Naruto and Sasuke have always been portrayed as rivals from the beginning of the story. The two ended their conflict with a second serious fight at the Valley of the End.
This time, both were very strong, Naruto had awakened the power of the Six Paths, and Sasuke had obtained the Rinnegan. In this final battle, Naruto won, but the price was quite large. Both Naruto and Sasuke lost an arm.
Naruto and Sasuke no longer have an arm after the final battle
The fact that Naruto and Sasuke lost an arm shocked many fans. However, for author Kishimoto, this is a very important decision. In fact, he planned this long before the series got to this final battle.
According to Kishimoto himself, he wanted Naruto and Sasuke to have a battle that did not use many ninjutsu. The reason behind this is simply that he wanted it to be a pure battle between the guys conveying their emotions with each blow.
According to the author, this was a battle that needed to be resolved with fists more than anything else, and in fact he received quite a bit of criticism from his editors for this.
Kishimoto also added that he decided to take away both Naruto and Sasuke's dominant arm in this battle. As fans know, Naruto's dominant arm is his right hand and Sasuke's is his left arm. Both performed their final attacks with their dominant arms, and ended up losing them.
According to the mangaka, this was done on purpose and it involved a flashback scene at the beginning of the story where they crossed their fingers, creating a sign of reconciliation after fighting. While before, they were always able to make the peace sign after finishing a battle, this time, Kishimoto intentionally did it so that they couldn't cross their fingers and this was because they lost their arms.
But Kishimoto cleverly used the statues of Hashirama and Madara behind them to create the mark instead. This works very well because both Hashirama and Madara represent Indra and Asura, just like Naruto and Sasuke.
In a way, this statue created a mark of reconciliation not only for Naruto and Sasuke, but also for Madara and Hashirama, and also Indra and Asura, who had been fighting for generations.
This is a rather special touch by Kishimoto, the author really wanted to draw this scene since part 1 of the story. Part 1 took place quite a while ago, suggesting that Kishimoto may have actually intended for both Naruto and Sasuke to lose their arms from the beginning.
Of course, in the end, Naruto got a prosthetic replacement arm thanks to Hashirama's cells, while Sasuke chose to remain armless, perhaps because his journey of redemption was just beginning. the final entry to the Naruto series. To this day, Sasuke still carries guilt over his actions in the past. It is shown that even years after this battle, Sasuke still considers himself a shinobi in the process of redemption.
