This is a mini rant/hill I will forever die on, with supporting evidence! In recent years I've been seeing more and more Sasuke-doesn't-like-animals talk and I feel like people have forgotten the sheer number of animals Sasuke interacts with in the series. Like yes you could argue he got the summons contract with the snakes only because he absorbed Orochimaru (whether he would have gotten the contract on his own without getting it from Orochimaru is debatable), and you could argue he got the contract with hawks for utilitarian purposes only (they are a very practical summons and Sasuke is very pragmatic from childhood after the massacre). But I feel like everyone's forgotten his relationship with the ninja cats? Like I've seen no mention of them in so long and a lot of people who associates him with cats seem to only do it based on personality but like??? Bro literally deals with ninja cats in the manga (I don't recall if the scene where he does is animated, I own the volume but I have no idea what episode that would be).

And I didn't screenshot the panel where he mentions it (this is in chapter 354 for reference) but it's a munitions storage area for th Uchiha clan. Again, this is a practical association he has with animals (cats in this case) but like compared to other characters in the series one of the only other people with affinities/associations with so many different animals is Juugo. Naruto has frogs and foxes, but from my memory he does have specific established relationships with any other species. Kakashi has his dogs and you could argue wolves with his father, and Kiba also has dogs, Sakura and Tsunade have slugs and you could also kind of argue pigs for Tsunade because of Shizune, Jiraya has frogs, and Sai I wouldn't really consider his ink drawings as animals. Shino has beetles (as far as I remember it's one species of beetle?), Kabuto has Orochimaru's snakes, Itachi has crowd (and arguably the same association with cats as Sasuke but we don't really see him interact with them much, at least in the main series. I know there have been like side story gaiden released but I haven't read/watched them all oop). Who else has his range of species????

Sasuke is an animal lover and I rest my case, bro is a walking pet sanctuary waiting to happen his ass would absolutely occasionally walk around with a snake in his shirt while he's traveling and shit and I will hear nothing else!

(and I, an avid animal lover who has owned cats, dogs, fish, and frogs and very much wants pet snakes in the future have no reason to be biased towards him being an animal lover whatsoever)

Team Taka and phone habits

(Specifically messages/calling)

Suigetsu - Never voice calls, only uses FaceTime. When he does text he's very normal about it. He's also That Guy who'll send messages mostly through screenshots of things he saw online that no one but his close friends (Sasuke) can understand.

Sasuke - hates phone calls. You’d be better off texting him even for emergencies. He reads his texts pretty much right away but only answers when he feels like it or if you’re Suigetsu (also he only texts in very short sentences and in multiple text bubbles. this makes Suigetsu crazy). Only picks up the phone for Itachi or Juugo.

Karin - usually texts in paragraphs with perfect punctuation but will randomly only respond in emoji. Is totally fine with answering phone calls but never calls first. Usually responds promptly but will frequently "take a break" from her phone where she just stops responding for weeks. Likes to video call her friends when she's doing everyday tasks just to have them around.

Juugo - Reads all the group chat messages before anyone else does but never really responds. Doesn't text a lot in-general and when he does it's always practical things like grocery lists, directions, reminders etc. Prefers to phone call. Doesn't really like video calls bc he's a little camera shy. Always calls on people's birthdays.

he says “a kitty told me” with the most aggravating smirk because he knows they’re not going to believe him

Still thinking about this panel because Karin is standing there like she’s allergic to cats and is afraid of them rubbing up against her bc they will make her eyes swell and water

and Suigetsu is looking at the cats like he wants to touch them but is apprehensive because Kirigakure definitely has crazy superstitions about cats being curses incarnate (he’s curious but doesn’t want to get cursed)

And obviously we know what Juugo is mad about hahaha

And then to top it all off Sasuke brought catnip which means he went to an actual store to buy some and that mental image is so good.

