Sorry if my ask bothering you. I saw analysis posts about Sasuke saving Naruto from the lava pit. What I gathered from what Naruto said was that a body would unconsciously move to save someone. There's a panel that shows Sasuke looking in Kakashi and Sakura's direction after Naruto tells him to save them. But would he even look in their direction if Naruto wasn't the cause? I think he cared a bit about Team 7 during the war, if not he shouldn't have told them not to let their guard down. Maybe he doesn't care about them... (?)
I love this ask. This "reading" is part of the reason why I think that heteronormativity, while a part of the picture, is not the entire reason why the fandom is so prone to headcanons that completely eschew context. The beauty of literature and art is that it helps rouse emotions in us, but the readings based on personal emotional attachments to certain characters at the complete and total expense of what the text is doing and saying gets ridiculous. Team 7 fans in particular formed strong emotional connections to a dadkashi and "found family" team 7 that doesnt actually exist in the text, so much so that despite repeated proof and text where Sasuke makes it clear that his only attachment is Naruto, it is unfathomable for them to believe what's being presented on a silver platter. And I would be more generous in my response to these types of asks if it wasn't for the fact that the people who push this weren't a part of the same demographic using "love" for Team 7 as a Trojan horse to downplay SNS' bond. Now, let me get to the ask.
For starters, whether "my body moved on it's own" was literal was always ambiguous. When Naruto first asks Sasuke why he protected and shielded him from Haku's needles (Chapter 27), Sasuke internally responds, "You ask me why?" while simultaneously thinking of a "collage" of valuable Naruto-centered memories. It is only after Naruto repeats the same question again, that Sasuke openly and verbally responds "How should I know... my body moved on it's own."
The scene is clearly meant to indicate that there are definite reasons underlying Sasuke's decision to move and protect Naruto, but whether Sasuke was consciously aware and "My body moved on it's own" was metaphorical, or whether Sasuke had a vague grasp on how to describe his feelings for Naruto and was literal is up for debate. But let's operate under the premise that what Sasuke stated was literal. I'll lay out my arguments in bullet points for clarity.
• Just as word order matters and shapes meaning ("I threw the ball to Carrie" is not the same sentence as "Carrie threw the ball to me") so too does panel order, which is a part of the visual language of manga. Sasuke looking at Sakura & Kakashi, being placed only after Naruto beckoned him to do so, was done precisely because Kishimoto wanted to establish a causal relationship between the two moments, thusly highlighting that Sakura & Kakashi wasn't his juice (see interview screenshot below). There was no instinctive drive to protect them during the war arc at all (which is why once Sakura & Kakashi was out of sight, they were out of mind) and it manifested most embarrassingly through his interactions with Sakura, though I'll get to that later.
• Deception is a motif that features prominently in Kishimoto's work. Between the usage of genjutsu and shadow clones, Kishimoto is constantly challenging the reader to look underneath the underneath and see the hidden meaning. However, this doesn't mean that Kishimoto leaves his readers to flail about in confusion, after all, Kishimoto's target demographic is middle school boys. So, in order to strike a balance between the unreliability of the Naruto world, and the obligation of the manga to be clear enough for the target shonen demographic to understand, Kishimoto reveals his character's true and innermost feelings through their inner world. Even when characters lie, even when the truth is elusive, it will eventually be revealed and reconciled with by the characters because, and I must reiterate, the target demographic is middle schoolers.
Now, after Sasuke's body moves on its own to protect Naruto, Sasuke gives a pragmatic response about how him and Naruto couldn't afford to be killed be they'd needed to seal Kaguya and prevent the extermination of humankind. Naruto states that he understands Sasuke's point of view, but he indicates that his "body" moved on it's own to attempt to help Kakashi and Sakura, in the same way that Sasuke moved on his own to help Naruto during the Land of Waves. And it is at this moment that we are given a peak into Sasuke's inner world. Kishimoto could have rendered Sasuke indifferent and promptly had him disregard what Naruto said, but instead, he utilized Sasuke's inner world to make it clear that he distinctly couldn't forget his body moving on its own to save Naruto, because the entire subtext of the scene was meant to convey that regardless of the utilarian justifications Sasuke gave to his motives, he'd simply protected Naruto because he cared. This is all in line with the fact that Sasuke's instinctive protection of Naruto had began even before Naruto and Sasuke had been given seal, but more on that later. The main point is that two people are glaringly missing from those inner world reflections of Sasuke that are meant to shine a light on what's hidden in his heart: Sakura and Kakashi.
