Naruto: Itachi's Story, Vol. 2: Midnight (Naruto True Chronicles)

Naruto: Itachi's Story Vol.2: Midnight

*WARNING SOME SPOILERS AHEAD*

Itachi’s Story: Midnight is a phenomenal book to wrap up the mystery about the night of the Uchiha clan assignation. Towards the end of the Naruto Shippuden anime series it was hinted that Itachi wasn’t alone on that terrifying night and in fact had an accomplice. Since Itachi was a part of the Anbu Black Ops, he had eyes and ears on the entire village including his own clan. One day when he was monitoring the village via video, he saw the image become distorted with a swirling motion for a quick second and then it was gone. His assumption was a ninja using some kind of teleportation jutsu. He didn’t report what he saw for he wanted to confront the ninja himself.

After the strange event Itachi witnessed, the story progressed with him teaming up with a young Kakashi Hatake while Kakashi served in the Anbu ranks. Itachi was only eleven when Danzo, the creator of the Anbu Black Ops, appointed Itachi to become a team leader. But, Itachi’s age was too young and the controversy was already high enough with his quick rising through ranks as such a young age. Itachi had ninja twice his age addressing him as their leader before he became an anbu. If Danzo had his way, Itachi would have been team captain outranking Kakashi.

Although majority of this book focused on Itachi in his eleventh year of age, we still got see Sasuke mature as a child and enter the ninja academy for the first time. Itachi consistently shows affection for his younger brother that he could not feel for his parents. To his parents, Itachi was an astute ninja that could someday bring honor back to their clan while Sasuke saw Itachi as a ninja to look up to and someday become. Sasuke was so innocent and naive in the world around him when Itachi was in his life. In this case, brotherly love was stronger than any parental love. It was unfortunate that Itachi had to severe ties with Sasuke to prevent Sasuke from hating the village and avenging his clan.

After reading both Daylight and Midnight, Itachi has become the most complex and thought out character in the entire Naruto universe. There's many theories as to why Itachi joined the akatsuki, an S-rank criminal group. But, I believe Itachi handles his exile through self atonement by joining the Akatsuki and using their abilities to promote peace in the world even if they need to eliminate . However, this atonement goes astray when Pain destroys the hidden leaf village. But, it's unclear where Itachi was to prevent Pain's plan from happening.

I highly encourage fans of Naruto to read both Itachi's Story to find closure after his death and finally understand how and why he committed a notorious misdeed.