The Susanoo is an extremely powerful jutsu that is very prominent across the latter half of Naruto. This jutsu belongs to the Uchiha clan and its power is such that it allows them to contend with the mightiest of ninjas of the world. Although not as iconic as some other techniques in the story, the Susanoo is still one that features very heavily across the entirety of Naruto and makes its way even into Boruto.
This Jutsu is tremendously overpowered and only a handful of people are capable of using it. Over the years, Kishimoto introduced several users of the Susanoo to the fans, however, not all of them are equally adept at using this power.
What Is The Susanoo?
The Susanoo is a jutsu that is believed to be the trump card of the Mangekyo Sharingan. When a user awakens the Mangekyo Sharingan, they gain individual abilities in each eye, in most cases. Although these abilities are believed to be incredibly powerful, they are not the strongest asset of this eye. The strongest power of the Mangekyo Sharingan is the Susanoo. However, to activate the Susanoo, one must have awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan in both their eyes. If the conditions are met, the user can then access the Susanoo, which is, simply put, a humanoid construct of chakra that the user creates around their bodies.
This humanoid that is made out of the chakra of the user then goes on to fight on their behalf, offering them tremendous power in combat. The size of the Susanoo is colossal and it offers both offensive and defensive powers. In fact, the Susanoo is often believed to be the ultimate form of defense in the world of Naruto, although it can be broken through. At the same time, the offensive capabilities of the Susanoo are great enough to slice mountains apart, which puts into perspective how tremendous this power really is. Not everyone in the world of Naruto can use this power, however, it is somewhat common among the stronger members of the Uchiha Clan.
The First Susanoo
The Susanoo was not mentioned in the story until much later, when Sasuke took on his brother, Itachi, in a fight. This power made its way into the story in the second half and it offered fans a brand new perspective of what the visual prowess of the Uchiha can do. When Itachi had his back against the wall during the fight against his brother, he unleashed the power of the Susanoo for the very first time. During the fight, Sasuke had planned to kill Itachi with the power of Kirin, a powerful jutsu that he had developed as a surefire means to kill Itachi. However, much to his surprise, Itachi had other ideas.
As soon as Sasuke tried this technique, Itachi tapped into the power of his Susanoo. For the very first time, fans saw Itachi develop a giant construct of orange chakra around him. The Uchiha was clad in armor and offered great protection to him. Sasuke's Kirin was completely deflected off of it and, at that point, the former felt like he had lost a battle as he didn't have anything else up his sleeve. Thankfully for him, Itachi did not intend to kill him and parted ways with him soon after. However, he didn't do so before giving fans a glimpse of this tremendous power which would then go on to become very prominent later on in the story.
After Itachi's magnificent display of this power, Sasuke awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan and fans got to see more of it through him and other Uchiha, such as Madara.
The Perfect Susanoo
While Itachi displayed a very powerful version of the Susanoo, his technique was not perfected yet. This has to do with the fact that Itachi was not at the peak of his powers around the time that he died and his eyes had been damaged to quite a significant degree. Itachi could only manifest a portion of the powers of the Susanoo and still be as menacing as he was. However, the true power of the Susanoo can only be tapped into once the eyes don't strain the user too much. Madara Uchiha, one of the legendary members of the Uchiha clan, was the first one to show fans what a perfect Susanoo looks like.
During the Fourth Great Ninja War, fans got to see Madara clash against the Five Kage, where he decided to tap into the power of his Susanoo. Much to the surprise of the fans, his Susanoo was absolutely massive and it towered above mountain ranges. A single slash from the sword of his Susanoo was powerful enough to absolutely destroy multiple mountains at the same time. The Susanoo was powerful enough to fight and defeat a Tailed Beast, which puts into perspective the amount of destructive power that it holds. The Perfect Susanoo carries multiple swords and, at the same time, it can also fly. It can wipe out towns and cities with rather ease and is, simply put, destructive in its very nature.
Of course, it also offers superior protection to the user, however, it also burns more chakra. The Perfect Susanoo has been seen to be strong enough to slice meteors apart, which just goes to show that this is one of the strongest powers in the entirety of Naruto. So far, fans have seen very few users of the Perfect Susanoo, however, when choosing among the very strongest in the series, the Perfect Susanoo certainly is one to consider.
Who Had The Strongest Susanoo?
When comparing the many Susanoo that fans saw in the manga, the Perfect Susanoo certainly comes out on top. Fans saw many versions of this technique over the course of the years and there are a few that deserve a shout for the strongest Susano. One of them is, of course, Madara's Perfect Susanoo, however, there are better versions of the Perfect Susanoo that fans saw later on in the story.
For instance, Kakashi's Perfect Susanoo was simply impossible to take on in combat. With the power of Kamui, any attack would phase through his body and his spacetime ninjutsu was incorporated into Susanoo through weapons such as the Kamui Shuriken. What's more, this Susanoo was strong enough to fight against the likes of Kaguya Otsutsuki and wound her, which just goes to show that it was in a league of its own. Another powerful Susanoo that fans saw was that of Itachi, despite it being incomplete. This is down to the fact that Itachi's Susanoo held ethereal weapons of the Totsuka Blade and the Yata Mirror. Using the blade, Itachi could trap anyone in a world of genjutsu for all eternity and using the Yata Mirror, he could deflect any and all attack thrown at him without fail. These two weapons made his Susanoo invincible, however, it is unclear how well this power would hold against the stronger Perfect Susanoo that appear later in the story.
Of course, out of all the Susanoo that fans saw, the one that shines the most is Sasuke's humanoid Susanoo that he used in his fight against Naruto. By using the Perfect Susanoo, Sasuke then managed to turn it into a vessel for Tailed Beast chakra. In essence, he used it similar to the Gedo Statue. This feat was so incredibly ridiculous that Kurama compared it to that of the Sage of Six Paths.
After absorbing that chakra, Sasuke grew so overpowered that even the Kurama Avatar powered by Six Paths Sage Mode was not any match for him in combat. In terms of pure strength, this Susanoo is, by far, the strongest that the fans have seen in the story as it takes the art beyond all levels. Sadly, fans only got to see it once and it has never appeared in the story ever after, despite being iconic and one of the strongest abilities that Kishimoto introduced into his story.