Sheesh. I think I might need to beseech a mod to sticky my thread:
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As it pretty much breaks down the relationship of Naruto and Hinata.
Whether or not that will lead to a romantic pairing is, obviously, not able to be determined. It would seem a somewhat natural extension of the current relationship, however.
I think the idea of using parallels with previous generations is a fundamentally flawed idea in the Naruto Universe. The series has other running themes - one of which being the idea that the following generation surpasses the prior. While there are parallels drawn between some characters and teams (such as the Sannin and Team 7; Minato-Kushina, Naruto-whoeverthehell) - there are numerous other parallels drawn in the series (Naruto and the Sage of Six Paths) - few of which can be used to paint a clear picture that one can use to reliably predict much of anything.
Further - if the point of the newest generation is to surpasse the former generation - doing things exactly the same and having exactly the same relationships is a piss-poor way to go about it.
All taken together - the fact that Hinata is, 'officially' - a side-character; yet appears in the series -specifically- to interact with Naruto's character during critical moments of development... makes the very strong case that her character is bound to the theme of Yin and Yang with Naruto - and was designed that way from the beginning.
Those are roles that, from an author's standpoint, should fall to the main heroine of the series (supposedly Sakura). Which begs another question... why have a main character that has zero history? Sakura is, quite literally, a nobody in the series. We have more backstory on Gaara and Bee than we have on Sakura. We have as much back-story on Sakura as we have on Tenten, for the sake of comparison.
Yet a whole two chapters was dedicated to Hinata.
"But the Hyuuga..."
Have meant... what, to the series, so far?
Which is something that should be kept in mind. We know a -huge- amount about the Hyuuga family; specifically Hinata's family. Compare that to what we know about a clan like the Aburame, Akimichi, Yamanaka, or the others with similarly notable family techniques and abilities.
There is one other clan that has gotten that kind of attention. The one currently responsible for 90% of the story's plot.
So, when Hinata becomes incredibly important to Naruto - and the Hyuuga to the overall plot line - I am just going to go ahead and cut off the "Kishi just trolled the pairing fodder" argument. It was planned from the beginning.
Though I'm not sure Kishi expected to be remodeling the continent with each attack of the Juubi, at the time... but you know... Naruto learns the Rasengan 'one thing lead to another' and Sasuke is transplanting Itachi's eyes into himself. Just like Germany invaded Poland... 'one thing lead to another' ... and the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Japan.
