This Naruto character was Kishimoto's golden child (and it isn't Naruto or Sasuke)

Many fans might disagree and dislike me for this, but there was one character in the Naruto universe who was a walking "get out of jail free" throughout the series. It was clear that Kishimoto had a golden child in the series, and it was not particularly the main characters, Sasuke Uchiha or Naruto Uzumaki.

The character in question here is the former Leaf Shinobi and Akatsuki member, Itachi Uchiha. While it is true that Itachi played a key role in the series' narrative, especially in Sasuke's life, some of his actions were rather questionable, and others made no sense.

The amount of glazing of his character can be seen pretty much throughout several instances in the series.

Disclaimer: This article solely reflects the author's opinions and contains potential spoilers from the Naruto anime and manga.

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Some of Itachi's actions in the Naruto series made no sense

Starting with the main reason Itachi Uchiha earned the rogue status, in the Naruto series, Itachi was ordered by the Hidden Leaf Village to massacre the entire Uchiha Clan for the village's betterment.

Without hesitation, Itachi carried out the plan, only sparing the life of Sasuke, his brother. There is a problem with this part, especially if compared to the series' theme.

The main theme of the series is the cycle of hate, which Naruto inflicted on many characters like Obito, Nagato, Pain, etc.

However, Naruto did not kill anyone of them to do so. Itachi, on the other hand, killed children, women, and other innocent people in his clan just for the sake of ending the Uchiha Clan's hate. This was unnecessary and could have easily been averted.

There is a reason why the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, chose to kill only Madara and not the entire Uchiha Clan. The cycle of hate could easily have been broken by just killing the leaders who were the main instigators.

The rest of the clan could've been given the chance to change their ways, but committing genocide was not the way to go about it.

Furthermore, Kishimoto not only promoted the entire sequence but also later on portrayed Itachi, a person who massacred his entire clan blindly following orders, as a good guy.

While it is true that Itachi did redeem himself later on in the series by helping Naruto and Sasuke, that doesn't justify his crime from the past.

With that out of the way, there were also some "convenient" developments of Itachi's powers that appeared out of nowhere and made things go away. During his confrontation with Kabuto, he uses the Izanami on him.

It also appeared conveniently to fight Kabuto, who also happened to meet all the requirements for activation.

Furthermore, Itachi just happened to possess two of the most powerful abilities in his arsenal, the Totsuka Blade and the Yata Mirror. A sword that can instantly kill anyone, that can trap anything, and a shield that can deflect attacks and block anything.

He was just handed these two overpowered artifacts with no explanation of origin.

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Final thoughts

The purpose of this article is not to undermine the character of Itachi or prove he's not strong, but to point out the clear glazing done with his character by Kishimoto.

While it is true some of Itachi's actions were taken too far and somewhat unnecessary, they were good for the narrative building for the series, which Kishimoto did ingeniously.

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