Application - Cape & Cowl
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Alex
AGE: 26
JOURNAL: ikeabana
IM: idek_man @ AOL
E-MAIL: charginmalaysia@gmail.com
RETURNING: N/A
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Sasuke Uchiha
FANDOM: Naruto
CHRONOLOGY: I'm going to say shortly before chapter 367, when Sasuke and his team are traveling around looking for Itachi at various hideouts.
CLASS: Anti-Hero teetering near the precipice of Anti-Villainy. Sasuke chucked his dog tags immediately. If he wasn't going to wear an ID for Orochimaru I don't think anyone else can convince him to.
SUPERHERO NAME: N/A
ALTER EGO: Sasuke Uchiha, perfectly ordinary teenager. PERFECTLY. ORDINARY.
BACKGROUND:
The world of Naruto is one at once alien and strangely familiar. It's inhabited by human beings, and its general technology level is similar to 21st-century Earth, but in most other ways the countries the series is set in are most similar to feudal-era Japan.
Oh, yeah. And there are ninja. Ninja with super powers.
Sasuke was born in a village of such ninja, called Konoha. A scion of the Uchiha clan, famed throughout the land for their skill in battle and Visine Sharingan eyes, he seemed to have a bright and happy future ahead of him. He had a mother and older brother who loved him very much, and a father who was...pretty gruff and distant, and constantly compared him to his brother Itachi, but still cared. Sasuke's dream in life was to join the Konoha Military Police, like his father and many of his fellow clansmen.
Then one day (from his perspective) his brother flipped out and killed all the other Uchiha for no reason. He left a young Sasuke alone and traumatized and struggling, vainly, to understand what had happened. Eventually the painfully polite and cheerful young boy disappeared, to be replaced with somebody far older than his age would suggest. Somebody focused on revenge.
As the last Uchiha (at least the only one not an internationally-wanted criminal), Sasuke of course enrolled in Konoha's ninja academy. He first met the boy named Naruto Uzumaki as a student much like himself...except where Sasuke had trained relentlessly to hone himself into a weapon, Naruto was the class "dead-last". They first met in a sparring session where Sasuke easily demolished Naruto, and their rivalry had been set ever since.
Sasuke eventually graduated near the top of his class (somehow he got beaten to the top slot by Ino. Freakin' Ino. Craziness!) and was assigned to Team 7. With Naruto. And Sakura, one of his many mysteriously-acquired fangirls (not the first and certainly not the last). They were lead/taught by Hatake Kakashi, the only other person publicly known in Konoha with a Sharingan because a friend gave it to him. Uhm, ew.
While they started out doing traditional grunt-work like catching stray cats, Team 7 eventually graduated to doing real ninja stuff like protecting people from assassinations. Then came the Chunin Exams, where ninja from all the villages came and tried to murder each other for the right to a promotion. In front of a live stadium audience. No, really.
It was during the exams that he was bitten by Orochimaru, a legendary criminal who also used to be a Konoha ninja. Orochimaru wanted the Sharingan eyes for himself, and since he was too much of a wimp unable to take Itachi's that left Sasuke. The bite implanted a Curse Seal designed to warp Sasuke's mind to Orochimaru's purposes while making him stronger. Sasuke got to see first-hand how far behind he was getting during the exams, especially after meeting Itachi again and getting slapped around like a red-headed stepchild.
So when Orochimaru sent some guys to escort Sasuke to him, Sasuke leapt at the chance. Naruto went to stop him, which reminded Sasuke of something his brother had told him once: if he wanted to evolve his Sharingan, he had to kill his best friend first. Naruto certainly qualified; Team 7 was the family Naruto never had and that Sasuke had desperately wanted. Sure, they bickered (a lot) and fought but at the end of the day all three of them had become important to Sasuke. So important, in fact, that he had nearly lost sight of his revenge until Itachi forcefully mind-screwed him tore that wound wide open reminded him of it. Sasuke almost killed him, too...but at the last second he remembered that Itachi was a giant lying jerkface. So why the hell would he do what his brother clearly wanted? He left Naruto alive, but battered, and became Orochimaru's apprentice.
