Uchiha Itachi

I read the Naruto manga but neglected the anime because I thought the anime was too slow-paced and annoying (every character has a million flashbacks and likes talking forever), though it does have its moments. And besides, I’m not a huge anime fan, anyway. But one character that I loved in the story was Uchiha Itachi. He sacrificed himself to protect his country, going as far as killing his entire clan to achieve this. His intentions were good, but his brainwashing was too strong and that’s why he decided to massacre his own clan. His tragic life could have been avoided if he had tried to lead his clan in the direction he wanted, which was the peaceful direction, which would have resulted in all the different clans of the country co-existing peacefully, and that’s what Naruto eventually ends up achieving, even across countries. Instead of massacring his own, and nearly wiping them all out from existence, Itachi should have tried to lead them with a bit of talk no jutsu. But because of his brainwashing and his silence he ended up despised as a traitor and criminal until the end of his life, rightly so.