How Kishimoto Ruined Naruto’s Perfect Villain

Masashi Kishimoto is one of the most famous mangaka of the 21st century. His shonen manga, Naruto was among the biggest hits in the history of Shonen Jump. The manga follows a young knucklehead ninja named Naruto, who aspires to become the Hokage one day. The manga is known for having an array of interesting characters. The villains in particular have garnered plaudits over the years because of their well-rounded character.

Villains such as Madara, Pain, and, Part I Orochimaru always come up when there is a discussion about the best anime villains. However, there is one character that could have easily taken the spot for the best villain if it weren’t for Kishimoto’s decision to change the story. The character is none other than Itachi Uchiha of the Hidden Leaf. So, how did Kishimoto ruin Itachi’s potential to be the best villain?

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First Appearance and His Impact

From his very first appearance, Itachi gave off a menacing aura. He entered the Hidden Leaf and single-handedly overwhelmed Asuma and Kurenai. The two Jonin were only saved due to Kakashi’s intervention, but there wasn’t much that Kakashi could do about the situation either, and he ended up in a hospital.

Itachi also crushed Sasuke and reminded him that he was still far too weak. Such was his power that Obito feared him, and he waited till his death to proceed with his plan. At this point, Itachi was easily the coolest and one of the most powerful villains to be introduced in the series. A perfect cold-blooded killer, but Kishimoto decided to turn him into a good guy.

Itachi’s Past

Itachi’s past only came to light after he had been killed by Sasuke. Obito was responsible for telling Sasuke about his older brother and how he was mistreated by the Hidden Leaf. Itachi was exposed to the harsh realities of war at an early age, which made him think about a lot of things including life. Itachi was saddened by witnessing people around him dying all the time. As he grew up, Itachi wanted to resolve all the things peacefully. When the news about the Uchiha coup d’etat began to circulate, Itachi and his best friend, Shisui tried to do everything in their power to stop the coup from happening. However, before they could try to stop the coup, Danzo decided to attack and kill Shisui in order to take his Mangekyou Sharingan. Danzo wanted to eliminate Shisui because he considered him a “threat,” but in reality, he was just a power-hungry man.

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Shisui managed to survive the assault of Danzo and his men, but the leader of the Root managed to steal one of Shisui’s eyes. After barely escaping with his life, Shisui met Itachi and entrusted his remaining eye to him, and committed suicide. This incident caused Itachi’s Mangekyou Sharingan to awaken. Afterward, Danzo threatened to kill all of the Uchiha Clan including Itachi’s younger brother, if Itachi did not obey him. After being left with no choice left, Itachi was forced to murder all of his clan except for Sasuke, whom he couldn’t bring himself to kill.

Power and Potential As A Villain

His intelligence was on a different level and from a young age, his father believed that Itachi would accomplish great things. Itachi’s genjustu skills allowed him to overwhelm Kurenai, who was considered to be the best genjutsu user in the entire Hidden Leaf. The combination of the Blade of Totsuka and the Yata Mirror made Itachi almost untouchable. According to Zetsu, Itachi was invincible when he had both these abilities active. Itachi was only lacking in stamina, which was due to his mysterious illness.

If Itachi had stayed evil, he could have affected the story in many ways. He could have killed Obito and taken over Akatsuki and acquired the Rinnegan for himself. Nagato did pose a threat to Itachi, but as seen in the Fourth Great Ninja War, Itachi was able to seal him away with the help of the Totsuka Blade. In his fight against Sasuke, if Itachi wanted, he could have easily killed his younger brother and stolen his Sharingan, and awakened the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

This would have considerably lowered Itachi’s chakra consumption and allowed him to fight for longer. Also, Itachi had enough power to get his hands on a jutsu that could have made him healthier and cured his illness. He had both the power and personality to become one of the greatest villains. By giving him a sad backstory, Kishimoto made sure that the fans would feel bad for him. This was a last-minute retcon, and it came off as extremely forced. Despite his sad backstory, Itachi still killed innocent people including kids. Itachi also traumatized Sasuke when there was absolutely no reason to use genjutsu on the latter. Kishimoto kept on adding sad elements to Itachi’s story, but this did not make his redemption any better. This was a mistake on Kishimoto’s part as he lost a great opportunity to create one of the best shonen villains.

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