SS had a lot of potential before. IMO the SS confession was the most heartfelt one. and the "thank you" part was one of the saddest and meaningful line for me. He didn't left with an apology but with a grateful word that means he did treasure them, even if he wants to cut ties with his friends. By saying thank you, he admits that he did not regret it at all. and that made me like that confession so much, even if you don't put any romantic tone on it, it is still beautiful.
I disagree with this. Naruto's 'Promise of a lifetime' was even more heartfelt than SS confession seeing how Naruto bottled up his emotions just for Sakura's sake. I don't see Sasuke involved in Sakura in a romantic way in Part 2 and neither in Part 1. If anything, it really was a 12-year old fangirl crush of Sakura on Sasuke. Sakura liked Sasuke because of his looks and he being the cool, alpha male and I think she wanted to 'change' him right? I think the concept of love is more of like 'You know your partner may not be the perfect guy, he/she may have some flaws and that he/she is not at all perfect. But inspite of all this you accept each other as they are and continue to like each other in some weird way, which is called love'. This is the case with NS. Both of them know that they are not perfect. But, still they have accepted each other as they are(I am assuming here that Sakura loves Naruto) and most of all they enjoy each other's company. Neither Naruto nor Sakura want to change something in other, but instead they like each other for 'them' and not 'what they want them to be'. Want an example? Naruto loved Sakura for her huge forehead back in part 1 when clearly she was teased by everyone for that and she wished she could change that, but Naruto thought of her as beautiful because of her large forehead and loved her for that. From Sakura's side now, she really loves Naruto for his goofy character; an example of which was given at the start of part 2 where she herself stated that It was hard to accept that Naruto had grown so much and that Naruto growing up kinda made her sad and she'd miss the childish Naruto. There are plenty of examples to elaborate this. Now, I don't mean to say SS is bad or SS is dark or criticize SS, it maybe good in its own way, but NS seriously has more meaning and more than that it has more depth than SS. Again, maybe I am being biased, but as I said earlier, you are right in your position and I in mine. Agree to disagree?