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For all those people that don't understand sasu/naru or simply hate this pairing. (or both)

"The purpose and ideal behind sasunaru isn't about saying that they are inheretenly homosexual. While any fanbase will be hated/flamed upon, doing so solely due to the fact of it being, by very nature, homosexual, not heterosexual, is discrimination and lacks insight. And regardless if it is shounen anime or not, there is nothing wrong with being able to see their relationship to be romantic as it is still not a "crack" pairing, and has the depth of bond and the necessary interaction. Bonds are what attracts human beings to other humans platonic, romantic, familial or not. With that alone, it automatically isn't "crack" and creates a possible chance, even if its a slim, small one for an exceptional type of bond to occur, one that exceeds gender, age or race (romantic, platonic or not). There are certain bonds that are platonic and romantic at the same time if the source of the bond rose from friendship, not sex. That's what’s called real, unconditional love. And in any case, if gender was the only thing prohibiting their way, sasunaru would already pretty much BE considered canon by nearly everyone’s standards had one of them been a girl."




Below is also the ultimate epic narration of sasuke x naruto by Yume-chan taken from [link] to help explain to those who do not understand this pairing. This explains why this pairing exists, how it makes sense and most of all, shows the absolute depths of sasuke and naruto's relationship. Trust me, it is well worth the read.


I doubt that NaruSasu will ever be confirmed beyond all doubts -there will be no confessions of love and (probably) no more kisses. However, if none of the other main pairings become cannon in such a way by the end of the manga, I would consider Narusasu to be the closest to it. Unlike NaruSasu, NaruHina, SasuSaku and NaruSaku are all mostly one-sided. Naruto only pays attention to Hinata maybe twice in the manga, and not only is the tone of those encounters not romantic, there isn't even any implication that he feels a need for her company or affection. Similarly, there are only two times I can think of where Sasuke is shown thinking of Sakura without including Naruto, while the reverse occurs quite frequently. NaruSaku is a slightly different situation, because not only has Naruto said he has a crush on Sakura, Sakura has been shown admiring or worrying over Naruto several times since the beginning of Part 2. However, these things rarely coincide. In fact, almost every time Sakura shows affection for Naruto, Naruto ruins the mood by bringing up Sasuke. NaruSasu, on the other hand, has countless situations in which emotional tension was running high between both characters. It could be interpreted as the feelings of brothers, friends or rivals, but at least it's there, which is more than can be said for the other main pairings.

The main arguments against NaruSasu I've seen are these:
1. It's shounen, not shounen-ai. True, but if all we ever get are implications it won't matter. I've seen a lot of people who make this argument admit that they don't think Kishi is adverse to hinting at yaoi, my point would be that if that's also all we get for the other main pairings there's no reason to give them preference. That is, this is the reason that NaruSasu is unlikely to ever be shown explicitly, but it is not in itself manga evidence any more than the popularity of a pairing, and shouldn't be used as a lens through which to view the manga.

2. Naruto thinks of Sasuke as a brother. While he has said this, that doesn't necessarily make it true. Unless there's a panel where he's shown thinking this instead of saying it out loud, we can't even be sure if he believes it himself. Moreover, Naruto might not understand his own feelings. He's never had a brother, so he doesn't have any way to make a comparison. In stories where the character in question is actually supposed to have romantic feelings for someone of the same gender, they're often shown thinking this way. Falling in love with one's best friend is practically a tradition for gay or bisexual characters. Also, as far as the argument that Japanese culture is different from Western culture and that Naruto's behavior towards Sasuke would be considered normal in Japan: it's not that different at this point. Japan has soaked up Western traditions extremely rapidly. If you think of characters in other shounen manga who are supposed to act like friends/brothers/rivals, you can see that they rarely interact like Naruto and Sasuke. (The exception is Light/L, and that was mostly fanservice on the part of the anime.) I think the idea of Japanese culture celebrating male friendship and Japanese men traditionally forming closer bonds than Western men probably dates back to the time when homosexuality was commonly accepted in Japan. (Sort of like what was going on in the Roman Empire.) Anyway, that moment of Naruto wishing on a star for Sasuke was not brotherly by almost anyone's standards.

3. Sasuke doesn't care about Naruto anymore. We hardly ever get to see what Sasuke's thinking in Part 2. From what we have seen, the only person he thinks about more often than Naruto is Itachi. Though the only times Sasuke seems to care about Naruto in Part 2 are
Spoiler:
his hesitation on the Great Naruto Bridge, the time he gets annoyed when Sai brings up Naruto in Orochimaru's house (arguable) and how he asked whether Madara had caught the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki,
that's still quite a lot when you consider the fact that he hasn't thought of Sakura at all.

4. Naruto likes Sakura. Similar to my response in #2. Also, Naruto thinks about Sakura much less than Sasuke, especially in Part 2, though that could be attributed to Sasuke being the missing one.

5. It's a kids' show. First of all, standards of what's appropriate for kids are different in Japan than in the U.S. Sailor Moon, which is not an adult show, included a lesbian couple, though that was censored out of the American version. Kodocha, a show about a girl in sixth grade, also has a confirmed gay character. Sex would still be off-limits, but just saying that a character is gay is less controversial. Secondly, Naruto has already included a male/male kiss and
Spoiler:
Konohamaru's Double Knockout Guys Sexy Jutsu.
A serious, but not sexually explicit, romantic relationship between two male characters would be less offensive to the censors than that. Finally, Naruto is no longer for kids. Even Part 1 was for older audiences than the dub was marketed to; Part 2 is almost entirely for teenagers. I've heard people try to prove that Naruto is a kids' manga by pointing out that there are school supplies, kids' video games and McDonald's toys based off of it (I believe someone even did so on this thread), but there are also Naruto lighters and cigarette holders. Also, think about some of the other things that are marketed to kids. One good example is Lord of the Rings: there are lots of LotR toys, legos, lunchboxes and video games that are marketed to younger audiences. However, the LotR movies are all rated PG-13, and at least two of them were almost rated R. There's also been an upsurge in the number of Batman toys in conjunction with the release of the Dark Knight movie. Basically, kids make a good market to sell cheap crap to whether or not they're the intended audience of the show or movie.

Conclusion (in case you're feeling too lazy to read that long post read this): If all pairings are left to implication, NaruSasu has the most evidence to support it and is therefore the closest to cannon.

Disclaimers: I'm not saying the arguments I contested above are wrong (except the last one), I just don't think they're foolproof. I'm not saying NaruSasu is already cannon, I just don't think it should be ruled out automatically. If you want links to the manga pages I referenced, tell me and I'll post them. I'm too lazy to do it if I'm not sure anyone will read the post. Also, I'm not a NaruSasu fan, I didn't write this out of fangirlism.

Much thanks to anyone who actually takes the time to read this. I know it's a giant wall of text.





SasuNaru-Otakus Club's official information page -----> [link]