Three years later and Orochimaru was nearly ready to possess Sasuke's body. And Naruto, incredibly, still hadn't given up on his friend. Sasuke had been okay with this, because he knew Orochimaru would kill Itachi for his own revenge. Did it really matter how he was killed as long as he was dead? Eventually, however, Sasuke realized that he had become stronger than Orochimaru. Allowing the snake to possess him after that point would have been an insult to the Uchiha clan. So of course he killed (and absorbed) his former mentor without even a twinge of regret or pity.
Sasuke then formed a team of former Orochimaru test subjects, and set out to find his brother. They might have all had their own selfish reasons for helping; Suigetsu wanted to collect swords (including the one belonging to Itachi's partner), Jugo was only able to control his murderous impulses when Sasuke was around, and Karin was Sasuke's creepy obsessed stalker. Still, they made a surprisingly good team.
Unfortunately they weren't much help when Sasuke ran into one of Itachi's associates named Deidara alone. They did come running when they saw the nuclear blast, though! And kept him from getting caught by Konoha ninja (including Naruto) while he was healing up after killing the guy.
Shortly before he got pulled into the city, the team was heading to an old hideout in search of Itachi. Needless to say, Sasuke is not amused.
PERSONALITY:
Sasuke is what happens when you take a kid who's already unstable and turn him into, basically, a child soldier. Good jorb!
Like Batman, Sasuke turned the anger and pain of seeing his family murdered into a near-obsessive drive to better himself and get revenge. Unlike Batman, it didn't take Sasuke very long to start fracturing under the strain (I mean, it took Bruce at least a decade or so to start dressing up as a bat right?). By the tender age of 12 he was already well on his way to becoming a bitter misanthrope. His time with Team 7 might have taken some of the edge off, but he's still a difficult person to deal with at the best of times.
At the end of the day, Sasuke's primary motivation is revenge. Everything else (at least nowadays) is subordinate to that. He wants to get stronger so he can get revenge on his brother, who's an extremely powerful ninja. He tries to avoid personal attachments because they're distractions from revenge. Are you starting to notice a trend here?
According to the databooks Sasuke's favorite word is "power", which isn't too surprising. He needs power in order to defeat Itachi, after all. His quest for more of it has driven most of his character development, and he's developed quite a complex about it. He's extremely proud of his Uchiha heritage and his own achievements, and isn't shy about telling people so ("Before us, even the greatest genius in the universe barely comes off as average"). By the same token, though, he doesn't take well to being shown up. In a weird way, even if he absolutely hates Itachi, he still puts his older brother on a pedestal: if he perceives somebody as being equally skilled (or even better), he seems to automatically assume that Itachi would have no problem with them...and therefore they're a sign of how far Sasuke still has to go. This sort of vicious cycle even turned Sasuke against his best friend.
And Sasuke does, indeed, have friends. He may say he doesn't want them, he may try to push them away, but he seems to have trouble making that final push to sever the bond...no matter what he might say to the contrary. His MAGIC EYES actually get stronger if you kill your best friend, and even knowing that wasn't enough to entice him to finish off Naruto...whatever he might say, Naruto was more important to him. Of course, because he is an AVENGER(tm) and AVENGERS(tm) don't need friends he has to concoct excuses; 'I didn't want to kill him at that time', 'you are useful to me', etc. etc. The excuses are as much for Sasuke's own benefit as for others. They allow him to maintain the illusion that he's an emotionless revenge-seeking machine, because that's easier than actually facing his problems. But that's all it is: an illusion.
In a way, it's rather sad that Sasuke constantly (subconsciously) compares himself to other people. Because he is pretty much a genius in his own right. Being able to shoot dragons of living flame at people is all well and good, but his real talent is all in his brain. He's extremely good at gaming the system, whatever 'system' that might be; exploiting the limitations of someone's powers, or exploiting their own foibles into getting them to do what he wants.
POWER:
Sasuke is a ninja, which means he's pretty good at mundane ninja stuff (martial arts, various ninja weapons, moving stealthily) and came with all his gear. This includes a lot of sharp stabby things (including a sword!), wire, and paper that explodes. I'm not even making that last one up. In addition to that he has the following actual powers:
Pyrokinesis - Fire techniques have always been the specialty of the Uchiha clan, so no surprise here. Sasuke is capable of generating blasts of flame as well as sculpting them into various shapes (or making them change directions mid-flight).
