WHY DID ITACHI KILL HIS CLAN?
It goes without saying that all Naruto fans have already asked themselves once the question of why did Itachi kill his clan?
Itachi never wanted to kill his clan but was on a secret mission ordered by the Hokage to stop an incoming coup d’etat that the Uchiha clan was about to commit.
However, how did we come to such a tragedy in Konoha Village? Why did such a nice boy, so appreciated by all the members of his clan, decided to commit such a horrible genocide? How could the Hokage of the time, Hiruzen Sarutobi, have ordered Itachi to commit such an atrocity?
Don’t worry, in this article we explain all the important elements that could have led to such terrible ending and therefore understand the real reason all these events !
HIDDEN LEAF VILLAGE CREATION
Before getting to the main topic of this article, we find it very important to explain the different foundations that led to the Uchiha clan’s rebellion against Konohagakure, and to do so, we must go back to the creation of Konoha Village.
As you surely know, the Hidden Leaf village was founded by the two most powerful Shinobi of the world at the time, Hashirama of the Senju clan and Madara of the Uchiha Clan.
MADARA AND HASHIRAMA
Madara and Hashirama met the first time in Episode 367 of Naruto Shippuden when they were barely ten years old in front of the river that geographically separated the territory of their respective clans. The two characters had revealed their first names to each other but never expressed their clan affiliation for safety.
At that time, the war between the Senju and Uchiha clans was raging and many casualties on both sides were the consequences of bloody clashes between members of the two clans. However, despite their young age, Madara and Hashirama were already aware of the endless loop of hatred in which they lived and used to meet regularly to find a solution to end the conflicts.
Hashirama and Madara understood each other so well that they also discussed projects for the future that they would like to realize, among others, creating a united village where people could live peacefully without the hatred and fear of conflicts. So it was at the top of a cliff that they made a promise to each other to create the Hidden Leaf Village together.
Unfortunately, the families of the two boys became aware of Madara and Hashirama’s meetings and ambushed each other the same day. After this altercation, the ties between Hashirama and Madara were broken and the conflicts resumed.
HASHIRAMA OFFERS PEACE TO THE UCHIHA CLAN
Over time, the two ninjas became the respective leaders of their clans and regularly clashed on the battlefield. Following a confrontation that led to the death Madara’s brother Izuna, Hashirama decided to put an end to the conflicts and asked Madara to join him and fulfill the dream they had when they were children.
After a very sensitive negotiation, Madara agreed to a ceasefire between the Senju and Uchiha clans and the two old friends finally created the Hidden Leaf Village.
HASHIRAMA BECOMES HOKAGE
Although Hashirama wanted Madara to be elected the first Hokage to inspire him to become better, the villagers finally took the opposite decision and this is why Hashirama was chosen to become the Shodai Hokage instead of Madara.
After that, rejected by his own clan members and without any sibling left to protect, Madara was unable to find his place in the village. And, after claiming that “cooperation is merely a quiet form of conflict”, Madara left the Hidden Leaf.
MADARA VS HASHIRAMA
However, Madara eventually returned to the village with Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Beast, in his possession. Threatening to destroy the village if Hashirama refused to confront him in battle, a fight against the two old friends begun which would result in the “death” of Madara killed by Hashirama as you already know.
THE PLACE OF THE UCHIHA CLAN IN THE VILLAGE
After Madara’s death, Hashirama and Tobirama decided to do everything to keep the peace between the Uchiha Clan and the village. So to offer them a high position in the Hidden Leaf, Tobirama, the Second Hokage, decided to offer the Uchiha Clan the position of Uchiha Police.
However, over the years of dealing with conflicts and crimes, the reputation of the Uchiha within the village has been greatly degraded by their function. Thus, to avoid dealing with possible incoming rebellions, Tobirama decided to move the Uchiha to the outskirts of the village, which, as you can imagine, was clearly not the right move to do at all.
Feeling rejected as much by the inhabitants as by the authorities of the village, the hatred of the Uchihas towards the Hidden Leaf was growing day by day.
