A/N1: Because Chapter 105 reminded me about just how wonderfully ruthless and cunning Shikako really is, and I’m always a sucker for the categorization of things. As for the title–I’m not promising that I will do the other teams/characters, but I’m also not saying that I won’t.
On the TVTropes page, the members of Team Seven have already been labelled into their respective roles within the Freudian Trio / Four-Temperament Ensemble / Five-Man Band (don’t worry about the numbers, it will all make sense later). Which, for the most part, I agree with (my problem has more to do with how the website defines the roles than the allocation of them, but with TVTropes you really do have to read everything with a grain of salt).
However, I wanted to add some of my own analysis and labeling because, well, my brain thinks it’s fun. And maybe some of my fellow DoS fans will get some enjoyment out of reading this.
Here are the members of Team Seven and their respective allocations. The normal font is from the TVTropes site while the bolded and italicized are my own additions/adjustments.
Naruto
the Id (the Superego)
Sanguine
The Hero
E(N/s)FP – Idealist
Gryffindor
Chaotic Good
Sasuke
the Superego (the Id)
Choleric (Melancholic)
The Lancer
IS(T/f)J – Guardian
Hufflepuff
True Neutral
Shikako
the Ego
Melancholic (Choleric)
The Smart Chick
(I/e=A)NTP – Rational
Slytherin
Chaotic Neutral
Kakashi
the Mentor
Phlegmatic
The Big Guy
IST(P/j) – Artisan
Ravenclaw
Neutral Good
Super long reasoning under the cut
You’ve seen this before. You know what this is even if you don’t quite know the terminology behind it. It’s Kirk, Bones, and Spock. It’s Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Id, Ego, Superego.
According to Freud, an individual human mind is made of three parts. However in the media, we more often see these aspects of the psyche split between three different members of a group, making the team seem more cohesive if they are all parts of a greater whole rather than three distinct beings.
In it’s most known form, Id is the animalistic, emotions and instincts, Superego is the rational, logic and intellect, and Ego is the one stuck in between. Two polar opposites and the mediator.
Even without knowing which is which, it’s easy to describe Team Seven that way (even canon Team Seven at that). Naruto vs Sasuke, with Shikako as the mediator. And from the outset, with the most commonly used definitions and as a Team, I do agree with the TVTropes allocation–Naruto as Id, Shikako as Ego, Sasuke as Superego.
Naruto is more heart than logic, he is action first and reasoning later (if ever). Sasuke holds himself up to a higher standard (whether as an avenger or to Itachi or simply the idea of a strong shinobi). And Shikako is left juggling the two. From an outsider’s point of view it’s obvious, from a reader’s observatory point of view it makes sense.
But I propose that, as a story with Shikako as the protagonist–that is, from Shikako’s point of view–Naruto is the Superego while Sasuke is the Id.
This allocation also uses a slightly different interpretation of the Freudian Trio. Or, rather, emphasizing the motivations behind each part more so than the behavior.
The Id is emotions and instinct, yes, but it is animalistic. It is driven by a personal, self-centered, desire to survive above all. It is “if I am threatened, fight or flight.” It is “if I am weak, I must get stronger.” It is “if I want something, then I’ll take it.” It is “if I am hurt, retaliate.” It is Sasuke. Or rather, Shikako’s relationship with him.
He is a self-proclaimed avenger–he was hurt and now he wants to fix it. Everything about him–his need to grow stronger, his possessiveness over his friends, his fear and hatred of Itachi–it’s an animalistic reaction to the Uchiha Massacre. He wants revenge, he doesn’t want that to happen again; he needs power in order to fulfill both.
It’s these desires that Shikako keeps in mind when she interacts with him. If anything, she has to use logic to pull him away from his more destructive tendencies–the main one being the Curse Seal from Orochimaru: During the Konoha Chuunin Exam, she acknowledges that the Curse Seal is power, yes, but it’s going to prevent him from getting revenge. It’s poison, she says, it’s hurting him more than it will help him. And so he turns away from it. Before the Sasuke Retrieval arc, she knows he’s tempted by the easy route to power, and so she has to remind him that it’s in Konoha where both Itachi and Orochimaru became strong.
