Sasuke Uchiha, the most prominent emo anime boy in the sensational anime and manga Naruto, is a fan favorite character for a wealth of reasons. His cool demeanor, creative set of abilities, and mysterious motivations made the character stand out from the other brighter and louder characters. His eventual betrayal of his friends and the Hidden Leaf Village so that he could gain the strength to avenge his clan locked him in as one of the best anti-heroes in anime. His journey to defeat his brother Itachi, the one who massacred the Uchiha clan, and struggling to cope with the knowledge that his brother was actually working to protect the Village is some of Naruto’s best material.

Considering that both Sasuke’s and Itachi’s are heavily influenced by each other and their actions, it makes sense to compare the two brothers. While they have a lot in common in terms of personality, achievements, and battle techniques; the two also have just enough unique features to distinguish them. The similarities and familiarity between the two are a huge part of what makes their relationship and battles so engrossing. Starting from a similar place and similar abilities, it’s interesting to see how their powers and personalities developed because of the actions of the other.

While Sasuke was the underdog for much of the series, he now has a ton of unique features that distinguish him from Itachi. These are the 25 things everyone’s favorite edgy ninja – and the first big meme of 2019 – can do that his older brother cannot.

Here are 24 Things Sasuke Can Do (That Itachi Can't).

Use Lightning Release Jutsu

Ninjas in Naruto can use any element of jutsu, but only ninjas with an affinity for specific elements can use these techniques to their full potential. While both Sasuke and Itachi can use fire release techniques as members of the Uchiha clan, only Sasuke can use lightning release attacks.

In fact, jutsu of this element quickly become a major component of his fighting style, as he gains a growing mastery of it throughout the series. While Itachi’s proficiency in his own nature affinities is nearly unparalleled, Sasuke’s lightning jutsu are some of the strongest in the series.

Gain The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan

Both Sasuke and Itachi posses the Mangekyō Sharingan, which only awaken after a member of the Uchiha clan witnesses the passing of someone close to them. However, the incredible abilities of the Mangekyō Sharingan gradually cause their vision to fade and the only way to relieve this weakness is to implant another person’s Mangekyō Sharingan into their own eye sockets, forming the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

Itachi never obtained this evolution in his lifetime, but Sasuke achieved it using his brother’s eyes soon after Itachi’s defeat and gained an unlimited use of his abilities.  

Manifest The Rinnegan

A complete mastery of the Mangekyō Sharingan allows a ninja to transform it into the Rinnegan, another ocular ability with its own set of powerful abilities. Sasuke is able to advance his Sharingan to the Rinnegan through training and the intervention of a pseudo-deity, while Itachi is never able to gain this ability.

The Rinnegan and its various abilities are instrumental in Naruto and Sasuke’s battle against the villainous Kaguya and necessary for his work in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. It’s impossible to turn a blind eye to this obvious difference in Sasuke and Itachi’s ocular abilities.

Manipulate The Amaterasu

While Itachi surpasses Sasuke when it comes to genjutsu, Sasuke bests his older brother when it comes to the Uchiha’s more overtly offensive abilities. The black flames of the Amaterasu burn anything they touch and cannot be extinguished by anything other than the will of the caster.

Sasuke is able to control these flames with far greater proficiency than his brother, and even incorporate them into his other attacks. Sasuke is perhaps the most proficient Amaterasu user in the Naruto universe and therefore one of the most powerful ninja.  

Manifest The Complete Body Susanoo

Anyone who has awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan in both eyes is able to create a giant chakra avatar known as the Susanoo. The Susanoo is brought forth in various forms, ranging from skeletal structures to a complete body. Each stage of the Susano is increasingly demanding on the caster, and this strain prevents Itachi from creating the Complete Body Susanoo.

Sasuke, however, is able to fully manifest the Susanoo and even push it beyond this stage by incorporating lightning release jutsu. This technique is the most overt display of Sasuke’s abilities surpassing his brother’s.   

