#ranty post

His jutsu repertoire is hilariously poor (he didn’t invent Sword Totsuka and Mirror Yata, for fuck’s sake; he found them somewhere; it’s literally mentioned twice in the manga in the same battle by Orochimaru and Zetsus; why’s there even a discourse around this?). No inventions. None! No improvements on any jutsus. No renovations of any sorts that’d add even the tiniest bit of credibility to his supposed “talents”. No use of the jutsus in creative ways to make his battles interesting, clever, or remarkable. Zero decent strategist feats. Literally zero, save his breakdown of the Rinnegans’ vision connectedness between all the paths; however, Bee figured that out just as easily, so it isn’t a great show of intelligence to begin with as Bee is a brute-force fighter, not an intelligent fighter which is why Kisame managed to trick him very easily.

Not one throwaway mention of even half-decent military intel in the entire manga (Jiraiya got killed because of Itachi’s comically poor intelligence work on Pain and his abilities, a man he’d been sealing Bijūs with since he was 13 years old); his double-spy game isn’t as complicated as you think it is as he was given free access to all the Uchiha Meetings: he was Fugaku’s son and his future heir! The Akatsuki “spying”? Not even one half-hearted attempt at sabotaging the Akatsuki and their plans in any way. Yes, not a single one. What was he doing all that time in that organization? Sitting with a thumb up his ass? What was even the purpose of that venture? The manga makes no mention of it, though he did dedicate a massive amount of attention to the mental and physical tortures he put Sasuke through—over and over again—going as far as to leaving him with life-threatening injuries; and had Obito not found him, he’d have literally succumbed to his injuries. No, that isn’t an exaggeration, but a fact that’s parroted by not one, not two, not three, but four different characters: Obito and Zetsu amongst themselves; Obito to Sasuke; Jūgo to Sasuke; and Sasuke confirming Jūgo’s statements. How nice? Itachi’s a fucking clown, a goddamn bozo from start to finish.

Moving on from that very obvious comical aspect of Itachi’s “loving brother” shtick, people cite his Anbu Captain status as if it’s some huge deal that ought to knock your knickers off, but Anbu isn’t a rank, and Genins are recruited all the time into Anbu. So he could’ve easily been leading a squad of Genins or Chūnin. Am I supposed to be impressed? He himself was never a Jōnin. How do I know this? He has literally zero A rank missions and just one S rank one, which we know was the massacre. And Jōnins are specifically assigned to A and S-rank missions. He was so skilled that they entrusted him with zero A-Rank missions? Sure, Jan! Here’s a canon fact that many conveniently gloss over: his quick promotions happened due to war-times. It’s mentioned thrice in the manga, especially in the first two panels (1 & 2) of Kakashi Gaiden. Mikoto also mentions it. Even the novel backs this up, albeit it’s non-canon:

Kakashi, Itachi, Sannin were all allowed to early graduate during war time (something which happens in our militaries, as well). Consider this quote from the Itachi Novel # 2 (Kakashi speaks first):

“When I graduated, it was in the middle of the Great War, and they needed ninjas. The situation’s different now.”

Now that Kakashi mentioned it, the current system at the academy was different from how it had been when Itachi graduated. The Great War and its aftereffects still lingered when he graduated. Because of that, once his actual abilities were recognized, he was skipped ahead, leading to his early graduation. But now that it was a time of peace, the Hokage was determined that ninjas must be carefully cultivated over a number of years, and it was no longer possible to graduate in a short time, as it had been in the past. Thus, no matter how talented Sasuke was, he couldn’t become a ninja until he was eleven years old.

Remember, Jiraiya of all the people graduated even earlier than Itachi, and he was never a prodigy. And Sasuke? Orochimaru himself states that Sasuke was well ahead of him in regard to talent when he was his age, so the graduation age doesn’t mean anything, especially since that’s all you have on you. I mean, why’s he called a prodigy? He learns things quicker? Not at all. Sasuke’s jutsu learning, inventing, and renovating speed is hyperbolically faster than Itachi’s. Who can match some kid who deconstructed Sage’s best jutsu on his first try when no one, not even the Sage, ever did that; completely changed the workings of the outer path on this first try (something which even the Sage couldn’t do); invented Indra’s jutsus on the battlefield? How can Itachi compare to any of this?

Heck, Obito is way more talented than Itachi. You know, the very same Obito who bullied Minato (who won due to pure dumb luck as he never analyzed Intangibility fully; every other person who faced this ability after him, including Sakura, did), dragged Kurama out of Kushina, and wrecked havoc on Konoha at the age of 14? Who created the Bloody Mist single-handedly? Who controlled and monitored Akatsuki, and Itachi was oh so smart that he kept believing that Obito was Madara? Who learned all Rinnegan abilities at such a young age? Yes, Obito, fellas! The very same who humiliated Kakashi at every turn in spite of the fact that he had the backing of Gated Gai and KCM/BM Naruto; the same Kakashi who had to be powered up by Kurama to counter Obito’s Intangibility with Obito’s ability (I’m sorry, but this guy’s too pathetic, a leftover king to the end); the same Kakashi who was tricked into removing the seal on Obito’s heart, placed by Madara (bad Madara, bad!); and the very same who had to be possessed at the end by Obito’s Sage’s senjutsu-drenched spirit yet again to even matter against Kaguya. That same Obito was in awe of Sasuke and the talents and power he possessed; he fought the entire Great War for Sasuke and took every conceivable measure to keep him safe, going as far as to make a deal with the devil, Kabuto, which I’d elaborate on later. Even when you think some other character is the center of some plot or is in the spotlight, it’s not. It’s always Sasuke. Always! So if you are considering the “praises”, which are mostly vacuous, for other characters, you better do so for Sasuke, as well; as unlike these praises, the ones for Sasuke are never without any feat or context.

