Random Naruto thought

[Don]

During one of Naruto's meaningless introspection scenes, he was saying how it's possible everything could've been different, that he (Naruto) could've been the fugitive and Sasuke could have been the hero. Now I don't like Sasuke and I don't particularly hate Naruto, but I think that'd have been at least a much happier story. It'd probably also end a lot quicker since it'd probably go like:

Villager: Naruto is attacking the village!
Sasuke: I'll use my eyepower!
Naruto: ???? I can't move!
Sasuke kills Naruto.
Itachi's ghost: You have done well my brother.
The end.

I mean if you think about it, Orochimaru's teaching seems to involve taking drugs that eventually kill you (including himself), while for some inexplicable reason every person under Jiraiya's tutelege turns out to be ridiculously powerful. It's not clear to me if Sasuke even learned anything useful while teaming up with Orochimaru.

[Eric]

Sasuke learned to be merciless under Orochimaru.

[Don]

I'm pretty sure there was this scene where Sasuke KOed a bunch of random ninjas without killing them and Orochimaru says you're too merciful, and Sasuke says he'll be merciless to those he actually cares about killing. I suppose you can say he's merciless when he killed Orochimaru but I thought that's more like "Whoa I better get out of here before the boat sinks" kind of deal. At any rate Orochimaru was going to die anyway so unless Sasuke was going to give up his body, it'd make no difference whether he killed Orochimaru or just left him to rot and die on his own.

I think Sasuke literally learned nothing under Orochimaru's tutelege.

As an aside, Kakashi is a useless teacher too. Learning his move probably made Sasuke weaker than he could have been. It's pretty well estalblished that Kakashi's signature move has the following qualities:

1. Leaves you extremely vulnerable to counterattack (you run in a straight line).
2. Doesn't ever KO someone in one hit.
3. Uses up a stupid amount of chakra.

I'd say Sasuke's clan's innate fireball move is almost certainly a lot more useful than anything he's learned from the guys who are supposed to teach him nijitsu.

Actually, if you think about it, if Sasuke's trying to become stronger to eventually defeat Itachi, why would he want to learn from a guy Itachi defeated by just looking at him? Even if Orochimaru got Sasuke's body he'd probably still get smoked by Itachi anyway. Sasuke should've done his homework, or Itachi should've warned him that he was learning from a total loser.