Naruto
Itachi Uchiha — A Sacrifice For Love
He sacrificed his father, his mother and even his entire clan, but he never lost himself. Itachi Uchiha is the man who sacrificed his own path in life to save his brother. A false dilemma is a type of informal fallacy in which something is falsely claimed to be an either-or situation when in fact, there is at least one additional option.
Itachi Uchiha was born in the Hidden Leaf to Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha. While young, Itachi was always intellectually more advanced than the other students in his class. His feats as a shinobi are unmatched. At age 7, Itachi graduated from the Academy at the top of his class in a single year. At age 10, Itachi competed the Chunin exams by himself. Simply put, Itachi Uchiha would go on to be one of the strongest Uchiha in history with immense genjutsu ability. What set him apart, however, was his mind. He was a genius.
What made Itachi Uchiha’s sacrifice so heartbreaking? And what were the events leading to the clan massacre and the false dilemma presented to Itachi? The Uchiha clan was going tired of the mistreatment from the Hidden Leaf village. Continuous disrespect and restraint from certain missions such as the Nine-Tailed Fox attack on the Leaf caused a brewing distaste among the Uchiha. The Leaf, on their end, did not include the Uchiha because they believed that the Uchiha would have controlled the Nine-Tailed Fox to use in their favour, such as Madara Uchiha, who was capable of doing so. The Leaf feared the power of the Uchiha clan and so they segregated them from the rest of the village, assigning them to the police force where their abilities could be watched and monitored. In the clan’s anger, they began to plan a coup d’état, with Itachi Uchiha’s father as its leader. Itachi at age eleven entered the ANBU, a special group of covert operatives tasked with high-difficulty missions, similar to the CIA and FBI of the real world. Fugaku asked Itachi to be a spy for the Uchiha clan. Itachi though, as the intellectual that he was, knew that a coup d’état would only escalate the problem, eventually becoming another shinobi war. Nevertheless, his father still tried to instruct the young Itachi with a compelling argument that this rebellion would be void of bloodshed and that intrigued Itachi. With no one the trust but his best friend, Itachi instead would report to the Hokage council which included Danzo Shimura, head of the ANBU, to inform them about the Uchiha’s plans. His best friend Shisui Uchiha, thought initially to use Kotoamatsukami, his Mangekyo Sharingan genjutsu to force negotiation. Yet Danzo stole his eye before Shisui could perform his genjutsu and so before he drowned himself, Shisui left Itachi with his other eye and the burden of the clan.
At this point in time, Itachi was 13 years old. Granted, he was a once-in-a-lifetime genius and incredibly cunning and intelligent, but at 13, being alone and having a clear mind whilst weighing all options and repercussion is a very difficult task. Intelligence is not likened to experience or to maturity. Itachi Uchiha had lost his best friend and had no one to confide in. His family would not dare go against the clan and he had no notable friends outside the Uchiha to help him rationalize. To top it off, Danzo sealed Itachi’s fate by providing him with a false dilemma and pressured him with the one person he knew Itachi would sacrifice the world for. Sasuke. Danzo isolated and manipulated Itachi not only mentally but emotionally. He presented the black-or-white ultimatum; the village or the clan. It was either he sided with the Uchiha and have Sasuke die, or he executes his own clan. This decision was easy for Itachi’s withering mind to make, for anyone to make, considering the circumstances. Essentially it was Sasuke’s fate that he thought he was deciding and so Itachi executed the plan, slaughtering each and every member of the Uchiha clan, even his parents, except for Sasuke.
Itachi Uchiha tried to plan out Sasuke’s life for him. He planned to create a false image of himself so that Sasuke would hate his big brother. He later joined the Akatsuki to keep an eye on anyone who could threaten his brother and the village and he would instruct the Third Hokage to protect Sasuke. Itachi planned that he would encounter Sasuke time and time again to try and make his younger brother hate him to the point of even killing him, so that Sasuke could get stronger and be heralded as a hero of the Uchiha clan after killing Itachi.
Sasuke would later learn the truth about his brother. Itachi is a unique character in the Naruto universe and a well-written one of that. He should not be considered overwhelmingly good and honourable but he should not be considered a bad person either. His decision stands morally grey and it was made most due to circumstance. He is however, pure of heart and that heart was tainted by the situation. Could he have rationalized the situation better? Probably. Itachi saved his brother yet he did disregard the other harmless individuals of the clan. The children, the non shinobi and every innocent Uchiha definitely did not deserve their end. Itachi might have found another way but at the end of the day, it happened and he made his choice.
Itachi was 13, ostracized by his clan and he did not have his best friend or anyone else by his side. He was alone and pressured with a false dilemma. Itachi Uchiha decided to act with his heart. His heart that lies solely within the person that he loved the most, Sasuke.
You don’t ever have to forgive me. And whatever you do from here on out, know this. No matter what, I will love you always.
