The “kiss” scene in the classroom is perceived mostly as a comedic gag, but it captures Naruto and Sasuke’s early relationship well via their responses to each other. Once everyone starts fawning over Sasuke, Naruto decides he has a problem with Sasuke and rudely stands on Sasuke’s desk, aggressively getting in Sasuke’s face. This is obviously an extremely rude invasion of personal space. But rather than reprimand or yell at him for his impolite and uncivilized behavior as Naruto glares Sasuke down in a staring match from his perch on Sasuke’s desk, Sasuke instead silently meets the challenge by glaring back. This captures why Naruto is so drawn to Sasuke, because instead of criticizing and scolding Naruto for being a wild child (as Naruto’s other classmates do), Sasuke meets Naruto’s impolite challenges with a brotherly patience and compliance, returning Naruto’s challenging stare with a challenging stare of his own. It captures in a nutshell the form their relationship has taken over the past few years. Naruto repeatedly challenges Sasuke, and Sasuke accepts with a brotherly patience, even though he could easily choose to shut Naruto down like everyone else does. But because Sasuke tolerates and engages Naruto’s petty challenges, Naruto continues to come back for more.

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Naruto’s first day as a member of Team 7 quickly captures how disinterested Naruto is in unity and teamwork: he had no regard for his teammates’ feelings at all. The first day of the team, Naruto breaks in to Sasuke’s house, fights him, and beats him up in his own home. Then he steals Sasuke’s identity so he can trick Sakura into kissing him.

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Naruto completely contradicts his older self’s philosophy of “relying on his own power” because he has to steal Sasuke’s identity just to get Sakura to like him. Worse, he has zero moral qualms with doing something so horrible. Stealing Sasuke’s identity shows how Naruto is super uncaring towards his newly acquired teammates. He has no problem with ruining Sasuke’s reputation (in fact his thoughts show that he purposely wanted to sow discord and hatred between his two teammates for the selfish reason of getting what he wanted from Sakura: her affection towards him). To him Sakura is a prize to be won; at this point Naruto’s consideration and care for Sakura’s true feelings is so low it’s almost nonexistent. He views her not as a complex person with intricate desires and feelings outside of his own, but as a damsel to be conquered and vanquished when he wins her affections. Though he may deny it, Naruto’s actions show he is aware that he can’t cajole Sakura into liking him on his own terms. Rather than looking for ways to improve himself in order to make himself more likeable to Sakura, Naruto sees Sakura as the one who needs fixed. It never crosses Naruto’s mind that he might be the one who needs to change if he wants Sakura to like him. Yes, he inquires about what Sakura thinks of him, showing interest in her perception of him. But when she tells him that she believed Naruto took sadistic pleasure in making her miserable, Naruto glossed over her feelings on the matter and it never crossed his mind that he should change tactics to make sure that in the future he will not try to make her so unhappy and thus prove to Sakura that he takes pleasure in her happiness, not her misery. But Naruto has no such revelation; he continues to utilize the same tactics, even though his approach to Sakura has previously consistently failed. Naruto criticizes Sakura’s taste in men when Sakura is talking about her affections for Sasuke, so clearly Naruto never questioned that he needed to change or mature – he assumed that Sakura was the one who needed to improve for their relationship to work, and that she was at fault.

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However, we do see that his attraction to Sakura isn’t entirely shallow. He admitted that he found her adorable as far as physical appearances go, but Naruto admired her character. He loved Sakura’s fiery, spirited nature. Additionally, he saw how desperate she was to earn Sasuke attention, and it was that unrelenting determination to earn Sasuke’s attention and acknowledgement that drew Naruto to Sakura, because in that, they were kindred spirits. They both wanted Sasuke’s acknowledgement; they were both working to seek attention, and Naruto recognized the similarity in their struggles and was drawn to Sakura because of that.

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Sakura was oblivious to Naruto’ vile deception and Sasuke tolerantly and gracefully allowed Naruto’s antics to slide, so Naruto didn’t have to face any repercussions to his childish antics. Because he’d been forced to spend his life as a loner, Naruto evidently had developed zero interest in working with others (because no one is ever interested in working with him either), and he’d become arrogant and insensitive to others’ feelings. Right from the get-go, Naruto had already attempted to sow discord and conflict between his team, proving himself to be a problem to Team 7’s team spirit.

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Even the team's introduction to each other shows how self-absorbed Naruto is: he only cares about his public image and getting everyone's respect. Even with Sasuke's intro and the young Uchiha’s stated intentions to “kill a certain man”, Naruto immediately worriedly wonders if Sasuke wants to kill him, indicating Naruto’s tendency to be self-centered by assuming things (that aren’t related to him at all) are about him.