THE CURSE OF HATRED
As Tobirama explains in episode 366 of Naruto Shippuden, there is no clan that feels deeper love than the Uchiha. Once a member of the clan Uchiha knows love, it’s almost as if all of his or her previously checked emotions are released.
But the problem of this great power hiding in their love for their family and friends is the possibility of going out of control, which would always result in a curse of hatred.
Indeed, when an Uchiha who has known love loses that deep love, it is replaced by an even stronger feeling that changes him. With that feeling of agony over the loss of a great love or disappointment in themselves, a unique chakra released inside their brain reacts with the optic nerves and changes appear in that person’s eyes. The eyes that reflect the heart, the Sharingan.
The Sharingan taps into the power of that person’s heart. The more they love, the more their Dōjutsu becomes stronger along with the power of their hate. The deeper the darkness gets, the greater the visual Prowess becomes, until the person can no longer be stopped.
THE UCHIHA COUP D’ETAT
Their horrible living conditions feeding their curse of hatred, the senior members of the Uchiha clan decided to rebel against Konoha Village by making a coup d’etat and take control of the Leaf.
The clan led at the time by Fugaku Uchiha, Itachi and Sasuke’s father, shared with Itachi their plan of rebellion while asking him to spy the Hokage for them. What they didn’t know is that Itachi was already a spy among his own clan.
At a summit with Hiruzen and Danzo, Itachi entrusted his father’s plans to the village leaders, who decided to take a radical decision. To exterminate the Uchiha clan before the coup d’etat was launched. Although the Third Hokage wanted to resolve the situation peacefully, time was running out and Danzo gave an ultimatum to Itachi, get himself and his little brother killed along with their clan or do the killing himself and save Sasuke’s life.
ITACHI MEETS MADARA (OBITO)
Itachi knew that to exterminate the entire Uchiha clan alone would be complicated, even for him so he decided to get closer to an individual whose he had been spying the actions for several weeks, the masked man alias Madara who was Obito Uchiha in reality.
Itachi meets Obito to organize the assassination of all the members of the Uchiha clan in the night. By offering him to carry out his revenge on the members he had disowned, Itachi would then receive in exchange a place inside Obito’s organization and ensure the safety of the village and the life of his little brother, Sasuke.
In the evening, Itachi put on his Anbu Black Ops outfit and set out to attack all the members of his clan with the help of Obito as decided beforehand.
WHY DID ITACHI KILL THE UCHIHA CLAN?
With all this information, you have understood that Itachi didn’t kill the Uchiha clan out of pleasure, but to protect the Hidden Leaf Village from the unavoidable coup d’etat that the Uchiha Clan was planning to commit.
Because his love for the village and for his little brother were more important than his own life and reputation, Itachi accepted to be treated with despise and hatred Instead of being treated with love and respect for being the savior of the Hidden Leaf. To live in the shadows rejected by all until the end of his life.
He then would be listed in the Bingo Book as an S rank Missin-nin under the nickname of Clan Killer Itachi (一族殺しのイタチ, Ichizokugoroshi no Itachi)
WHY DID ITACHI KILL HIS FAMILY?
Another question that we could ask ourselves is why did Itachi kill his family, wasn’t there any option to save his mother and father from their sordid end?
The answer is unfortunately no. Danzo was very clear when he decided on the terms of his deal with Itachi that ALL the members of the Uchiha clan had to die. If Itachi didn’t fulfill his part of the deal, Danzo would have no obligation towards Itachi and would have had Sasuke executed along with the others.
It is thus in an atrocious scene that we see Itachi kill his family to save the life of his little brother whom he loves more than anything else and thus ensures the perenniality of his village.
What a horrible situation…
CONCLUSION
And yes, it is already the end of this article of the young Shinobi! We hope that all this thread helped you understand the reasons behind the Uchiha Clan death. Decimated by one of his own members, this clan has come to such a tragic and inevitable end that we can only congratulate Masashi Kishimoto for being so ingenious in the scriptwriting of this passage.
As usual, we invite you to tell us what you thought of this article in the comments and, if you want to know more about the famous Itachi, don’t hesitate to have a look at our previous article entitled What episode does Itachi die to know more about the real circumstances of Itachi Uchiha’s death!
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