The Brightest Light That Lives as a Shadow: Story of Uchiha İtachi

Every story needs an attractive protagonist who will be chivalrous, determined, and dealt with every hardship on his or her way.

Every story also needs a charismatic antagonist, a villain that rains hellfire, a shady persona that makes the hero shine or breaks his/her spirit.

Every story that exceeds expectations contains an anti-hero, a person just as important as the protagonist and antagonist. A person that works in the grey rather than black or white.

Uchiha Itachi was not either of these.

Naruto Series has produces a lot of legendary characters in the Anime world. That is one of the main reasons that the series was such a success in the first place. Aside from Naruto, numerous characters conquer the heart of fandoms. Likes of Shikamaru, Kakashi, Neji, Rock Lee, and Mighty Guy or the legendary villains such as Pain, Zabuza, Haku, and Obito Uchiha were all fan favorites characters. Hence, non of these characters or others can touch Uchiha İtachi when it comes to popularity and it's even more impressive considering the fact that Itachi only appears total of 32 episodes out of 720 episodes in the series. This fact alone indicates the greatness that Itachi's story possesses.

Child That Thinks Like a Hokage

Uchiha İtachi was born as the firstborn child of Uchiha Fugaku, the leader of the infamous Uchiha Clan. Even as a mere child, İtachi shows a massive potential that his father Fugaku decided to take him into the newly waged Third Great Ninja War. At the age of four, İtachi witnessed the horrors of war first-hand. Traumatized, Itachi becomes a pacifist at heart and started to study history and philosophy. Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen stated once that '' Itachi has able to think like a Hokage at the age of four''. Itachi attended the ninja academy at the age of six and graduated at the age of seven, with the second highest grades only behind Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato. Later then became Chunin at the age of ten, join anbu( special task force) at the age of eleven, and became an anbu captain at the age of thirteen. Itachi is clearly on his way to becoming the first Hokage from the Uchiha bloodline. During the infamous Nine-Tailed attack, Itachi was one of the very few people that realize Kyuubi was controlled by someone and the possible motives behind the assault. This event, although it was not directly related to İtachi, will change his life drastically.

The Infamous Murderer of the Uchiha Clan

Uchiha Clan was one of the co-founders of the Hidden Leaf Village. Hence, they were also the biggest rival of their fellow co-founder Senju Clan. The bad blood between these clans breaks down as the two of these legendary clans decided to end the rivalry to end the war. Yet, the newly founded village has one big issue which is the election of a leader. Although first Hokage Hashirama Senju was a pacifist that wants to unite the whole village, both Senju and Uchiha Clan members could not forget the past events, which were killing each other so many times in numerous battles against each other. With the selection of the first Hokage and then the second, the Senju clan has chosen to lead the village, resulting in very unpleasant Uchihas that become strangers in the village as time goes on.

Years later, the Nine-Tailed attack was the last straw that diacritic Uchiha Clan to the rest of the village. The separation between the Uchiha Clan and the executives of the Village comes to a point where Uchiha Clan has decided to take over the village's management by planning a coup. The village executives suspected that Uchiha Clan was up to something. As a counter move, the management of the Village has decided to place a spy into the Clan, which is non-other than the trusted Anbu Black Ops Captain, Uchiha İtachi.

While Konoha expected İtachi to spy on his clan, the Uchiha Clan were expecting the very same from İtachi, which gathered intel about the village. İtachi's life gets more miserable, as things simply cannot be recovered at that point. Conflict comes to the point that İtachi had to decide which side he will choose. His clan and family, or his beloved village which İtachi sees as a tool created for maintaining peace. In the end, İtachi chooses Konoha to avoid civil war and minimize the number of casualties. Therefore, at 13, İtachi slaughtered his all clan, leaves the village, and joins the Akatsuki.

The Hero of the Hidden Leaf Village

İtachi was the perfect villain for the Naruto series. As a person who slaughtered his clan and became a rogue ninja who joined the terrorist group Akatsuki, İtachi was truly feared by everyone. In his first appearance in the series, he casually enters Konoha, puts Kakashi in a coma for a week, tries to kidnap Naruto, and brokes his little brother Sasuke's arm while taunting him about how weak Sasuke is. Sasuke's hatred for his elder brother comes to a point that he leaves everything behind to gain power, to become strong enough to kill İtachi while Naruto and his fellow Konoha ninjas try to get İtachi for his crimes against the village, as well as convince Sasuke to return to Konoha. No one truly knows what İtachi has to bear for his village, not until Sasuke faces him in battle.

The battle between the two brothers was destructive. Right from the start, İtachi drops his cold act, instead acting like a true psychopath who only aims to kill his little brother for his eyes. Sasuke kills İtachi after a hard-fought battle, but is confused as the last act of İtachi was smiling at his little brother and saying, '' Sorry Sasuke, this is all''. Although the fans do not understand what's going on, every one sure to be very satisfied by İtachi's death. Well, at least until Obito ( known as Tobi at that time) claimed Sasuke after the fight, and tells him the real story of his brother. How the leaders of the village forced İtachi to spy on his clan. How they give İtachi a secret mission to massacre the Uchiha clan to avoid the coup and take all the blame on his own to protect his clan name and his little brother. How İtachi joins Akatsuki to spy on the organization to gather intel for Konoha. İtachi was the perfect ninja, the hero of the village no one ever know about it. As the Uchiha Obito stated, '' He accepted disgrace in the place of honor, and hatred in the place of love. And yet, Itachi still died with a smile on his face''. Even after his death, İtachi serves his village. When he was brought back to life by edo tensei jutsu for the fight against the five great nations in the Fourth Great Ninja War, İtachi was able to break the jutsu, track down the user, and save the alliance forces.

İtachi Uchiha was not just a hero for his village, but for the whole world. He was a very influential character in the series, affecting Naruto, Sasuke, and many other major characters. İtachi was selfless, talented, kind, and thoughtful. A light that chooses to live as a shadow, so that others can live peacefully. If anyone says how can you learn something from an anime, just show them the tale of Uchiha İtachi, maybe they can learn something from him.