Itachi Uchiha

Latest revision as of 08:30, 21 February 2023

Itachi Uchiha is a male anime and manga character who features in Naruto.

Biography

Origin

Itachi Uchiha with his younger brother in Naruto v1 #45.

Itachi Uchiha (Japanese: うちは イタチ, Hepburn: Uchiha Itachi) was the son of Fugaku Uchiha and Mikoto Uchiha as well as had an older brother named Sasuke Uchiha with their family being a member of the Uchiha Clan in the Ninja World. It was said that he was born in a traumatic time as the world was engulfed in the Third Shinobi World War when he was only 4 years old. In that time, he was exposed to much violence and seen seen first-hand the casualties caused by the conflict. The death and destruction he had experienced was said to had resulted in Itachi becoming a pacifist. This saw him training non-stop to achieve his dream of becoming a superb ninja so that he could erase fighting from the world. When he was 5 years old, his parents had another child with this being Itachi's younger brother Sasuke Uchiha. Around this time, he formed a close friendship with Shisui Uchiha when two began to train together and formed a brother-like bond as they taught each other new tricks. Around 12 years ago, he was looking after his baby brother Sasuke whilst his parents were away which was when the Nine-Tails attacked the village. Ultimately, the Tailed Beast was defeated and sealed once more but this came at the cost of the Fourth Hokage. The incident though had soured relations between the hidden leaf and the Uchiha clan as the latter were blamed for this incident. This resulted in the Uchiha being forced to live on the edge of the village and isolated from Konohagakure in order to monitor them more easily. Itach was 6 years old when he enrolled at the Academy and consistently scored the highest in each subject where he quickly learned any skill taught to him leading to him being praised for the best of ninja of his generation. Four months later, his teachings unanimously agree to let him take the graduation exam early due to Itachi being advanced enough to rise to the rank of genin. He also began to study the history of the world leading to him gaining a new found appreciation for it. Itachi later graduated from the Academy and was the youngest graduate in the post-war era which was when he was approached by Danzō Shimura who came to assess Itachi's thinking.

At the age of 13, he was noted to had become the head of the Anbu black ops in the village.

Itachi's accomplishments were a source of great pride for his family, his father viewing him as proof of the Uchiha's future prosperity and his brother viewing him as a model to live up to. Itachi spent a great deal of time with Sasuke, training with him though rarely actually training him and giving him the recognition their father did not. However, for all the attention he received, few truly understood Itachi, believing his isolation to be a result of the gap between his abilities and theirs and not his dissatisfaction with the shinobi's life of conflict. Eventually, the Uchiha's disdain for their unfair treatment led them to plan a coup d'état. Fugaku, head of the Uchiha and the coup's chief conspirator, encouraged Itachi's advancement into the Anbu's ranks as a means of spying on the village. Itachi, however, knew an Uchiha coup would lead to intervention from other villages and ultimately start another World War, something he could not support. He instead became a double agent, reporting the Uchiha's actions to the Third Hokage and the Konoha Council in the hopes it would help them find a peaceful resolution. Itachi shared the burden of betraying his clan with Shisui. But as time went on it became increasingly clear that peace could not be achieved. Shisui intended to use his Kotoamatsukami on the Uchiha's leaders to compel them to negotiate, but his right eye was stolen by Danzō before he had a chance. His own options exhausted, Shisui entrusted his remaining eye to Itachi and begged him to protect the village and their family name before drowning himself in the Naka River. Itachi was anguished by Shisui's death, enough to awaken his Mangekyō Sharingan. When the following day some Uchiha, already suspicious of Itachi, accused him of murdering Shisui and staging a suicide, Itachi lost his composure and attacked them, defeating them easily. A rift was created between Itachi and his family, and his warnings to them to reconsider what they were doing fell on deaf ears. At age 12, he was promoted to Anbu Captain, with his publicly disclosed promotion age being 13 due to Danzō's request and Hiruzen's acceptance.

