Kishimoto screwed up with Sasuke's characterization, and the Kage Summit arc was where it truly began to go downhill. Hell, part of me still does, as his idiocy at the end of the war arc didn't improve things. No, the kage summit arc was for me the moment that I began to think that it would be better if Naruto just murdered Sasuke instead of trying to beat some sanity in him. And Sasuke was supposed to be the intelligent one of team 7. Compare this to how Itachi effectively used the sharingan, and Sasuke looks like a rabid animal in comparison. He overestimated himself several times, and got beaten for it. Worse, the trait he had that Naruto always lacked, a sense of logic in battle, went out of the window. At the time I thought he became irredeemable, even if he was just stupid enough to always follow the words of others and go too far with his lust for vengeance. while his objectives and means have always been a bit questionable, the Kage Summit arc was, imho, a hit on Sasuke as a character that he didn't really recover from. that arc killed SasuSaku to me)ДЄnd then there was Sasuke himself. Naruto acting like a naive and emotionally fragile idiot, and Sakura's attempt at being manipulative yet ultimately failing to try to stop Sasuke (- and what a letdown was that finally I thought she would stand up for herself, but instead she just wilted. There was just too much plain stupidity, especially of the main cast, to really enjoy the arc. The arc had a few good moments, but the overwhelming feeling I was left with at the time was that of disappointment. They will speak on and on about how good/skilled/talented they are but take the car on the road? The performance sucks. Kishi is like a used-car dealer in regards to Sasuke. No one including me thinks Sasuke got even half-way decent MS abilities or is skilled because Kishi never portrays him as such. Then he uses Sasuke to show how much it SUCKS. I've said it before, Kishi utilizes OTHER Uchiha to show how powerful the Sharingan is. Moving on the Fight Scenes did Sasuke no favors. Instead we had Sane-Sasuke suddenly become In-Sane Sasuke at the flip of a switch in the Kage arcДЄnd then worse, Sasuke suddenly became sane again in the War Arc for no good reason? See if Kishi wanted Sasuke to go Mu-Ha-HA insanse then he should have done it straight after Itachi's death/revelation. Kage Arc Sasuke does NOT match War-Arc Sasuke. Killer B-Arc Sasuke does NOT match Kage Arc Sasuke The main issue with Sasuke's role in the Kage arc is : Sheer Inconsistency Others have already mentioned the Naruto and Sakura parts but let me elaborate on the Sasuke part. Kishimoto actually did a good job both having him grow a lot but also making sure he didn't steamroll the entire arc. This is shonen, nothing new, and Sasuke has been a fast learner since the Chunin Exams if not earlier.Д«esides, Sasuke DID nearly die fighting the Kages and their bodyguards back-to-back, and he arguably would have died to Danzo alone. This is like complaining that Goku went from being unable to defeat Raditz even with Piccolo's help (it took an attack from Gohan to weaken Raditz enough AND a sacrifice on Goku's part to take the enemy down) to fodderizing Nappa and defeating non-Ozaru Vegeta. Stronger chakra means stronger everything in a manga where ninjas amp their speed, strength, weapons, and defense using chakra. Sasuke not only gained Amaterasu but also Enton: Kagutsuchi, Susano'o, AND became stronger even outside of that due to his chakra becoming even stronger than the time he had Orochimaru's Senjutsu chakra amping him up.

Dude had nothing but a Mangekyo Genjutsu and was still weakened from fighting Itachi. Sasuke didn't have Amaterasu then either.

Five kage summit