#can you tell i have issues with how ppl in canon and fanon characterize Itachi and the massacre

[secret-engima]

Wait wait, can I hear more about the itachi not using shisui’s eye thoughts? Because honestly, for a character that’s supposed to be a pacifist, itachi seems to be written much more like an Angel of Death esque serial killer?

Uhhhhhhh okay I'll try to get this down before tumblr makes me wanna gouge my eyes out (why is dark mode just as painful to look at as light mode make it stopppp)

-It is very clear that Itachi was originally intended to be a Pure Evil character with different motivations. In Naruto OG we *really* have no reason to think he is anything other than a nutjob who murdered his family and tortured his brother for the lols. NOW. This isn't actually an irredeemable factor for him as a character, with a show as long as Naruto it is perfectly possible to rewrite him and tweak him into a tragic villain or even the tragic hero Kishi wanted us to later believe he was. *IF* proper work is done to explain why the so called pacifist resorted to so much violence.

-Which obviously never explicitly happens even though with how Itachi's backstory is set up it honestly wouldn't be that hard.

-Moving on from the meta perspective may I put forth to you this answer to All the Itachi Questions:

-Danzo.

-No seriously. I already suspected this when I was reading just the fanfic, but actually watching the arc where we see Itachi's spiral there are some Key Things I noticed happening that are literally never mentioned or expanded on that would make Itachi choosing Massacre over Brainwashing make perfect sense.

-Gonna have to backtrack just a bit for this, but when I say that Danzo wanted the Uchiha dead, I *mean he wanted them dead*. Not just in a "the village and the Uchiha were starting to butt heads anyway and he took preemptive murder action" way but like- "intentional years long plan to kill off this entire clan" way.

-One of the big things that fueled the rumor that the Uchiha were at fault for the Kyuubi attack, other than the old story of Madara controlling the Kyuubi, is that the Uchiha were not present for the defense against the Kyuubi. A lot of clans took heavy losses trying to fend the biju off or drive it out of the village until Minato could arrive, but the Uchiha were literally not there, and people got suspicious as to why. The answer is literally Danzo. Fugaku was planning to marshal the Uchiha *because* he hoped he and his clan would be able to mass genjutsu the Kyuubi into being docile, but at the last minute he received orders from *Danzo* through one of his Root, to instead take his clan and.

-Guard the civilian underground shelters and the village outskirts "in case an enemy tries to sneak in in the chaos". I'm sorry but uh. YOUR CHUUNIN COULD DO THAT WHILE THE PEOPLE WITH MIND CONTROL POWERS HELP WITH THE BIJU PROBLEM? But no. Danzo specifically ordered them to the two places they could not help against the Kyuubi and would be mostly out of sight/would be accused of using civilians as an excuse to save their own skins.

-No explanation is ever given to the general populace for why the Uchiha were not there, even though it was a direct order from the man who was, at the time, Sarutobi's known SiC and primary advisor. All Sarutobi would have to do is say 'they were following my orders' and it would clear up. He does not. Which indicates that Sarutobi *possibly* did not even known Danzo did what he did, and the Uchiha never told the Hokage because Danzo is his SiC and this would not be the first time people just assumed Danzo is operating on Sarutobi's orders/permission.

-We see multiple mULTIPLE times in this arc that over the course of literal years, starting from the Kyuubi attack and on to the Massacre, that Danzo was intentionally orchestrating the tension in the village. The isolation of the Uchiha compound wasn't Tobirama, it was Danzo, who had them relocated post the Kyuubi attack for "better reconstruction of the village". They were so far removed they were outside the chakra barrier/radar thing that Pain used Itachi's passcode for in the Pain Arc. That's how far removed they were from the village proper. They were under 24 hr, intense surveillance, cameras on their streets, watch towers hidden around their compound border, cameras even looking *into* the windows of their houses. And they were aware of it, because the Uchiha are not dumb and also have really good vision thank you. They can see that. Their one foundational position in the village, the Police Force, was being forcibly and slowly taken from them with Danzo pushing Sarutobi to insist they take on officers from other clans like Inuzuka and Aburame, and some of their traditional patrol beats were being straight up reassigned to ANBU. You know, the guys who are supposed to be busy assassinating Konoha's enemies, not breaking up bar brawls.

-I could go on with this but if you actually watch that arc and watch Danzo, he is very intentionally *trying* to force the Uchiha to plot a coup. He is trying to get an excuse to kill them all. AND on top of that, we already know he has a sharingan eye already, yes even before Shisui. In fact he steals Shisui's eye because his current one is going blind *presumably from overuse*, which means he's already spent who knows how long subtly influencing/genjutsuing Sarutobi and other high ranked shinobi into looking the other way or agreeing with him on policy stuff.