Just imagine Team Taka stopping in a random town at some dinky pet shop where Juugo has to stoop to get in the door and Suigetsu feels weird about the fish kept in tanks and meanwhile Sasuke is talking to the confused store clerk like “one bottle of your finest catnip please. No I don’t own cats, I just need it. Thanks”

And you know Sasuke didn’t tell the team they were even going to the Uchida hideout in the first place (or even if he did he didn’t mention The Cats). He just woke up one day and was like “guys we need catnip” and everyone went along with it bc they’re chill like that and didn’t feel the need to ask questions

Kakashi's biggest failure as a sensei was letting Sasuke show up to the chuunin exam final rounds with his hair looking like this

they're out there training on a rock for a month no mirrors and Kakashi doesn't even give him the courtesy of a little trim

Kakashi's biggest failure as a sensei was letting Sasuke show up to the chuunin exam final rounds with his hair looking like this

they're out there training on a rock for a month no mirrors and Kakashi doesn't even give him the courtesy of a little trim

I love how any of the Taka team is raiting 10 on babysitting xd they're a Messi but we love them like that. This tbh idk if there's Mich characthers in Naruto that can reach 7 Even

A truly beautiful mess. The more chaotic the better.

Definitely not. There’s a reason all the characters are ninja and not babysitters hahaha. I think anyone in Ino-Shika-Cho might make it to 8 but just barely hahaha. Mikoto is definitely a solid 10 but she’s the only one.

This is canon.

He probably knows what shops carry the best brands and goes out of his way to drop by to refill his stock when it’s running low. The team pick up on this and start buying some whenever they pass by the correct shops.

Sasuke now has too much catnip so he started storing it in whatever place he stores his weapons and then summons a bottle when necessary

Still thinking about this panel because Karin is standing there like she’s allergic to cats and is afraid of them rubbing up against her bc they will make her eyes swell and water

and Suigetsu is looking at the cats like he wants to touch them but is apprehensive because Kirigakure definitely has crazy superstitions about cats being curses incarnate (he’s curious but doesn’t want to get cursed)

And obviously we know what Juugo is mad about hahaha

And then to top it all off Sasuke brought catnip which means he went to an actual store to buy some and that mental image is so good.

Just imagine Team Taka stopping in a random town at some dinky pet shop where Juugo has to stoop to get in the door and Suigetsu feels weird about the fish kept in tanks and meanwhile Sasuke is talking to the confused store clerk like “one bottle of your finest catnip please. No I don’t own cats, I just need it. Thanks”

And you know Sasuke didn’t tell the team they were even going to the Uchida hideout in the first place (or even if he did he didn’t mention The Cats). He just woke up one day and was like “guys we need catnip” and everyone went along with it bc they’re chill like that and didn’t feel the need to ask questions

Team Taka and babysitting

Sasuke - the literal worst with children. He’s the youngest child and it shows. It’s not that he hates kids he just doesn’t know what to do with them and never bothered to learn. Will show up to babysitting job and ask why there are kids there. 0/10

Suigetsu - actually good with children because there were a lot of orphans in Kiri and all the older kids would look after the little ones. Can’t be trusted with children though because he will try to teach them how to use a knife and at least 5 different ways to murder someone. His rating is 3/10

Karin - her idea of babysitting is to take kids to an all you can eat restaurant, let them eat until they pass out and then read or do whatever she wants while they sleep. Parents give her a high rating because when they come home the kids are sleeping peacefully. Her one good quality is she sometimes does useful things like teaching a kid how to fix his own scraped knee without crying. 5/10

Juugo - looks the scariest to kids bc he’s so tall but has the strong nurturing instincts so his success rate with kids is higher. He makes balanced meals and is great at validating children’s feelings and talking them out of a tantrum. Does best with the outcast children and the ones that want to climb him like a jungle jim. 6/10

Still thinking about this panel because Karin is standing there like she’s allergic to cats and is afraid of them rubbing up against her bc they will make her eyes swell and water

and Suigetsu is looking at the cats like he wants to touch them but is apprehensive because Kirigakure definitely has crazy superstitions about cats being curses incarnate (he’s curious but doesn’t want to get cursed)

And obviously we know what Juugo is mad about hahaha

And then to top it all off Sasuke brought catnip which means he went to an actual store to buy some and that mental image is so good.