Although the Third Hokage still wished to negotiate with the Uchiha, Danzō Shimura recognised that there was no longer an outcome that could see the Uchiha clan's survival. He explained this to Itachi and left him a choice: support the Uchiha's coup and have the whole clan, including Sasuke, killed in the ensuing conflict, or accept the assignment to wipe out the clan before the coup started and be allowed to spare Sasuke. Itachi chose his brother. Despite having made his choice, Itachi was tormented by guilt, especially with the knowledge that Shisui would most likely not forgive his choice to destroy the clan. However, remembering the words of his father to not let other's decide things for his life, he resolved to continue his path. While making final preparations, Itachi discovered a masked man sneaking around Konoha. From observing him, he came to believe the man was truly Madara Uchiha bent on provoking some new conflict. Itachi approached him with an offer: he would assist 'Madara' with wiping out the Uchiha, taking vengeance against them for abandoning him decades earlier, if Madara would spare the village, to which he agreed. In one night Itachi and Tobi slaughtered the entire clan. Itachi took it upon himself to personally execute his parents. Despite his betrayal, they bore him no ill-will, instead telling him in the moments before they were killed that they were proud of him and requesting that he take care of Sasuke. Filled with grief for his actions, Itachi saw in Sasuke the only person suitable to punish him for his crimes. In order to set Sasuke on this path, he decided to cast himself as the villain and intended for Sasuke to see him as the murderer of their clan. By the time Sasuke returned home, he found Itachi over the dead bodies of their parents. He then seemingly attempted to kill his younger brother with Sasuke begging to be spared with Itachi showing disgust at the younger Uchiha's action. He then told Sasuke to foster hatred in his heart and that only then would be able to kill him whereupon he left the village and was branded as a rogue shinobi.

Akatsuki

He eventually came to find himself among the Akatsuki and joined the organization who normally operated in two-man teams with Itachi being partnered with Orochimaru. During one of their missions, Orochimaru attacked him with the intention of claiming the Sharingan for himself. However, Itachi placed his opponent in a genjutsu and wounded Orochimaru who was forced to flee where his betrayal made him an enemy of the Akatsuki. Later on, Itachi was noted to had gained a new partner in the form of Kisame Hoshigaki.

After Orochimaru's failed attack on Konogakure, Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki secretly made their way to Konogakure in an effort to acquire the Nine-Tails. Whilst in the village, they were discovered by Kakashi Hatake who called on the aid of Kurenai Yuhl and Asuma Sarutobi. The three battled the two Akatsuki members but were unable to match the power of Itachi's Sharingan. In fact, Itachi's power allowed him to overwhelm Kakashi's Sharingan and left him badly injured as a result. It was only the arrival of Might Guy were the Hidden Leaf ninja able to escape whilst Itachi and Kisame continued on their quest in finding Naruto Uzumaki. They came to learn that the young shinobi was in the company of Jiraiya whose status as one of the legendary Sannin meant that he was a difficult foe for the two Akatsuki members. They bid their time until Jiraiya was separated from Naruto with Itachi approaching the hotel room of the Uzumaki boy. Using his genjutsu, Naruto could have easily been abducted had Sasuke Uchiha not arrived on the scene to delay the two Akatsuki for a moment. This allowed for Jiraiya to arrive on the scene where he fought the two Akatsuki members by entrapping them within the mouth of a giant toad. This led to Itachi deciding on a retreat where he blew a wall to the outside using his black flames so that he and Kisame could gather their strength for their next encounter.

After two years, the Akatsuki came to make their move to claim the jinchuriki from around the world and extract the Tailed-Beasts within them. This saw Deidara and Sasori being sent to Sunagakure to capture the Kazekage Gaara who was the host of the One-Tails. Bringing the sand ninja to their base, the Akatsuki were remotely gathered as they used their chakra to perform the jutsu to draw the spirit beast from Gaara. At this point, the leaf shinobi were in pursuit to recover their ally Gaara with the Akatsuki dispatching Itachi and Kisame to deal with the ninja. Using a fraction of their chakra and captured bodies as vessel, they battled the leaf ninja where Itachi fought against Team Kakashi. Despite his genjutsu, his host vessel was defeated at the same time as Kisame's though the delay they gave their pursuers allowed the extraction ceremony to be completed.

