
The Naruto & Bleach Endless Forums is a great community where people can register and discuss topics on anime and manga amongst each other. Click here to find out more!
The Sharingan is a special type of pupil condition that naturally occurs in all members
of the Uchiha clan, though not all of them gain the ability to use it. Itachi
hints at some dark ultimate purpose behind the Sharingan, which both he and
Sasuke apparently know, but the series has yet to reveal exactly what that
purpose is. The Sharingan is thought to be descended from the Byakugan,
but
grants the user different abilities and a different insight.
The Sharingan's first and most well known ability is to memorize any technique
that it witnesses. It can memorize ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu with perfect
accuracy, allowing the user to use the techniques as his own. In order to
reproduce copied jutsu, however, one must have the necessary skill or ability to
perform them. A prime example is Rock Lee's Strong Fist taijutsu. While Sasuke
was able to copy some of Lee's moves, they put a much more significant strain on
him since he hasn't trained nearly as hard as Lee has. In addition to physical
skill, the Sharingan cannot allow the user to reproduce other kekkei genkai
since the Sharingan user doesn't possess the same genetic trait. Additionally,
Sharingan users cannot summon a creature which they have not made a contract
with.
The Sharingan also grants the user incredible clarity of perception, allowing
them to track fast-moving objects with ease and even predict the subsequent
movements of those objects. The ability to track and predict movement is largely
based on individual skill, as unskilled users have much more trouble tracking
fast-moving objects. A fully-evolved Sharingan eye can track al
l but the
quickest opponents, even if the user can't move at the same speed. This
perception is also great enough to see through genjutsu, depending upon the
skill of the user, and the ability to observe the movement and flow of chakra,
but not to the same extent or clarity as the Byakugan. Additionally, the
Sharingan grants the user exceptional analytical powers, allowing them to
instinctively pick up on various visual clues with little difficulty. In one
instance, Kakashi had to shut his eyes to avoid accidentally reading Naruto's
lip movements while he was spoiling the ending of one of Kakashi's Icha Icha
books. Sasuke was also able to reproduce answers on another person's test by
watching their pencil movements during the Chunin Exam.
Finally, the Sharingan is capable of a unique brand of hypnosis that involves
suggesting actions and thoughts to the opponent. When used in conjunction with
the other aspects of the Sharingan, this allows the user to perfectly mimic
every move their opponent makes, even before they do, making it appear as if the
user can see the future.
The Sharingan
does not automatically appear from birth in a user; instead, it will usually
appear when the user is in a life-
threatening situation, where the power of the Sharingan could save the user. After this first appearance, the user can then
call up the Sharingan any time he or she pleases. (Due to its unique nature,
Kakashi's Sharingan cannot be deactivated, and thus he usually covers it to
conserve chakra.) The power of the Sharingan is judged through the number of
tomoe in the eye, known as the "tomoe seal". It is not unheard of for a
Sharingan user to have different amounts of tomoe in each eye. For example,
Sasuke's Sharingan initially had two tomoe in one eye and one in the other. Upon
his first regular activation of it, it had evolved to two tomoe in each eye. He
evolved it to three in each eye during his battle with Naruto at the Valley of
the End. A fully-matured Sharingan has three tomoe in each eye.
It is possible to transplant Sharingan eyes from one person to another, as
occurred with Kakashi and his deceased comrade Obito Uchiha. However,
transplanted eyes do not work as well in a non-Uchiha body, causing more strain
on the user, as is the case with Kakashi – extended use of his Sharingan will
cause him to collapse. Uchiha clan members are not burdened with this weakness;
while activation of the Sharingan does consume chakra, the drain is so small as
to be almost insignificant. Itachi in particular seems to have no trouble
keeping his Sharingan activated near-constantly.
