So you are telling me that when she was fighting with Neji when he cheer for her mean nothing? When she was about to be taken away and she saids "did I proof myself well" and he decides to do a blood oat in her honor is nothing and when she was going to be attack by the Zetsu clones and he saves her, she starts to feel upset because she feels like she isn't strong enough because she got save again by him and he goes and tells her "don't worry you are strong is all in your eyes" making her believe in herself again, is not something he did directly for her? then explained to me than what is doing something directly then, because i think you and I view things differently.
If I remember, I corrected that part because the words they use is 'like' instead of love and to me liking someone is not as strong as loving.However, I still believe he has a thing for her, but so far he has always stated it to be a crush and him liking her, but compare to Sakura and Hinata, who both have use the words love to express their feelings. Actually, when he started backing off was when he promise to bring him back, later in the hospital doing the same by telling her he would get strong and bring him home. When he returns in Shippuden he tries again to pursue her, but all that time he still knows she's in love with Sasuke those tries to win her heart again.Those the flashback with Sai appears since he notices Naruto trying, however is true that he is not like the immature Naruto in part 1, but he was shown already asking her out in both anime and manga which is something he use to do in part 1, that tells us he's trying to see if he can win her heart. Naruto and everyone have always known that Sakura loves Sasuke, those the reason why he and everyone else didn't believe her when she confess to him. After this everyone started thinking "maybe she finally started falling for Naruto" but then chapter 540 ( I think it was)happen, when the Iwa ninja comes and confesses to her and she said she's in love with someone else, we are reassure again that she's still in love with Sasuke even though she knows he's not such good guy as the Iwa ninja assume the person that she loves is. Also after the fake confession many people started assuming that Naruto started getting over Sakura, I for ones didn't see this and always continue to say to people that he still likes her, but I will tell you one thing. When chapter 631 happen I started having dough's because of the way he answer a simple question that he would always go around and say "yes, she is".