48573


Has it ever been confirmed in any official source whether Itachi was dying
from some sort of terminal illness when he decided to fight his brother?

I seem to remember White Zetsu commenting during the fight that Itachi was
unable to dodge certain attacks which he should have been able to dodge.

Has there been a confirmation of this?


CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-26T11:43:09.620
48553
2019-03-04T22:06:07.283
2018-08-26T12:48:10.567
18618
18618
question
naruto
Was it ever stated canonically that Itachi was already dying when he fought Sasuke?


Tobi mentioned that Itachi was sick with a disease, and was taking medicine
for it to extend his life. This happened right after the battle for Sasuke
when he woke up. Tobi told him the truth about Itachi at that time, and the
disease and illness was a part of it.

The [Wiki](http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Itachi_Uchiha) notes it on the last
line of his Background section, and references Chapter 401:

> At some point, Itachi contracted a terminal illness. He kept himself alive
> through the years with medicine and sheer willpower so that he could live
> long enough to die by Sasuke's hand.

And it also notes that Itachi's death was actually due to the illness, that
the fight between them weakened him enough that he couldn't resist it much
longer. That does explain why he lived through Sasuke's Kirin, but then
coughed up blood and was unable to do anything else but walk and maintain
Susanoo for a minute, and then gave up after saying his last words.

Edit: He did also have enough strength to implant one cast of Amaterasu to go
off when he saw a Sharingan (possibly Tobi's specifically, but that was never
clarified), which was triggered right before the truth was revealed.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-27T17:42:49.230
48573
2018-08-29T06:29:55.163
2018-08-29T06:29:55.163
11083
20610
48553
answer