Is there a canon explanation as to why Naruto still likes Sakura?


What characteristic of Sakura makes Naruto like her? She was very useless in
the original Naruto, and she is in love with Sasuke. Not to mention, she did
not have anything traumatic in her childhood, unlike Hinata, who actually
liked Naruto from the beginning.

Also Naruto nearly unleashed the nine tails for Hinata, but still said Sakura
was sort of his girlfriend.

Did I miss something here? What did Sakura do to get Naruto to like her? I am
only looking for canon answers.




Naruto loves and desires Sakura because she is an average ninja girl. Naruto
wants all the leaf village to look up to him and select him as Hokage one day
for one reason--- so that he will be accepted and respected by the leaf
village. Everyone must accept the Hokage, and most will respect the Hokage.

Therefore, a goal/milestone along that path of becoming Hokage is to get the
most average ninja in his grade to "believe in him". If he can convince the
average leaf ninja to accept him, he will have achieved his life long goal of
being accepted by the leaf village, rather than ostracised. This is the
original drive behind his crush on Sakura and his desire for her to love him.

Afterward, there is all the mutual experiences and mutual bonding from being
in the same teams together through so much stress and trying times.




I don't think there can be a canon answer to this because it is not something
shown/talked about in either the manga or anime. However, when you were young
what did your crushes do to get you to have a crush on them? I know in my
case, almost nothing. They just had to be attractive. My guess that is true
for Naruto as well.

