Taka

Taka, which began life as Hebi before its rename, is a squad Sasuke Uchiha personally puts together. Its founding aim is to locate Itachi Uchiha and to shield Sasuke's duel with him from any interference. To assemble it, Sasuke moves between old Otogakure hideouts after severing ties with Orochimaru, gathering Suigetsu Hōzuki, Karin, and Jūgo. Once Itachi is dead and Tobi reveals the Leaf's hand in the Uchiha Clan Downfall, the team takes the name Taka and adopts a new purpose: tearing down Konoha. The group later aligns itself with Akatsuki.

Though the team starts as a marriage of convenience, its members gradually grow to value one another, putting their lives on the line to protect their comrades in a way that stirs memories of Team 7 in Sasuke. That bond frays as Sasuke sinks deeper into revenge: he leaves Jūgo and Suigetsu behind in the Land of Iron to chase Danzō, then gravely wounds Karin and even attempts to finish her off to spare himself complications. Karin is rescued by Sasuke's old Team Kakashi and held in the Leaf, while Jūgo and Suigetsu, unaware of what he did, rejoin him to see whether revenge or the defense of Konoha is his real aim. Karin eventually returns to the fold after Sasuke apologizes.

The team's assignments run a wide arc. Their pursuit of Itachi succeeds, though he dies of illness rather than by Sasuke's blade. The plan to destroy Konoha is ultimately abandoned once Sasuke, reunited with his reanimated brother and swayed by Hashirama's account of what it means to be a shinobi, lets the goal go. A mission to seize the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki ends in failure when Killer B fakes his own capture, while the hunt for Danzō at the Five Kage Summit ends with Sasuke killing him. When Sasuke finally chooses to defend the Leaf, the whole team, joined by a revived Orochimaru, fights alongside the Allied Shinobi Forces against Madara's Eye of the Moon Plan. After the war, Taka disbands for good: Sasuke returns home and starts a family, and the others go back to serving as Orochimaru's assistants.

Sasuke Uchiha founds and leads the group, driven first by the urge to avenge his clan against Itachi and later by the wish to avenge Itachi against the village. Suigetsu Hōzuki signs on hoping to reach Kisame and claim Samehada, part of a larger dream to gather every blade of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Karin masks her motive as simply heading the same way, when in truth she is drawn by her feelings for Sasuke. Jūgo follows because he sees Sasuke as the only heir to Kimimaro, the sole person able to still his murderous urges.