(As a much-needed aside, that battle with Kabuto didn’t go as you all think it did; Itachi didn’t save Sasuke’s “ass” or whatever, but instead, he got informed once, then twice, then thrice about the basics of the battle. How genius! Then he got saved once, then twice, then thrice, then the fourth time! Had Sasuke not stopped Kabuto, Itachi's fuda would've been rewritten six times in the fight! Sure, Jan! Don’t you just love it when people make stuff up and then pass it on in droves just to put a cartoon down?)

What about the Jutsus? Why’s there any discourse on Sasuke not being a prodigy when his Jutsu arsenal is more than Itachi, Obito, and Madara’s combined, with innovations (in regard to use and/or renovation) on every single one of them, and more than half of them are his own inventions? He’s the best Raiton user by a long shot (Kakashi can’t even use the long version, Raikiri Chain, with one hand, a show of poor control) who tamed nature without the use of chakra (only Kaguya is shown to do this); can wield a Raiton sword in his hard; in fact, create spears, senbons, swords, and bows and arrows out of it. The only Shinobi in the entire manga to create an entire weaponry system out of pure chakra, without the use of weapon; not one type, but two: Raiton and Enton. Heck, he even did that for Enton, a sword which was made out of pure Enton which he held in his hand, which he then used to dispatch Jūbi clones and save Sakura’s neck for the umpteenth time.

Who’s got better grasp on ninjutsu, senjutsu, and their combinations than Sasuke, someone who took in Orochimaru, an entire sentient being, and used his abilities when he hadn’t even learned them, all the while he kept him suppressed without ever losing control; how’s Sakura, heck anyone, ever praised for this when you’ve got Sasuke right there who did something no one has even attempted in the manga? The Bijū example doesn’t fit here as they’re kept inside the Jinchūriki through powerful seals that help contain them, and still, only 3 perfect Jinchūrikis ever existed, if you exclude the Sage; Sasuke never used a seal on himself to contain Orochimaru; he did that through chakra control and chakra control alone; and you have to do an entire training regimen to harness their powers whilst Sasuke did that without any training whatsoever. It took Bee all his teenage and twenties to reach the Perfect Jinchūriki status; Yagura some unknown amount of time; and Naruto through the combined effort of Kushina, who literally held Kurama down with chains and purified its chakra out of Naruto’s body, and Bee taking on two lethal hits on Naruto’s behalf; otherwise, he’d have perished over 5 times during the start of the battle alone. How’s this not an unprecedented display of talent from Sasuke that he suppressed, controlled, and used the abilities of a sentient being, one of the most powerful and brilliant men in all Naruto-verse history, without any use of seal, training, or any other external factor?

What about Senjutsu? Sasuke mastered the Heaven Cursed Seal, which is the best seal in the entire manga (Orochimaru created only two of these, and Sasuke’s was Heaven to Kimimaro’s Earth seal), in only an hour when the seal not only corded his chakra and sanity but it also ate into his chakra, as well, and caused him immense pain.

What about the handling of vast volumes of chakra in a way no one ever has? Sasuke, when he took the chakra out of the sleeping tailed beasts via outer path’s one and only deconstruction in canon, never absorbed the chakra into his own body: he transformed it and applied spatial and elemental re-composition to it outside his body. Which other shinobi has done that? No one, only Kaguya. What about handling two abilities, Enton and Chidori, in a single hand and without combining them together, a clash that took out his arm at the end? Who has ever done this save Kaguya? And I can go on and on and on, and still there’d be so many of these impossibly prodigious shows of feats that no one has come even close to matching, and Sasuke’s only 17 at the manga’s end. Just a kid! No one in the entire manga compares to this. Not Kakashi. Not Minato. And certainly not Itachi. And none of the praises that have been given to Sasuke happen in a vacuum: they’ve always, without failure, followed some incredible feat of strategy, invention, renovation, etc. Not empty praises for the aforementioned lot, but ones with context about them. (Even Danzō praised Sasuke for his genius in ninjutsu, strategy and battle cleverness, for crying out loud. Danzō!, but not you lot, apparently; you can see the full breakdown of how Sasuke figured out Izanagi here.) Heck, Obito’s Intangibility was figured out in record time by Sasuke (so quickly that it’s absurd), when Minato never figured out the whole thing; it took Torune and Fuu to figure it out together; and Sakura and the entire platoon took several minutes (with Kakashi’s Sharingan, Hinata’s Byakugan, and Shino’s Sensing at their disposal) to figure it out that their attacks slip through. Sasuke did that with just one swing of the sword. That’s it, just one! We know this when Sasuke explicitly mentions it here; and that’s a call back to this.

