Itachi Uchiha arguably one the best characters in the series because his panel time was always enjoyable his powers fit his character perfectly. Now my gripe with Itachi thread come from ones talking about his strength and his versus battles i am of the thought that itachi's powers can not will never be able to be accurately gauged for these reasons
1.The Disease
One of the biggest plot points ever conceived we as fans have no way of knowing the nature of the illness and how much it jacked up his game for example we cant say *if Itachi uses his Mangekyou for longer than 10 minutes his illness will kill him* Its quantifiable.
2. His fighting style
The dude NEVER not ONCE tried to kill anyone, as such how can we attest to his limits? His fights with Sasuke/Naruto/DSM Kabuto all have problems attached to them. With Sasuke we can not calculate how powerful his genjutsu is because Sasuke only broke it with the power up from the CS jump starting and agitating his chakra and considering Itachi was only pressuring his brother not going for the jugular can we definitively say that's his limit as far as how much control he has over his genjutsu? Or what about his speed and taijutsu? We run the risk of either Over stating his abilities by getting caught up in the fact he holds back or by understating him because of his low reserves. To be SURE Sasuke Vs Itachi DID proof his chakra limits but it did NOT illustrate his OUTPUT meaning how powerful his attacks are how fast he is etc ect. Even BZ noticed he got hit by attacks he COULD dodge...illness or choice?
Naruto Vs Itachi
In the second meaningful itachi fight we see his ability to mold and send Change in chakra nature into ninja tools highlighting his verstality and we see once again his expert marksmanship when handling the paths, his taijutsu was enough to keep up with Naruto in base chakra mode a feat only done by Madara and the raikage's. That probably has to do with his sharingan allowing him to predict the heck out his opponents even if his opponents can out run a raikage and of course being fast on his own we must also remember the parameters kabuto had for him and nagato was CAPTURE not kill albeit he DID activate his Mangekyou i believe that was Itachi's way of obeying Kabuto AND being able to summon the crow as it would only respond if his eyes were used but that a different thing. In that fight we saw Susanno usage but considering how fast it ended after he was freed it gets tricky to gather any data besides Itachi is really smart. We dont know if he could bust Chibaku Tensei on his own because nothing support's or disproves it.
DSM vs Itachi
Of all three fights this one aggravates me the most. They couldn't kill him, his eyes were closed, he had to worry about kabuto capturing and running away with sasuke not to mention the freaking cave was MADE for snake users. Kishi designed it so Kabuto could show case his talents. More over Itachi like Tobirama probably realized that beng Edo it doesn't matter what happens to their body further more they couldn't simply beat him into submission they need him under genjutsu. This fight is nearly in an impossible gauge of itachi's power.
Finishing remarks
If you read all this thanks for hanging on i'm going to end it soon.
All three fights really highlighted differentt ways he could beat you without killing you. So obviously Nuke attacks on the scale of Inferno Style, Tailed beast gifts or the stuff kages throw around are not going to thrown around by a Pacifist ninja. He never displayed his full power because its over kill and he didn't do hand to hand as he usually genjustued his enemies at the earthliest opportunity EX first fight of shippuden against him VS kakashi. He engaged him shortly merely to lock eyes with him, or with killer bee where he let him get close. ALL of Itachi's fights have him do the most not to kill. He is either physically inept or just a secret monster what we DO know is that his is arguably the most intelligent person in the entire series, man no one has had as many people fan boy over this them as this dead man...literally the third said he was mentally the equal of a hokage at 7 assuming he continued that trend what was he like at 21? But that alone cant win him versus battle with Madara/minato/current Naru or Sas or Kakashi ect ect if he doesn't have the means to kill them. What suckes the most....as a character his potential was described as seemingly greater than Sasuke's in story *i may be wrong correct me if i am.*....he may have been the greatest uchiha if he was a dark and hungry for power like his uchiha brethren and if he REALLY wanted Ems. I guess what i'm trying to say what sucks is this guy is practically impossible to use in the Colosseum because his intelligence allows him to wreck on his opponent of they are to powerful for him to do anything beacues well....he really has no solid feats attached to him and not his jutsu.
