Did Sasuke Really Say “I Have Long Since Closed My Eyes. My Only Goal Is in the Darkness”?

Unverified as worded, though the line exists in other words. Wikiquote's Naruto Shippuden transcription has Sasuke say "I shut my eyes a long time ago. The things I seek now lie only in the darkness." in the episode "Sasuke's Ninja Way." The popular version, "I have long since closed my eyes. My only goal is in the darkness," appears in no trusted source we could read.

Two wordings, one source

Wikiquote files its wording under season 10, "Sasuke's Ninja Way," and does not say whether it follows the English dub or a subtitle track. CBR's list of Naruto quotes uses the same wording, but only as a title-cased heading, which adds an editor's attribution and nothing about the words.

The two versions say the same thing differently. "Shut my eyes a long time ago" becomes "long since closed my eyes"; "the things I seek now lie only in the darkness" becomes "my only goal is in the darkness." The second change narrows the meaning: several things sought becomes a single goal. It is a fair summary of where Sasuke stands in the arc, but it is a different sentence, and we found no source saying whose it is.

Why this is not marked as a translation difference

The site uses "translations differ" when an official English wording, such as a licensed manga page, an official clip or an official episode title, can be read and set against the popular one. Wikiquote's transcription does not say which track it follows, so it is not that official wording, and nothing ties the popular version to one either. The popular version could come from VIZ's manga, a subtitle release or a fan translation, and we could not read any of them. Until one of them can be checked, the sentence stays unverified, and the version with a source is the one this site prints.

What this site prints

Sasuke's character page carries the Wikiquote wording with its episode. Other checked Naruto lines are on the Naruto hub, and the Naruto sub vs dub guide covers the English versions.

How we checked

We re-read Wikiquote's raw page text and CBR's quote list on October 14, 2026, and searched allowlisted newsrooms for the popular wording in body text. The verdict is logged in the fact-check database, and the verification method explains why a transcription is not treated as a named dub or edition.