Even on her end, when she’s scared–of Itachi, of Danzo–she tells Sasuke. When she wants to get stronger, she trains with Sasuke (Konoha Chuunin Exam–speed training, Grass Chuunin Exam, sword training from Kakashi. Although this is mostly because the two of them simply have more opportunities what with Naruto’s vastly differing training needs. Arguably, though, there is Replacement Tag which Shikako and Sasuke both immediately knew had value whereas Naruto had to be coaxed into training). When she fights, when she is pushed into split-second, ruthless actions, it’s most often because Sasuke is in danger (Wave arc, when she took down Haku, Konoha Chuunin Exams against Orochimaru and the Sound genin, taking Sasuke’s place in the Tsukuyomi, etc. etc.)
In contrast there is her relationship with Naruto. A lot of her one-on-one interaction with him is cerebral–purposefully so, since she has been trying to improve his strategic thinking–but a surprising amount of it is her going to him for guidance. Shikako has, on multiple occasions, based her battle strategy on “What would Naruto do?” and that is when she has time to think before she acts. She looks to him as her moral compass as well–mercy, mainly–and if anything, she’s the one to tell him that pacifism isn’t practical.
Naruto is the idealist of the team, he wants power not for it’s intrinsic value, not as a weapon to hurt those who have hurt him, but to become Hokage; to protect the people and the village he loves, to be able to fulfill his promises. The Superego is logic and intellect, yes, but it idealism more than anything. It’s making decisions based on a higher standard of reasoning. It’s mercy towards your enemies, it’s the idea that you don’t have to fight to win, it’s making a goal and striving for it–not reactions to the past.
Hence, my proposition that–as relates to Shikako, the Ego–Naruto is the Superego while Sasuke is the Id.
Now Kakashi isn’t part of the trio (for obvious numeric reasons) because he kind of can’t be. The Freudian Trio is meant to showcase how a group grows and develops as a metaphor for a single person. But Kakashi is already grown–sure he’s become more in touch emotionally and having such troublemakers for students changes a person, but he’s essentially a separate being. Hence Kakashi being the Mentor which, obvious, since he’s literally their jounin sensei. But as an archetype/plot device, he is the team’s mentor. Where Shikako relates to Naruto through ideals, as a hope for the future, and she relates to Sasuke through needs, as a motivation for the present, her relationship with Kakashi is the past.
More than anything the Mentor is experience, she talks to him about remembering the night of the Kyuubi, she asks about his stories in the field. He’s not her moral compass or her survival instincts, but she goes to him for guidance because he has experience. In a way, she cannot change him because he’s past the point of being changed, and so unlike with Naruto and Sasuke (both of whom she can improve) Shikako isn’t worried about her affect on Kakashi, because he’s separate.
I’ll admit that I know the least about the Four-Temperament Ensemble as it is described in TvTropes and in general… mostly because it doesn’t really make sense to me? In a way, it’s a bit like Myers-Briggs, but it shakes down to three binaries rather than four and not every option matches a named Temperament unless one of the binaries is ignored.
Let me explain. The three binaries are: Extroversion vs Introversion, eMotional vs Rational, and People-oriented vs Task-oriented. This results in eight options, but only four are considered part of the Temperament Ensemble, as follows: EMP (Sanguine), IMP, ERT (Choleric), IRT, EMT, IMT (Melancholic), ERP, IRP (Phlegmatic).
Which means that one of the binaries doesn’t matter. I personally interpret the Extroversion vs Introversion to be the one that doesn’t matter (though you could consider it to be the eMotional vs Rational), which means that the Four Temperament Ensemble is really just based on two binaries. And that makes allocating roles to Team Seven very easy.
Naruto is very obviously emotional and people-oriented–hence, Sanguine. Kakashi is unmistakably rational(/unemotional/apathetic) and people-oriented (his role is literally to teach and protect his genin students), and so he is Phlegmatic. As for the two task-oriented members of Team Seven, well, I can interpret both of them as being either Choleric (rational task-oriented) or Melancholic (emotional task-oriented).
