Zoro vs. Sasuke: Who Would Win in a Fight?

The worlds of One Piece and Naruto, however different, are two of the most important shonen worlds, alongside Bleach‘s fictional universe. Now, we have done a lot of comparisons involving characters from these universes, but we haven’t done too many crossover comparisons, which is why we have decided to do one in this article. The two characters we are going to compare here are One Piece‘s Zoro and Naruto‘s Sasuke Uchiha, both of who are extremely important for their franchises, as well as extremely strong. In this article, we are going to determine who would in a direct fight between these two characters.

Sasuke Uchiha would be able to defeat Zoro in a fight. Sasuke has a much more diverse set of powers, he is extremely strong, as well as more intelligent than Zoro. Zoro is raw power and he is more resistant than Sasuke, but he still wouldn’t be able to endure all of Sasuke’s attacks, as the shinobi is simply on a much higher level of power than he is.

Now that you have the short version of the answer, the rest of the article is going to be divided into three sections, with the first two introducing the characters, their powers, and their abilities. In the end, we’re going to give our final verdict and explanation on why Sasuke Uchiha would win against Zoro in a direct one-on-one clash.

Zoro and his powers

Zoro is a serious and cold-looking character. He has a sometimes thoughtful but excessive temperament. The creator of the series, Eiichiro Oda compares him to a shark or a demon. Yet his reactions are often comical or exaggerated. During sea crossings, we see him either training or taking a nap, or sleeping, which in the latter case often means he is awakened quite brutally.

Zoro is one of the physically strongest characters in the series. He demonstrates his strength of him when he was fighting Daz Bones, he easily lifted a building despite the injuries he had. He is seen training on the Thousand Sunny with ton-weight dumbbells. His strength is surely equal to or greater than that of a giant as he was able to parry a direct hit from Oars with his swords.

After the time skip, Zoro greatly increased his strength. Proof of this is that he was able to defeat a Pacifista with a single attack when before the timeskip he and all his companions joined forces to defeat one, he was able to cut a pirate ship with a single cut, he was also capable of defeating and seriously injuring Hody Jones, a Fish-Man with physical strength above the average of his race when he was underwater and with several Energy Steroids consumed.

One of his greatest feats was defeating Pica in his gigantic form without a single scratch, though he had to turn to Orlumbus to gain mobility and momentum. Zoro has also shown to be very agile and fast. An example of this is that in the Whiskey Peak arc he took on a large number of Baroque Works agents, slipping through their ranks so quickly that they didn’t notice him until he spoke.

Zoro is one of the few people to possess all 3 forms of Haki. Zoro possesses the Royal Haki, the rarest Haki, whose users are said to possess the qualities of a King. He is first mentioned to hold this power by Kaido after Zoro’s nine-sword attack. During his fight against King, he uses the Royal Haki to coat his sabers, a very advanced form, and at the same time members of the Hundred Beasts Crew are seen fainting around.

He didn’t use the Haki offensively against Monet but still managed to beat her as she thought he was going to use the Haki and therefore she was going to die. The fear that Monet felt at that moment completely destabilized her. He has learned to imbue his sabers with Haki to make them more effective against Haki or Devil Fruit users.

He also used the Armament Haki on Pica to slice him which means his Haki is more advanced than Pica’s. Using the Haki also allows him to counter Devil Fruit powers, as he did to temporarily stop the Birdcage.

He first uses the Observation in his fight against Nuru, a Fishman capable of blinding his opponents thanks to the lantern on his forehead, even telling him that he only used his eyes to see and that was why he was weak; he made use of it again to find Caribou in the palace. He also uses it during the Arc Dressrosa, to find where the one who stole his saber is but also to find Pica during his fight against him.

In the beginning of his journey as a pirate, Zoro only mastered the Santoryu, his conventional fighting style; but over time he began to master techniques from other schools, such as Nitoryu, Ittoryu, or even Mutouryu. Currently, Zoro and the rest of the crew have improved their abilities to face the New World.

Zoro is known to be able to cut through a Pacifista the caliber of those found in the Sabaody Archipelago, so it follows that Zoro can relatively easily cut through materials even harder than steel without using any Shishi Sonson-like moves, very probably because he has learned to use busoshoku haki.

Sasuke Uchiha and his powers

Sasuke Uchiha is a fictional character from the manga and anime series Naruto, written and illustrated by mangaka Masashi Kishimoto. He was conceived to be the best friend of Naruto Uzumaki, the protagonist of the series, possessing numerous characteristics, both physical and psychological, totally opposite to the latter.

In the beginning, he is presented as a positive figure as well as fundamental in the development of the plot; the young ninja is part of Team 7, but at the end of the first part of the manga he abandons his companions becoming an antihero, consumed by hatred and thirst for revenge (these feelings, in fact, will totally change him, making him unrecognizable in the eyes of the whole village).

