Originally Posted by UchihaTaijiya

Can't say that I agree with you. From what I noticed, before he went to Orochimaru/upgraded to level 2, the seal was only a hindrance. Sasuke has begun to rely on it and that's not a good thing. Kakashi warned him it would have consequences, and frankly I'm just waiting for something to come up. (Unless Kishimoto dropped that :/ hopefully not though, because then it will be a small loose end/plot hole/whatever).

But what I'm saying, is that the power the curse seal extracts was already within Sasuke. He simply wasn't at the natural level to release that much/control it.

And he didn't go out of his way to get the seal, but after he kept losing in every battle because of it, I think he partly decided it would simply be best to try and gain control over it. (Though i don't think that was the best idea - I think he should have worked with Kakashi to develop a better sealing technique). Also, Sasuke's perception of his lack of strength, imho, was false and spurred by the MKS/gap between him and Itachi. Just because Sasuke believed he wasn't strong enough on his own, doesn't actually mean he didn't have the potential. It only means he didn't see his own potential.