Kestrel/NS-Advocate: "Naruto's current POV is, He still loves Sakura. That hasn't changed since part one. Even though Hinata confessed to him. And I don't believe that he would drop that any time soon for some one he's seen as a little sister more than a lover."
Quite honestly, anything from NS that can be mentioned completely pales in comparison to 615. Oh look Sai's flashback! Does it matter? I mean, he loves Sakura, but does the things he did in 615 and 633's little flashback with Hinata instead? You say that's like a little sister rather than a lover? Maybe so, but then what is Sakura, with whom he's never done that?
I guess I'd take the whole idea that Naruto is still caught in an impossible love if it ever mattered for anything, but it really never does. They're something that doesn't give Naruto inspiration or strength and have actually been shown and stated to cause him pain and contrary to popular belief they didn't get much development at all; many comedy relief moments, yes. Everyone should be glad that he's moving away from such a negative thing and to something that has always been positive for him that has been seen to give him strength and inspiration and to save him from hard times.
And I say that 469 was closure for NS, because for the first time in part 2 Naruto's feelings for Sakura were give a brought up and in a serious light which only led to a fake confession, focused around Sasuke and team 7. A confession that didn't make Naruto the slightest bit happy and in which he's feelings from Sai's flashback weren't mentioned at all (and they haven't ever since). He could only question Sakura's motives, even going as far as calling it a joke and later saying that "he knew something didn't feel right". Certainly he doesn't think he's been doing the works with those date requests. Finally the whole charade ends with Naruto telling Sakura to stop lying to herself without the tiniest bit of lament that Sakura hadn't really fell in love with him. Not even later when learning about Sakura's true intentions does he ever show any regret and can only be shocked that Sakura would want to kill the man she loves.
Now he can be marure about it and accept Sakura's feelings for Sasuke without any problems. That was part of the purpose of the whole thing and the utter lack of NS since then (lol631) and in turn all the NH we've gotten is not coincidental.
WolfPrinceKiba says that he has to reject Sakura or make a statement about his feelings, but the thing is he never did confess his feelings to Sakura directly, so that's unnecessary. Considering nothing ever started between them, Sakura won't feel betrayed if Naruto simply got together with Hinata. This is not the case for Hinata because she a) confessed directly to him (and Naruto's aware of it) and b) got a gesture from Naruto that can easily be seen as romantic and the made her state, again, her wish to be with Naruto forever.
So there's no double standard at all.
