Sasuke Uchiha

Once Naruto's teammate, Sasuke spends Shippuden as a defector hardened by Orochimaru's tutelage. After killing Itachi he learns the truth of the Uchiha massacre and turns his vengeance on the Leaf itself, forming the team Taka and joining the Akatsuki's cause. His Mangekyō awakens through grief, and only at the war's climax does he choose to stand beside Naruto - on his own uncompromising terms.

Sasuke is tall and pale with sharp features, dark eyes and black hair that falls in long bangs around his face while spiking at the back. Under Orochimaru he wears an open white shirt with a purple rope belt and dark trousers, carrying a straight-bladed sword at his waist; later he adopts a dark cloak and, after the war, a tattered poncho. His Sharingan turns his irises red with black tomoe, replaced in time by a six-pointed Mangekyo pattern and finally a purple, ringed Rinnegan in his left eye. His expression is habitually cold and unreadable.

Once a proud but cooperative genin, Sasuke in this series is withdrawn, curt and driven almost entirely by vengeance. He measures people by their usefulness, discards allies without apparent hesitation, and reacts to sentiment with contempt, yet flashes of his old attachment surface whenever Naruto is involved. The truth about his brother pushes him past personal revenge into a cold, sweeping hatred of Konoha itself, and briefly into the belief that he alone should bear the world's darkness as its hated ruler. Beneath the arrogance lies a deeply lonely person who cannot forgive himself, and who ultimately accepts that atonement, not power, is what he owes the people he wronged.

Sasuke grew up as the younger son of the Uchiha clan's leader, overshadowed by his prodigy brother Itachi and desperate for his father's approval. When Itachi slaughtered the entire clan in a single night and left him alive, Sasuke became an avenger, training obsessively while pretending at normal life. Assigned to Team 7, he slowly rebuilt bonds with Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi before Orochimaru's curse mark and his own frustration at Naruto's growth drove him to abandon the village. He spent two and a half years under Orochimaru, accepting the Sannin's teaching while intending all along to use him and discard him.

1. Sasuke and Sai

   Sasuke reappears at Orochimaru's hideout when Team Kakashi tracks him down, casually demonstrating how far beyond his former teammates he has grown. He refuses Naruto's plea to return, stating that he has severed those bonds, and vanishes again, leaving Sakura and Naruto shaken but more determined.

2. Itachi Pursuit and Itachi's Story

   Sasuke absorbs Orochimaru, assembles the team Hebi and finally faces Itachi in the Uchiha hideout. He wins a brutal duel only to learn from Obito that Itachi massacred the clan under village orders to prevent a coup, and had protected him all along.

3. Five Kage Summit

   Renaming his team Taka and allying with the Akatsuki, Sasuke attacks the summit to reach Danzo, awakens his Mangekyo Sharingan after Itachi's death, and nearly kills Karin and Sakura in his rage. His declared war on Konoha alienates even his former comrades.

4. Fourth Shinobi World War

   After questioning the resurrected First Hokage about Konoha's founding and his brother's sacrifice, Sasuke returns to the battlefield determined to protect the village by becoming its Hokage. He fights alongside Naruto against Obito, Madara and Kaguya, receiving Hagoromo's other half of power.

5. Final Confrontation

   Believing the shinobi system itself breeds hatred, Sasuke proposes to seize all the tailed beasts and rule as a universally hated tyrant. Naruto rejects this, and their duel at the Valley of the End ends with both crippled and Sasuke finally admitting defeat and choosing atonement.

Naruto Uzumaki

Rival and bond he cannot sever

Sasuke insists he has cut Naruto off, yet no one else provokes such reaction from him. Their rivalry is the one attachment his revenge cannot erase, and it is what finally pulls him back from ruling the world through fear.

Itachi Uchiha

Older brother and target of revenge

The centre of Sasuke's existence. Discovering that Itachi destroyed the clan to spare him and the village, then died deliberately at his hand, transforms his hatred into grief and redirects it at Konoha's leadership.

Sakura Haruno

Former teammate and future wife

He treats her devotion as an obstacle and twice tries to kill her, yet she never abandons him. In the epilogue he accepts her, apologises for the pain he caused, and they have a daughter, Sarada.

Orochimaru

Former teacher

A means to an end for both of them. Sasuke absorbs the Sannin rather than becoming his vessel, but retains what he learned, and later revives him to summon the previous Hokage for answers.

Taka

Team he assembled

Suigetsu, Karin and Jugo follow him out of interest or loyalty, and he uses them instrumentally, even attacking Karin to strike an enemy. He later acknowledges the harm he did them.

• He reveals his changed self to Team Kakashi in Orochimaru's hideout, stopping Naruto's attack with contemptuous ease.
• He defeats Itachi in the ruined Uchiha hideout, only to learn the truth behind the massacre moments later.
• He crashes the Five Kage Summit to reach Danzo, opposed by every great village at once.
• He questions the resurrected Hashirama Senju about Konoha's origins and declares he will become Hokage.
• He and Naruto seal Kaguya together, then settle their own war at the Valley of the End.

• His name comes from the father of the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Sasuke.
• His first Mangekyo technique, Amaterasu, was placed in him by Itachi as a safeguard.
• He was ranked highest among his Academy class, contrasting with Naruto's last place.
• He and Naruto both lose an arm in their final clash, mirroring each other's injuries.
• His Taka teammate Karin was the one who saved him during the Chunin Exams years earlier, though he did not remember her.

• Naruto Uzumaki
• Sakura Haruno
• Kakashi Hatake
• Sai
• Jiraiya
• Tsunade

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