If you check the TVTropes page and its extensive list of characteristics related to the Four Temperaments, you can see how some of Choleric’s descriptions describe Sasuke and how some describe Shikako. Likewise with Melancholic. The overlap has to do with how each of them process emotions and rationality.
Sasuke, as I discussed in the above Freudian trio section, is emotionally driven, but he uses logic and his intellect when he acts. In contrast, Shikako is rationally driven–she needs to get stronger and help others get stronger because danger is approaching–but she uses her emotions(/relationships/other people’s emotions) in order to achieve her goals. Overall, I’d say Shikako and Sasuke are about fifty-fifty either way for Melancholic and Choleric.
The Five-Man Band is, simply put, a group of five people who have complementary skills/personalities. Traditionally it consists of The Hero, The Lancer, The Smart Guy, The Big Guy, and The Chick. But that set up is fairly outdated, being rooted in media from the 60s/70s and all, so it’s not something that requires much analysis or investment. Basically, though, just don’t have too much overlap or repetition and you should be okay.
Since this is a team of four, obviously we either have to omit one or mash up two into a single role. Shikako is the latter because she is not just there to be the token girl (though, you might argue that canon Sakura is because Masashi Kishimoto is distressingly sexist). Anyway, that gives us Naruto as the Hero, Sasuke as the Lancer (aka the Anti-Hero), with Shikako being both the Smart Guy and the Chick (hence, Smart Chick), and Kakashi as the Big Guy (more as a role than a personality–in general, Big Guys are characterized to be more brawn than brain, but as a plot device they are the ones who end up fighting separately so the rest of the team can fight elsewhere). The explanation for these are pretty simple, so that’s all for this section.
Now is when I step away from the TVTropes and towards my usual battery of character analysis tests. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the related Keirsey-Bates Temperaments, Hogwarts Houses*, and D&D Alignment.
As I mentioned above in the Four-Temperament Ensemble, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a set of four binaries which leads to a total of sixteen potential personality combinations. The binaries are: Extroversion vs Introversion, Sensing vs iNtuition, Thinking vs Feeling, and Judging vs Perceiving. It’s simple enough to apply the list of binaries to each character and figure out where on the spectrum they fall.
For Naruto there is no doubt he is an extrovert–especially in the technical sense of the word, in that he gains energy by being around large amounts of people. His enthusiasm and motivation is heavily dependent on others around him; even in canon, when he is alone, he turns quiet and pensive. While he does have some sensing tendencies–being a physical and hands-on learner–he is more intuitive. He’s known for solving problems in unusual ways, requires constant mental stimulation (either learning a new jutsu, playing a game, otherwise he’ll turn to pranking), and he’s a big picture/ideals kind of person.
For decision making, he’s unsurprisingly a feeler more than a thinker; and when it comes to interacting with the outside world he keeps his options open, preferring to react than plan everything out.
tl;dr Naruto is E(N/s)FP
In contrast, Sasuke is very obviously introverted–and not because he’s an anti-social jerk, but because he honestly works better with less people and he only emotionally connects with a few special individuals. He relies heavily on his senses, what he’s experienced for himself, and what he can immediately and tangibly influence. He will take things at face value and, especially in canon, rarely looks beyond the surface of a situation.
As previously stated, he has an odd contradiction of being emotionally-driven but logically-acting–so when it comes to Thinking vs Feeling he’s a little of both. However, because he very rarely considers what other people are feeling, he is more Thinking in the Myers-Briggs definition. As previously stated, he’s very task-oriented and focuses more on work and his goals almost to the point of blocking everything else out–making him more of a judger than a perceiver.
tl;dr Sasuke is IS(T/f)J
Shikako is an ambivert, that is, someone who is equally introverted and extroverted. Technically speaking, she is an introvert, in that she does get emotionally drained if she doesn’t have alone time of some sort to recharge herself. She doesn’t like people intruding into what she considers personal, but she does feel comfortable working in groups and collaborating and she has a wide range of friends–overall she’s slightly more introverted than extroverted. She is heavily intuitive when it comes to information processing–it could be argued that sort of knowing the future is cheating, but she uses that more as the bigger picture and only uses facts and figures to confirm as necessary.
