I don’t know if I should put my two cents in or not, but I do love discussing the nature of Naruto and Sasuke, ridiculously so, that I’ll put it in anyways
I myself prefer Naruto topping for my reasons, and they have nothing to do with physical appearance whatsoever. They both are toned, decently built bodies due to obvious training and neither display feminine qualities. That being said, feminine qualities are not a bad thing. It’s just not in-character. What concerned me was that this was a topic discussed months ago by the SasuNaru/NaruSasu discourse proving who was ‘more slimmer’ than the other, to the point of using the panel of Naruto and Sasukes sealing Kaguya and determine the positioning of their arms to see which one was bulkier.
Naruto is seen more masculine because he fits the broad hero, loud and perverted archetype that society determines as ‘macho’, but I also see a boyishly cute, goofy and expressive guy – with SN downplays as just cute. Sasuke is seen somewhat feminine, but at the same time, beautiful in a genderless way?? He’s handsome. An attractive person. Like hygienic, solemn, not ‘passive’ persay but calculative and distant. Kept to himself with his feelings. Which NS downplays as tsundere. I don’t know how to explain it but it all comes down to the yin/yang dynamic Kishimoto was trying to implement. These characters are beyond that and don’t follow these ‘rules’ to a T, they are dynamic in their personality. They are strong individuals in strength, emotionally-driven, goal driven (Sasuke with his family and Naruto with his friends + his dreams), equally aggressive with such. Sasuke is too blunt & callous to be a stereotypical uke. He has a calmer soft side, but it isn’t “”moe”” or whatever. In the beginning of shippuden he was stoic and apathetic, then later became this big ball of rage, then back to his pre-shippuden self which I can’t put to words. Naruto is too confident and a go-getter to be a stereotypical uke, but he has his moments where his childish sides show up. They’re both unpredictable in behavior. They also ALWAYS want to out-do themselves.
And it’s funny how piyo was mentioned because that was one of the things that turned me off about SasuNaru. This shota-like, baby blue eyes, childlike appearance of Naruto is what I still see today in some artists.
Like Naruto physically looks YOUNGER.
I started off liking SN more, but then I’ve gotten introduced to Naruto-topping through 10-Rankai & Blue Tomato doujinshis and I was like? ??? ?? wo w this is like canon.
But I saw a TON of good characterization from SasuNaru, specifically with fanfiction! Even 10-Rankai had one where Sasuke topped and I love it to death. It still felt like the real deal.
I blame the whole sadistic rapist seme and crying, helpless uke trope on traditional yaoi mangas, which are very, very unlike real homosexual relationships and a fantasy. I see this more often with Sasuke topping, because he’s portrayed in a darker role, a nuke-nin and Naruto is the sunshine-y, at times dense (seen as naive), savior, lighter role. NaruSasu also had this, and I saw one where Sasuke was some emotionless doll, almost devoid of life where Naruto forced himself on which made me more uncomfortable. So yeah, it’s not mutually exclusive. People have their liberties with shipping and that’s okay. If it borderlines on rape, I don’t mess with that.
Another thing I’d like to address is that the bottom is usually the favorite and I don’t know why this phenomenon happens? I love these characters equally, like it’s hard for me to pick one over the other and I acknowledge both the shitty things Naruto and Sasuke have done and also the endearing things. But yeah, when this happens, the bottom is babied, glorified like the shipper wants them to be. Favoritism to the point of sometimes hating the top, which I’ve seen Sasuke-hate from SasuNaru lovers and Naruto-hate from NaruSasu lovers which discouraged me from wanting to celebrate the love for the pairing with other people. It’s kinda like “ooo the man/top doesn’t deserve you but you like him so I’ll ship it anyways” which happens in het shipping as well v_v
Let me just say that topping and bottom ≠ dominant and submissive. I see dominance from Sasuke in both roles, a power bottom like someone already mentioned here and a power top, showing submissiveness whenever he’s really in the mood. Like he’s smart enough to understand that it’s not a matter of ego anymore, it’s showing how much he loves him. A demonstration of trust and letting inhibitions loose. I can see Naruto being both a submissive top and bottom, but also dominant bottom. An excitable top, gentle on occasion. He likes overwhelming Sasuke with love, and he can show it through actions. Penetration probably would not matter to them, and he lets his guard down just the same. But when I search for fanfictions and fanarts, I’m a SUCKER for Sasuke bottoming, because Sasuke liking that type of pleasure, in an existence where he feared being second best and suffered a superiority complex, is meaningful to me because that means he doesn’t care for that anymore. He doesn’t see himself as lesser, and doesn’t feel like his image is tainted, to the point of proving himself wrong by committing a sexual act seen as the ‘woman’ to an outsider perspective.
I agree with the switching wholeheartedly, and I headcanon that 100 percent. Their relationship was always physical, when it came to sparring and fighting, so when you add a sexual aspect to it, they would compete the same way. Or just whenever they feel like taking whichever role, because it can be situational. At the end of the day, they see each other as equals in every way - which I love, being that I don’t like an imbalance of ‘power’ in a pairing.
Even so, it’s okay to have a preference and show one side of their relationship more often than not.
