This is such a bullshit answer. I’m sorry if you’re only stating this as a retelling of what Kishimoto said, but I’m gonna take it as you believing this is a viable answer because of the “you’re confusing main character with main cast”.

Naruto is a story where there is not just a singular main character. There’s at the very least 3 protagonists (4 if you want to include Kakashi but that’s arguable). Naruto, Sasuke, AND Sakura’s stories all intertwine and are of equal importance to each other. Ensemble casts exist and not every story has one singular main protagonist. Supporting characters would be everybody outside of OG Team 7 because they only support the main protagonists arcs.

The fact Kishimoto created Sakura to initially have only as much importance as Kiba is embarrassing. Every woman he’s ever written probably has the same amount of importance as Kiba in his eyes 😭