The dead remains of Itachi were later harvested by Kabuto Yakushi who added them to his collection of samples from slain shinobi. After allying with Tobi, Kabuto came to join the Akatsuki and used his perfected reanimation jutsu to resurrect slain warriors to serve as shock troops for the Fourth Shinobi World War. This saw Itachi Uchiha being resurrected in an undead state where he was forced to serve the jutsu caster and was deployed alongside Nagato to fight the Allied Shinobi Forces. The pair were far from the front lines when they encountered the Jinchūriki hosts of the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails. This led to a battle against Naruto Uzumaki and Killer B who were looking to enter into the battle. Against their will, Itachi and Nagato were forced to fight the two shinobi as they were commanded to capture the Tailed-Beast hosts. In his fight with Naruto, the crow Itachi had implanted in Uzumaki freed himself and returned to the Uchiha where it overwrote the controls of the reanimation jutsu placed on him. This allowed Itachi to be freed from Kabuto's command and he aided Naruto in defeating the mind controlled Nagato who after feeling at peace had his body dissipate thus letting him rest in peace. With the battle over, Itachi was informed by Naruto that Sasuke had learnt the truth about the death of the Uchiha clan and had since sworn to destroy the hidden leaf. However, Itachi decided to let Naruto to reach out to Sasuke whilst he himself decided to stop Kabuto's reanimation jutsu. Using Nagato's sensory abilities before he died, Itachi then made his way to his quarry's location where along the way he was sighted by Sasuke who followed his brother. Despite their union, Itachi was fixated on defeating Kabuto who was revealed to had improved on himself significantly to make him a dangerous foe. This forced the Uchiha brothers to work together to defeat their foe. Unable to use a genjutsu on Yakushi, Itachi decided to use the forbidden Izanami technique where he dropped Kabuto in an endless mental loop. This allowed him to probe Kabuto's mind for the release of the reanimation and made Yakushi perform the technique. This ended the reanimation with Itachi having some final words with his brother Sasuke before his body dissipated as his soul returned to the afterlife.

At some point, an experiment of Orochimaru named Shin came to learn of Itachi Uchiha and became enamoured with the story of him. Upon escaping his master, Shin came to refer to himself as Shin Uchiha and followed a set of principles that he claimed were based on Itachi. This led to him learning of his idol's younger brother Sasuke with Shin looking to kill him as he believed the sibling was a disgrace to the Uchiha name.

Overview

Personality and attributes

Due to his Sharingan, he came to be known as Itachi of the Sharingan (写輪眼のイタチ, Sharingan no Itachi, Literally meaning: Itachi of the Copy Wheel Eye) and after murdering his clan he was referred to as Clan Killer Itachi (一族殺しのイタチ, Ichizokugoroshi no Itachi).

Since childhood, Itachi was shown as being a quiet and insightful person who lived at a distance where he observed individuals and ideas without getting directly involved so he could fully understand them. Although this prevented him from becoming close to many people, it enabled him to think and act without prejudice or preconceptions where he instead evaluated things strictly on their own merits.

Itachi had resolved himself to be a pacifist but felt his own needs were secondary to the greater good which was what led to him following the path of the shinobi. By being accomplished ninja, Itachi looked to approach problems less violently than others which satisfied his peace-loving nature.

He loved his family and wanted the best for his clan but knew there were more important things than the Uchiha's aspirations. In reality, Itachi was said to had always been of the hidden leaf and was dedicated to its protection. This went even as far as to portray himself as an enemy of Konohagakure so long as it ensured his village's survival. Itachi did not blame those among Konoha's leadership who gave him the mission that led to him murdering his clan despite the trauma he suffered in the act.

On the surface, Itachi appeared as a rogue ninja where he seemingly murdered his clan in an effort to attain power. To his brother Sasuke, he claimed that he wanted a challenge to his abilities after awakening the Sharingan which was why he kill their family. He even said he wanted Sasuke to experience true hatred so that his Sharingan was to awaken and that the two of them could battle at their full respective strengths. During this fight, his seeming motivation was to steal his brothers Mangekyō Sharingan as his own were closing from years of use.