Just imagine Team Taka stopping in a random town at some dinky pet shop where Juugo has to stoop to get in the door and Suigetsu feels weird about the fish kept in tanks and meanwhile Sasuke is talking to the confused store clerk like “one bottle of your finest catnip please. No I don’t own cats, I just need it. Thanks”

And you know Sasuke didn’t tell the team they were even going to the Uchida hideout in the first place (or even if he did he didn’t mention The Cats). He just woke up one day and was like “guys we need catnip” and everyone went along with it bc they’re chill like that and didn’t feel the need to ask questions

The thing about Kakashi is that as bad of a sensei as he was for Sasuke he’s super relatable because if you put me in charge of even one 12 year old when I was 26 and deeply traumatized I too would have disassociated, shown up late for everything (bc really why would I show up early to babysit) and spend the whole time I was supposed to be tutoring reading trashy novels

Cat's favourite drug dealer

hmm. ya know. it physically hurts me that ppl vilify sasuke. but sadly I think it’s representative of the bleak aspects of reality we live in (there r good parts ofc). like. i think most ppl do want to conform and belong, it’s a natural human thing after all. but bc of this most are too afraid to have niche opinions now in fear of being canceled or outcasted. i think collectively we’ve slowly lost (or become reluctant to use) the ability to think critically about information and form our own opinions/challenge the obvious narratives/synthesize opposing themes. I’m not trying to be pretentious. but. things that aren’t framed as the obvious “good”, or diverge from the norm become villainized. and I think sasuke rly represents this oddball thing that ppl are too blinded by conformity to truly try to understand and empathize with. he won’t bend the knee. he rly just doesn’t give a shit abt what’s normal and he wants to change the system and literally everything and I think that rly bothers ppl. esp when the narrative of the series pushes the message of le love and friendship solves everything. so I think. it’s sad but this rly is a microcosm for how frustrated and pained I get about ideological and societal issues irl. and it’s hard to have an honest, respectful, and mutually curious conversation these days

I think it's a little funny how Sasuke has to use Sharingan to calm down Juugo, but with kimimaro it was just like "yo, chill"

And i fully headcanon that works with anyone that Juugo trusts, it just takes some time to build that trust, give it a couple of month and Sasuke can also achieve "yo, chill" status

Like with a few years of putting up with eachother, even Suigetsu could go "Hey! Put those claws back in your paws, you grumpy bear" if he wanted to and it would probably work

Headcanon that Itachi is actually bad at ninjutsu (for a prodigy Uchiha anyway) but no one ever noticed it because he’s just that good at Genjutsu.

Team Taka is such a good example of people going through awful things but still managing to find those little moments of pure humanity where life is beautiful.

Karin loves perfume and collecting perfume.

Suigetsu loves yogurt desserts.

Juugo loves birds and nature and peaceful moments in the forest.

All three of them have suffered and seen and experienced horrible things and yet they still have these little pocket of Normal Things that they enjoy and that just makes me so emotional

I can’t decide if Suigetsu has perfect pitch, can’t sing a tune to save his life, or is some cursed combination of the two where he can name every single music pitch but can never remember what the correct order of notes is so anything he tries to sing is catastrophicly bad.

Still thinking about this panel because Karin is standing there like she’s allergic to cats and is afraid of them rubbing up against her bc they will make her eyes swell and water

and Suigetsu is looking at the cats like he wants to touch them but is apprehensive because Kirigakure definitely has crazy superstitions about cats being curses incarnate (he’s curious but doesn’t want to get cursed)

And obviously we know what Juugo is mad about hahaha

And then to top it all off Sasuke brought catnip which means he went to an actual store to buy some and that mental image is so good.

Just imagine Team Taka stopping in a random town at some dinky pet shop where Juugo has to stoop to get in the door and Suigetsu feels weird about the fish kept in tanks and meanwhile Sasuke is talking to the confused store clerk like “one bottle of your finest catnip please. No I don’t own cats, I just need it. Thanks”

And you know Sasuke didn’t tell the team they were even going to the Uchiha hideout in the first place (or even if he did he didn’t mention The Cats). He just woke up one day and was like “guys we need catnip” and everyone went along with it bc they’re chill like that and didn’t feel the need to ask questions