-Enter *Itachi* and Shisui, who are trying to juggle this entire situation at ages like- 11 and maybe 14 when this starts and later Itachi at a lonely 13 by the end. Every time they come up with advice on how to help lower clan tensions to Sarutobi, Danzo railroads it and makes the situation worse instead. There's literal dialogue for it, where he'll interrupt them or just later on dismiss the idea and bully Sarutobi (who lets himself be bullied) into doing something else that is clearly just going to make the Uchiha madder.

-Somewhere about ... halfway I'd guess? Halfway at the earliest through this train wreck, Itachi gets pulled from Kakashi's ANBU squad and given, by Sarutobi, *to Danzo* and his ROOT shinobi, who at the time were not only known about by Sarutobi but implicitly approved of, they've worked alongside normal ANBU for several missions in the past. So now Itachi, the pacifist, the clan heir, the linchpin to this entire disaster, is directly under the command of Danzo Eye-Stealer and Genjutsu User Shimura, is within his reach and probably in his presence for *long periods of time* to receive orders/get pontificated at. Remember that point.

-Okay so now, NOW we get to Shisui's eye and Itachi not using it. To start with, Itachi was fully on board with Shisui's plan, he *wanted* this plan to work, he and Shisui were gonna meet up, go to the Clan Head, and do the thing. But Shisui, poor naive soul, reported to Danzo first, to inform him that "hey we're going to fix this problem". Danzo's response is to attack Shisui and rip out his eye to replace his now mostly blind current sharingan. Shisui runs, suicide by dramatics yada yada, his dying words are for Itachi to take his remaining eye and DO THEIR PLAN.

-Itachi straight up ... does not do it. In canon there is no actual reason stated. I don't thing we even get Itachi doing a long-winded monologue (which Kishi usually adores doing to kill us with boredom) about why he thinks the plan will fail. Instead we hit a *timeskip* of anything from a few weeks to possibly a few months, and then we have Itachi approaching "Madara" for assistance in the massacre.

-Madara who, iirc, Danzo is also aware of, I believe he bargained with Madara at least once in canon for something but I don't remember where that shows up.

-Funny how the guy who now has a fresh new brainwashing eye suddenly is not going to be responsible for the final blow to the Uchiha. Funny how the 13 year old who is under his direct command and influence goes from wanting to fix the problem without bloodshed to *recruiting a rogue shinobi* to help kill everyone, and then handily removing himself from the village entirely to go spy on the Akatsuki and make himself Konoha's enemy #1 for years to come.

-Funny how no one ever heard the massacre take place, and how the Uchiha compound was already conveniently outside the barrier radar so no one would notice the Uchiha chakra signatures going out en masse.

-Funny, how the first people on the scene of the massacre? Are Danzo and his root agents.

-Funny, isn't it, that the man with years of experience using a stolen eye to influence people in secret suddenly has everything he wants, and the talented but much less experienced *child* directly under his command goes against all his previous ideals of pacifism to do something that will fully benefit Danzo and then removing himself from the situation entirely to serve as a spy against Danzo's other potential problems.

-Funny isn't it that the one thing Itachi loved enough to defy orders for, Sasuke, almost *died* from the trauma of the Tsukuyomi anyway (iirc he was in a coma for a few *days*, but that could be fanon I'm misremembering).

-Funny that, over the years, this one single loose end of Danzo's, this one last thing Itachi would be willing to destroy Danzo for even after all he has done and abandoned, is systematically isolated and then later hunted by a missing ninja who *also* spent a lot of time in the past working for Danzo. Including being able to send the Sound Four in to get him in the heart of the village without any alarms going up in the barrier radar thing. For which Danzo has the codes for his root ninja who are also now not supposed to exist.

-Funny how this one loose end keeps running into circumstances that by rights should either kill him or make him *also* a missing ninja that Konoha should hunt down, and the only thing that keeps Sasuke from being declared an enemy of the village and slaughtered for a bounty is the unanticipated attachment of Tsunade to Naruto, who loves Sasuke enough to beg for clemency for him.

-Funny how one of the *first* things Danzo does after becoming temporary Hokage is put out a bounty on this one boy that survived his plotting and was the only threat left to him from Itachi, even after Itachi has died.

-But sure. It was all Itachi's idea to massacre the clan and never use Shisui's eye to fix the problem. No sir definitely no brainwashing of a baby Uchiha involved there, nope. Nada. What are you talking about. Itachi totally did this all of his own choice and volition.

#SE asks #anon asks #Secret Engima Rambles #SE Rants #uchiha massacre #naruto #danzo shimura #hi i have thoughts and today i will be saying them. #can you tell i have issues with how ppl in canon and fanon characterize Itachi and the massacre #when danzo is #right there #with canon mind control powers