Sasuke Uchiha

The lone survivor who walked the path of darkness to find his own light.

Sasuke Uchiha (Japanese: うちはサスケ, Hepburn: Uchiha Sasuke) is a fictional character in the Naruto manga and anime franchise created by Masashi Kishimoto. Sasuke belongs to the Uchiha clan, a notorious ninja family, and one of the most powerful, allied with Konohagakure (木ノ葉隠れの里; English version: "Hidden Leaf Village"). Most of its members were massacred by Sasuke's older brother, Itachi Uchiha, before the series began, leaving Sasuke as one of the few survivors.

Despite becoming empathetic toward his teammates Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno, Sasuke's feelings of powerlessness force him to abandon his friends and his home in his quest to become stronger than Itachi, and to find Orochimaru. Sasuke appears in several of the series' animated feature films and related media, including video games, original video animations (OVAs), and Boruto: Naruto the Movie (2015) and its manga sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (2016), in which he is depicted as a vigilante supporting his village and a mentor to Naruto's son Boruto Uzumaki.

Quick Facts

Series

Naruto

First

Naruto chapter 3: Enter Sasuke! (1999)

Creator

Masashi Kishimoto

Voice

Japanese
Noriaki Sugiyama
English
Yuri Lowenthal

Family

Fugaku Uchiha (father, deceased), Mikoto Uchiha (mother, deceased); Itachi Uchiha (elder brother, deceased)

Spouse

Sakura Haruno (wife)

Children

Sarada Uchiha (daughter)

Lore & Background

Kishimoto conceived Sasuke as a main rival of the series' title character Naruto Uzumaki. Despite Sasuke's dark character development later in the story, Kishimoto avoided portraying him as a villain. Kishimoto did not include Sasuke in his original concept for the Naruto series; his editor, Kosuke Yahagi, advised him to add a rival character for the protagonist Naruto and he created Sasuke. The character's first name came from Sanpei Shirato's manga Sasuke and Sarutobi Sasuke, a fictional ninja character in Japanese children's stories.

When plot developments made Sasuke one of the story's antagonists, Kishimoto called him and Naruto yin and yang because of their differences and complementary natures. He said although some of Sasuke's actions such as following his clan's ideas were positive, his self-centeredness tended to cause problems with others. Since the beginning of the story's serialization, Kishimoto planned to conclude the series with a fight between Sasuke and Naruto, but he was uncertain whether the characters would end up as friends or enemies.

Kishimoto wanted Naruto and Sasuke to seem like brothers and rivals, building on a mutual experience of childhood loneliness. In the series finale, Sasuke leaves on a solo journey; Kishimoto later stated that in addition to atonement, Sasuke wants to discover the origin of the final antagonist, but this was not explained in the story.

Reader's Guide

As the last survivor of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke's genius was inextricably linked to his tragedy. His arsenal is legendary, blending the ocular mastery of the Mangekyō Sharingan and Susanoo with the raw, piercing force of his signature Chidori. He later receives the Rinnegan from the spirit of Hagoromo, the Sage of the Six Paths. His defining arcs include his dramatic defection from Konoha, the shattering revelation of Itachi's true motives, and the climactic final battle with Naruto that finally broke the cycle of hatred. In the epilogue, Sasuke has reinvented himself as a wandering guardian, protecting the peace he helped forge while maintaining a quiet, distant life with his wife, Sakura, and daughter, Sarada.

Did You Know?

Kishimoto said the design of Sasuke and his Sharingan ability were influenced by the character Hiei in Yoshihiro Togashi's manga series YuYu Hakusho.
The final fight between Sasuke and Naruto took an entire month for the staff from Pierrot to adapt from the manga.
Kishimoto planned Sasuke and Sakura Haruno's romance early in Naruto's production.