Sasuke Began As Naruto’s Vegeta, But Boruto Makes Him a Different Rival

Despite the obvious differences in their stories, there are a lot of similarities between Naruto and Dragon Ball, especially once fans reflect that while Sasuke can be seen as the former’s version of Vegeta, he’s also its Piccolo. In both manga, Naruto and Goku have to deal with a “frenemy” situation where arch-rivals Sasuke, Vegeta and Piccolo respectively, battle each another one day, only to have them team up against a bigger threat the next. These are relationships that make Naruto and Goku’s lives incredibly complicated by both helping and hindering their goals.

These relationships are also longstanding. That is, they are not one-offs where the characters interact once or twice, then never meet again. Naruto and Sasuke have known each other since they were children. While Vegeta and Piccolo met Goku later in the manga, they nevertheless prove a continuing source of mockery, challenge, and questioning for Goku for the remainder of the series and beyond.

For Naruto, Sasuke single-handedly provides the pushback that Goku gets from Vegeta and Piccolo combined. The Goku-Vegeta relationship presents the classic manga rivalry. Two opponents who have such a deep understanding and experience of one another that it is almost like they are siblings wanting to outshine one another, but at the same time protecting each other from the attacks of others. Indeed, Vegeta is too prideful to openly admit when Goku is better, but fights with a fury when others criticize his actions. Interestingly, the results of this relationship has been that Goku and Vegeta have pushed each other to be the best they can be.

Sasuke provides that same “foil” to Naruto as Vegeta gave Goku. First, there is the fact that since they were children on Team 7, there has been an ongoing rivalry between the two. Sasuke, coming from a well-off clan, expresses the same Vegeta-level arrogance to the orphan Naruto. Often considering himself a much stronger fighter to Naruto, as Vegeta believes is true of his relationship with Goku, Sasuke is often surprised by Naruto’s abilities. Nevertheless, they both show a deep (albeit silent) respect for each other, and have been willing to risk their lives for the other on occasion.

But Sasuke not only plays the role of Vegeta, but also that of Piccolo. A long-term opponent of Goku, Piccolo not only becomes a trusted ally but also contributes a significant amount of effort to the upbringing of Gohan, Goku’s firstborn. Initially, Piccolo is reluctant to perform the task and uses a cold and uncompromising style to train Gohan. However, as their time and training together progress, Piccolo becomes in many ways more of a father to Gohan than Goku could ever dream of. Sasuke provides the same fatherlike figure to Naruto’s son Boruto. While Naruto is not dead like Goku during his children’s formative year, he is so often away from home that he may as well have been. Even when home, he is too busy with village affairs to spend much quality time with Boruto and his sister. Eventually, this leads to Boruto’s interest in Sasuke’s presence at the Ninja Academy and his eventual request to be his disciple.

Like Vegeta, Sasuke is a sibling-like rival for Naruto, and like Piccolo, he takes on a mentor role with his child, Boruto. However, these aren’t just coincidental similarities. There is no more poignant similarity between Naruto and Dragon Ball than their focus on found families and generational love and trauma, as bound up in Goku and Naruto’s relationships with Piccolo, Vegeta, and Sasuke.

About The Author

Marcel Green
(136 Articles Published)

Marcel Green is a comics news writer for Screen Rant. A lifelong comic fan who originally was a “Marvel Only” collector, he has matured into an “independent” fan of all things comics, manga, cartoon, and anime. Happy to finally be able to put all those hours reading comics over the years to good use.

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