Naruto: Here’s Why Itachi Uchiha Killed His Clan and Parents!

Despite being a villain for most of his tenure in the story, Itachi Uchiha is a fan-favorite character from Naruto and quite possibly the best-executed and developed character in the whole series; if not the best, he is certainly among the best ones. Itachi, as we know it, killed his whole clan, aside from Sasuke, and later became an enemy of Konoha before ultimately dying while fighting his brother. He was one of the series’ most powerful characters, and in this article, we will talk about the event that shaped him, as you will find out why Itachi killed his whole clan in Naruto.

Itachi Uchiha killed his parents and his whole clan

The story of why Itachi Uchiha killed the Uchiha clan, aside from Sasuke, began a long time ago with a suicide that was seemingly unconnected to these events. At that time, Shisui Uchiha, Itachi’s best friend, committed suicide in front of his eyes to prevent a planned Uchiha coup. With Shisui’s death, Itachi awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, and shortly before his death, Shisui gave Itachi his left eye, which Itachi placed in one of his crows.

Later, many members of the Konoha Police Station accused Itachi of Shisui’s murder, as only these two were not present at a clan meeting. Itachi, furious with anger, attacked the police officers and, when his father ended the argument, stared hatefully at them with the Mangekyou Sharingan without him seeing it. This was when Sasuke saw the Mangekyou Sharingan for the first time. When Sasuke returned late from shuriken training a few months later, he found all members of the Uchiha clan dead. Shortly afterward, he also saw his parents and Itachi.

Itachi was still alive, and Sasuke, confused, asked what happened. Itachi didn’t answer but used his Mangekyou Sharingan and showed his little brother with Tsukuyomi how he murdered their parents and also killed the rest of the clan. Sasuke ran away from Itachi in a panic but was quickly caught up by him.

He took the opportunity to ask his brother why he did this. But he didn’t get an answer from Itachi, only this much: Sasuke should fight, train, and get stronger until he – just like Itachi – had learned the Mangekyou Sharingan and returned to him. Meanwhile, Sasuke should hate and despise him.

Since then, all Sasuke had wanted to do was become strong enough to take revenge and kill his brother because he was a traitor. But the truth was, as you might assume, very different.

The Uchiha became a threat, and Itachi took it upon himself to eliminate that threat

As we’ve said, Itachi never killed his clan members because he was a traitor. In reality, however, Itachi was commissioned by Konoha’s village elders to kill the members of the Uchiha clan. The village elders of Konoha suspected that the Uchiha clan was planning to seize power in Konoha to escape years of discrimination by the government. This would have led to a new war, which the village elders wanted to prevent with this measure.

The masked man, who called himself Madara Uchiha (but was actually Tobi), helped Itachi in the mass murder. However, Itachi didn’t have the heart to kill his innocent little brother. Wanting to ensure Sasuke’s survival, he urged him to take revenge and train hard so that he could one day kill Itachi and retaliate for his murdered family.

However, this should only lead to the Uchiha clan regaining respect, as the last surviving Uchiha would have murdered the renegade Itachi and thus done something good. Itachi demanded from Danzou Shimura, who, like Hiruzen Sarutobi and his two advisors, knew the truth, never to lay a hand on Sasuke. Otherwise, he would reveal all of Konoha’s secrets. Itachi asked the Third Hokage never to tell Sasuke the truth so as not to destroy his belief in the honor of the Uchiha clan.

Afterward, Itachi left the village as an outlaw to prepare for the day when he must fight his little brother.

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