Yeah, WHAT IS THE BASIS of their relationship? Naruto grew up envying Sasuke's so called talent and popularity, and Sasuke thought Naruto was an annoying pest. they saw the hidden pain in each other but never bothered to even start a conversation about it because again Sasuke shows to give no %&*@s and Naruto was too dead set on beating the stoic bad boy and make himself look better to even try bond with each other. This festers until they graduate the academy then get assigned to team 7, then it becomes a full on rival dynamic and again you don't see anything remotely resembling this hidden brotherhood and best friend bond between them.
Then the "you're my best friend!!" card gets played during the Sasuke retrieval arc, and you would actually look back on it and think to yourself, "well that came out of left field". And after that Naruto turns into an entity with more "Sasuke in his brain" than all of Sasuke's fan girls put together, and becomes this borderline yandere that repeats to himself over and over, "I must bring my sexy boyfriend back, he was brainwashed. I must bring my sexy boyfriend back, he was brainwashed." when it was clear and slapped in his face multiple times Sasuke MADE HIS CHOICE.
They are not friends, not only because of how unbelievable and "told not shown" it is, but Naruto has this delusional idea in his head that Sasuke did not know what he was getting himself into and that he was dragged kicking and screaming at Orochimaru's door and therefore he has to rescue Sasuke. That does not speak to me as a friendship that is a "control freak tendency". Naruto THINKING he knows Sasuke best and what Sasuke's best interests are and when Sasuke tells Naruto to leave him alone Naruto won't have any of it, because Naruto knows Sasuke BEST!!! AND KNOWS WHAT'S BEST FOR HIM!!!!!!! What a healthy friendship that is 
And When Naruto said He'll die together with Sasuke at the end of the Kage Summit arc? That was just loaded with, "IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU, NO ONE CAN!!!!!!!!!" implications now doesn't it? 
The main problem with the Naruto and Sasuke rivalry is how rushed everything is with regards to both.
While Naruto and Sasuke had some respect towards one another, there isn't much to back them up as friends. Naruto basically went out of his way to make Sasuke his rival from the start when they were younger, they never really hung out or knew each other. The pacing of Part 1 also didn't allow much time for growth. Everyone was just slapped on a team and then went their separate ways more or less.
On the other hand, they didn't really have good reasons to be rivals either for that matter. While Sasuke was better than Naruto throughout their childhood, Sasuke never actively got in Naruto's face about it and Naruto never really did anything other than annoy Sasuke at times. By Part 2, their actual need to compete with one another is pretty much gone, and it isn't really a clash of ideals either.
Say what you will about Sasuke's arc, Kishimoto at least TRIED to show Sasuke develop an opinion on the ninja world, whereas Naruto just blindly went with it.
Uuuh, NOPE, Naruto had an opinion of the ninja world. He HATED it and wanted to change it by stopping global conflict, and in fact he was prophesied to do so. No, who you are talking about, that just blindly continued the ninja system is Nardo Scumzamaki that was made to replace Naruto, and who's sole purpose and achievement is to marry and impregnate Hinata Hyuga-hime-ojou-megami-sama, as all hinatatheists felt "as it should be" 
Edited by Phantom_999, 15 July 2018 - 02:07 AM.