Characters who currently possess the Sharingan include Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi
Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake. Kakashi's eye was given to him by Obito Uchiha, one
of his teammates in his original three-man ninja team. Obito developed it in a
battle against a camouflaging Rock shinobi. During this battle, Kakashi lost his
left eye when he was attacked, hence his scar. Near the end of the battle,
Obito's right side was crushed under a giant rock, and as his last act Obito had
Rin, a medical ninja, remove his left eye and implant it in Kakashi's empty eye
socket, thus allowing Kakashi to use the Sharingan even though he does not have
Uchiha blood. This is also why only his left eye is a Sharingan eye.
| Mangekyo Sharingan: |
The Mangekyo Sharingan is a heightened form of Sharingan. The Mangekyo
Sharingan is distinguished from a normal Sharingan through its appearance, which
changes the form of the tomoe seal. However, unlike the Sharingan, it may have a
different appearance between the users, as Kakashi's version is significantly
different than Itachi's. Those who have the potential to obtain it must make a
great sacrifice in order to obtain it—according to Itachi, they must kill their
closest friend. Itachi does in fact do this to obtain his version, but Kakashi
has noted that everyone he cared about had died long before the start of the
series, so how he developed his own variant is unknown. It has also been implied
in the manga that use of the Mangekyo Sharingan may deteriorate the user's
normal eyesight.
In the long history of the Uchiha clan, only a few have been able to obtain the
Mangekyo Sharingan. At present, there are only two people who can use the
Mangekyo Sharingan, Itachi being one and Kakashi being the other. According to
Itachi, if his younger brother Sasuke obtained it, the number of people who
could handle the Mangekyo Sharingan (including himself) would be three. Itachi's
statement may suggest that there is (or was at that time) another Mangekyo
Sharingan user somewhere; however, Itachi uses the verb atsukau which means "to
handle" or "to deal with", which could also mean that there are only three
people left who are capable of acquiring the Mangekyo Sharingan. Given that
Itachi had just killed every other member of the Uchiha clan, this statement
could simply be taken as a matter of fact: Kakashi, Sasuke, and Itachi were the
only known characters left alive with Sharingan eyes, so no one else had the
potential to obtain it.
| Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan: |
Itachi Uchiha gained the Mangekyo Sharingan by killing his best friend, Shisui Uchiha. With the Mangekyo Sharingan, Itachi is able to use the two most powerful jutsu of the Uchiha clan, Tsukuyomi, a genjutsu of unrivaled power and effectiveness, and Amaterasu, a ninjutsu capable of burning through even the strongest of materials.
| Kakashi's Mangekyo Sharingan: |
Kakashi Hatake developed his own version of the Mangekyo Sharingan during the
timeskip. Unlike Itachi's version, which is used to destroy a target, Kakashi
uses his to create a localized interdimensional space-time warp, allowing him to
target any object and send it to another dimension, achieving the same result.
Kakashi used this new jutsu to warp a segment of Deidara's right arm into a
different dimension. He immediately aimed at Deidara's head for a second attack,
but missed. He subsequently uses it again in
Chapter 278 to counter Deidara's
ultimate move, which would otherwise level the entire forest they were fighting
in. The attack requires considerable effort to aim precisely and appears to
leave Kakashi's chakra significantly drained; he collapses after using the
technique three times (compared to his other original move, Lightning Blade,
which he can use four times a day).
The appearance of the pupil and tomoe in Kakashi's Mangekyo Sharingan differ
from that of Itachi's; Kakashi's looks more like a pinwheel. Before this was
shown, it was thought that one had to kill their best friend to acquire the
Mangekyo Sharingan. This clearly isn't the case with Kakashi, who stated long
before developing his Mangekyo Sharingan that everyone close to him was already
dead. The only known now-deceased person that could be described as his "closest
friend" was Obito, who died shortly after giving Kakashi his Sharingan eye.
While Kakashi may have felt responsible for Obito's death at the time, he
certainly didn't kill Obito himself, and it wouldn't explain why it took him so
many years to obtain the Mangekyo Sharingan. Thus, the means behind its
development and the actual meaning of the "requirement" are currently unknown.
![]()
