Naruto and Naruto Shippuden manga brought us great characters and storylines that made us go through a lot of emotions since its release in 1999. The worldbuilding, characters, geography, and stories of ninjas who are trying to be the best they can be in a shinobi world made Naruto manga to be among the best mangas in the last two decades. It also brought us clans of the villages and of course, the most notable was the Uchiha clan from Konoha Village. Itachi Uchiha played a huge part in the future of the village and sacrificed his life and family to save all of Konoha. In this article. we will discuss how old was Itachi when he killed his clan.
According to the Naruto manga timeline, Itachi killed his clan when he was 13 years old. In the manga, it is said that Sasuke was 7 years old when the Uchiha clan was slain and during the manga, it is mentioned that Itachi is 5 years older than Sasuke. This is the closest information we have available for this detail in Naruto Manga.
We will try to go into a deeper analysis of this and provide relevant manga chapters for this topic. Naruto Timeline can be a bit wonky, especially later when old resurrected characters show up again, so if you are interested in this Naruto topic on Fiction Horizon, definitely check out the rest of the article.
What Age Was Itachi When He Slaughtered His Clan?
We all know who Uchiha Itachi is. He was one of the most talented shinobi in the clan and for that, he earned himself a place in the Anbu corps, or in other words, a special Assassination and Tactical Squad that are operating under Hokage orders, and is essentially a secret intelligence service that takes care or sensitive missions. Knowing that Itachi was eleven years old when he became a part of this infamous corp is pretty scary for a child to say the least. However, Itachi was already jaded because he was alive and present when Third Shinobi War occurred on the Ninja Continent.
He was three or four years old when the war began, which led him to see gruesome and soulless parts of the war – death and misery were the main things that occurred during the Shinobi War. Seeing all of the atrocities of the war traumatized him, and he vowed to become the best he can to save the Ninja World from destruction.
He trained really hard and became one of the best shinobi in the Konoha at a young age. His friend and teammate (possible love interest) Tenma Izumo was killed when attacked on one of the missions – that was the moment Itachi awakened his Sharingan. After that, as we already said he joined Anbu and became a leader of his own Anbu unit.
He was isolated from the rest of the Uchiha clan because he did not like conflict and wanted to be the one to make the shinobi’s life easier. His father was proud of him but the Uchiha clan was not famous for their tender upbringing. Anyway, during all of this, Uchiha clan leaders, dissatisfied with being isolated and disrespected from the rest of the village, decided to orchestrate a coup d’etat. The Head of the Uchiha, Fugaku, wanted to use Itachi to spy on the government and bring all information to the Uchiha clan. Itachi knew of the plans of overturning the village leadership and knew that if Uchiha attacks the village, other villages will interfere and that would kickstart another war, which Itachi absolutely hates.
He reports everything to the Third Hokage and their council in the hope of resolving this conflict peacefully. His clan did not listen, and in all of this, his best friend Shisui dies by drowning himself in the river. Before that though, Shisui gave Itachi his remaining eye (another one was stolen by Danzo) and kills himself in the hope of awakening his Mangekyo Sharingan. He succeded.
Itachi is getting to the breaking point because his clan still does not understand the bigger picture. At the age of 13 years old, and after becoming an Anbu captain, everything escalates. Even though the Third decided to continue negotiation with the Uchiha clan for a peaceful resolution, Danzo realized it would be impossible for the Uchiha clan to calm down in their efforts and gives Itachi an ultimatum – let the Uchiha clan go forward with their coup plan and see them all die, including his beloved little brother Sasuke or kill his own clan but his brother Sasuke, who mustn’t know what happened so that he doesn’t hate his village.
Itachi was guilt-ridden and distraught but for his brother to live and Konoha to be safe, he needs to kill his village on his own. While pondering about the situation he is in, he encounters a masked man wandering through Konoha. He believed it was Madara Uchiha, who wanted to destroy the whole village. However, Itachi offers him a deal – he will help him in seeking revenge for his dismissal from the clan but he needs to spare the village. The masked man agrees and in one night both of them slaughter the entire clan.
When he encounters Sasuke, to set him on his path, Itachi uses Tsukuyomi genjutsu on Sasuke and replays him the death of his parents. Sasuke’s Sharingan awakened but falls unconscious from exhaustion. Itachi leaves the village with tears of remorse in his eyes.
Uchiha Itachi was 13 years old when he killed his clan and, more precisely, this event occurred in the Year 72 of the Naruto Timeline. We know that the Third Shinobi war started in late Year 62, more than ten years prior to the start of Naruto Manga, which means that Itachi was born somewhere around the Year 59.
This information is all taken out from the Naruto manga. Fans for years constructed the Naruto timeline and succeeded after the Naruto manga ended. This is it for this article, hopefully, you enjoyed it! Until the next article!
