Wait what? They did it back in Part 1. And it wasn't considered as gay back then. These damn editors...
Well the context is different. They were both lying down side by side, and the hand hold would look more like lovers hand holding rather than that hand shake hand hold from part one. But agreed none the less.
My only problem is that for the billionth head bashing, logic grating time, Masashi Kishimoto LOVED shoving down the audience's throats the magical, harped on but almost non existent on panel brotherhood/friendship that Naruto and Sasuke have without even explaining or justifying it. He is just saying these two are best friends, and has done some pretty deformed brain gymnastics to justify WHY these two are best friends (destined reincarnations, previous generations went through the same thing, etc.) instead of you know, SHOWING that they are friends.
I've stated this before, you CAN'T have two individuals written off as best friends yet have their relationship defined by a rivalry bitterly fueled by a hidden inferiority complex towards the other, that is SELF CONTRADICTORY and not believable. This is made worse by the fact that Naruto was basically being a control freak over Sasuke's life, telling Sasuke that the latter doesn't doesn't know what he wants, Orochimaru is brainwashing him, and when that phase is over, Naruto goes all "I WILL DIE WITH YOU MY BEAUTIFUL SEXY SASUKE (ala Quasimodo and Esmeralda), because I can can't live without you being my (boy)friend to stroke my ego!!!!!!!!!!! Being Hokage doesn't matter if you're not in my life because I WUV YOU!!!!!!!!!!! As a brother(?)/lover!!!!!!!!!!!! SCREW EVERYONE ELSE THAT MATTERS TO ME!!!!!!!!!!"
But all overblown, satirical sarcasm aside, my point is the whole love-hate relationship between them is not justified or even believable because there was never any focus on it and they weren't even childhood friends that talked or communicated before they became the envy driven rivals that they were at the start of the series. Period. A GOOD example of best friends/rivals would be Asta and Yuno from Black Clover. At least that is a healthy relationship of being rivals to each other but also the friendship is real and believable because you see them together in their childhood.
Edited by Phantom_999, 10 August 2018 - 12:21 PM.