In the Myers-Briggs definition, Shikako is more Thinking than Feeling, due to her practical and task-oriented nature. While she is adept at emotions, her own and others’, that in itself is more of a tool and definitely a lower priority than accomplishing her goals. Her judging vs perceiving type is slightly skewed when you consider, again, that she sort of knows the future. While on the outside it would seem like she’s a judger–making plans and working constantly to improve herself–she is more of a perceiver. Perceivers, as previously mentioned, do like to stay flexible and stay open to new information to better make decisions later. They work best with approaching deadlines and know to mix work and play so as not to burn themselves out–as someone who has lived her entire life as a series of incoming Big Bads–that she minimized her world changing, allowed herself a semblance of a childhood, and made sure to enjoy herself occasionally, shows how much more of a perceiver than a judger she is.
tl;dr Shikako is (I/e=A)NTP
Having already gone through the binaries in detail, I don’t think I need to explain why Kakashi is an introvert, a sensor, and a thinker. He is very much so like Sasuke in that–unsurprising, considering how frequently parallels are drawn between the two especially by Kakashi himself. As for the perceiving vs judging, well, I do think he is inherently a perceiver (simply put, he would rather observe than act, respond than instigate) but his training as a shinobi (and as the jounin in charge of the team/ex-ANBU captain) he does have to be a judger sometimes. He has to make decisions and act on them quickly and stick to the mission parameters–all of the chaos in Team Seven’s missions is in spite of what Kakashi decides and tries to do. It’s a bit of a toss up, really.
tl;dr Kakashi is IST(P/j)
The Keirsey Temperaments are somewhat related to Myers-Briggs, in that it groups the sixteen M-B types into four temperaments as follows: _S_J’s are Guardians, _S_P’s are Artisans, _NF_’s are Idealists, and _NT_’s are Rationals. The temperaments are then split again twice until, essentially, every Myers-Briggs type has a fancy title. The breakdown of how the temperaments are formed is the Sensing vs iNtuition–or, as Keirsey puts it, Concrete vs Abstract. Then the Concrete are split into organized vs adaptable–with Guardians being the former and Artisans the latter; while the Abstract are split into compassionate vs objective–Idealists the former and Rationals the latter.
From the above Myers-Briggs types for each member of Team Seven, we get Naruto as an Idealist (specifically, the Champion), Sasuke as a Guardian (specifically, the Inspector… though he does match the Protector more, which makes sense since he was in the middle for the Thinking/feeling spectrum), Shikako as a Rational (specifically, the Architect), and Kakashi as an Artisan (specifically, the Crafter). [For the specific titles, you can check out the second link provided for Keirsey Temperaments above, they are listed on the top left].
Idealists focus mostly on their hopes and the possibilities for the future. They act in good conscience, and try to reach their goals without breaking their personal code of ethics.
Guardians focus mostly on their duties and responsibilities. They act for the best of what is theirs to take care of, and try to meet the expectations and standards of society.
Rationals focus mostly on their problems and coming up with solutions to them. They act pragmatically, achieving their objectives as efficiently as possible, even ignoring rules and others if need be.
Artisans focus mostly on what is present, what they can get and what they can do. They act however is needed in order to get a quick and effective payoff, even if they have to bend the law to do so.
That sounds about right for Naruto, Sasuke, Shikako, and Kakashi respectively, doesn’t it?
Hogwarts Houses (yeah, that’s right, I went there)
For some reason, Hogwarts House sorting is really subjective, so this more than any other section is my opinion. I don’t actually believe that every group of four must be sorted into each House, but if they had to then this is how I think it would go:
Naruto is the most Gryffindor that has ever Gryffindor-ed that I’m surprised he isn’t an actual lion. His courage, his idealism, his recklessness, even his prankster sensibilities? Total Gryffindor.
