Something I Love About Kishimoto's Writing Is How He Subverted The Soulmates Trope For Naruto And Sasuke.

Something I love about Kishimoto's writing is how he subverted the soulmates trope for Naruto and Sasuke. A more basic writer would've made it too predictable and boring or too contrived as a retcon.

Kishimoto establishes in its most explicit form that Naruto and Sasuke are soulmates in chapter 671. The cover says it all; complementary colors (yellow/purple, green/red, orange/blue), Yin Yang imagery and text, Sun and moon imagery, Heaven and Earth text.

He had also already given us hints of the soulmatism between Naruto and Sasuke with the whole "my wind will make his fire stronger" stuff. Plus all the official art he made where he plays with perspective making Naruto and Sasuke adopt poses that are similar to the Yin Yang symbol.

However, what I like the most is how he subverts the trope: Naruto and Sasuke don't love each other because they're destined to love each other, quite the opposite, they love each other in spite of their circumstances and predecessors.

We look at their predecessors and hatred and lust for power triumphed over love. Ashura and Indra hated each other. Hashirama and Madara had more complex feelings but ultimately Hashirama chose Konoha over Madara and Madara chose power and hatred over Hashirama. One of them always ended up dying/killed by the other one, severing their bond. Naruto and Sasuke were supposed to go down this path, that's the way it always had been. But they chose not to. Naruto embraced this choice, Sasuke on the other hand had more issues accepting the choice his heart had already made years ago when he wasn't able to kill Naruto during the battle at the VoTE1.

Sasuke saw himself and Naruto when he looked at Hashirama and Madara have their last conversation before Madara died for good. Madara and Hashirama were never able to make amends and reconnect their bond, Madara dying with the words right in his mouth. This is what Sasuke had expected to happen betwen him and Naruto. Maybe he thought he would be able to kill Naruto or maybe he thought that at some point during the battle Naruto would finally give up on him and kill him sparing him from the pain of severing their bond, but none of that happened.

We look at the battle and Sasuke never had the resolve to kill Naruto. He closes his eyes when he's punching Naruto because he can't bear to look at the face of the man he loves, he can't bear that inescapable gaze.

We see Sasuke deactivate his sharingan when he's about to give his definitive blow and instead let Naruto beat him. He never had it in him to kill Naruto.

And we all saw during the arc of the Kage Summit how everyone begged Naruto to give up on Sasuke, to let them execute him and Naruto refused every single time.

Even during their final battle when it was Sasuke who was begging him to let him severe their bond he responded "sorry I can't do that because I'm your one and only".

A different man with a weaker resolve would've have given up on Sasuke, would have let others execute him for betraying Konoha or would have let himself be killed or would have had the mercy to kill Sasuke to spare him from loving each other. Instead they chose to not to because they put each other above everything else.

Here is where I'd like to bring back the "my wind will make his fire stronger" theme. Yamato had stated Naruto's wind overpowers Sasuke's lightning, I believe here is where Kishimoto is telling us subtly he's subverting the soulmates trope. Yamato stated the obvious: Naruto could kill Sasuke just like Ashura and Hashirama killed Indra and Madara respectively, and follow the natural course of their destiny as reincarnates. Two opposites going at each other until one of them falls. But then, to Yamato's surprise (and slight annoyance) Naruto declares he'd rather be the wind that makes Sasuke's fire stronger, very important to note it wasn't Yamato who mentioned it as an alternative, y'know like "well, your wind is overpowers his lightning but it can also make his fire stronger". No, it was Naruto who arrived to this conclusion himself, he was told he could overpower Sasuke but instead Naruto chose to be Sasuke's complementary that could make him stronger. Naruto chose to defy his fate.

Naruto and Sasuke were destined to meet each other and fight each other but they weren't destined to love each other, that was of their own accord.

Their love is a conscious choice not a prophecy forced upon them.