i read chapter 698 as a love confession. you know why? because it is.
letās look at this objectively.
it starts with sasuke begging naruto to tell him why, why he continues to do so much for sasukeās sake, why he was willing to die with him, why he was willing to be maimed for him, why he wouldnāt give up on him, despite having every right to. even when everyone else did.
this question isnāt new, either. itās not something naruto hasnāt answered before. sasuke asked him why he wouldnāt give up in vote1 & naruto told him he was one of his most precious bonds. he asked him again in the 5 kage summit arc & naruto told him it was because they were friends. sasuke has enough answers, but he asks again. why? because heās not satisfied with the answer narutoās given him. because heās looking for more.
naruto doesnāt disappoint, giving him the same āweāre friendsā response. sasuke is not having it. he gets visibly angry, clearly displeased with the answer. he presses forward & asks naruto for more, asks him to put a meaning to the supposed feeling of āfriendshipā naruto keeps pushing on him. why? because what he feels for naruto, and what he believes naruto feels for him, is more than friendship. because he needs to know that naruto feels the same way for him that he does for naruto.
so naruto describes the feelings he has for sasuke in words. he tells him that he hurts when sasuke hurts. that he feels his pain too.
i will make a point of bringing up the fact that this āi hurt when you doā is used countless times in media & literature to represent loveāespecially and predominantly romantic love. and the kicker of this is that this is what makes sasuke react.
sasukeās expression here is probably one of the most emotion filled expressions of him in the manga. heās shocked by narutoās admission, by narutoās confession. this is a huge deal for him.
this is more than friendship to him.
then we get to see into sasukeās thoughts about naruto, for the first time in the entirety of the series.
this is sasukeās confession.
sasuke explains everything he thought of naruto, using phrases like āseeing you made me feel warm and fuzzyā, implying things like āloving you made me feel weakā.
and sasuke finishes it all with the fact that he hurt when naruto hurt. all along, heās felt pain when narutoās in pain. all along, he has reciprocated narutoās feelings to a tee.
all along, heās loved naruto back just as much as naruto loved him.
once you realize this, it is easier to understand his reaction to naruto telling him he felt his pain. sasuke reacted like that because he realized that his love was reciprocated, that this feeling of āfriendshipā that naruto kept going on about was the same thing that sasuke felt all this time. and that it was never friendship at all.
then sasuke accepts defeat. accepts that heās lost. but this acceptance is more than just understanding heās lost a battle.
sasuke is accepting narutoās feelings for him heās accepting his own feelings for naruto. heās accepting that he never could kill naruto and he never would be able to, not now that he knows that he loves him. not now that he understands the distances naruto would go to for him and why.
sasuke brings it up once more, a few moments later. naruto tells him he knows he wonāt try to go rogue again, and sasuke asks him how he can be so sure. to me, it seems like a final effort to really prove to himself that naruto loves him.
he tells him not to make him repeat himself. he tells him that he knows he wonāt because he loves sasuke, and sasuke loves him in turn. because they share each otherās pain and thereās no question about that anymore.
he tells him āyou wonāt hurt me again, now that you know how i feel, now that youāve seen my heart, now that iāve seen yours, you wonāt hurt me again.ā
and sasuke cries tears of joy. because, even after everything, naruto loves him and naruto trusts him.
and the chapter ends with a panel of naruto and sasuke, lying on their backs, with the blood between their arms making it look as if they are holding hands.
they are finally together, exactly where theyāre supposed to be.
i donāt know how anyone could read this and not see how itās love.