Honestly, how long would Sakura have lasted if she were to fight Neji? She'd be on the floor unconscious after the first two lines of verbal abuse, even before Naruto had said Gambare...
And Hinata *is* cuter than Sakura. She even looks more grown up if you watch her on the first chapters and compare with the last ones. She is cute *and* hot. Sakura is the dekorin-san, after all. Kono dekopachi...heh, heh
Still, my main thing with Hinata is that she acknowledges Naruto. Check out Sakura going over and over again, saying that *Sasuke* saved her from Shukaku...Sheesh! Even Saske admitted that he just sat there wetting his pants. Sakura is just plain blind. Saske treats her like dirt and she keeps going after him. And people say that *Hinata* is the one whithout self-esteem... please!
All in all, Naruto said that he liked Hinata, which is waaay better than anything that Saske ever said to Sakura, still she keep going after him.
Sakura needs to get a life and instead of pinning for that worthless nuke-nin, she should do some training for a change. The kind Hinata does, where the canvas get all bloody and all. If would be most unfair if she gets to play any important role. What *real* effort did she do to improve herself, so far?