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. Even Madara said that Itachi never ceased to amaze him. However, he was aware of his limitations, given his praise of Jiraiya, saying the best he could do against him was a stalemate. 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.
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.
Ninjutsu Edit
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.
As traditional to the Uchiha clan, Itachi could use Fire Release techniques including the clan's Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique. He was also shown to use Water Release techniques.
Taijutsu Edit
Itachi's taijutsu is at a very high level despite not specialising in it, as demonstrated when he easily dispatched three fellow Uchiha, all of them his seniors. In Part I, he stopped Sasuke's Chidori with one hand and brutally beat the latter 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 keep up with Sasuke who had improved his taijutsu under Orochimaru's tutelage. Itachi was also very proficient wielding a sword, in the same way as throwing shuriken and kunai.
Itachi was also noted to be immensely fast, particularly with his hand movements. This extended to weaving 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 close 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.
Sharingan Edit
Itachi's Sharingan.
Being of the Uchiha clan, and as noted by Kakashi, Itachi was a true successor of the Sharingan[7] mastering 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.[8] According to Ao, he could also use his genjutsu to take control of other individuals from a long distance.[9] 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 Edit
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 in a matter of seconds.[10] 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),[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14] 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.
Stats Edit
Databook Ninjutsu Taijutsu Genjutsu Intelligence Strength Speed Stamina Hand seals Total
Third 5 4.5 5 5 3.5 5 2.5 5 35.5
