I have read to several fans that Naruto became interested in Hinata since the Hyuga clan problem and they compare the "promise" he makes to Hinata to beat Neji with Naruto's promise to sakura to bring Sasuke and then when Naruto wins the fight, he looks for Hinata in the public. In my opinion that's a very silly argument because after all that Naruto didn't think of Hinata romantically, actually he didn't even think of her as his friend or something. What do you think?
Those are inexistent parallels really.
The only true parallel that you can draw there is that Naruto fought for the underdogs. For the 'losers'.
Which included Lee as well.
But I love how people leave Lee outside of the equation when he was literally drawn as a parallel there.
Bu t was a personal fight from Naruto for the losers - Hinata & Lee. Both of them were losers in the context of fighting Neji. Because neither of them were gifted 'geniuses' like Neji was.
So Naruto did it for both. Because as shown, Neji was cocky to both Hinata and Lee, due to his abilities.
That's why Naruto did it here.
Of course, there was a little bit more focus on Hinata because she was part of the Hyuga clan, which ties deeply into Neji's own story.
And because Neji trampled on her so bad, that Naruto felt it personal. Because the way Neji looked over Lee and Hinata, so did others used to do with him.
Look over him like their existence is greater than theirs.
This had other deeper seated issues in here, not romantic ones.
Because at the end of the day, Naruto didn't change anything in the Hyuga.
They didn't even address that plot because the story ended-up retconning its initial stance. Which was solvable in a way if properly addressed, but they didn't even do that.
However, the promise of a lifetime was the driving force behind the plot.
It's what's at the basis of Naruto chasing Sasuke, of Naruto wanting to become Hokage and of Naruto's own inability of confessing to Sakura.
The POAL stretches on multiple other angles of the story, while this one is only used as a driving force for the loser theme.
