And naruto is surrounded my his loved ones and the village 

And at first sasuke is unfazed because he knows that naruto cares about everyone in konoha

But then he notices himself. After all that’s happened and after everything sasuke has done in regards to their friendship, naruto still sees sasuke standing beside him, closest to him. In his thoughts and memories, naruto has sasuke right beside him, always. 

And that just really gets to sasuke. his expression, the way hes just so surprised and overwhelmed by naruto’s love and regretful for hurting naruto in the process of trying to do the right thing 

POV: ur watching the naruto sasuke reunion. it’s been three years. sasuke chooses the sluttiest shirt possible. leans the whole front half of his body against naruto in front of three random ppl for no reason. sasuke starts to pull out his blade, and naruto just. stands there. challenges him. almost as if to say “i know you. i know you won’t do it. you spared me that first time. i know it wasn’t on a whim.” and u can see, sasuke looks at naruto from the corner of his eye, unmoving, wondering if naruto will flinch or attack or make a move. sasuke kinda doesn’t want him to. they’re challenging each other. sasuke being like “are you afraid of me” and naruto saying “no i am not afraid of you. i know you still.” so sasuke swings the blade. sai comes in, almost immediately. but naruto doesn’t block sasuke’s sword. in fact, the only hand that naruto raises is his right fist, blocking sai’s tanto blade from touching sasuke at all. naruto protects sasuke. he isn’t afraid of sasuke. he knows he wouldn’t have done it.

AND THEN. you hear sasuke tell naruto, “that block you chose… was the right one.” naruto! had the choice! it was either block sasuke’s blade from stabbing him, or block sai’s blade from hitting sasuke. naruto chose to save sasuke over himself. but can you really blame him! no! this was him telling sasuke “i know you. i am still putting my life in your hands. please be careful. please prove me right.” and sasuke, now knowing naruto’s choice to protect him, says back “you were right. i put my life in your hands, too.”