naruto is a walking juxtaposition of naive, childlike ambition and hard-earned emotional maturity.
from the very beginning, i appreciated naruto’s childish side: his larger-than-life ambitions, his loud, unfiltered honesty, his simple yet stubborn worldview, the goofy confidence masking his insecurities, his craving for acknowledgment, and, of course, the endless joy he feels over the smallest of wins.
he is so endearing it's hard impossible not to like him.
but the more i progress in the story, the more i see that this childish side of him is paired with unmatched maturity, emotional intelligence, and clarity.
during naruto and sasuke's final fight before shippuden, naruto so beautifully lays out his feelings for sasuke. he understands exactly why he acts how he acts. why he feels how he feels. he recognises that he sees so much of himself in sasuke, but also so much of who he wants to be.
in contrast, when naruto expresses his feelings toward him, sasuke responds in the only way he knows how: by belittling naruto’s experience and positioning himself above naruto. his ego is fragile (if not completely broken), and he can only act out of desperation and urgency.
seeing this final fight and interaction made me appreciate naruto in a completely new way. i always felt that he would be the one to instinctively heal those around him (looking at you, gaara), but now i know for sure.
sasuke deciding to not kill him in the end was the perfect ending. he may be pursuing what he thinks are his own dreams right now, but even so, he wasn't able to kill naruto.
that's just the kinda guy naruto is.
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