"i knew, you were alone too"

Until a certain point, we can say Sasuke and Naruto had a similar childhood. Both grew up alone, were left behind and had to experience early what real pain means - and still, there is one huge difference between their two lives: One seeked solitude while the other one tried to flee from it.

Sasuke grew up with a family, a caring mother, a father and a brother. Naruto in contrast, didn' t have any of those relationships. But as we know everyone dear to Sasuke has been taken away from him, and as a result even afterwards he distracted himself from everyone around him- while Naruto had nothing to begin with and always looked for exactly such bonds.

Unfortunately though, always in vain.

But even so, before they knew it, they had found each other. As Naruto stated in the later chapters, he always knew Sasuke was alone too and for some reason, he felt relieved at that time. He was relieved to have found someone who knew the same pain he knew and wanted to talk to him immediately- but at the same time, he was afraid. Deep down they were the same and I'm pretty sure they also realised that very soon. But it couldn't be helped, since from the surface they were as different as they could be. Without wanting it, Sasuke got all the attention Naruto always longed for.

In the academy Naruto didn' t show anything of his hurt soul and locked his tender feelings away. He kept grinning and smiling all day long, playing with the other kids as far as he was able to (since when their parents found out, they immediately restricted it), but as soon as the other children went home together with their parents, Naruto knew he was different from them- he was alone again.
..alone, but still with Sasuke. Before they realised themselves, they had already shared a bond, their very first bond, and yes, I dare to call it deeper than "just" friendship. Pain, loneliness and solitude bound them together; but it also shed light into the darkness in which both were caught.

It was a very fragile bond, which didn't consist of mere words. A bond between two children, who had nothing but each other and shared the same fears and pains. A bond which pulled both of them out of the dark and into the light- back into life.

As for myself, I strongly believe both of them, not only Naruto as he said himself, but also Sasuke, were relieved and sort of glad to have found someone who had gone through similar situations - actually, not really "similar situations". One should rather say they were reassured to have found someone who had not only known similar anguishes, but the very same ones.

Now however, there was one hitch: Even as a child, Naruto always had admired Sasuke and wanted to be like him no matter what. He trained every day until late at night and tried his very best to catch up with Sasuke, but despite of all his efforts, he couldn't manage to do so. That's why he decided on his own Sasuke would become his rival.

Naruto had admired Sasuke from afar; he was fascinated that he had not only found a person to whom he could relate to, but Sasuke also had everything Naruto could only dream of - respect, acknowledgement, approval. Having realised that, Naruto decided to work only harder and harder and in the end, triggered by ambition and desire for recognition, their bond was dwarfed by something else: a rivalry. Sadly even at this young age the rivalry never seemed to cease for one bit, and even later heir rivalry always seemed to get the upper hand of both of their deep down tucked away feelings.

In my opinion, their relationship as children was already tragic in a way, which can't be explained so easily, because it was already as twisted as we should later get to see it for several times. I'm pretty sure that Sasuke also longed for a friend, even if he chose to be alone - but now the crux is, that he was afraid to lose the people important to him again, afraid of all his precious relationships being taken away from him again.

Thus he only concentrated on getting stronger, without letting himself get caught in such fragile bonds again. In order to achieve his aims, he wouldn't let get himself distracted by such bonds again - bonds that were so easily cut, as it seemed.

So, while Sasuke only focused on himself, Naruto was absolutely taken aback by Sasuke and set himself his very first goal: to get acknowledged by the person he looked up to the most: Sasuke.

For the first time, Naruto had a direction he could head into - provided by none other than Sasuke himself.

Found at Chapter 227, Episode 132