Some 90's anime kid & creative

Let me explain...although the plot in Bortuo: Two Blue Vortex is beyond strained and convoluted, the main thread is that the sentient god tree beings are on a quest to understand their new found consciousness and a way to do that, is to devour people their originals had a strong connection to (I'm over simplifying).

In an interview, Kishimoto/Ikemoto stated these tree beings are the ego manifested from their originals, therefore any actions or things they say are going to be the truest we've ever seen them since they're not constrained by societal norms and/or self imposed boundaries or controls.

There's a couple of great posts from this user where they go into more detail as well as proposing that Hidari's true target is Naruto, not Sarada.

Cool, so in the latest chapter we get this gem:

After Jura announces the death of Mamushi, Hidari ponders on the nature of his death and asks why Jura brought him back, specifically, while he let others die. (A very Sasuke thing to say...Why are you so obsessed with me? But I digress).

Then we get this:

Okay, that's a bit intense no? Considering they don't know one another, there's no relationship, they're not friends...this is a very romantic/intimate thing to say to someone.

AND then the best part...

So...against such a loving declaration by Jura, how does Hidari respond? 'Weirdly, I'm okay with it'

No subtext, not reading between the lines, explicit text he's okay with a guy having intense feelings for him. Even Eida acts as the audience and comments on it, surprised that they're...flirting? Having such an intimate moment?

Now, I stated earlier these tree incarnations express the inner most self of the person they've taken over. So, what can we gather from this interaction about Sasuke? Although not news for SNS people (and most of the fandom at his point), if there was any doubt, Kishi has made it clear Hidari (aka Sasuke) is okay and accepts male affection towards him.

And for those sceptics at the back, he doubled down by showing us another parallel to the real Sasuke, so that even they can't argue this is just Hidari and has no connection to Sasuke. Yep, the random cat book:

I think most of the fandom knows Sasuke likes cats? He's been pictured many times in official art and, doesn't the Uchiha have some link to cats? I remember Sasuke visiting the cat people while putting together team Taka or something (memories are a little blurry here.)

So yeah, this was a great chapter and I am curious as to how is Kishi going to unravel Sasuke's true inner self through Hidari going forwards. Bear in mind that unlike the anime, in Manga canon, Naruto has no clue to Sasuke's true feelings for him, since the revelation only happened inside Sasuke's head and was never voiced out loud. So...how will Hidari react upon seeing Naruto? Will he have a reaction like Matsuri which we know Moegi (her real self) has a crush on Konohamaru? I now think this scene was laying out the groundwork for what could happen...

So...you got me interested Kishi. I can see where the threads are converging and although this is still a Shonen publication, being able to remove SNS from the main character cast could be a good device for Kishi to double down on his beautiful gay ninja story he's so desperate to tell and defend.