Sasuke Uchiha is one of the main characters in Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto series. Introduced at the very beginning of the series as a rival to Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke played an incredible role in the series moving forward. He started off as a rival to Naruto and, with time, Kishimoto explored his character a lot more. Consequently, Sasuke had his own motivations and ended up becoming arguably the best-written character in the story, alongside Naruto Uzumaki.
Sasuke is a character who, by the end of the series, becomes one of the very strongest. His character is way more complex than Naruto's and that's something that Kishimoto emphasized quite a lot throughout the series. Sasuke goes through many changes with time, and all of them are heavily linked to his tumultuous past.
The Beginning Of Sasuke's Journey
Sasuke Uchiha had greatness thrust upon him due to being born a member of the Uchiha clan. Especially, being born the son of the leader of the clan, Fugaku Uchiha, great things were expected from Sasuke from a very young age. What's more, Sasuke was Itachi's younger brother and the former was known to be a prodigy the likes of which even the adults of the Naruto world couldn't defeat in combat. Always being in his brother's shadow, Sasuke tried his best to live up to the expectations and, as it wasn't an easy task. He struggled quite a bit at it.
His life turned upside down when his brother, Itachi, decided to massacre the entire clan in a single night. When Sasuke returned home, the streets were littered with Uchiha bodies and at his house, he saw the dead bodies of his parents. Witnessing Itachi cruel side changed Sasuke forever. At first, it was quite difficult for him to grasp the fact that Itachi was behind this. However, with time, it sunk in. Furthermore, Itachi used the power of the Tsukuyomi to replay the events of the night in Sasuke's mind and made him watch it over and over again.
Being traumatized, Sasuke's childhood was full of pain. In a single night, his entire clan simply vanished and he was left alone. Still bearing the proud Uchiha Sharingan and carrying their sacred blood in his veins, Sasuke was still special and every single day, he worked towards a single goal – avenging his clan.
Sasuke And Itachi
Evidently, Sasuke's relationship with his brother changed his life drastically. As a child, he had loving memories of his brother. Despite living in his shadow, Sasuke always felt loved in his presence, and in his entire family, Itachi was the one who cared for him the most. Yet, Itachi also ended up becoming his worst nightmare when he killed the entire clan and defected from the village. Sasuke spent the majority of his childhood holding a grudge in his heart and growing stronger so that one day, he could avenge the death of his parents and clan members by murdering his brother, Itachi Uchiha.
Being a genius himself, strength came easy to Sasuke and this is something that even Kakashi noticed quite early in the series. Yet, the level of strength that Sasuke desired was something that wasn't so easy to acquire. As such, he sought strength through other ways. At the same time, Orochimaru, one of Naruto's greatest villains, took advantage of the fact that Sasuke desired strength and planned to use him for his own gains.
By giving him a taste of power, Orochimaru convinced Sasuke to leave the village and train him. Despite having a family to belong to in Konoha, Sasuke abandoned everything just so he could murder his brother and avenge the clan and, at the same time, erase the past that kept haunting him.
How Sasuke Became The Shadow Hokage
Being an Uchiha, Sasuke was inflicted with the Curse of Hatred as well. Furthermore, Sasuke was also the reincarnation of Indra, meaning that, in his case, the Curse of Hatred was extra powerful. After defecting from the village, Sasuke went down quite a dark path. While initially, his goal was just to murder Itachi and then most likely return to the village, things changed quite a bit when he found out the truth about his brother. Realizing that he was made to kill everyone by the village elders, Sasuke finally grieved for his brother and swore vengeance on all those who made his brother's life miserable.
The loss of his brother was finally felt by Sasuke and this led to the awakening of his Mangekyou Sharingan. With this power, Sasuke became more sinister than ever and swore to destroy the entire village including those who had nothing to do with Itachi's cruel fate. With time, Sasuke continued to go down an even darker path. It wasn't until he met all the former Hokage that he understood what it truly meant to be a Shinobi and why the sacrifices that his brother once made were his own mistakes.
Sasuke then aimed to become the Hokage of the village. However, his version of the Hokage was someone who protected from the shadows. He planned to become a major villain the existence of which would unite the entire Shinobi world out of fear. Thankfully, he was talked out of this idea by Naruto Uzumaki using his fists. After facing defeat at the hands of his best friend, Sasuke finally came to his senses and, since then, has spent his life supporting Naruto and his dream. In doing so, he has now become the Shadow Hokage of the village.