Uchiha Itachi

Itachi was born into the Uchiha clan to Mikoto and Fugaku and was praised by all as the best of his generation; a genius above all others. Even by the standards of the battle-adept Uchiha clan, Itachi's prowess far outshone them. However, not even his family, friends, or teachers could understand him. When he was only four, Itachi had already witnessed countless lives lost due to the Third Shinobi World War, which emotionally traumatised him and turned him into a pacifist.
During the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha, Itachi was seen holding an infant Sasuke, telling him that he'd protect him no matter what as well as wondering where his parents had gone.
At age 7, he graduated from the Ninja Academy at the top of his class after only one year, mastered the Sharingan at age eight, passed the Chūnin Exams at age 10, and became an ANBU Captain at age 13.
He was praised highly by his father, who saw the family's future in Itachi and hence inadvertently neglected his younger son. However, during this time Itachi showed great affection towards his little brother and even encouraged his father to come to the Academy enrolment ceremony for Sasuke, something their father had otherwise forgotten, by saying that he would not go to an important mission that would establish Itachi a place in the ANBU ranks, otherwise.
When the Uchiha clan began planning to overthrow Konoha, Itachi, as an ANBU, was tasked with spying on the village. Knowing that a coup d'état would only lead to another Ninja War; Itachi began spying on the Uchiha instead, passing on information to the Third Hokage and the other Konoha elders. During this time he began to act strangely, not attending the clan meetings, speaking out against the clan and becoming the prime suspect for the murder of his best friend Shisui Uchiha, who was drowned in the Naka River. In reality, Shisui had entrusted his remaining Mangekyō Sharingan to Itachi, the other having been taken by Danzō. Itachi assisted Shisui in making it seem that his eyes were destroyed. Due to this the clan lost hope in Itachi, and his father began shifting his focus to Sasuke instead. Meanwhile, the Third's attempts to negotiate a bloodless end to hostilities between the two parties were proving ineffective so, against the Third's wishes, Danzō Shimura and the Konoha Council ordered Itachi to wipe out the Uchiha clan.

 

Itachi massacres the entire Uchiha clan.

Before the fateful night arrived, Itachi discovered the existence of Madara Uchiha, who was attempting to rekindle the flames of war in Konoha. In return for not attacking Konoha, Itachi offered to help Madara claim vengeance against the Uchiha for turning their backs on him decades earlier; Madara agreed. Itachi slaughtered his entire clan overnight, sparing only Sasuke, because he could not follow through with the orders to kill him. Instead, he made himself out as a villain, who had killed their innocent family only to test his abilities. He told Sasuke that he was not even worth killing. In addition, Itachi told him, "You've always wanted to surpass me. That's why I'm going to let you live… if you wish to kill me, then hate me, despise me… and by all means flee, cling to your wretched life". Itachi also revealed to Sasuke where the secret meeting place of the Uchiha was hidden, and suggested that Sasuke go there to learn what the true history and purpose of the Sharingan was. He told him that "to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan", he "had to kill the person he was closest to", and that "when we battle, we should have the same eyes".

 

Itachi tortures Sasuke.

Sasuke managed to stand back up, awaken his Sharingan, and pursue Itachi. Upon reaching Itachi, he managed to knock off his forehead protector. Itachi shed a tear as he was picking up his forehead protector. He then proceeded to incapacitate Sasuke, who awoke in the hospital remembering only that which Itachi wanted him to. By doing all this, he wanted Sasuke to take vengeance on him and become a hero to Konoha, thus redeeming the Uchiha name. Hoping that his beloved little brother would someday be powerful enough to kill him, Itachi left the village as a traitor. According to Madara Uchiha

 

Itachi pleads with the Third to protect Sasuke.

Knowing that Konoha would still want to eliminate Sasuke, Itachi pleaded with the Third Hokage to keep Sasuke safe. He also threatened Danzō to not harm Sasuke or risk Itachi revealing everything he knew about Konoha's secrets to enemy countries. Sasuke's safety was therefore secured and Itachi returned to his original plan of becoming infamous for his slaughter of the Uchiha clan.

 

Itachi joins Akatsuki.