Electrokinesis - From one lightning technique came many, many more. He first learned how to use electricity to shove his hand through solid obstacles...like rock. Or somebody's sternum. He can also create swords and other weapons from lightning, turn metal weapons into vibroblades by channeling electricity through them, and stun with a touch...or by just being close enough. Sasuke can also channel electricity into himself, stimulating his nervous system to increase his speed (get it? Lightning reflexes? Hahaha...ha...). He can even manipulate 'external' electricity, such as that in a thunderstorm.
Sharingan - Sasuke doesn't have normal eyes. No, he has MAGIC EYES. When they're activated he can:
- See really well. Like, mutant-ly well. He can copy somebody's handwriting just by watching them move the pencil, and get a rough idea of what they're about to do from the way their muscles move.
- Cast illusions on people, if they make eye contact with him. They require direct eye contact; mirrors and cameras won't help him. Also, for magibabble reasons that nobody cares about it only works on things with a forebrain (i.e. vertebrates). So insects and robots (among others) are immune. The illusions can affect all the senses, including pain (crucio!); an Uchiha trademark is one where the victim appears to be impaled by rusty metal spikes.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[It appears to be night time. You'd be forgiven for thinking it's an audio post, except for the fact that there were a pair of dog tags dangling in front of the camera and catching just enough light to be visible as they dangled back and forth.]
Hero, huh? [The voice sounded surprisingly calm about this whole 'transdimensional abduction' thing. Bored, almost.] Not interested.
[The dog tags suddenly flew off into the night, chased a few moments later by a large fireball. A brief flash of light, a glimpse of an open stairwell, but no sign of the speaker.]
Titles like that are just words and, ultimately, meaningless. I already have a goal...no, more like a purpose. And I won't just abandon it on the say-so of somebody who leaves recordings to do his dirty work. If you knew anything about me at all, you really should have known that before you took me anywhere.
[The communicator swung around suddenly and, though the speaker's face is still cast in shadow, two faintly-glowing red eyes can be seen. Each iris has three comma-like marks around the pupil.]
So, since you've so thoughtfully left me a 'communicator'...let's communicate. Who are you, and what do you really want? Think very carefully about your answer. [This said in a rather cold tone, but after a moment the eyes disappear and the voice continues in something slightly above 'arctic':] Hebi. If any of you guys can hear my voice, report in. We have work to do.
As for the rest of you: indulge me. Itachi Uchiha. Does that name mean anything to you?
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
Sasuke stepped out of the alley, his pocket flush with the City's foreign ryō. The money's former owner, a drug dealer, was sprawled insensate behind a garbage dumpster. Sasuke spared him no further mind as he slipped into foot traffic; either he'd wake up, or he'd be found. It didn't really matter. The ninja couldn't help but frown, however. The money would keep him going for a little while longer, true, but it still felt...unsatisfying. He had a mission, after all, and every day he wasted here was another day Itachi had to slip away from him. And it was truly wasted time...the bandits here were slow and soft, even by bandit standards.
Being in the City was rather like being in a cage, where the one and only thing he wanted out of life was denied him. That thought brought an uncharacteristic scowl to Sasuke's face, and he blithely ignored the large bubble of personal space formed by people edging away from him on the street. Eventually, however, he had to stop and get his bearings...and found himself somewhere surprising.
Of all things, a million miles from home, I find a ramen shop, Sasuke thought to himself. Unbidden, a familiar and obnoxiously-loud voice flashed through his mind.
Hey, hey...I can't wait to get back and hit Ichiraku's! I can almost taste the ramen already! You'll come too, right Sakura? Sasuke?
"Figures. I just can't escape you, can I Naruto?" he muttered quietly. For a moment, just a moment, he considered going inside...just for nostalgia's sake. But almost as soon as the thought entered his head, he forcefully spun around and began to walk away. He had committed to the path that he was on, and thoughts of 'home' had no place there. It may have been a small thing, but he couldn't let himself even for a moment acknowledge how much he missed those carefree days. That was dangerously close to admitting he had taken the wrong path, and he could never accept such a traitorous thought.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
His parents are DEEAAAAAAD! Also in case it wasn't obvious he won't be remembering anything from previous trips here because I wasn't playing him then.