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The bell test only further establishes Naruto’s independent nature: Naruto has become a lone wolf who isn’t used to relying on others because he’s never had anyone dependable to rely on. Not once does it ever cross his mind to collaborate with his two teammates to get the bells from Kakashi. He has spent his life accustomed to be ostracized by everyone, and Naruto doesn’t believe that being put on a team will change that now. So he tries and fails to take Kakashi’s bells by himself, and when that doesn’t work, he ditches his team and selfishly goes in search of fulfilling his own interests: he’s hungry, so he tries to eat lunch while his teammates keep Kakashi distracted. Helping Sasuke or Sakura out doesn’t once cross his mind (ironic, considering how desperate he is to win Sakura’s affection, yet he has absolutely no interest in helping her in the bell test).

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The team fails to get the bells on time, and Kakashi elects to give Team 7 a second chance, but Naruto is singled out to not receive any lunch, putting him at a disadvantage – a dire situation since Naruto was already the underdog anyway. Naruto puts on his usual tough guy act. He’s starving and desperate but he puts on his usual façade of pretending he’s not at all bothered by his hunger and hiding it behind cheerful bluster – even though he’s famished. Sasuke isn’t fooled by Naruto’s tough façade for a second though, and Sasuke does something that drastically impacts Naruto’s life forever: Sasuke shares his lunch with Naruto.

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This actions shatters some of Naruto’s previously held assumptions on life and alters Naruto’s life forever in a major way. Firstly, Naruto had never imagined his teammates would help him or even show interest in having him on their team. Additionally, Naruto had spent his entire life breaking the rules and subsequently getting punished for his misbehavior. Yet here Sasuke was, breaking the rules to condescend to helping his troublemaking, selfish teammate. Sasuke sent a clear message through his actions: it’s okay to break the rules if it’s for the friends, a lesson Kakashi quickly reinforced by allowing Team 7 to pass the bell test and become shinobi. Those who break the rules are scum. But as for those who abandon a friend? Worse than scum. And here Naruto learns this lesson.

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Furthermore, Sasuke and Sakura’s choice to share their lunch was doubly special because of the importance Naruto placed on them. Sure, the sharing of lunch would have been special from anyone, but Sasuke and Sakura weren’t just anyone in Naruto’s life. They were the popular cool kid he idolized and the cute girl he had a crush on. Left to Naruto’s choice, those two were the top picks for the people he’d most like as his friends (though he wouldn’t openly admit it about Sasuke at this point). The two coolest people in his class were risking their entire careers just to help him out. For the first time, people his age were paying attention to him, and it wasn’t just anyone, but the two people he liked best.

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It was especially impactful since Sasuke was the strongest, most talented member of the class, and Naruto was the weakest, worst member of the class. It was a potent moment of the strong reach out to the weak. All Naruto’s life, it had been a dog-eat-dog world for him. The strong bully and punish the weak and helpless and outcasted, while the weak must comply with regulations. Naruto had been ostracized by his village as a defenseless victim against their irrational hatred, and never (with the exception of Iruka and Teuchi) had anyone stepped out of line to aid and support him. Yet now Sasuke makes the first move in a gesture of the strong protecting the weak. Naruto would likely prove little to no help in retrieving the bells, and Sasuke and Naruto know this fully well. Yet even so, Sasuke takes compassion on his hapless teammate and offers a helping hand to Naruto, for the first time in Naruto’s life, and Sakura blindly trusts Sasuke and follows his lead and stands up for Naruto as well.

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Sasuke’s act of sharing his lunch allowed the first inkling of what it meant to be a team to creep into Naruto’s life. Naruto has been accustomed to being a loner due to hapless circumstance, and he has learned almost nothing about what it’s like to function as a member of a larger unit or even what the effectiveness or purpose of a team is. But with Sasuke sharing his lunch and thus passing Kakashi’s test, Naruto now understood to some degree what it meant to be a team.

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Needless to say, Naruto's heart was deeply warmed and poignantly touched by Sasuke's and Sakura's act. It was the first time anyone had acted like they needed/wanted Naruto as part of their group. For the unwanted orphan, being shown kindness by the kids he admired and liked best at school was the coolest thing ever.

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It became a huge learning point for Naruto that I dare say affected and influenced his philosophy and personal relationships for the rest of his life.

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Sasuke’s act of kindness instigated Naruto’s first understanding of the importance of teamwork and was Naruto's first important lesson in what it means to be a member of a team - and a member of a family.