Sigh, oh Team Seven, what happened.
My Thoughts:
To be honest, I've always thought their reasons to bring back Sasuke were way to childish and simple. Back in Part 1, Sakura only wanted Sasuke back because him leaving the village was her first time experiencing a heartbreak, and Naruto wanted Sasuke back because he believed he had a bond with Sasuke stronger than a friendship. But....
It's always been shown that the Naruto/Sasuke dynamic has been 70:30. Naruto put in the most effort in their friendship, and Sasuke only responded back when they were on the verge of death from fighting. And when that wasn't happening, he was just being salty or competitive. But that's all their friendship really was. I like to think that Naruto really cherished Sasuke more than he should have because he was one of the first people to acknowledge his strength, and that meant a lot to him. But as for Sasuke, he never saw the relationship on that level, or maybe he did, he just never thought it was that important and it shouldn't have gotten in the way of him finding Itachi. Either way it's still not healthy.
And as for Sakura and Sasuke, I saw nothing there. I mean friendship-wise. Once again, he only showed emotion for her in-battle, but that shouldn't constitute everything. When they were together as a team, performing various tasks/missions, he barely ever acknowledged her existence. The only person doing the "acknowledging" was Sakura, because, well, she was immature and twisted her own reality.
The thing I like about Kakashi is that Kishimoto does a great job explaining his feelings, considering that 1. He's not a hard to understand character, and 2. He keeps his thoughts to himself most of the time. Because of this we very so often get panels explaining what Kakashi thinks about his students. So basically- He thought Sakura was brilliant, yet immature; He thought Naruto was embodied potential, just childish; he thought Sasuke was gifted, but twisted. Basically what everybody thought about the crew back in part 1.
Now in Part 2, the reasons of getting Sasuke back has blown out of proportions! I think the biggest flaw in this manga is that the characters don't know when to let go. Because in reality, friendships do fail. And if Sakura would have gotten over her feelings for Sasuke, and if Naruto had gotten stronger to defeat him once he knew he became a threat to the village, then it would have been more realistic. But instead Sakura ended up loving him even more (???) and Naruto daydreams of saving him, completely ignoring the fact that Sasuke has gone quite ballistic. Do the characters realize that people change over time? I doubt it. And that's the problem. None of them even interacted for 2 years! They have to "re-learn" each other all over again.
And that's my thoughts on the relationship of Team 7. The whole "because he was my friend" thing comes off as so forced to me. The had good times, but...
The Gold Saints