And coming back to Obito again to elaborate on my Kabuto point from earlier, as well: Obito had nothing but the greatest praises for Sasuke’s prodigiousness; his entire Infinite Tsukuyomi plan hinged on Sasuke being connected to the Gedō Mazō through the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, not even the Rinnegan. That's why Nagato was helping Obito. And that's why Kabuto wanted Sasuke. Sasuke was the bargaining chip for the entire war! I’ve already made a detailed post on that, but that's how good and powerful Sasuke and his Sharingan was that even before EMS, his eyes had surpassed Nagato's. Obito was A-OK with the entire Akatsuki being gone as long as he had Sasuke. That's how valuable Sasuke's eyes and talents are, not only to Obito but also to Nagato. Nagato was practically keeping track of Sasuke's progress with his Sharingan. Obito was repeatedly in awe of Sasuke's talent with the Sharingan. Not even mentioning Itachi's, or anyone else’s for that matter.

This came as a surprise to no one as way back in part i, Orochimaru admitted at the Forest of Death that Sasuke had a better Sharingan and more talent to control it compared to Itachi’s, and he only had One Tomoe at this point, not even two, let alone three Tomoes (1 & 2). He called also Sasuke an unmatched genius later on and even praised his control of senjutsu chakra and the casual ease with which he mastered it. And Kabuto? He was mocking Itachi the whole time during his battle with the Uchiha Siblings, and calling him a liar. He called Sasuke his compensation for war ; no, it’s true, because the whole Great War was fought for Sasuke. (You wish your favs were even half as important!) He brought Edo Madara out to blackmail Obito into making sure Sasuke was handed over to him after the war. Need I say more?

So can we just fucking stop with the “Sasuke’s a hard-worker and not a prodigy” bullshit that many Sasuke fans keep peddling? Why do you want to undermine his one-of-a-kind talents? It’s not canon as Sasuke’s not just talented like many talented shinobi in the manga, he’s unrealistically prodigious, a prodigy of prodigies, as no one can just invent something out of thin air without learning anything first, and this kid showed-up Hagaromo of all the people that even Kurama was struck dumb, and Kurama has never stated that about anyone; however, Sasuke has shown to accomplish just that time and time again, without failure, wholly consistently. Heck, he literally invented a Fuinjutsu Seal at the drop of a hat to draw out Orochimaru from Anko, something which he’d never learned nor seen: Kakashi used it here and Sasuke, here; and before you say that they’re the same, then look with your eyes fully open as the handseals aren’t even the same. What do you call this feat if not bullshit level of prodigiousness? He copied, learned, and mastered Lee’s Taijutsu in a single day and created a new jutsu out of it just for the heck of it, to add insult to the injury. Gai, very explicitly, states that even with a Sharingan what Sasuke did was impossible! And that was way back in Part i. Lee’s years’ worth of training? Sasuke bridged that gap in under a week (he was in comma for most of the month, remember?).

What have you people been reading? Sasuke isn’t meant to show hard-work. What the fuck?! He’s a character that shows remoteness in every way imaginable. Why else do you think the rest chased after him to catch up? Why do you think he’s Indra’s chosen champion? I’m sorry, but I’ve got to chuckle at this as this isn’t even remotely true. Sasuke huffing and puffing when he was 6 doesn’t mean he wasn’t one of a kind when a) he was neglected by everyone and b) no one had put him through a regimen that’d have honed his talents. When he got all that, he sped ahead of everyone with a sort of talent that’d take anyone decades to match up (a good illustration of it was Kakashi’s training method for Naruto: one leaf per tree, and still, he could barely cut a single leaf, after he’d amassed decades of experience through his clones; Kakashi himself took years to learn Fuinjutsu, which Orochimaru called to our attention back in part i; and Sasuke just ... invented one, without training and at half Kakashi’s age.)

All shinobis put in the work, hard work to train, invent, and improve. That doesn’t mean all of them are hard-workers. Indra must’ve trained, too, but that doesn’t mean that he was a “hard-worker” in a traditional sense. No, he was exceptional and so are his chosen champions, Madara included. (And Tobirama begrudgingly admitted that Sasuke, who’s less than half Madara’s age at this point, reminded him of Madara, a man who made him shit bricks day and night in abject terror, to the point that he created an entire fascist apparatus to curb his involvement in the clan and that of his followers; pay attention, for the love of God; he even praised his exceptional chakra control and ninjutsu skills, as he stated that he’d never seen such flame control before, and this is the man that spent nearly all his life on the battlefield!) Maybe you need to read the manga properly and stop this display of “relatability” shit you lot desperately try to sneak into your posts. Sasuke isn’t relatable. He’s not meant to be. The sooner you realize that he’s larger than life, the better your life and analyses would be.