some kind, because at that point of the story he didn’t care about whether or not Sakura liked him romantically, he was angry about her lying to her self, forcing herself to love him romantically even though she was still in love with Sasuke. He didn’t want anyone to force them selves into anything detrimental to their actual feelings, especially not someone as dear to him as Sakura. His crush on her had disappeared by then. (In short Narusaku friendship is bae asf, because they are so sibling like with eachother)
But what the majority of the fandom didn’t notice was Naruto’s apparent confusion about his own feelings about Hinata. Where he had made up his mind about Sakura, he was still confused about Hinata. Many antis like to say that he totally forgot about Hinata’s confession. But that confession is actually…. when Naruto became very confused about the way he felt about her. But let’s look at the very first time his attitude towards her had changed. Yup cute isn’t it?
And the first time he got recognised by the village? He immediately thought about Hinata. She had become one of his valuable friends.
You can see that his initial face is of confusion and disbelief, and he told her to go back because she couldn’t possibly win
And here you can see his face sinking into even more shock and disbelief as to what she was saying. He was really having a hard time processing the things that were going on.
And here he looks totally stunned. Like the things that are happenning can’t be real
And this is where his confusion started, he didn’t know if he loved her back just yet. But he knew that he cared about her more than a friend.
And his feelings for her continued to develope through the war as something more mature. He had an understanding of her and she had an understanding of him. They were sort of…. more than friends at that point. So by that time you must be thinking, he should’ve… no he must’ve tried to return her feelings. But one other thing confused him even more. And this is one of the main arguements NS use. And this is….
Is Kushina telling Naruto to find someone like her, and in regards to personality the shy Hinata was nothing like the hot headed Kushina. And Naruto knew this very well. But he had already made up his mind about Sakura. And he still had feelings for Hinata despite her not being like Kushina. How do we know this?
How do we know that Naruto had feelings for Hinata at this point? Well read these two pages carefully
‘But mom told me to find a girl as great as she is… That’s uhh…’
That’s hestitation Naruto. what about it?
'I haven’t done everything she told me but…!’
See the way this line is added right after the girl friend bit? As I’ve said before he’s talking about someone who is not like Kushina. And who else was his choice of girlfriend? Who else could he have considered for the role? Who?
Hinata of course.
So for those who say that Naruhina makes no sense because Naruto’s feelings weren’t even considered… you are wrong. In fact both Naruto’s and Hinata’s feelings were considered whole heartedly. And the reason he took so long to consider her first confession because he was under confusion about his own feelings.
They have a deep connection to each other throughout the manga if you look through it carefully.
It wasn’t just in the Last. It wasn’t just in the filler. It was in the entire CANON manga
