sasuke
PersonalitySasuke as he appears in Part IIAfter his assignment to Team 7 at the start of the series, Sasuke displays an immediate confidence in his abilities. He is as such unwilling to work with his teammates, Naruto Uzumaki or Sakura Haruno, believing their skills to pale in comparison to his own and therefore making them useless if he is to ever kill Itachi.[12] These perceptions are quickly proven wrong, for despite their failings, Sakura is an excellent source of information and competition with Naruto acts as an effective way to get stronger.[13] While his confidence in himself is ever-present throughout the series, Sasuke slowly begins to rely on those close to him over the course of Part I. This begins to result in his risking his own life to save those of his friends, even though his death would leave him unable to gain vengeance on Itachi.[14] He becomes complacent with his life in Konohagakure, satisfied with the speed of his growth as a ninja.
Much like Itachi used the slaughter of the Uchiha clan to measure his ability, Sasuke uses his battles with the various characters he meets in Part I to gauge his increase in strength. Through his battles with Haku, Rock Lee, and Gaara, Sasuke is able to test his abilities against those of progressively stronger ninja, discover his weakpoints, and carry away something new from the battle. Once Naruto begins to prove his worth, Sasuke starts to yearn for a battle with him as well.[15] Naruto, however, gains strength at a much more rapid rate than Sasuke, even learning the Rasengan, an attack stronger than Sasuke's Chidori. This, coupled with Sasuke's quick defeat by Itachi during the Return of Itachi arc, leads Sasuke to believe his growth is slowing. In an attempt to reassess his strength, he begins to treat his friends as opponents so as to test his abilities against their own.Dissatisfied with his progress in Konoha and believing Orochimaru holds the keys to getting strong enough to kill Itachi, Sasuke defects from Konoha at the end of Part I.[17] Naruto, the character Sasuke comes to consider his closest friend, tries to stop him, but Sasuke only tries to kill Naruto, believing his friend's death will grant him the strength needed to kill Itachi.[11] He is ultimately unable to bring himself to kill Naruto, realizing that is what Itachi would want, and instead continues on to Orochimaru.[18] In the two-and-a-half years he spends with Orochimaru, Sasuke's goal to kill Itachi takes precedent above all else, such that he is willing to give his body to Orochimaru if it means gaining the strength he needs.[19] Sasuke also comes to abandon his loyalties to others once they are of no further use to him, turning against Orochimaru after reaching the conclusion he can learn nothing else of value.[20] While he pays no allegiance to his allies, old or new, in Part II, Sasuke cannot bring himself to harm those he has never met before, and makes it a point to prevent their deaths when possible.[21]
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