Work Solo

Itachi migrates from the Anbu to Akatsuki throughout his teenage and adult life and is rarely working outside of an organization for very long. Sasuke, on the other hand, works by himself for the majority of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.

While Itachi’s membership in the Akatsuki is due to him secretly spying on the organization, Itachi is rarely on his own like Sasuke. This isolation is in many a kind of penance for Sasuke, as he feels he cannot be a part of the Village after all the harm he did to it during his teen years.   

Start a Family

In Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Sasuke is married to Sakura and they have a daughter named Sarada. Itachi, though, exits the series before he can form any romantic relationships and start a family. Itachi dedicates himself entirely to protecting the Hidden Leaf Village and as a result, his relationships suffer tremendously.

Itachi is also so work driven that it’s possible that he actually has very little interest in romance. A family of his own is both something that Itachi can never have, might not even want, and something Sasuke deeply appreciates.  

Use The Chidori

Sasuke’s signature technique is the Chidori, a lightning release technique that requires the ability to masterfully manipulate chakra. This technique allows a user to channel electricity into their palm and use it pierce through any armor to damage a foe.

Over the course of the series, Sasuke further develops his Chidori to attack people from a distance, multiple angles, and channel it into weapons. This technique is as powerful as it is versatile, and easily one of the coolest jutsu in the series. Itachi doesn’t have anything close to this attack, by any measure.

Summon Hawks And Snakes

While Itachi is able to summon crows and manipulate them, Sasuke is able to bring forth and manipulate Snakes and Hawks. Unlike most other characters in the series, Sasuke is able to summon two kinds of animals to aid him in his ninja endeavors.

These summoned creatures allow Sasuke to battle even the largest of enemies and communicate with his allies over great distances. While Itachi’s crows have their own useful abilities, like somehow preserving a human eye for months at a time, Sasuke’s summons are far more useful in most situations.  

Use Combination Attacks

While Itachi belongs to several organizations over the course of the series, he rarely fights alongside other people. Sasuke, though, fights alongside Naruto and other ninja numerous times and even develops powerful combination techniques with them.

For instance, Naruto and Sasuke are able to combine their high-level fire and wind elemental techniques to unleashed a tremendously powerful scorch release attack that magnifies the destructive power of their base attacks. Naruto and Sasuke are unbeatable when they fight together, and Itachi never had the opportunity to develop these abilities with anyone else.   

Perform The Lion Combo

After initially acquiring Orochimaru’s Curse Mark, Sasuke isn’t able to use any ninjutsu or genjutsu without succumbing to tremendous pain. When he was forced to fight under these circumstances he mimicked the techniques of Rock Lee to develop the Lion Combo.

This technique is one of Sasuke’s strongest taijutsu attacks and appears during critical moments when Sasuke is engaging in close ranged combat. Itachi rarely uses taijutsu in Naruto, as he prefers to diffuse fights using the more nonviolent genjutsu. While Sasuke eventually begins relying more on sword techniques and ninjutsu in battle, the Lion Combo is a solid addition to his repertoire of techniques that Itachi cannot mimic.     

The Devastating Kirin Attack

Sasuke’s strongest attack, and the one that he uses in his fight with Itachi, is known simply as Kirin. This lighting release technique manipulates the electricity in thunderclouds to form a massive monster made of electricity.

After forming this gigantic attack, Sasuke directs it at his opponent and the attack devastated them and anything in the surrounding area. Itachi doesn’t have anything nearly so powerful in his collection of abilities and instead focuses on smaller and more precise attacks. The raw destructive power of Sasuke’s Kirin attack is far and away superior to any technique that Itachi can muster.

Travel Through Dimensions

Following Sasuke awakening the Rinnegan and he and Naruto defeating Kaguya, Sasuke uses his newfound power to travel through different dimensions and investigate the supposed deity's origins. Several characters in Naruto can manipulate time and space, but Sasuke is the only one who can do it to such an incredible extent.

