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Sasuke Uchiha (うちはサスケ, Uchiha Sasuke) is a main character in the Naruto series. He was originally introduced as a protagonist; a genin of Konohagakure's Team 7. As the series progressed, he became an antagonist, culminating in his association with Akatsuki, becoming one of the most dynamic characters in the series. Sasuke is currently a missing-nin, an international criminal, and the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan.

Sasuke is the second and youngest son of the Konoha Military Police Force captain and Uchiha clan head: Fugaku Uchiha, and his wife Mikoto. Mikoto named him after the father of the Third Hokage in hopes that he would grow up to be a great ninja like his namesake.[4] As a child, Sasuke grew up in the shadow of his older brother, Itachi Uchiha who was an acknowledged prodigy viewed by the Uchiha clan as a genius, and whose work would further strengthen the bonds between the village and the clan. Sasuke's father in particular took an active interest in Itachi. Itachi, on the other hand, was rather ambivalent and full of oddly conflicting undercurrents, acknowledging Sasuke by taking interest in his progress as a ninja and spending time playing with him when even their father did not. Even after Sasuke enrolled in the Academy, he was still unable to escape Itachi's shadow.[5] Despite consistently scoring at the top of every class, Sasuke failed to receive any recognition from his father, who defined Sasuke's success only in terms of his older brother.[6] Itachi acknowledged the rivalry Sasuke felt telling him: "We are brothers. I am the wall you must climb over, so you and I will continue to exist together." Nevertheless Itachi deeply cared for his younger brother and Sasuke looked up to Itachi, wanting to be more like him.

Sasuke and Itachi when they were younger.
The relationship between Itachi and his father deteriorated further after Itachi was questioned by other members of the Uchiha clan regarding the apparent suicide of his best friend, Shisui. As Itachi's behaviour became increasingly bizarre, Sasuke's father began spending more time with Sasuke, and began teaching him the Great Fireball Technique, a common family technique seen as a sign of coming of age in the Uchiha clan.[7] When Sasuke first tried to perform the technique, he only produced a small flame and after that, some smoke. His father said that Itachi was able to do it on his first try at Sasuke's age, which disappointed him. Later, with one week of training, Sasuke (age 7 at the time) performed the technique in front of his father, proving himself a genius as well in his own right and finally receiving his father's recognition. Sasuke's father told him that he could now proudly wear the clan's emblem on his back. Following this, Sasuke also received a stern warning not to follow in Itachi's footsteps any further, surprising him as before, he was told to be like him; and his father showing he was proud of Sasuke for the first time the same way as he used to with Itachi.
At some point in the past, Sasuke joined Itachi on a mission to catch a wild boar. Sasuke was wielding a bow and was told by Itachi not to hit any vital points. However, Sasuke missed the boar completely. Eventually they defeated the boar and Sasuke apologised for being so off, Itachi responded by telling him that he needed to train more.[8]

On one fateful night, Itachi slew every member of the Uchiha clan, sparing only Sasuke, saying that he was not even worth killing. In addition, Itachi told him, "You've always wanted to surpass me. That's why I'm going to let you live… if you wish to kill me, then hate me, despise me… and by all means flee, cling to your wretched life." Itachi also revealed to Sasuke where the secret meeting place of the Uchiha was hidden, and suggested that Sasuke go there to learn what the true history and purpose of the Sharingan was. He told him that "to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan," he "had to kill the person he was closest to", and that "when we battle, we should have the same eyes". Sasuke thought he had fainted after this, but later remembered that he had managed to stand back up, awaken his Sharingan, and pursued Itachi. Upon reaching Itachi, he used knives to knock off his forehead protector. Itachi was seen shedding a tear as he was picking up the forehead protector. He then proceeded to incapacitate Sasuke, who awoke in the hospital remembering only that which Itachi wanted him to.


Naruto and Sasuke's rivalry in the Academy.
When Sasuke first met Naruto Uzumaki in the Academy, they were matched to spar against each other. Naruto was excited at the opportunity to defeat Sasuke and become so popular like him, however he was easily beaten. By looking at Sasuke's eyes, Naruto realised that they were so filled with hatred that it seemed that he wasn't even looking at Naruto. When Iruka told them to make the reconciliation seal, they both refused.[9] Up until his graduation from the Academy, Sasuke remained a loner and never acknowledged Naruto's attempts to defeat him, considering him a hopeless dead-last and as such, someone not worth his time or energy.

When he was a child, Sasuke was a very kind boy, loving towards his parents and brother, and respectful to his fellow clansmen as well as his teachers. He was even very proud of being Itachi's brother and Fugaku's son — famous for being devoted protectors of Konoha, and he always desired to emulate them. His original wish was to join the Konoha Military Police Force when he grew up, like his father and as such greatly sought his father's approval and acknowledgement of his abilities.[10] After Itachi massacred the clan, Sasuke's ideals and personality changed drastically and he became cold, indifferent, cruel, cynical, somewhat arrogant, and devoted the next nine years of his life to killing Itachi.[11]
When first introduced to Team Kakashi, Sasuke displayed great indifference to his team-mates as well as others. Feeling superior to all of them, including his teacher, Sasuke was unwilling to cooperate with Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno, as he felt they would provide him no aid in furthering his ambition to kill him brother; this attitude had began since he was in the Academy, as he had the lowest score in cooperation and second lowest in assertiveness.[12] However over time, as he interacted more with his team mates on a day-to-day basis, he began to see them as somewhat of a family and Sasuke started to lose some of his anger, caring more about his team than his revenge. Sasuke even admitted to Naruto that he almost thought that he should forget revenge and instead focused on Team 7. However, to help push him back into his desire for power, Orochimaru branded Sasuke with the Cursed Seal of Heaven during the Chūnin Exams to give him a taste of power. Although Kakashi Hatake sealed away the Cursed Seal, and taught him the Chidori in the hopes of deviating him from the path of revenge, Sasuke began to draw more power from the seal in the hopes of getting stronger. And thus his previous ambition was renewed.

