sasuke uchiha (Naruto) - INTJ
when typing, a lot of people forget that the individual functions work in tandem with each other in a single type - they donāt exist in a vacuum, but instead have relationships that sometimes compliment each other, and sometimes oppose each other, like sasuke and his Ni-Fi. sasuke is the single most distinguished and potent example of an unhealthy INTJ - the things this poor guy went through all for the sake of the āshinobi worldā is enough for the healthiest INTJ to only ever use Fi-Se; which is the exact problem we have with Sasuke. he isnāt an ISFP, but because of his use of Fi, overwhelming Fi loop and Se grip, a lot of people think he is.
sasukeās dominant Ni and auxiliary Te in early naruto:
sasuke is practically the poster kid for dominant Ni and auxiliary Te in early naruto. his immature dominant Ni at 12 years old was over-serious, perfectionistic, and was quite unrealistic in his beliefs and expectations. his auxiliary Te, however, walked the line between healthy and immature. sasuke strived for a well rounded goal, he was tenacious and disciplined in his training and in realising his goals. with a great work ethic, he learnt systematically from mistakes in every fight he found himself in, which made him highly efficient. his great work ethic teetered over into immature territory by having an excessive and perfectionistic pursuit of results. just think of his attitude towards the notion of naruto surpassing him and the amount of training he resorted to in an effort to make sure that this never happens, and to achieve his goal. his overindulgence in auxiliary Te also made him stiff and humourless, and seemingly addicted to training which thwarted any healthy Se expression he might have had, which carries on throughout his entire character arc. sasuke was always devoted entirely to whatever goal he had for the future, and present sensory experiences were completely overlooked by him; there is no way that Se could be his auxiliary function when he has practically zero healthy expression of it. if sasuke was indeed using Fi-Se as his dominant/auxiliary, he wouldnāt be as stand-offish or combative as he is toward naruto in the beginning. his dominant Fi would make him noticeably more attached to the uchiha massacre which would make him more outwardly emotional, and his auxiliary Se would let him live in the present moment and thus, not be as objective or calculating as his Te allows him to be - sasuke would be less meticulous in his training, and less high-strung about things and people in general.
development of Se grip and Fi loop in late naruto:
his goal (his entire reason for living, in his words) however, doesnāt come easy to him. towards the end of the original naruto, sasuke steadily becomes more and more distressed, with his sensory experiences plummeting from pleasant and stable with Team 7, to insecure and agonising (which ends up fostering his Se grip and Fi loop), his past is exposed which is sure to make him uncharacteristically vulnerable - the reappearance of itachi, orochimaru and his damning curse mark, and narutoās steady and quick growth all amalgamate into one glaring symbol of his own mental and physical decline. something important to note that this is all to himself, no one actually believes everything he thinks about himself, that he was weak on the night of the uchihaās massacre or that he will never have enough strength to defeat itachi, whatās significant to his state of mind at that point in the narrative is that he believes this, which is because of his Niās natural tendency to speculate on potential implications, and his Fi at work contemplating in times of stress for him. the top comment made by AsuraPsych said something I think should've put the ISFP/INTJ debate to rest already: āFi is a stress point for sasuke, not a point of natural strengthā.
because dominant Ni operates closest to the unconscious mind, Ni doms have an unhealthy tendency to overindulge in introspectivity, which leads sasuke to overthink and over-criticise himself. this is very indicative of the unhealthy relationship with his Ni-Fi - both of these functions participate in making him critical of his own actions as well as his own emotions. functions operate in opposition with each other; they push and pull against each-other which creates internal conflict. i donāt think anyone can disregard sasukeās internal conflict with Ni-Fi: his Ni is geared toward his future plans to defeat itachi, and notes its potential implications (like naruto getting so strong that he canāt get defeat him to unlock the mangekyo sharingan, which is where all of his hostility toward naruto comes from - watch the hospital fight and you literally can see the insecurity on his face), and his Fi is geared toward thinking about his traumatic past and is stuck making sense of the night of his clanās demise, which literally comes to fruition at the end of naruto shippuden when he explains he could never move forward in spite of the past holding him back; that's practically word for word the description of his Ni-Fi conflict.
sasuke responds terribly to the sensory experiences of the outside world (Se) and his own internal rumination (Fi), which makes him develop into an extremely unhealthy INTJ, this time with an Se grip and Fi loop in full swing. itās almost too apt that itachiās infinite tsukuyomi is what sends him hurtling into an Se grip, and later Fi loop. the tsukuyomi that itachi puts him in is a repeat of the night of the massacre, where he is forced to live through the worst experience he has ever had. the sasuke that returns to consciousness is no longer the sasuke we once knew, but a deeply cut, volatile shell of his former self. this is the first time the expression of his Fi changes this dramatically, the second is after finding out the truth about itachi. by the 107th episode, sasukeās Se grip is violently evident: he feels easily thwarted, provoked and distrubed. we see this in his refusal to listen to kakashiās advice, where instead lashes out at him with harsh words - this is also a very clear expression of Fi loop, where someoneās own conception of morals and beliefs will blind them to any opposing opinion, nuance or context. sasukeās previous use of Fi solely for personal rumination goes out the window, and is replaced by an unhealthy expression which shoots down any good advice as being too hard or too complicated. additionally, when naruto and sakura visit him in the hospital, he physically lashes out at sakura, who was only cutting him apples, and did nothing to provoke him. sasukeās Fi loop also causes him to have irrational fears about compromising himself or his integrity, and is easily frustrated about challenges (the primary one here being narutoās growth) which makes him take things way too personally. naruto was trying to receive acknowledgement from sasuke, but he took this as a show of hostile competition. coupled with his Se grip, it makes him uncharacteristically impatient and explosive, and the combination of the two causes him to challenge naruto to the fight on top of the hospital in an effort to try and salvage some sense of self and security.
