There are very few people in Naruto who don't get bashed for one reason or another in terms of shipping. In general, most of this sheer amount of Die for Our Ship arises from Naruto being one of the longest Shonen series in recent history, and there being a lot of filler (in the anime) and a fair amount of Narm in the storytelling as a result. Hence the annoying traits of the characters are drawn out and emphasized along with their good points. As Character Development tends to occur over a looong time frame with many points being hammered in hard over time, this results in relationship development being delayed to coincide with character growth (It also helps that Sasuke is gone from the village and Naruto unwilling to end up with Sakura until he brings Sasuke back, preventing two of the