And this is a no go if the point of this scene was meant to communicate that Sasuke still had attachments to Sakura & Kakashi. In fact we have multiple examples of Kishimoto using character's inner worlds to depict care. When Sasuke gave his precious comrades speech, Naruto was inspired and thought about all of the people that he considered precious and held near and dear, even people that weren't immediately involved in the Gaara fight, like Iruka and Kakashi. When Sakura cried her heart out amidst her first love confession to Sasuke and stated that she would personally feel alone if she lost Sasuke, Kishimoto depicted Sasuke thinking of Team 7 despite the fact that Naruto wasn't invoked by Sakura in that moment. There are more examples of this, but I specifically picked these moments because they feauture situations in which Kishimoto makes characters (Naruto and Sasuke) think about the importance of people who weren't immediately involved in the context under which they were thought about (Naruto thinking about Kakashi/Iruka even though they weren't involved in the Gaara fight and Sasuke thinking about Naruto even though Sakura was specifically talking about her independent feelings for Sasuke). These scenes highlight that even when characters aren't salient, as long as they are relevant to a character's inner state, Kishimoto won't hesitate to include them. And this is done in order to acheive the clarity required by Kishimoto's target demographic, he makes his writing as informative as is required for the particular situation.
Going back to the almost lava drop, there were absolutely no obstacles preventing Kishimoto from having Sasuke think about former ties he held with Sakura & Kakashi, just as he did with Naruto. Yet, they were completely absent from his reflections on his bond with Naruto and the "my body moved on it's own" theme. And unlike in the previous examples discussed above, Kakashi and Sakura were present and noticeable in the immediate context. So their absence from Sasuke's reflections are glaringly obvious and noticeable. To rephrase the screenshot below and make it apllicable to the situation, if Sasuke cared about Sakura and Kakashi, Kishimoto would have reflected it in Sasuke's inner world, even more so since both of them were present in the immediate context. By only having Sasuke single out Naruto, he implicates that only Sasuke's bond was Naruto was pertinent to the situation + held relevance.
• Next, I want to circle back to something I mentioned earlier: "Even when characters lie, even when the truth is elusive, it will eventually be revealed and reconciled with by the characters because, and I must reiterate, the target demographic is middle schoolers." If the narrative had been building towards the fact that Sasuke secretly loved and cared for Sakura & Kakashi and that he was lying, the truth would have eventually been cathartically revealed. There are many examples of this, but we have a perfect example of this depicted with Obito. Obito spent ages pretending he'd abandoned his connections + severed himself from his own humanity to become a Sage like figure that would lead humanity to the next stage.
Yet, earlier during the war arc, when Obito was gradually losing his humanity (represented by the cuts across the faces of his former comrades faces), he fought against the 10 tails precisely because he didn't want to throw away his past. And in addition to Kishimoto showing the reader the contradictions in Obito's desires, he explicitly tells us this through Naruto's words.
But there is never any recontextualization of Sasuke's actions and general indifference towards Kakashi and Sakura. It is played completely straight in the narrative and Sasuke consequently apologizes for his actions to both after he reconciled with Naruto. What exactly do people think Sasuke would be apologizing for if everything had been peachy keen and he was secretly protecting them? Sasuke is never confronted for "lying" about his lack of care for Sakura & Kakashi. There's no grand reveal that he'd been lying about his feelings. Furthermore, Sakura's observations of Sasuke's lack of care are never addressed. Sakura's repeated distress is never addressed or confronted in the way Kishimoto confronts other cases of characters mistaken perceptions. In fact, her concerns are validated because it was true that Sasuke didn't care for Team 7. And it culminated in Sakura herself acknowledging the fact that she couldn't do anything to reach Sasuke right before VOTE 2.
• The aforementioned is made even more glaringly obvious when you look at the narrative and see that Sasuke's feelings were recontextualized for someone who actually was significant to him, Naruto. Sasuke maintained during his first reunion with Naruto that'd he'd cut his ties. But Sasuke's actions painted a completely different picture that suggested the contrary. And during the war arc, this evidence ramps up. Orochimaru was even used as a vessel to point out Sasuke's care. Sasuke went out of his way to protect Naruto. And when Sasuke thought about why he protected Naruto (even before he and Naruto received seals from the sage of six paths), Sasuke specifically singled out Naruto as someone that he needed to cut.