According to Kakashi, Sasuke has both a superiority and an inferiority complex, as he is unwilling to acknowledge when someone is stronger than him, but obsesses when he believes that they are. For example, he was complacent with his rivalry with Naruto when he believed he was the stronger of the two, but upon noticing Naruto's fast growth, showcased in his victory over Sunagakure's jinchūriki, Gaara, who had previously beaten Sasuke, and his own quick defeat by Itachi on his return to Konoha, all culminated in his defection to Otogakure to seek power from Orochimaru.

In Part II, despite getting stronger, Sasuke seemed unwilling to needlessly kill in his quest for revenge displaying that he still had some morals left.[13] Sasuke, however, retained his habit of underestimating his opponents, shown in his overconfidence in his battles. Sasuke however, is not above admitting his mistakes on such things, as shown after his battles with Deidara and Killer B where he acknowledged that the former was stronger than he thought and that the latter had given Taka a much harder time than he expected.

Sasuke has displayed an overbearing sense of pride in his clan's name and a great sense of loyalty to it and kept wearing his clan's crest on his back proudly while refusing to wear any other symbols such as a forehead protector. Despite claiming earlier that he did not care if he had to sacrifice his own body to Orochimaru as long as it served his quest for revenge,[14] when Sasuke felt he had grown stronger than Orochimaru he thought that to give himself up to someone weaker than himself was insulting to the Uchiha.[15] He also views anyone outside of the clan wielding its dōjutsu as an insult, as the eye is representative of the Uchiha clan's powers, showing disgust towards Danzō Shimura who had ten Sharingan embedded in his arm, and an eleventh one in his right eye socket and stated that Kakashi should feel grateful to the Uchiha for the power of his Mangekyō Sharingan.[16] According to Tobi, Sasuke alone is shouldering the entire hatred of the Uchiha clan — a thing which has been passed down for generations within the clan.

After his battle with Itachi, which concluded in the latter's death, the revelation that he had actually been ordered by the Konoha Elders to eradicate the clan coupled with the new knowledge that Itachi had truly loved him, Sasuke vowed to kill the elders for using his brother and he ordering him to massacre the Uchiha clan. After he confirmed the truth, Sasuke quickly grew to loathe the village that he once called home and vowed to destroy the village, thus separating any connection it had to the Uchiha clan and purify the clan's name in the process.


Sasuke's hatred overwhelms him as he ruthlessly sacrifices Karin.
As time passed on with this new path of revenge and with further corruption by Tobi, Sasuke has grown much more cruel and ruthless, with the remaining morality he showed during his time with Orochimaru fading rapidly; by the time he launched an attack against the Kage Summit, he killed anyone who stood in his way, not caring about his team,[17] and after cornering Danzō, Sasuke turned to sacrificing the members of his group to accomplish his goals,[18] and attempted to kill his former team-mates and teacher whilst experiencing neither shame, guilt, nor remorse for any of his actions.
Initially, Sasuke still held onto the notion of sparing the innocent and teamwork, witnessed in his creation of a new group of shinobi.[19] Though, as he became more consumed by his thirst for vengeance, he showed that he cared for them as no more than tools to achieve his hatred-fueled goals, quickly discarding them when they were no longer necessary. This is seen at the Kage Summit where he leaves Jūgo and Suigetsu behind, taking only Karin with him who could lead him to where Danzō was, as well as killing many samurai who stood in his way. He would later discard Karin as well, unhesitatingly piercing her just to kill Danzō and then attempted to finish her off to prevent her from being a burden in the future.[20][21] Even when Sakura's childish crush turned into more serious affection, Sasuke still did not return the feelings, though before he left the village, he gave Sakura a genuine thank you.[22] But would later, after that same battle with Danzō, when he had to fight with Team Kakashi, where he attempted to kill Sakura twice despite her showing obvious hesitancy to do the same.[23][24] Despite his arrogance, Sasuke is not above giving praise to his enemies as he commended Gaara for the strength and speed of his absolute defence and admitted that Kakashi was very skilled at using the Sharingan for someone who wasn't an Uchiha.

After expressing a feeling of exhilaration that he had never before felt upon killing Danzō and even declaring that he sees that killing the members of Konoha as a high priority and satisfaction, Karin, Kakashi, and Sakura completely lost all hope for him. Upon receiving his "Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan", Sasuke's cruelty seemingly reached a new level when he killed White Zetsu simply to test out his new powers.[25] He's also grown to be an impatient individual and brutal in battle. Despite Tobi's influence being one of the main sources of Sasuke's corruption and their same path of hatred and revenge, as well as believing that Tobi is a fellow Uchiha, Sasuke refused to acknowledge Tobi as his ally, and even speaks rudely to him at times. He has also shown great rage whenever someone mentions Itachi in a negative way, crushing Danzō with his Susanoo for speaking ill of his brother and ready to murder a team of ignorant Konoha shinobi for doing the same.[26] Sasuke's hatred has also twisted any of his potentially happy memories of Konoha into negative ones in order to fuel his vengeance.[27]

During the second day of the Fourth Shinobi World War, upon reuniting with a reincarnated Itachi, Sasuke showed a somewhat more vulnerable side to himself instead of his usual coldness. This showed just how confused and torn up he is over Itachi's decision, telling his brother that he did not understand why he was spared during the massacre and apparently implying that he would have rather died as a child than have had to deal with the grief and suffering.[28] Having to live through many lies Itachi set for him, Sasuke wanted to hear the truth from Itachi himself.