1.The Disease
One of the biggest plot points ever conceived we as fans have no way of knowing the nature of the illness and how much it jacked up his game for example we cant say *if Itachi uses his Mangekyou for longer than 10 minutes his illness will kill him* Its quantifiable.
2. His fighting style
The dude NEVER not ONCE tried to kill anyone, as such how can we attest to his limits? His fights with Sasuke/Naruto/DSM Kabuto all have problems attached to them. With Sasuke we can not calculate how powerful his genjutsu is because Sasuke only broke it with the power up from the CS jump starting and agitating his chakra and considering Itachi was only pressuring his brother not going for the jugular can we definitively say that's his limit as far as how much control he has over his genjutsu? Or what about his speed and taijutsu? We run the risk of either Over stating his abilities by getting caught up in the fact he holds back or by understating him because of his low reserves. To be SURE Sasuke Vs Itachi DID proof his chakra limits but it did NOT illustrate his OUTPUT meaning how powerful his attacks are how fast he is etc ect. Even BZ noticed he got hit by attacks he COULD dodge...illness or choice?
Naruto Vs Itachi
In the second meaningful itachi fight we see his ability to mold and send Change in chakra nature into ninja tools highlighting his verstality and we see once again his expert marksmanship when handling the paths, his taijutsu was enough to keep up with Naruto in base chakra mode a feat only done by Madara and the raikage's. That probably has to do with his sharingan allowing him to predict the heck out his opponents even if his opponents can out run a raikage and of course being fast on his own we must also remember the parameters kabuto had for him and nagato was CAPTURE not kill albeit he DID activate his Mangekyou i believe that was Itachi's way of obeying Kabuto AND being able to summon the crow as it would only respond if his eyes were used but that a different thing. In that fight we saw Susanno usage but considering how fast it ended after he was freed it gets tricky to gather any data besides Itachi is really smart. We dont know if he could bust Chibaku Tensei on his own because nothing support's or disproves it.
DSM vs Itachi
Of all three fights this one aggravates me the most. They couldn't kill him, his eyes were closed, he had to worry about kabuto capturing and running away with sasuke not to mention the freaking cave was MADE for snake users. Kishi designed it so Kabuto could show case his talents. More over Itachi like Tobirama probably realized that beng Edo it doesn't matter what happens to their body further more they couldn't simply beat him into submission they need him under genjutsu. This fight is nearly in an impossible gauge of itachi's power.
Finishing remarks
If you read all this thanks for hanging on i'm going to end it soon.
All three fights really highlighted differentt ways he could beat you without killing you. So obviously Nuke attacks on the scale of Inferno Style, Tailed beast gifts or the stuff kages throw around are not going to thrown around by a Pacifist ninja. He never displayed his full power because its over kill and he didn't do hand to hand as he usually genjustued his enemies at the earthliest opportunity EX first fight of shippuden against him VS kakashi. He engaged him shortly merely to lock eyes with him, or with killer bee where he let him get close. ALL of Itachi's fights have him do the most not to kill. He is either physically inept or just a secret monster what we DO know is that his is arguably the most intelligent person in the entire series, man no one has had as many people fan boy over this them as this dead man...literally the third said he was mentally the equal of a hokage at 7 assuming he continued that trend what was he like at 21? But that alone cant win him versus battle with Madara/minato/current Naru or Sas or Kakashi ect ect if he doesn't have the means to kill them. What suckes the most....as a character his potential was described as seemingly greater than Sasuke's in story *i may be wrong correct me if i am.*....he may have been the greatest uchiha if he was a dark and hungry for power like his uchiha brethren and if he REALLY wanted Ems. I guess what i'm trying to say what sucks is this guy is practically impossible to use in the Colosseum because his intelligence allows him to wreck on his opponent of they are to powerful for him to do anything beacues well....he really has no solid feats attached to him and not his jutsu.