Itachi isn’t able to manipulate reality whatsoever, and could never provide the service Sasuke is in this instance. This dimensional travel was both vital in the defeat of Kaguya a part of Sasuke’s ongoing efforts to protect his friends and family.  

Manipulate And Transform His Body

Thanks to his training with Orochimaru, Sasuke is able to masterfully manipulate, contort, and transform parts of his body. Sasuke is able to bend and extend his limbs at will, as well as morph them into snakes to escape an attack or aid him in battle. Sasuke’s manipulation of his own body isn’t as advanced as Orochimaru’s, but it’s still leagues ahead of Itachi’s.

Itachi might be able to transform his body into crows, but it’s likely that this feat is merely an illusion. Sasuke can transform his body to almost graphic proportions, but sadly Itachi is unable to match these achievements.  

Manipulate Gravity

One of the most powerful abilities gifted to Sasuke when he developed the Rinnegan is the ability to control gravity. Sasuke can use this technique to draw defenseless opponents close to him or push attacking enemies away from him.

He can also use this ability to trap people and monsters inside of spherical masses of rock and other debris. Although Itachi manages to develop countermeasures to some gravity manipulation techniques, he cannot perform them himself. These abilities greatly expand Sasuke's range of techniques and creativity in battle above Itachi’s.  

Transform With Natural Energy

Orochimaru’s Curse Mark allows Sasuke to transform into a monstrous form by gathering the natural energy around him. This tremendously increases Sasuke’s power and grants him the ability to fly, as he sprouts fleshy wings from his back after transforming.

Although Itachi had the opportunity to gain this power for himself, he passed on the opportunity to artificially increase his physical abilities. Even if Sasuke lost his Curse Mark during his battle against Itachi, this was still one ability held by Sasuke that Itachi never possessed, or ever had a desire to learn.  

Use An Actual Sword

Itachi’s Susanoo wields an energy sword that traps an opponent in a never-ending genjutsu if they are struck by the blade and dragged into the gourd it’s drawn from. Sasuke, however, uses a regular sword in a battle for a variety of different attacks.

While Itachi’s sword contains more latent abilities than Sasuke’s, the younger ninja has a far greater mastery of sword fighting than his older brother. Sasuke’s skills with a sword are almost unrivaled in Naruto, and he manages to infuse it with his lightning release techniques to greatly expand the range and sharpness of his cutting attacks.   

Fight With A Bow And Arrow

While Sasuke’s Susanoo doesn’t have a mystical sword like Itachi’s, it is able to create a bow and arrow made of chakra for incredibly powerful ranged attacks. Sasuke’s bow and arrow attacks are capable of easily destroying most other ninja and chakra monsters in the series, and travels so quickly that few can hope to dodge it.

Moreover, Sasuke’s Susanoo can manifest just an energy arrow, and use it as a sword to fight opponents at close range. While Itachi’s Susanoo play’s into his affinity for genjutsu, Sasuke’s is far more versatile in combat.   

Protect His Best Friend

Sasuke saves his best friend Naruto’s life numerous times throughout the series. Itachi isn’t able to perform the same action, however, and his best friend Shisui passes away before the start of the series. This event has a major impact on Itachi and cements his determination to stop his clan from attacking the rest of the Village by any means necessary.

Although Sasuke fights against Naruto at numerous points in the series and even expresses a desire to eliminate the blond ninja to further his own goals, he cannot follow through with this desire because of the strong bond forged between the two main characters.    

Be The Cool Kid In Class

Itachi graduate with high honors from the Hidden Leaf Village Ninja Academy and the series shows very little of that part of his life. However, the series shows a good deal of Sasuke’s time at the Academy, and he is very much the cool, aloof kid in class.

Sasuke’s combination of talent, brooding personality, and mysterious background make him incredibly popular and envied by most of his classmates. It’s unlikely that Itachi managed to make such an impact on his fellow students, considering he spent so much less time with them by graduating a full four years early than the average student.