Itachi joined Akatsuki in order to keep an eye on the organisation, along with Madara Uchiha, in case either ever acted against Konoha, all the while planning for his death at Sasuke's hands. While he was a member of Akatsuki, Itachi was approached by Orochimaru, who tried to steal his body to gain the Sharingan. Itachi trapped him in a genjutsu and severed his left hand as punishment, forcing Orochimaru to flee the organisation. He was partnered with Kisame Hoshigaki, who he initially greeted with threats after the latter tried to intimidate him. However, they eventually became good partners for sharing the common bond of having betrayed the people closest to them. Sometime after joining Akatsuki and forcing Orochimaru to flee, Itachi helped recruit Deidara by beating him in battle using only genjutsu, to which Deidara swore vengeance against Itachi. At some point in time, Itachi contracted a fatal illness. He kept himself alive through the intake of various medicines and sheer "willpower", in the hopes of living long enough to die by Sasuke's hands. Ever since his first appearance, Itachi had always been mysterious and acted as though he were hiding his true self. While flashbacks to his past showed that he was a compassionate brother and person, his later acts and claims made it seem that this was mostly just an act. But, surprisingly, he genuinely was the compassionate brother he had once claimed to be, although he hid this from the rest of the Akatsuki to protect Sasuke. As a member of Akatsuki, he possessed incredible self-control of his emotions, constantly displaying an emotionless personality. He only showed surprise when opponents proved more powerful or skilled than he had expected, and even then he didn't lose his composure. He did not possess any arrogance, and fully justified any statements he made about his power, even complimenting his opponents at times on their abilities. In addition to being an extremely powerful shinobi, Itachi had equally impressive intelligence, and was shown to be very wise. He was exceedingly sharp and observant to any situation at hand, as he was rarely surprised or caught off guard. He also displayed great intuition, as he was almost never deceived and even then almost instantly realised the truth. This intelligence could also be seen through Itachi's immense foresight, such as examples like the foreknowledge of Sasuke's defeat of Deidara and simultaneous survival, his own pre-meditated fatalist view of death by Sasuke's hand, and most recently the implantation of his own Kotoamatsukami-imbued crow inside Naruto were only some examples seen. Despite his status as a wanted criminal, and having wiped out his clan, Itachi took no enjoyment in violence or combat, instead preferring to avoid battle or, if this was not possible, end it as quickly as he could. Itachi's only initial interest was in Akatsuki's goals, and his only loyalties appeared to be to the organisation and its members, seeming to put the organisation's success and secrecy before everything else. As such, Itachi got along with his partner, Kisame, much better than most other Akatsuki members did with their own partners. Kisame appeared to have a deep loyalty to Itachi, immediately doing as he instructed and constantly looking out for his well-being. Itachi treated all of his fellow Akatsuki members to this same, more respectful personality, although his courtesy was rarely returned by the other members. However, when he was in a genjutsu duel during his fight with Sasuke, he cruelly claimed he had only let Sasuke live so that he could take Sasuke's eyes and obtain his own Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, after which he then claimed the Uchiha clan had been nothing but tainted and evil, since many members would kill their friends to gain the Mangekyō Sharingan, and would take another Uchiha's eyes to make its power permanent. Once the genjutsu was released, he called it his true self, implying his calm, emotionless personality was also a façade. This persona was later revealed to be only an act to ensure that he would die by Sasuke's hands, his love for his younger brother being the fundamental aspect of his personality. In the end, Itachi put all of his faith in Naruto, who he notes as the person most determined to save and protect Sasuke. After hearing Naruto's answer to keep protecting Sasuke and everyone in Konoha, Itachi gave him some of his power. He was very grateful towards Naruto's determination to save Sasuke, and was smiling after hearing Naruto's response. Itachi even trusted him enough to bring Sasuke back to the light

Abilities

 

Itachi's usage of crows.

Even at a young age, Itachi's intellect and talent showed their brilliance in everything he did, as even his teachers said his progress hardly required any help. In the few battles he had been seen in since the start of the series, Itachi was shown to be an incredibly powerful ninja, as demonstrated by his ability to easily defeat several powerful shinobi. Despite his pride in his abilities, Kisame Hoshigaki, Itachi's partner in Akatsuki, acknowledged Itachi as the stronger of the two. Madara said that Itachi never ceased to amaze him, and Kabuto recognised he underestimated Itachi, after he managed to break free of his control. However, despite his ability, he never underestimates his opponents, given his praise of Jiraiya, saying the best he could do against him was a stalemate despite their relatively similar statistics. The only thing that Itachi was lacking was his chakra reserves, which was below average. Regardless, even with his fatal illness and his own preplanned death as inhibitions, Sasuke was still unable to defeat Itachi, who instead succumbed to his disease and the strain of maintaining his Susanoo on such low chakra. Despite the stress his body was under that was slowly killing him he was still able, in his last moments, to perform his own fūinjutsu. Being a technical pacifist due to his traumatic experiences from the Third Shinobi World War, Itachi did not actively take part in battle, typically only acting in self-defence and trying to incapacitate his enemies instead of killing them if possible.