Shikako, especially after we’ve been so thoroughly reminded in Chapter 105, is Slytherin. A very conscientious one, but still Slytherin. She’s cunning, resourceful, pragmatic, and if you consider her ambition is to “survive Akatsuki and Pein and Madara” then, yes, she is very ambitious.
I personally have a soft spot for the rabid-badger Hufflepuff idea–that is, a Hufflepuff who isn’t a total pushover congenial, but is fiercely loyal and hard-working and determined to the point where it’s like having a rabid badger on a leash. And, well, DoS Sasuke really does fit the bill for that (not canon Sasuke–who has been so broken and twisted and consumed by anger and vengeance that he wouldn’t know loyalty if it wore bright orange and yelled about friendship in front of him). He is undeniably hard-working and determined, training just as hard as Naruto to become stronger, and he is so loyal to his team–jumping in front of Naruto during Wave arc, trusting what Shikako says even when she can’t tell him everything. (A moment of silence for pre-Curse Seal canon Sasuke, who could have and should have been like DoS Sasuke.)
Which leaves Kakashi with Ravenclaw. Not that I’m just assigning the leftovers for last, because I do actually think Kakashi fits Ravenclaw best. If not that, then probably also Hufflepuff, buuuut… well. Like I said, this section is presuming that a group of four must be sorted into each House. Anyway, he is intelligent, but he’s also… hm… not curious, necessarily, but he needs to know what is going on. It’s hard to tell from an outsider point of view since he is so seemingly apathetic, but that has more to do with him being able to observe while looking like he’s ignoring people. He’s known for having a ridiculous lexicon of jutsu and creating his own. Shikako is similar, but where she accumulates knowledge for power, he just knows stuff because it’s cool or interesting.
*(Sometimes I also do Avatar Elements–Air, Water, Earth, Fire–but I thought that would be a little confusing considering there are elemental affinities in the Naruto world. And, anyway, I usually do it as more of a “what if these character were in an Avatar AU fic” but since this is an analysis of characters already in a fic that would be too much)
This gives the least insight to their personalities, but it does help with behaviors so if you want to write recursive DoS fanfic this may help out. Mostly I just really find D&D Alignment fun to talk about.
D&D Alignment is a categorization of the ethical and moral perspectives of the characters. There are two axes which combine to create nine alignments in total. It looks like this:
Lawful Good Neutral Good Chaotic Good
|
Lawful Neutral ——- True Neutral ——- Chaotic Neutral
|
Lawful Evil Neutral Evil Chaotic Evil
The X-axis is Lawful vs Chaotic, and the Y-axis is Good vs Evil. Self-explanatory.
Naruto is undoubtedly Chaotic Good–he doesn’t care for the system as it is now, it’s why he’s so effective as a Hero because he’s going to change the violent world of shinobi into something that can sustain peace.
Shikako is Chaotic Neutral–well, she self-identifies as chaotic. Her lawful leaning is mostly because she knows if she steps too far out of line Danzo will be there–because while she does want to defeat the bad guys, that’s more of a side-effect of making sure everyone she cares about is strong enough to survive. The world saving is just a bonus to her.
Sasuke is True Neutral–like Shikako, his motivations are fairly self-serving but they’re not actively harming anyone who isn’t identified as evil. And while he’s way less chaotic than his teammates, he’s still a part of team trouble–rules are more like suggestions than orders.
Kakashi is Neutral Good, edging into True Neutral–at heart, he does want to do good but he doesn’t really know what that is except for “what would Obito/Minato-sensei/Rin/Kushina do?” (I’d rant more, but my Kakashi feels don’t belong in this post). As for lawful vs chaotic, well, it’s been repeatedly mentioned how his status as an elite jounin essentially makes him an exception to the rules. He could follow them–like, no doubt, the other jounin sensei do–but he doesn’t have to so he won’t.
A/N2: Aand that’s all, folks. You can tell I got kind of tired towards the end. If you got this far, then wow. Congrats. Hope you found this enjoyable and/or potentially useful.
JackSGreyson Says 