out to stop Kabuto and encounters Sasuke, with his younger brother wanting to know the truth once it is over. After a long battle, Itachi is pushed to use Izanami to trap Kabuto in an eternal time-loop in his own mind, to have him break his jutsu. His soul beginning to fade, Itachi uses his Sharingan to project his memories to Sasuke to reveal the full story of the events leading to the Uchiha Clan Massacre. Telling his brother that he does not have to forgive him, Itachi tells Sasuke that he will always love him, no matter what choice he makes from then on. With his brother's parting words, and accepting defeat after his final battle with Naruto, Sasuke renounces destroying the village and devotes himself to protecting it, fulfilling Itachi's wish for his younger brother. Sasuke even adopts Itachi's habit of poking on the forehead as a sign of affection, which Sasuke does with his wife Sakura and their daughter Sarada Uchiha. In other media Itachi is present in the sixth Naruto: Shippuden movie, Road to Ninja, where he leads an alternate-universe Akatsuki to help Naruto. He has a brief cameo in one of the original video animations, and is a playable character in nearly all Naruto video games, including the Clash of Ninja series and the Ultimate Ninja series. In some games, he utilizes variations of his techniques not seen in the anime or manga. Several merchandise items based on Itachi have been released, including key chains, plush dolls, and figurines. Reception Itachi has ranked high in the Weekly Shonen Jump popularity polls for the series, continuously placing in the top 10. He was ranked in fifth position in the polls of 2011, his highest ranking to date. The character received generally positive reviews from several publications for manga, anime, video games, and other related media. IGN reader Jason Van Horn characterized Itachi as "badass" and jokingly mentioned that he is a character to be afraid of since, in his first fight in the series, he does not make any remarkable move. He found that "there is just something about the cold and numb Itachi," that makes the viewer "want to breakout in chills". IGN's Charles White liked the episode where the relationship between young Sasuke and Itachi is revealed, and hoped to see more of their past to resolve the mystery of Itachi's character commenting that