Sharingans, family murders and weird brotherly “love”

Itachi Uchiha is the older brother of Sasuke Uchiha, 1/2 of the murderers of the notorious Uchiha clan, and also very handsome. He is one of my favorite characters from the Naruto series so far, and I just had an inkling to write about him when I first saw him beat Sasuke to a pulp in part 1. (That’s weird brotherly love for you.)

Biographically speaking, (Is “biographically” even a word!?) Itachi is the oldest son of Mikoto and Fugaku Uchiha, who was the clan’s leader. He was a talented and gifted ninja who valued peace and kindness after witnessing war at the age of 4. All of this was revealed after he was introduced as a ‘cold, evil character’ who tried to kill his brother after killing his clan. Then, when I started getting more into the show, I asked someone who had already seen everything, when she responded “you think he killed his family to test his strength. That’s what you think. But that’s not what happened.”

That’s when I knew something was up.

his story line development is superb

I have never seen so many plot twists when it came to a story like Itachi’s. I did not expect someone who was portrayed as a villian to not be a villian in the end. I was not expecting the Hidden Leaf to be behind why Itachi killed his clan, even one of my favorite Hokages, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Overall, I feel complete and utter sadness and pain for Itachi, because he lived a young life full of regret, guilt, shame and disappointment, because he had to face the truth about what a shinobi really is. Thankfully, he was able to die in peace the second time, after making amends with his brother and talking a bit to Naruto. (I can’t wait to watch those episodes.)

He always asked himself as a child, “What is life?” His ambitions were to become the Hokage and stop the world of war. I can’t begin to imagine how much pressure a 14-year-old (at the time) had to go through, to kill his entire family and friends (and that girl I guess he liked) over people that would never know about him past the point of being a ‘clan killer’.

Yet, he’s never taken his inner turmoil out on Naruto, his parents, or even his own brother.

i already knew what was going to happen and still i was surprised

I knew Itachi wasn’t trying to kill Sasuke since his first appearance, but even before finding out everything through cheating researching, I could tell in his demeanor and the way his eyes looked so sad that he had no intention of killing Naruto or Sasuke. I mean, he waited until Sasuke got there and totally ignored Naruto when he did. Also, he was following Sasuke as we see the Akatsuki robe flashing by. I figured he only went to the village to torture Sasuke and get him to hate him more so he could get stronger. I knew he didn’t really want to take Naruto in as the Akatsuki were searching for the tailed-beasts. Mans literally stared him down and then ignored him once Sasuke got there.

Then, the second time, all he did was put him in a genjutsu. And during the Itachi pursuit mission, Itachi’s clone could have easily killed Naruto, but instead he asked him questions, alluding to his true intentions, that he wanted to know if he could trust Naruto with his brother, because he knew his own death was near.

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I don’t know if I appreciate the fact that Itachi was killed off or not. I mean, he could have just been plot, because some characters are only invented to escalate plot, but I would love to read the two novels written about him. To me, he’s much more than a young teen who killed his clan. To me, he chose to let go of the evil that was his clan—despite that being his own family—and took the hatred and pain to continue to make the world a better place. In a way, Itachi’s dream came true: his brother fights to protect his village, and there is a Hokage who fights for peace. I just wish he had lived to see his name be rendered in good light as Naruto and Sasuke see it.

Also, he now has a niece and a sister-in-law. I hope he is introduced to Sarada some way in Boruto. And I hope he gets to see older Sasuke as well (who looks a lot like him!! It’s so cute.)

Lastly, I leave you with this video of Itachi cooking eggs. Enjoy!

Watch all Naruto part 1 here! And here’s part 2.

You won’t regret it.

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Copyright © Shanedra Smith 2021. All Rights Reserved.