Taijutsu 

Itachi possessed very high-level taijutsu skills despite not specialising in it. This was demonstrated when he easily dispatched three fellow Uchiha, all of them his seniors as well as members of the Konoha Military Police Force. In Part I, he stopped Sasuke's Chidori with one hand and brutally beat him during their reunion in the Land of Fire despite Sasuke's extensive taijutsu training for the Chūnin Exams. In Part II, despite his illness, Itachi was able to once again outmatch Sasuke who had improved his taijutsu under Orochimaru's tutelage. Itachi was also noted to be immensely fast, particularly with his hand movements. This extended to collectively weaving both hand seals and throwing weapons, as he was able to reveal a set of shuriken and then suddenly perform a ninjutsu, making it appear as if he could perform his techniques without seals. In terms of mobility, he is able to cover considerable distances fast enough to appear like teleportation. His speed was such that neither Sasuke nor Kakashi, who are both very fast and adept at using the Sharingan, could follow his movements in either case during Part I. He could also evade consecutive strikes from Killer B's unusual kenjutsu without injury, despite B's style being acclaimed for its difficultly to both read and dodge successfully.

Ninjutsu

 

Itachi using the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.

Itachi was a master of all the Uchiha clan's techniques, along with the Sharingan, and had great prowess with all of the three main types of jutsu. When battling against Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma, Kakashi commented that Itachi wasn't fighting with even half of his strength. Itachi's techniques also often involved usage of crows, both in ninjutsu and genjutsu. This is seen amongst others with his creation of a clone that dissolves into crows and using crows to hide shuriken in them or creating shadow clones with the ability to explode. As traditional to the Uchiha clan, Itachi could use Fire Release techniques including the clan's Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique and was able to infuse shurikens with fire. The heat of his Great Fireball Technique is great enough to bother even Samehada. He was also shown to use Water Release techniques such as creating a drilling mass of pressurised water.

Sharingan

 

Itachi's Sharingan.

Being of the Uchiha clan, and as noted by Kakashi, Itachi was a true successor of the Sharinganmastering it already when he was eight years old. From a stationary position, he would study an opponent's movements with his Sharingan and respond accordingly, often with a genjutsu. Itachi was often praised for his prowess with genjutsu and could cast it by merely pointing at or looking at someone, and could similarly turn an opponent's genjutsu against them with Demonic Illusion: Mirror Heaven and Earth Change. According to Ao, he could also use his genjutsu to take control of other individuals from a long distance. Most of his genjutsu are derived from the Sharingan, but regardless of whether they are or not, all of them cause powerful mental trauma; Itachi is a master of genjutsu, and uses them often. Using his Sharingan, he could also perfectly fake Shisui Uchiha's suicide letter after he had killed him. He had trained so much with his eyes that he had reached the stage where he could have his Sharingan activated for extended periods of time, with minimal drain on his chakra levels.

Mangekyō Sharingan

 

Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan.

Itachi possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan, which increased his already great power, and enabled him to use his most powerful techniques. With his left eye, he could use Tsukuyomi, a genjutsu that traps an opponent's mind in an illusory world, torturing them for what seems like days to the victim, in a matter of seconds. With his right eye he could use Amaterasu, a ninjutsu which allowed him to create a black flame, that he could direct by moving his eye, to burn through anything in its path, including fire itself. His final technique was Susanoo, the "Tempestuous God of Valour" (勇武の荒神, Yūbu no Aragami), a technique that uses both eyes to manifest itself as a spectral being. It wielded the Sword of Totsuka, an ethereal sword with the ability to seal anything it pierces into the gourd that serves as its hilt, and Yata Mirror, a shield that could reflect any attack. Zetsu, a fellow Akatsuki member, stated that Itachi's mastery of the Sharingan, combined with the legendary weapons of Susanoo, made him nearly invincible.

 

Itachi's Susanoo, complete with the Yata Mirror.

Despite his mastery of the Mangekyō Sharingan, Itachi suffered greatly from its side effects. Each of the techniques bestowed by the Mangekyō Sharingan required vast amounts of chakra to perform, and they left Itachi fatigued afterwards, to the point of requiring him to deactivate his Sharingan altogether, something that he did not usually need, three uses of which seem to have been enough to bring him to this in Part I. The other side effect was that his eyesight would worsen as time passed since the awakening of the Mangekyō Sharingan, and the degradation would only increase after every time he used it, which would lead him to eventually go blind from its power, with his Sharingan forever sealed away. By the time Itachi activated his Mangekyō Sharingan during his final fight with Sasuke, Itachi's eyesight was so badly damaged, that Sasuke appeared to be only a messy blur. Itachi was so close to blindness that by the time he activated Susanoo in his final fight, both Sharingan had lost the Mangekyō design in them, with only the red iris remaining.