Sasuke & the Uchiha Clan: An Analysis
Chapter 6
Keep Your Hands Off My Eyes
One form of Sasuke’s over-protectiveness of his clan emerged in exclusionary possessiveness of his clan’s genetic dojutsu. Sasuke wasn’t the only Uchiha to feel protective possessiveness of the Sharingan: other Uchiha did as well, as clanmates complained about Kakashi’s possession of the Sharingan, believing that it shouldn’t belong to an outsider.
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Even Itachi felt similar, seeing as how he challenged Kakashi’s possession of the Sharingan, questioning where Kakashi’s loyalties fell, as if Kakashi merely possessing the Sharingan should mandate loyalty to the Uchiha clan.
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Kakashi’s possession of the Sharingan evidently bothered Sasuke, seeing as how Sasuke later challenged Kakashi about possessing the Sharingan, howling that Kakashi had no right to possess the Sharingan eye.
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The first time I watched the series, I assumed that Kakashi had probably killed one of Sasuke’s clanmates and taken their eye as a sort of war trophy (though I had guessed/hoped that Kakashi had a good reason for killing a member of the Uchiha, although I had the nagging sense that the story of how Kakashi acquired a Sharingan probably was a sketchy or shady one). If I assumed that before I heard the story of Obito and Kakashi, one can assume that Sasuke guessed at something similar to my own assumption, possibly assuming that Kakashi had killed one of his kin and taken the Sharingan as a prize of victory.
Of course, one must fault Sasuke for not asking about the matter. If Sasuke was bothered by Kakashi’s possession of the Sharingan, he should have confronted his sensei about it and asked Kakashi directly how he acquired the Sharingan. Sasuke may have assumed that either Kakashi wouldn’t tell the story (which admittedly is probably true) or that knowing the truth would only upset him more and so learning the truth wasn’t worth it (just as Sasuke doesn’t listen to Danzo’s story about how he got the Sharingan, as Sasuke states that it will only make him angrier than he already is). Still, it doesn’t excuse Sasuke’s lack of action on this matter: if Sasuke was bothered by Kakashi’s Sharingan, he should have brought that to Kakashi’s attention instead of bitterly stewing over it, so Sasuke is at fault here. Although Kakashi could have explained how he obtained a Sharingan without prompt from his student or waiting for his pupil to speak up. After all, it should be easy for Kakashi to guess that Sasuke was going to be troubled by one of his teammates possessing a body part of one of his lost kin.
It’s possible that Kakashi snaring a Sharingan for himself hadn’t bothered Sasuke until Sasuke had witnessed Danzo flaunting the eyes of Sasuke’s nakama on his own arm. That kind of horrifying shock would twist one psychological state, resulting in distrust and trauma, particularly in a teenager. How do you think most ninja would react to seeing the body parts of their comrades used by an enemy they passionately hate? My guess? Probably not too well. Saying Kakashi had caught Sasuke at a bad time in the Five Kage Summit arc is a massive understatement. Sasuke had just witnessed his most hated enemy flaunting the eyes of his clan as trophies, using his beloved brethren’s eyes to serve his own wicked purposes. When Kakashi arrived, Sasuke was still seething with fury and rage, burning up with it, and Sasuke hadn’t had a chance to cool down yet by the time of Kakashi’s arrival.
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Those eyes embedded in Danzo’s arms could have been the eyes of people Sasuke knew, talked to, was related to, was friends with, etc. That’s incredibly disconcerting and would be disgusting to most people, especially to a teenager, to have the body part of a comrade stolen and used by someone you view as a vile enemy.
Anyway, some might view Sasuke as being a snobby, elitist jerk by declaring that Kakashi has no right to the Sharingan eye
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But is such sentiment snobby and arrogant, though, to think that only the Uchiha clan alone deserves the Sharingan? Maybe.
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Then again, is it so snobby or elitist to dislike your clanmates’ body parts being treated as spoils of war for anyone to swipe up as they please?
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Take it from Sasuke’s perspective: he doesn’t have any clue as to how Kakashi ever acquired a Sharingan, only that Sasuke’s clan and only his clan possesses the Sharingan, which means that Kakashi has an eyeball of one of Sasuke’s kin.
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We the fanbase have a bird’s eye view of the story, so we know that the Sharingan eye was an eloquent, considerate expression of friendship from Obito. Of course we know the Sharingan eye that Kakashi possesses indeed rightfully belongs to Kakashi and no one else. But Sasuke doesn’t know that story.
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Besides, what about the ethics of taking a dojutsu not willingly given by its user? I can’t say I find stealing another’s eye to be particularly morally upstanding per se. “All’s fair in love and war” as the saying goes, yet it doesn’t seem particularly morally upstanding to steal someone’s eyes unless the user personally expressed the wish that a particular person should inherit those eyes, like how Itachi wanted Sasuke to have his eyes (at least he did according to Obito, the not-always-most-trustworthy-source-of-news, though I assume Obito was correct in that instance) or how Obito desired for Kakashi to have his Sharingan eye.
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It can’t help but make me think of Ao flaunting the Byakugan eye of some poor long-dead Hyuga, who had their Byakugan ripped out of their head while they were still living, likely just before being killed (the Byakugan can only be transferred while its user is still alive; once a Hyuga is dead the power of the Byakugan eye fades and is lost, and seeing as how none of the nations knew of Ao possessing a Hyuga’s eye, not even the Land of Fire, it’s safe to assume that the original owner never made it back home to report his confiscated eye). That Hyuga individual probably never wanted Ao to have his eye, so it seems morally dubious to have people stealing and using eyes that the user would have never wanted them to have. Maybe I’m being overly biased and siding with the snobbery arrogance of the Uchiha clan, but I can sympathize with why the Uchiha clan would be hacked at “outsiders” flaunting their genetic gift of a dojutsu, seeing as how it means stealing the body part of their kin. And it’s not even just the Uchiha clan for me; if one of the Hyuga were shown to be hacked at Ao (if the Hyuga actually ever dared to do anything worthy of note) or demand that their dojutsu be returned to them, I would find that emotional outburst understandable and sympathetic. Particularly considering that whomever Ao stole the Byakugan from probably had some living relatives in Konoha still, maybe parents, a spouse, children, or siblings – who knows?
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While to a degree Sasuke’s sentiment that Kakashi doesn’t deserve the Sharingan is wrongly elitist, arrogant, and indicates a superiority complex and selfishly possessive Uchiha snobbery, I believe it also stems from hurt and insult that someone is wearing one of his kin’s eyes like a trophy. So it’s not difficult to understand why the sight of Kakashi flaunting the eye of a dead comrade and clanmate is such a triggering sight to Sasuke and why he goes ballistic at the sight of it.