Naruto Sharingan

Visually, Sasuke radiated evil upon his return. But behaviorally, I like that Sasuke really is just being himself. He snarky looking but it still seems like he just wants more skills, has no respect for Orochimaru, and says "humf" when Orochimaru mentions Konoha, which probably is still a sore point with him although he suppresses that.

Sasuke was 13 when he left Konoha and is 15-16 now. And Sasuke may have been highly influenced by the CS but SASUKE made the choice to leave and SASUKE gave into the temptation. If he was confident enough (i.e. had easily beat out Naruto on the rooftop or killed Naruto to get MS in the V.O.T.E. fight) and if Itachi didn't come after Naruto, I don't think Sasuke would have left. But the combination of feeling inadaquate at his current speed of growth and deciding he wouldn't do things Itachi's way, caused SASUKE to go to Orochimaru more than the Seal's brainwash ever did, IMHO.

Villian is such a black and white term. It doesn't have the wiggleroom necessary for someone whose relationship with the protagonist is that complex. Sasuke has no ill will towards Naruto (quite the opposite at least after the V.O.T.E. fight - we'll see now) or Konoha ... but yet is definitely allied with true villians. I don't believe he's a villian just by association.

It is also important to note that unlike Sasuke, most villians including the redeemable ones like Darth Vadar, do not garner immediate sympathy or understanding for their choice. There is often a sense that it is too late because of wrong choices made in the past for twisted reasons .... but in this case that isn't so ... Sasuke is redeemable but is still making those regretable choices in the present for a legitimate (although upsetting) reason.

The only "sin" Sasuke has actually performed, that we know of, is doing a Benedict Arnold - and traitorism is always contrversal. You have to look deeper into the fact that Sasuke knows and even expressed guilt about it being "too late" for him when he went to Orochimaru. His motives aren't evil ... they are twisted and upsetting ... but do the most harm to himself not others. And it is a ninja society where the difference between even killing and murder is a blurred line. The Konoha elite tend to look at things the same way you are, black and white - so that might be an issue. But I doubt - after all the effort Team Kakashi is doing towards his retreval and doing it very visibly and with the elite's full knowledge and Tsunade's full understanding - they would turn him away unless he did something specifically harmful to the village.

Indeed I agree that ethically Sasuke is in the wrong because I do fully believe that people are accountable for inaction against wrong doing. He shouldn't even be interacting with people who harm children by my standards. But Konoha doesn't hold by that. They have turned a blind eye to questionable behavior before (shinobi is a tool mentality, what happened to the White Fang, etc) and even may have participated in similar experimentation in the past. (bijuu, creation of sharingan) The do seem to have a lot of forbidden kinjutsus that at one point much have been created within the community and only later deemed too dangerous. I have a feeling as long as Sasuke appologizes for his deeds and willingly gives up Orochimaru's techniques he would (although under a lot of suspicion) be accepted back into the community ... eventually.

That said, I believe Sasuke is not coming back - he won't willingly until Itachi is dead because he sees Konoha as a place that can no longer be used to accomplish his goals, and afterwards I think he will be too guilty about all those "evil" deeds and apathy towards Orochimaru's activities to return ... which is where Naruto's unflairly devotion to sasuke might figure into the equation.
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Origionally posted by Wrath:

The problem with Sasuke is that, of the three main kids, he had the least to learn, and so the least to easily improve on. Sakura was a blank slate, so she could completely change herself, and Naruto had lots of weaknesses that he could train to remove, but Sasuke didn't have any real weaknesses to erase. So it was actually harder for him to improve than Sakura and Naruto, and qualitatively their growth will have been much greater.

Sasuke will be much faster and stronger, as he's always been a Taijutsu type above all else, and it's also the most basic form of training. But as it's his greatest strength, he has the least room to grow. He already had a Taijutsu style, unlike Naruto and Sakura, so he can't have improved it all that much more. He was already using the Sharingan's best Taijutsu abilities, so nowhere to really improve there. He'll probably be much faster and much stronger, and know new Taijutsus, but there isn't really anything else for him to learn.

He'll have lots of Ninjutsus - though not as many as some would say, since it's obvious now that Orochimaru hasn't been teaching him everything he knows. He'll have the snake stuff and he'll throw around various elemental jutsus, and there'll be comments about him knowing lots of different jutsus, but at the end of the day he'll probably fall back on his useless Katons once again. He'll have contracts with the snakes and possibly the gates.

Genjutsu will remain his worst area, and he probably will rarely if ever use Doujutsus, as that's Itachi's specialty. He'll be very good at defeating Genjutsus and seeing through them, because he has to be able to defend himself against Itachi.

His problem is probably going to be experience. Unlike Naruto and Sakura, Sasuke has yet to "graduate". While Naruto and Sakura have been off on missions and working in teams and so on, Sasuke wasn't even taken along to fight Sasori. You'd think he would be eager to test himself against an Akatsuki member, considering his goal is to kill Itachi, and at the very least he should have wanted to get information out of Sasori. Yet he was left behind to wait. Orochimaru may not put Sasuke in any danger at all, ever, since he wants to preserve him as a vessel. Naruto and Sakura have both fought Akatsuki members, yet Sasuke won't have even seen one since Itachi beat him.

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Sasuke hasn't used up any chakra yet, Sai barely has, and Naruto mentally really isn't prepared to face either properly yet. He needs Sakura and Yamato to be there solely so he doesnt get emotionally overwhelmed or tricked by that.