Sasuke No Longer Has the Curse Mark & Here’s Why!

Sasuke Uchiha is one of the most important characters in the whole Naruto franchise. The antihero of the series, Sasuke, has been it all – the villain, the hero, and, finally, an antihero that beautifully complements Naruto’s heroic ideals. On top of that, Sasuke is also one of the strongest characters in the whole series. Many of his powers and abilities stem from the fact that he could use the Rinnegan, but he lost it in Boruto after being stabbed by Momoshiki, who possessed Boruto at the time. But, over the course of the story, Sasuke loses another one of his traits, the Cursed Mark (Juinjutsu), given to him by Orochimaru. In this article, we will tell you how and why it happened.

The first time they met, Sasuke was branded with the Cursed Mark by Orochimaru. It was all part of Orochimaru’s larger plan to gain access to the powers of the Uchiha Clan; he had failed with Itachi, so he switched to Sasuke. Sasuke’s Mark was present for a long time until, finally, in Part II of the manga, it was permanently removed by Itachi, making it unusable from that point onward.

As you might have deduced, this article will focus on the relationship between Sasuke and Orochimaru in Naruto. As Orochimaru was responsible for Sasuke’s Cursed Seal, we will reveal the story to you and how it ended. You’re going to find out what exactly happened between the two of them in Naruto and how the whole story is connected, once again, to the Cursed Mark and Sasuke losing it eventually. You’ll also find out how Orochimaru’s plans influenced Sasuke Uchiha’s life in general. Some spoilers might be present in the article.

The Cursed Mark was Orochimaru’s trademark

In the world of Naruto, Juinjutsu are used to control and influence a person. A target person can be mentally and physically guided via an imprinted ban mark (Juin), which reacts to a secret finger sign – a so-called Hi-In. Since Juinjutsu are used and placed in secret, much is unknown. Now, there are many Juinjutsu users in the series and Orochimaru, who placed his Juinjutsu (or Cursed Mark) on Sasuke, was one of them.

Orochimaru’s Juinjutsu doesn’t have an official name, so it is colloquially known as the Cursed Mark. Orochimaru places it on his followers or those he wishes to bind to him. The seal encloses an evil form that corrupts its wearer and binds him as a subordinate to Orochimaru.

It prevents the use of ninjutsu until it is mastered. Otherwise, it activates and spreads over its wearer’s body as it reacts to the latter’s chakra. The Cursed Mark has several levels and these increase the power of the wearer, but the latter finds himself injured if he uses it for a long time. The cursed mark encloses Orochimaru’s chakra, and the Mark disappears if Sannin’s chakra is extracted from the body.

An important aspect of Sasuke’s growth as a shinobi in the first part of the series, which is when he actually gained the Cursed Mark, was the acquisition of the Cursed Mark of Heaven. Orochimaru, recognizing his potential, bestowed the Mark on Sasuke as a gift in order for him to come to him to give him more power.

Initially, Kakashi sealed Sasuke’s Mark, but later, the frustration of not having enough power forced him to rely on Mark’s power. When he activates the Cursed Mark grants him increased speed, stamina, durability, and chakra.

However, the Mark has damaged his body and mind, giving his personality a darker tone and making him vulnerable to Orochimaru’s influence. This is what Orochimaru actually counted on, as it was all part of his grand plan to take possession of the body of an Uchiha; this is something that we are going to elaborate on a bit later.

So, after leaving Konoha, with the help of the Sound Four, Sasuke was able to raise the Cursed Mark to level two, granting him more power than normal. This granted him power comparable to Naruto’s when he was in the one-tailed fox version.

At the second level of the Mark, Sasuke gains new physical characteristics: his skin turns dark, his hair grows longer and pale indigo and the sclera of his eyes turns black, but he still retains his Sharingan; finally, he obtains a pair of wings shaped like demonic hands. When he loses his left wing, he replaces it with five snakes, and although they are useful in battle, they make it impossible for him to fly. In this state, not only does his appearance change but also his abilities increase.

All of his jutsus are increased in power thanks to chakra, and he gains more strength, speed, agility, stamina, and chakra than in phase 1. However, he cannot be in this phase for long as it depletes much faster, and he spends more chakra when using his techniques and runs the risk of being taken over by the Mark.

In Naruto: Shippūden, Sasuke gains full control of the Curse Mark, so much so that he can even perform partial transformations. He has also increased the time he can use the Mark, but he can’t afford to be under its influence for long. Since he faced Itachi, the Cursed Mark was permanently removed from his body, but we will tell you more about that in the next section of our article, so don’t worry.

Sasuke losing the Cursed Mark is just another piece of evidence related to the complexity of his relationship with Orochimaru

Now, to completely understand the significance of this moment, we have to tell you how and why Sasuke got marked in the first place. Namely, during his work and life, Orochimaru came into contact with the powerful Itachi Uchiha, who was also exiled from Konoha for massacring his whole family. Due to his enormous power and talents, as well as the fact that Itachi had a very powerful Dōjutsu, Orochimaru found Itachi intriguing. Since he was a “collector,” he wanted Itachi’s body.

But Orochimaru ultimately failed to capture Itachi’s body, so he simply turned to the next best thing, and that was – Sasuke Uchiha. At the time, Sasuke Uchiha was still a young shinobi and had too many questions and almost no answer at all. This made him a perfect pawn for Ochimaru, who not only tricked him but also manipulated him by using his powers.

When the two of them met for the first time, Orochimaru immediately gave Sasuke his cursed mark, and it was there for the duration of Part I.

And while Sasuke was not as powerful as Itachi at the time, Orochimaru realized his potential and knew that such a young prodigy would definitely be of use later on in his endeavors, which is why he – in a way – decided to groom Sasuke.

Sasuke could become as strong as Itachi in Orochimaru’s eyes, meaning his body would be perfect for Orochimaru. But, on top of that, Sasuke also had Itachi’s Dōjutsu, the Sharingan, and since Orochimaru knew both that the Sharingan is clan-related, as well as that such Dōjutsu are inherited, he saw Sasuke as a means to an end.

Sasuke was, due to him being younger, much weaker than Itachi and easier to manipulate, which explains why Orochimaru was, initially at least, so successful in his endeavors.

Sasuke was a much easier target, and Orochimaru, who is the villain, simply abused that fact. Some fans also wonder why Orochimaru never picked Naruto, but we have said why – Sasuke was an Uchiha, which was enough for Orochimaru; plus, Naruto was much harder to control at the time because he was not as troubled as Sasuke.

Now that we have explained how and why Sasuke received the Cursed Mark, i.e., why Orochimaru targeted him specifically and what he, as a character who looked out for himself most of the time, gained out of it, we can finally proceed to tell you how Sasuke lost it, which is important because it had generally been thought that it was nigh impossible to remove it.

So, how did Sasuke ultimately lose it? All of this happened in Part II of the manga, i.e., in Shippūden. Namely, due to Itachi’s intervention, the Cursed Seal was finally removed from Sasuke, and Itachi managed to do it in such a way that the change was actually permanent.

This was a feat, as permanently removing a Cursed Mark was considered nigh impossible, but if anyone could do it, it was Itachi. Still, Sasuke maintained a connection with the source of the Cursed Seal, the Jūgo, which allowed him to gain chakra or flesh when necessary, but the Cursed Seal itself was sealed off and could not be used under any circumstances ever again.