just like polaroid memory said. If you sasuke has higher intiative he moves first(since its his standard attack) and makes barrier, only to replaced by the opponents sasuke with lesser initiative in next move. Lol. Sometimes intitative can be a pain. Just place all your higher initative giving rune stones etc onto your equipments with highest refinement levels. Finally put all of them for Ninja in position 1 and position 2. Put all the low initiative equipments for sasuke in last position. This could help you in getting barrier in most cases except when opponent can control your sasuke with acupuncture, interupt etc. In those cases you might have to wait for ideal timing to get barrier.