Since early childhood, Sasuke has been considered a genius by members of the same Uchiha clan and later also by his teacher Kakashi, so much so that he will be the best of his course at the ninja academy. The young man obsessively develops his abilities initially to obtain the strength necessary to kill his brother Itachi and later to avenge him: to this end, not only the teachings of Kakashi and Orochimaru but also the rivalry with Naruto will be fundamental.

He immediately demonstrates great skill in martial arts, so much so that Kakashi has to use both hands during the bell test, and later, before taking part in the exam to become Chunin, he manages to improve further by copying the style of Rock Lee. He is endowed with superhuman speed, incredible reflexes, and extraordinary endurance, so much so that he can successfully sustain long battles against very powerful opponents (such as Itachi and Danzo) and even after having already sustained exhausting ones (such as against Kakashi and Naruto).

He also boasts exceptional skill in the use of any ninja weapon and with his Kusanagi sword, which he can also infuse his chakra.

In the first part of the manga he is branded by Orochimaru with the cursed sign of the sky, which improves his abilities at the expense of the increasing influence on him of the chakra of the legendary ninja, and after the escape from Konoha the Quartet of Sound makes him able to use the second level of it: when Sasuke uses this version of the brand his skin turns dark gray, the sclera of both eyes turns black, the hair grows thicker and takes on a lighter color and unfolds from the back two wings in the shape of hands.

After the bloody battle with Itachi, Sasuke loses the Cursed Sign but remains compatible with it, as he demonstrates on several occasions when he is saved thanks to this power by Jugo; always thanks to the training with Orochimaru. Sasuke obtains immunity to poisons and learns all the techniques of the latter related to snakes, but following the clash with Itachi he loses them and in fact, the call of him passes from these to the hawks.

He also possesses a remarkable ability also in the use of illusory arts, although not at the level of his brother: with the basic Sharingan he still managed to save himself from Itachi’s Tsukuyomi, to dialogue with the Fox in Naruto’s mind, and to subdue the king of gods. Manda snakes. With the hypnotic Sharingan he was able to immobilize Killer Bee, some samurai, and Shi as well as create an illusion similar to his brother’s technique with which he distracted Danzo.

After obtaining the Rinnegan, Sasuke’s ability in genjutsu increases to the point of subduing all nine hunters with a single glance. Like all Uchiha, he has a natural predisposition for the fire-type chakra, learning the supreme fireball technique at the age of seven, and later also learns how to use the lightning-type chakra, learning from Kakashi the Chidori and creating numerous variations.

Zoro vs. Sasuke Uchiha: Who would win?

And now for the most important and interesting section of our article – the analysis. Here, we are going to use what we have found out about these two characters and analyze how all these facts would (or would not) help them in a fight against each other. Let us continue.

We couldn’t really do our standard point-by-point comparison here as the two characters have only one shared category – weapons usage. Not even their physical capabilities are similar, as one is a pirate, and the other is a shinobi, which makes their fighting styles and techniques vastly different. This is why we have opted for such an approach as it, we believe, reflects these two characters the best.

Now, we assume that you have read through our introductions, and by simply comparing the various abilities these guys have, you should’ve come to the conclusion that Sasuke would definitely win here. Why? Well, because it’s Sasuke we’re talking about. An exceptionally talented individual, Sasuke Uchiha is amazingly talented and one of the two characters who can stand his ground against Naruto. The sheer number of powers and abilities he possesses is amazing, but if you add to that his prowess with each of them, you get a formidable fighter you wouldn’t really want to face.

Sure, you could say that Zoro is physically stronger and has amazing willpower, but Zoro couldn’t probably even hit Sasuke. Sasuke is much faster than Zoro and is more intelligent, which means that he could come up with a specific tactical approach that would render Zoro’s abilities useless in a fight. Zoro has absolutely no energy manipulation skills, whereas Sasuke has many such abilities. We’re quite certain that Sasuke wouldn’t even have to use the full extent of his powers to actually defeat Zoro.

In this case, it was truly a difference between the two types of fighters, and Sasuke’s diversity definitely triumphs here. Namely, Sasuke not only surpasses Zoro in all categories save for pure, raw strength, he also has so many various powers that Zoro wouldn’t even get a chance to think of a way to counter them all. He would simply be overwhelmed by Sasuke’s skills. We were too, and we weren’t even fighting him.

Sure, Zoro would beat Sasuke in an arm wrestling match, but that is about it. He could, perhaps, throw something farther than Sasuke as well, but that wouldn’t help him win. Not really. This is why this comparison was quite easy for us and we actually never had any doubts about Sasuke’s victory, as he is so much more superior to Zoro in every aspect that one of One Piece‘s best swordsmen couldn’t do much against one of Naruto‘s best fighters.