In fact, this happens in the chapter before Obito thinks about the comrades that's he still couldn't erode his attachments to and the visual framing of Obito thinking about his attachments is similar to the visual framing that Kishimoto uses to depict Sasuke thinking about Naruto. And you'll notice that this is yet another example of the fact that when Kishimoto wants to emphasize that a character has attachments to multiple people, he'll do so. But he was clearly deliberate in depicting Naruto and Naruto alone as the tether to Sasuke's humanity, while for Obito, his entire team represented his ties to his humanity (with Rin being singled out). But this is a bit besides the point I wanted to make right now. The point is that even with all of these clear indications that Sasuke hadn't severed his ties, Kishimoto made Sasuke explicitly acknowledge that Naruto's status as Sasuke's most intimate friend never changed. Again, Kishimoto explicitly made Sasuke acknowledge that the feelings he expressed for Naruto in VOTE 1 never changed throughout the entirety of part 2 thereby addressing the fact that Sasuke had been dishonest in claiming he'd severed his ties with Naruto during their first reunion. So the fact that Kishimoto never had Sasuke acknowledge that he'd been harboring any attachments to Sakura & Kakashi is intentional. If Kishimoto wanted to, he would.
• Additionally, Sasuke's lack of care for Sakura & Kakashi is consistent with his behavior throughout the war arc. Sasuke telling people to stay on guard so they can defeat the enemy is not proof of care. And it fails to hold up when we see how Sasuke interacts with Naruto + displays actual care (some examples already discussed above) and how Kishimoto deliberately highlighted Sasuke's lack of instinctive care for Sakura & Kakashi. For example, as shown in Chapter 644 above, when the 10 tails was about to blow up the shinobi alliance, Sasuke didn't even spare a solitary thought about Sakura & Kakashi. Not even a lamentation about not being able to protect them or a hint of relief that Naruto was able to help save them. When Sakura got stabbed by Madara, Sasuke was willing to slice through Sakura. And Sakura herself is dismayed by Sasuke's utter lack of regard. And it's embarrassingly on the nose that right after Sakura has this realization, Kishimoto deliberately makes Sasuke call out to Naruto. It's the perfect example of the lack of growth/development in their "dynamic." And I think the lava dropping incident speaks for itself. And Sasuke's actions are backed up by his inner world (he specifically singles out Naruto as someone he needs to cut in Chapter 639) as well as his statements, which are framed as honest revelations.
Like how many times does it need to be repeated that from Sasuke's point of view Naruto was the only one who would make him feel not alone? That Naruto was the only one he had a connection with? This fact is even reinforced after Sakura and Kakashi make it clear that they still cared about Sasuke, so it's not like there were obstacles in Sasuke and knowledging their love.
• And finally, the thing that makes this debate the most ridiculous is that Naruto didn't actually need Sasuke's help. I know I've buried the lede a bit here, but Naruto literally levitated just chapters before the incident occurred. And more importantly, Sasuke was there to witness it. And yet he still chose to save Naruto with no hesistation and didn't even attempt to circle back to try and help Sakura or Kakashi who were considerably more vulnerable.
With all of this laid out, I'm very glad I got this ask. I've been wanting to address this for a while because it's a good look into the logic that Team 7/SS fans operated under while the manga was ongoing and inevitably led to their dissapointment when the "foreshadowing" they clung on to as proof fell through. Here's a screenshot of a NH fan making fun of them for this when the manga was ongoing.
Their entire fandom experience has consisted of making up headcanons about Team 7/SS with the excuse that Kishimoto's writing was subtle and complex/something only Japanese fans could understand (don't let them see the comments Japanese fans made about SS on 2ch after Gaiden dropped) and pretending Sasuke was in denial and hiding his feelings the entire time. Headcanons that don't align in any way shape of form with what's presented in the text. And they do all of this while being homophobic and attacking real people for pointing out the things that they they hate about the text and canon. I mean, look at the "feminist" fandom just last month attacking a real woman (and see the likes) over Sakura, a character who the author literally called detestable.
This is why I can never take complaints about SNS fans' interpretative readings seriously. Despite SNS not being allowed to end up together, the basis of the ship is wholly entrenched in their excellent canon dynamic, while other fandoms have to twist and turn canon + rely of fillers/headcanons/novels/databooks/Thai magazines/etc. for content.