Though a member of the Akatsuki, ultimately it was shown that he had no loyalty to their leader. In fact, he believed the person who was thought to be 'Madara Uchiha' was not fit to lead anymore and that his time had passed. In one case, he implanted a genjutsu in his brother Sasuke as a booby-trap against Madara. This was to activate if Madara ever showed his sharingan to Sasuke whereupon an Amaterasu was to be cast on his the Akatsuki leader to kill him.

Itachi Uchiha was a member of the illustrious Uchiha Clan of Konohagakure where he was the son of Fugaku Uchiha and Mikoto Uchiha with him having a younger brother named Sasuke Uchiha.

Whilst growing up, one of his closest friends was his fellow clansman Shisui Uchiha.

Powers and abilities

Itachi Uchiha was born a human with the ability to manipulate chakra that he could use to perform a number of techniques and jutsu. He was noted for being a prodigy in the arts of the shinobi where he even from a young age he demonstrated incredible ninja skills. Due to being from the Uchiha Clan, he inherited his kin's kekkei genkai which was the Sharingan (写輪眼, Literally meaning: Copy Wheel Eye, Meaning (Viz): Mirror Wheel Eye) dōjutsu. He held naturally strong chakra reserves but his actual power was greatly diminished due to his terminal illness.

As a true Uchiha, his body was stronger and more capable of handling the power of the Sharigan. In fact, he came to activate its more advanced stage which was the Mangekyō Sharingan (万華鏡写輪眼, Literally meaning: Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye). These were referred to as the heavenly eyes that see the truth of all of creation without obstruction and allowed him to perform powerful genjutsu such as the Tsukuyomi that distorted a target's perception of time.

Among the techniques known to him included:

• Genjutsu: Sharingan (幻術・写輪眼­, Genjutsu: Sharingan) : a genjutsu linked to the use of the Sharingan where he could trap a person within a powerful genjutsu where Itachi could cause; instant but instantaneous loss of consciousness or paralysis, extract information, relay memories, remove genjutsu or control a person's actions.
• Tsukuyomi (月読­, Tsukuyomi) : one of the most powerful genjutsu in existence whereby Itachi could make his target suffer years worth of torture within a moment.
• Crow Clone Technique (烏分身の術­, Karasu Bunshin no Jutsu) : a Shadow Clone technique where the medium involved the creation of crows whose smaller size meant that it required less chakra to accomplish this form.
• Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique (火遁・鳳仙火の術­, Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu) : Itachi was able to focus his chakra to spit out a volley of small fireballs into the air.
• Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson (火遁・鳳仙花爪紅­, Katon: Hōsenka Tsumabeni) :
• Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique (火遁・豪火球の術­, Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu) : by kneading chakra in their body, he was able to turn it into fire and expel it from his mouth with the more energy used the greater the size of the fireball.
• Amaterasu (天照­, Amaterasu) : the highest level of Fire Release and one performed through the use of the Mangekyō Sharingan dōjutsu. It created powerful black flames that were able to burn through almost anything and manifested wherever he could see his target.
• Susanoo (須佐能乎­, Susanoo) : described as his trump card, Itachi was able to create a giant red-skinned humanoid being from his chakra with this power awakening after he unlocked his Mangekyō Sharingan and wielded the Amaterasu.
• Izanami (イザナミ­, Izanami) : the Uchiha clan's ultimate dōjutsu technique and one that was developed to counter its partner the Izanagi. It was a genjutsu that affected the target through physical sensations shared between them and the user who performed the illusion. The jutsu was said to decide destiny by trapping a target in an endless loop that could only be broken if they changed their ways. Similar to the Izanagi, use of the forbidden technique caused one of the users Sharingan to go blind after using it.

Notes

• Itachi Uchiha was created by Masashi Kishimoto where he featured in the setting of the Naruto universe.

In other media

Television

• In Naruto, Itachi Uchiha appeared in the setting of the anime television series adaptation where he was voiced by Japanese actor Hideo Ishikawa and by English actor Crispin Freeman in the dub.

Films

Video games

Appearances

• Naruto:

External Links

• Naruto Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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