| “ | There is no value in killing the likes of you. My foolish brother, If you want to kill me, curse me! Hate me! And live a long and unsightly life. Run away, run away, and cling to your pitiful life. And then some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me. | „ |
| ~ Itachi challenging Sasuke to avenge his clan, and his most famous quote. |
Itachi Uchiha is a major antagonist of the manga and anime series Naruto. He is the older brother of Sasuke Uchiha. He is a member of the Uchiha Clan in the Hidden Leaf Village. Under Danzo Shimura's orders, Itachi was responsible for the Uchiha Clan massacre and leaving Sasuke as an orphan since his childhood. Since the Fourth Great Ninja war arc, Itachi serves as a supporting character to Naruto and his allies.
He was voiced by Hideo Ishikawa in Japanese and Crispin Freeman in English, who also voiced Rasa from the same series, and Alucard in Hellsing.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- Itachi followed Danzo's orders to go along with the Uchiha Clan massacre.
- The night of the massacre, Itachi allied with Tobi to kill members of his own clan including his own parents, and girlfriend.
- The result of the Uchiha Clan massacre horrified people around and outside of the village.
- In the light novel, Itachi used the Tsukuyomi to put Yashiro Uchiha, one of the conspirators in the Uchiha Coup, to put him through several days of torture, then cutting off his head. He would then use the Amaterasu on Yōji Aburame, a ninja who'd poisoned Shisui, turning his body to ash. While his rage may have been justified given both of their actions, the lengths he went to punish them were far too vengeful and violent.
- As a result of the massacre, Sasuke was left without any parents and succumbed to his own despair and loneliness.
- Shortly before Itachi left the village after massacring the clan, he pressures and pushes Sasuke into unlocking the Mangekyo Sharingan by killing his best friend, which leads to the whole feud with Naruto and Sasuke.
- Itachi and Kisame infiltrated the Hidden Leaf Village to retrieve Naruto. While infiltrating the village, Itachi and Kisame fought Asuma and Kurenai. During his battle with Kakashi, Itachi placed Kakashi under his illusion technique called Tsukyomi where it bent Kakashi's perception of time. Itachi had Kakashi experience three days of getting stabbed all over his body multiple times. At the same time, it was revealed that Kakashi was only under the technique for three seconds. Because of the severity of the technique, it left Kakashi in a coma.
- Itachi and Kisame found Naruto at a hotel. However, when Sasuke tried to fight Itachi, Itachi gave Sasuke a vicious beatdown while mocking him as a weakling. While beating down Sasuke, Itachi encouraged Sasuke to embrace his hatred. He then placed Sasuke in a torturous illusion where he had to relive the night of Uchiha Clan massacre and his parents' murder over again for an entire day. The result of the technique left Sasuke in a coma. This humiliation and additional trauma led to Sasuke becoming even more enraged and unbalanced, culminating in him growing desperate enough to leave the village in order to gain greater power given to him by Orochimaru.
- It's heavily implied that Itachi re-quoted everything he said to Sasuke when he first massacred the clan, likely including the pressure to kill his own friend, when he placed Sasuke under the Tsukuyomi for an entire day, reigniting the feud between Naruto and Sasuke that goes on throughout the series.
- When he first fights Naruto, Itachi puts him in a Genjutsu where he exploits all of Naruto's insecurities and his failures, such as not being able to save Sasuke, failing to keep the promise he made to Sakura, and his inability to rescue Gaara.
- Itachi assisted the Akatsuki in sealing away the Tailed Beasts inside of the Demonic Statue, causing the deaths of the Tailed Beasts hosts.
- Itachi puppeteers one of the Akatsuki's guards and fought Naruto and Sakura, only failing due to their teamwork, and the puppets having a lower power than the original.
- Tortured Sasuke using Tsukoyomi to rile Sasuke up during their final battle, as well as burning him using Amaterasu in order to drain Sasuke out enough to bring out Orochimaru.
- Tried to kill "Madara" by using Sasuke so that the latter never knows about the truth of the Uchiha Clan Massacre. Although to be fair, this was also partly to prevent Sasuke from being manipulated by the Akatsuki.
- Incinerated his crow by using Amaterasu. Although this was done to prevent Shisui's Sharingan falling into the wrong hands, it was still handled too gruesomely, and the crow was loyal to Itachi till death.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He initially did not want to go through with the massacre. He made a deal with Danzo to spare Sasuke's life. When he was about to kill his parents, he was absolutely torn about having to go through with killing his parents, and he cried uncontrollably before killing them both.
- He cares for several people.
- He genuinely cares about and loves his younger brother Sasuke despite their turbulent relationship. In addition, in the anime, he regretted torturing him with the Infinite Tsukuyomi. In addition, although his means of doing so were brutal, Itachi saved Sasuke from Orochimaru in their battle when Orochimaru tried to take over Sasuke's body, and as a result Sasuke was able to get rid of his curse mark.
- He genuinely cared about his parents and was filled with remorse upon killing them to the point that he cried. His parents also forgave him in their last moments and the scene shows that they respected and cared for each other despite their political disagreements.
- In a novel it is shown that he gives his girlfriend a peaceful and painless death by putting her in a genjutsu where she lives an entire life happily with him; they marry, have kids and grow old together. When the genjutsu ends, she even thanks him before dying in his arms.
- Out of all of the pairings in the Akatsuki, he had the best relationship with his respective partner, Kisame Hoshigaki, despite their differences. While they didn't agree on everything, they pretty much always got along and had a lot of respect for each other, to the extent they had what can be considered a genuine friendship.
- He has a code of honor.
- Even while he was with the Akatsuki, he never fully abandoned his deep-rooted pacifistic ways and would both avoid conflicts and rein in Kisame if he considered the likelihood of collateral damage too high. He would also let his deep-rooted sense of morality show from time to time, like expressing disgust at Orochimaru's lack of regard for human life.
- While Itachi did use Tsukuyomi on Kakashi, it’s heavily implied it was partly to prepare Kakashi for an even more dangerous foe with the Mangekyo Sharingan.
- Even when Sasuke was vengeful, Itachi allowed himself to be defeated by him due to hating himself for committing the Uchiha Clan Massacre and to boost Sasuke and the Uchiha Clan's reputation, only to be failed by Tobi's manipulations until the climax of the Fourth Shinobi World War.
- After his revival in the war, Itachi liberated himself with the crow he gave Naruto and saved Naruto and Killer B from a possessed Nagato during battle.
- He gives Naruto some important wisdom, reminding him not to do everything himself and remember the people who helped him grow, telling him that being Hokage does not mean being acknowledged by the villagers, but rather that the one who becomes Hokage is someone who is already acknowledged by the villagers, which Naruto takes to heart.
- He and Sasuke fought against Kabuto Yakushi. During the battle, Itachi placed Kabuto in the Izanami illusion to help him overcome his insecurities. He also helped the Shinobi Alliance and a portion of revived, by having all the people Kabuto revived return to the afterlife.
- Itachi had a touching closure with Sasuke, forgiving him for all his terrible deeds and vouching his unconditional support.
- He is ultimately an anti-villain who, despite his heinous actions, wanted to protect the Hidden Leaf Village and its civilians at all costs, and everything he did was a means to achieve that.
Trivia[]
- Itachi and Obito are the only Naruto characters to be both Inconsistently Admirable and Inconsistently Heinous.
External Links[]
- Itachi Uchiha on the Villains Wiki
- Itachi Uchiha on the Heroes Wiki
- Itachi Uchiha on the Naruto Wiki
- Itachi Uchiha on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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Sound Village Akatsuki Others | ||
 Crossover Inconsistently Heinous
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