He is a notable character in the manga due to the fact that the story basically revolves around Naruto , the main character , and Sasuke , Naruto 's rival . When developing the original Naruto manga , Masashi Kishimoto had not initially intended to create Sasuke . After speaking with his editor about the future of the series , he was advised to create a rival character for the series ' protagonist , Naruto Uzumaki , resulting in Sasuke 's creation .