No y'all don't UNDERSTAND. Naruto is ostracised by everyone and grows up thinking he's unwanted. He overcompensates for these feelings of abandonment by declaring he'll become hokage--become the leader and take the most admired position in the village. So imagine the shock when Sasuke SACRIFICES his LIFE for Naruto when they go against Haku. This lonely boy, equally abandoned, understood Naruto better than ANYBODY. He loved him so much he gave up his LIFE!! for him. Naruto carries the weight of this action for the rest of the story. No one else knows Sasuke's kindness better than the guy for whom he gave up his life for. And importantly, throughout the rest of the story, when EVERYONE gives up on Sasuke, Naruto is the ONLY one who doesn't. He believes they are friends, they are bound. When he discovers Sasuke's pathos, he empathizes with him. And when push comes to shove, he says he'll accept the entirety of Sasuke's hatred. Take his pain because while the world ignores it and villainizes Sasuke, Naruto is the only person who looks at Sasuke's ugliness straight in the face and understands it as an expression of grief and anger. He says he'll DIE for him. This is the life Sasuke saved, and Naruto, GIVING UP even his dream of being Hokage, for the acceptance from everyone who rejected him, says he'll use that life and he'll die for Sasuke, if that is what brings Sasuke peace. Because Sasuke's happiness is greater to Naruto than the anger and confusion he felt for Sasuke for leaving them. If Sasuke can feel even a little less pain, Naruto will do anything for him. And then Kishimoto DARED to end this love story for the centuries in het slop.

lowk i need a fanfiction where sasuke is secretly obsessed with Naruto as much as Naruto is pathetically obsessed with Sasuke

all i'm saying is that if the only lens you can enjoy a story or a character dynamic through is romance and shipping, then well. your media analysis skills are just kinda shit actually. and i'm not sorry for saying it. you're missing the point of the story in question and removing the things that make it unique by shoving everything into boxes. not everything goes in the square hole.

omg that’s what happened THAT’S WHAT IT WAS

Sasuke “okay but what are we” Uchiha