sasuke finally succumbs to his overbearingly dominant Ni, unhealthy use of Fi, and Se grip, which makes him finally leave the leaf village. one of the defining features of dominant Ni is its ability to use idealistic impressions and symbolic imagery to set a direction. Ni as a function takes the abstract in and forms ideas on it. in children, this tends to manifest as being overly imaginative and insightful. paired with his piercing auxiliary Te, sasukeās decision to leave the village is based on the relationship of his Ni-Fi, and his Se grip gives him the push to leave with the sound ninja 4. sasukeās Ni uses idealistic impressions and symbolic imagery, such as naruto making a larger hole in the water tank using rasengan than him, to come up with judgements about the future. he rightfully determines that if he keeps on going as he is, naruto will surpass him in the near future, and he uses this to determine that he wonāt be able to beat itachi this way. from all of this, he ascertains that if he wants to get power, he must also venture into evil and hatred. the use of symbolic imagery in his thought processes is clear as well - sasuke sees itachi as the symbol of all hatred in the world, and sees orochimaru as the symbol of evil. his tertiary Fi kicks in strong as well, to support his decision to leave as well by evoking the memories of his clanās demise.
i think people are mistaking him for an Fi dom in his childhood because of how introspective he is, but Ni is easily misunderstood as being very impersonal, which it is not. applied to oneself, a dominant Ni becomes a powerful tool of self-assessment, which is exactly how sasuke uses it at age 12. a lot of his thought process isnāt recognised, and i think that this much more pronounced in the anime - because sasuke doesnāt have an internal monologue outside of battle strategy like naruto does, the viewer is left to gage what he is thinking a lot of the time, which is why people may find it hard to recognise his dominant Ni.
stable expression of Ni-Te under orochimaruās guidance and as leader of hebi/taka:
under orochimaruās guidance sasuke devotes himself to training, which allows his Ni-Te to shut down his Se (orochimaruās hideout isnāt really a place that stimulates his Se), therefore itās easy for him to completely disregard any sensory inclinations he has: he spends his time training and meditating - which no doubt strengthens his use of Ni-Fi. his Ni and Fi work in tandem making him committed to his goal. he begins to develop his Fi here - he follows a strict code of āno killing innocentsā to be actively against what itachi did, and declares his hatred for orochimaru for the same reason he hates itachi before he kills him. whilst his expression of Fi helps him uphold his morals, this doesnāt mean it is his dominant function. iām beginning to think that people are deliberately ignoring how much Ni-Te that sasuke actually uses. from the beginning of his introduction to us we learn he has an āambitionā, that he doesnāt care to call a ādreamā, because he knows he is going to bring it to fruition one day, which he does, through his Ni making him resort to meticulous internal planning and excessive, austere training. sasukeās dominant Ni gives him an unequivocal understanding of what his goal is and the easiest route he can take to make it happen.
INTJs use Ni-Te to see the consequences of the application of new ideas, and live to see systems translated into real substance. we see this in the formation of hebi - sasuke uses Te to be an assertive leader who is very terse and dominating in organising the group to reach his goal in the most efficient way possible. he says that over the 2 years he was with orochimaru, he paid attention to different shinobi and selected suigetsu, karin and jugo based on how he could use their individual abilities to get to his goal. there is no instant whatsoever where sasuke isnāt taking charge of the situation as the leader of hebi, or isnāt using his Ni-Te to gage the next move he should make, and how he should combat problems that he is presented with. dominant Ni is fundamentally focused inwards, on the internal world of thoughts, ideas, and concepts, as opposed to dominant Fi, which is fundamentally focused on personal ideals, morals, and emotional understanding of oneself. the only time that sasuke prioritises Fi over Ni is when he is trying to come to terms with the uchiha massacre and the truth about itachi. a weak argument to support sasuke having a dominant Fi is that all of his actions are driven by his feelings, however this isnāt true. his trauma and emotion, as well as the seed of hatred that itachi planted and sowed in him is what drives him. his feelings act as a mere catalyst to reach his end goal, but every action he takes, and his natural thought processes are certainly driven by Ni. sasuke is far too stunted and close-minded in his outward expression of feelings or authenticity for him to be an Fi dom - they donāt come naturally to him at all, but act as a hindrance to his mental stability - which only gets worse after he finds out about itachi.
instances of Ni-Te in sasukeās battle strategy:
this isnāt part of the analysis, but i wanted to add that sasukeās Ni-Te is also observable in his fight style, which i thought was interesting to pick up on. his Ni foresees his opponents moves: he consistently used lightning style throughout his fight against itachi to heat up the atmosphere so that by the time he is out of chakra, he knows he still has kirin left as a final move. sasukeās Ni-Te is also merciless in clearing ramifications so that he can reach his goal; he literally asks karin to stand still whilst he sacrifices her by piercing through her heart to kill danzo using chidori spear. his Te systematically learns from mistakes, which makes him highly efficient in battle. in his final battle against naruto (part 1) he recalls that two chidori is his limit so resorts to another method of defeating naruto; in his final fight against naruto (part 2) he knows that using shadow clones are narutoās preferred way to fight so he stops him making the hand sign around 4 different times before he can complete the jutsu.
